"Hunting Beast Hall."
Chen Wantian raised his eyebrows, a hint of surprise on his face, but he quickly let out a cold snort.
"Didn't I tell you to keep a low profile during this time? How could something like this still happen?"
Cold sweat immediately broke out on Meng Hongsheng's forehead, and he quickly explained.
"This subordinate failed to manage properly, please forgive this Patriarch. However, this matter was actually provoked by that hunter from the Hunting Beast Hall. This subordinate's men had no choice but to retaliate, and we didn't expect this outcome."
"Hmph, I don't want this to happen a second time."
Hearing this, Chen Wantian frowned.
"This subordinate will strictly discipline them and guarantee it won't happen a second time, but as for the matter of the Zhenshan Tower..."
Meng Hongsheng hesitated to speak.
Chen Wantian remained still, his expression unchanged, and he spoke flatly.
"This matter ends here. As for the Zhenshan Tower, hmph, with Ouyang Shan's old fox-like nature, our actions might not be hidden from him. But what if he knows? This is an overt scheme, done openly. I want to see if that old fellow values money over his life..."
*
*
Pfft.
The clear sound of a sharp blade entering flesh rang out. A black iron spear pierced through the Three-Eyed Wolf's neck, nailing it directly to a large tree.
"Lin Tou, you're too strong. This Three-Eyed Wolf is quite a ferocious existence among mortal-grade fierce beasts, yet you solved it so easily, Lin Tou."
Xiao Shi quickly ran to the iron spear, wanting to pull out the spear that was deeply embedded in the tree. However, even using all his strength, the spear didn't budge.
"Be careful, Xiao Shi, don't be so reckless. This Three-Eyed Wolf isn't dead yet. Be careful it doesn't bite you, or you'll be in for it."
Lao Zhou, a hunter, stepped forward and scolded him. He raised the iron spear he carried with him and thrust it into the Three-Eyed Wolf's mouth. Only after it was completely dead did he and Xiao Shi work together to pull out Lin Sheng's iron spear.
Lin Sheng stepped forward, took back his iron spear, and reached out to touch the gray wolf, which was as large as a horse in his previous life.
"Alright, hurry up and skin the wolf fangs and wolf hide. This area is getting a bit close to the middle of Yangping Mountain. Don't let the smell of blood attract any powerful exotic beasts."
"Okay, Lin Tou." Xiao Shi immediately agreed and shouted back.
"Sun Dawei, Qian Le, Liu Shunjie, the three of you come here and help."
Several people took out the daggers on their bodies and started working. Their mission this time was to get the wolf fangs of this Three-Eyed Wolf.
However, the price of this wolf hide is also quite high. Skinning it and selling it in the town can fetch twenty taels of silver, so they naturally wouldn't waste it by leaving it here.
While the others were busy, Lin Sheng had already absorbed the Three-Eyed Wolf into his body.
The amplification effect, like the White Ape, was a speed increase of two.
Lin Sheng didn't pay much attention to this. After all, middle-grade mortal exotic beasts basically couldn't bring him any additional benefits, except for some special amplification attributes like the Horned Owl's perception amplification.
After absorbing the Three-Eyed Wolf, Lin Sheng glanced at the mark on his chest.
Three days had passed. He had already killed over a dozen fierce beasts and absorbed a lot of blood. The mark on his chest had indeed changed slightly compared to before, though it was only a slight change.
A red line, even thinner than a strand of hair, appeared on the originally almost invisible ring mark.
Clearly, at this rate, to activate this second mark, he would likely need to hunt and absorb over a thousand fierce beasts, or possibly even several thousand.
At this efficiency, he didn't know how long it would take to activate it.
"The difficulty of activating this second mark is a bit too high..."
Lin Sheng thought to himself.
He recalled that when the first mark was activated, he had only dealt with a few hundred Rock Sheep.
The difficulty was truly increasing exponentially.
"Forget it. After all, the benefits are here, so a higher difficulty is normal. However, continuing like this isn't ideal. I need to find a way to improve efficiency."
Lin Sheng's gaze swept over the few cheerful team members, and he already had a decision in mind.
Bringing these people significantly impacted his blood absorption progress. It would be more suitable for him to go into the mountain alone after completing the mission.
Before long, Xiao Shi and the others had finished processing the Three-Eyed Wolf.
Some even cut off some lean meat from the wolf.
"Lin Tou, this is yours. Fry the hind leg lean meat in hot oil when you get back and then steam it in a pot. It tastes quite good."
Lao Zhou held a large piece of wrapped wolf leg meat and consciously came before Lin Sheng.
Lin Sheng didn't stand on ceremony either.
Although the Hunting Beast Hall had strict control over the gains from hunting beasts in the mountain.
But that was for large-scale missions involving many people.
For small team missions with only a few people, it wasn't so strict.
Therefore, they would bring back some beast meat every time they completed a mission. This was also an unwritten rule in the Hunting Beast Hall.
"Alright, take the things and head down the mountain."
Lin Sheng carried the wolf leg meat on his shoulder and was the first to walk down the mountain.
Qian Le and Liu Shunjie walked one after another, carrying the wolf hide, and each had a piece of wolf meat hanging from one end of their iron spears.
Both of them had smiles on their faces.
They had originally thought Yangping Mountain would be very dangerous and were quite nervous when they first entered the mountain. Unexpectedly, after a few days, nothing had happened. Even when they occasionally encountered some danger, Lin Sheng easily resolved it, and they could bring some beast meat down the mountain each time. This kind of life was much better than when they were in the Slaughterhouse.
Not long after they started walking, Lin Sheng's ears twitched. He turned his head, a look of confusion on his face.
However, the next moment, his expression changed, and he immediately shouted.
"Hurry up!"
Although Xiao Shi and the others didn't understand why, they trusted Lin Sheng's words unconditionally and immediately sped up, running down the mountain.
Before long, they heard a rustling sound coming from behind them.
Hearing this sound, Xiao Shi and the other newcomers didn't react much.
Lao Zhou's face, however, changed drastically, and he couldn't help but look back. He only saw a layer of red covering the dense vegetation several hundred meters behind them at some point.
That layer of red was several hundred meters wide and seemed to be constantly surging.
Focusing his vision to look carefully, the red, which was like a tide, was actually composed of insects the size of hands.
At a glance, there were tens of thousands of them.
"These are Red Stone Ants, run!!"
Lao Zhou exclaimed in surprise. Xiao Shi was startled, but soon his face turned pale as if he remembered something.
The group's pace quickened even more.
Fortunately, that red tidal wave didn't move far down.
They only slowed down when they could no longer see any red in their sight.
"How could there be Red Stone Ants here? Don't those things only appear deep in Yangping Mountain?!"
Lao Zhou gasped for air, unable to help but ask.
Lin Sheng shook his head slightly. These Red Stone Ants were a very troublesome exotic beast in Yangping Mountain. The ant colonies were numerous, their shells were hard, their mouthparts were sharp, and they could even bite through steel.
Therefore, when encountering such things, the basic choice was to retreat far away. Otherwise, once surrounded by these things, unless you could fly, you couldn't escape at all.
Even a high-grade mortal exotic beast with thick skin and flesh like the Tusker Mountain Pig would not escape death if surrounded by this Red Stone Ant colony.
However, the activity range of this Red Stone Ant colony was only in the depths of Yangping Mountain, and they rarely appeared in the middle of Yangping Mountain. Moreover, although the place they were in just now was close to the middle, it was still the outer area of Yangping Mountain.
Encountering a Red Stone Ant colony in such a place was indeed somewhat difficult to understand, as they had never heard of such a situation happening before.
"Let's go back first."
Because of the urgency, everyone had thrown away the wolf meat and wolf hide during their escape just now. Only the wolf fangs required for the mission were still in their hands.
After the Red Stone Ant colony incident just now, the subsequent journey down the mountain was smooth sailing, and they didn't encounter any more accidents.
After having Lao Zhou hand in the wolf fangs, Lin Sheng himself walked around the County Town.
He first took a stroll around Small Collection Street, but unfortunately, there were no fierce beasts worth noting.
However, there were quite a few various wild beasts being sold on the street. Lin Sheng considered whether to purchase a batch of fierce beasts from Small Collection Street for blood absorption. As long as he was willing to spend money, the efficiency should be faster than his strenuous hunting in Yangping Mountain.
However, this thought was just in his mind.
The amount of blood needed to activate the second mark was not a small number.
Even if he had enough money to purchase a large number of fierce beasts, buying so many fierce beasts would definitely arouse suspicion, and how to handle it was a problem.
Walking on the street, Lin Sheng planned his next steps in his mind.
He had already prepared to go into the mountain to hunt alone tomorrow.
Alone, he wouldn't have to hide his strength, and his hunting speed would be much faster.
Just as he walked not far from Small Collection Street, he suddenly saw a wooden sign hanging outside a medicine shop on the side of the street.
A line of large characters was written on the wooden sign, which was quite eye-catching.
"Our shop has newly released blood enhancement pills, refined by Master Alchemist Song Fang using the blood of the Spirit Beast Horned Wood Rhino as the base, mixed with the blood of dozens of elite fierce beasts. The effect is extraordinary..."
Seeing the content on the wooden sign, Lin Sheng's eyes lit up, and a thought suddenly struck him.
"I don't need to go into Yangping Mountain myself and painstakingly search for high-grade ape-type exotic beasts."
"I can completely acquire the blood of high-grade apes by purchasing it from medicine shops and medical halls."
The more Lin Sheng thought about it, the more feasible he felt it was. Exotic beast blood, unlike other parts of exotic beasts' bodies, was undoubtedly easier to obtain as the main material for refining blood pills.
"In addition to purchasing the blood of high-grade ape-type exotic beasts, I can also purchase the blood of other high-grade exotic beasts, and even some other lower-grade exotic beasts that I haven't absorbed yet."
"This way, I can not only solve the problem of practicing the Ape Embryo Skill but also accumulate the blood needed to activate the second mark along the way."
As he thought about it, Lin Sheng didn't rush in.
Instead, he returned to his residence and changed into casual clothes, and then bought a bamboo hat at a roadside stall before walking into the largest medicine shop in the County Town.
It was the Song's Medicine Shop where the wooden sign was previously hung.
Behind the Song's Medicine Shop was the Hundred Herbs Hall in Lin'an County.
Although the Hundred Herbs Hall was not a top-tier major force in the County Town, it did not get involved in the County Town's interest groups, but only sold pills to the outside world. In addition, there was a Grand Alchemist with excellent Alchemy skills in the Hundred Herbs Hall, so its status in the County Town was somewhat special.
Many forces in the County Town had good relations with it, after all, nearly half of the spiritual pills refined in the city came from that Grand Alchemist.
Lin Sheng glanced at the sign of Song's Medicine Shop and strode in confidently.
"Esteemed guest, what would you like to purchase? Our shop sells all kinds of pills and is sure to satisfy you."
As soon as he entered the shop, a graceful female attendant greeted him with a smile on her face.
Lin Sheng glanced at the female attendant. He had been to this Song's Medicine Shop once before.
He had to admit that this medicine shop's marketing methods were much better than other medicine shops around. Other medicine shops didn't have such good-looking female attendants.
This alone was probably enough to attract a lot of customers. After all, fighting and killing in Yangping Mountain was quite stressful, and having a few such female attendants at the door would unconsciously make people pay more attention.
"May I ask if your esteemed shop sells medicinal ingredients?"
Lin Sheng asked directly.
"Of course. In addition to various pills, our shop also sells various medicinal powders and raw Materials for refining."
Hearing Lin Sheng's words, the female attendant's eyes showed a hint of surprise, and she quickly replied with a smile.
"However, medicinal ingredients and raw Materials are not sold retail in our shop."
"That's not a problem, as long as you have what I need."
Lin Sheng nodded, having no objection.
"In that case, esteemed guest, please follow me."
Hearing Lin Sheng's affirmative answer, the attendant's heart was filled with joy, knowing that another big business had arrived. She immediately led Lin Sheng to the inner hall.
Soon, a plump middle-aged man, smelling of medicine and blood, walked out of the hall and greeted him with a smile.
After they were seated and tea was served, the middle-aged man spoke first.
"My name is Song Chuan, and I am the manager of the medicine shop. May I know what Materials this esteemed guest wishes to purchase?"
"I would like high-grade ape-type exotic beast blood, as well as Crimson Mane Horse and Colorful Jade Python blood. Besides these, I would also like other middle and high-grade exotic beast blood. As long as your esteemed shop has it, I will take it all."
Lin Sheng spoke directly.
"Oh? I didn't expect you to want these." Song Chuan was stunned, then said.
"Esteemed guest, you've come at the wrong time. Originally, a few days ago, our shop still had some Black Tiger Ape blood, but it was taken to the city to be refined into pills two days ago."
"As for other high-grade exotic beasts, we don't have much stock at the moment. We do have some Crimson Mane Horse blood, and besides that, there is still a lot of middle-grade exotic beast blood."
"You don't have it?"
Lin Sheng frowned slightly, a hint of disappointment on his face.
He had originally thought he would have a good harvest on this trip, given the scale of Song's Medicine Shop, but he didn't expect the result to be like this.
Thinking about it carefully, it was also normal. After all, blood pills were not the only type of pill.
Pills made from herbs and plants were the mainstream, and compared to exotic beast blood, those medicinal herbs and plants were undoubtedly easier to store.
Fortunately, this trip was not without gain. He also acquired Crimson Mane Horse blood.
By the time he left Song's Medicine Shop, he had several well-sealed leather bags on him.
These were made using a special process and were specifically used to seal exotic beast blood.
Without stopping, he went through other medicine shops and medical halls on the street, but still found no high-grade ape-type exotic beast blood. However, he did get two more bags of Crimson Mane Horse blood.
Just like that, Lin Sheng walked back with the large and small leather bags. Along the way, he absorbed a Horned Owl, circled the street twice to make sure no one was following him, and then returned to his residence with peace of mind.