Night Raid

"Oh, is that so."

Shen Yue nodded, lost in thought.

"You don't need to overthink it. When the time comes, us two little Mingjin rookies will just be doing odd jobs in the back. We probably won't even see a beast, so there won't be any danger."

Little rookies?

Shen Yue's mouth twitched. Although she was already used to this beautiful senior sister's lack of seriousness, she was still choked up by her words from time to time.

"That is all I will say. I hope you all stay extremely careful. May the number of people who return be the same as those who left."

At this moment, after the clan elder finished speaking, the leaders of each team set off in a grand, sweeping procession.

For this hunt, the family mobilized over two hundred people, including five martial artists—the three leading clan elders and two of their direct disciples—while the rest were at the level of martial artists.

The patriarch remained in the city with a small portion of the clansmen to hold the fort and prevent any accidents.

There were three teams in total. Two were frontline combat units, consisting of those at least at the Dark Force level, while the third team consisted of Mingjin martial artists like Shen Yue and Chen Huaiyu, along with strong, able-bodied commoners.

The scale of this hunting lineup was quite grand, a sight that Black Lion City had likely not seen in decades.

Night fell by the time the group reached their destination, where they stopped to set up camp.

This was the edge of the wilderness where beasts often appeared, yet few were seen here. Although there were houses nearby, they had long since been abandoned.

Looking out, the area was desolate and devoid of human life.

At this very moment, in the shadows not far away, two figures watched the busy members of the Chen Family, smiles playing on their lips.

"They finally couldn't help themselves."

One of them spoke in an aged, hoarse voice. His hands were full of wrinkles yet remarkably powerful, resembling eagle talons; he was Blood Yin Child of the Black Mountain Gang.

"Hmph, that is only natural. With me coordinating the martial arts resources in secret alongside the city's powerful elite, the Chen Family is nothing but a toy in my palm."

The person who responded had a booming voice, possessing an air of natural authority.

"Ah, it is good to have money and power. It makes even this old man envious."

"Hmph, you martial artists have well-developed limbs but dull minds. When it comes to schemes and controlling the powerful, one must still look to us scholars."

Yin Blood Child laughed and flattered him, "That is true, that is true."

He couldn't help but glance behind him. In the shadows, there were several Transformation Force martial artists, three of whom were particularly conspicuous, their origins impossible to discern.

"By the way, have you found the person you asked me to look for last time? There aren't many people who can make you speak up."

Blood Yin Child sighed, "That brat is not simple. His mind is meticulous; even now, I haven't even caught a glimpse of him."

The middle-aged man smiled meaningfully and spoke again, "After we swallow the Chen Family, how shall we divide it?"

Blood Yin Child's expression shifted, "That would naturally be a fifty-fifty split..."

The latter looked displeased, his eyes—resembling those of a human yet also a tiger—turning sharp. "Fifty-fifty? You hold the rabble under your command in too high regard..."

The next day, at dawn, the Chen Family's first hunt began.

One team entered the outer wilderness, while the other team and the logistics unit remained behind.

Compared to before, the number of beasts had decreased significantly, and the group searched for a long time without any major gains.

It wasn't until the afternoon that they discovered a herd of Black Horned Sheep. These beasts were fast and possessed immense impact force; if one failed to react in time, they would be impaled on the spot.

The group was cautious, not daring to be the least bit careless, and silently surrounded the herd layer by layer.

A day passed quickly. Although the herd was wiped out by the Chen Family, the day's harvest was still unsatisfactory.

They had overestimated the number of beasts in the wilderness.

That night, after the three clan elders consulted, they changed their plan of action. Ultimately, they switched from one hunt per day with two teams rotating, to one team in the morning and one in the evening, two hunts per day.

The group knew the situation was not optimistic and did not complain much.

That same night, the other team set off.

Although the hunting process yielded unsatisfactory results, fortunately, there were no significant losses in manpower.

The hunting process was plain and uneventful, hardly dangerous, and in the blink of an eye, the fifth day of the hunt arrived.

On this day, the Chen Family camp continued as usual, with one team staying behind and one team hunting, their actions proceeding in an orderly fashion.

At this moment, in the deep mountains dozens of miles away from the camp, a blood-red spider swallowed a bear cub in one gulp.

Beside it, a brown bear as tall as a house was locked in a struggle with several other Red Spiders. It was covered in wounds and riddled with potent poison, yet its ferocity remained undiminished; a single swipe of its bear paw, larger than a pot, could crush a Red Spider to death.

This was a beast comparable to a human martial artist—fierce, brutal, and extremely violent.

However, the Red Spiders were numerous, surrounding it and occasionally crawling onto its back to bite, sneak-attack, and inject venom.

Whenever this happened, the brown bear would often let out a roar and then slam its back heavily against the mountain face. After repeating this several times, its furry back was already a bloody mess.

At this moment, seeing its cub being swallowed as food, its ferocity intensified, and its roar was deafening.

As time passed, however, the toxin took effect, and its movements gradually slowed. More and more Red Spiders crawled onto its body, eventually submerging its massive frame.

"These beasts are truly insidious."

The few people watching from afar couldn't help but spit on the ground and curse.

"Stop talking nonsense. That bear won't last long; hurry up and drop the bait so we can leave."

Hearing this, the man no longer hesitated. He opened the lid of the black jar he was carrying, reached inside, and pulled out a rotting organ crawling with maggots.

He was thoroughly disgusted and threw it onto the ground with loathing.

This item was the rotting organ of a strange beast, the favorite food of the Red Spiders.

Sure enough, some of the Red Spiders had already begun to move in this direction.

Seeing this, the group ran faster than one another, heading in the direction of the Chen Family encampment.

At this very moment, the people inside the encampment were completely unaware of this.

Even though a few people had been secretly standing guard nearby, they had long since become cold corpses.

Inside a mountain cave, Chen Han had just finished refining the third strange beast heart he had consumed and stepped out to catch some fresh air.

[Taiji Health Cultivation Technique (Proficient) 155/500]

[Mountain Breaking Fist (Proficient) 300/500]

After the health cultivation stage of the Taiji Health Cultivation Technique, there were no further distinctions in realms. This stage of Steel Tendons and Iron Bones was the final one; once refined, this health technique would reach its end.

Chen Han did not know if this technique had a second volume, but he assumed it must. If asked how he knew, it was naturally because of the introduction at the beginning.

The last sentence of the introduction stated that refining it to the peak would allow one to move mountains and fill seas, become immune to all poisons, and be impervious to blades and spears; climbing mountains of blades or descending into seas of fire would be nothing more than a light laugh.

When Chen Han first saw this passage, he thought the author was definitely spouting nonsense. It was just a health cultivation technique; how could it be so powerful?

Immune to all poisons and impervious to blades and spears? Even a Martial Master wouldn't dare to make such a boast, let alone him claiming to be peerless through the ages.

But with every surprise this health technique brought him, he had to re-evaluate the authenticity of those words.

"If there is an opportunity in the future, I must get my hands on the next volume of this technique."