As he entered the Virtue Hall, Long Feng failed to found his master anywhere within the hall, so he has no choice, but to attend the plants he supposed to, and prepare all the ingredient ready for his master when he returns.
As he completed all the works he supposed to do, Long Feng invite himself into the Heaven and Earth Stabilizing Formation and starts meditating in the room. One hour, two hour and soon when the fourth hour is over, Long Feng finally feel comfortable with his current cultivation stability and exit the room.
But he still failed to see his master.
Disappointed, Long Feng entered his master room, only to found a piece of paper on the table.
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Urgent Notification
Attention to all elders, due to the rising threat from the cultivation beast within the Forest of West Jade.
The Three halls of Clear Jade City had decided that the issue shall be attended, and each hall shall distribute their disciples to reduce the threat from the rising population of the cultivation beast within the forest.
Elder Tang Wen.
Elder Tang Yao.
Elder Tu Bo.
This three elder would be assigned to temporary assist the other hall's disciple and elder in the field of medicine, pills and ingredient preparations.
An announcement would be made to recruit participants in helping with eliminating the beast population in the Forest of West Jade tomorrow.
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"Seems like master had been sent to the leadership camp for the three Halls Alliance." Long Feng guess what happened since his master is not around the hall today.
"Since that's the case, I guess I will keep the ingredients on the shelves, and let master withdraw them to use later." Long Feng place the ingredient he recently harvests today into the shelves, and return to his room immediately.
That night, Long Feng drips some blood on the Charm of Light once again, and see how the piece of treasure absorb his blood instantly.
Later, Long Feng spend some time to meditate and also taking care of his Atlas Worm before he went to sleep.
The next morning, Long Feng and the others are woken by the loud noise coming from the open area below the residential building.
"Listen Carefully!" an elder stands up on a stone podium and speaks loudly.
"Currently the cultivation beast within the Forest of West Jade is over populated, and due to this matter, many cultivation beasts started to try entering the city outskirt and attacking many of the resident's livestock."
"And because of this matter, many troops has fallen due to the ambush by the beast, and we are spending a large sum of money to recruit more soldiers and strengthen the city defense."
"Now, the three halls finally decided to recruit the hall disciple to participate in eliminating the beast population, and rewards will be given to the disciple for each of their kills."
"They are also will be allowed to keep the resources or product obtained from the beast, and under the agreement of the three Halls, we are allowed to visit the other halls to exchange for treasures, and also to request for things you may require."
"Martial Hall would be offering Refinement Tier and Adept Tier martial arts for exchange, the Culture Hall will be giving a special price if any disciple brings them the required products and ingredients to create any weapons and tools. The Pill Hall will also concoct the pills for the disciples from all three halls as long they provide the ingredients required."
"If you are interested in participating, come here to register and obtain a piece of Recording Tablet which will absorb the beast Qi that you killed, and allows you to keep a record on the total number of beasts you had killed."
"You can start registering now!" the elder finally finishes his announcement, and start to awaits the disciple to come over for registration.
Instantly, a large number of disciple rushed to register themselves, and immediately pack up and depart for the camp provided by the three Halls management.
Without losing his chance, Long Feng went over to participate as well, and return to his room to prepare.
"Long Feng." Nan Jing Jing appeared outside of his room.
"Oh, sister Jing Jing. Are you going for the culling beast mission too?" Long Feng greets her and asks if she will go as well.
"No, I didn't. I know you participate in this mission. Just make sure you are careful during your mission." Nan Jing Jing replied.
"I will, thank you. If you are not going for the mission, can I ask you for a little help?" Long Feng turned over with the Blood Cleansing Pitcher Plant and the Atlas Worm on the plant.
"What do you need me to help with?" Nan Jing Jing looked at Long Feng and smile.
"Can I entrust you to take care of this Pitcher Plant and Atlas Worm when I am not around?" Long Feng bring that pot of Pitcher plant with Atlas Worm to Nan Jing Jing.
"Sure, I will make sure they are well until you come back."
"Just... Make sure you come back, alright?" Nan Jing Jing looked at Long Feng with full affection.
"I will." Long Feng look at her teary eyes and agreed without any thinking.
With Nan Jing Jing leave the room with the pot of plant, Long Feng readied to depart, until he remembered that piece of Wooden Sword on the corner of his bed.
"I totally forget about thanking her for giving me this Wooden Sword." Long Feng smiles in his heart.
Immediately, he makes his way and followed the other disciples as they went to the Forest of West Jade.
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"Alright, Kids! Listen carefully!" A very bulky elder stands on top of a stage, as he starts delivering a speech.
"Within the Forest, you are allowed to hunt any cultivation beast within, but be very careful with your own life and capability as well."
"Although there aren't any higher than Adept Tier cultivation beast inside the forest, some older beast might possess strength close to Practitioner Tier within the forest."
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"Usage of Poison, Martial arts, Hidden Weapon or any other tactics is allowed, but we hope no killing among each other when we are here. If you have any hidden intention or hatred between halls or groups, keep it for now, and release when the city is not in trouble."
"Now is about the rewards."
"For every 10 Beast Soul Qi you managed to record, you will be rewarded with 100 Spirit Bronze Coins."
"If you killed a Refinement Tier Beast, they worth 1 Soul Qi, and if you managed to kill an Adept Tier beast, you will be rewarded with 2 Soul Qi."
"If you are prepared and ready, go ahead and happy hunting."
"I wish you all luck in your hunt! Try to come back alive and not dead because of hatred and greed!" the bulky elder finished his speech, and prepare to get down from the stage.
With a scream from a few front most cultivators, the participating disciple all charges into the forest with their weapon ready, and only a few of them still remain standing at the entrance point.
One of them is Long Feng.
"I will enter the forest when the crowd is getting lesser. If I enter now, it would only result in a waste of energy, and also fight among each other just to obtain the soul of a cultivation beast."
"The elder words is purposely to warn us not to fight among each other because the worst situation could happen is when the cultivators are fighting against each other just for a slight benefit."
Long Feng waits until the crowd within the forest started to disappear from his sight before he makes a move.
Holding a Wooden Sword on his hand, Long Feng proceed slow and careful, while the other cultivator behind him mock him for his poor quality of choice in weapons.
"What a loser, bringing a wooden sword to slay the cultivation beast? Did he learn the martial art of cutting beast with wooden sticks?" some disciple from Martial Hall loudly mock Long Feng as he walks into the forest.
"Little kid, if you need a sword, let this senior know. I am one of the weaponry masters in the Culture Hall, I can give you a steel sword if you really can't afford it!" another disciple from Culture Hall speaks loudly, to make sure Long Feng could hear.
But Long Feng choose to Ignore them.
Remembering what Han Feng Xian tells him, he calmly entered the forest, and slowly follows some blood trails so he could meet some cultivation beast the further he entered.
A Wooden Sword could still kill, while a sharp Blade could still save a life. How a weapon is used are controlled by the cultivator.
Ignoring the others mocking words, Long Feng goes deeper into the forest, and his luck is pretty good for his first encounter, as he managed to met two Gigantic Silk Beetle walking around looking for foods.
Long Feng prepare his stance, as he charges forward and makes a heavy slash towards a side of the beetle's legs.
A strong impact forced two among three of the first beetle's right leg to be amputated, as it struggles to run away from Long Feng.
He gives the beetle no chance, as he leaps upwards and landed on top of the Gigantic Silk Beetle, and stabbed directly into its head, killing the first Gigantic Silk Beetle without any difficulties.
But the second one managed to obtain a few seconds to prepare, as it shoot all the silky liquid towards Long Feng, to stop him from moving around.
Long Feng is shocked for a moment before he remembered the special traits of the Gigantic Silk Beetle.
"The silk collected from the Gigantic Silk Beetle is mainly used to create a good quality Clothing and hard to cut ropes, so the way of collecting the silk is to roll them instead of cutting them."
"I am pretty lucky in this part because my wooden sword is not made of steel, so the silk doesn't stick on the sword surface!"
Long Feng turn his sword, as he tried to roll up the drying silk sprayed by the second Gigantic Silk Beetle.
Placing the ball of Silk in the pouch he prepared, Long Feng charged towards the beetle and managed to kill it quickly before the beetle managed to run.
He cut open the abdomen of both of the beetle, to collect their sack containing the liquid silk, and extract it to make a few ball of silk before he kept all of it in his pouch.
Long Feng walk deeper into the forest with full caution.
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"Elder Tang Wen, Elder Tang Yao, please help!" two elder carrying two disciples on their arms, and quickly enter the camp to allow both elders to check on the disciple.
"This is not good. If there is a sign of this beast poison, this could mean the forest is infested by this beast!" Elder Tang Yao comment, as he treating the disciple's poisoned legs.
"this is not all. This disciple here is injured by a plant. I'm worried the forest is not as simple as we thought." Elder Tang Wen commented as well.
"What is the concern about this beast and plant? Both elder please explain." the two elder, one from Culture Hall and another from Martial Hall quickly ask for some explanations.
"This beast is called as the Venom King Bullfrog. This beast possesses poisonous claws that hidden in its flesh, and also poisonous skins that would spread its venom by touching or touched by it. Although this Venom King Bullfrog is hunted by some poison cultivator to concoct poison pills, most of them are used to concoct for antidote purposes, because for safety reasons."
"They can breed from one to two bullfrog into at least a thousand in a week. So if the forest is infested by this Venom King Bullfrog, I'm afraid we will need to quickly eliminate them as soon as possible, because the more the forest is infested with them, the more poisonous beast will start to gather in the forest, and force other cultivation beasts to come out into where human lived." Elder Tang Yao explained.
"This plant is called as Seven Thorns Snakeroots. The pill master has to be very careful in handling this plant because of their poisonous thorns, and its dangerously out spitting saps. Only the withering snakeroots can be harvested to concoct into cultivating medicine and also as antidotes, but in this moment, handling this poison is very difficult, because the poison is very difficult to expel."
"If there is more of this plant within the forest, we elders must enter the forest as well to look for its withering trees, or else those that are poisoned will have a difficult time to heal, at worst, they might be dead if the poison they inflicted is in deadly dosage." Elder Tang Wen is worried as he explained.
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"There is so many wild herbs within the forest. Luckily I bring along my furnace and also medicinal refining tools." Long Feng happily harvest the tools around him and doesn't notice the danger closing to him.
"I wonder why I didn't meet with any Cultivation Beast after I get deeper into the forest. Did the earlier group really managed to kill off a lot of them?"
"It should be impossible, Cultivation Beast is very territorial, so if there aren't any in this area, that means there is some other stronger beast is controlling this area I am within for now." Long Feng smartly guessed the reason why there aren't any beast within this small spot he recently stopped to gather the ingredients.
"if in that case, why kind of beast that is purposely making its nest in places with many herbs but doesn't eat it?" Long Feng quickly went through the list containing Beast that cultivates and live through eating and hunting other more docile Cultivation Beast, and instantly obtained an answer.
"This is bad, I am within the Great Stone Dragon Lizard nest. If I stay here for long, the lizard will come to me without warning. I am still lucky because the lizard didn't charge at me when I am busy harvesting its herbs." Long Feng quickly pack up the ingredient he cleaned and separated, and ready to leave from this location.
The reason he is leaving is not that the cultivation strength of the beast is higher, but it was due to the difficulties of injuring the beast and the lack of resources to be collected from the beast, so this beast is usually left aside unless the harvest for the day is really poor.
But before he manages to take the second step away, the lizard is already here to stop its prey from leaving!
"It's really around me, luckily I am well prepared to defend myself." Long Feng calmly swing his wooden sword to repel the lizard's claw attack.
The lizard continues its attack by swinging its heavy tail, and Long Feng make a leap towards the front and managed to get close to the lizard and make a stab towards the lizard's belly area. But because of its hardened stone-like scales is protecting the side of its belly, Long Feng failed to stab into its flesh.
And that stab cause the lizard to become furious!
"This Human is trying to kill me first! I will eat him whole!" the lizards thinks, as it gets even furious and charges towards Long Feng without any hesitation.
"I think I made this beast angry." Long Feng thinks in his mind, as he started to launch his Defensive Wu Sword Art.
The two clashed, and with each claw strike the lizard tried to land on Long Feng, it is parried away by Long Feng without a miss. Long Feng pays full attention to defending himself, as he knows how deadly it is if he was hit by one of its attacks.
"Weakness!" Long Feng long awaited time finally came, as he successfully makes the lizard jump up to attack him. Through this action, the Lizard revealed its weaker lower belly hidden touching the ground and allowed Long Feng to make his move.
STAB!
SLASH OPEN!
Long Feng quickly launch two consecutive strikes at once and had the lizard's belly wide opened. All the internal organ dropped to the floor, as Long Feng launch another strike to take its life away.
A stab directly from its opened jaw, all the way to its brain!
But Long Feng noticed something came out from its skull as he ends the Great Stone Dragon Lizard life.
"What is this piece of pearl doing in its head?" Long Feng take a look on that beautiful shining piece of pearl but kept it as he can see no reaction from the piece of treasure.
"Drain the Blood, Skin the leather, refine and prepare the spine bone and leg bone for future refining usage." Long Feng quickly prepare the dead lizard's carcasses and proceed to enter deeper into the forest.