Pursuit

"Just remember to teach me the Morning Sun One Qi Art."

"Don't worry. I, Li Haomiao, always keep my word. Once we leave the Eight Hundred Li Barren River Ice Field, I'll teach you."

Xu Yunfan did not bring it up again. Though Li Haomiao seemed somewhat unreliable and was even afraid of ghosts, he had indeed kept every promise he had made so far.

When Fang Mushan returned empty-handed, his face full of embarrassment.

"My apologies, you two. Game is too hard to come by these days. I searched around, but—hm?!"

His eyes widened as he stared at the whole sheep roasting over the fire, utterly stunned.

"Where did that come from?"

Xu Yunfan looked calm as he slowly turned the roasting sheep.

"Brother Fang taught me well. The moment I went out, I spotted this rock sheep and shot it in a vital spot with one arrow. I got lucky and caught some game. I never expected there to still be so many animals living in the Eight Hundred Li Barren River. I thought we'd be eating moss from now on."

Fang Mushan stood there in a daze for quite a while before instinctively exchanging a glance with Li Haomiao. Li Haomiao calmly turned his head away, and Fang Mushan sighed.

"I know. This is the beginner's luck of a newcomer."

Fang Mushan muttered to himself. Some newcomers, upon entering a trade like fishing, always caught bigger and more fish than anyone else on their first outing.

Fang Mushan murmured, "Tomorrow. You probably won't be this lucky tomorrow."

Li Haomiao wholeheartedly agreed.

After eating, Xu Yunfan tanned the rock sheep's hide with the plant juice Fang Mushan had gathered and hung it up to dry. Then he resumed swinging the Iron Pickaxe, digging deeper into the cave and continuously tempering the Crimson Flame Copper Body Art to raise its proficiency.

He had eaten most of the Grain Avoidance Pills. By his estimate, the Crimson Flame Copper Body Art would reach mastery within the next few days.

Li Haomiao and Fang Mushan had grown accustomed to watching Xu Yunfan continue swinging his Iron Pickaxe and digging deeper into the cave.

Li Haomiao drawled lazily, "To cultivate the Crimson Flame Copper Body Art to mastery, you need secret medicine to assist you. Burying your head in training like this and tempering your body with hammer techniques will only damage it in the end."

Without turning around, Xu Yunfan kept swinging his pickaxe.

"What the hell do you know?"

"..."

Under normal circumstances, many martial arts required external aids, especially those that also focused on body tempering.

If he had secret medicinal aids, his cultivation efficiency would likely improve further. Xu Yunfan felt helpless, but he was not discouraged. Since he had already learned the skill, as long as he persisted, gaining entry was only a matter of time.

Moreover, the Lin Character Secret was obscure and difficult to understand, mixed with countless Daoist allusions and technical terms. If not for the empowerment method and the Attribute Panel, he feared only an accomplished Daoist master who had studied the Daoist canon for decades would be qualified to understand it.

After exhausting himself through cultivating the Crimson Flame Copper Body Art, he rested for a little over ten minutes. Sitting where he was, he formed hand seals with both hands and silently recited the Highest Good is Like Water Heart Mantra, gradually letting his mind enter a state that was neither empty nor not empty.

'You cultivated the Lin Character Secret once. You vaguely grasped at its meaning and seemed to gain something, but upon careful reflection, found nothing.'

'You held your breath and focused your mind as you cultivated the Lin Character Secret. A flash of inspiration seemed to pass through your mind, but when you tried to seize it, it had already vanished.'

'...'

The Lin Character Secret also had a visualization diagram, but since he had not yet entered its gate, he could not grasp its essentials.

At present, half an hour of intensely focused cultivation was already his limit. Continuing any longer would truly damage his mind.

The only consolation was that, ever since cultivating this Lin Character Secret, although he had yet to gain entry, his sleep quality had become excellent. No matter how exhausted he was that day, he would awaken the next morning full of energy and in high spirits.

After finishing his cultivation, Xu Yunfan fought back his drowsiness and climbed out of the deeply excavated cave. Under Li Haomiao and Fang Mushan's watchful eyes, he rolled into a corner, lay down on the wild grass he had picked during the day, and fell into a deep sleep.

"Lord Yang, are you certain they dug this?"

A middle-aged man clad in armor, one hand resting on the hilt of a longsword, with an eight-shaped mustache, stared skeptically at Yang Gan, who was inspecting the cave some distance away.

Yang Gan's eye twitched as he carefully rubbed the soil between his fingers.

"This soil is fresh. It was excavated within the past few days. And... there are traces of a fire being lit and animals roasted by the hearth. That is enough to prove they stayed here."

"This cave can house six or seven people, and they even dug out a hearth. At least two or three martial artists who have entered the path would need an entire night to do this. Lord Yang, are you saying they did nothing all day but dig a cave?"

Yang Gan said solemnly, "Master Xu, with my many years of tracking and hunting experience, this is indeed a newly excavated cave. It was dug with an Iron Pickaxe, and it leads out from Ningguta. This is definitely the direction Yan King and the others took. I hear Fang Mushan is traveling with them as well."

"Fang Mushan..."

Master Xu stroked the ends of his eight-shaped mustache with two fingers as he pondered.

"The son of Grand General of State Fang Wen. I've heard of him. He possesses Divine Power from birth. If he did the digging, then making a cave like this in a few hours would make sense. But do they really have nothing better to do?"

At that moment, a head emerged from a passage beneath the cave.

"Reporting, my lord, there's another passage inside the cave, at least forty meters long. There's also a space of considerable size inside."

Yang Gan said, "..."

He could hardly believe what he had just heard. Yan King was on the run, yet he still had the leisure to dig such a large cave?

Master Xu narrowed his eyes and looked at Yang Gan.

"Lord Yang, if you are wrong and we fail to capture Yan King and the others, we will all face punishment. Especially you, Lord Yang. You signed a military pledge. If you fail to deliver, given General Zhang's temperament, I fear he will have you beheaded as an example."

Yang Gan's heart jolted. He snorted coldly and rose to his feet. "My Yang family rose to prominence through tracking and hunting. Our ancestors once accompanied the late emperor, tracking prey at his side, and we have our own unique methods. This cannot be wrong. These are traces they left behind."

The group fell silent for a moment, and no one said anything further.

Zhang Shuyang had allowed Yang Gan to temporarily lead thirty elite men not because he had placed them under Yang Gan's command. Strictly speaking, Yang Gan was merely a guide.

Though he was only a guide, Master Xu and the others could only go wherever Yang Gan pointed.

After resting for a night in this Mountain Hollow, the group resumed their rapid march. When they tracked their quarry to the next location and saw a cave even larger than the previous one, Yang Gan's eye twitched uncontrollably.

Someone among them could not help muttering, "Do they have energy to spare? In such freezing conditions, they still have the leisure to dig out several rooms?"

Yang Gan rubbed the fresh soil beneath his feet between his fingers and murmured, "Soon. This cave was dug no more than two days ago."

His stomach was full of pent-up anger. Having his professional tracking skills questioned was simply the greatest humiliation.

When the time came, he would definitely restore his honor.