Into the Inner Mountain

After taking Xie Yuzhu home, Su Yan shouldered his basket and headed into the mountains.

The Darkwater Centipede had traveled through the forest and was already waiting for him on the mountain beside Yunqian Village.

As soon as he arrived, it followed at his side.

"According to Elder Song, practicing martial arts requires more than medicinal supplements. Nourishment from Savage Beast meat is indispensable too, and both cost silver."

"The Outer Mountain has lingzhi and medicinal herbs, but it can't compare with the Inner Mountain. I've nearly completed the beginner stage of skin refining now, and I've improved considerably. With the Darkwater Centipede beside me, I can keep myself safe. It's time to venture into the Inner Mountain."

Having made up his mind, Su Yan took his Hardwood Bow, hung his broad saber at his waist, and plunged deeper into the forest.

He moved swiftly, imagining himself as an ape in the mountains. As he bounded along with the Monkey Leap Step, he gathered his breath and dispersed the force of his landings, like an old ape returning to the woods.

Stance Training and fist techniques included methods of stationary practice, but they also had their own ways of applying strength while walking and traveling.

Engaging his muscles and adjusting his movements were also forms of training.

A martial artist was no target rooted in a rigid stance. Making martial techniques and stances part of his instincts—that was a martial artist's true ability.

After Song Qi's guidance, Su Yan had gradually come to understand this approach.

Now that he had entered the forest, he unconsciously began training this way.

After roughly an hour, he had crossed several peaks in the Outer Mountain and traveled seven or eight li along mountain paths, finally reaching a mountain ravine.

Two mountains joined here, with ancient trees towering overhead. Dense foliage spread like enormous umbrellas, gnarled branches resembled monstrous hands, and old vines draped the trunks. A thick layer of leaves covered the ground like soil. It was truly a sinister forest deep in the mountains.

This part of the Inner Mountain was rich in resources, but few people ventured here. Wild beasts roamed everywhere; danger and profit went hand in hand.

Only experienced mountain trekkers and hunters with real skill dared enter it lightly.

Su Yan stepped onto a mountain path thick with rotting leaves. Calling it a path was generous—it was merely a stretch where the shrubs and tangled weeds grew a little less densely.

He cleared the way with his broad saber while searching his surroundings. He had traveled barely two or three hundred meters when the Darkwater Centipede moved first, burrowing into the rotten leaves.

"There's something here."

Su Yan brushed aside the rotten leaves with his broad saber and immediately spotted a red leaf bud hugging the ground.

"Earthblood vine. A good medicinal herb for replenishing blood."

Su Yan reached down to dig it out, hauling more than two meters of earthblood vine from beneath the rotten leaves and putting it into his basket.

The earthblood vine gave him a winning start. As he continued Mountain Trekking, Su Yan and the Darkwater Centipede worked in perfect harmony, finding plenty of mountain produce in just an hour or two.

As always, he gathered only the more valuable medicinal herbs, leaving everything else where it was to conserve space in his basket and the Insect Realm Space.

The mountain air was heavy with moisture, and sunlight could not penetrate the canopy. Dew had soaked Su Yan's short tunic, leaving it clinging uncomfortably to his skin.

"The basket's nearly full. This peak is one of the places Elder Song mentioned, but I've searched for so long without seeing any blood tendon flowers. Looks like I'll have to go deeper."

Su Yan set down his basket, chose a spot near a fallen tree stump, and cleared a patch of ground to light a fire. He hung his coarse hemp tunic beside it.

Using the Skinning Knife, he skinned a Gray Rabbit he had caught, sharpened a forked branch, and skewered it beside the fire.

Mountain Trekking was always like this. There was no guarantee of returning by noon, or even by nightfall.

For convenience, most mountain trekkers quickly made do with wheat cakes and mountain spring water.

Su Yan had no desire to gnaw on wheat cakes. Instead, he roasted the Gray Rabbit while drying his clothes.

He was bare-chested, his taut skin showing every sharply defined muscle.

Shifting his body, he assumed the Golden Ape Stance Art. His rhythmic rise and fall seemed to harmonize with the surrounding insects, birds, and rustling trees.

"Practicing stances in the mountains is better than in town. It's not just that the atmosphere suits it and makes it easier to enter the right state. The environment itself seems to play a part, though it isn't all that obvious."

Su Yan stuffed some earthblood vine and an old ginseng root only a few years old into his mouth and chewed them raw. Bitterness flooded his mouth, as though he were chewing something scorched.

They tasted awful, but these were medicines that replenished blood and nourished the body. Without being refined into pills or medicinal preparations, they could not exert their full potency, but they still had an effect.

Warm currents slowly rose within him. His blood and qi began surging, flowing toward his skin.

After the Golden Ape Stance Art reached minor mastery, the blood-and-qi energy it refined became purer and more effective, naturally accelerating his progress in tempering his body.

Su Yan held the stance for about half an hour, expending a great deal of energy before releasing it and stretching to ease his fatigue.

"Even with insect essence constantly nourishing my body, the consumption is still this high. No wonder it's hard to achieve anything in martial arts without medicinal supplements."

[Body Tempering Realm: skin refining 85/100 (beginner)]

[Golden Ape Stance Art: 14/200 (minor mastery)]

"I'm nearly at minor mastery. If I find another unusual insect, perhaps another source of insect essence will speed up my progress, or even push the Golden Ape Stance Art to major mastery."

Su Yan tore off rabbit meat and stuffed it into his mouth in great mouthfuls, polishing off the entire rabbit in no time.

The depletion in his body eased slightly, and his strength gradually returned.

"Roar!"

A sudden roar rang through the forest. Su Yan immediately raised his bow, his eyes sharp as swords as he fixed them on the direction of the sound.

The shrubs shook violently with a crackling clatter, collapsing along a trail as countless branches snapped.

A black shape burst out—a Giant Wild Boar with exposed tusks and bristles like a brush.

The boar charged straight toward him, and Su Yan drew his bow.

With a whistle, the arrow flashed like lightning into the boar's eye socket.

The boar had charged too fiercely. The sudden arrow pierced straight through its brain, and its body stiffened in midair.

Carried by its momentum, its massive body hurtled forward like a cannonball.

Su Yan dodged aside, and the boar's heavy, bulky body crashed straight into the fire, scattering glowing coals across the ground.

The coals singed its hide with a sizzling hiss, giving off a scorched stench.

Just then, the shrubs shook even more violently. The roar sounded right beside his ears as an even larger yellow-and-black shape lunged out—a Striped Tiger.

It pounced onto the boar, hooked its claws in, and tore, ripping open the tough hide and leaving an enormous wound.

Its great jaws bit down on the boar's neck, crushing its throat and windpipe. Blood gushed out, and the tiger swallowed it in great mouthfuls.

"A tiger?!"

Su Yan's heart jolted. The boar had been driven here.

The Striped Tiger was a Forest Tiger, its body over two meters long, with a tail another meter or so in length like a steel whip. As it crouched over the boar and bit into it, its powerful, knotted muscles looked cast from iron, every contour sharply defined.

Su Yan immediately drew his bow, but the tiger proved extraordinarily cunning. It abandoned the boar and lunged straight at him.

It had planned this pounce all along. Moving with tremendous speed, it reached him in an instant.

Before Su Yan could loose his arrow, he twisted away, dropping his quiver to one side.

The tiger flicked its tail, knocking the quiver beside its paws. There was clearly no retrieving it now.

The Darkwater Centipede hissed and was about to advance.

The tiger crouched to pounce, roaring through the forest and baring its fangs in warning.

Although it was a hundred times larger than the Darkwater Centipede, its animal instincts sensed danger from it.

Su Yan, the tiger, and the Darkwater Centipede formed a three-way standoff in this gap among the ancient trees.

Su Yan's muscles and bones moved in concert, his heart still as water. His earlier dodge had been like an ape's, an instinctive movement that carried him clear.

Now his eyes blazed, and a desire to fight suddenly stirred within him.

So what if it's a Striped Tiger? This is a good chance to fight and see how well I've learned to use my fists and feet. At worst, the Darkwater Centipede is here to watch over me.

With that thought, he subtly shifted his posture, like an old ape in the forest.

The Darkwater Centipede withdrew two meters, leaving an open space.

For a moment, the Striped Tiger seemed enraged. The two-legged beast before it had actually abandoned his weapon to challenge it.

"Roar!"

The tiger's roar thundered through the forest as it pounced, as though intent on biting Su Yan to death on the spot.