Surviving in the chaos of war begins in the wilderness.

Chapter 67 Returning to Normal Life

As Zhou Ye used his strength to dodge the demonic bear's pounce once again and prepared to circle around to its side, an astonishing scene unfolded.

It turned out the demonic bear was just feinting. It quickly turned around, spread its four thick bear legs, and fled with all its might.

What the hell!

Zhou Ye was astonished. Had even bears become so clever?

At this moment, Zhou Ye seemed to realize something: demonic beasts seemed to be a bit different from ordinary wild animals; they were much smarter. Even when provoked, they could still clearly assess the battle situation. And when it was time to flee, they would not hesitate, generally avoiding a deadly fight with a powerful opponent.

However, little bear, you're too late. The difference in agility is simply too great. So, after a few leaps, Zhou Ye had already caught up...

A quarter of an hour later, with a desperate roar, the demonic bear fell unwillingly into a pool of blood.

Facing the dead demon bear, Zhou Ye once again raised his knife and cheered loudly.

How could he kill a demonic bear at the late stage of the Qi Refining realm without taking any damage? Does that mean he no longer needs to fear those Qi Refining martial artists and Qi Refining demonic beasts?

Furthermore, given this demonic bear's fighting prowess, even several beasts with the strength of a wolf alpha might not be enough to withstand a few slaps from its paws. If the three thieves were to fight together, they would certainly be at a disadvantage.

Especially during combat, Zhou Ye vaguely sensed that for martial artists at the Enlightenment level, +10 Agility seemed like a hurdle. Or rather, even +10 Strength was a hurdle. Once these basic stats were reached, a qualitative change would occur. Ordinary Enlightenment practitioners would be utterly powerless against them?

Just as Zhou Ye was feeling smug, he suddenly felt something small rubbing against his feet. Looking down, he saw Hua Hua's adorable big eyes: "Two-legged creature! Time to eat!"

Alright, Grandpa Leopard! I guess I owe you. I'll stuff you to death sooner or later, you little rascal!

However, seeing the demon bear's corpse again caused Zhou Ye some heartache. The bear skin was covered in knife marks, and the entire skin was badly damaged.

Zhou Ye summarized his experience again—fighting against a late-stage Qi Refining demon beast is impossible to end in a short time. It still requires a war of attrition; there's no way to achieve an instant kill.

Let's leave it at that for now! Let's feed the little one next to us first; Hua Hua is already anxiously spinning around in circles.

This time, they also obtained a bear gallbladder. The demon bear's heart, lungs, and other internal organs were all fed to the little glutton beside him.

Every part of the demonic beast was valuable, and Zhou Ye couldn't bear to give it up. Therefore, he decided to take the entire demonic bear back with him. As for the wild ox, he would discard everything except for the bezoar, hide, and horns.

Having reached the mid-stage of the Qi Refining realm, Zhou Ye was able to mobilize some of his internal Qi and blood. Therefore, his explosive power could be significantly enhanced in a short period of time, barely enough to withstand so much damage at once.

So, Qi and blood are quite miraculous. They can even unleash a burst of power? Including that demonic bear's Qi and blood armor earlier, that must be another application of Qi and blood, right? Although Zhou Ye hasn't mastered Qi and blood armor yet, he can definitely explore it slowly in the future…

Back at their little home, they skinned the bear completely. Because this demonic bear was quite large, although the skin wasn't very intact, they still managed to collect quite a few large pieces.

After cutting the bear into eight pieces, the four bear paws were kept safe, while the rest of the bear meat was cured with salt.

In fact, among all wild game, only wild beef, pheasant, wild deer meat, and of course bamboo rat meat are relatively delicious.

Wild boar meat and bear meat? They're barely edible, to say the least. Bear meat, except for the paws, has a spicy flavor. Therefore, it's very troublesome to prepare and requires a lot of seasoning.

As for wolf meat, and most other wild game, well, the taste is... indescribable.

Therefore, in the mountain market, meats with a delicious flavor are more popular and command higher prices. Other meats don't go for as much, but there are still buyers. After all, poor people only eat meat a few times a year, so they don't really care about the taste.

That's why, after processing the bear meat, Zhou Ye wasn't actually very interested in it. Realizing it was getting late, he decided to hurry up and hunt a bison…

……

Upon returning to the county town, Zhou Ye's first stop was his home at the dock.

After observing the surroundings for a while and finding no one stalking near the house, he opened the gate and checked all the hidden markings. He found nothing had been moved; no one should have broken in.

Everything brought back this time was put into the warehouse. It was mainly the salted fish and meat that had been left over from before. Because Zhou Ye had sold a lot of it at the mountain market in the past few months, there wasn't much left of the first batch of salted fish and meat, at most only a little over 2000 catties.

However, the production of a new batch of corned beef is also growing rapidly. This time, the amount of salt used alone is about 2000 jin (1,000 catties).

He slept there for the night. The next day, Zhou Ye secretly went to his home in the outer city. Everything was peaceful and quiet there; even the neighbors didn't show the slightest sign of anything unusual. Zhou Ye finally breathed a sigh of relief; that matter was pretty much over... right?

Since it's all in the past, there's no need to overthink it. Let's just go back to our normal lives.

That day, Zhou Ye arrived at Fenglei Martial Arts School carrying a shoulder pole full of wild beef. He first found Du Juan and moved the wild beef to the kitchen, essentially delivering it to the martial arts school.

Then Zhou Ye went to the small training ground in the inner courtyard and found his third senior brother, Han Guang.

"Third Senior Brother?"

"Hey, Junior Brother Zhou."

"I was lucky this time when I was running in the mountains, and I managed to kill a wild buffalo. This bag is for you. There's another bag, so you can share it with the other senior students."

"So many? You don't need to do this, do you? If you sold them, they should be worth several taels of silver, right?"

"Third Brother, that's the market price. For us mountain travelers, these mountain goods are practically worthless. I only brought some back this time; most of the wild boar meat was too much to carry, so I had to throw it away. So please don't be shy, take it!"

"That's a pity. Um... I won't stand on ceremony." Han Guang seemed a little embarrassed. He then asked, "Junior Brother Zhou, how's your martial arts practice going lately? Do you have any questions for me?"

"I do have a few questions that I'd like to ask my senior brother."

"That's good."

"Senior brother, while I was running through the mountains this time, I saw two demonic beasts fighting. One of them had a layer of blood-like energy emanating from its body..."

"The Qi and Blood Armor you mentioned is a minor Qi and Blood technique that can only be learned in the later stages of the Qi and Blood cultivation realm."

"Tips on Qi and blood circulation? Senior brother, could you tell me in detail?"

"Okay! That's how it is..."