This Martial Saint is Too Cautious

In the White Cloud Mountains, Lin Yan weaved through the dense forest.

He didn't follow the streams like an ordinary hunter, nor did he take the animal trails. Instead, he stuck to the mountain ridges.

True Understanding of Earth Veins: Earth Qi travels along the mountain ridges.

The ridges were the best place to observe Earth Qi.

After crossing two mountain ridges, Lin Yan stopped on a gentle slope. He squatted, pushed aside the shrubbery, and scooped up a handful of dirt. As he held it to his nose, he caught a faint, almost imperceptible sweetness amid the earthy scent.

'When Earth Qi rises, the vegetation is the first to know.'

Lin Yan walked about a hundred paces horizontally along the slope before stopping at a depression. The grass here was unusually dense, growing waist-high in stark contrast to the sparse surrounding shrubbery.

He dropped to his stomach, parted the tall grass, and began to dig into the dark brown soil with a small hoe.

'Found it.'

After digging about half a foot down, he uncovered a fist-sized, ginger-shaped object. Its skin was yellowish-brown and covered in a fine web of lines.

'Earth Essence.'

Lin Yan's eyes lit up. Judging by the size of the Earth Essence, it was probably ten years old. The Tang Family paid Traveling Merchants thirty taels of silver per jin for it, and this one weighed about half a jin.

Lin Yan kept digging and soon unearthed eight of them.

Earth Essence didn't have the ability to increase one's Qi Blood, but it was one of the two main ingredients for refining the Solid Pill.

When a Martial Artist failed to break through to the next realm, the Solid Pill was one of the elixirs required for their recovery. Demand for this elixir was enormous, meaning Earth Essence was always in short supply. If not for the various factions in each county monopolizing the trade of medicinal ingredients, the price of Earth Essence would be even higher on an open market.

After tossing the Earth Essence into the bamboo basket on his back, Lin Yan continued on his way.

The mountain forests were full of wild game. Lin Yan traveled through the mountains for two days, harvesting a good amount of medicinal herbs, but he didn't encounter any more large, ferocious beasts.

Lin Yan had anticipated this before entering the mountains. The beasts of the White Cloud Mountains didn't exactly respawn on a schedule.

...

On the third day, after crossing three peaks, the terrain dropped away sharply, revealing a low-lying valley.

The valley was gourd-shaped—narrow at its mouth and wide in its belly—and surrounded by mountains on all sides. A dense mist swirled within, refusing to dissipate even at high noon.

'A gourd-mouth entrance to gather qi, a wide belly to collect it, and surrounding mountains to prevent it from leaking. This is what the True Understanding of Earth Veins calls a "wind-hiding and qi-gathering" formation. A place with this kind of topography is bound to have something good.' 'Looks like I'm picking up Jiu Deng's old trade.'

Lin Yan scaled an ancient pine, surveying the scene from above. The next moment, his figure transformed into a streak of light, shooting down into the valley.

The mist in the valley was even thicker than it had appeared from above, making it impossible to see more than a few steps ahead.

Lin Yan slowed his pace, his gaze sweeping over the thick carpet of decaying leaves. They felt soft and spongy under his feet.

After about a hundred paces, he suddenly stopped.

Ahead, on a dead tree stump, grew a cluster of fungi. The caps were a dark red, their edges glowing with a purple light. The largest was as wide as a bowl, while the smallest was the size of a fist.

'Purple Lingzhi!'

Lin Yan's pupils contracted. He had actually found a Treasure Medicine.

Purple Lingzhi was a mutated variety of Lingzhi. The cap of this particular stalk was as large as a soup bowl, meaning it was at least ten years old.

'No wonder the area is covered in decaying leaves. This Purple Lingzhi must have absorbed most of the Earth Qi in the valley.'

Lin Yan took a deep breath, suppressed his excitement, and slowly approached the Purple Lingzhi. But just as he bent down to pick it, a foul wind gusted against his back.

A chill shot down Lin Yan's spine. With no time to think, he kicked off the ground and threw himself into a roll to the side.

BOOM!

A massive tiger paw slammed down on the spot where he had just been crouching, sending decaying leaves and dead branches flying.

Lin Yan scrambled to his feet. The first thing he noticed were several skulls on the ground, and then his gaze fell on the enormous lurking tiger. He instantly understood the situation.

The owners of these skulls must have met their end at this tiger's claws.

'What a cunning beast!'

'It lay in wait near the Purple Lingzhi, biding its time for me to be distracted and lower my guard before launching a sneak attack.'

Lin Yan couldn't help but curse. A Purple Lingzhi could be harvested and consumed after just three years of growth. Any Martial Artist who found one would instinctively want to pick it, making it difficult to remain calm. For this beast to hide in the mist and ambush its prey, the probability of success was extremely high.

'If I hadn't cultivated Sword Intent and developed a keen Perception for danger, I would have fallen for it this time.'

ROAR!

Its sneak attack having failed, the tiger let out a low roar. Its yellow-and-black fur rippled over bulging muscles, and it stood like a small hill. Its eyes glowed a ghostly green, filled with the cold brutality unique to wild beasts.

The tiger seemed surprised that its prey dared to meet its gaze. It pawed at the ground and let out a deep roar that echoed through the valley, making the very mist tremble.

But Lin Yan was fearless. He raised his fists, his gaze locked on the tiger.

'Facing a beast like this, retreat isn't an option.'

ROAR!

Seeing that Lin Yan wasn't retreating and had even taken a stance, the tiger grew enraged. It kicked off with its hind legs, its massive body lunging toward Lin Yan as fast as lightning!

The foul wind assaulted his face as the tiger's claws tore through the air with a sharp whistle.

Lin Yan let out a sharp cry and threw a punch!

Fist met paw.

BANG!

Lin Yan was driven back three steps. A numbing sensation spread from his fist up his entire trembling arm. The power behind the beast's pounce was the greatest he had ever faced.

The punch also made the tiger stagger in mid-air. When it landed, its front paws trembled slightly, and a flicker of disbelief flashed in its eyes.

But its bestial ferocity quickly overcame its surprise. With a roar, the tiger pounced again.

'Stone Waist Barbarian Ridge!'

His spine suddenly trembled, emitting a faint crackling sound like a bamboo shoot sprouting. Lin Yan's frame instantly grew by half a foot. He wanted to see if, with the augmentation of Stone Waist Barbarian Ridge, he could match this beast head-on with pure Power.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The sound of fist and paw colliding echoed through the valley, making the mist churn and roil.

Blood splattered as the tiger's claws tore at his knuckles, but Lin Yan's face showed no sign of worry. On the contrary, the longer he fought, the more exhilarated he felt.

This was the most exhilarating battle he had fought since embarking on the path of Martial Arts.

Even when he had sparred with Junior Brother Zhao, he had never used his full strength.

Every pounce and every bite from the tiger carried the most primitive Power and speed. It had no technique, yet its movements were perfectly natural. Amidst this exchange of pure, brute force, his Fist Momentum was actually showing faint signs of improvement.

The tiger's ferocity was also fully unleashed, its once-green eyes gradually turning scarlet. Man and beast battled in the valley, the whistle of fists and the roars of the tiger intermingling as they sent stones flying and flattened the surrounding vegetation.

However, despite constantly shifting positions, neither Lin Yan nor the tiger drew near the Purple Lingzhi.

Ten breaths!

Fifty breaths!

One hundred breaths!

Lin Yan was drenched in sweat, his clothes torn in several places by the tiger's claws, revealing bloody gashes beneath. Yet his eyes only grew brighter. The exhilarating sensation of his Qi Blood circulating at full, unreserved capacity was intoxicating.

The tiger, on the other hand, was beginning to falter. Its movements slowed, its breathing grew ragged. Though it didn't bear as many bloody gashes as Lin Yan, it had taken plenty of his fists. Its hide was a mass of bruises, and only it knew the true pain of the human's punches.

'I can't beat this human.'

ROAR!

The tiger let out a heaven-shaking roar. Lin Yan froze, on full alert, waiting for the beast to make a final, desperate stand.

In the next instant, however, the tiger feinted a lunge, then spun around and fled toward the mouth of the valley.

'It's running?'

Lin Yan was stunned for a moment. 'The beast actually knows how to create a diversion.' But it was too late to run.

SWISH!

The Longsword left its sheath. A gleaming arc sliced through the mist.

The tiger seemed to sense the danger. It whirled around, raising its paws to block the attack, but it was useless. The arc of light sliced through its forelimbs as if they were tofu, then pierced the fur on its chest, exposing the bone beneath.

Without a word, Lin Yan swung his sword again. This time, the blade plunged straight through the tiger's chest, giving the beast a quick end.

The tiger's massive body went rigid for a moment before collapsing to the ground with a heavy thud.

Ignoring the tiger's corpse for the moment, Lin Yan returned to the Purple Lingzhi. He carefully dug it out, roots and all, with his small hoe and placed it in his basket. Only then did he go back, hoist the tiger's body onto his shoulders, and leave the valley.

While the tiger's presence meant no other beasts were currently nearby, he couldn't rule out the possibility that another creature had already marked this Purple Lingzhi and was waiting for it to mature.

Such a scenario was unlikely, but not impossible.

...

「The moon hung like a silver hook.」

Atop the mountain, a campfire crackled. Lin Yan was roasting a piece of tiger meat, while on a wooden rack to the side, a dozen more strips of cleaned meat were hanging.

It had taken him over two hours to clean and butcher the tiger, but it was well worth the effort.

There was enough meat here to last him for seven days, even eating his fill.

Soon, the tiger meat over the fire was roasted to a glistening, golden-brown.

Lin Yan wrapped the meat and some wild scallions in shepherd's purse leaves he'd picked by a stream. He took a bite. Fat burst in his mouth, the rich, savory meat mixing with the pungent scallions—a mouthful of the wilderness.

'With my current grilling skills, I'd be a proper barbecue master if I went back to my past life.'

After several grilling sessions in the mountains, Lin Yan felt his skills had reached a state of perfection, in no way inferior to the masters from his past life.

As he ate, that familiar heat began to rise in his belly, even more intense than when he had eaten the bear meat.

Lin Yan stood up and began to practice the Mountain-Splitting Fist right there on the flat ground.

The wind from his punches howled, each one filled with a tiger's might.

At the height of his practice, he couldn't help but let out a long cry, startling the forest birds into a flurry of flight.

After finishing his set, he returned to the campfire and continued to eat.

He continued this cycle—eating, practicing, practicing, eating—until the moon was high overhead and all ten jin of tiger meat were gone.

...

For the next seven days, Lin Yan feasted on tiger meat as his main course, supplemented with wild pheasants, birds, mushrooms, and winter bamboo shoots. He enjoyed the mountain's bounty daily, occasionally chewing on a few Ginseng roots. The Qi Blood in his body grew at a terrifying rate.

The mountains truly held a fortune of their own.

Lin Yan now had a profound understanding of this saying, which was popular in Martial Artist circles.

Along with his Qi Blood, not only did his Martial Arts Tree grow taller, but so did his weight. He had bulked up noticeably.

'After I finish this last strip of tiger meat, I have to head back. My Bone Tempering Pills are almost gone.'

Lin Yan pulled the last medicine vial from his robes. He had long since run out of Tiger Bone Tempering Pills, and only three of the Leopard Bone Tempering Pills he'd bought from the Tang Family were left.

Most importantly, his bamboo basket was filled to the brim.

The cooked tiger meat sizzled over the campfire, dripping with fat. Just as Lin Yan reached out to take it, an aged voice sounded from behind him.

"That meat smells wonderful. Young man, might this old one trouble you for a taste?"

The voice was close. Lin Yan's back tensed. He nonchalantly placed his right hand on the sheath of his sword on the ground before turning to look.

Less than thirty feet away stood a slender, gray-haired old man, followed by a young woman in a green dress.

'An absolute powerhouse!'

Lin Yan's heart seized. With the Perception granted by his Third-Time of Skin Smoothing, no bird or beast within several dozen feet could escape his senses. Yet these two had appeared silently less than thirty feet away without him noticing a thing. Their strength was extraordinary.

Besides, there was another thing. The combination of an old man and a young girl deep in the mountains was already a classic "powerhouse" trope.

This old man was definitely a powerhouse of the senior generation, perhaps even from the generation before that.

"It is my honor that Senior has taken an interest in my cooking. Please, help yourself."