Chapter 14: They Have Arrived

On the afternoon of this day, traps and mechanisms were being built everywhere in Qinghe Village. The Flying Tiger Demon and its minions could attack Qinghe Village at any moment, and the villagers all felt a tremendous sense of crisis. Without needing the father and son of the Meng family to urge them, every villager still capable of moving was working against the clock.

The sooner the traps and mechanisms were built, the fewer people would die in the battle. The villagers were not stupid; they could calculate that much clearly.

By the time it was nearly dark, the traps and mechanisms inside and outside the village were basically finished. The villagers finished their work and gathered once again at Meng Yifan's house to eat. Fifty or sixty people ate half of a Big Dog Bear's meat again. Seeing the food dwindling day by day, Meng Dayong felt very pained.

These five Big Dog Bears were obtained by the two of them fighting with their lives. If only the two of them were eating, they could have lasted at least a month, but letting the whole village eat together, they could barely manage four or five days.

And this was only letting the young and strong eat until half-full; if they were to let go and gorge themselves, they could eat all the meat of the five Big Dog Bears in a single meal.

"Father, don't feel pained. Once the Wild Beasts come, we will have endless meat to eat," Meng Yifan comforted him.

Meng Dayong nodded. He was also a reasonable man who knew that a great battle could arrive at any moment. This was not the time to be stingy with food; only by letting everyone eat the bear meat would they have the strength to fight the Wild Beasts with their lives.

At night, Meng Yifan arranged the villagers for night watch. Each villager held a bronze gong; as soon as they discovered the tracks of demons, they would strike the gong, and the entire village would be startled awake and plunge into battle.

When it was finally free in the evening, Meng Yifan sat cross-legged in meditation, practicing the Bull Strength technique. After the True Qi had circulated through his meridians for one Great Heavenly Cycle, he felt a tiny, faint trace of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi drill into his body from the top of his head, his palms, and the soles of his feet. After refining this Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, an hour had passed.

Meng Yifan sensed the True Qi within his body and discovered almost no increase, which left him somewhat disappointed. He opened his eyes to check the Game Panel and found that the proficiency of Bull Strength had increased by 0.05.

No wonder he couldn't sense it himself; practicing one Great Heavenly Cycle only increased the True Qi by such a tiny amount. If the Game Panel couldn't display the proficiency precisely, he really wouldn't have noticed the increase in his True Qi.

"One hour of practice only increased the Experience Value by 0.05. This is too little. Killing a random Unranked enemy gives 1 point of Experience Value, which is equivalent to practicing 20 Great Heavenly Cycles," Meng Yifan muttered.

His current aptitude was 0.2. Practicing one Great Heavenly Cycle would increase proficiency by 0.01 to 0.2, with the specific amount determined by the technique being practiced and the environment one was in.

"Bull Strength" was just a very ordinary cultivation technique, and the environment Meng Yifan was in was not some Cave Heaven Blessed Land; the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was thin, so it was nothing strange that practicing once only increased the Experience Value by 0.05.

"Fly legs are meat too; continue practicing." Meng Yifan entered the cultivation state once again. After another hour passed, he slowly ended his practice and checked the Game Panel again, finding that the proficiency of Bull Strength had increased by another 0.05.

"Practiced two Great Heavenly Cycles and only increased the proficiency by 0.1. If I rely on my own practice, who knows when I'll break through to a First Grade Martial Artist. It seems that if I want to quickly improve my strength, I have to rely on fighting monsters to level up."

"The original owner's cultivation aptitude is truly too trashy; he is simply a good-for-nothing."

"Fortunately, I have the Game Panel. As long as I have sufficient experience, I can quickly improve my aptitude; it's more useful than any Spirit Pill." Meng Yifan decided that once he had sufficient Experience Value in the future, he could improve his own aptitude.

Practicing "Bull Strength" required intense focus, with one's mind constantly guiding the True Qi to wander through the meridians. The slightest carelessness could lead to chaotic True Qi, resulting in vomiting blood at best, or falling into a demonic state at worst. Therefore, the process of cultivation was more exhausting than running a marathon.

Today, circulating two Great Heavenly Cycles was already Meng Yifan's limit. If he were to force himself to continue practicing, not only would it not increase his cultivation, but it might also cause him to injure himself.

The normal method of cultivation emphasizes a balance of tension and relaxation; haste makes waste. Meng Yifan slowly ended his practice and lay on the bed, preparing to get a good night's sleep.

On the first day of transmigrating here, Meng Yifan had already experienced several great battles. He felt physically and mentally exhausted; such days were even more tiring than being a mercenary on Earth.

Before falling asleep, Meng Yifan felt a bit moved. He wondered if he could return to Earth after he fell asleep. As a mercenary, he hadn't even spent the money he earned by risking his life. If he disappeared from Earth completely, he didn't know which bastard would benefit from all that money.

The next day, the Greater Yang rose as usual. Meng Yifan woke up, opened his eyes, and looked at his dilapidated thatched cottage. He shook his head in disappointment and muttered, "Is it really impossible to go back?"

On this day, Meng Dayong took five villagers with a talent for operating cannons to urgently train in cannon-firing techniques, while Meng Yifan led the other villagers to continue building defensive fortifications.

Lao Liutou in the village was a barefoot doctor. He knew some ancestral medical skills, and anyone in the village with a headache or fever would go to him.

Lao Liutou could detoxify and also make poisons. In order to resist the demon invasion, he contributed all the poisons he had made.

This made Meng Yifan overjoyed. He arranged for the villagers to smear poison on the spear tips in the pit traps, so that as long as they pierced the skin and fur of the Wild Beasts, they could poison them.

This day was another busy one. By the time it was nearly dark, the Flying Tiger Demon and its minions still hadn't come, which made Meng Yifan somewhat suspicious. Could it be that the Flying Tiger Demon wasn't coming?

Late at night, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and one could not see one's own fingers. In the mist outside Qinghe Village, a dense mass of Wild Beasts suddenly appeared—jackals, wolves, tigers, leopards, blind bears, thick pythons, and so on. Every Wild Beast that existed in Jiguan Mountain had come.

Strangely, all these Wild Beasts held a tree branch in their mouths, their footsteps light, not making a single sound as they silently approached Qinghe Village.

Wang Er, who was on night watch, stood on the watchtower, vigilantly scanning the surroundings. According to the night watch rules arranged by Meng Yifan, one person only needed to watch for two hours before someone came to change shifts.

However, if anyone dared to fall asleep while on duty, they could forget about ever going to the Meng house to eat again.

The village had long since run out of food. If they didn't go to the Meng house to eat, they could only eat Guanyin clay or wait to starve to death. Therefore, this punishment of Meng Yifan's was very severe for the villagers of Qinghe Village. Wang Er did not dare to violate it, so even in the dead of night, he remained focused on the village entrance, holding the bronze gong, ready to strike it at any moment.

But outside the village was the mist, and tonight the sky was covered with dark clouds; it could be said that one could not see one's own fingers. Even if Wang Er opened his eyes wide, he could not see the large number of Wild Beasts quietly closing in on Qinghe Village in the mist.

"Crack! Crack!"

"Puchi! Puchi!"

A sound suddenly came from the mist, which gave Wang Er a sudden shock. He knew that something had stepped on the trap cover, fallen in, and been pierced by the iron spears.

Judging from the dense sounds, a large number of Wild Beasts must have come into the mist.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!" Wang Er hurriedly struck the bronze gong, while shouting at the top of his lungs, "The Wild Beasts are here! The Wild Beasts are here!"

Meng Yifan and Meng Dayong were both startled awake and rushed out of their rooms. Seeing that some of the villagers were already awake, Meng Dayong gathered his Qi and shouted, "Everyone, do not panic! According to the positions agreed upon earlier, everyone to their posts, prepare for battle!"

In these two days, Meng Yifan had long since formulated a battle plan and had also arranged for the villagers to practice it. Therefore, although it was late at night and visibility was poor, the villagers did not run around like headless flies. Instead, they took their weapons and quickly arrived at their designated positions, ready for battle.