Chinese Martial Arts: My Super Beast Clone

The sun was setting in the west, and the sky was gradually darkening.

The light in the woods was already poor, and at night it was pitch black. Old Seven worked quickly and started a campfire in a slightly open clearing.

The firelight made the shadows of the surrounding trees sway and flicker.

He had already skinned a tiger cub, cut off several large pieces of hind leg meat, skewered them with sharpened branches, and roasted them over a fire.

The grease dripped into the fire, making a sizzling sound, and the aroma of meat spread with the smoke.

Lin Hai, Zhao Peng, and Sun Datou sat around the fire. Zhou Tong, whose injuries were the most severe, applied medicine and leaned against a tree to rest with his eyes closed, not joining them.

"It smells so good." Sun Datou stared at the roasting meat on the fire, his mouth almost watering. "I've never eaten tiger meat before."

"Tiger meat has a strong, unpleasant smell, it doesn't taste good." Old Seven flipped the skewers. "But this is the meat of a tiger cub, it's tender and less gamey. Grilled with wild scallions from the mountains, it's alright."

He picked a handful of wild onions from the ground beside him, squeezed out the juice, and brushed it onto the meat with pine branches.

Lin Hai took the piece of roasted meat that Lao Qi handed him and took a bite. The meat was firm and had a gamey smell, but it wasn't bad at all. He hadn't eaten much all day, so it tasted especially delicious at that moment.

"How long has Master been gone?" Zhao Peng asked, gnawing on a piece of meat.

Lin Hai looked up at the sky: "It's been almost two hours."

"What do you think Master went to do?" Sun Datou asked, his mouth full of meat, his words muffled.

Zhao Peng hesitated for a moment, then lowered his voice: "I guess... he probably went to find that jade-horned deer."

Lin Hai glanced at him.

"That's a treasure beast," Zhao Peng analyzed. "Although Master didn't say anything, he definitely remembered it. After killing the tiger, what else could he be doing going deep into the forest alone if not looking for a treasure beast?"

"That makes sense," Sun Datou nodded.

Lin Hai did not respond.

He had another plan in mind: he sent the dragon-snake lizard this way because he also wanted to find the jade-horned deer.

"Who cares?" Sun Datou finished one skewer of meat and went to get a second. "We can't worry about Master's affairs. But you, Zhao Peng, were you frightened today?"

Zhao Peng's face flushed again, but this time he didn't evade the question: "Indeed. Although it's just a cub, it's much fiercer than I thought. I thought I was prepared, but when I actually faced it, I realized... it's completely different from driving a stake."

"The wooden stake won't bite," Sun Datou said.

"Yes." Zhao Peng gave a wry smile.

Lin Hai patted Zhao Peng on the shoulder: "Stop thinking about it, eat meat, eat meat."

About an hour later, footsteps could be heard coming from deep in the woods.

Lu Zhengchuan's figure appeared at the edge of the firelight.

His expression remained unchanged, revealing nothing, but he returned empty-handed, clearly having failed to find the jade-horned deer.

The three stood up: "Master."

Lu Zhengchuan waved his hand, sat down by the fire, picked up the roasted tiger meat that was left next to him, and stuffed it into his mouth to chew.

After chewing a few bites, Lu Zhengchuan said, "We'll spend the night here. Lin Hai will be on the first shift, and Zhao Peng on the second, each for an hour and a half. Zhou Tong and Sun Datou are injured, so they don't need to keep watch."

"Yes," the three replied.

"We'll head back to Yangcheng when it's light." Lu Zhengchuan tore off another piece of meat, chewing as he spoke. "Wild animals roam the mountains at night. If you hear any noise, don't panic, just shout to warn them."

The campfire crackled and popped, sending sparks into the night sky.

The darkness in the forest was as thick as ink; the firelight only illuminated an area of ​​a few feet in radius, beyond which nothing could be seen. Occasionally, the wind would whistle through the treetops, making a mournful sound.

Sun Datou and Zhao Peng went to sleep one after the other.

Lin Hai sat by the fire to keep watch, adding two more pieces of dry firewood to the flames.

He closed his eyes, his spirit extending outward along that invisible connection.

The dragon lizard is still outside the mountain and is moving rapidly in this direction. At its speed, it should arrive around midnight.

Lin Hai opened his eyes, looking at the flickering flames, his mind preoccupied with the matter of the jade-horned deer.

Lu Zhengchuan searched for so long without finding it, which shows that this treasure beast is indeed difficult to catch. But the dragon-snake lizard is different; it is a natural hunter, and tracking scents is its instinct.

Night had fallen, and the temperature in the forest had dropped considerably. Lin Hai wrapped his coat tighter around himself, his eyes scanning the surrounding darkness warily.

A wolf howl drifted faintly from afar, long and mournful, before fading into silence.

The firewood in the bonfire had burned down to just red embers, so Lin Hai added a few more pieces.

The night passed peacefully.

……

As dawn broke, the mist in the forest had not yet dissipated.

The last wisp of smoke rose from the embers of the campfire, only to be dispersed by the morning breeze.

Lu Zhengchuan was the first to open his eyes. He was a light sleeper, and he could hear everything.

"Get up, all of you, and prepare to return to the city."

Zhou Tong and Sun Datou struggled to sit up. Although they had taken medicine overnight, their wounds still stung, and any movement made them grimace.

Zhao Peng and Lin Hai were in much better shape and quickly got ready.

The four tiger carcasses were quite heavy.

Zhou Tong and Sun Datou were injured, so they naturally couldn't be made to carry any more weight.

Lu Zhengchuan carried the largest female tiger on his own shoulders. The huge body, nearly ten feet long, pressed down on his shoulders, yet he walked steadily, as if his feet were rooted to the ground.

Lin Hai, Zhao Peng, and Lao Qi were responsible for the remaining three tiger cubs.

Even a cub weighs over a hundred pounds. Lin Hai tossed the tiger carcass onto his shoulder, then lowered his body, naturally engaging his Tiger-Taming Stance, and his steps immediately became much more stable.

The group left the forest and placed the tiger carcass on the horse's back.

As dusk fell, the familiar outline of Yangcheng finally came into view.

Upon entering the city, the pedestrians on the street, seeing the bloodstained tiger carcass they were carrying on their shoulders, were all horrified and avoided them, whispering and pointing amongst themselves.

"They're from the Tiger-Taming Martial Arts School!"

"My goodness! Did they go into the mountains to hunt tigers? And they killed four of them at once!"

"Judging by its bloody state, it must have been killed not long ago..."

Hearing the surrounding chatter, Sun Datou, though still in pain, held his head high and his face was full of smugness. In his eyes, this was glory earned with his life, and it was incredibly glamorous.

After passing through several streets and alleys, the black lacquered gate of the Fuhu Martial Arts School finally came into view.

As Lu Zhengchuan led everyone through the martial arts school gate, the noisy sounds in the courtyard abruptly ceased.

The twenty-odd disciples who were practicing standing meditation all stopped and stared intently at the group of people who had entered, as well as the tiger corpses on their shoulders.

The smell of blood mixed with the smell of sweat instantly filled everyone's nostrils.

"Master, you're back."

Senior Brother Chen Wu quickly stepped forward to greet him.

"Bang!"

Lu Zhengchuan threw the tigress's carcass from his shoulder onto the open ground in the center of the yard, causing the ground to tremble.

Lin Hai and Zhao Peng also put the tiger cub down.

The sight of four tiger corpses piled together was immense. Some of the newer disciples, in particular, had never seen anything like it before, and for a moment they didn't dare to breathe.

"Alright." Lu Zhengchuan untied the pipe from his waist, lit it with a match, and took a deep drag.

Smoke swirled around.

"Chen Wu, take a few men and skin the tiger. Then sort and put away the other materials. I'm going to start the furnace to refine medicine tomorrow."

"Yes, Master!" Chen Wu replied.