Archery, reading, eating...
For five days, Su Yan devoted himself to these three things alone.
After the Darkwater Centipede finished eating two scorpions and a toad the size of a human head,
Su Yan let it hunt around the area. Whether venomous creatures hidden in the woods or animals passing through, they all became its food.
Su Yan paid little attention to anything else, focusing entirely on honing his archery.
He had lost count of how many volleys he had fired. The bark of the old purple birch trunk had long since been stripped away, and the scattered wood chips made it look as though a cleaver had ravaged it.
He shot his thirty arrows over and over, sharpening their heads against a nearby rock several times. They clearly would not last much longer.
Su Yan held his breath and stared. Two hundred paces away, the trunk seemed no farther than an arm's length before his eyes.
With a soft whoosh, the fletching sang faintly. The arrow shot like a meteor and struck firmly into the trunk.
His stance, breathing, and focus worked as one.
"I've done it."
The moment he released that arrow, Su Yan knew he had succeeded.
When he focused his attention, the information was already floating before his eyes.
[Rank-one Insect Master: 3/100] [Insect Realm: 1 cubic meter] [Mountain Trekking: 25/200 (minor attainment)] [Basic Archery: 1/200 (minor attainment)] [Herb Identification: 1/200 (minor attainment)] [Darkwater Centipede: 27/100 (newborn)]
"Once a skill is mastered, heaven and earth open wide. My understanding really did become more complete after its manifestation. It isn't adding points directly, but it's nothing to underestimate. This is good."
After five days of burying himself in rigorous practice, Su Yan had achieved his first breakthrough following a skill's manifestation, and gained a fresh insight.
For him, this was indeed good news.
Besides his ability to command insects, he also had a solid foundation on which to build his own strength.
"My archery has reached minor attainment, and I've memorized all the herbs. But without venomous creatures to eat, the Darkwater Centipede's growth has depended entirely on being put to work. Its progress has slowed."
"It's time to head into the mountains, save up more silver, and hunt more beasts to offer their blood to the Fierce Insect Cauldron."
Su Yan took out the Mountain-Cleaving Saber, stepped forward, and hacked at the notch in the purple birch.
After several days of training, with his muscles worn down and nourished by wisps of Insect Essence, his strength had increased considerably.
Now, each stroke of his saber bit deep into the wood, proving even more effective than an axe.
After only seven or eight blows, the purple birch could no longer hold. With a loud creak, it toppled.
He then swept through the surrounding area and covered it with brush, concealing most of the traces. No one would easily notice that someone had practiced archery here.
Only after finishing these chores did Su Yan return home.
He prepared wheat cakes for travel rations and sharpened his arrows and saber. With everything ready, he entered the mountains again at first light the next morning.
This time, Su Yan was already vastly different from just a few days earlier. He felt like a flood dragon entering the sea.
Agile and light-footed, he easily covered three or four li of mountain trails and crossed a hill.
His physical condition spoke for itself. After several rounds of strengthening, he already matched two or three sturdy adult men.
Minor attainment in Basic Archery had also given him nimble footwork and flexible movements, making him even more at ease along these narrow mountain paths.
Of course, when it came to his harvest, Herb Identification and Mountain Trekking deserved the credit. The two complemented each other, raising Su Yan's knowledge of Cloudridge Mountain's many plants to another level.
Over those three or four li, his basket was already half full. Mock strawberry fruit, Solomon's seal, Cinnabar Lingzhi... he gathered quite a few medicinal herbs.
Though they could not compare to ten-year-old wild mountain ginseng or Treasure Plants, they were still worth a fair amount.
In the past, he might not even have noticed the faint clues that led to these herbs. Now, finding them was as easy as plucking something from his own pocket.
Holding his bow in one hand, he bent down and picked a large cluster of truffle mushrooms from a fallen log, ready to put them into his basket.
Suddenly, the bushes rustled. Their branches and leaves waved like hands, reaching toward him.
Su Yan immediately stepped back and drew his bow. Looking closely, he saw a gray blur darting through the bushes, fleeing blindly.
"Perfect timing."
Without a second thought, he loosed an arrow swift as the wind. With a whoosh, it buried itself straight into the gray blur.
A fat Gray Rabbit tumbled out of the bushes with the long arrow lodged in it. Its body twitched relentlessly, but it could no longer move.
Su Yan walked over, grabbed the Gray Rabbit, and hefted it in his hand.
"A fine rabbit. Must weigh four or five jin."
He pulled out the arrow and pressed his fingers over the wound. Through that contact, the Gray Rabbit's blood was rapidly drawn from its body.
Within his sea of consciousness, the Fierce Insect Cauldron glowed faintly red. A red line of blood had appeared on the little insect adorning its leg, barely reaching the end of one small jointed limb.
Soon, the Gray Rabbit had been drained dry, leaving only its hide and carcass.
"One Gray Rabbit holds less than half a jin of blood, and the refined Blood Essence amounts to barely two liang. A little too little..."
Rustle, rustle, rustle.
The Darkwater Centipede abruptly lunged toward the bushes, rearing up in warning.
Su Yan immediately gripped his Hardwood Bow and looked toward the sound.
Footfalls thudded through the brush, and a pair of gleaming green beast eyes slowly emerged.
A vicious wolf half a man's height burst from the bushes, its fangs bared, and charged straight at Su Yan.
The Gray Rabbit had presumably been its prey, but the lone wolf had clearly changed targets. It even intended to bypass the Darkwater Centipede and kill Su Yan.
"Vicious beast!"
Su Yan's gaze sharpened, his breathing still as calm water. Without letting the Darkwater Centipede act, he sent arrows flying like meteors, drawing his bow in quick succession and firing twice.
The cunning old lone wolf twisted aside to evade the first arrow, but it could not dodge the second.
The straight shaft pierced its neck. With a thud, it fell and crashed onto the brush.
Su Yan advanced with his Broad Saber. His hand rose and the blade fell, plunging into the wolf's head and killing it in a single stroke.
"An old wolf separated from its pack. No wonder..."
The wolf was roughly 1.7 or 1.8 meters long, its gray-black fur patchy and uneven. Bloody foam kept spilling from its mouth.
Su Yan was not picky. However many beasts came, they would let the Fierce Insect Cauldron drink its fill of blood and make the fierce insect open its mouth.
The wild wolf fed the Fierce Insect Cauldron about seven or eight jin of beast blood, yielding around four jin of refined essence.
The blood line on the fierce insect adorning the cauldron became somewhat more pronounced.
Su Yan put away the wolf's carcass and gazed into the deep, shadowy woods, a growing eagerness in his eyes.
With the Darkwater Centipede clearing the way, Su Yan followed close behind with his bow and Broad Saber, beginning to explore these rarely traveled mountains.
Neither venomous creatures hiding beneath branches and broad leaves nor wild pheasants flying through the woods could escape Su Yan's attacks.
The former were hunted down by the Darkwater Centipede. Even swarms of scorpions were no match for this extraordinary creature.
Su Yan drew his Hardwood Bow, shifting from stillness into motion. His arrows flew as though they had eyes of their own. Not just pheasants—even birds in flight fell to a single shot.
Rather than mountain trekking, it was more like continued practice of his own abilities, while steadily strengthening the Darkwater Centipede as well.
The sun sank toward the western mountains, and the light dimmed. Only after traveling another three or four li did Su Yan gradually come to a stop.
His basket was already full, and three or four wild rabbits and pheasants hung at his waist. Even the Insect Realm Space was packed with venomous insects, poisonous herbs, and relatively valuable medicinal plants.
[Rank-one Insect Master: 3/100] [Insect Realm: 1 cubic meter] [Mountain Trekking: 37/200 (minor attainment)] [Basic Archery: 34/200 (minor attainment)] [Herb Identification: 21/200 (minor attainment)] [Darkwater Centipede: 54/100 (newborn)]
Basic Archery and the Darkwater Centipede had progressed the most, though every other skill had improved as well.
"Cinnabar Lingzhi with ten years of medicinal potency is comparable to wild mountain ginseng. And that rare Tendon Yellowgrass may not be a Treasure Plant, but it's still an herb used in martial training. Hundred Herbs Hall has charged quite a lot for it in past years..."
As he tallied his harvest, he found that this trip was not as lucrative as finding the yinred root. Still, counting the venomous insects, poisonous herbs, and hunted game, his gains were substantial.
"I have about twelve or thirteen jin of beast Blood Essence now. A few more trips, and all I'll need is a second exotic insect. If I'm lucky..."
The thought had barely formed before Su Yan dismissed it, musing, How much is relying on luck worth? I should save more money, improve my strength, and quietly ask around about exotic insects. If I can buy one, all the better.
With that thought, he put away his Hardwood Bow and hurried down the mountain in the last fading rays of sunlight.
Early the next morning, Su Yan did not enter the mountains. Instead, he packed his things and went to the mountain market, selling his wild mushrooms, pelts, a wild mountain ginseng root, ten-year-old Cinnabar Lingzhi, and various other medicinal herbs.
Then he went to the weapons shop and bought two quivers of arrows, along with a sharp boning knife and skinning knife. After changing his clothes, he returned to the village.
He had roughly ten taels of silver left on him.
This time, he had made little effort to conceal himself. Bai Shan, the clerk at Hundred Herbs Hall, and Song Qi, its manager, marveled inwardly that he had brought in another harvest like this in just five or six days.
The ideas in Song Qi's mind grew a little further.
After returning to the village, Su Yan rested for another two days, continuing to hone his archery in the woods. He had little intention of keeping food in reserve.
Instead, he ate hearty mouthfuls of the wild pheasants and rabbits he had hunted in the mountains, along with the tough wolf meat.
As insect essence continually nourished his body and his own physical training advanced, his need for meat also increased.
Rather than trading his prey for a few dozen or a hundred copper coins, he might as well enjoy it himself.
After two days of this routine, the Darkwater Centipede finally finished devouring the dozen or so black scorpions, black-haired spiders, bamboo pit vipers, and poisonous herbs such as Ghost-Covering Grass and Blood-Seeking Green that he had gathered while mountain trekking.
[Basic Archery: 57/200 (minor attainment)] [Darkwater Centipede: 12/200 (Growth Stage)]
As the Darkwater Centipede entered its Growth Stage, its stored energy seemed to begin releasing continuously.
First, it gradually curled up, then its body grew slightly. Half an hour later, a small crack opened on its forehead.
Its outer skin began splitting. Its many legs and body struggled constantly, squeezing out through the opening little by little.
First came its ferocious head, then its thick body, and finally its tail...
It took a full two hours before the Darkwater Centipede finished molting and appeared before Su Yan.
It was now a whole size larger, roughly fifty centimeters long. Its mandibles were sharper, resembling two pitch-black curved blades.
"It's entered a rank."
Though it was only a feeling, the Darkwater Centipede before him had definitely entered a rank.
Compared with before, the Darkwater Centipede now even gave him a sense of danger.
"It's already entered a rank at the Growth Stage. It seems calling exotic insects unranked is only relative. They're really just one step over the threshold away..."
"With the Darkwater Centipede ranked up, I have another layer of protection, even if I haven't learned martial arts yet."
He tossed out the remaining wolf meat, leaving all of it for the Darkwater Centipede to eat.
Only after the Darkwater Centipede had devoured it all did its newly molted shell gradually harden, gleaming with a dark purple sheen.
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