Basic Trapping Technique

Fang Yuan merely nodded. He neither slowed his pace nor answered, his gaze fixed firmly on the vast mountain range behind the village, blanketed in snow.

After he had gone far away, the discussion behind him grew louder, filled mostly with doubt and pity.

Among the crowd, a man with his neck hunched and his hands tucked into his sleeves narrowed a pair of shifty eyes,

staring at Fang Yuan's retreating back until it vanished at the end of the mountain path.

He was a village loafer and thug named Hou San.

Hou San licked his cracked lips, his eyes rolling as his thoughts began to stir.

That brat Fang Yuan actually dared to enter the mountains alone? Didn't that mean his house was left with only that young woman and her little tagalong sister?

He recalled the time he had happened to see Liu Wanwan drawing water by the well. When she bent over, even beneath that thick, shabby cotton coat,

the fleeting curve of her waist had made his heart feel as though a cat were clawing at it.

Hou San had drifted around the countryside for years, and his eye for women was viciously sharp. She could smear her face black all she liked,

but her figure and those eyes could not fool anyone. She was definitely a rare beauty in the making!

Back when Fang Yuan possessed a scholarly title, Hou San had not dared entertain crooked thoughts. But now...

A poor brat stripped of his scholarly title, with no pillar left to hold up his household... Hou San felt a wicked fire shoot up in his chest,

and an obscene smile crept uncontrollably across his lips.

Fang Yuan was wholly unaware of the talk behind him—or rather, he had no mind to spare for it.

His attention was completely drawn to something else.

At first, there was nothing unusual about walking normally. But as he quickened his pace,

wanting to reach the foot of Great Green Mountain as soon as possible, he suddenly felt a peculiar sense of coordination arise with every stride.

His feet landed, exerted force, pushed off; his waist shifted slightly to maintain balance, while his breathing naturally matched the rhythm of his steps.

At the bottom of his vision, the dormant System Panel flickered to life again!

[Cultivation Method: Basic Footwork Proficiency +1]

[Cultivation Method: Basic Footwork Proficiency +1]

Just as he thought! Even hurrying along the road was recognized by the system as a form of training!

Fang Yuan's heart stirred. He simply let himself go, changing from a brisk walk to a slow run along the snow-covered, uneven mountain road.

At first, he was still unaccustomed to the slippery snow and the ruts that left him stepping high and low, but soon, that wondrous sense of coordination intensified again.

His steps became remarkably steady. Every foothold landed exactly where it should, avoiding hidden pits and finding solid snow,

and he could even borrow strength from the terrain, making his run more effortless and swifter.

The snow no longer hindered his speed. Instead, it scattered beneath his feet, leaving behind him a string of even, powerful footprints that rapidly receded into the distance.

He ran faster and faster, his body growing warm. The icy air filling his lungs did not make him uncomfortable; instead, it gave him a deeply satisfying, invigorating sensation.

Even the weight of his axe and rope seemed to have lightened considerably.

This "Basic Footwork," just like "Basic Saber Technique," was systematically tempering his body, allowing him to use every scrap of strength more efficiently!

The mountain road that originally required him to tread carefully for most of a day took less than two hours at his pace,

and the dense forest of Great Green Mountain, shrouded in mist and snow and exuding an air of primordial danger, was already close at hand.

Fang Yuan stopped, breathing lightly as thick white vapor poured from his nose and mouth.

He looked back at the path he had taken. The village had long since disappeared beyond the edge of his sight.

He tightened his grip on the axe handle, his gaze sharp as he looked toward the deep, silent forest ahead, as though it could swallow everything whole.

Drawing a deep breath, he stepped into this unknown and perilous land.

Only after trudging unevenly into the true depths of the mountains did Fang Yuan realize how naïve his earlier thoughts had been.

As far as the eye could see, everything around him was a vast expanse of white.

Heavy snow had buried everything. Withered branches, rocks, and the ground were all hidden beneath thick layers of snow. Let alone prey, not even the shadow of a living creature could be seen.

The howling wind whipped snow grit against his face like icy knives.

He stood there blankly, then gave a self-mocking laugh. "I really... thought things were too simple."

Though he possessed strength and skills that had only just entered the beginner's level, before the might of heaven and earth, he still seemed tiny and ridiculous.

But he did not stop.

He had come this far. He absolutely could not return empty-handed.

He drew in a breath of frigid air, forced himself to calm down, and began trudging laboriously through the snow,

carefully searching for any possible animal tracks, droppings, or gnaw marks, while deliberately adjusting his gait,

treating every difficult, uneven step as training for Basic Footwork.

[Basic Footwork Proficiency +1]

The notification occasionally rang out in his mind—better than nothing.

At the same time, his mind raced.

If he encountered large prey such as bears or wild boars now, he would simply be delivering himself to death.

Small creatures like pheasants and squirrels would not even fill the gaps between his teeth if he caught one or two. They would be meaningless for replenishing the tremendous vitality his martial training required.

"I need to find rabbits or roe deer—something neither too large nor too small..." he muttered, making up his mind.

Such prey was relatively safe, and the amount of meat was still fairly substantial—perfect for him to practice on.

He deliberately avoided the mountain roads and trails that the village's old hunters often took, as he remembered them.

For one thing, he feared stepping into traps laid by others. In this bitter cold, if he got caught in a snare and was stranded for a night, the odds were surely stacked against him.

For another, he harbored an even deeper wariness. In these remote mountains and wild ridges, someone could kill a man, bury him in a snow hollow, and not even ghosts would find him.

He had just been stripped of his scholarly title. Plenty of people had once envied his status as a scholar, and now that the tiger had fallen to the plains, he did not dare gamble his life on whatever kindness might remain in others' hearts.

He would rather take risks somewhere more remote and unknown.

After expending considerable effort, he finally found a rocky hollow sheltered from the wind.

The terrain here was relatively concealed, and the snow was thinner than outside, revealing patches of withered grass and bare ground.

Based on his limited knowledge of the wilderness, places like this were more likely to attract small animals seeking shelter and food in harsh weather.

"This will do."

He set down his axe and rope, found a sturdy dead branch, and began laboriously clearing snow from a small patch of ground,

then used his hands and the branch to dig into the frozen, rock-hard soil, preparing to make the simplest sort of pit trap.

The frozen earth was hard, making it extremely difficult to dig.

He worked away with grunts, and his hands quickly became rubbed raw and red.

Just as he struggled to scrape away a small patch of dirt, his movements suddenly froze.

In his mind, the emotionless system notification sounded once more.

[Basic Trapping Technique Proficiency +1]

Fang Yuan suddenly went still, maintaining the comical posture of squatting with his backside raised, but his eyes shone frighteningly bright.

This... digging a pit counted as trapping too?

But immediately afterward, an indescribable excitement surged into his heart.

If even digging pits could raise proficiency, then did that mean...

He looked at the small hole in the ground that he had only just begun digging, his gaze turning incomparably blazing.