Wilderness
He Ao’s body lay prone on the vast snowfield, his snow-white tiger skin cloak covering him, camouflaging his body in the white snow.
Beside him, Sui was completely buried in the snow, only a small face with slight cracks visible, "Big guy, I feel like we asked for so much, that uncle seed a bit unhappy."
"He wasn’t unhappy; he actually welcos our demands and the more, the better," He Ao replied casually. "He’s just reminding us that what he’s doing takes ’effort.’"
"What does that an?" Sui asked, puzzled, "What’s the use of him telling us this?"
"It’s kind of like a favor," He Ao smiled casually, "When you do sothing for others, you need to show a certain degree of difficulty. That way, others will feel you’ve truly put effort into it and paid a price, making them more likely to recognize the favor they owe you.
If you accomplish it too easily, others will think it was no trouble, and feel less indebted to you."
"I don’t get it," Sui widened her eyes, "But if we owe him a favor and ask for so many conditions, won’t he dislike us and make things difficult for us?"
"He won’t. He actually wants us to owe him favors, the more, the better," He Ao said with a glance at her, "Closing the gap between strangers sotis involves ’acceptance’ more than ’giving.’
Once you accept a gift, you have a reason to ’return’ the favor, and the other party will readily accept your ’return,’ perhaps even expecting it. This back-and-forth reduces barriers and suspicion."
"Is that so?" Sui’s eyes widened, and she shook her head, then buried her cheeks in the snow, "Grown-up stuff is so complicated."
He Ao smiled but said no more, focusing his gaze on the depths of the forest ahead.
They had been away from the city for so ti now, and the sun was gradually setting, snow piled on branches, outlining the white leaves and twigs.
The snowfield was so quiet, with no birds, no human voices, and not even a trace of animals moving through the woods in the snow.
He Ao lay quietly on the ground, motionless, seemingly fused with the surrounding snowfield.
And under his gaze, as a beam of sunlight slanted over the treetop, a gigantic white creature slowly made its way through the forest.
Without hesitation, He Ao grasped the Vestara’s Spear buried beside him in the snow, his entire body shooting forward like an arrow, instantly reaching the giant white creature.
The creature sensed He Ao’s presence, suddenly raising its form. It was a massive, snow-white insect, about three to four ters wide, unable to see its tail at a glance.
Segnt after segnt of snow-white ridge covered the exterior of its body, wrapping its entire form, making the parts lying on the ground indistinguishable from the snow.
"Chirp——"
The snow insect, upon seeing He Ao, emitted a piercing screech. Under this reverberating sonic wave, the towering trees, twenty to thirty ters high, seed to shatter and collapse as if struck by a great force.
He Ao’s skin and flesh vibrated, and many previously healed wounds reopened.
However, He Ao didn’t care about these at all. In this surging sonic attack, his body accelerated rapidly, closing the distance to the snow insect in an instant and throwing the Vestara’s Spear in his hand.
The long spear shot through the firmant, piercing the snow insect’s skull instantly, as He Ao leaped into the air.
The struggling snow insect still attempted to unleash another sonic wave, but He Ao, grasping Vestara’s Spear that penetrated its body, flipped in the air and suddenly plunged downwards, stabbing into the crevice of the third segnt on the insect’s back.
Splurt——
Accompanied by a spurt of green blood, the enormous snow insect’s body crashed to the ground with a thundering sound.
anwhile, a small doll in a red dress was crawling in the snow from a distance, paddling like swimming, quickly approaching He Ao.
As He Ao pulled out the spear and jumped down from the snow insect, she jumped out to stand beside him, "Big guy, is it done?!"
"It’s done." He Ao nodded.
He lifted the long spear, slicing open the snow insect’s body, tracing along the still palpable energy circuits to find the area where energy condensed the most.
Soon, he extracted the flesh and cleaned the ground.
Sui had already gathered a few pieces of wood and brought them over,
He Ao took out an electric lighter and fuel to start a fire.
Soon, with flas blazing,
He Ao placed the at over the fire, roasting while sprinkling spices, as Sui rolled over a big log for He Ao to sit on, then rolled another one for herself, watching the roasting at and swallowing her saliva.
"Want to eat?" He Ao glanced at her and smiled.
"Can’t eat anymore," Sui patted her small belly, "I already ate several rounds of roasted at today."
They had hunted more than one exotic beast this afternoon.
But just after she said that, watching the at turn golden brown and exude a fragrant aroma, she swallowed her saliva again, hesitating, "Maybe just a little bit."
He Ao chuckled, cut off a new piece of at, skewered it on a branch, roasted it quickly, and handed it to Sui.
Sui held the branch with both hands, watching the roasted at, and started eating it in small bites with wide eyes.
He Ao also brought the previously large piece of roasted at to his mouth.
With the first bite, a rich energy—or ’Earth Qi’—flowed into his mouth.
Soon, this Earth Qi mixed with his Heaven Qi, quickly rging into his flesh and blood, forming new Divine Sense, rapidly enhancing his physical fitness.
This was an improved thod from the ’dietary supplent’ technique in the Martial Arts World, integrated into his Martial Arts Cultivation thod—essentially hunting energy-rich creatures and eating the area with the highest energy directly.
Initially, He Ao wasn’t skilled, trying several tis before finding the most energy-dense area.
Except for the Talent Sequences, the most refined energy in an exotic beast might just be in that small area, and consuming these parts, combined with Breathing and Exhaling Techniques, can refine substantial energy.
However, although this thod yields energy quickly, it’s still limited by the individual’s body and the maximum energy they can control.
Simply put, it’s like hitting a bottleneck.
He Ao didn’t face a bottleneck, so he could fully absorb and convert the energy from the flesh into his body.
Soon, He Ao finished the roasted at, looking at his body’s physical fitness in his field of view.
Physical fitness: 1630.
Outside Willens City, there were a total of three C-level exotic beasts, and this snow worm was the last one. These three exotic beasts were quite strong, among the top tier of C-levels, together providing He Ao with more than 700 points in physical fitness.
Of course, this also had to do with He Ao tinkering with this cultivation thod, using Divine Sense to forcefully open up energy circuits, resulting in a very high energy conversion rate, and Loren’s talent being exceptional.
For a normal Martial Artist, even increasing 300 would be considered top-notch.
But even so, He Ao’s physical fitness still hadn’t reached the threshold of B-level.
He turned his head to look at the giant snow worm corpse beside him.
If he could finish consuming the remaining snow worm corpse, he could probably improve quite a bit more.
But he really couldn’t eat any more.
He raised his hand, picked up the walkie-talkie on his chest, and pressed a button.
Soon, accompanied by the roar of machinery, snow vehicles and transport trucks erged from the snowfield.
Soon, a snow off-road vehicle stopped in front of them.
A man with all-white hair, a white short beard, dressed in a silver suit with a white pin on his chest, looking quite distinguished, stepped down from the off-road vehicle.
He looked at He Ao and quickly walked over, sighing, "Luo, your actions are much faster than I imagined."
He glanced at the snow worm corpse beside him, "Such a powerful exotic beast, yet you killed it so effortlessly."
Luo was the fake identity na prepared for He Ao by Denon.
"After all, it’s getting dark," He Ao said softly, "I have to go ho."
"Alright," the elderly man nodded with a smile, taking out seven finger-sized tal small blocks from his pocket, six red and one blue, "This is the paynt we agreed upon. These seven are all hardware wallets, all containing cryptocurrency. The red ones are worth one million federal coins each, the blue one is worth five hundred thousand federal coins, totaling six and a half million federal coins for the three C-level exotic beasts."
"Thank you." He Ao reached out and took the hardware wallets from his hand.
"Are you coming again tomorrow?" The elderly man looked up with a smile at He Ao.
"I probably won’t be coming tomorrow," He Ao shook his head, looking at the elderly man, "Are there any other C-level exotic beasts around here?"
"No more," the elderly man shook his head, "The only C-level exotic beasts with fixed habitats near Willens are these three,"
He lifted his head, gazing at the vast snowfield behind him, and smiled, "Actually, you’re right not to co. A moderate amount of hunting helps to maintain the stability of the forest, while excessive hunting can lead the wilderness into chaos, nature collapses, and brings calamity upon humanity itself."
"Sounds like you’re a wilderness conservationist?" He Ao placed the hardware wallets into a fur-rolled pocket, and gave the elderly man a slightly surprised look.
"Actually, I am a botanist," the elderly man replied with a smile, looking at He Ao, "and also a believer in the forest."
"A believer in the forest?" He Ao raised his eyebrows slightly.
"An organization that worships the forest, we are committed to protecting the forest and nature, preserving the stability of the natural order, and preventing the forest from collapsing due to human expansion," the elderly man chuckled, "I can sense that you’re a kind person, would you be interested in learning about our organization?"
"I’ll pass," He Ao replied with a smile, shaking his head, "I rarely join organizations,"
He turned his gaze to those lifting the snow worm’s corpse onto a truck with cranes, and curiously asked, "But if your goal is to protect nature, why are you involved in acquiring exotic beast corpses?"
"Appropriate slaughter is also a part of the forest’s order," the elderly man glanced at the people dealing with the exotic beast corpses and smiled, "Moreover, if we didn’t do this, others would. When we handle it, we can use various thods to limit the slaughter and handle the aftermath better, avoiding secondary disasters that might cause true damage to the forest. Besides,"
He chuckled, looking at He Ao, "As an organization, we also need to manage operating costs, doing these things alleviates so of our financial pressures."
"Makes sense," He Ao chuckled, looking at the elderly man, casually asked, "So does your organization have a deity of belief?"
Hearing this, the elderly man was slightly taken aback, then he just gazed at He Ao, with an intriguing tone and a gentle smile, "A Divine Being exists if you believe in it. If you believe, then it exists."
"Sounds philosophical," He Ao nodded slightly, looking up at the sun sliding towards the horizon in the sky, "It’s about ti, I have to go."
"Alright, I’ll have my convoy give you a ride," the elderly man waved a hand, and a snow off-road vehicle drove over. He looked at He Ao, smiling, "We’ll et again if it’s ant to be, and you can contact us anyti if you beco interested in our organization."
"Until we et again." He Ao slightly nodded and waved goodbye to the elderly man.
Sui climbed onto his shoulder, also waved goodbye to the elderly man, and the two of them got into the off-road vehicle together.
"Sir, do you think he’s compassionate?" asked the driver of the off-road vehicle behind the elderly man, coming down to look at the departing vehicle, puzzled.
"Certainly compassionate," the elderly man smiled and shook his head, turning to look at the snow worm, observing the wounds running through it, "He strikes swiftly and decisively, hardly giving the exotic beast a mont of suffering. He kills because his current state requires it, not because he’s fond of killing."
He shook his head, slowly walking toward the transport vehicles, "In truth, he’s more compassionate than many people."
——
Wilens Willow District
He Ao glanced at the position on his wristband, looking up at the slightly remote and old coffee shop before him.
He pushed open the sowhat discolored glass door, entering the coffee shop interior.
This coffee shop was unusually spacious and simple, with only a few patrons, and He Ao’s gaze quickly fell on a man in the corner, covered with an overcoat and with a round-brimd hat shading his face.
He approached and sat opposite the man, placing Sui on the adjacent chair, and smiled at the man, "You look like a spy eting his contact in that outfit."
"Secrecy is crucial," Denon raised his head to look at He Ao and smiled.
He took two Secret Silver Test Tubes from his pocket and handed them to He Ao, "These are the life-enhancent potions you wanted, three million federal coins each."
"How much?" He Ao’s eyes widened slightly.
"Three million," Denon seed to have anticipated He Ao’s reaction and smiled, "I haven’t overcharged you. The price given by the seller was this much, plus this potion isn’t a formally launched version, it’s an experintal one, and what I got from the seller was a 50% discount on the loss price."
He Ao took the test tubes and observed the inverted Stars and Seas emblem printed on them, "Produced by Stars Pharma?"
"Yes, it’s said to be made using an exotic beast at extraction technology they created. The technology isn’t fully matured yet and not much of this potion has been made. These two are just freshly out."
Denon watched He Ao, who seed hesitant, and laughed, "Have you read so of the ’human experintation’ news about Stars Pharma? You can trust , this potion should indeed be extracted from exotic beasts, they wouldn’t deceive ."
"Alright," He Ao glanced at the potion and put it away, looking at Denon, "Let’s talk about the key figure in that Anomaly Sect you’re planning to capture?"
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