Harvest

"We're badly short on exotic beast meat. All of the wolf king's meat goes to us. You can take the bones and hide. We don't want any of the smaller wolves either—just pay the market price for them."

Zhao Tuo had consulted Li Mu before making these arrangements.

The wolf king's meat alone was heavy enough. They simply could not carry the other wolves, and even if they did, they would draw far too much attention.

They might as well take a small loss and exchange them for silver.

Li Mu did not know the market rates, so Zhao Tuo handled the negotiations from start to finish.

Zhao Tuo came from a hunting family. He dealt with the Hunter Gang often and had spent years in Azure River City, so he knew these prices inside out.

Meanwhile, Zhou Dayuan was extremely loyal. Several hunters beside him tried to speak up, only to be glared back into silence. Clearly, the price he offered Zhao Tuo was already above the usual rate.

Zhao Tuo knew he had gained a huge advantage, so he did not raise the price further. Both sides were very pleased with the deal.

After being butchered, a Black Mountain Wolf King still yielded a full hundred catties of meat. Even at fifty catties each, once they handed it to the kitchen to make jerky, it would last them half a year at three taels of meat per day!

The remaining smaller wolves were bought at market price, two taels each, for a total of fifty taels of silver.

The mutant wolf king was comparable to a second-stage martial master. Every part of it was valuable! The wolf king's bones, hide, and various other parts sold for another twenty taels of silver.

This trip had earned them a full seventy taels of silver!

They had struck it rich!

Li Mu had expected to make a lot, but he had never imagined they would earn this much.

With this windfall, he would have the capital to enter the city and buy sword manuals and the like.

"Stone, you made a killing on this trip. I've been more than generous, brother—I'm bleeding money here. If it were anyone else, I'd have chopped the price down hard." Zhou Dayuan tossed over a heavy pouch of silver, his face full of heartache.

Zhao Tuo sneered. "Dayuan, are you forcing me to lay everything out? As if I don't know you'll turn around and use this stuff to fleece those spoiled young masters and noble young ladies. That hide alone, with a good tailor, could sell for more than thirty taels. Not to mention the wolf bones—find a craftsman and turn them into bone carvings, bone pendants..."

"You old fox! If you spill all of that, how will little brother Li Mu see us in the future?" Zhou Dayuan practically wanted to stuff the wolf hide into his good brother's mouth.

"..." Li Mu was speechless. He had not expected this trade to be so deep.

The other hunters chuckled knowingly as well. It seemed they all knew who was really making the money.

But Li Mu understood that this was hard-earned money, money that required connections and effort.

After all, the two of them were splitting seventy taels, while even if Zhou Dayuan sold the goods at a high price, he still had so many mouths under him to feed.

"Now that you've earned our silver, it's time to bring out that great medicine and let us have a look. Who are you trying to hide that medicinal fragrance from?" Zhao Tuo said.

Zhou Dayuan froze, then cursed as he rummaged through his bag. "Your nose is sharper than a dog's!"

A black lotus, pulled out with its roots intact and soil still clinging to them, appeared before Li Mu.

The black lotus had only three leaves, each exceptionally broad, and it gave off a rich fragrance. Though the veins in those leaves were tiny, they resembled human blood vessels, with red liquid like flowing vitality pulsing through them.

"Three-Leaf Black Lotus! A superior great medicine capable of breaking through the first three stages! Its effects are exceptional!" Zhao Tuo could not help reaching toward it.

Zhou Dayuan immediately pulled it back and warned him not to touch it recklessly. This was the most important objective of their trip. Once they brought it back, they had to offer it to their leader, who would then submit it to the Mountain-Holding Vulture.

"Submit it to the Mountain-Holding Vulture? That won't do!" Zhao Tuo grew angry at once. The Mountain-Holding Vulture had robbed them not long ago. How could his good brother help evil thrive?

"Among the gangs large and small around Azure River now, who dares not offer tribute to the Mountain-Holding Vulture? You don't know this, but their chief has become utterly different from before! You two must be careful!" Zhou Dayuan's expression immediately turned grave.

Li Mu and Zhao Tuo were both stunned and hurried him to explain.

Zhou Dayuan leaned closer and lowered his voice. "I only heard about it myself. Supposedly, their chief, Liu Bahe's mount—that giant eagle—has transformed from an exotic beast into a true demon beast! Liu Bahe himself may have consumed some powerful demon core and is currently in seclusion. The day he emerges may be the day Azure River is washed in blood."

Demon beasts! Demon cores! Li Mu was shocked when he heard those two terms.

There really were demons in this world!

"Exotic beasts are formed when they consume rare heavenly treasures and great medicines, causing their bloodlines to mutate. But demon beasts truly possess the legendary 'cultivation.' They can wield 'demonic arts.' Martial artists who consume demon cores are no longer human either..." Zhou Dayuan trembled slightly as he spoke of this secret.

"The Firewood Gang is also searching everywhere for medicine for the Mountain-Holding Vulture. This area is actually a gray zone between the Hunter Gang and Firewood Gang. If people from the Firewood Gang had come today, we would not have gotten this great medicine so easily, and you two would have been in danger as well."

"The Firewood Gang." Li Mu now understood that every trade in Azure River City had already been monopolized. Independent operators had no choice but to band together and form gangs, seeking a way to survive beneath the powerful and aristocratic families.

The Hunter Gang and Firewood Gang were both like this.

"The city garrison has already joined forces with the great families to send troops against them. The Mountain-Holding Vulture won't amount to anything," Zhao Tuo said in a low voice.

Zhou Dayuan shook his head without saying more, instead turning to old stories.

Li Mu borrowed the Three-Leaf Black Lotus to examine it for a moment. Once he had roughly understood the traits of great medicines, he returned it.

He could sense that while this great medicine was precious, it was nowhere near as good as the sword qi produced by the Great Expansion Sword Register. The latter was incomparably pure, while great medicines contained impurities and carried strong side effects.

"Brother Li Mu, if you encounter people from the Hunter Gang at Black Camel Ridge in the future, you can give them my name. Or if you enter the outer city, you can come find me at Zhou's Butcher Shop in Qingyuan Ward." Zhou Dayuan greatly admired Li Mu, and when they parted, he gave him a way to contact him.

"Is that enough? My little brother will be going out to gain experience on his own in the future. Copy him a version of the map you have." Zhao Tuo was not polite in the slightest. The map personally drawn by his elder brother Zhao Meng was far too precious, but he did not mind squeezing his good brother for what he could get.

"Stone." Zhou Dayuan was almost unable to bear it, but when he saw Zhao Tuo's arms, each thicker than his own by a full circle, he swallowed his anger.

He forced a smile. "Copying the map will take time. Whenever little brother Li Mu enters the city, he can come collect it from my butcher shop."

He gave Li Mu a bone fragment that served as a token.

The two sides parted ways.

Li Mu and Zhao Tuo each carried a basket filled with wolf meat on their backs as they headed home.

To thank Li Mu for saving his life, Zhao Tuo decided to give Li Mu the larger share, keeping only thirty percent for himself.

Li Mu initially felt embarrassed to accept, but Zhao Tuo insisted so forcefully that he eventually gave in.

After all, Li Mu was still a long way from the second stage and had limited ability to earn resources, while Zhao Tuo had his elder brother Zhao Meng watching over him and had also built up plenty of connections.

But to avoid making Li Mu stand out too much, they had loaded their baskets in reverse. They would switch them back only after returning to the manor.

This hunting trip had brought enormous profits, but it had also been extremely dangerous.

If they had not encountered acquaintances, they would likely have been in serious trouble.

Even if they had made it back alive, they would have suffered severe injuries, and there was no way they could have gained so much.

"Actually, we didn't need Zhou Dayuan to investigate. I can more or less guess who it was," Zhao Tuo suddenly said. "The one with the deepest grudge against us brothers is most likely Liu Yi."

Zhao Tuo was certain that this name was probably the truth, and he slowly recounted the past.

Back then, he had also wanted to join the Forging Sword Tower, but Liu Yi had cursed him out for his terrible aptitude. For his sake, elder brother Zhao Meng had transferred to the Myriad Swords Tower with him. From then on, the two brothers and Liu Yi became enemies.

Later, the Zhao Meng brothers earned the favor of the new steward Leng Shuangyu. Zhao Meng became an instructor at the Myriad Swords Tower, and the two sides found each other even more intolerable. Small resentments slowly accumulated into deep hatred. If not for the manor's rules, they would likely have fought far more fiercely.

"He must have been coming for me. Last time, he even sent people to kill four sword-testing slaves in the dormitory building. We knew it was him. I dragged you into this, Li Mu." He felt deeply guilty. He had promised to take Li Mu out hunting, yet he had nearly gotten him killed.

"Brother Tuo, what are you saying? Without you, could I have earned so much exotic beast meat and silver?" Li Mu shook his head. They had faced death together this time, forging a deep bond. How could he possibly resent him?

Though Liu Yi had taken the blame for his killing before, Li Mu had now nearly been killed because of Liu Yi. Anger had already risen in his heart.

Liu Yi, a third-stage martial master... Li Mu said, "Those who commit many acts of injustice will bring about their own destruction."

Liu Yi made him feel deeply unsafe, but for now, he had absolutely no way to deal with him.

"It's a pity there's no evidence. Otherwise, we could report him to Steward Leng and the Third Manor Lord and have him killed." Zhao Tuo was furious, but also helpless.

Because even together, the two brothers might not be able to defeat Liu Yi. Liu Yi had remained at the third stage for far too long.

In this world, if one's own strength were sufficient, why would one need to borrow another's power to solve problems?