Battlefield

The prerequisite was sufficient replenishment. Grain Avoidance Pills alone were probably not enough; they also needed enough medicinal supplements and food.

When Fang Mushan returned and descended into the underground cave, he looked around in surprise.

"Are you planning to live here?"

Li Haomiao said helplessly, "He's gotten addicted to mining. He digs so fast and so deep that I thought he was some Mountain-Piercing Strange Beast."

He twitched his face and gestured with his chin toward the depths of the cave.

"See that? He's even planning to dig out another room in there. For all we know, he might have already added side rooms by now."

"Don't listen to his nonsense."

Xu Yunfan emerged from the cave, his muscles trembling slightly as the dirt on his body was shaken loose.

"I'm doing this to train martial arts. Martial arts require strength, strength requires tempering the body, and the martial art I cultivate naturally requires putting my body into practice."

Hearing this, Fang Mushan nodded in praise. "Practicing martial arts is like rowing against the current. If you want to advance further, you naturally must train diligently every day without pause. Take Yan King Li Haomiao, hailed as Jade Capital's foremost martial arts prodigy—every day, he's either socializing or admiring flowers, birds, and fish, wasting his own talent."

Xu Yunfan coughed dryly and glanced at Li Haomiao, who sat silently in the corner with his eye twitching. Xu Yunfan also felt exhausted to the limit, so he simply decided to rest.

He shuffled over beside Li Haomiao and nudged him with an elbow.

"Looks like the Yan King is quite the social butterfly."

Li Haomiao did not speak. Fang Mushan said, "That's true. Word in the palace is that he wants to become Crown Prince."

Fang Mushan lifted the rabbit in his hand.

"On these Eight Hundred Li Barren Mountain Ice Plains, aside from Highland Sheep, it's difficult to catch any prey. I found this only after racking my brains. If I hadn't learned hunting from the hunters in my family before, I'd probably have come back empty-handed."

Hunting?!

Xu Yunfan's heart stirred. Looking at Fang Mushan, who was handling the rabbit, he asked, "Could you teach me how to hunt? That way, I could search for prey too, and we'd have more chances to obtain food."

Fang Mushan pondered briefly. Hunting techniques were not anything precious; many old hunters knew them.

He nodded in agreement.

Over the next few days, whenever the three arrived somewhere, Xu Yunfan would eagerly dig out an underground tunnel.

The proficiency notifications that flooded his vision every day invigorated him. Especially as his proficiency increased, both the Crimson Flame Copper Body Art and mining became increasingly familiar to him.

Name: Xu Yunfan

Skill: Mining 779/1000 (Minor Mastery)

Effects: Resistant to cold and heat, hands steady as a rock, sharp-eyed and meticulous, Digging Earth Like Mud

Crimson Flame Copper Body Art 668/1000 (Minor Mastery)

Effects: Vigorous qi and blood, strength coursing through the body, skin tough as leather, bulging, defined muscles

Fleet Foot 368/500 (Beginner)

Effects: Swift as the wind, agile body, footprints left upon the ground, abundant stamina

Hunting (Not Learned)

Lin Character Secret (Not Learned)

Looking at the proficiency on the Attribute Panel, Xu Yunfan was overjoyed. At this rate of cultivation, perhaps he would not even need ten days or half a month. In just these next two or three days, he could raise the Crimson Flame Copper Body Art to Major Mastery.

When the time came, he really wanted to test himself against Yang Gan, whose external martial arts had reached Major Mastery.

Ningguta, in the direction Xu Yunfan had fled. Yang Gan crouched halfway down and studied the chaotic footprints on the ground. His burly body bore four or five wounds of varying sizes, and blood had stained his clothes a different color. It was unclear whether it was his own blood or that splashed by the Black-Clad Man.

By then, all of Ningguta had completely quieted down. The ground was littered with the corpses of overseers, soldiers, Black-Clad Men, and mine slaves.

At the center of Ningguta's depression, Lian Yuanzhang had already breathed his last. His massive, hill-like body was firmly nailed to the ground by the Coiling Dragon Spear. A huge hole had been pierced through his armor, the spear shaft passing through his chest, its tip buried in the earth.

Blood had long ceased spurting from his headless neck, leaving only a pool of thick, blackened blood that dyed the ground beneath him a dark reddish brown.

His arms hung limply at his sides, his fingers slightly curled, clearly showing that he had still been making his final struggle before death.

His legs remained kneeling on the ground, unable to move even an inch again.

The Cold Wind blew past, carrying a faint scent of blood. A nauseating stillness permeated the area around the corpse, as if time itself had frozen at that moment. Only the fluttering hems of clothing silently spoke of the brutal battle that had just taken place.

Yang Gan quickly withdrew his gaze after one look. He did not dare meet the eyes of Zhang Shuyang, whose face was deathly pale, whose armor was stained with blood, yet whose gaze remained sharp.

"General Zhang, His Highness the Yan King fled in this direction."

Hearing this, Zhang Shuyang turned to look at a young woman standing not far away beside Lian Yuanzhang's corpse.

The young woman wore a light white gown of thin gauze, soft as mist, as though it might scatter with the wind at any moment.

Her bare feet, with toes as white as jade, lightly touched the blood-mixed mud without gathering the slightest speck of dust. Through the faint, almost invisible gauze, the graceful contours of her body could vaguely be seen. Yet there was not the slightest hint of seduction about her; instead, she carried an air of mystery and inviolability. Her face was exquisitely beautiful but utterly bloodless, her lips pale, and her eyes cold as winter stars.

She stood there quietly, exuding a frosty aloofness that kept others at a thousand paces. Even the air around her seemed to congeal because of her presence. No one dared approach her lightly; merely looking at her sent chills through their hearts.

She was a terrifying woman.

Just moments ago, she had killed Lian Yuanzhang with a single move. A master on the verge of entering the Flesh Refining Realm had been effortlessly beheaded. Her strength was unfathomable.

She was from Tiance Manor: Li Miaoyun, supposedly a member of some secret organization under the Empress.

Thoughts racing, Zhang Shuyang quickly withdrew his gaze and did not dare look further. Lowering his eyes, he cupped his fists.

"Commander Li, the Yan King had difficulty moving and was carried away in that direction by a man who was once a servant of the Jiang Family."

Whether to pursue or wait was no longer for Zhang Shuyang to decide. They needed this woman, who appeared to be a young girl, to speak.

After a long while, Li Miaoyun shifted her gaze away from Lian Yuanzhang's corpse and turned to look at Zhang Shuyang.

Zhang Shuyang's heart turned cold beneath her gaze, pounding wildly as he hurriedly lowered his head.

"Find him. He is now the only surviving bloodline of the late emperor. Your Majesty needs him."

Her cool, otherworldly voice entered Zhang Shuyang's ears, shaking him to his core. He hurriedly answered.

"Yes!"

When he raised his head again, Li Miaoyun had vanished from the scene like a ghost.

Zhang Shuyang fell silent, his expression incomparably complicated. The imperial bloodline had been reduced to Li Haomiao alone...

After a long time, he rubbed his aching chest and slowly regulated his breathing. Lian Yuanzhang's desperate final strike had seriously injured him. Had Li Miaoyun not acted, he would likely have been the one lying on the battlefield.

Moreover, their side had suffered devastating losses. Too many people had gathered at Ningguta, involving numerous factions, and quite a few mysterious experts had entered the fray. If Li Miaoyun had not frightened them away, they might have been completely wiped out.

He turned back to Yang Gan.

"Since you said you know tracking techniques, I'll grant you thirty elite men. If you bring back the Yan King, I will credit you with a merit."

A newcomer asks for recommendation votes, favorites, investment, and continued reading—asking for everything. Thank you, everyone!