[Name: Qin Meng] [Realm: Mortal Body.] [Core Technique: None.] [Martial Skills: Eight Blade Breaking Techniques—Mastery (1/500), Chain Arrow—Dengtang (147/200)]
During the meal, Qin Meng checked his character panel. The damage to his foundation had disappeared from the status section, putting him in a good mood and giving him a hearty appetite.
Once he'd eaten his fill, he picked up his waist saber and slung his bow and arrows over his back.
"Be careful, Mengzi." Shen Qiuyue tucked the flatbreads she'd prepared into his arms and gently reminded him, concern plain in her eyes.
"Mm, don't worry." Qin Meng nodded. "Sister Qiu Yue, you don't need to take in any more laundry. Our family will get back on its feet. Wait at home for my good news."
"Okay!"
The outer reaches of Luming Mountain were vast, with towering trees and lush vegetation. But as Qin Meng knew, large game had grown scarcer and scarcer over the years.
Valuable big game like wild boar and red deer had mostly retreated deep into the mountains and forests.
But since the start of spring, ferocious beasts had been appearing in great numbers, and quite a few hunters had already perished in the mountains.
With Qin Meng's current Mortal Body, he had yet to formally cultivate. To venture recklessly into the depths with nothing but rudimentary saber skills and archery would be no different from courting death.
All morning, he had tracked his prey using his keen powers of observation and set a few simple traps.
He'd had some success; his basket gradually filled with seven or eight pheasants and rabbits.
But Qin Meng's brows knitted tighter and tighter.
These little critters weren't worth much. Against a debt of fifty taels, they were a drop in the ocean.
Leaning against a boulder, he took out a meat-filled flatbread and slowly ate it, washing it down with cool water from his canteen. His gaze swept over the basket as anxiety gnawed at him.
Then he suddenly remembered the ravine where he'd found Glehnia Root yesterday.
The terrain there was steep, damp, and warm. If Glehnia Root grew there, perhaps there were other medicinal herbs as well.
If he found some that had grown for enough years, they could fetch a good price.
Though the area teemed with poisonous insects and concealed pits, making it a place hunters usually avoided...
But right now...
"Fortune favors the bold." Qin Meng swallowed the flatbread in a few bites, his gaze hardening.
"I'll take my chances!"
He hoisted his basket, picked up his waist saber, and headed in the direction he remembered.
Suddenly, the bushes ahead rustled, and a gray-brown shape darted out.
It was a fat, sturdy badger!
Its pelt and meat were both worth a fair bit.
Excitement flashed through Qin Meng's eyes. He almost instinctively nocked an arrow and drew his bow. The bowstring twanged softly, and the arrow shot out like a meteor, striking the badger cleanly in the side of the neck.
The instant the arrow hit its prey, several lines of small text suddenly appeared:
[Life Source +2.3%] [Chain Arrow—Mastery (1/500)] [Martial Skill Progress: 10%] [Special Effect: Steady Eyes and Stable Arms (Moderate)]
A surging force welled up inside Qin Meng and flowed into his arms and eyes.
His arm muscles swelled, becoming more balanced and powerful. An unprecedented sense of stability spread from his palms to the bow, as if man and bow had become one.
At the same time, the world before his eyes suddenly sharpened. He could make out the patterns on distant leaves and even catch the colors of a bird's feathers as it flashed through the deeper woods.
"Steady eyes and stable arms..." Qin Meng gave the bowstring a cautious pull, feeling its astonishing steadiness. His heart surged with excitement. This improvement had come at just the right time.
He quickly dressed the badger and continued toward the ravine. With his newly enhanced eyesight and strength, he shot down several more small game animals along the way.
As he approached the ravine, the murmur of running water reached his ears, and the air carried the damp scent of soil and plants.
Animal tracks littered the banks of the stream, but that also meant danger.
Sure enough, Qin Meng had barely edged cautiously toward the water when he was attacked by venomous snakes three times.
Some launched themselves down from the trees; others burst from the grass at his feet and lunged to bite.
If not for his sharp instincts and the timely flash of his blade, he would likely have been poisoned by now.
He wrapped the severed snakes in broad leaves and kept away from the stream. Instead, he followed the ravine upstream, carefully searching the cracks between rocks and the grass for herbs like the Glehnia Root.
The deeper he went, the more shadowy the woods grew. Even the birds fell silent, and a faint, earthy stench hung in the air.
Qin Meng's heart tightened. His fingers rested lightly on his bow.
Fragments of the original owner's memories told him that the beasts in these mountains had fur and scales far tougher than those of ordinary animals from his past life.
As he bent his head to search—
"Splash!" A patch of seemingly ordinary dead grass to his side suddenly came alive.
A thick, earth-yellow shape sprang up, bringing with it a nauseating stench as it shot toward his waist at astonishing speed.
Qin Meng's soul nearly fled his body. At death's door, he instinctively rolled along the ground, snatching up a sharp stone with his left hand and hurling it with all his strength.
"Thud!"
The stone struck the earth-yellow shape head-on, knocking it askew.
It bought Qin Meng a precious moment to catch his breath!
He seized the chance to spring to his feet. Only then did he get a clear look at the attacker.
It was a giant python, two zhang long and as thick as a barrel. Its scales were a mottled mix of earth yellow and stone brown, blending almost perfectly into the surroundings.
Its vicious triangular head reared high, cold, vertical pupils fixed on him. Its forked tongue flickered rapidly, and it hissed.
"A Rock Viper?" Qin Meng's heart sank.
Ordinary Rock Vipers were only as thick as a person's arm. This was clearly a bloodline-awakened variant. Not only was it huge, its venom was likely even deadlier.
Yet it didn't slow down in the slightest. In a flash, Qin Meng nocked an arrow and drew his bow.
The bow curved like a full moon, the arrow poised like a shooting star.
"Whoosh!"
The arrow tore through the air, shooting straight at the raised triangular head.
But—
"Clang!"
A piercing clang of metal striking metal rang out!
The iron arrowhead slammed into the python's scales, spraying sparks before bouncing away. It left behind only a faint white mark.
"Those scales are that hard?" Qin Meng's expression darkened. The original owner's memories hadn't been wrong; his doubts about the strange beasts had been confirmed.
In this world, the Martial Path began with blood and qi. Ordinary people first had to enter the Boiling Blood Realm, using breathing techniques to set their blood and qi roiling. Only then could they gain the thousand-jin strength needed to split stone tablets and crack boulders.
Though this body had been tempered to wield several hundred jin of strength, Qin Meng's limited aptitude meant he could never stir his blood and qi. He had been written off as hopeless.
Now, facing this clearly bloodline-awakened beast, he had not formally cultivated and could not draw on the power of his blood and qi. His ordinary Hunting Bow and iron arrows couldn't even pierce the giant python's vulnerable eyelids.
After being attacked several times, the Rock Viper Python was thoroughly enraged. Its vertical pupils shrank to needle points, and its thick body coiled and twisted before it sprang again.
This time, it moved even faster, its gaping maw lunging straight for Qin Meng's throat.
Qin Meng retreated at a sprint, his eyes fixed on the python's jaws. When he saw the muscles in its throat bulge, his sense of danger made him hurl himself to the side without hesitation!
"Pfft! Pfft!"
Two streams of clear venom grazed his clothes and struck the ground behind him.
"Fizz—"
A sizzling sound rang out as several pits instantly formed in the rock, which began to smoke with acrid white fumes.
Before Qin Meng could regain his footing, the python's tail swept toward him with a shrill whistle.
He had no choice but to raise his saber and block.
"Clang!"
Blade struck scale, sparks flying everywhere.
The web of Qin Meng's hand split open. The tremendous force sent him stumbling back seven or eight steps before he crashed hard into a tree trunk, a sweet taste rising in his throat.
The Rock Viper Python was unnaturally cunning. After landing a blow, it slithered to block his escape, head held high as its neck swelled once more.
A second volley of venom was already brewing!
Venom barred his path ahead, a tree blocked him behind, and the creature's massive body loomed over him from both sides.
A dead end!
Qin Meng leaned against the tree trunk, gasping heavily as blood and sweat ran down from his temple.
He forced himself to stay calm, concentrating every bit of his focus on his eyes as he tracked each tiny movement of the giant python.
His blade couldn't cut through, his arrows couldn't pierce. The only answer was... its weak spot!
The instant the python's neck swelled to its limit as it prepared to spit venom, a pale scale behind its lower jaw shifted with the motion, revealing the tiniest gap—
"Now!"
Qin Meng roared. The earth beneath his feet burst apart as he lunged forward with his saber, becoming a streak of cold light. He poured all his strength and precision into a thrust at that one flaw.
"Pfft!"
The blade punched through flesh with a muffled sound.
The saber sank to the hilt, wedged deep into the gap between its neck bones.
"Shriee—!"
The Rock Viper Python let out a shriek so agonized it warped into a distorted howl. Its two-zhang body writhed and rolled wildly, snapping branches and crushing grass as dust billowed into the air.
Qin Meng clung to the hilt as the python flung him around. Even as he stumbled and rolled, he gritted his teeth and refused to let go. Gripping the handle with both hands, he hacked and twisted the blade inside the giant python.
The creature's thrashing quickly weakened.
At the same time, a sudden searing pain flared in Qin Meng's palm around the saber hilt. A streak of blood-red light welled up from his palm, ran along the blade, and burrowed into the python's body, devouring its blood essence.
A vast surge of heat thundered back into Qin Meng's body, washing through every limb and bone!
[Life Source +21%] [Acquired Rock Spirit Python Bloodline Talent: Environmental Integration]
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