"My blood and qi have grown, my skin has toughened, and blood energy naturally coils beneath it. This body now has over two or three thousand jin of strength. Even with my stronger foundation, major attainment truly lives up to its name."
He felt power surge from his spine, spreading throughout his body with his blood and qi.
The changes in his body filled Su Yan with the joy of transformation.
The transformation of life was an instinctive pursuit, and the feeling of commanding power was indeed intoxicating.
It took Su Yan a long while to settle down before he focused on sensing his condition.
[First-Rank Insect Master: 23/100] [Insect Realm: 1 cubic meter] [Body Tempering Realm: Skin Refining 5/400 (Major attainment)] [Golden Ape Stance Art: 2/400 (Major attainment)] [Monkey Fist: 1/400 (Major attainment)] [Mountain Trekking: 134/200 (Minor attainment)] [Basic Archery: 15/400 (Major attainment)] [Herb Identification: 91/200 (Minor attainment)] [Darkwater Centipede: 195/200 (Growth Stage)] [Velvetfire Scorpion: 76/200 (Growth Stage)]
He had already been on the verge of a breakthrough. Even without the Copper Fox Ape, another day or two of stance training would have done it.
As it was, the Copper Fox Ape could not have arrived at a better time, delivering a generous gift right to him.
Su Yan summoned the Darkwater Centipede, which was also close to a breakthrough.
He immediately ordered it to eat the Copper Fox Ape's heart.
At his command, the arm-thick Darkwater Centipede crawled along the Copper Fox Ape's body toward its chest.
Its paired mouthparts resembled curved blades. With a crunch, it tore through the flesh and ribs, pulled out the Copper Fox Ape's heart, and devoured it in great mouthfuls.
The heart was where an animal's blood and qi gathered. Already nearing a breakthrough, the Darkwater Centipede gulped it down, converting its concentrated essence into energy as its growth continued to rise.
196, 197, 198, 199...
Once it finished devouring the heart, it finally raised its body and writhed slightly, seemingly drawing in the surrounding air. Then its hard shell began to crack.
A new, blackish-purple shell emerged. Its body had not changed much and remained roughly the same size.
Yet its shell was armor, its legs spears, its antennae whips, and its great mandibles blades. It looked like a cold-blooded weapon, radiating a formidable presence.
Su Yan ordered it to keep eating to replenish itself, and in a few quick movements, it tore away most of one of the Copper Fox Ape's arms.
Only after another ten minutes or so of feeding did it make up the deficit.
"The heart isn't poisonous, and neither is the flesh. Looks like this Copper Fox Ape is safe to eat, though the taste might leave something to be desired..."
Seeing that the Darkwater Centipede had detected no poisonous substances while feeding, Su Yan felt somewhat reassured.
He had no intention of selling the Copper Fox Ape.
First, the Copper Fox Ape was no ordinary wild animal, but a Savage Beast. Killing a vicious tiger and then a Savage Beast would go beyond establishing his might.
Doing such things one after another would be flaunting himself, and he feared more martial artists would begin taking notice of him.
Second, he needed resources. He himself, the Darkwater Centipede, and the Velvetfire Scorpion all needed large quantities of them.
Given that demand, Savage Beast meat was actually a more cost-effective tonic.
As for earning silver, he still had other prey and mountain produce.
After tossing the remains of the Copper Fox Ape's arm to the Velvetfire Scorpion, Su Yan prepared to tidy up the area and head down the mountain the next day.
A black bear and a leopard should fetch a good sum, not to mention that extraordinary Gray Wolf King.
"Hiss, hiss."
The Darkwater Centipede suddenly hissed and swiftly scuttled toward one side of the rock wall.
Su Yan's expression shifted, and he hurried after it. Had it found something?
Whenever the Darkwater Centipede behaved like this, it had found useful mountain produce. Could there be some treasure here in the wolves' den?
He quickly followed it to the rock wall. By moonlight, he discovered a cave hidden beneath the vines covering the stone.
The cave was deep, beyond the reach of the moonlight. Even he could not make out what lay inside.
Su Yan took out his fire-starting tools, made a torch, and lit it to illuminate the cave.
With the Darkwater Centipede scouting ahead, Su Yan strode inside, Broad Saber in hand.
As the torchlight lit the interior, Su Yan heard rustling, followed by clear little wolf howls.
His expression grew serious. Looking down, he saw furry shapes wriggling about five paces away, their eyes gleaming in the darkness. It was a litter of wolf pups.
"One, two, three, four... seven wolf pups. They look less than two months old. No wonder the Gray Wolf King defended this place to the death."
Live wolf pups were worth a fair amount, whether wealthy young men in town tamed them as pets or skilled mountain trekkers trained them to help with hunting.
They would fetch a little more than the usual price, roughly two or three taels of silver each.
This litter could bring him ten or twenty taels.
His gaze swept across the den, then suddenly fixed on something.
"Blood Tendon Flowers?!"
Deep within the den, vines covered the rock wall. This dark corner held plenty of dry bones and scraps of flesh, all food the pack had brought to feed its young.
Growing atop those remains were four or five bright red flowers. Their crimson petals were thick and broad; some flowers had three petals, others four.
Su Yan strode over and lifted a flower to examine the undersides of its petals.
Pale markings resembling meridians traced the backs of the petals. They were indeed Blood Tendon Flowers.
"I wore out iron shoes searching in vain, only to find them without lifting a finger. Who would have thought they'd be here in this wolf den?"
Su Yan had promised Song Qi he would find the flowers. He had searched the entire mountain over the past few days and again today without seeing any, never expecting them to turn up here.
He first picked the four or five flowers and placed them in the Insect Realm Space.
He did not leave their roots and stems behind, either. Without the wolves nourishing them with flesh and blood, even cultivating them himself would take years, so he simply took some of the vines as well.
Seeing him crouch down, the little wolf pups instinctively tried to bite him.
He fetched his carrying basket and put the pups inside one by one.
Su Yan busied himself for a while, making certain there was no other mountain produce around the den.
Only then did he take his knife and stride over to the Copper Fox Ape's corpse to begin cutting it apart.
The creature stood two or three meters tall, with tough skin, thick flesh, and a massive skeleton. Without butchering it, he would never fit it into the Insect Realm Space.
Su Yan had thought cutting it apart would be easy. Instead, even with both his Bone-Butchering Knife and Broad Saber, he worked until daybreak.
He chipped the blades and barely managed to cut the Copper Fox Ape into large chunks. He discarded the organs, letting the Darkwater Centipede and Velvetfire Scorpion devour them all.
After putting the Copper Fox Ape meat and some choice cuts from the Wolf King into the Insect Realm Space, Su Yan returned to his first stopping place. He tied up the black bear and leopard with vines, hoisted them onto his shoulder, and strode down the mountain.
Just like last time, Su Yan made no attempt to conceal anything. He marched several li and arrived at the Mountain Market.
With such an enormous black bear on his shoulder, how could he fail to draw the attention of passersby and mountain folk?
Unlike the first time, however, a black bear did not hold the same place as a tiger in their minds. Besides, so little time had passed between his visits that those who wanted to make a festive fuss felt awkward about it.
Su Yan paid no heed to such trifles. Under the crowd's watchful eyes, he went straight to Yang Sandao.
"Well done, lad! You hunted a tiger the other day, and today you've killed a bear, with this leopard laid low too. Are you going out of your way to find wild beasts in the mountains to practice your punches on?"
Yang Sandao knew Su Yan had some ability and was a new disciple of the Golden Ape Martial Hall, but he had not expected such courage.
For people from poor families, taking a master and learning martial arts was simply a way to seek wealth and rise above the crowd.
There was no shortage of people among them willing to endure hardship and fight for a better life. But risking one's life to train like this was more than a matter of courage. It took a ruthless drive, a ruthlessness toward one's own training.
Yang Sandao himself had taught martial arts to apprentices at the Pan Family Restaurant. Over all those years, he had seen only a handful with such ferocity.
"You think too highly of me, Butcher Yang. I was just gathering in the mountains and happened upon them."
Yang Sandao smiled. "You tell it your way; I'll see it mine."
He patted the black bear and leopard. "They've been dead a while, and they took rather too much of a pounding, so that'll lower the price. Are you selling them in parts, or...?"
"Whole."
"In that case, thirty taels of fine silver for the black bear and twenty for the leopard. Don't think that's too little. Black bear meat is coarse and has a strong rank smell. It doesn't have the other benefits of tiger meat, either, so it fetches less."
"Your price is fair, Butcher. We'll go with that."
Once the payment was settled, Su Yan did not wait for Yang Sandao to butcher the carcasses this time. He took the money and headed straight for the Hundred Herbs Hall's shop.
"Quick, go find Master Gu."
Niu Dang and Niu Daqi hurried out of the crowd, rushing to find Gu Hong.
They had waited for so long and finally caught Su Yan returning to the Mountain Market. How could they miss this chance?
If they let him leave, Gu Hong might well take his anger out on the two of them.
Before you continue