Time flew by quickly; seemingly in a split second, it was mid-June.
On a summer night, the golden moon disk hung high in the sky, illuminating the green mountains and the earth.
Gusts of wind blew, causing the tree leaves to flutter along with the moonlight. Cicadas chirped and frogs croaked in unison, and occasionally, a wolf howl would transmit from far away, echoing across the green mountains.
At a riverbank, the stream water had washed a patch of white, smooth rocks. Beside the riverbank, a battle was taking place.
A wild boar's entire body was covered in slender, deep wounds; it stomped its four hooves and charged at Fang Yuan again. Blood spurted from its wounds, leaving a trail of bright red along the way.
Fang Yuan bided his time with it, not flustered in the slightest.
This wild boar was already heavily injured and on the verge of death, but it was exactly beasts in this state that were the most dangerous. They would burst forth with the last glimmer of their life, becoming even more crazed and difficult to deal with; one moment of carelessness and one would suffer a tumble and have their intestines mashed entirely by its tusks.
Fang Yuan's expression was calm, his deep black eyes flashing with a cold, piercing light under the illumination of the moonlight.
He had five hundred years of accumulated experience; on one hand, he was immersed in the battle, while on the other, a portion of his mind completely detached from this battle, remaining constantly vigilant of the movements in the surroundings.
Several times while hunting wild boars, other creatures had come over to disrupt the scene. Once it was another wild boar, a few other times it was wild wolves, and there was even one time when a roaming tiger came by.
As time flowed by, the wild boar's offensive finally slowed down.
A sharp light burst from Fang Yuan's eyes; with a few fierce strides, he suddenly approached the wild boar, then lowered his body, lifted his shoulders, and with a whoosh, hoisted the wild boar up entirely.
Ha!
Fang Yuan gave a low shout, his face flushing red, and propping up with both hands, he lifted the wild boar high into the air.
The wild boar struggled weakly.
Fang Yuan's body swayed unsteadily. Exerting his entire body's strength, he fiercely threw the wild boar out.
With a muffled bang, the wild boar smashed onto a giant rock on the riverbank. It let out a miserable howl, accompanied by the crisp sound of snapping ribs.
It fell down from the giant rock, and streams of boiling hot blood completely spouted outward from its ears, nose, and mouth.
It struggled a few more times and finally lost its breath.
The surroundings returned to tranquility.
The river water murmured as it flowed, carrying the crimson pig blood along with it, flowing into the distance.
"My current strength can already lift a pig! Tonight I will try that giant rock in the tunnel." Fang Yuan stood in place, panting heavily, a surge of excitement hidden in his eyes.
These days, he continuously utilized the White Boar Gu, reflecting it upon his body to increase his strength. He could clearly feel his physical strength growing larger and larger.
Previously, when fighting against wild boars, he could only rely on moonblades for guerrilla combat, but now he could even entirely lift a wild boar. His strength growth had made substantial headway.
Of course, the White Boar Gu would not increase Fang Yuan's strength limitlessly; the absolute limit was the strength of one boar. Reaching this limit, he could no longer utilize the White Boar Gu to increase his physical strength.
"I can now lift an entire wild boar, but that does not mean I can directly wrestle with a pig. Just like a strong man can pick up another strong man, it doesn't mean there isn't a disparity in strength between the two strong men. My strength can still grow further."
Feeding all the pork to the White Boar Gu, Fang Yuan used his hunting knife to take off the pig tusks, and finally cut the already heavily damaged wild boar fur into pieces before heading to the secret rock crack cave.
As for this pig carcass, there was no need for him to dispose of it. On a summer night, wild beasts appeared frequently; it was estimated that in a little while, wild beasts would smell this bloody scent and hurry over to clean up the scene for Fang Yuan.
Taking a step back, even if someone discovered it, it wouldn't matter. Fang Yuan had used his knife to "process" the wounds on the wild boar's body, making the traces of the moonblade attacks indistinguishable.
Returning to the secret cave enveloped in red light, Fang Yuan casually tossed the two wild boar tusks into a corner.
The wild boar tusks collided with each other, letting out a crisp thud.
In this corner, there was already a small pile of wild boar tusks. All were the results of Fang Yuan's recent hunting.
Fang Yuan squeezed directly into the tunnel, once again arriving at the bottom of the tunnel.
Walking in the tunnel, his footsteps echoed buzzingly inside. His vision was filled with a dim red light.
Nothing had changed; the giant rock was still there, quietly lying across the front. As for the pit where the Earth Treasury Flower was dug out, it had already been refilled by Fang Yuan.
Heh.
Fang Yuan arrived in front of the giant rock, raised both hands, and pushed fiercely with all his might.
However, his face swelled, and he used up every ounce of his strength, yet the giant rock did not budge an inch.
"Rousing all my strength now, I can barely hoist up one wild boar. But this giant rock is at least the combined weight of five or six wild boars. My inability to push it is not strange. The Flower Wine Monk's strength inheritance is not that easy!" Fang Yuan's gaze flashed, estimating in his heart.
He was not discouraged either. He drilled out of the tunnel, returning to the secret room above.
Taking the bamboo tube leaning against the corner, Fang Yuan directly sat cross-legged on the ground, popped open the lid of the bamboo tube, and poured out the beast skin map and the bamboo papers from inside.
He unrolled the beast skin map and began to memorize it again, occasionally using his fingers to sketch shallow traces on the ground to aid his memory.
From the day he obtained this map, he had started doing this.
Fang Yuan did not have a storage Gu and could not carry this beast skin map around with him. Fighting while carrying a bamboo tube on his back would be very inconvenient. Therefore, Fang Yuan put in hard work, preparing to install this beast skin map in his head.
Some things, although troublesome, were best done. In a person's lifetime, those who feared trouble and did not actively solve it frequently faced highly troublesome situations in the end. Fang Yuan understood this principle in his past life.
"When one is young, memory is truly good. I have already silently memorized more than half of the map into my head now. If I tried to memorize this thing in my old age, I estimate I would be forgetting it while memorizing it. Hehehe… Of course, if I had a Bookworm, I would feed this beast skin map to it to eat; from then on, as long as the Bookworm is not lost, I would forever clearly remember this map."
Having obtained the Liquor worm and the White Boar Gu, Fang Yuan began to covet more, hoping to obtain a Bookworm.
The value of the Bookworm was comparable to the Liquor worm and the White Boar Gu; all were rare varieties among Rank one Gu worms, exceedingly expensive in market price, and constantly out of stock.
In his past life, Fang Yuan did not obtain the Liquor worm or the White Boar Gu, but unexpectedly obtained a Bookworm. This Bookworm continuously advanced later on, staying with him for a whole sixty years.
"Forget it, the Bookworm has always been scarce in numbers; wishful thinking within a short period won't get it. Actually speaking, compared to the same period in my past life, my current situation after rebirth is countless times better. At this time in my past life, I was still at Rank one initial stage, while others like Fang Zheng, Chi Cheng, and Mo Bei had already reached the upper stage, leaving me far behind." Fang Yuan was not the type to split hairs over trivialities; after thinking about it, he felt relieved.
He was still relatively satisfied with his current progress.
He was at middle stage, and the others were also at middle stage. Relying on a C grade aptitude, to be able to hang closely with these A grade and B grade aptitude peers was extremely not easy. In this, the Liquor worm's contribution was paramount; other than that, it was the assistance of Fang Yuan's rich and experienced cultivation experience.
There was also another aspect, which was also due to him.
By robbing and extorting all his schoolmates, these people all vigorously exerted effort to train their martial arts under the guidance of their elders. Therefore, invisibly, it drew away their energy and reduced the time they used to nourish their aperture walls. This caused their cultivation in this lifetime to be even slightly weaker than in Fang Yuan's past life.
But even so, their distance from the upper stage was not far now.
A Gu Master's early cultivation could be considered relatively easy, with effects completely visible within a short period. Especially the three: Gu Yue Fang Zheng, Gu Yue Mo Chen, and Gu Yue Chi Cheng, their cultivation vaguely showed a posture of overtaking Fang Yuan.
Following continuous cultivation, these three, either due to aptitude or the powerful supportive backing behind them, had already begun to reveal obvious advantages. The leading situation Fang Yuan painstakingly created utilizing the Liquor worm was almost nonexistent anymore.
Of course, this was also related to his recent hunting and fully utilizing the White Boar Gu to increase his strength, which scattered a considerable amount of energy and time.
"According to this time estimate, it won't be long before someone takes the lead to advance to the upper stage. The first person to reach the upper stage will obtain a reward of thirty primeval stones. However, I do not plan to contend for this reward." Fang Yuan had already made his decision.
If he temporarily cast aside the White Boar Gu now and fully pushed for the upper stage, there might still be hope for victory. But this was not what Fang Yuan wanted. Although thirty primeval stones were good, he did not lack this little bit of primeval stones currently.
The more primary reason was that he needed to keep a low profile and hide himself right now. Only by reducing others' attention on himself could he inherit the Flower Wine Monk's strength inheritance more safely.
This exactly was his most primary purpose.
"The various rewards in the academy are merely sweet treats to motivate the students to cultivate hard, and are also entirely a part of the clan system. To tangle oneself over these petty, trivial profits is truly not the doing of a wise man."
Fang Yuan withdrew his mind and focused his gaze on the beast skin map again.
The beast skin map was divided into two sides; the front recorded the daytime situation, and the back recorded the nighttime situation. Lines of various colors crisscrossed on it.
These lines, either straight or curved, all possessed special representative meanings. Only Old Man Wang knew them most clearly, but unfortunately, he was already dead. Though even if he were alive, forcing him to explain, he might not necessarily speak the truth.
Over these days, relying on his own insight and experience, and comparing it against the bamboo papers, Fang Yuan had almost successfully deciphered all of it.
"The red cross should represent danger, a forbidden area. This spot drawn with a red cross is faintly enveloped by wild boar hordes; it should be a wild boar king. With my current strength, encountering a wild boar king means death. Hmph!"
Fang Yuan thought of Old Man Wang and involuntarily let out a cold snort.
This spot's red cross was not on the bamboo papers. If Fang Yuan had truly believed those bamboo papers, he likely would have died under the wild boar king's tusks someday. This Old Man Wang was truly seasoned and shrewd, wanting to exact revenge for his murdered son, but not making a move himself, wanting to borrow the wild boar king's strength. Doing it this way, if Fang Yuan was killed, he himself could still stay out of it.
"However, what meaning do these three places marked with red circles represent then?" Fang Yuan was bewildered.
This was the last doubtful point on the beast skin map.
The three red circles were marked in three very remote places, far apart from each other, with few beast hordes around, considered relatively safe places in the wild.
"The red cross represents a forbidden area, so what do the red circles represent?" Fang Yuan fell into deep thought again. "Generally speaking, red is the most eye-catching. Old Man Wang marking red circles in these three places represents that these three places are very important to him. Unfortunately, these three places are a bit too far, otherwise I would personally explore them, and then I would know."