Chapter 7: Bloodstains

At the western foot of the Magic Beast Mountain Range, a town stood here.

This town was called Qingshan Town. Because of its proximity to the Magic Beast Mountain Range, a large number of mercenaries and merchants who made their living by hunting Magic Beasts and gathering medicinal herbs gathered here, together forming this prosperous little town.

Amid the bustling streets, Xiao Yan surveyed the surrounding merchants with great interest. Suddenly, Xiao Yan's gaze paused on a building with a plaque reading "Wanyao Zhai." In the original work, it was precisely in this shop that Xiao Yan met Little Doctor Fairy while competing for the Blood Lotus Essence. However, this time, having arrived three years earlier, Xiao Yan neither saw the Blood Lotus Essence nor encountered that girl.

But Xiao Yan did not feel any sense of loss — after all, this was expected. He silently noted the location of Wanyao Zhai, then strolled around the area.

Over the next few days, Xiao Yan still did not see Little Doctor Fairy. However, he did buy a residence less than half a street away from Wanyao Zhai. After all, Xiao Yan was still a Young Master from a wealthy family — he had the money for it.

After settling in, Xiao Yan began preparing to enter the Magic Beast Mountain Range. He was here for training after all; he couldn't keep his mind on women. Women only slow down Xiao Yan's cultivation speed! This book's first release is at Heavenly Reading Novels — vast library, 𝕥𝕥𝕜𝕤. 𝕥𝕨, your choice, providing you with an error-free, non-shuffled chapter reading experience.

Since this was his first time entering the Magic Beast Mountain Range, although Xiao Yan considered himself a protagonist and unlikely to die in such a place, caution made for a safe voyage. Xiao Yan still decided to first find a team to enter the Magic Beast Mountain Range with, to familiarize himself with the environment. As for whether he would encounter some cliché plotlines, Xiao Yan said — if this is the fate of a protagonist, then bring it on!

Walking to the City Gate on the side of Qingshan Town closest to the Magic Beast Mountain Range, many Mercenary Groups were already shouting nonstop, recruiting members to enter the Magic Beast Mountain Range together. Although Xiao Yan had never really understood why teammates who needed to share hardships and entrust their lives to each other could be recruited on the spot, since this kind of Mercenary Group was convenient for him right now, he didn't look into it further. But after all, this was a team that would be taking risks together, so Xiao Yan didn't just pick one at random — he carefully observed his surroundings.

Soon, Xiao Yan took a liking to a Mercenary Group whose Leader was a Nine Star Dou Zhe. Hearing the name, it was called the Blood Battle Mercenary Corps. The leading Nine Star Dou Zhe was named Feilei. Xiao Yan inquired a little from the people around — the man was fairly upright. Whether this was true or not was unknown, but clearly there was no time to confirm it now. Moreover, with Xiao Yan's current strength, whether good or bad, they all had to be good!

Soon, Xiao Yan arrived at the Blood Battle Mercenary Corps's station.

"Name, age, cultivation." The person in charge of registration asked in order.

"Yao Yan, 17 years old, Three Star Dou Zhe." Xiao Yan answered in order.

"Oh, a little genius!" The registrar looked up in some surprise. Due to the body-tempering by Strange Fire, Xiao Yan was much taller than a normal twelve-year-old child, and his features were more mature. So the other party did not doubt Xiao Yan's age.

"But kid, the Magic Beast Mountain Range isn't a place that looks at talent. You'd better come back in a few years." The registrar said somewhat kindly. As long as it didn't affect his own interests, he was still willing to do a little good.

"No need, I know what I'm doing. Please help me with the enrollment procedures." Xiao Yan said with a smile.

"Very well, I hope you don't wet your pants from being scared by a Magic Beast." The registrar processed the procedures for Xiao Yan as usual. In a short while, Xiao Yan successfully joined this Mercenary Group.

"The mercenary's pay is 500 Gold Coins. This Mercenary Group's mission is to explore new areas and map them, so we'll be going fairly deep into the Magic Beast Mountain Range. No quitting midway, all actions follow commands. Magic Beasts killed by the group belong to the Mercenary Group, and the Captain will distribute Gold Coins according to merit. Magic Beasts killed individually must be sold collectively by the team. Gathered herbs belong to the individual. Any questions?"

"No problem." Xiao Yan smiled and nodded, not having listened seriously at all. After all, these things meant nothing to Xiao Yan, who had the Volcano Stone Flame as a cultivation resource. He only needed this team to teach him some experience in dealing with Magic Beasts and to find a suitable place for cultivation.

Deep in the forest, the large group of people marched in an orderly fashion. From the scouts exploring ahead to the rear guard bringing up the back, each had their own duties.

Perhaps seeing that Xiao Yan was relatively young, Captain Feilei kept Xiao Yan in the relatively safe middle company, acting together with a few other relatively young people.

"The most important things when traveling in the Magic Beast Mountain Range are avoiding the activity ranges of powerful Magic Beasts and identifying herbs that can be gathered. Take this Blood Coagulation Grass as an example, it…" In the center of the team, a middle-aged man was introducing travel experience in the Magic Beast Mountain Range to three young people in the team, currently explaining how to distinguish herbs commonly used by mercenaries. Although Xiao Yan had Yao Lao's alchemy inheritance and knew the names and appearances of most medicinal materials on the Dou Qi Continent, that was after all knowledge from books, so he was currently listening carefully along with the other two.

The lecturer was named Cheng Dadao, the Vice Captain of the Blood Battle Mercenary Corps, an Eight Star Dou Zhe. Despite his rough-sounding name, he was very meticulous and very willing to look after the young people in the team. So every time there were new young people in the team, he was the one responsible for them. The two youths listening together with Xiao Yan were named Li Peng and Xu Yang, both locals of Qingshan Town.

"Alright, that's all for now. Go back and memorize it. In a while we'll reach a place with a lot of Blood Coagulation Grass. When the time comes, you go pick some for me." After saying this, Cheng Dadao waved his hand and turned to busy himself with other things. After all, as Vice Captain, he couldn't really spend all day hovering around a few young people.

Soon, the team arrived at a place covered in Blood Coagulation Grass. Captain Feilei ordered the team to rest on the spot, and Xiao Yan, following Vice Captain Cheng Dadao's instructions, took Li Peng and Xu Yang along to gather Blood Coagulation Grass.

Since this spot was clearly a place frequently visited by Mercenary Groups, the Blood Coagulation Grass at the edges had basically all been picked. Xiao Yan's group could only go deeper.

"Damn it! I came here to be a mercenary! Not to eat grass!" Of the three, Li Peng, who had the hottest temper, was clearly dissatisfied with a herb-gathering mission like this and was now cursing and complaining.

The other one, Xu Yang, was a more delicate person and did not echo Li Peng's complaints, instead seriously gathering Blood Coagulation Grass. Although this was a dense area of Blood Coagulation Grass, it was only dense — in reality, weeds were still more numerous, and there were also many Blood Coagulation Grasses that were either unripe or already aged with poor medicinal efficacy, so careful discernment was still required.

As for Xiao Yan, naturally he was even less likely to echo some hot-tempered young whippersnapper.

Suddenly, Xu Yang let out a cry of surprise: "Yao Yan, Li Peng, come quickly!"

At Xu Yang's location, there was a Blood Coagulation Grass growing extremely vigorously, more than five times larger than its surrounding counterparts.

"Whoa, Xu Yang, I was wondering what you were yelling about — turns out you hit the jackpot!" Li Peng said somewhat enviously.

But a solemn expression appeared on Xu Yang and Xiao Yan's faces.

"Yao Yan, do you still remember what Vice Captain Cheng said just now?" Xu Yang asked with a solemn expression.

"Of course. You want to say that Blood Coagulation Grass, this kind of herb, will swell up due to irrigation by fresh blood, right?" Xiao Yan said. He then reached out and parted the leaves of the Blood Coagulation Grass, and sure enough, near the root he saw a patch of dark red bloodstains.

Xiao Yan reached out and carefully sensed the energy contained within the bloodstains.

"This is — bloodstains from a Second Order Monster Beast!"