Selling the Hunt

Lin Fan and his younger sister used a small knife to slice the mutton into small pieces and put them into the pot. They simmered it over a low flame until the meat was cooked through, gleaming with tempting oil and fragrance.

After a hearty meal, the weakness and exhaustion in his body were swept away in one clean stroke.

Lin Fan felt more energetic than ever before. He did not know whether it was the mutton's effect or because he had reached the Skin Tempering Realm.

Although he had already broken through to the Skin Tempering Realm, Lin Fan still had no intention of slacking off in his cultivation.

He silently called up the panel in his heart and tapped to begin accelerated cultivation.

This time, Lin Fan still chose tenfold acceleration. There were about five days until the next trip to the town to sell prey. Since the main purpose of each trip was to buy grain, and one trip could purchase and carry back around half a month's worth of grain for Small Mountain Village, the schedule was generally fixed.

Of course, if they caught a great deal of prey, the hunting party would sometimes go out a few days early to sell it.

If the hunting party's travel time was included, then by the time his silver was nearly spent, the hunting party would happen to have sold off the prey and returned with fresh silver.

As for twentyfold acceleration, he would wait until he had more silver to spare. After succeeding at hunting in the mountains, Lin Fan no longer felt as pained as before when spending silver.

As usual, he cultivated until the sky had gone dark and the night had deepened before going to bed. By Lin Fan's estimate, if he maintained tenfold acceleration, then excluding the time spent hunting in the mountains each day, he could still cultivate for roughly eight hours daily.

They generally set out to hunt after eight in the morning and returned to Small Mountain Village around four or five in the afternoon. Any later, once the sun had set, the mountain forests became rather dangerous.

Furthermore, when the sun was close to setting, the woods on the mountain became quite dim. It was easy to encounter danger while walking. Though they would not necessarily get lost, bumps and bruises were sometimes unavoidable.

Thus, if the hunting party's haul was decent, they often returned to the village around three or four in the afternoon.

This way, apart from sleeping and hunting with the hunting party, Lin Fan still had around eight hours each day for cultivation.

With tenfold acceleration, that was equivalent to eighty hours for someone with an ordinary Fifth-Grade Spiritual Root. Judging by normal cultivation progress, if he persisted like this, he could break through to the Muscle Refinement Realm in roughly four or five months.

If he had enough silver to activate twentyfold acceleration, or even thirtyfold acceleration, then the time needed to break through to the Muscle Refinement Realm would only be shorter.

After chatting with Uncle Wang during the day, Lin Fan learned that a live adult wild goat could sell outside for about five taels of silver, while a wild boar could sell for around fifteen taels.

A live wild goat was worth slightly more than a butchered one. After all, wealthy households in town who spent lavishly generally preferred to buy them alive, as they were fresher and could be slaughtered by their servants after being taken home.

Lin Fan made an agreement with Uncle Wang. The wild goats he caught would be sold by Uncle Wang and the others. When they returned, they only needed to give him three taels of silver. If he needed them to buy grain or other goods for him, the cost would be deducted from those three taels.

When they heard that Lin Fan only wanted three taels, Uncle Wang and the others were quite delighted. After all, one tael of silver was enough to feed a family of several for most of a month.

Normally, when the hunting party went out, all the prey they brought could generally only sell for seven or eight taels of silver in total. Even on a good haul, it was less than ten taels.

Now that Lin Fan was giving up one tael, it might not have been much, but he had caught two goats in one day. If he caught more goats in the future, every member of the hunting party could receive over a tael of silver.

Over the following days, Lin Fan led the hunting party through the mountain forests in pursuit of goats during the day, then worked tirelessly through the night, cultivating the Azure Cloud Method with tenfold acceleration.

During these days, Lin Fan caught another five goats. One was killed when he threw his hunting spear, while the other four were captured alive. Including the one he had caught on the first day, Lin Fan now had five live goats in total.

As for the goat Lin Fan had stabbed to death, he had Uncle Wang butcher it and divide it among everyone. His family had just finished their goat leg as well, so he took another two goat legs.

In the past, whenever the village caught a goat, even if it died, they would treat it with plant ash and smoke it before saving it to exchange for grain outside.

But now that they had so many live goats, there was no need for all that trouble if one died. Eating it directly was the simplest option. Besides, the goats belonged to Lin Fan, so Lin Fan had the final say over how they were distributed. With five live goats already, he was not short of this one.

More importantly, Lin Fan himself wanted to eat mutton. He discovered that if his food was better, his cultivation seemed to progress faster as well. As people said, the poor pursued scholarship, the rich pursued martial arts—it was not without reason.

He could not finish the extra goat meat himself, and preserving it was troublesome as well, so he simply distributed all of it among everyone. He treated it as thanks for everyone's care.

In just a few days, the villagers' complexions seemed to have improved greatly. A healthy glow began to appear on their faces. They could catch goats in the past as well, but a trap might only catch one every ten days or half a month, and it had to be saved to exchange for grain in town.

Thus, the villagers rarely had the chance to eat mutton.

When the day came to go to town and sell the prey, the hunting party's captain, Uncle Wang, arranged early in the morning for people to bring out five or six wheelbarrows.

They tied up the legs of the live goats, placed them upside down in the wheelbarrow frames, and stuffed their mouths full of branches, strips of cloth, and straw so they could not bleat and draw mountain beasts or the like.

Then, after bringing along prey such as pheasants and rabbits, Uncle Wang set off with several members of the hunting party. A winding path ran along the foot of the mountain from Small Mountain Village to the town. Though rugged and difficult to travel, wheelbarrows could barely pass through it.

The villagers had traveled this route many times. When they went out to sell prey, they now departed at sunrise and reached a cave by evening. That was the resting point for the village hunting party when they went out to sell goods.

After resting for a day, they would travel for another half day on the second day and reach the town around noon.

If all went smoothly, they could return in about three days. Even at the slowest, it generally took no more than four.

Mountain prey sold quite well in town. These wild delicacies from the mountains were highly favored by wealthy households, and even ordinary commoners sometimes bought a few jin.

Lin Fan had heard all this from members of the village hunting party.

Since he did not need to go into the mountains to hunt for the next few days, Lin Fan focused on cultivating the Azure Cloud Method at home while keeping his younger sister company.

He still had more than four taels of silver left. Although he was still some distance from the Muscle Refinement Realm, Lin Fan could already feel that the strength of his Skin Tempering Realm had become much more stable.

After every cultivation session, he could feel his strength growing. The sensation of becoming stronger made Lin Fan involuntarily lose himself in it.

Lin Fan cultivated while thinking about the hunting party.

If this trip went smoothly, he could receive around fifteen taels of silver. His family was running low on grain, so he had also asked Uncle Wang to buy some.

Since the hunting party went out to sell goods once every half month, those fifteen taels would allow him to spend three taels each day to activate thirtyfold acceleration. If he cultivated for eight or nine hours a day, he would use an average of one tael per day. It would be just enough to last half a month.

If he kept up thirtyfold acceleration, Lin Fan was confident that he could step into the Muscle Refinement Realm within two months.

By then, he would count as a minor expert in this remote region. According to Uncle Wang and the others, even in that town, there were fewer than ten Muscle Refinement Realm experts.