Only I am Venerable-Chapter 40: Forest Lightning Killer
Amid the burst of laughter, what little distance remained between Qin Li and the others vanished completely.
Hu watched Qin Li, unable to stop himself from marveling inwardly. ’I heard back in the day that Qin Hanyue was the genius of Yellow Sand City, and it’s really true. Just look at her son! His character, his magnanimity, his way of handling people—it’s all top-notch!’
In that instant, Hu had the strange feeling that the person before him wasn’t a teenager at all, but a brilliant, commanding hero in his prime. ’It seems my impulse to befriend him, born from a sense of shared suffering, was the right call after all!’ Hu had been raised by his single mother, enduring endless scorn from relatives and neighbors until he had no choice but to leave home. His life only began to improve after his mother met his stepfather, a simple, kindhearted farmer. Even so, the pain of his youth was a wound Hu would carry for life. He didn’t know if Qin Li’s father had abandoned his mother the way his own bastard of a father had, but he felt a deep empathy for what the boy must have endured over the years.
"Younger Brother Qin’s luck is just unreal. I mean, how many times have we camped by this little river? How come we never ran into this Iron Armor Crocodile?" He Laosan was still marveling at the strength of Qin Li’s luck as they ate dinner.
The usually taciturn Li Jian glanced at him and said expressionlessly, "If you’d been squatting by the river fishing, you might have run into it. Of course, you’d probably just have ended up being swallowed."
Everyone couldn’t help but laugh. He Laosan retorted, "Bullshit! It’s only this big. You think it could swallow me?"
For some reason, Leng Yao was also much more talkative than usual today. She glanced at He Laosan and said coolly, "It’s true, it couldn’t swallow you. But if it wanted to kill you, it would be child’s play."
He Laosan wanted to argue, but he suddenly remembered that in all his years with the Hunter Guild, very few people had successfully hunted an Iron Armor Crocodile. Every attempt had resulted in casualties. Even a ninth-stage Yellow Level Martial Artist would be no match for one!
On offense, you couldn’t penetrate its incredibly tough scales. On defense... the Iron Armor Crocodile was a Spirit Beast. An ordinary Yellow Level Martial Artist would have been hit by the Ice Arrow it had just shot at Qin Li.
Thinking of this, He Laosan couldn’t contain his curiosity any longer. He looked at Qin Li and asked, "Younger Brother Qin... um, what exactly is your power level?"
This was a question on everyone’s mind. All eyes fell on Qin Li. He gave a faint smile and said, "Profound Level, I think? My situation is a bit unique. I’m not entirely sure myself..."
"Pfft!"
Bu Yunyan rolled her eyes at Qin Li in disdain. She had been stunned for a moment when Qin Li fought the Iron Armor Crocodile, but the more she thought about it, the less sense it made. She might not have reached the Profound Level herself, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have a discerning eye. Qin Li’s movements were very strange; even a Profound Level expert shouldn’t be able to cleave through an Iron Armor Crocodile’s scales that easily, right? What’s more, Bu Yunyan had personally seen people who cultivated the Only I am Venerable technique. They were powerful, to be sure, but they were very different from Qin Li.
However, Bu Yunyan didn’t voice these doubts aloud. She just felt that the mystery surrounding Qin Li was only growing deeper.
Just then, Hu spoke up. "I think Younger Brother Qin must have cultivated the Only I am Venerable technique to become so powerful! Speaking of which, it’s a truly amazing technique, but the drawback... Ah, well. In a few months, I’ll risk it all and go with you to Phoenix Lake! I can’t just stand by and watch your soul get damaged, until finally..."
Hu didn’t say what would happen in the end, but a somber mood fell over the group. They spent a lot of time at the Hunter Guild and were well-versed in such matters. The gazes they cast at Qin Li were now tinged with sympathy.
Leng Yao said coolly, "When the time comes, count me in."
"I’ll go too!" Bu Yunyan chimed in with a grin.
"Me too!" Li Jian and He Laosan exchanged a look and said in unison.
He Laosan laughed. "I’ve been wanting to go check that place out for a while. Being a Hunter and never having been to Phoenix Lake... how pathetic!"
A warmth spread through Qin Li’s heart. He smiled and said, "Thank you, everyone. We’ll see when the time comes. Maybe... maybe it’ll be fine for me to practice it." Though he couldn’t explain certain things, he was deeply grateful to these frank and loyal friends.
Hu nodded and said seriously, "In any case, we’re not going to stand by and watch you come to that kind of harm."
Early the next morning, the group packed their things and prepared to set off again. The only difference was that their packs now contained an Iron Armor Crocodile worth thirty thousand taels of silver. It was safe to say this trip was already a resounding success. In the past, any trip into this Forest would last at least ten to fifteen days, and usually one to two months. Just getting a single Low Level Spirit Beast cub was considered a stroke of great luck!
An adventurer’s life sounds captivating when you hear it as a story, but only when you experience it firsthand do you feel the monotony and the ever-present danger.
Not every trip into the Forest yielded a reward.
Furthermore, in this Forest, it wasn’t just the ubiquitous, ferocious Spirit Beasts one had to be wary of, but also other people. Oftentimes, the most terrifying predators were not beasts at all.
As they searched the Forest, Hu and the others filled Qin Li in on all sorts of Hunter lore, periodically having to steer clear of the territories of powerful Spirit Beasts. Hu was a very experienced Hunter; there was more to being their group’s leader than just being the strongest.
After three days, Qin Li had more or less familiarized himself with the various rules of the Hunter Realm, as well as his group’s objective for this trip.
Hu and the others hadn’t mentioned it before, and Qin Li hadn’t asked. Only now did he learn that the primary target of their search was a Spirit Beast cub called the Green Furred Cat.
The Green Furred Cat looked much like a domestic cat, only its coat was entirely green and its eyes were a sapphire blue. It was an exceedingly beautiful creature, but Hunters called it the ’Forest’s Lightning Killer.’
The Green Furred Cat was a Spirit Beast. If raised from a young age, it would become fiercely loyal. Normally, it was a beautiful and docile pet, just like an ordinary domestic cat. But the moment its master was in danger, that pet would transform into an extremely dangerous... and terrifying killer!
The claws of a Green Furred Cat were as sharp as knives and could easily tear out a person’s throat. And when it attacked, its blue eyes could plunge its victim into a hallucinatory state!
It was the kind of pet anyone would covet, especially noblewomen, who had absolutely no resistance to a companion that was both adorable and deadly.
Because of this, the Green Furred Cat was always wildly sought after at auction houses.
An adult female would only give birth to a single cub, and one Green Furred Cat cub could fetch a high price of fifty thousand taels of silver at auction! It was the kind of prize that only the truly wealthy could afford to compete for.
For a team like Hu’s, if they could manage to get just two a year, they could spend the rest of their time living in luxury.
The chances of that, however, were slim. A Green Furred Cat cub had no real offensive power, but the adults—with their lightning speed, their hard, sharp claws, and their illusion-inducing eyes—were terrifying killers of the Forest.
Worse, this type of Spirit Beast was extremely vengeful.
Therefore, you could never return to a place where you had already taken a cub. A while back, Hu and his team had confirmed the location of a den right here in this area.
Two adult cats, and one newborn cub.
