Sudden Mission

The overcrowding of the medical clinics led to massive consumption of medicinal herbs, but it was impossible not to treat these people.

With no other choice, the clinics could only do their utmost to save them. The consequence was that within a month, the medicinal herbs in every major clinic in the city had been completely depleted!

To treat more people, they had to enter the mountains to gather herbs.

Outside Laiyang City lay the Black Dragon Mountain Range, where vast quantities of herbs grew, including no shortage of rare medicinal ingredients that were also immensely useful to martial artists.

But the clinics lacked the ability to enter the mountains and gather herbs. The herbs they stockpiled were generally transported in from villages outside the city.

Yet with Laiyang City's situation in ruins, martial artists were injuring people everywhere. Naturally, those villagers no longer dared enter Laiyang City, making any supply of medicinal herbs impossible.

Therefore, there were only two ways to obtain more herbs: one was for the City Lord's Mansion to open the official reserves, and the other was to commission martial artists to enter the mountains and gather herbs!

The first method was undoubtedly the simplest, but the City Lord's Mansion would never agree to it. Once the official reserves were opened, what would be consumed would be the government's very foundation.

Moreover, quite a few members of the Four Great Martial Arts Schools also needed treatment. Naturally, they would never agree.

Thus, using the excuse that there were no orders from above and that the official reserves could not be moved without authorization, they rejected all the major clinics.

Left with no choice, the clinics could only seek out martial artists and send them beyond the city to search for medicinal herbs.

Ordinary people could not go out unless they were villagers extremely familiar with the mountain terrain. Otherwise, if they wanted to gather herbs in large quantities, they could only rely on powerful martial artists.

After all, the Black Dragon Mountain Range concealed countless Fierce Beasts. Some were powerful enough to kill even Viscera Refiners!

However, such beasts, so close to becoming Demonic Beasts, generally did not appear on the outskirts of the mountain range. The outskirts usually only held Low-level Beasts capable of contending with Skin Refining and Muscle Refining Warriors.

Even so, they were exceedingly dangerous to ordinary people.

Based on the beasts' strength, martial artists had also classified these ferocious creatures into ranks. Low-level Beasts corresponded to Skin Refining and Muscle Refining Warriors; Mid-level Beasts corresponded to Bone Forging and Blood Coagulation Realm martial artists; High-level Beasts corresponded to Viscera Refiners.

As for those of an even higher level, they were called Demonic Beasts, corresponding to Xiantian martial artists and above among humans.

Rumor had it that the Black Dragon Mountain Range contained a Great Demon. Whether that was true or not, nobody knew. After all, anything worthy of being called a Great Demon was undoubtedly an existence beyond Xiantian—an opponent Laiyang City had no hope of defeating.

Fortunately, the Black Dragon Mountain Range covered an enormous area and bordered many cities. Laiyang City was merely an inconspicuous little city.

Within the Ox Demon Martial Arts School, Shen Fan was diligently practicing martial arts when he suddenly heard the surrounding disciples gathered together in discussion.

"Hey, have you heard? Our martial arts school seems to have agreed to help the medical clinics leave the city and gather herbs!"

"Of course. Over this past month, quite a few Senior Brothers from our school have been injured!"

"Exactly. Without medicinal herbs, it'll be hard for those Senior Brothers to recover quickly through their own strength. If their injuries don't heal and become hidden ailments, their Martial Path will be finished!"

"Yeah, yeah. I wonder who those people who suddenly appeared actually are. They've been crazily ambushing disciples from our martial arts schools—they've really swallowed bear hearts and leopard gallbladders!"

"That's right! Last time, I heard that Senior Brother Bai Shan was ambushed, but he relied on his formidable strength to kill his enemies on the spot!"

"Oh? Senior Brother Bai—could he be one of Laiyang City's Top Ten Prodigies?"

"That's right, it's Senior Brother Bai Shan. I heard Senior Brother Bai Shan has already broken through to the Blood Coagulation Realm. One more step, and he'll be a Viscera Refining powerhouse!"

"Gasp, how terrifying! If I remember correctly, Senior Brother Bai Shan is only thirty this year, yet he has already reached Blood Coagulation. Such talent truly puts one to shame! I'm nearly thirty myself, yet I'm only at the peak of Skin Refining. Whether I can break through to Bone Forging in this lifetime is still a question!"

An older disciple sighed, but then suddenly noticed that the looks everyone gave her were somewhat strange, as though they were looking at a fool.

A fervent admirer of Bai Shan said disdainfully, "What the hell? You dare compare yourself to Senior Brother Bai Shan? You really don't know the height of heaven or the depth of earth!"

The older disciple's face flushed crimson from the rebuke. She wanted to retort, but did not know what to say. Her finger hung in the air, pointing for a long while, before she could only flick her sleeve and leave.

The other disciples said nothing and began discussing Laiyang City's Top Ten Prodigies instead.

After listening for a while, Shen Fan left. What followed was truly devoid of substance—they even claimed every one of the Top Ten Prodigies was a dragon or phoenix among men, spouting bizarre feats such as bedding ten women in one night.

The moment Shen Fan heard it, he knew it was false. How could that be possible? No matter how strong those people were, they were only at Blood Coagulation and had not escaped the bounds of ordinary humans.

Bedding ten women in one night was impossible. After all, there were only oxen worked to death, never fields plowed to ruin—let alone ten fields. What kind of ox would have to work itself to death for that?

Shen Fan automatically filtered out that gossip, but he caught some key information.

"The city lacks medicinal herbs, and their martial arts school has already accepted the mission. That means they may very well become herb gatherers!"

"Furthermore, the people ambushing martial arts school disciples are definitely organized and acting according to a plan. Otherwise, they could not still be so rampant!"

Although the ambushing martial artists appeared to have suffered grievous losses, Shen Fan could sense that they had not truly gone all out.

After all, the Ox Demon Martial Arts School had once lost two Viscera Refining powerhouses. Yet over the past month, no similar tragedy had occurred. That was enough to show that the other side still had much of its strength in reserve!

At that thought, Shen Fan immediately felt a sense of crisis. He felt it was absolutely necessary for him to gain more strength.

Fortunately, after a month of bitter training, his Cultivation Methods were nearly ready to break through. In the next few days, his strength would undergo a great leap forward!

And now, Shen Fan's Status Panel looked like this:

Host: Shen Fan

Talent: 16 (Some Talent)

Lifespan: 93

Martial Path: Savage Bull Fist (Minor Accomplishment), True Combined Strength (Minor Accomplishment), Three Yuan Art (Minor Accomplishment), Ape Strike Technique (Minor Accomplishment), Thousand Mechanisms Hand (Beginner)

Realm: Muscle Refining

Over this month of arduous cultivation, Shen Fan's Ape Strike Technique had successfully reached Minor Accomplishment, increasing his lifespan by 7 years. The beginner-level Thousand Mechanisms Hand had also increased his lifespan by 4 years, for a total increase of 11 years.

His Talent increased by another point.

Shen Fan's cultivation speed became even faster. Even while balancing multiple Martial Arts, he could still improve rapidly.

And because his Talent was so high, he had scarcely encountered the bottlenecks that ordinary people often faced in cultivation. Thus, he could surge forward by leaps and bounds all the way.

Over the following days, Shen Fan nearly shortened his rest time once more. Out of the twelve hours in each day, he spent almost ten practicing martial arts.

He strictly limited each Martial Art to two hours. This ensured both the speed of his cultivation and that he would not grow weary of it.

Finally, three days later, Shen Fan welcomed the greatest breakthrough of his life.