Chapter 169: Starting to Act

The honey sauce emitted a nose‑tingling fragrance, golden yellow with a hint of dark red. "Is this thing formed after the giant hornet devours that flesh and blood?" Bai Lang dabbed a bit with his fingertip. "Joke. How could I be such a glutton, daring to shove something unclear and dubious into my mouth? Aren't you afraid of death?"

"Mmm, really sweet! And I feel this blood‑Qi and strength swelling!" Bai Lang licked the honey on his fingertip. This stuff, brewed from flesh and blood, truly is a great tonic for vital energy—perhaps also due to some mysterious substances in the giant hornet's body. Bai Lang lamented that he had no vessel to hold this honey, and the honey here seemed to weigh a thousand jin at the start, so even if he filled a container it would be inconvenient to carry away.

"Alas, truly destitute!" Bai Lang said resentfully, viciously licking several more mouthfuls of the honey, then affixed the torn bark and trunk together. The Guard Mansion's exchange catalog listed storage bracelets and other treasures comparable to a Nasu Mi in a Jiazi, but Bai Lang could never afford them.

"Even the cheapest one in there probably requires capturing everyone on the bounty list to claim the reward before it can be exchanged." Bai Lang let out a few sighs; after all, no one carries a bunch of bottles when going out, especially when they have to fight—bottles and jars are just a hassle. So Bai Lang sighed three times, gulped three huge mouthfuls of honey, and walked away without looking back.

"Good stuff—three bites and my whole body heats up, Internal Force feels as if I'd drunk wine, pleasantly buzzing with power." This honey even has a slight heady effect, so it must be quality—probably non‑poisonous. Bai Lang took out a sheet of paper, sketched with a charcoal pencil, climbed to the treetop and recorded the surrounding terrain; from now on he'll definitely bring loads of bottles and storage bracelets to sweep this place.

He figured he could make a fortune! Bai Lang's mood instantly brightened, and he pressed deeper into the mountain range. This transverse ridge also belongs to the Yu Vein here; the outer mountains are full of tigers and black bears, but once inside it's truly the realm of poisonous insects and small monsters.

For example, those strange trees and their symbiotic giant hornets; Bai Lang also saw a spider the size of a calf. This creature doesn't rely on weaving webs to ambush prey—it jumps like a wolf spider, and even when it uses silk it spits out sticky web projectiles to trap the prey's legs.

When Bai Lang saw it, the calf‑sized spider was chasing a strange ox with only a forehead protruding a single horn. Before Bai Lang could act, the spider shot a clump of silk from its back; the silk elongated in the wind, forming a net like a fishing net that ensnared the ox's rear half. The ox stumbled and toppled headfirst. The spider leapt onto the ox's body, bit once, and the ox collapsed weakly.

The mantis catches the cicada while the oriole waits—while the spider was perched on the strange ox, a branch flew in and bounced, but the spider was also knocked off the ox and fell aside. "Didn't expect every bug here to have a damn good shell! Even the spider—now I've got my hands dirty again!" Bai Lang cursed as he leapt out, dug with his hand and snapped off the bucket‑sized spider's head, tossing it behind him.

Bai Lang examined the spider closely, but didn't gut it to retrieve any possible silk sac. When he looked back at the strange ox, it had already turned into pus. "Impressive......" The ox's body, aside from the bones, had liquefied into pus, its skin gradually disintegrating, the pus splashing everywhere. Bai Lang grinned, quickly leapt away, and walked off without looking back.

"Aha… finally found it." Bai Lang had been wandering the mountains for four days and five nights, his whole body filthy and disheveled, and at last he located the scattered populace in the valley between two mountains. Indeed, a settlement exudes the aura of human habitation, something Bai Lang could faintly discern after achieving the Innate Expert stage. It's usually of little use, but now it helps him locate a village.

"I've heard some can 'see Qi' and spot the aura of a few‑hundred‑person village from dozens of li away. I can't do that; I have to get within two hundred zhang to see it." Bai Lang muttered as he approached the village that was still indistinct.

As expected, it was hidden extremely well; from the outside the village was invisible, only by climbing to two hilltops and looking down could one see parts of the buildings, and the cultivated fields lay within the settlement. At both ends leading to the outer valleys were excellently concealed outposts. "These two approaches can only accommodate a few people; a large army could never get in." Bai Lang, observing the terrain, understood the situation.

He strode through in full view; Lightness Skill made him sweep the pass like a gale. When he charged in, many old and young thieves brandishing weapons rushed out. Bai Lang whistled, and he realized that each of those two hilltops had several cave entrances; most of the villagers actually lived inside the caves, so it's no wonder you can't see much from outside or above.

"Gentlemen, young and old!" Bai Lang's voice, infused with Internal Force, reverberated through the whole village. "Your deeds have been exposed! Time to pay the price!" With that, Bai Lang immediately struck at the first villager who charged forward shouting "Eagle‑Claw Sun, to death!"

At his Innate Expert level, there are certainly higher‑grade, easier techniques that could instantly dominate the whole field—but he doesn't have them yet, and Bai Lang originally intended to hone his newly acquired skills in battle, perhaps

The first strike naturally began with the simpler Arhat Renwang Fist; the villager before him and the large group behind him, Bai Lang instantly recognized as having completed the minor micro‑cosmic cycle, making them sub‑Innate, mid‑level cultivators—likely because years of thievery

Bai Lang assumed the Arhat Renwang stance, "Wind‑Killing Vajra Fist!" Though he didn't shout the technique's name aloud, he could accompany it with music in his mind, even add oil… or maybe some oil… Shak… Perhaps one day Bai Lang will become a man with built‑in BGM; don't be surprised if the world's divine arts multiply, maybe some technique will spontaneously generate music in the air. It should be known that certain divine arts, even those beyond the Innate stage, possess a heart‑to‑heart transmission ability, which already transcends the realm of "martial arts".

He brought his palms together, thrusting forward, and a whirlwind blew out parallel to the ground from his hands, then split into two spiraling gusts rotating in opposite directions, engulfing the villager before him and beginning to shred him……