Disguise Art

The wild boar in the trap pit seemed to sense something as well.

Its squeals grew even more frantic.

Lin Fan hurled downward with all his strength.

This was his first time striking a wild boar. Lin Fan did not yet know how formidable the wild boars of this world were, so he did not dare hold anything back. He struck with everything he had.

More than three hundred jin of force erupted in an instant, driving into the nearly two-meter-long spear. The spear shot forth like lightning, piercing through the wild boar's hide.

Perhaps because it was his first attack and he lacked experience, Lin Fan had aimed for the boar's back. The spear was caught by its bones, stopping after sinking more than twenty centimeters in.

It had to be said that the wild boar truly was thick-skinned and tough-fleshed. Even so, it did not fall, still pawing at the earth as it tried desperately to leap out. Its cries grew louder, but its movements were clearly far stiffer than before.

Lin Fan took the spear from Uncle Wang's hands again.

This time, he aimed at the wild boar's belly.

He hurled it down at an angle with force.

As Lin Fan's spear plunged down, the wild boar gradually quieted. Its cries also slowly weakened.

Hearing the wild boar's cries, the other members of the hunting party slowly gathered around.

The wild boar, pierced by Lin Fan's two spears, gradually collapsed within the pit. The rise and fall of its belly grew weaker and weaker.

Everyone waited another half hour. Once the wild boar had completely stopped moving, they looped ropes around its hind legs and tusks. Then the hunting party worked together to haul the beast out.

Lin Fan examined the hauled-up wild boar. It was over three meters long and weighed at least four or five hundred jin. Its two tusks curved outward, and they felt extraordinarily hard to the touch. If one were gored by them, it would be no different from being viciously stabbed by an impact drill.

No wonder the hunting party usually only dared to take detours when they saw wild boars. With such weight and strength paired with sharp, sturdy tusks, once it charged, even Lin Fan, now in the Skin Tempering Realm, would not dare contend head-on against a running wild boar.

Having caught a wild boar, everyone was in high spirits. Without needing Lin Fan to lift a finger, the others had already tied up the boar, and the group carried it down toward the small village.

Along the way, Uncle Wang explained that wild boars were large, so villages generally sold them only after butchering them and processing the meat through smoking and other methods. The last time the village had caught a wild boar had been more than a year ago.

Once this wild boar was butchered, it could sell for around fifteen taels of silver.

"Xiaofan, you did the heavy lifting this time. Without you, we wouldn't have had the strength to pierce that boar's hide. We might even have enraged it and let it leap out of the trap."

"Same as last time, it should sell for fifteen taels in total. After deducting the village's butchering, processing, and transport costs, you'll get twelve taels next time, Xiaofan. What do you think?"

Uncle Wang discussed it with Lin Fan as they walked.

"Uncle Wang, ten taels of silver will be enough for me. The rest can be given to everyone as pork."

Uncle Wang happily patted Lin Fan.

"Xiaofan, you've reached the Skin Tempering Realm at such a young age. You'll definitely go even further on the martial path in the future. If only the young people of our village all had talent and bone aptitude as good as yours."

After arriving at the village, Lin Fan parted ways with the villagers and returned home first.

Things had gone rather smoothly today, and it was only just past noon when he got home. Since he had already eaten some dry rations on the mountain, he skipped lunch as well.

Hearing the commotion outside, his younger sister Lin Ruoruo flung open the door and darted over with a whoosh.

Lin Fan's gaze softened. After playing with her for a while,

he activated thirtyfold acceleration again and began cultivating the Azure Cloud Method.

At the same time, he recalled more memories his former self had possessed about this world.

This world not only had cultivation methods, but also some unorthodox arts, such as Beast Taming Art and Disguise Art.

However, cultivating such arts could not raise one's cultivation. They also took quite a long time and occupied time that could otherwise be spent cultivating methods. If one did not train them to a profound level, their effects were often far from satisfactory.

But Lin Fan had the Cultivation Effect Doubling System, fueled by silver. He was confident he could cultivate all these arts to mastery.

Take Disguise Art, for instance. If he cultivated it well, he could go to the small town by himself next time without fearing that anyone would recognize him.

At that thought, Lin Fan decided that when the hunting party went out next time, he would ask Uncle Wang to bring back some basic Beast Taming Art, Disguise Art, and other manuals for him.

The manuals circulating on the market were all crude, basic books, making it difficult to cultivate anything worthwhile from them. That was why the imperial court and certain martial forces had not prohibited such books from spreading among the public.

Yet some profound arts, such as the legendary Myriad Forms Divine Art, which could allow someone who cultivated it to perfection to transform in a thousand different ways, were still tightly held as secrets never passed on by certain martial forces.

Even basic Disguise Art required around ten years of unceasing cultivation before one could simply alter one's appearance. Having just earned ten taels of silver, Lin Fan felt that he still needed more money.

For now, his foremost task was to break through to the Muscle Refinement Realm. Once he reached that point, perhaps he would be able to kill wild boars head-on. His hunting ability would also be far greater than it was now.

Casting aside distracting thoughts, Lin Fan focused wholeheartedly on cultivating the Azure Cloud Method.

In the days that followed, the hunting party caught another wild boar. As usual, Lin Fan received ten taels. Because he urgently needed money, he also hunted roughly two wild goats every day.

In the blink of an eye, ten days passed. Since they had accumulated quite a lot of prey, the village decided not to wait another half month and instead go to the small town to sell goods once more.

Before leaving, Lin Fan asked Uncle Wang to help bring back some manuals on various arts. These basic arts commonly sold on the market generally were not expensive, costing around one tael of silver per book.

Five or six wheelbarrows were once again packed to the brim, and the goats were piled high with cured meat as well.

More than half of the prey had been hunted by Lin Fan. After roughly tallying it up, Lin Fan calculated in his heart.

If everything went smoothly this time, after deducting the silver used to buy some art manuals, he could still receive more than thirty taels of silver.

If he spent those thirty-odd taels within half a month, he could spend two taels a day.

Then, if he cultivated for eight hours each day, he could activate twenty-four-hour cultivation acceleration for six taels of silver. Six taels meant a sixtyfold increase in cultivation effects.

One day would be equivalent to two months for other people. With his Fifth-Grade Bone Aptitude added in, he could enter the Muscle Refinement Realm in about half a month.

The reason he did not directly activate the highest multiplier was that Lin Fan had discovered that, at lower multipliers, he had better control over his strength while cultivating. He would not feel unaccustomed because his strength had suddenly increased too much.

Cultivating at a lower multiplier and keeping at it every day would allow him to become more familiar with and gain control over his body's strength.

Of course, if he had enough silver to spend freely, Lin Fan would certainly still choose a higher cultivation-effect multiplier. After all, in the face of the benefit of increasing his cultivation, the temporary discomfort of not quite adapting to his body's strength was not worth mentioning.