Yuan Ming looked at Wu Lu, who was gradually approaching, and unconsciously frowned, but soon relaxed.
Only to see Wu Lu’s shoulders, chest, arms, and other places were all injured, and even a few places were still oozing blood, as if he had just experienced a fierce battle not long ago, and he looked quite embarrassed.
Speaking of which, Wu Lu didn’t know what special opportunity he had. Although he was still some distance away from the first level of Qi refining, his overall cultivation speed seemed not to be inferior to him.
And the beast skin he obtained, the spotted tiger, was far stronger in overall combat power than the white ape. It should have been effortless to deal with ordinary level one lower rank ferocious beasts, but I don’t know what happened.
“Hu Huo elder, I’m late. This is the ferocious beast essence blood for this month.” Wu Lu stopped in front of Hu Huo elder and handed over the blood storage bag.
Hu Huo elder seemed to have not seen Wu Lu’s miserable appearance and collected his five portions of essence blood expressionlessly. After throwing two portions of antidote, he summoned a giant bird and left.
After Yuan Ming took the antidote, he did not stay here and planned to leave.
“Brother Yuan, wait a moment. Do you still have that healing ointment in your hand?” Wu Lu suddenly stopped Yuan Ming.
“There is still a tube.” Yuan Ming stopped his footsteps.
“That’s great. Can you sell it to me? I’ll exchange it with this tube of cartilage poison.” Wu Lu’s face showed joy and took out a bamboo tube, which was tightly sealed with animal skin.
“Sure.” Yuan Ming took out a bamboo tube from his arms and threw it over.
“Thank you.” Wu Lu hurriedly caught it and handed over the bamboo tube in his hand.
Yuan Ming opened the bamboo tube, and inside was a bottle of dark purple viscous liquid.
Since the last time they saved each other, the relationship between the two has become closer, and there has been more communication between them.
Wu Lu claimed to be from a small tribe in southern Jiang, and he knew how to refine some highly poisonous substances. This cartilage poison could make people’s muscles and bones weak and was quite effective against ferocious beasts. Yuan Ming exchanged it with his self-made healing ointment twice and found that the effect was good.
“I vaguely heard Hu Huo elder talking just now. I don’t know what he said?” Wu Lu glanced at the direction where Hu Huo elder had gone, and asked curiously.
“I asked Hu Huo elder for some information about ferocious beasts.” Yuan Ming said so.
Since Hu Huo elder did not tell Wu Lu about becoming a named disciple of the Bi Luo Cave, he naturally would not talk too much.
The two chatted for a while and left one after another.
Yuan Ming returned to the cave and planned his next steps.He originally planned to go to other areas of the Ten Thousand Mountains to find some fur beast slaves, inquire about the Bi Luo Cave and the Corrupt Heart Pill, and see if there was a chance to get away from being a slave forever.
Now that Elder Hu Huo has pointed out a clear path to join the Bi Luo Cave, there is no need to go through so much trouble.
A thousand portions of fierce beast essence blood seems like a lot, but if he reduces his cultivation time, he is confident he can gather it within a year.
“Something’s not right, the Bi Luo Cave doesn’t seem like a sect that’s easy to talk to, how could they set such loose conditions? Any fur beast slave with a little bit of strength, as long as they’re careful, should be able to complete this task, right?” Yuan Ming rubbed his chin and wondered.
Could there be some other unknown tricks involved?
He couldn’t figure it out for a while, so he didn’t waste any more time. At least during the process of collecting essence blood, he could also cultivate the Nine Elements Technique to improve his future self-protection.
Thinking of this, Yuan Ming began to pack up the things in the cave.
This cave was a bit far from the canyon, and it took a lot of time to go back and forth. He needed to find a new place to stay.
Yuan Ming wrapped the items in the cave with a piece of animal skin and left the cave he had lived in for almost half a year. But before leaving, he blocked the cave entrance with a large stone.
This place was quite hidden, and he might still need it in the future.
Carrying the animal skin bundle, Yuan Ming headed south and soon arrived near the canyon.
“It won’t take much time to cross the canyon, so let’s settle down on this side of the canyon.”
Yuan Ming scanned around and didn’t continue forward, but instead looked for a suitable place to live nearby.
Soon, he found a winding cave under a small mound of earth, which looked like it had been dug out by some underground wild beasts like pangolins.
The cave was quite long, extending all the way to the other side of the mound. In addition to the front entrance, there was also a back door in the shady area behind the mound.
However, the back door was relatively small, and a person could not pass through.
Yuan Ming blocked the back door with a large stone, then transformed into a white ape and used his sharp claws to expand the cave space near the front entrance, forming a rudimentary earth house.
Fortunately, the mound was mostly made of earth and had few stones, which saved him a lot of effort. Otherwise, even with his sharp claws, it would not be possible to expand the cave so much in just a day or two.
Yuan Ming moved a large stone from nearby to block the cave entrance, and collected a lot of dry branches and hay to make a simple bed inside the cave. With that, his simple dwelling was complete.Lying on the dry grass bed, he relaxed and couldn’t help but yawn.
The previous cave conditions were simple, and he was busy practicing and hunting beasts, so he didn’t pay attention to personal life at all. At this moment, lying on the soft grass bed, the accumulated fatigue slowly emerged, and he was a little drowsy.
Yuan Ming did not drive away the sleepiness this time, and fell asleep quickly on the dry straw bed.
He slept very well, and woke up refreshed the next day at noon. After eating some dried meat, he left the cave and came to the forest on the other side of the canyon.
Yuan Ming glanced at the mountain where the green fox’s nest was located, and quickly retracted his gaze.
He had killed most of the green fox group. Since he killed the leader of the green fox last month, the remaining green foxes had scattered and there was one less stable hunting base.
Yuan Ming shook his head and walked towards the depths of the forest.
He had been wandering around the edge of this forest for several months, and it was his first time going deep into it.
As he went deeper, he found that the trees around him became exceptionally tall, with hundreds of towering trees that were over a hundred years old. The dead branches and leaves fell thickly, and there was a soft feeling under his feet. The surrounding area was full of dense bushes and vines, much denser than the other side of the canyon, blocking his view.
After a little thought, Yuan Ming transformed into a white ape and jumped from tree to tree, starting to move forward.
He walked for about a quarter of an hour without encountering any fierce beasts, which was not surprising to him. This forest was only the outermost part of the Ten Thousand Mountains, and although there were fierce beasts lurking, there were not many. Wu Lu had complained before that the time spent searching for fierce beasts was much longer than the time spent hunting them.
He was lucky to have found a large group of green foxes before, which made it easy for him to complete his monthly task. As for the yellow armadillo, it was nowhere to be found. To achieve the goal of collecting one thousand drops of blood, he must go further into the forest.
Of course, Yuan Ming did not intend to rush for success. Safety was still the top priority.
After walking for some distance, he heard the sound of rushing water in front of him. It turned out to be a small waterfall cascading down from the mountain cliff, pouring into a clear water pool, and a cool water vapor hit his face.
Yuan Ming lay on the tree, looking ahead through the gaps in the leaves.
He saw a large wild boar-like fierce beast drinking water by the water pool, with its entire body covered in fiery red fur, and its back and hooves bulging with muscles, showing that it was a powerful fierce beast.The wild boar had a sharp horn on its forehead, which looked very sharp. There were also two sharp and shiny pig teeth at the corners of its mouth, flashing with a cold light, making people shudder.
Yuan Ming looked at the “prey” in front of him, his mouth curled up, and his eyes looked around the environment near the water pool, wanting to confirm if there were any other potential dangers nearby.
At this moment, the wild boar suddenly lifted its head from the water pool, looking around as if it had heard something.
Yuan Ming quickly hid behind a tree trunk and didn’t move.
The wild boar shook its ears, as if listening to the surrounding sound. After a few breaths, it continued to lower its head to drink water.
Yuan Ming breathed a sigh of relief and quietly leaned out to carefully observe the other party.
“Looking at the size of this guy, it’s much stronger than the previous green fox and armadillo. The target of one thousand is starting with you.” He secretly calculated in his heart, quietly approaching the wild boar.
Just then, the wild boar stood up, shook off the water on its body, snorted in satisfaction, and was about to turn around and leave the water pool.
Yuan Ming seized the opportunity and pounced from the tree, landing on the wide and thick back of the pig. Before the wild boar could react, he fiercely inserted his two sharp claws into the neck of the wild boar and forcefully slashed.
“Chih!”
The neck of the wild boar was cut with two deep bone-visible wounds, and blood rushed out.
It let out a miserable scream, and its tall body ran forward, breaking two big trees in succession, and the broken branches and leaves flew around.
Yuan Ming didn’t have time to stabilize his body and was thrown out.
“Roar!” The wild boar’s eyes had turned blood red, and it turned around and rushed towards Yuan Ming.
The wild boar’s head leaned forward, staring at the red horn, and stabbed towards Yuan Ming’s chest like a giant spear. Its tall body brought up a surging airflow, causing the trees several yards away to rustle.
Yuan Ming had just stabilized his body and didn’t have time to dodge. He reached out his hands and grabbed the red horn.
“Chih!”
He rubbed his feet on the ground, and his whole body slid backwards.
Retreating two yards, Yuan Ming’s feet were half a foot into the ground, and his body stood firm, allowing the wild boar to exert all its strength, but it couldn’t shake him at all.
“Get up!” Yuan Ming shouted loudly, his arms bulging, and he lifted it up.
The tall body of the wild boar was actually lifted by him, turned half a circle in the air, and slammed heavily on a nearby big tree.A tree large enough for a person to wrap their arms around broke with a loud crack as the fierce wild boar’s body continued to smash into the ground. The impact created a loud “bang,” causing the ground within several feet to shake slightly.
Before the beast could regain its senses, a white, sharp claw descended from the sky, fiercely stabbing into its head and piercing through the hard skull.
The wild boar let out a desperate scream, its massive body convulsing a few times before it finally stopped moving.
Yuan Ming nodded in approval. The strength of this wild boar was not weak; if he had encountered it three months ago, he would have lost more than he won. But now, facing him, it had no power to resist, like a small cat or dog.
Giving up the Blood Qi technique and switching to the Nine Elements Art was indeed the right choice.
Yuan Ming took out a blood storage bag and collected the wild boar’s blood. Just as he was about to leave, a deep roar suddenly came from the front, followed by the ground shaking and a wave of dust and debris being kicked up!