Encounter : Flame Hare (1)

"Hopefully, my physical strength is more than enough to carry more grains home today," Long Yuan spoke to himself while walking towards the Qingshan's foothill. There are two harvest baskets in his hand today.

It appears that he's planning to bring some extra home this time to compensate for the amount of flour he had to use daily.

In any case, Long Yuan was prepared to sell at least 100 Mantous, and perhaps not more than 150 of them every day. The number might be far from being too much, but at least, it could make his food more desirable.

As an experienced chef, Long Yuan could roughly guess how many times a customer could eat his product in a day before starting to feel surfeit. And when that happened, even a makeover from the original recipe wouldn't drive the customer's eagerness to taste it.

This was also why Long Yuan gave it a thought on making Yuan Ling's diet healthier. The lass might be fine eating the Mantou daily like it's her favorite food, but sooner or later, the feeling of surfeit would surely come, although not as fast as he thought.

In a world where Spiritual Essence can only be obtained externally through consumption, the feeling of surfeit is similar to how the medicinal efficiency decreases the more you take the pills.

When a person was bored of the food, the Spiritual Essence within would definitely reduce significantly, just like a pill that loses its medicinal efficiency. Even taking them twice would contribute to nothing.

Although Long Yuan had gone through a few body tempering processes for the last few days, he dared not overestimate himself.

The first basket that followed him could hold the usual six pounds worth of grains. Adding up with the second harvest bag, he could roughly carry close to ten pounds altogether, about five kilograms.

In the modern world where Long Yuan came, going around with five kilograms of grains was hardly challenging, but in Shiyuan Realm, it was. The everyday items were adequately packed and processed before they arrived in the customer's hand. And to Long Yuan, the weight is the least of his problem.

It was easy to go to the foothill with two empty baskets but challenging to come back down without spillage. Even with a lid covering the basket, losing some on your way back was the norm to many farmers.

Furthermore, the grains were not his only concern. He still had to get into the woods to collect some Silvergrass Fruit to make the compote, the primary source of his steamed bun stall's income.

Of course, if he could make this happen, two to three trips were all Long Yuan needed to have additional flour for his store. As long as he could reserve enough flour for three days, it would be ample for Long Yuan to focus on something else in his free time.

Furthermore, Long Yuan had no idea how the season would go here compared to where he came from.

He believed it was essential to have some additional flour stockpiled in his house.

Long Yuan also thought about spending a little more to help Yuan Ling in her cultivation. With the business income helping him, Long Yuan felt that getting some cultivation resources for his sister wouldn't be problematic.

While all his attention is on his sister, Long Yuan had no idea that his potential is nowhere worst than his sister's. Unfortunately, cultivating diligently was the least of his focus right now. Or else, Long Yuan's achievement wouldn't be below Yuan Ling.

In fact, he could possibly be surpassing Yuan Ling's current cultivation at ease since Long Yuan had both the potential as a cultivator and a Spiritual Chef.

Although many often say not to bite more than what they can chew, it wasn't rare for people to choose to deal with or study multiple professions at once during their cultivation.

After all, everyone had the same limitation in time, and it cost a hefty amount of cultivating resources to advance in the cultivation stage. And to make the situation more challenging, not everyone hails from a good family with access to all sorts of resources.

Even Xiyang Xiao, with the reputation and profession of a Spiritual Chef, would have to cook occasionally for some VIP guests in exchange for cultivation resources beneficial to his current cultivation.

Long Yuan was no time once he arrived at the foothill of Qingshan. He repeated the same process multiple times, using the sickle in his hand and coating it with just enough Spiritual Essence to cut the stalks off the plant.

The manual threshing machine in the field made everything much more straightforward as Long Yuan steadily filled his basket with the grains he needed. To make himself a little more favorable in the eyes of those here to collect the stalks and not the grains, Long Yuan offered them the stalks he tossed aside.

To Long Yuan's surprise, he had no difficulty carrying the two full loads of grains home. Five kilograms might not be much, but it would definitely be challenging for him on his next destination.

He had to get inside the woods for the Silvergrass Fruits this time, with two baskets on him. Long Yuan wasn't confident he could collect about the same as always if he's lingering around the outer perimeters of the woods.

Eventually, he had to give up just less than fifteen minutes lingering inside the woods.

'I had no idea it would be this hard to move inside the woods with two baskets on me. I wonder how the hunters did...' Long Yuan spoke to himself and made his way home quickly for the second trip.

Since it had come to this, Long Yuan might as well collect enough Silvergrass Fruit for two days' worth. There's no guarantee that the fruits will still be around tomorrow when he comes back.

(Hiss!)

The noise of a black silhouette moving from one shrub to another caught Long Yuan by surprise. Although the shadow literally passes right beside his feet, Long Yuan had no clue what was that at all.

The silhouette's speed was too swift, to the point he only saw a line of black before it vanished.

'Oh, shit. Let's get ready to leave.' Long Yuan quickly canceled his plan to fill the container to the brim. After all, there's a reason for the people to describe the animals here as ferocious beasts.

But even when retreating, Long Yuan made sure he maintained caution while he picked up his speed and moved towards the direction out of the woods.

Unfortunately, Long Yuan seems to be marked by the ferocious beast. The noise it makes by moving from one shrub to another means it is actively hunting Long Yuan as he tries to escape.

Long Yuan knew that this fight was an unavoidable one. He then touched around his belt to look for a weapon and eventually came to the sickle he used on the wheat. It seems that tool was all he had because Long Yuan was too poor to afford a proper hunting knife.

"Not good." Long Yuan said as he almost got tripped by that ferocious beast moving past between his legs.

'That thing is getting faster the closer I am to the outside. But I manage to get a clear look at its appearance when this beast is getting restless.'

'If I'm not wrong, it should be the Flame Hare that I saw from the grocer.' Long Yuan easily deduce the species of ferocious beast catching up to him. After all, the size and shape were too similar to the dressed hare meat available in the grocer.

As the distance between Long Yuan and the outside was coming to a mere five meters away, the Flame Hare finally lost itself and came out in the open. It was highly motivated to stop Long Yuan from getting out of the woods.

Fighting inside the woods is always better than fighting openly outside to a ferocious beast and highly territorial like the Flame Hare. They might be weak, with cultivation barely above the Foundation Realm's first stage.

But if the Flame Hare were to engage an opponent in its own turf, then reaching the strength of a peak first stage wouldn't be impossible.

Furthermore, human's weapon doesn't always bring them an advantage, especially in the woods. The natural obstruction like the trees, vines, foliage, and shrubs could continually interrupt them and provide a hiding spot for the ferocious beast while stopping human's weapons.

"Finally coming out in the open, huh? Bring it on!" Long Yuan was unsure of laughing at his stupidity or bravery. Without knowing how to fight using his Spiritual Essence, the only thing he could do was swing his sickle randomly.

Long Yuan's taunting successfully provoked the Flame Hare to attack from the front.

"Head on? Come and talk with my sickle's blade first!" Long Yuan was filled with confidence as he swung his sickle at the Flame Hare's head.

But the result quickly made Long Yuan regret his decision.

Since both the Flame Hare and himself can utilize Spiritual Essence, how can the ferocious beast lack the instinct to protect itself using Spiritual Essence? Plus, a ferocious beast's physique is always above human in a sense.

Even a small Flame Hare could be a veteran depending on the battlefield.

"Fuck!" Long Yuan's sickle almost escaped from his grip from their first exchange. This encounter brought him back to the harsh reality. He knew that nearly everything in this world could effortlessly kill a human, but not at this level of difficulty.

And before he stabilized his footwork, the Flame Hare already coming at Long Yuan with deep killing intent.

If Long Yuan stays like this, he would quickly become the Flame Hare's dinner this evening!

涂学小灿勇