Chapter 170 - 98: Provincial City
The next two days were incredibly comfortable for Lin Yi.
He spent every moment immersed in the fulfilling sensation of his power growing.
Whenever his Mosquito Avatar discovered prey in the Taihang Mountain Range,
he would immediately sit cross-legged and use the feedback of Qi and Blood to rapidly temper his bones.
𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢
If his Mosquito Avatar didn’t find suitable prey for a while,
he would pick up his Owl Dragon Spear and practice his basic spear techniques over and over again.
This rhythm of cultivation—holding power in his hands and clearly sensing every bit of his progress—made him feel incomparably at ease and exhilarated.
It was as if the entire world was making way for him.
However,
this intoxicating peace and progress were shattered today.
The appointed day had arrived.
Today was the day to head to the Provincial City and gather for the training camp.
He had to pull himself out of this comfortable and efficient cultivation cycle.
Early in the morning,
a thin mist had yet to dissipate.
With the bag containing his Owl Dragon Spear slung over one shoulder, he headed toward Yang City No. 1 High School.
[Qi and Blood]: 702.76/702.76.
[Bone Tempering]: 64 (100%), 1 (46%), 141 (0%).
In just two short days,
he had successfully tempered five more hand bones!
His Qi and Blood value had officially broken the 700 cal mark, standing firm at 702.76 cal!
Of course,
the speed of tempering five bones in two days was indeed a bit slower than the rapid improvement he’d experienced when using the Bone Tempering Pill.
The key to this
was the hunting efficiency of his Mosquito Avatar.
The Taihang Mountain Range was vast and fraught with danger.
Although the Mosquito Avatar’s Tracking skill could detect energy fluctuations within an eighteen-kilometer radius,
finding suitable targets still required a considerable amount of time to search, lie in wait, and assess.
It could only cautiously bypass the powerful Demon Beasts entrenched deep in their territories, which emitted a heart-pounding pressure.
However,
the advantage of this cultivation method, which relied on the feedback from his avatar’s hunts, was its consistency.
A Bone Tempering Pill could certainly provide an explosive burst of cultivation speed, but a Pill was ultimately an external object that would eventually run out.
Once it was used up, his speed would plummet.
But the Taihang Mountain Range?
It was a paradise for Demon Beasts, an inexhaustible supply!
He could drain them as he pleased!
’I’ll be traveling next, and the environment will be too noisy to calmly circulate the Bone Tempering Skill.’
Lin Yi quickly calculated in his mind,
’If the Mosquito Avatar continues to hunt, I won’t be able to effectively use the feedback of Qi and Blood for a while. I might as well have it switch targets... and search for Spirit Medicine instead!’
The deep, remote mountains, where few humans ever tread, were the perfect places where Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi gathered, ideal for the growth of rare and wondrous herbs.
Over the past two days,
relying on its LV9 Tracking skill’s keen perception of energy fluctuations, the Mosquito Avatar had already found some Spirit Medicines in its spare time while hunting.
At this moment,
deep within the Taihang Mountain Range,
the hidden cave the Mosquito Avatar had chosen as its temporary base
was no longer as bare and simple as it had first been.
Deep inside the cave,
in the left corner,
a pile of six distinctly shaped pieces of Demon Beast Exotic Gold lay, emitting faint waves of energy.
In addition to the initial tough, cyan snake scale, there was a wild boar’s tusk that gleamed with a ghastly white light, and a massive leg bone covered in strange patterns...
These were the quintessential parts that had stubbornly remained after the Mosquito Avatar had drained the Demon Beasts of all their Qi and Blood essence.
Each piece was a rare material for refining Spiritual Weapons, worth a fortune on the Martial Artist Market.
And on the right side of the cave,
a small medicinal garden had been meticulously cultivated.
Four peculiar-looking plants grew in the moist soil.
One had leaves like green jade, its veins flowing with a faint golden light. Another was crimson all over, bearing a rice-sized Vermilion Fruit at its tip. The other two exuded a refreshing, ethereal fragrance, with dew-like droplets of Spiritual Liquid condensed on their leaves.
These were the very Spirit Medicines the Mosquito Avatar had discovered over the past two days while hunting.
It had carefully transplanted them back, root and soil intact.
It was foreseeable that
as the Mosquito Avatar spent more and more time moving through this ancient mountain range, hunting more Demon Beasts, and discovering more Spirit Medicines...
this inconspicuous cave
would surely become a constantly growing private treasury belonging to Lin Yi!
...
His thoughts returned to the present.
In just a moment,
Lin Yi had arrived before the familiar gates of Yang City No. 1 High School.
At this time,
Principal Chen Zhenguo was already standing there waiting, hands clasped behind his back, his calm gaze fixed on the end of the road.
When he saw Lin Yi appear, a faint, almost imperceptible trace of approval showed on his stern face.
"Principal!" Lin Yi quickened his pace, stepping forward to bow respectfully.
Chen Zhenguo gave a slight nod, his words concise. "Get in the car. I’ll take you to the Municipal Education Bureau to meet up."
Lin Yi acknowledged and opened the passenger side door, getting in.
Chen Zhenguo started the car and drove steadily toward the Municipal Education Bureau.
On the way,
he began to brief Lin Yi on the details of the training camp.
"For this training camp in the Provincial City, there were only five precious spots in total for the four high schools in Yang City,"
Chen Zhenguo said steadily as he drove,
"One from our Yang City No. 1 High School, one from Experimental High School, one from Flourishing High School, and Super High School... they took two."
Because Yang City No. 1 High School was the first high school established in Yang City, it claimed the name "No. 1 High School."
The other schools were founded later, but they were unwilling to settle for being called "No. 2" or "No. 3."
So they chose other names.
Chen Zhenguo continued,
"The five of you will be picked up by a car arranged by the Municipal Education Bureau and escorted to the gathering point in the Provincial City."
"An attendant from the Municipal Education Bureau will travel with you and inform you of the specific rules and what to look out for inside the training camp."
"Remember: observe more, listen more, and speak less. Your fundamental goal is to improve your strength."