47 Going out to hunt

Chi Shan's group of five soon left the hamlet under the escort of one of the elders who was also returning, while the second elder remained in the half-ruined mortal village for the time being.

Chi Yan and his group walked through the village Gu Yue gate once they arrived at their destination. Chi Yan didn't escort the two mortals to the Gu Yue village, but instead they were to get there on their own.

Looking around, the village was filled with tall two-storey buildings made of green bamboo, standing on thick wooden pillars. They were set against each other along the mountain terrain, looking beautiful and serene.

It was afternoon and despite the bright sun the cool wind clearly showed that it was still winter.

Chi Yan felt emotional when he returned to the Gu Yue village. He did love the Qing Mao Mountain and the Gu Yue village after all.

Next to Chi Shan's group stood an elderly man with a long face at the side, having a proud disposition. He was the Rank 3 clan elder that accompanied them for safety, given that Chi Shan's team might not be in top condition after the previous fight and might be targeted again by humans or wild beasts groups.

The clan elder smiled as he looked at the others. He said, "I'm glad that you're all safe. Now I will go with Chi Shan to make a report in the External Affairs Hall regarding what happened."

"Thank you for guarding us along the way, Elder Mo Tang." Chi Yan cupped his fists as he lightly bowed.

"You might be called in later to share your testimony, but for now you can go back home and rest." Elder Mo Tang nodded and turned to leave.

"Chi Yan, our next mission will only happen in seven days from now. take good care of your body and rest," Chi Shan said before following Elder Mo Tang.

While walking away Elder Mo Tang sent one more brief look back at Chi Yan, thinking, 'This kid really is talented, and his disposition is also scary, like a born politician's. He's nothing like Mo Bei. Hmph, I'll have to report it to the family patriarch.'

…

After arriving at the Chi mansion Chi Yan met up with the housekeeper and informed them of the two mortals that will later arrive at the mansion carrying the Chi family's token.

At one point Gu Yue Chi Lian bumped into Chi Yan in the corridor, seeming in a rush to find him.

"Grandson, I heard about what happened, are you unharmed? You have blood all over!" Chi Lian's face was expressing worry and relief as he spoke.

Chi Yan said, "I'm fine, grandfather, it isn't my blood. It came from the lightning wolves I dissected after the battle. I was just about to find you to tell you about what happened."

Gu Yue Chi Lian let out a breath. "Sigh, it's good that you're fine. Then let's go talk in the family patriarch's room."

Inside Chi Lian's study room, Chi Yan recounted in detail everything that happened regarding the attack on the hamlet.

"Damn Bai clan! First someone sent an assassin after Fang Zheng and now this, going after my grandson! The other two clans are getting too courageous. Is our Gu Yue clan so easy to bully? And it's also Chi Shan's fault, damn him, taking a mission so far away from the village with a novice at the time when a small beast horde might break out! If not for your exceptional talent, all of you would have been killed!" Gu Yue Chi Lian cursed, fire seeming to burn in his eyes.

"Grandfather, don't blame Chi Shan too much. Although there was some danger, I gained much experience from this event. I'm fine, so everything is fine," Chi Yan interjected.

Gu Yue Chi Lian sighed and kept staring at Chi Yan for a while silently. He finally opened his mouth, "Sigh. You are too reckless, but you're right - what's important is that you made it out safely. The Bai clan is simply getting too daring. It's true that in two years we'll leave this place, but I hope our clan will do well in our absence. It is still our home after all. But it's all because of Bai Ning Bing. It's possible that after the wolf tide there will be a war among the three clans of Qing Mao Mountain."

Chi Yan couldn't help but faintly smile. He knew that the war was very possible, but only if the mountain survived the wolf tide - which it very likely would not.

"Sigh, if not for Bai Ning Bing, our clan would still do well thanks to Fang Zheng's appearance. But now that we'll leave, I just don't know what will happen..." Gu Yue Chi Lian continued, sighing heavily.

It appeared that although Elder Chi Lian was leaving the Gu Yue clan, he still deeply cared about it.

Chi Yan understood that and he also loved the Gu Yue village, the beautiful place where his journey began, but he already accepted the fact that everyone on Qing Mao Mountain had the fate of being annihilated.

"If nothing changes, then I guess that the Gu Yue clan and Xiong clan will form an alliance to resist and wipe out the Bai clan. Even if Fang Zheng dies, it will give our clan some more time. The Gu Yue clan stood for nearly a thousand years, I don't think it would fall so easily," Chi Yan consoled the old man.

Gu Yue Chi Lian looked at Chi Yan for a while, pondering deeply and then nodded. "You're right. If Bai Ning Bing reaches Rank 4, he will be too dangerous. Only the Gu Yue clan and Xiong clan's combined strength would be able to resist him and the Bai clan. But what comes next? Even if the Bai clan gets wiped out, the remnants of the Gu Yue clan and Xiong clan might be too weak to resist the future wolf tides after the war."

"I can always kill Bai Ning Bing," Chi Yan offered.

"What?"

"I can always challenge Bai Ning Bing to a duel and kill him before we leave. Once I reach Rank 3 and collect a set of powerful Gu Worms, I will be unbeatable at the same rank. Bai Ning Bing is very prideful, so I'm sure that he wouldn't decline a public duel against a junior," Chi Yan said.

Chi Yan was lying only to console the old man; he didn't actually want to kill Bai Ning Bing.

"Hmm, possible, possible. After the wolf tide or even during the wolf tide you will definitely reach Rank 3. If you kill Bai Ning Bing during an official duel, the Bai clan can only swallow their bitterness. And even if it wasn't a duel, but we if participated in the clan war before leaving, then you could really turn the tables in our clan's favor…" Gu Yue Chi Lian stroked his red goatee as he nodded. He then suddenly asked, "Chi Yan, how is your cultivation now and how is your Aperture?"

"It's alright, grandfather. I need to gradually strengthen my aperture walls and increase my cultivation, but I feel fine. I can innately tell that I still have a lot of time left," Chi Yan consoled the old man again.

Chi Lian said, "I see. According to the clan's secret records, the Aperture of those possessing one of the Ten Extreme Physiques would usually be unable to resist the burden once they reach Rank 4, and then the Aperture would burst, killing the owner and causing a devestating explosion. Although this is the innate weakness of an Extreme Physique, the record I read suggests that this kind of fate isn't unavoidable. You're still only rank 2 middle stage and only sixteen, so we should have plenty of time to find a solution."

Chi Yan smiled, guessing, 'The clan records about the details of the Ten Physiques must obviously come from First Gen Gu Yue who was an elder of Immortal Crane Sect, having much more profound knowledge than ordinary clan leaders in the Mortal world. It might be Heaven's Will plotting that a Rank 3 elder like Chi Lian was able to acquire this bit of information, and it could also be First Gen's brainwashing of the later generation, making Elders in power who read it in the future not paranoid when one of their descendants has an Extreme Physique with 100% aptitude.'

'But Gu Yue Chi Lian was too paranoid and worried about his grandson, so he didn't report my Extreme Physique to the clan leader. And Chi Lian surely didn't acquire the information about the Blood Pond Graveyard, which is also a relief.'

Chi Yan was aware of the secret that that the reason why First Generation Ancestor formed the Gu Yue village in the first place was just so one day it could produce a blood-related descendant of his with an Extreme Physique that the First Gen could use to raise his Aptitude to the limit of A-grade.

At this moment the First Gen Gu Yue was still awaiting that fated day inside the Blood Pond Graveyard deep under the village, slumbering as a Rank 5 zombie.

First Gen purified his descendants' bloodline in order to produce someone with Desolate Ancient Moon Physique, but any other Extreme Physique with blood relation to him would do just the same.

In truth, Gu Yue Chi Yan with the Blazing Glory Lightning Brilliance physique emerging inside the Gu Yue village was a bit unnatural, but as Chi Yan thought about it - just what isn't impossible if Fate and the Heavenly Dao will it?

Unfortunately for First Gen Gu Yue, Gu Yue Chi Yan of this world awakened his Extreme Physique naturally before the Awakening Ceremony and not during it, so he managed to dodge this bullet.

At this time Chi Yan only wished that Gu Yue Chi Lian would not nag him too much about his rapidly raising cultivation in the future.

He thought, 'For the next caravan Chi Lian ordered a few Gu worms that can seal my cultivation at Rank 2 once I reach Rank 3, but I'll just use the excuse that I need to keep strengthening my aperture walls, so that I can keep cultivating. I certainly don't want to slow down my growth and stop at Rank 3 initial stage...'

After chatting some more with Chi Lian, Chi Yan returned to training.

During the earlier report Chi Yan also mentioned the two mortals in his report, but the Chi family could easily 'afford' a servant or two, so it wasn't a big deal.

…

Later that day Chi Yan was called in for an interrogation to narrate his account regarding the Bai Bing Yi group's attack, but the interrogation was rather lax and he was released quickly. Whether Chi Shan was also lying about Chi Yan's contribution to give Chi Yan more credits or not, the truth was that no Gu Masters from the Gu Yue clan died, so the investigation wasn't very serious.

Chi Yan's girls had also visited him immediately after they heard the news.

The three were extremely worried, because in their eyes Chi Yan just had an encounter with death and nearly died.

It wasn't entirely false, because he did have an encounter with death, but Chi Yan personally didn't feel very affected.

Chi Yan then calmed them down and told them the official story of what happened that he agreed on - the story was that after the lightning wolf pack attack, a Rank 3 elder came in time and saved them, killing the Gu Masters of Bai Bing Yi's group.

At that time Chi Shan's team was on a break for the next seven days after the attack, but Chi Yan knew that in the next few short days a small mixed beast horde would form around the Gu Yue village. Then all Gu Master teams would receive an order to go out and fight.

Chi Yan felt that due to the lightning wolf attack on the mortal hamlet, the timing of the small beast tide might be slightly different, but he still expected for the small beast horde to form soon, because the beast movements near the Wolve's Den didn't stop and because it was supposed to be a rather big event in the novel.

According to Chi Yan's estimation, the merchant caravan would also arrive in around two to three weeks from now. Before the caravan's visit Che wanted to gather as many primeval stones as he could to make various private purchases and they would hopefully include relic Gu.

Although Gu Yue Chi Lian would buy some things from the caravan, Chi Yan didn't want to fully rely on him and he certainly could not rely on him in the case of buying relic Gu - he needed to buy these secretly.

However, relic Gu were very expensive - a Rank 2 Red Steel Relic Gu would cost around eight thousand primeval stones each, while a Rank 3 Silver Relic Gu would cost around fifty thousand.

And so because of the need for money, for the next few days Chi Yan planned to return to training full time during daytime while staying on high alert, as he wanted to get some spoils of war from this next small beast horde.

On the first day Chi Yan went to sleep early to recover after staying up and fighting against lightning wolves the previous night, but on the next day he woke up early in the morning and went out of the house in the name of training.

When scouring the wilds with Wolf Eye Gu activated Chi Yan soon detected a lot of movement on the same day - many wild beasts were running about in small groups.

Chi Yan's eyes flashed in surprise. He thought, 'The small beast horde actually erupted today. Another batch of lightning wolves must have been expelled by the wolf king and it caused a ripple effect, causing all kinds of beasts to relocate in the direction of the Gu Yue village. Perhaps the previous pack that attacked the hamlet also had an effect.'

If it was a normal Rank 2 Gu Master that was by themselves in the wilderness surrounded by beasts, then they would have surely panicked, but Chi Yan was calm.

Firstly, he had the Shadow Follower Gu, so he could always simply hide on top of a tree and most beasts would ignore me during such chaos.

He could also use Lightning Step Gu and simply run all the way to the village, outrunning most regular wild beasts.

Putting these thoughts aside, Chi Yan squatted down and placed his ear against the ground.

'Clearaudience Gu!' Chi Yan called in his heart, activating a Rank 2 scouting Gu worm that greatly enhanced hearing.

This Rank 2 Gu was acquired from the Bai clan's Reconnaissance Gu Master that he killed. It was a valuable and rare Gu, and he hadn't sold it yet.

Dum, dum, dum, dum.

Chi Yan first heard the sound of his own heart like the beating of a drum, along with the loud sounds of his breathing. He then poured in more primeval essence into the Clairaudience Gu and his hearing got further enhanced and he heard more and more various noises.

However, as his hearing strengthened, all the wild beast roars, groans, sounds of fighting, sounds of insects, sounds of birds and the sounds of stomping mixed into one chaotic bubble that only caused Chi Yan to be more confused.

Chi Yan listened for a while while trying to manipulate Clairaudience Gu to adjust his hearing, focusing on individual sounds one by one.

In particular Chi Yan was searching for the groans of a Wild Boar King - a thousand beast king.

Chi Yan clearly remembered how in the novel the Wild Boar King was chased away from its territory during this exact small beast horde, being wounded to the point that even an average Gu Master team could hunt it down. The Wild Boar King was a thousand beast king which meant that it might have one to two Rank 3 Gu and also some Rank 2 Gu, while the materials from its body were also very valuable.

According to the novel, Jiao San's team set out of the village in the morning and thanks to it encountered the wounded Wild Boar King, whereas Chi Shan's team arrived on the field later on and encountered Fang Yuan who was returning from Jiang He's residence.

Chi Yan also knew that to arrive at Jiang He's village it was best to leave through the northern gate and the wild boar king's territory was also in that direction, so he searched precisely in this area.

Chi Yan viewed the Wild Boar King as the highest priority target and that's why he wanted to arrive on the battlefield first in the morning. Even Chi Shan's team was moved once they saw it.

If it was a wounded Wild Boar King, a single enemy, then Chi Yan felt confident in defeating it by himself or at least fleeing in the case of emergency, so he wanted to give it a shot.

Unfortunately, as Chi Yan continued to focus on the noises in his surroundings, it didn't provide him with any useful information in regards to finding this prey.

Chi Yan wasn't entirely surprised. Using a hearing-based scouting Gu required a lot of experience, while there were simply too many wild beasts to listen to.

However, Chi Yan got one useful piece of information - at one point he heard heavy steps and breathing of several beasts heading his way. He wasn't sure what it was, but the moment he heard the extremely loud sounds, he immediately sprung from the ground.

He prepared a set of three Rank 1 Fire Pellets and his right hand and then activated Wolf Eye Gu to look around with greatly enhanced vision.

He was stunned as soon noticed the wild beasts that were approaching him. 'Three deers. This heavy stomping was the sound of deers?!'

Chi Yan let out a sigh and dispelled his fireballs.

He had the map from Old Man Wang, so he knew where the wild boar king was residing. While using Wolf Eye Gu to scan ahead, he then began to move in that direction.

On the way Chi Yan would encounter many wild beasts, but they were mostly harmless animals like deers and goats that were scared off first by other wild beasts.

Other than that, Chi Yan also encountered multiple boars, a few gray wolves, a tiger and two bears, but he dealt with all of them easily. For the boars, wolves and a tiger, he simply sent out waves of Rank 1 Fire Pellets to skewer them, while for the two bears that had higher defense, he used Fire Claw Gu to demolish and melt their skulls in a more safe manner.

All of these beasts had some valuable parts, but they couldn't be considered much in the face of actual Gu worms or beast king materials, so Chi Yan left their corpses behind and continued advancing.

After getting quite close to the Wild Boak King's territory, Chi Yan didn't go all the way, but instead searched for a large tree. Once he found one that he liked, he kicked high off the ground using Lightning Step Gu and climbed it.

When he got high enough, his eyes transformed into the golden-yellow eyes of a wolf and he looked in the direction of the Wild Boar King's lair.

There were too many trees in the way for Chi Yan to directly see the Wild Boar King's lair, but he was fine with it.

'I don't need to see the Wild Boar King fight with the other wild beasts. What matters is that I'm the first among Gu Masters that notices the Wild Boar King after it flees up the mountain wounded. If I went further ahead then I might attract too much attention from various wild beasts,' Chi Yan's heart thought as he observed.

Time gradually passed. The primeval essence that Chi Yan spent on dealing with the bears had quickly recovered.

Soon half an hour passed and then a full hour as Chi Yan kept careful watch of the surroundings. Although he was getting bored, he was extremely excited about the prospect of fighting the Wild Boar King.

In the meantime a bear that was twice as large as an ordinary passed nearby. Chi Yan was clear that it must have been a Bear King. He felt a pull to go down and hunt it down, but in the end remained on top of the tree.

If he missed the thousand beast king Wild Boar King because he went to hunt a hundred beast king Bear King, then that would just be too sad.

Chi Yan waited patiently as all kinds of ordinary wild beasts continued passing by him.

Eventually, an additional hour and a half later, Chi Yan finally noticed a brown hairy figure of a large boar charging through the forest in the distance. His heart thumped and he directly jumped down from the tree.

Chi Yan jumped down from the height of around twenty meters, but he didn't fluster. Flames erupted around him and his body was covered in a soft layer of a flame cloak. The fire cloak absorbed all the damage as Chi Yan safely landed on the ground with slightly bent knees.

He then straightened his body and began to rush in the direction of the Wild Boar King.