Hunting Alone

"How could that possibly work?"

The village chief's brows knotted together, his voice carrying a rare urgency. "The Great Wilderness is fraught with danger. If you go out alone and something happens, you could die without even a place to bury your bones!"

Lin Yi stood before him and waited until he had finished before speaking slowly. His tone was neither hurried nor impatient, as though he had turned these words over in his mind countless times already.

"Village Chief, I've thought it through. With my current strength, there won't be any problem hunting around the outskirts of the tribe."

He pointed outside. "Brother Biao is badly injured now and won't be able to fight for at least a month. The other hunting team members are all in the Tidal Surge Realm, but frankly, at that level, they can only barely protect themselves in the Great Wilderness.

"If I take them hunting with me, they might instead become prey."

The village chief opened his mouth, but Lin Yi did not stop. He continued, "Fierce beasts are like people—they pick their targets too. My Blood-Qi is far stronger than that of the other hunting team members. Standing among them, I'd be the most conspicuous target.

"If we really encounter something formidable, I'd be the first one it pounced on. The others would instead get dragged into danger because of me."

He paused, softening his tone somewhat. "If I go alone, there's no burden. If I can beat it, I'll fight. If I can't, I'll run. With my current speed, nothing around the edge of the Great Wilderness can catch me."

The village chief fell silent for a long while. He lowered his head and looked at the wrinkles and brown spots on the back of his hand, his fingers rubbing together inside his sleeve. In the end, it all became a heavy sigh.

"...I understand your reasoning. But what if?"

"There won't be a what if." Lin Yi spoke with great certainty. "I'll only stay around the edge of the area where we've hunted for years. I won't go deep inside. And alone, I'll have more freedom—I can run and fight without having to divide my attention to look after anyone else."

As he spoke, he took a roll of beast hide from his clothes.

Lin Yi held the beast hide out before the village chief.

"Village Chief, this is for you."

The village chief accepted the beast hide and slowly unfolded it.

His gaze swept over it once. Then it dropped line by line, and the more he read, the heavier his breathing became.

"...Flowing Light, Fleeting Shadow, and Savage Bull Art." His voice was somewhat hoarse.

The village chief stared blankly at him and said nothing for a long time.

He clenched the roll of beast hide in his hand, his fingertips tightening until his knuckles turned white. Together with the earlier Savage Bull Diagram, this young man had personally created three cultivation arts and martial skills since arriving at the tribe.

Any one of them would be enough to turn around the fortunes of a small tribe.

"You brat..." The village chief's voice was low and heavy. "You really are a monster."

He lowered his head and looked once more at the beast-hide scroll in his hand. Then he raised his head and let out a long breath. "Fine. Perhaps I shouldn't stop you. Do as you see fit."

He carefully tucked the beast hide into his clothes, patted his chest, and added one more sentence.

"With your current strength, you've already surpassed those ordinary Dragonlike Realm fierce beasts by far. Just be careful."

"Don't worry, Village Chief. I'll be doubly careful." Lin Yi's tone carried a hint of ease. "Please keep a closer eye on the hunting team's cultivation. Once they've mastered treading water, these skills can be passed down."

The village chief nodded, then asked again, "When do you plan to leave?"

"Now." Lin Yi answered casually and turned to leave.

"Make sure you come back alive." The village chief's voice chased after him from behind, much heavier than usual.

Lin Yi did not turn around. He merely raised a hand and waved behind him, never slowing his steps.

He walked out of the village chief's courtyard and followed the dirt road he knew like the back of his hand through the center of the tribe.

Lin Yi passed the last stone house and stopped between the two thick totem pillars at the tribe's entrance. He turned back and gave the tribe behind him one final look.

Then he stepped out through the tribe gate and onto the dirt road leading toward the hunting grounds.

After walking for a while, he began to quicken his pace. Blood-gold Flowing Light patterns rose over his legs, and his figure slipped lightly between the trees, making almost no sound beneath his feet.

Before long, he reached the familiar place—the entrance to the hunting grounds the hunting team often visited.

That old crooked-necked tree still stood there, several old claw marks left in its bark.

Lin Yi stopped, took a deep breath, and the corner of his mouth curved upward. Then he activated his Spirit Eyes.

In that instant, his field of vision underwent a heaven-and-earth overturning change.

The bark's surface, which looked merely rough to the naked eye, became layers of distinct structures in his sight: the withered, cracked outer bark, the phloem beneath it, then the damp xylem layer below. Every layer was crystal clear.

He turned to look at a nearby clump of shrubs. At the broken ends of branches that some animal had snapped by brushing against them, the direction of the torn fibers, the traces of seeping sap, even a tuft of grayish-brown fur caught on the broken surface—all of it flooded into his vision in the finest detail.

"Hiss—" Lin Yi could not help sucking in a sharp breath. The smile on his face could not be suppressed. "This is way too clear."

He crouched down and swept his gaze over the traces around him.

The X-ray ability of his Spirit Eyes allowed him to effortlessly see through the thin layer of soil and fallen leaves, revealing old footprints beneath. He could even distinguish how compacted the mud at the bottom of each print was.

All the details that once required Mang and Biao's experience to judge now lay naked before his eyes.

"If I still get ambushed by a fierce beast after this, then I might as well stop playing." He stood up and patted the dirt from his hands, his tone unable to hide a trace of smug delight.

He turned in place, using his Spirit Eyes to scan every direction nearby.

Footprints, impressions in the vegetation, and all sorts of information poured into his mind. His Super Brain swiftly processed and combined it all, quickly reaching a conclusion.

For the moment, there was nothing in this area worth paying attention to. Even several low-level fierce beasts had no intention of approaching.

"Let's go a little farther in." Lin Yi made his decision.

He followed a beast trail that had clearly been trampled out by fierce beasts and continued exploring deeper inside.

Every stretch of road, he used his Spirit Eyes to scan the traces around him, making sure he did not miss anything.

Along the way, he encountered several herds of Savage Bulls, a few Earth Gnawers, and several strange-looking fierce beasts whose names he did not know. Their grayish fur was wrinkled into clumps, their limbs short and stubby. One look at their aura told him they could barely even count as First Cry Realm.

Lin Yi could not be bothered to make a move and simply went around them.

He did not realize that he had already passed beyond the hunting team's usual range of activity.

The terrain beneath his feet changed without him noticing. The species of trees were different, and the ground shifted from gravel and sandy soil to thicker humus, soft and soundless beneath his feet.

The silence around him deepened as well. Even the birdsong became sparse and scattered.

Lin Yi walked a little farther when his Spirit Eyes suddenly caught something.

About sixty zhang ahead, on an earthen slope half-hidden by vines and shrubs, was a pitch-black cave entrance.

The entrance was about as tall as a person. The earth along its edges had been rubbed smooth and shiny by repeated passage, with several thick, short dark-brown hairs still stuck to the surface.

Lin Yi stopped and crouched behind a patch of short grass. His Spirit Eyes pierced through the surface layer of dirt and stones on the slope.

Inside the cave lay an enormous bear.

That bear was larger than any fierce beast he had ever seen in the tribe. Its shoulders and back were thick as a hill, its limbs as stout as stone pillars.

Its fur was dark brown, gleaming with an oily dark sheen in the cave's dim light.

It lay on its side deep within the cave, seemingly asleep.

Separated by dozens of zhang and a thick layer of earth and stone, Lin Yi's Spirit Eyes could still clearly see the thickness of its muscles beneath its fur and the sturdiness of its bones.

Its aura was deep and heavy, long and unbroken, carrying a pressure completely different from that of ordinary fierce beasts. It felt much like the Inkshadow Leopard had felt before.

Dragonlike Blood-Qi.

"Oh?" Lin Yi licked his lips, his eyes lighting up. "I was just short of something to practice on, and here comes a big one."

He crouched behind the grass, his gaze fixed through the earth on the giant bear still sleeping in the cave. His mind was already beginning to calculate.

With the X-ray ability of his Spirit Eyes fully activated, the bear's flesh, bones, and meridians became transparent layer by layer in his vision. Every detail was precisely etched into his mind.

A trace of a wicked smile quietly rose at the corner of his mouth.