Night Raid

"Oh, I see."

Shen Yue nodded thoughtfully.

"You don't need to worry too much. We're both just little Bright Force rookies, so we'll be helping out from the back. We probably won't even catch sight of an Exotic Beast, so there won't be any danger."

Little rookies?

The corner of Shen Yue's mouth twitched. Although she was already used to her pretty senior sister's irreverence, sometimes a single remark from her still left Shen Yue speechless.

"That's all I have to say. I hope you'll be extremely careful. However many of you leave, that's how many must return."

With that, the clan elder finished speaking. The leaders of the various groups set off at the head of their teams, a mighty procession.

The Lineage had dispatched more than two hundred people on this beast hunt. Among them were five Martial Masters: the three clan elders leading the expedition and two of their personal disciples. Everyone else was at the Martial Artist level.

The clan head stayed in the city with a small group of clansmen to guard against any mishaps.

There were three teams in total. Two consisted of the frontline fighters, all of them at least at the Dark Force level. The third was made up of Bright Force Martial Artists like Shen Yue and Chen Huaiyu, along with strong, able-bodied ordinary people.

The lineup for this beast hunt was undeniably impressive. It was probably something Black Lion City hadn't seen in decades.

......

Night fell before everyone reached their destination and stopped to set up camp.

They were at the edge of the wilderness, where Exotic Beasts often appeared, but they rarely encountered any. There were houses in the area, though they had long since been abandoned.

As far as the eye could see, there wasn't a soul in sight. The place was desolate.

At that moment, two figures watched the busy Chen Family from the shadows not far away, smiles tugging at their lips.

"They finally couldn't hold back."

One of them spoke in an old, hoarse voice. His hands were covered in wrinkles yet seemed powerful, like the talons of an eagle. He was Blood Yin Child of the Black Mountain Gang.

"Hmph. Naturally. With the influential figures in the city and me secretly controlling the supply of martial training resources, the Chen Family is nothing but a plaything in my hands."

The other man's voice was deep and imposing, even without anger.

"Well, it's nice to have money and power. This old man can't help but envy you."

"Hmph. You martial artists are strong in the limbs but weak in the head. Scheming in the open and in secret, controlling the powerful—that's a job for scholars like me."

Yin Blood Child laughed ingratiatingly. "Of course, of course."

He couldn't help glancing over his shoulder. In a hidden spot stood several Transformation Force Martial Artists, with three Martial Masters whose backgrounds were impossible to discern standing out in particular.

"By the way, did you find the person I asked you to look for last time? There aren't many people you'd go out of your way to ask about."

Blood Yin Child sighed. "That kid isn't simple. He's so meticulous that even now, this old man hasn't so much as laid eyes on him."

The middle-aged man smiled meaningfully and spoke again. "Once we've swallowed the Chen Family, how should we divide it?"

Blood Yin Child's gaze shifted. "Naturally, we split it fifty-fifty..."

The other man looked displeased. His eyes, seeming both human and tiger-like, turned sharp. "Fifty-fifty? You're giving your rabble far too much credit..."

......

The next morning, at dawn, the Chen Family began its first beast hunt.

One team entered the outskirts of the wilderness, while another and the logistics team stayed behind.

Compared to before, the number of Exotic Beasts had fallen sharply. The group searched for a long time without finding anything worthwhile.

It wasn't until the afternoon that they spotted a herd of Black Horned Sheep. The beasts were fast and hit with tremendous force. If someone failed to react in time, they'd be skewered on the spot.

The group proceeded cautiously, not daring to be careless for even a moment as they silently surrounded the herd, layer by layer.

The day passed quickly. Although the Chen Family wiped out the entire herd, the day's haul was still disappointing.

They had overestimated the number of Exotic Beasts in the wilderness.

That night, after discussing the matter, the three clan elders changed their plan. Instead of sending one team out each day while the other two took turns, they decided to send one team out in the morning and another at night, for two hunts a day.

Everyone knew the situation was hardly encouraging, so no one complained much.

The other team set out that very night.

Though the hunts yielded little, fortunately they hadn't lost many people.

The hunts continued without incident. Before long, it was the fifth day of the expedition.

As usual, one team stayed at the Chen Family Camp while another went hunting, and everything proceeded in good order.

At that moment, dozens of miles from the camp, deep in the mountains, a blood-red spider swallowed a bear cub whole.

Beside it, a brown bear as tall as a house was fighting several other Red Spiders. Its body was covered in wounds, and it had been poisoned, yet it remained ferocious. One swipe of its pot-sized paw could crush a Red Spider to death.

This was an Exotic Beast comparable to a human Martial Master, fierce, savage, and utterly violent.

But the Red Spiders were numerous. As they surrounded the bear, they would periodically crawl onto its back, bite it, and launch sneak attacks, injecting it with venom.

Each time, the brown bear would roar, then slam its back hard against the mountainside. After several such blows, the fur on its back was already a bloody, mangled mess.

When it saw its cub swallowed as food, its fury grew even more savage, and its roar shook the heavens.

But as time passed and the poison took effect, its movements gradually slowed. More and more Red Spiders crawled onto it, until they slowly engulfed its massive body.

"Those beasts sure are devious."

A few men watching from afar spat on the ground and cursed.

"Quit talking. That bear won't last much longer. Put down the bait and get moving."

Hearing this, the man didn't hesitate. He opened the jar and reached into the black container he'd brought with him, pulling out a piece of rotten entrails crawling with maggots.

He was overcome with disgust and tossed it to the ground.

It was the rotting entrails of an Exotic Beast, the Red Spiders' favorite food.

Sure enough, some of the Red Spiders began crawling in their direction.

Seeing this, the men ran off as fast as they could, heading straight for the Chen Family Camp.

At that very moment, everyone in the camp was completely unaware.

Even though a few men were secretly keeping watch in the surrounding area, they had long since become cold corpses.

At that moment, inside a cave, Chen Han had just finished refining the third Exotic Beast heart he'd eaten and stepped outside for some air.

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

[Mountain Breaking Fist (Proficient) 300/500]

After the Health Preservation Technique's health cultivation stage, there were no more realms. The Steel Sinew Iron Bone stage was also the final one. Once he finished cultivating it, he would have reached the end of the technique.

Chen Han didn't know whether this technique had a second volume, but he figured it probably did. How did he know? Naturally, because there was an introduction at the beginning.

The final sentence of the introduction said that once cultivated to its peak, one could move mountains and fill seas, become immune to all poisons, and be impervious to blades and spears. Even climbing a mountain of knives or descending into a sea of fire would be nothing more than a matter for a faint smile.

When Chen Han had first read those words, he'd thought the author was talking nonsense. It was just a health cultivation technique—how could it be that powerful?

Immune to all poisons and impervious to blades and spears? Even a Martial Master wouldn't dare make such a claim. What's next, the author could stand alone through the ages?

But as the technique brought him one surprise after another, he had no choice but to reconsider whether those words were true.

"If I ever get the chance, I must get the next volume of this technique."