Early Fall, early in the morning, a chill permeated the air. Qin Feng was at his father’s side, along with another 20-30 fellow clansmen headed towards the mountain pass of Qifeng Mountain. Each Fall, the three Kun City cultivator families would send people into the outskirts of the mountain to hunt demonic beasts.
That was aimed to prevent these demonic beasts from rushing out of the forests in the mountains and harming the commoners in Kun City. Furthermore, once they have killed these demon beasts, they could also obtain some cultivation resources.
After all, many things on a demon beast were extremely valuable, whether it was their skin, fur, scales, shell, or even their claws and sharp teeth. Even beast horns, skeletons, their blood, and flesh were great items that could be used to exchange for spirit stones.
Kun City was lacking in resources and the three families could not merely rely on their family’s main business. If they wanted to help their family develop to a better position, they would have to seek another path to fortune. That was the reason why they would send people into the mountains each year.
They had to go because if they did not, once the demon beasts on the outskirts of Qifeng mountain became numerous in number, they would definitely bring huge losses to the commoners of Kun City. At the same time, the businesses of those three cultivator families would also suffer huge losses.
After all, the spiritual veins of the 3 families were intertwined with Qifeng Mountain. All three families also lived close to the periphery of QIfeng Mountain. Once the demonic beasts grew in number, whether it was the Qin family’s spiritual lands or the Huang family members who were sent to the mountains to harvest the refined iron would all be threatened.
As soon as they entered the mountain pass, the three families’ cultivators convened. The Qin family stood on the left, the Huang family were on the right and the Wang family from the west stood in between the two families, keeping them apart.
Unless they encountered exceptionally powerful demonic beasts, these three families would never work together to hunt the demonic beasts under normal circumstances. Furthermore, they have agreed on specific zones earlier on so each family would clear up their own zones.
“Hahaha, everyone has arrived so early!” Qin Long laughed heartily as he walked towards the other two families who had arrived before them to greet them.
He looked towards the Huang family from the North side of the city and said mockingly, “Patriarch Huang has actually come to handle this personally. This is too grand for the occasion, isn’t it? I remember that your Huang family still has a grand elder who is a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator. Why didn’t you get your grand elder instead of troubling Brother Huang, the family patriarch?”
“Hmph!” Patriarch Huang grunted coldly and his expression turned unfriendly. He was a sword cultivator and with a cold voice, he responded, “I wanted to exercise my joints and muscles, is that unacceptable? After all, my Huang family business has nothing to do with you, so why are you butting in, Qin Long?”
Qin Long was not mad, he laughed and said, “Brother Huang, why are you like this? We’ve known each other since we were young. I’m just worried about your safety. Qifeng Mountain is full of ferocious demon beasts and your status as the patriarch is different compared to everyone else. What would happen to the Huang family if an accident happened?
“Oh, for a family with elders to not send the elder but have you personally handle this matter instead. What’s the point of this drudgery?”
The Qin family members standing behind Qin Long started to laugh faintly. In that instant triggering the anger of the Huang family standing across them.
The Huang family did not want their own patriarch to lead them into the mountains to hunt demon beasts either. However, their family only had two Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators at the moment. The grand elder of the family may be of a higher cultivation level but he had spent his entire life making swords. He was not proficient in fighting at all.
Furthermore, the grand elder was much older than even Patriarch Qin Guanpao. He was also the best tool refiner and because of this, the Huang family would definitely be reluctant to let him risk his life. If anything happened to him, the loss would be so great that it was not something that the Huang family was willing to bear.
After all, they were different from the Qin family. The Qin family’s main family industry was cultivating the spiritual lands, their income was stable. However, the Huang family’s main industry was crafting tools for a living. Even though they could earn more spirit stones compared to the Qin family who relied on their spiritual fields, if they lost their family’s best tool refiner, their income would drop drastically.
Hence, the Huang Tingyuan would rather personally lead his group into the woods before he allowed the grand elder to encounter danger.
The Wang family in the middle were already used to these two families not seeing eye-to-eye. The Wang family elder who was leading the group this time had already formed a circle for the three families to huddle and discuss the plan. Once they had divided the zones clearly for each family to search and clear, they split up and headed into the mountains. Each family headed in their own direction.
In the Qin Family group, apart from Qin Feng, the rest were all young boys and girls who were also planning to fight for a spot in the year-end sect selection ceremony. They had also decided to join the group.
Among them, apart from a youth called Qin Jun who has also achieved the second level of Qi Refinement stage like Qin Feng, the others were all in the first level of Qi Refinement Stage.
The family had allowed them to join the hunt not because they thought that it would help them in the selection, but because they wanted to expose them to blood and get accustomed to killing.
After all, once they entered the sect, the things they would have to face were far more vicious and deadly than what they would face now. If they could not even cope with hunting and killing demonic beasts, it would be better for them to stay within the family and stop dreaming about entering the sect. Otherwise, 80-90% of them would end up living short lives.
Furthermore, heading out with the family clan meant that they would have the protection of the family elders. Once they truly entered the sect and stepped into the realm of cultivation there would be no one to protect them like this.
The group of people headed towards the mountains in a line. As they went along the winding mountain paths, it was extremely difficult to proceed. There were even many areas that did not even have a path and needed the group to carve out a road before they could continue.
Thankfully, everyone in the group were cultivators and could activate both the Lightness Spell and the Agility Spell to help them hurry on. If they were swapped with commoners, they would have only traveled a short distance due to exhaustion.
As they walked deeper into the forest, they could constantly hear the sound of piercing howls and the pitiful cry of beasts right before they die. The group would frequently see a couple of fearsome beasts appear as well. However, all of these beasts were extremely common and would not have the potential to transform into demonic beasts. Hence they posed no threat to these cultivators.
Furthermore, when common beasts saw a large group of people traveling together. It did not matter if they sensed the powerful aura of the group of people or not, all beasts would not readily seek trouble but instead hide far away from them.
Only the demonic beasts who had gained intelligence and knew how to cultivate would drool at the sight of these cultivators. The difference between them and common beasts was that they craved the flesh and blood of cultivators even more because it contained spiritual energy.
Very quickly, the people ahead turned round to signal to the people in the rear to slow their steps.
“What did you find?” asked Qin Yang softly as he walked up. He had also come along to hunt demonic beasts.
“There’s a string of plum-blossom shaped paw prints here. It looks like a tiger has just gone past. However, the paw prints are very big. It’s clearly not an ordinary tiger. There’s a large chance that it has become a demon.”
The person speaking was a middle-aged man in his forties. He was the family’s experienced hunter. He frequently came to Qifeng Mountain to roam around and he was extremely familiar with all sorts of wild beasts and also lower grade demonic beasts. He warned, “Everyone, be careful, the tiger demon beasts may be very violent but in reality, they are also experts at sneaking up before attacking. Tell everyone to pay attention and do not fall prey to that brute.”
Qin Yang nodded his head and turned around to spread the word. However, it seemed like his news came a little too late. Before he had walked up to the end of the group, he heard a roar that shook like thunder from the forest. It was the roar of the tiger. The shock caused the hearts of the Qin family cultivators in the back of the group to tremble, in an instant, their movements slowed down.
Accompanying the thundering ear-deafening roar, a figure spanning at least 10 feet suddenly jumped out from the grass behind them and rushed over, running in the direction of the few people at the back of the group.
“This is not good…”
“Hurry up and run!”
“Defense—Armor spell!”
Several clan members tried to escape or use spells to protect themselves. However, in their rush, the defensive power of their spells was not strong at all. Furthermore, the tiger demon was extraordinarily powerful.
The tiger roar had not faded before the tiger demon that had suddenly appeared brought out its sharp front claws to strike. In mere seconds, it shredded through the defensive spells protecting the body of one of the family clan members and aimed at his body for a bite.
“Foul beast! How dare you!” a loud yell suddenly rang through the air. After that, a blast of firelight appeared. With a loud crash, it exploded and sent the tiger demon flying through the air almost 30 feet away.
This tiger demon had astonishing vitality. After it landed on the ground, it ignored the fresh blood that it was pouring down its back and turned around like it was about to run away.
“Planning to run away?” smiled Qin Long coldly. He was the one who had just launched the attack that caused the tiger demon to retreat. Even though he had spent a large portion of his offensive power on his spiritual beast, as a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator, his power was not to be looked down at. At the very least, it would be more than enough to deal with this tiger demon.
Hence, he did not even bother to use his spiritual beasts to face his opponent. He waved his hand and it started to emit a beam of golden light. The golden light flashed then disappeared with a puff. It had chopped off the head of the tiger demon! In the blink of an eye, a huge amount of blood started to spurt out of the neck of that demon beast.
At the sight of such a violent and bloody scene, a couple of youngsters in the group were frightened out of their skins. They were only kids aged between 14-15 years old. Since they had only started cultivating for a short amount of time, when would they have had the chance to see such a brutal battle scene?
Apart from that, a decision made earlier in the day to protect them resulted in them being placed at the rear of the troop formation. They had already had the fright of their lives when the tiger demon had rushed towards them. Right now, as they watched the bloody terrifying scene in front of them and their noses could clearly smell that pungent acrid smell of blood. Those youngsters could not help but retreat a few steps away to increase the distance between them and the tiger demon.
Qin Long noticed this and was disappointed. He said coldly, “What? This is all it takes to scare you? All I did was slay a demon beast in front of you. If this has frightened you, why don’t you all just sit securely at home and forget about ever wanting to enter the sect.”
A couple of the youngsters turned beet red with embarrassment after they heard his words.
Qin Long continued, “This tiger demon is now your job to pack up. Qin Yang, teach them how to do the job!”
“Yes, Seventh Uncle,” Qin Yang answered and started to instruct the youngsters on how to process the corpse of the tiger demon. He showed them how to collect spiritual blood and remove its skin and bones. He also taught them how to carve the meat for storage and many other skills, teaching them in extreme detail.
However, that was the first time those young boys and girls have ever encountered such a thing. Clumsily holding onto the various knives and tools in their hands, they managed to get blood all over themselves and also make a mess out of carving the tiger skin off. It was a mess, a complete and utter mess.
Qin Long had taken this opportunity to teach them another lesson. In reality, he had detected the tracks of the tiger demon much earlier on. However because he wanted to school these kids from the clan and teach them a good lesson, he deliberately allowed the blood bath to happen.
Qin Feng was not finding this as unbearable as the other boys and girls. In fact, he was even a little eager to try. When he touched the tiger demon, the Demon Refinement Kettle in his consciousness started to move. It wanted to refine this demon beast to make up for the consumed spiritual energy.
It was a shame that with all the eyes around him, Qin Feng dared not collect the dead body. It was a good thing that the Demon Refinement Kettle was obedient and would not absorb the demon corpse on its own accord, hence nothing happened.
However, Qin Feng was secretly thinking to himself that it was a rare chance to come out with the family clan to hunt demon beasts. Should he not be finding an opportunity to refine a few demon beast corpses to help with his cultivation? Would it not be a waste of this great opportunity? However, how could he stealthily carry over the corpses without being discovered?