Departure for the Town

The villagers once again skillfully brought out numerous small single-wheeled carts. They loaded them full of goods and tied everything down securely.

Seeing Lin Fan's changed face, the villagers of the hunting party were all greatly astonished. If not for the fact that Lin Fan's clothes, height, and voice had not changed, anyone unfamiliar with him would have thought he had become another person.

The village children also circled endlessly around Lin Fan, seemingly trying to figure out how he had changed his face.

This time, Lin Fan did not bring the Golden Rat with him. After Lin Fan had fed the Golden Rat, Mao Mao, various medicinal herbs and other things over the past few days, it had become far more intelligent. He left it at home to keep his younger sister, Lin Ruoruo, company and play with her.

Several baskets of medicinal herbs were placed inside medicine hampers and covered with straw to preserve warmth and moisture. Once the straw was lifted, the herbs could be seen still plump and fresh, their branches and leaves green, the soil around their roots still damp.

Once the party heading out to sell goods had finished preparing, they set off in full array.

Lin Fan had originally wanted to volunteer to push one of the heaviest carts. But Uncle Wang said Lin Fan only needed to clear the way ahead and guard against wild beasts. Besides, these goods were mainly medicinal herbs, much lighter than last time.

After thinking it over, Lin Fan did not refuse. After all, he had only just broken through to the Muscle Refinement Realm, and his control over his strength could not yet be called perfect. He looked at the squeaking single-wheeled carts making their way along the mountain path.

Lin Fan even suspected that if he failed to control his strength and pushed just a little too hard, he might send a single-wheeled cart flying apart in one go.

With a private chuckle, Lin Fan walked to the front. The narrow path traveled by the hunting party wound between mountain after mountain, its slope relatively gentle.

In some places along the way, paths resembling cliffside plank roads had been carved by hand along the edges of precipices.

His former self, just a few months ago, had still been an ordinary man too weak to truss a chicken. Yet a few months later, he had already become a Muscle Refinement Realm martial artist with the strength of a thousand jin.

This Small Mountain Village sat amid a stretch of mountain ranges.

Between it and the town where they sold their goods lay many more peaks.

Some of the peaks along the way were rugged with barren rocks, with no trace of green in sight. Others were sheer cliffs with terrifyingly steep slopes that ordinary people could not climb. From afar, they looked deep and shadowy.

The faint cries of unknown wild beasts drifted over.

Compared to those places, the mountains beside Small Mountain Village were much better. Not only were their slopes gentler, but there were not so many towering dense forests blocking the way. They were far more suitable for hunting or gathering firewood.

There were still many dangers in the deep mountains. Just as people could cultivate martial arts and reach the Skin Tempering Realm or Muscle Refinement Realm, some wild beasts, through fortunate coincidences, by swallowing special medicinal herbs, or for other reasons—

Could also break through to the Skin Tempering Realm, or even higher realms. Such beasts were known as Ferocious Beasts.

Ferocious Beasts were rare.

Although Ferocious Beasts were generally not at very high realms, wild beasts possessed far greater innate strength than humans. Thus, it was commonplace for a Ferocious Beast that had broken through to the Skin Tempering Realm to possess several thousand jin of strength.

Therefore, even though Lin Fan had reached the Muscle Refinement Realm, he still did not wish to enter certain deep mountains. Should he carelessly encounter a Ferocious Beast, it would be difficult for him to retreat unscathed.

After pushing their carts for an entire day, the group reached a cave halfway between the mountainside and the foot of the mountain. It extended more than ten meters deep, and its interior was fairly spacious—more than enough for the group to spend the night. No one knew whether it had formed naturally or been dug by human hands.

"Xiao Fan, we'll rest here for the night. We can reach the town tomorrow."

Uncle Wang and the others stopped the carts and placed the goods deep inside the cave. Then everyone gathered dry firewood and branches from the surroundings and lit a fire at the cave entrance.

This place was already not far from the town, so the cries of wild beasts on the mountains to either side had become much scarcer. If they hurried on their way, they could even reach the town before night fell.

But by then, the town gates would already be closed. Sleeping outside the gates would not only require people to keep watch over the goods through the night, but the area outside the gates was open and exposed, and the cold night wind would be stronger. Thus, the hunting party villagers from the mountain village generally chose to rest in this cave for a night.

"System, open the panel."

After eating some dry rations, Lin Fan took a deep breath.

He activated the three-hundredfold cultivation effect at the cost of thirty taels of silver, then continued cultivating.

Though the System's abilities were powerful, he still could not slacken in his cultivation.

As Lin Fan cultivated, his meridians trembled. With every punch he threw, rippling shadows and afterimages seemed to appear in the air, which let out a low, droning hum.

Lin Fan knew this was the result of his punches being too fast. Only because his physical body was powerful could he withstand such punching speed.

If an ordinary person who had never cultivated martial arts threw punches with such strength and speed, the enemy would not even need to injure them—their own tendons and muscles would be injured first, perhaps even torn apart.

Of course, ordinary people did not possess Lin Fan's thousand-jin strength either.

Lin Fan sensed his own cultivation. According to ordinary martial cultivation speed, if he continued maintaining the thirtyfold cultivation effect, and spent eight hours cultivating each day, he should be able to step into the Bone Tempering Realm within two months.

By then, he would count among the most formidable experts in the town.

After chatting with Uncle Wang and the others for a while, Lin Fan learned more. His former self had fled here from elsewhere, so when it came to understanding the town, he was certainly no match for old villagers and veteran hunters from Small Mountain Village like Uncle Wang.

It was called a small town, but its population was actually quite large. There were still close to a hundred thousand people.

On the surface, the imperial court maintained order in the town. But beneath that were several gangs and some martial Lineages, who were not particularly obedient to the court. The local authorities mostly turned a blind eye.

After all, this was a world of martial arts. Once these local powerful factions possessed martial cultivation, they became even harder to suppress and control. Everyone simply maintained a balance on the surface, and no great chaos had arisen.

This was also one reason Lin Fan dared to come out. For wanted notices implicating people like him, unless the criminal had committed utterly heinous crimes, the imperial court would generally stop caring after pursuing them for a period of time.

After all, martial experts within the court and government also needed plenty of time to cultivate.

To guard against every eventuality, Lin Fan used the Disguise Art once more. That made things quite secure.

According to Uncle Wang, the wealthy Su Family that often bought the villagers' recent game was a martial Lineage. Lin Fan understood this well. In this world, if one lacked martial cultivation, an ordinary wealthy merchant would, over time, have long been carved up completely by the many gangs and factions within the city.

According to Uncle Wang and the others, the Su Family was said to have one Bone Tempering Realm expert and several Muscle Refinement Realm experts. The other gang factions possessed roughly comparable strength.

Throughout the entire town, the ratio of martial artists to ordinary people was approximately one to one hundred. This ratio was about the same throughout the Zhao Kingdom, and Lin Fan's former self had known a little about it as well.

After all, not everyone possessed the innate talent to cultivate martial arts. Moreover, some ordinary people at the bottom of society, even if they occasionally possessed fourth- or fifth-grade talent, were burdened by making a living every day and had no time to cultivate martial arts.

Of course, the ratio was much higher within martial Lineages. Out of every ten people, at least two or three would cultivate martial arts.