'Oh Look! Most of these tasks outside the safe zone are generic fetch quests. Fetch x spirit beast body-parts. Fetch y spirit herbs. Since only Core Formation cultivators can freely exit the sect, I suppose fetch quests make sense.' thought Fang Hao as he pondered over the available tasks. Most of the tasks were to kill spirit beasts and retrieve various carcasses or certain spirit herbs. Some tasks were collection of natural oddities / resources but they were far too rare. Sometimes years passed by and the collection of these rare resources were completed successfully.
'I know jackshit about spirit herbs, and those rare resources are basically a lottery. So the best is to focus on killing spirit beasts and taking their carcasses! Still I should make a note of the spirit herbs and rare resources the sect is paying contribution points for. If I see them on the way, might as well collect it.' thought Fang Hao as he systematically memorized all the spirit beasts/ spirit herbs / rare resources which the sect gave missions to Qi Condensation disciples for. He spent almost a month memorizing and doing preliminary research about the various spirit beasts / spirit herbs.
While the spirit beasts were relatively easy, the spirit herbs were a headache. Many of those herbs looked very similar to each other, but their properties varied from being highly poisonous to highly beneficial. To complicate matters more, some spirit plants could have different parts with different toxicity. There was a type of gray-red spirit grass, which had very beneficial roots but the stalks could cause a Qi Condensation cultivator to lose access to their Qi when ingested.
Feeling a lot of headache at this, Fang Hao decided to just memorize any spirit plant which was even vaguely poisonous and avoid them the best he could. He wasn't an alchemist after-all and didn't require those spirit herbs and killing spirit beasts for contribution points would be much more efficient. He didn't want to end with a year long diarrhea handling some leaves incorrectly. Of course, he also made it a point to memorize some of the notable spirit herbs which provided contribution points and weren't too troublesome to gather. But these spirit herbs usually had some sort of spirit beast guarding them.
After a month of detailed study, Fang Hao deemed himself ready to exit the safe zone of the sect. He took up a mission of delivering wind wolf carcasses. Wind wolves tended to gather in a pack of around half a dozen or so and an adult wind wolf would have power comparable to a fourth/fifth layer Qi Condensation disciple. The strongest would be the pack leader who would be slightly stronger than a sixth layer Qi Condensation disciple. Generally, it was advised for Inner Disciples to avoid Wind wolves unless they were in groups of three or more, with at least one member being sixth layer of Qi Condensation with others at fourth/fifth layer of Qi Condensation.
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Most of the power of the wind wolves was focused on their body and they had high endurance and relatively quick speeds. Hence a lone Qi Condensation disciple could be ambushed and slaughtered if they had their guard down. Even most of the basic Qi Shields by inner disciples at sixth level or so couldn't last long under the barrage of wind blade-like abilities which were innate to the wind wolves. However, Fang Hao was confident about dealing with an average pack even withot using any talismans or his shit-hit-the-fan trump cards.
The wind wolves had a moderate offense with above average speed and endurance and were usually in small groups of up to 6-7. Their Defense wasn't anything special. Even if push comes to shove, and Fang Hao depleted all his Qi dealing with a pack of wind wolves, he was confident to take them out with his raw physical strength and the enhanced recovery / stamina which Primordial Marrow, he could literally exhaust themselves to death and make meat pulp out of them. Just to obfuscate his true goals, he accepted extra half a dozen spirit beast slaying missions with no penalty for failure. Better paranoid than dead, that was his thoughts. He soon transported to an outpost near the border of the safe zone, did the necessary formalities and finally exit the safe zone of the sect near the section of the woods which had packs of spirit wolves.
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the sect a group of inner disciples were discussing. An inner disciple said to his peers, “Fellow Apprentice Brothers, finally that fat turtle Fang Hao has exited the safe zone of the sect. Now is the chance to get our revenge.” with an ugly look on his face. This was none other than Zhen Ji, who had offended Old Man Zhu and was defeated twice by Fang Hao. Recently, he had successfully broken through to the 7th layer of Qi Condensation and gathered some flunkies at the 5th/6th layer of Qi Condensation with the help of the resources his Elder Brother had provided him.
In spite of his Elder Brother being a lofty Core Disciple in the foundation Establishment Stage, his brother had refused to directly deal with Fang Hao and at best could provide indirect help towards him. His brother said that since a Great Elder had his eye on Fang Hao, if a Core Disciple went to deal with him, they wouldn't turn a blind eye like usual. And Fang Hao was very cautious, never fighting in the lethal arena and never exiting the safe zone of the sect. This caused Zhen Ji to feel impotent rage at Fang Hao.
Thus he had endured till now, and planned to kill Fang Hao when he was outside the sect's safe zone. To this end he had bitterly cultivated for years and also gathered influence and followers with the exchange of resources. The pressure Zhen Ji was enduring, along with the resources from his brother, caused him to cultivate quickly with a surprising momentum. However, he instictively knew that unless he killed Fang Hao, he would face a heart demon sooner or later and it would become a bottleneck to breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Stage. Of course, he was extremely biased in his conclusion conveniently ignoring that he was acting like an arrogant prick to offend Old man Zhu and failed to vent his frustrations on Fang Hao.