Stop it, Taoist, Your Fight almost Ruins the DAO!

Chapter 37 Gathering Herbs, The Wild Boar King and Cultivation.

The sun was already high in the sky—three pole lengths high to be exact—when Yi Chen leisurely opened his eyes, the warm sunlight already beating down on him.

He had slept incredibly well, both his body and mind had greatly relaxed, and the weakness that came after the transformation into extreme Yang had completely vanished.

This made Yi Chen feel even more invigorated.

"I wonder, if I had a fight with the master that the white-haired old ghost spoke of, who would have a better chance of winning," Yi Chen suddenly thought a bold idea.

"If that mysterious master isn't human but a demonic creature, they should be worth quite a lot of Deep Red Points," he speculated.

With a powerful weapon in hand, a killing intent naturally arises.

Times change.

Now, possessing the Dragon-Slaying Sword and the seventh level of the True Pure Yang Skill, Yi Chen felt a bit inflated inside. If he was still on the sixth level of the True Pure Yang Skill, his heart would definitely be uneasy.

But the seventh level of the True Pure Yang Skill not only increased his attributes significantly on paper, the purity and recovery speed of his Inner Qi had also greatly improved. This caused a slight shift in his mentality.

The eagle dares to perch on the branch growing on the edge of the cliff, not because it trusts the strength of the branch, but because it trusts its own wings more.

Even if the branch breaks, with the eagle's strength, a flap of its wings would be enough to fly away.

Yi Chen was now in a similar state of mind.

It's important to note that the Soul Ignition Technique could increase his current strength fivefold at its peak; although it came with significant risks, it also improved his ability to take risks further.

He craved Deep Red Points more than anything.

Right now, his Inner Qi was a deep purple. If he could go one step further, who knows what kind of world that would be.

To have a mortal body, yet stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Zhang Ji Shi, the Heavenly Master? Tsk, tsk, tsk.

He's getting ahead of himself, swept away by his imagination.

He probably won't reach the level of the Heavenly Master in just a few more steps.

The road to cultivation is long and arduous, I shall search high and low.

Yi Chen focused his mind and dispelled those unrealistic fantasies. Meals should be eaten one bite at a time, just as the road should be walked one step at a time.

First, he would set a small goal—to take down the Yin Manor.

After breakfast, as usual, Yi Chen did a set of prisoner workouts for himself.

What he found regrettable was that, since the breakthrough of the Minor Pure Yang Skill to the seventh layer, his physique had become so strong that it was unimaginable to the average person. Such workouts could no longer stimulate his body to produce Origin Points.

"This doesn't seem to work anymore. Do I have to go fish bombing again today?" Yi Chen was particularly attentive to Origin Points as one of the stable paths to getting stronger, but fish bombing was also like a nightmarish memory for him. Even thinking back on it made his mouth twitch.

He had persevered, all thanks to his will to survive and grow stronger, and his hatred toward the Yin Manor.

"Maybe I should take a half-day off. After all, humans are not machines. Relaxation is just as important as tension in the way of civil and martial arts."

"How about I go up the mountain today, gather some medicinal herbs that boost Qi and blood for my junior brother, and if I can hunt some game, that'd be even better."

Riding a bike to the bar, saving where I can, spending where I need to.

Yi Chen too, lived day by day. Though he had gained a considerable amount of silver notes recently, and his financial pressure had eased up, he had also spent nearly three hundred taels on supplies, so it was still best not to spend frivolously.

Thus, his gaze turned toward Falling Dragon Mountain.

Hidden Dragon Temple was located at the foot of Falling Dragon Mountain, standing tall and majestic. The mountain was home to countless birds and beasts and was over a thousand meters high; it might be a good idea to climb the mountain with a load to hunt and gather herbs.

"Junior brother, I'm going up the mountain to take a look around and see if I can find any game or wild ginseng to bring back to nourish you," Yi Chen told Qing Yunzi in the main hall, then turned and left.

Qing Yunzi was still in the stage of refining essence into Qi, requiring a large amount of meat to replenish. Although the county lord had sponsored some good herbs, they weren't enough for a few meals.

Those herbs could speed up cultivation but only a little.

It was clear that eating more meat and drinking some blood-enriching and Qi-boosting soup was more suitable for the frail constitution of a poor kiddo.

Carrying a barbell made from a stone mill, and under the watchful eyes of Qing Feng and Ming Yue, who had straight black lines on their faces, Yi Chen jogged all the way to the Falling Dragon Mountain.

"Second brother, how come our eldest brother has gotten so much sturdier than before? Look at his arms, they're thicker than my waist!" Qing Feng tugged at Qing Yunzi, who was meditating in the front hall, and exaggeratedly gestured with his hands.

Qing Yunzi laughed and delivered a knuckle-rap to Qing Feng's head. "Pay attention to your chanting instead of making up stories about our senior brother."

Ming Yue, seeing Qing Feng being hit, giggled gleefully until a glance from Qing Yunzi made her immediately sit up straight, as decorous as a little adult.

If it wasn't for the periodic influx of worshippers into the temple on the first or fifteenth days of the lunar month, they'd rarely need to serve the visitors.

Qing Yunzi glanced at his two younger martial brothers, then his gaze followed the distant figure of Yi Chen.

"No matter what secrets you have, as long as you're still my martial brother, that's all that matters," murmured Qing Yunzi to himself. Then he smiled heartily and continued his cultivation.

….

With the homemade barbell on his shoulders, Yi Chen jogged his way up Falling Dragon Mountain, pushing his physical limits to the extreme.

Halfway up the mountain, when he came across suitable blood-enriching and Qi-boosting herbs, he would stop to pick them and store them in the pouch he carried with him.

Unfortunately, on his way up, he hadn't encountered any medium or large-sized wild animals—just a small grey rabbit and a wild chicken dashed in front of him. Considering their size, barely weighing three taels, Yi Chen didn't bother to chase them. Generously, he let them go and spared them from disaster.

"Huff, huff."

Half an hour later, at a break in the path near a cliffside, Yi Chen put down the heavy barbell and his breathing became noticeably rougher.

Using weighted mountain climbing to stimulate the body still had some effect. Of course, it didn't compare to fish bombing, but at least it was somewhat effective—just not up to Yi Chen's expectations.

If it weren't for the threat of the Yin Manor looming over his head, he might have chosen this kind of training. But now, it was obviously not suitable.

It was too slow.

Just as Yi Chen was stretching his body in the sunlight, a faint cry for help carried by the distant breeze caught his attention.

"Help, is there anyone there?"

"Help, a wild boar is going to eat someone!"

This cry for help immediately stopped Yi Chen in his tracks.

"An emergency?"

"A wild boar?"

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Having grasped the keywords, Yi Chen instantly perked up; however, once bitten, twice shy, he still activated his Yin Yang Cave Divine Pupil Technique, casting a wary eye around the vicinity, but he found no traces of Yin Qi.

Only then did he move stealthily like a civet cat towards the direction of the screams.

As he approached the source of the noise, Yi Chen climbed a rather thick tree and saw a young girl, dressed like a herb collector, trembling atop a large tree thick enough for a person to embrace, loudly calling for help.

Beneath the tree, an enormous wild boar nearly three meters long relentlessly slammed against the trunk, its crimson eyes suggesting a grudge as if the girl had slain its entire family, causing a flutter of leaves to fall from the canopy.

"What a massive wild boar."

"It must be the king of the wild boars here, how big of a pot would it take to stew it?"

"It has a fate with our Hidden Dragon Temple."

Witnessing the scene before him, Yi Chen couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.

The boar, nearly three meters long, had its bristles standing up like steel needles pointing straight into the sky, while its body was covered in a thick layer of tree resin, resembling armor.

With the wild boar's continual battering, the tree was already shedding wood chips and teetering on the brink of collapse, causing the young girl perched upon it to be close to tears.

If only she knew the large wild boar was nearby, she wouldn't have poisoned those piglets...

Exhaling white breaths from its snout, the King of Wild Boars dug at the ground with its hind hooves, geared up for a fatal charge at the tree, while a look of despair flashed through the eyes of the girl above.

A frenzied wild boar is so fearsome that even a fierce tiger of the forest would steer clear, and it seemed inevitable that her fate was sealed today.

She wasn't even married yet; listening to Wang Da-niang from her village say that it's great fun to be with...she felt genuine regret.

Just as the girl was closing her eyes, preparing to face the judgment of fate, a thunderous roar echoed throughout the forest.

"You wild boar, let go of that girl!"

A towering figure appeared, bounding over in a few leaps, landing like a divine soldier to intercept the charging path of the King of Wild Boars.

With a thud.

A pair of large hands firmly gripped the charging boar's head, forcefully halting its momentum.

The herb-dressed girl, who expected the tree to fall at any moment, opened her tightly shut eyes, her lips agape, shocked by the sight before her.

A man strong as a bear had descended from the sky, one hand pressing on the boar king's skull, while his other fan-sized palm alternatively struck the boar's huge face.

The boar king frantically dug at the ground and roared angrily, but to no avail against the enhanced strength of Yi Chen.

After several enhancements, Yi Chen's arm strength had reached nearly ten thousand pounds. The inner Qi of the True Pure Yang Skill is refined from one's own blood energy, hence practitioners of the Minor Pure Yang Skill were often broad and robust, like Yi Chen's master Bai Yunzi.

Yi Chen, who had cultivated the Minor Pure Yang Skill to the seventh level, was even more terrifyingly strong.

"Trying to wrestle with a poor Taoist like me? You're still too unseasoned," Yi Chen said mockingly to the still digging and resisting boar king.

Next, he delivered a forceful elbow strike to the head of the boar king, the impact sending the boar sprawling to the ground.

Crack.

A bone-chilling sound of snapping echoed, and the boar king's eyes nearly bulged out. Yi Chen clapped his hands and kicked its skull, and the weighty body of the boar king slid across the ground for over ten meters, breaking several trees before it finally came to a halt.

It slumped over, neck crooked, and ascended to heaven.

This scene left the young girl on the tree shaken and astounded.

My goodness, that physique...

"Miss, come on down."

....

....

Minutes later, Yi Chen descended the mountain with a medicine basket slung over his back, a self-made barbell in his left hand, and the King of Wild Boars, weighing over a thousand pounds, slung over his right shoulder, puffing and panting along the way.

The medicine basket, of course, was the girl's way of saying thank you, containing medicinal herbs for replenishing Qi and blood.

After a few minutes of conversation, Yi Chen finally learned the reason behind the wild boar's madness: it turned out that the herb-collecting girl, named Chun Ya, was from the nearby Rolling Stone Town.

She had gone up the mountain today to collect herbs and, upon seeing a nest of piglets, acted on her hunting instinct and smeared the corn she brought with the juice of a toxic herb called "Broken Intestine Grass" before feeding it to the piglets.

A few minutes later, as the boar king prowled nearby, it returned to find all its piglets laid out, witnessing the girl who was about to scavenge them, which sparked its rage.

After hearing the full story, Yi Chen was speechless at the girl's audacity and cunning; she was indeed bold and meticulous, daring in her actions.

By the time Yi Chen returned to the temple, it was nearly noon. He handed the medicine basket to Qing Yunzi.

"Junior brother, the basket contains some herbs for replenishing Qi and blood. Stew them into a soup and drink it yourself," he said.

After taking a glance at the contents of the basket, Qing Yunzi's expression froze.

"Senior brother..."

"Is there a problem?"

"A little one."

"Speak."

"These herbs indeed replenish Qi and blood, but they seem to be intended for women to recuperate after their monthly period," said Qing Yunzi softly.

"Ah... Ah? Well, that's quite tonic, apt for your stage of refining essence into Qi, don't waste it," Yi Chen replied.

With a silent groan, Qing Yunzi walked towards the kitchen with a constipated look, vowing silently that come what may in his cultivation, even if he died from a deficit of Qi and blood during the phase of refining essence into Qi, he would not drink that concoction.

In the afternoon, after Yi Chen had finished processing the entire wild boar, salting it well, he then threw himself back into the strenuous task of frying fish.

Day and night, without rest.

The muscles of Yi Taoist were earned through sweat and labor.

Qing Feng sneakily watched his senior brother fry fish, with the same fascination as some people have when watching blacksmiths shoe a donkey.

It's worth mentioning that.

Tonight, Hidden Dragon Temple would not eat fish.

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