Hunting in the Mountains

Once his cultivation had reached fruition, he would surely investigate the wrongful case against his Lineage, clear its name, and deal with the treacherous officials who had framed them.

Lin Fan steadied his emotions.

Now that he had reached the Skin Tempering Realm, he could prepare to head into the mountains and hunt alongside the hunting party.

After all, although he had brought some silver with him, living off his savings was no solution. Moreover, his system cultivation still required large amounts of silver.

In the mountains, he could hunt large prey and sell it afterward.

Because the village chief was fairly old and generally remained in the village during the day to guard against wild beasts, the hunting party was actually made up entirely of ordinary people without martial cultivation.

Although some ordinary people could improve their muscle strength through training, they were still inferior to Skin Tempering Realm martial artists in terms of endurance and explosive power.

As for why those ordinary people did not persist in cultivating martial arts, a major reason was not the lack of cultivation techniques. Take the Azure Origin Technique, for instance. It had circulated across the continent for a long time, and many shops sold it. Its price was low too, less than one tael of silver.

The greater reason was that no one could persevere. For example, someone with ninth-grade bones would need more than ten years to break through to the Skin Tempering Realm even if they cultivated diligently every day, did nothing else, and focused solely on martial arts.

And if they had other things to do each day, the time needed to break through to the Skin Tempering Realm would only grow longer. Besides, even after reaching the Skin Tempering Realm, aside from greater strength, they were not all that different from ordinary people.

In reality, there were not many situations that required tremendous strength. After all, not everyone wanted to become a porter or something similar.

And with that spare time, many people would choose to do other things. Just like in his previous world, even if many people had free time, they would not stubbornly gnaw away at specialized skills to improve themselves.

After all, learning those skills first required a great deal of time. And after learning them, they might not necessarily be of much help. Even if one mastered them, they generally would not bring any earth-shaking, transformative improvement.

So after weighing gains against investment, many people would rather use their spare time for amusement than learn any skills.

The same principle applied here. Unless someone had particularly good talent and bones, those with ordinary foundations would hardly cultivate martial arts at all.

Only because Lin Fan possessed the Golden Finger System, which could use silver to activate tenfold or hundredfold boosts and multiply cultivation results without limit, did he have the confidence to make something of himself in martial arts.

Having decided to hunt, Lin Fan polished his hunting spear, then rested early, preparing to enter the mountains with the hunting party the next day.

The sun had just risen in the east, and the morning light had only begun to illuminate the earth. After telling his younger sister, Lin Ruoruo, not to run around and to stay obediently at home until her brother returned, Lin Fan headed early to the village gathering place for the hunting party and waited.

There were roughly eight or nine people in the hunting party. More or less, every household sent one able-bodied worker to participate in the hunt.

"Lin Fan, has your injury healed? I heard from Daniu that you've been practicing martial arts at home and want to break through to the Skin Tempering Realm."

A middle-aged man carrying a hunting bow walked over. He was the captain of the hunting party, Uncle Wang.

"My injuries have mostly healed, Uncle Wang. I got lucky. I've already reached the Skin Tempering Realm."

There was nothing wrong with revealing his cultivation. The villagers here had taken good care of him from the beginning, and since they would all be hunting in the mountains together, his strength would be exposed sooner or later. After all, he would have to use the power of the Skin Tempering Realm while hunting.

Besides, someone at the Skin Tempering Realm could receive a much larger share when dividing the prey, and he happened to need some silver.

Uncle Wang, who had originally been rather nonchalant, quickly stepped forward after hearing Lin Fan admit that he had broken through to the Skin Tempering Realm.

"Really? Kid, I knew you weren't ordinary the moment you arrived. You had an extraordinary bearing. I didn't expect you to reach the Skin Tempering Realm so quickly after all."

He then pulled Lin Fan over to a huge rock, intending to test his strength.

By then, several hunting party members had already arrived in twos and threes.

Upon hearing this, they all gathered around, asking Lin Fan to show them just how powerful the Skin Tempering Realm was.

Lin Fan walked up to a boulder that required two people to wrap their arms around it. He bent down and slowly gripped the stone with both hands.

He planted his legs in a firm horse stance, united waist and stance, and exerted force through both arms. Lin Fan easily lifted the entire boulder. Then he hurled it forcefully into the distance.

This sight stunned everyone.

"Lin Fan is incredibly strong."

"Yeah, yeah. People from outside really are different."

"That rock takes at least two of us just to barely lift it, but Lin Fan actually raised it over his head and threw it all by himself."

"Wow, is this the Skin Tempering Realm?"

"That's amazing. Watching this makes me want to cultivate martial arts too."

"I think my family still has a martial arts technique. When I get home, I'm going to dig it out and take a look."

"Heh. You? I heard martial arts cultivation also requires good bones. Ordinary people can cultivate all they want and still fail to achieve anything."

Uncle Wang happily stepped forward and patted Lin Fan on the shoulder.

"Lin Fan, our village finally has a second Skin Tempering Realm martial artist. No, our hunting party has its first one. After all, the village chief no longer enters the mountains because of his age."

"With this, maybe we can hunt some larger prey."

"Last time, we saw an injured wild boar, but none of us dared make a move. We were afraid its last-ditch counterattack would take a few of us with it."

The hunting party villagers surrounded Lin Fan, beaming as they chattered away all at once.

Lin Fan tightened his grip on his spear but said nothing. Although he also wanted to hunt large prey, he lacked experience, so he still needed to follow Uncle Wang's arrangements as hunting captain.

In his previous life, he had heard the saying, "First boars, second bears, third tigers." Since transmigrating into this world, Lin Fan had yet to see this world's wild boars with his own eyes. He did not know whether they differed from the wild boars of Blue Star in his previous life.

He possessed the Golden Finger System, so there was no harm in being cautious. Better to lie low. If he were carelessly solo-killed by a wild boar, he would truly become the shame of transmigrators.

Time flew by, and the group soon assembled. After Captain Wang finished taking attendance, he led everyone into the mountains.

Along the way, Uncle Wang and Lin Fan walked side by side at the front of the group. Although Lin Fan was young, no one objected, because he was at the Skin Tempering Realm. A Skin Tempering Realm martial artist could play a role in the hunting party equal to more than half the entire team.

The original Lin Fan had entered the mountains to hunt many times, so he was fairly familiar with the route. Along the way, Uncle Wang also told Lin Fan more about hunting.