50 Great Rain Suddenly Arrives; Braving the Rain to Venture Deeper

It was already night.

After killing one deer and two tigers, Li Xian was utterly spent.

He found a quiet place, built a campfire, and lay down to rest on the snow.

He scattered beast-repelling incense around him to drive away snakes, rodents, and ants.

"Winter hunting is actually much more comfortable than hunting in spring and summer."

Li Xian murmured to himself.

Winter was cold, but it was dry, too.

The mountain forests in summer were full of snakes, insects, rodents, ants, and leeches. Those things were truly terrifying.

A skewer of venison, tiger meat, and biao meat roasted over the campfire, sizzling and glistening with oil.

Winter hunting had its rules. Aside from the valuable parts, hunters could eat whatever they liked from their prey.

The valuable parts meant bear paws, bear gallbladders, tiger gallbladders, tiger hearts...

Hunting a wild beast brought enormous profit. The value of its meat was secondary. Take a tiger, for example: its hide could be made into clothes or blankets, and it fetched a handsome price.

Tiger bones and blood could be used in medicine or to brew pills; tiger claws and teeth could be made into weapons... Tiger gallbladders, hearts, and penises had even more uses. They could be soaked in liquor or eaten raw...

But all that money went to the people above. It had nothing to do with the hunters.

Venison was the most tender, and it was the first to finish roasting. When Li Xian bit into it, oil mingled with thin streams of blood and flowed out.

Though he had added no seasoning, it was fragrant all the same.

The wild deer was young, and its meat was at its tenderest.

Because Li Xian had skewered the meat with fruit branches, it carried a faint fruity fragrance that lingered on the palate.

[You cooked venison. Proficiency +4]

[You cooked venison. Proficiency +3]

[You cooked venison. Proficiency +2]

The Proficiency of the [Consumption] technique was slowly rising.

Li Xian discovered that when he ate the same meat repeatedly, the increase in Proficiency gradually diminished, eventually dropping to [1].

But this change wasn't fixed. After some time had passed-several hours or a few days—if he ate venison again, the increase in Proficiency would return to [4]. Then, as he continued eating, it would gradually decline to [1].

But changing how he prepared it-for example, making soup or turning it into jerky-produced a different result.

"Eating meat in different ways will raise my 'Consumption' Proficiency faster."

"Though I've mastered the Four Directions Fist and Clearwind Leg, the most useful of all my skills might be [Consumption]."

As far as Li Xian knew, the most direct way for a martial artist to replenish energy was to eat!

By then, the tiger meat and biao meat had finished roasting, too.

[You cooked wild tiger meat. Proficiency +6]

[You cooked Ghost-Patterned Biao meat. Proficiency +9]

After eating and drinking his fill, his [Consumption] Proficiency had risen by more than [70] points.

Li Xian was actually full already.

But to raise [Consumption] as quickly as possible, he cut a piece of meat from each of the tiger, biao, and deer, then boiled them together with wild vegetables and fruit.

[You drank three-beast soup. Proficiency +12]

One pot of soup earned him another [47] Proficiency points.

"If I eat any more, my stomach will burst."

"At my current pace, if I have tiger, deer, and biao meat at every meal for the next three days, it shouldn't be difficult to raise [Consumption] to Proficiency."

"Right, tonight I can smoke the tiger, deer, and biao meat into jerky!"

"Then even after Winter Hunt ends, won't I still have beast meat to eat?!"

At the thought, Li Xian was delighted.

He immediately used his knife to cut the meat into slices and hung them over the fire to smoke.

He would make as much jerky as he could!

After finishing, Li Xian lay down on the snow, his belly round and full.

He gazed at the bright stars and moon, enjoying the moonlight brushing over him. In a daze, he felt as though he had returned to the past.

Hunting in the mountains... instead made him feel more at peace.

A faint sense of freedom lingered at the tip of his nose.

"Freedom... has to be fought for yourself. It isn't something others give you."

Li Xian rested his head on his hands and thought with conviction.

The next day.

Li Xian marked the route as he went, planning to venture a little farther in.

His luck was excellent. In just one morning, he had hunted a tiger and a bear.

The tiger was an ordinary mountain tiger, and the bear was a Black Velvet Bear.

Hunting the tiger had been uneventful. From far away, Li Xian spotted its tracks and shot it dead on the spot.

It was nothing like that difficult Ghost-Patterned Biao.

But something unexpected happened while he was hunting the bear. The Black Velvet Bear was licking honey.

It was honey from a kind of Blackneedle Bee. These venomous bees feared no cold and carried deadly poison.

After Li Xian shot the Black Velvet Bear, the Blackneedle Bees chased him. In the end, he only just escaped by hiding in an icy river.

Fortunately, his Inner Qi was well-honed, and he knew how to ward off the cold.

Otherwise, he would surely have frozen to death in the river.

But his clothes were soaked through, so he had to start a fire and dry them before deciding what to do next.

Everything had been going well. If he kept up this pace, he could collect three bears, three tigers, and three deer.

But around noon that day, a gust of wind blew past, and Li Xian immediately sensed trouble. He smelled moisture in the air.

He quickly found a mountain cave to shelter in.

Sure enough, before long, a torrential downpour began.

"The heavens can change their expression in an instant, without showing the slightest mercy."

Li Xian sighed heavily.

This was a serious problem. The rain would wash away tracks, obscure his vision, and make the cold even more intense.

The drifting mist was bitterly cold, too.

The rain had thrown off Li Xian's rhythm. In these circumstances, all he could do was hide in the cave and wait for it to stop.

When he got hungry, he ate jerky.

The downpour kept on without letting up. In the blink of an eye, night fell, and the rain grew heavier instead of easing.

Li Xian furrowed his brow as he watched the rain. Could it... keep raining for another day?

He had already made a fine haul on this trip: one deer, three tigers, and one bear, including a Brindled Tiger, a Ghost-Patterned Biao, and a Black Velvet Bear.

All three beasts were stronger than ordinary tigers and bears.

"With a haul like this, I can get into the Idle Martial Pavilion and exchange for an Entry Vehicle martial art."

"But... this Winter Hunt is a rare chance for me to advance to Grade-B. Could I really let it pass me by?"

As he smoked the bear, tiger, deer, and biao meat,

Li Xian considered his next move.

"Hunting in the rain carries enormous risks."

"But I can't let this opportunity slip away. Tomorrow... whether the rain stops or not, I'll make the most of the last day and venture deeper into the forest, hoping to hunt two more bears!"

Li Xian clenched his fist and made up his mind.

He had to seize every opportunity!

Night fell.

The world was dark, and rain poured down in torrents. At a time like this, the mountain forest was at its coldest. The icy dampness seeped in through every crack, leaving a person utterly helpless.

Li Xian stared blankly at the rain... It kept growing heavier, without pause or end, leaving him powerless to do anything.

He sat there quietly through the night.

Around the hour of the Snake, the sky began to grow a little brighter.

Li Xian no longer hoped the rain would stop. He slung the Deer-Shooting Bow over his back and headed deeper into the forest.

Rain mixed with frost, filling the uneven ground with puddle after puddle.

When his foot stepped into one, the cold surged straight into his heart.

It made him shiver.

Before he had gone far, Li Xian was already soaked through. Inner Qi coursed through his body, keeping him from losing consciousness from the cold.

The heavy rain washed away his tracks, leaving his tracking skills useless. He could only wander around and try his luck.

Suddenly...

Amid the hazy winter rain, a figure suddenly entered his field of vision.