Free Web NovelChapter 136: Chapter 135: Shortcoming, Remnants of the Ghost Camp
Fu Juemin bent his knees slightly, his spine arching. His hands pressed lightly over his Dantian, his fingers curled like claws.
In the Tiger Cave, the largest of the striped tigers froze. Its amber eyes locked onto him, man and beast staring at each other through the bars.
Gradually, Fu Juemin’s breathing began to sync with the tiger in the cage. Beneath his skin, his spine undulated like a great Dragon, its movements faintly visible...
In a flash, Fu Juemin’s body shot forward, pouncing toward the tiger in the cage.
"ROAR—"
In that instant, a tiger’s roar erupted. Immediately after, a chain reaction started in the four adjacent cages.
Suddenly, the calls of deer, the roars of bears, the cries of apes, and the squawks of cranes rose and fell, shaking the surrounding iron bars until they hummed...
Fu Juemin slowly withdrew his power and stood still. A servant waiting nearby immediately rushed forward with various types of animal feed to calm the startled and agitated beasts.
Fu Juemin took the dry towel offered to him, wiping the thin layer of sweat from his body as he savored the gains from the past ten-plus days of martial practice.
With five Transmission Masters on call for hands-on instruction, supplemented by observing the forms and intent of living beasts, and his own relentless practice, Fu Juemin was making rapid progress in the Five Beasts Skill.
In just twelve days, he had more or less mastered the nearly four hundred Techniques that made up the Tiger, Deer, Bear, Ape, and Bird forms.
As he grew more proficient with the Five Beasts Skill, Fu Juemin had yet to discover any special synergistic effects with his Pharmacist Skill or the Five Aggregates Profound Slaughter Technique. However, his control over exerting force and channeling Vitality was becoming more refined and precise by the day.
Although he had learned many Martial Arts, including several top-tier ones...
...most were either body-hardening External Skills or Heart Method Inner Power like the Five Aggregates Profound Evil. He had very few External Martial Arts that focused on practical combat Techniques and footwork.
The complex and intricate Active Techniques of the Five Beasts Skill happened to perfectly compensate for this shortcoming.
Having reached Entry Level in Dragon Elephant Wisdom, Fu Juemin’s Attack attribute had risen to 30. The extra 4 points of Attack were mostly reflected in his Qi Blood, which also allowed him to take a huge step forward in the Blood Barrier Realm.
His Qi Blood was vigorous, and the Vitality it generated was no weaker than a Tongxuan realm expert’s. Yet, he hadn’t the faintest idea how to circulate this Vitality throughout his body to form a protective membrane. The root cause was a deficiency in his martial Techniques. It was like a great tree—even if its trunk and branches were thick, it couldn’t bear fruit if it had only a few leaves.
After more than ten days of practicing the Five Beasts Skill, Fu Juemin gradually began to form some ideas about building his own martial arts framework. His Vitality, which had once been straightforward and direct, was now becoming agile and lively.
However... ’without that Integration General Outline for form and intent, it seems it’s truly difficult to fully master the Five Beasts Skill...’
A flicker of light crossed Fu Juemin’s eyes.
As his proficiency with the Five Beasts Skill’s Techniques reached a certain level, he increasingly felt that something was indeed missing between the five lineages.
One thing was missing: a key method that could perfectly link the legacies of the Five Meridians.
Not only that, but Fu Juemin also felt that the five Transmission Masters currently teaching him were somewhat lacking in skill. The strongest among them had only just passed the Blood Breaking Barrier, while the rest were mostly stuck at the Bone Forging level.
He wasn’t sure if it was due to their limited aptitude or an incomplete inheritance.
Sometimes, when Fu Juemin asked them about certain points regarding the Techniques, they would stammer for a long time without giving a clear answer.
As Fu Juemin was thinking this, he was about to call for Big Cat to ask about the situation with the Five Beasts Inheritor in Shenghai—the one who supposedly had all five forms and the Integration General Outline. But just then, Big Cat hurried over to report.
"Young Master, everything is set up at Quanwang Village."
"The people from Ghost Camp say it’s best if we make our move within the next few days."
"Oh?"
Fu Juemin’s expression flickered. He immediately stopped thinking about the Five Beasts Skill, tossed the towel aside, and gave his orders.
"Get me changed. Ready the car."
"Yes, sir."
....
「Two hours later, in the outskirts of Shenghai.」
Fu Juemin led Big Cat, Kitty, and a dozen or so guards from the Qinglian Gang, trotting slowly on horseback across the slick, snow-covered wilderness.
The group had originally set out by car, but the road became extremely difficult once they entered the countryside. They had to switch to horses, a hassle that nearly doubled their travel time before they finally neared their destination.
It had snowed again in Shenghai a few days prior. In many places, the ice on the nearby Su River hadn’t melted. The water flowing underneath made a muffled sound, like a sob coming from beneath the earth.
The thickets of wormwood along the bank were encased in a thick crust of snow. The few stalks that hadn’t completely collapsed were covered in clusters of icicles, which clattered like colliding bones when the north wind blew.
Fu Juemin’s trip, of course, was for the Demon Species on the list of Demon Fiends that Gu Shouyu had given him: the one called the Iron-Maned Demon Boar.
After traveling a bit further, they came to an earthen slope. A man stood up on the high ridge, observing them for a while with something that looked like a spyglass.
Immediately after, five or six figures came down from the slope, running quickly towards them.
As they got closer, he saw they were a few men of indeterminable age, dressed in filthy, tattered jackets. Their dark faces were covered in cracked sores from the cold. If not for their sharp eyes and the aura of battlefield ferocity each of them exuded, Fu Juemin might have thought he’d run into a group of refugees.
"You must be Xu Hengjiang."
Fu Juemin, still on horseback, looked indifferently at the leader of the group, a man with obvious burn scars from an explosion on his face.
According to Big Cat, during the Longting Bridge collapse, the reinforced battalion—which had been tragically backstabbed by Luo Zhengxiong—was carrying out a bridge-crossing mission codenamed "Project Ghost." As a result, this group of fortunate survivors had been calling themselves the "Remnants of Ghost Camp."
Their leader was the highest-ranking survivor, a company commander named Xu Hengjiang.
’They’re living worse than rats in a gutter, but their edgelord vibes are off the charts.’
The man whose identity Fu Juemin had just stated stiffly cupped his fist in a salute. Then, in a harsh tone, he said, "That beast won’t stay in this area for long. If you want to make a move, you’d better be quick about it."
Fu Juemin remained noncommittal, merely saying casually, "Show me around first."
Xu Hengjiang said nothing and simply turned to lead the way.
Fu Juemin dismounted and followed the men toward the nearby slope.
Once he was on the slope, he saw that the terrain on the other side wasn’t very high either. It was a field covered in ice and snow, with a small grove of short trees on one side in the distance. Behind the woods, the faint outline of a village lay on the gray-black horizon, looking like a corpse lying stiffly on the ground.
Fu Juemin gently stamped his foot on the ground. After looking around carefully, he realized that the so-called slope under his feet was actually a... "trench"?!—one temporarily dug along the ridges of the fields.
’Just as you’d expect from a group of former soldiers.’
About half of the sixty-odd members of the Ghost Camp remnants were present. Most of them were lying prone, not seeming to mind the winter chill. A few were huddled at the base of the earthen wall, taking large bites of cold steamed buns with a handful of snow, while curiously sizing up Fu Juemin’s party.
"The Demon Boar is in those woods?"
Fu Juemin asked Xu Hengjiang calmly, his gaze landing on the distant grove after a quick scan of the area.
"It is."
Xu Hengjiang nodded, then added after a pause, "The operational plan you gave me had a lot of problems, so I’ve made new arrangements.
If you don’t approve, I can show you now and explain it to you, point by point..."
As he spoke, Xu Hengjiang watched Fu Juemin’s expression, seemingly prepared for the young master before him to start voicing all sorts of dissatisfaction.
To his surprise, Fu Juemin didn’t seem to care about what he had said at all. Instead, he changed the subject and asked languidly, "Have you ever fought this kind of thing before?"
