Chapter 80: Venturing Out on an Adventure

For the next half month, Deputy Leader Yi Zhen continued to lead the uninjured warriors of the tribe to mine premium elemental stones outside the core region. Yi Tian and his companions did not participate in these mining operations. They remained on guard at the outer passages of the mine, wary of the martial artists searching throughout the periphery of the Fulong Mountains.

From time to time, Yi Tian and his men witnessed powerful cultivators streaking across the sky in the distance. The radiant surge of elemental energy had attracted all the factions that had previously departed, prompting them to return and scour the hundreds or thousands of miles around the Fulong Mountains. This relentless search brought disaster to the wild beasts inhabiting the outskirts. Even low-level fierce beasts were slaughtered one by one, and the death toll rose sharply each day. Naturally, some martial artists also fell prey to those extremely dangerous beasts and monsters.

Thus, fifteen days passed in the blink of an eye. The food supplies within the mine were nearly depleted, enough for only two or three more days. Hunting outside was now an urgent necessity.

"Yi Tian, you and the others remain on guard in the mine. I will take a team out to hunt!" Yi Zhen finally could not restrain himself. Although venturing out to hunt might draw the attention of other martial artists and risk exposing their secret, they had reached a dead end; if they did not hunt, starvation was imminent.

Yi Tian pondered for a moment and said, "Uncle Yi Zhen, you should stay in the mine. Our Samsara Squad will take twenty warriors out to hunt and aim to return within a day."

"No, you can’t possibly manage it. Let me go instead!" Yi Zhen insisted. He knew all too well that hunting at such a critical moment might mean confronting the forces searching the mountains—perhaps even encountering powerful cultivators. A brutal fight could break out, and the danger would be immense.

Yi Tian replied, "Let our Samsara Squad escort the hunting party. Unless we run into a cultivator of the Human Tier, we have little to fear. Each member of our squad has trained in the Sun-Shooting Heavenly Arts and is stronger than even you, Uncle Yi Zhen. Let it be settled."

In the end, Deputy Leader Yi Zhen had to give up his plan to lead the hunt. Yi Tian spoke truly: many high-level tribal warriors had now mastered the Sun-Shooting Heavenly Arts. Though they were only beginners, their archery skills had reached a formidable level, making even an eighth-tier tribal warrior hard-pressed to match them.

Yi Zhen longed for the legendary inheritance of the tribe’s heavenly arts, hoping to end the mining and return home as soon as possible. Yet, he could only wait until the elemental crystals were fully mined or until other warriors arrived to relieve them.

The hundred or so tribal warriors were quite safe within the elemental vein mine, hundreds of feet underground. Even if someone entered Peach Blossom Valley to search, it would be difficult to find the vein or discover the tribe’s presence.

After all, the fissure was unremarkable—narrow, long, and extending dozens of miles deep. Most martial artists would neither notice nor venture within. Moreover, deep inside the fissure’s mine, even if attacked, they could hold the passage against all comers; unless a Human Tier cultivator intervened, the mine would remain secure.

On this day, Yi Tian’s six-man Samsara Squad and twenty chosen tribal warriors prepared to set out. They traversed the fissure, emerging into Peach Blossom Valley. Immediately, they invoked the Featherflight Technique, soaring up the steep mountain walls. The three to four hundred feet ascent was accomplished in just twenty or thirty breaths.

Vigilant, Yi Tian and his team surveyed their surroundings but found no one nearby. They then sped through the forests with the Featherflight Technique, moving as effortlessly as if walking on level ground. Even the wild beasts they passed barely had time to react before the hunters vanished into the distance.

They traveled swiftly. Within a hundred miles, they encountered three groups—some were members of organized forces, others were joint expeditions by various martial artists. Seeing Yi Tian’s formidable twenty-man team, none dared provoke them. Their powerful auras revealed them to be elite warriors. Some native martial artists recognized them as members of the Yi Tribe and stayed well clear.

Yi Tian’s party pressed deeper, traveling hundreds of miles to the inner edge of the Fulong Mountains—a prime hunting ground where fierce beasts roamed. Suddenly, from a distant cave, a rock python erupted forth, stretching nearly a hundred feet long. The python quickly spotted Yi Tian’s group and charged, smashing stones and earth mounds aside, its gaping maw open as it surged toward them.

"A rock python! It’s said that rock pythons can transform their bodies into stone and launch deadly ambushes. But their meat is astonishingly tender and delicious," Yi Kuang exclaimed with delight.

He drew his great bow and, with a swift twang, sent an arrow slicing through the air. In an instant, it pierced through the python’s gaping mouth and skull, killing the beast in a single strike.

The mid-level fierce beast was slain effortlessly by Yi Kuang’s arrow. The group then set about butchering the python and collecting its meat.

Before departing for the hunt, Yi Tian, Yi Shan, and two others had emptied their storage pouches of elemental stones, allowing them to carry more beast meat. Only Yi Kuang and Yi Hong lacked storage pouches, and they gazed enviously at their companions.

Although they now possessed a fortune in elemental stones, comparable to that of a major faction in Black Dragon City, acquiring storage pouches was still not easy. Such items only appeared at auctions or could be purchased in the county seat of Jingmu County, a journey of tens of thousands of miles—a daunting distance.

With over a hundred people in the mine, they consumed several thousand pounds of beast meat daily. Yet the massive size of the beasts meant even the smallest weighed thousands of pounds, while some low-level monsters reached tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds; a few kills could sustain the tribe for a month.

The only drawback was that with just twenty men, they could not transport too much prey. As beast after beast was hunted, the storage pouches of Yi Tian and his three companions quickly filled, leaving him dissatisfied with their limited space. Only a few yards in size, they could not hold much. Clearly, on their next visit to Jingmu County, they would need to upgrade to storage rings.

Once their pouches could hold no more, Yi Kuang, Yi Hong, and the twenty tribal warriors butchered and packed the remaining prey, each carrying several thousand pounds. It took two hours to gather all the hunted meat—at least one hundred sixty or seventy thousand pounds. This would feed the mine’s hundred warriors for a month.

"Let’s go back," Yi Tian announced, leading the hunting party back toward Peach Blossom Valley.

When they were still over ten miles from the valley, they halted. Guided by experienced hunters, they settled into a cave in a nearby mountain. Yi Tian understood the logic: to carry prey down to Peach Blossom Valley, even for high-level warriors adept at the Featherflight Technique, too much weight would hinder the technique and risk their lives.

Thus, after every hunt, they stored the meat in this cave. Deputy Leader Yi Zhen, with the tribe’s sole storage pouch, would then ferry the beast meat to the mine beneath Peach Blossom Valley, trip by trip. This greatly minimized the risk of their movements being discovered.

"Yi Feng, Yi Shan, Yi Li, let’s head down to Peach Blossom Valley. Two trips should suffice," Yi Tian called, instructing Yi Kuang, Yi Hong, and the twenty warriors to remain and guard the cave while he and his companions departed for the valley.