Surviving in the chaos of war begins in the wilderness.

Chapter 113 Gao Xiaoyi's Departure

When he sensed the footsteps chasing him getting closer and closer, the man was clearly panicked.

Seeing that the man was about to turn around and fight back, Zhou Ye quickly whispered, "Xiao Yi, it's me. It's me, A Ye."

"Huh? Brother Ye?" Gao Xiaoyi stopped in his tracks, both surprised and delighted.

"Don't stop, come with me."

"oh oh."

'

"I never expected that Gao Xiaoyi is also close to breaking through to the late stage of the Qi realm. In particular, his archery skills are quite superb, no less than mine."

Consider how long Zhou Ye practiced archery, and how long Gao Xiaoyi practiced? Their training conditions were vastly different. Yet Gao Xiaoyi managed to surpass him?

Without a doubt, this is Gao Xiaoyi's talent. It's something others can only envy.

Interestingly, Gao Xiaoyi was held back by his parents. If he had laid a solid foundation from a young age, who knows how amazing his achievements would have been?

Half an hour later, Zhou Ye brought Gao Xiaoyi back to their home at the dock. Only then did the two of them relax.

"Xiao Yi, you kept this from me for so long! I was so worried about you, but it turns out you're already a master of the Entry-level!" Zhou Ye laughed.

"Tch, Brother Ye, aren't you the same?" Gao Xiaoyi gave him a disdainful look. "Actually, I didn't know at first. I thought my dad was just teaching me some country-style tricks. Later, after hearing Xiao Jie and the others talk, I realized I'd really gotten into it. But besides liking to shoot arrows, I don't know how to fight. My parents will worry—Mom, Mom, Dad, Mom—"

As he spoke, Gao Xiaoyi burst into tears.

Actually, some things don't need to be explicitly stated. Gao Xiaoyi chose to avenge his parents, and Zhou Ye chose the same reason. So, after their chance encounter tonight, their relationship became even closer.

"Xiao Yi, what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know. I'm only sure of one thing—my parents were both wrong, and some things can't be avoided."

"Then you should leave the county town as soon as possible. Your strength is still not enough; you should at least wait until you break through to the Ming Jin level. Besides, Xiong Ge and the Flower Snake Gang are both members of the Woodcutter Gang, and they will definitely track you down. Many of the neighbors know that you practice archery regularly."

Furthermore, with so many spies in the gang, it's too dangerous for you to stay in the county town.

"Okay! Brother Ye, you can arrange it for me!" Gao Xiaoyi readily agreed.

The following evening, Gao Xiaoyi smiled and waved to Zhou Ye as he boarded a boat bound for the state capital.

Zhou Ye found it quite amusing. Things are unpredictable; this "ticket" was originally intended for Xiao Jie, but unexpectedly, it ended up being used for Gao Xiaoyi?

Before Gao Xiaoyi left, Zhou Ye also gave him weapons, leather armor, martial arts manuals, and all the remaining low-grade Qi and Blood Pills and 300 taels of silver.

Since the two had become sworn brothers, Gao Xiaoyi didn't refuse such kindness. He carefully put away the items and embarked on that unknown road—

Watching the ship sail further and further away, Zhou Ye sighed deeply. This parting might be the last time they met in this lifetime!

Why--!

However, with everything settled, I was finally able to let go of all my worries.

The next morning, Zhou Ye stepped into the mountain pass leading into the mountains. Before him lay a vast expanse of white snow-covered mountains and plains. He suddenly let out a long howl and sped off towards his small home.

However, just as they returned to the entrance of their little home, Hua Hua, limping, came looking for them. It rubbed against Zhou Ye, looking quite aggrieved. One wonders what kind of wild beast this silly leopard had fought with, leaving it covered in wounds?

"Didn't I tell you? If you can't beat them, run away! Don't be reckless! The way of the underdog is to be a hero!" Zhou Ye said with a laugh as he prepared to treat Hua Hua's injuries.

Hua Hua has been placed in a warm room. It lies on the floor, licking a large piece of jerky from a monster, wagging its tail: "Two-legged beast, Leopard, don't be angry. You can scold Leopard all you want. As long as there's food and drink, that's fine."

"Alright, time to stitch up your wound. Flower, be good—! It's time to take your medicine, right? Hahaha!"

"Waaah—! You two-legged creature, you want to eat monster meat. What exactly did you let the leopard smell?!"

Under the influence of the muscle relaxant, Hua Hua was instantly paralyzed. Zhou Ye then took out a needle and thread and carefully stitched up its wound.

To be honest, although he had read so many medical books and acquired a lot of medical knowledge, Zhou Ye had never treated a patient, and he had never even worked as a veterinarian.

Therefore, Zhou Ye was quite nervous when he first started stitching up the wound.

But as he sewed, that mysterious feeling returned? It was the same sense of control he had over the smallest details that night when he was shooting arrows. Zhou Ye reached a state of complete absorption, utterly focused on mending and healing Hua Hua's wounds—

More than half an hour later, after applying medicine and bandaging the silly leopard, Zhou Ye became thoughtful.

Although I don't know what that mysterious feeling is, it's definitely something good. So, does this mysterious feeling occur not only during battle but also during the process of treating patients?

Forget it, if I can't figure it out right now, I'll just stop thinking about it.

For the next few days, Zhou Ye stayed by Hua Hua's side as it recovered. Only after its condition had improved did he release Hua Hua back into the wild and quickly head towards the Gray Swamp.

More than two months later, in the misty area on the outskirts of the gray swamp.

On a patch of muddy ground, two porcupines lay in pools of blood. The last remaining one, seeing no way to escape, launched a final, desperate charge at a human.

When the distance was only about thirty steps, the porcupine shook itself, and three thorns remaining on its back shot out.

Unexpectedly, the human suddenly split into two figures in a flash. Although the split was very brief, it still startled the porcupine.

The three thorns missed their mark, and then the man took a few leaps, swung his sword, and the porcupine's head flew into the air—

After putting away his weapons, Zhou Ye began to happily process his prey.

The quilled porcupine hide can be used to make leather armor, and the quills are excellent materials for making arrowheads and spearheads. The meat can be cured into salted meat, with the heart meat being the core essence.

The blood of the porcupine isn't very useful. Unlike the fire lizards we hunted a few days ago, whose blood is a key ingredient in some kind of elixir. It can aid in the cultivation of certain fire-attribute techniques.

You know what, after studying the books from the Gu family that introduced materials related to monsters, my efficiency in collecting monster materials greatly improved.

The only troublesome part is that it requires very careful sorting afterward, classifying each type of monster material. This takes a considerable amount of time.

However, during the process of segmentation, as long as you can concentrate fully, that mysterious feeling will appear, which is similar to the effect of diagnosing and treating patients.

In this way, the battle with the monsters will have a mysterious feel, and the process of dividing the monsters into materials will also have a mysterious feel. In total, we won twice!

Since Zhou Ye's blood-changing technique had reached a minor level of mastery, the miasma surrounding the Gray Swamp no longer had much of an effect on him.

However, precisely because the Gray Swamp's environment is extremely harsh, it is sparsely populated, resulting in a relatively large number of monsters. Even though Zhou Ye only frequents the area near the edge of the deep mountains, monsters still often appear there.

Therefore, during this period, Zhou Ye hunted at least one or two monsters every day. Among them, the two most common types were the thorny porcupine and the fire lizard.

Was the fire lizard the same kind of monster meat that Zhou Ye ate for the first time when Song Zhongqi treated him to a meal? Not only were its skin, blood, and fangs excellent monster materials, but the most precious part was the large tendon inside the fire lizard. This was a top-grade material for making bowstrings.

Unfortunately, the fire lizard is not like the porcupine. Although it is a relatively common monster with a wide distribution, it is extremely wary and will flee from a distance. Therefore, in the end, Zhou Ye hunted relatively few fire lizards.

Regardless, based on the catch in just these few days, the amount of monster meat has reached nearly 10,000 jin (approximately 5,000 kg). Its value should be around 5,000 to 6000...

Two. The other monster materials are also worth 2 to 3000 taels. And there are also the unique herbs of the Gray Swamp, which are plentiful here and could sell for over a thousand taels—right?

It's important to understand that this was with Zhou Ye restraining his hunting efforts, as he didn't want to deplete the resources. Therefore, in the end, he would sometimes let go of those early-stage Qi Refining demonic beasts.

However, it must be said that only a few late-stage Qi Refining demonic beasts were hunted, a total of only five. Therefore, late-stage Qi Refining demonic beasts are still quite rare.

After moving everything back to the temporary camp in the cave, Zhou Ye saw that it was already full. He stroked his chin and thought for a while before finally deciding to end this winter training exercise.

In the past two months, Zhou Ye first leveled up his third-rate archery skills to the maximum level, and obtained the maximum level reward: Strength +2, 2 free attribute points.

Basic Thrust is also maxed out, guaranteeing a minimum of 1 free attribute point as a reward for reaching max level.

Finally, I maxed out the Cloud Ladder and received the max level reward: +2 Agility and 1 free attribute point.

Furthermore, after integrating the Cloud Ladder into the Shadow Splitting Step, the Shadow Splitting Step also reached mastery. Moreover, during combat, one can briefly possess two shadow clones by creating afterimages.

Of course, Azure Dragon has also entered the beginner level and has received a beginner reward of 1 free attribute point.

Now, Zhou Ye has 5 free attribute points again. If it weren't for the lesson learned from the last battle in the Black Forest, which cost a full 6 free attribute points, Zhou Ye would have wanted to add another point to his constitution long ago.

Even so, there are only about three months left until he breaks through to the Mingjin level.

Unfortunately, the New Year has passed, and Zhou Ye has grown another year older, becoming 17. However, this time there won't be any New Year's gifts. He's probably entered a stable period of development and will need to grow and mature for several more years, right?

Zhou Ye decided to keep all the heart and flesh of the late-stage Qi Refining demon beasts. The rest—300 jin for the He family, and 200 jin for Wang Zhengyu. Even now, Zhou Ye still felt a little embarrassed, so he decided to give the Wang family a little more demon beast meat! As for the Gu family? He'd give them about 100 jin, though! At least Gu Jiu was quite agreeable to him.

The problem is, there's just too much monster meat! We can only send it out in batches every few months, slowly processing it all. The only good news is that we don't need to hunt anymore for the entire year.

Otherwise, a good hunting spot, like a monster spawn point in a game, will also arouse the envy of others.

If these companies have any bad intentions, wouldn't they just be asking for trouble?

So that's the downside of monster meat; the powerful families in the county town control almost all the sales channels. Unlike the previous wild animal meat, which could be sold in smaller quantities to the mountain market.

Speaking of the mountain market? It seems like there are tens of thousands of kilograms of salted fish and salted beef stored in the small courtyard—right?

Why--!

They moved everything from the temporary camp back to their small home.

For the next two weeks, Zhou Ye was busy moving various things. Apart from some monster meat, monster materials, and herbs, he sold most of the salted fish and salted beef to the mountain market.

Unexpectedly, due to the winter snow disaster, the prices of various grains and food items have doubled again. Salted fish and salted beef alone sold for more than 2100 taels. This time, Zhou Ye exchanged them for two 1000-tael silver notes.

Having already spent almost all their money on the previous purchase of a warehouse full of fabric, plus expenses for the auction, the black market, and gifts to Gao Xiaoyi, they were now making a significant financial comeback.

Finally back in the county town, Zhou Ye breathed a sigh of relief. Next, he would go into seclusion and train, determined to break through to the Ming Jin stage!

However, before going into seclusion, Zhou Ye had one more thing to deal with—

Inside the Fenglei Martial Arts School, Zhou Ye was chatting with Du Juan and Xiao Cui, the mistress and servant.

"Junior sister, I know. It's that person from your family—"

"It's not just anyone, it's your senior brother Song Zhongqi."

"I understand, I understand, his name isn't important —"

"It's very important!" The master and servant giggled incessantly.

"Alright. That's important then." Zhou Ye waved his hand dismissively. "Isn't it just that Senior Brother Song stole the show at the martial arts tournament, causing the heroines to scream?"

"There are no more heroines! Senior Brother Aye, you're so mean! Hmph. Those senior masters praised you, Senior Brother Song, saying that you are like warm jade and your sword is like a spring breeze. So now your reputation has soared in the martial arts world of the entire state, and everyone calls you Spring Breeze Sword."

Huh? Spring Breeze Sword? This kind of title must be mass-produced, right? Maybe those senior masters couldn't bear to lose face, so to do a favor for the young talents, they simply gave each person a nice evaluation?

As long as you guys have fun! As long as it's not something like that from Chunfeng!

However, reputation is indeed quite important; at least it can fool outsiders. Once Song Zhongqi returns to Fufeng County, won't his fame spread far and wide?

To put it bluntly, they can even collect more in "temporary employee" fees. The students at Fenglei Martial Arts School can collect significantly more.

Ultimately, Zhou Ye and Song Zhongqi are on completely different tracks. Zhou Ye is mainly focused on building his skills, while Song Zhongqi is solely focused on gaining fame!

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