Chapter 40: The smell of honey wine in the air. Completing the mission
Gu Yue Chi She, Chi Dan, Chi Suo and even Chi Shan stared at Chi Yan in shock.
Rank 2 Fire Pellet Gu, Fire Snake Gu, Fire Cloak Gu, a movement Gu, Clearing Heat Gu and Double Ortifice Charcoal Gu. Just for rank 2 Gu Chi Yan already had so many great Gu worms! Many Senior Rank 2 Gu Masters don't get to this point in their lives.
At the same time, his cultivation was at Rank 2 middle stage at barely sixteen years old, making him equal to some of them.
The four of them couldn't help feeling envious in their hearts.
Chi Shan felt especially slapped because just to refine his Double Ortifice Charcoal Gu, that he got in place of a strength type Gu that he really wanted, he had to spend a large amount of work and effort.
Chi Shan would probably feel even worse if he only knew that Chi Yan refined Double Orifice Charcoal Gu mostly just to experiment with it and because the materials used in its refinement were all common.
The middle-aged man coughed and forced himself to say drily, "That's a really good set of Gu worms."
Chi She snort-chuckled and said nothing.
"Yes, that's really surprising. Junior brother, you already have so many Rank 2 Gu. Can you use them all?" Chi Suo, the blue haired woman, asked.
"I can use them well enough," Chi Yan replied shortly.
Chi Shan hummed solemnly, having already seen a Chi Yan display of his fire snake manipulation.
"Anyway, you also have the Double Ortifice Charcoal Gu just like the team leader. It seems like now we'll have two heaters in the group. The winter missions don't seem that scary at all anymore." Chi Suo smiled.
"Ah, senior sister, if you ever feel cold I can always hug you and keep you warm." Chi Yan smiled charmingly, joking.
"Haha, junior brother, I have a husband."
"Ahh, he doesn't need to know," Chi Yan whispered teasingly as he looked at Chi Suo.
"Junior brother, we shouldn't~…" Chi Suo dragged her words playfully.
"It's okay, senior sister, I won't tell anyone," Chi Yan whispered quietly.
Chi Shan cleared his throat as he stood up expressionlessly. "It seems like you're all rested. Let's continue."
A few others started protesting, because just less than a minute passed, and ultimately Chi Shan sat back down.
Several minutes later, after swallowing their bitterness and envy, everyone passed their water gourds back to Chi Dan and the group resumed their journey.
This time the five ran at a more sustainable speed and also formed a special formation. Being a decent distance from the village, the chance of encountering wild beasts was much larger, so everyone maintained vigilance.
Chi She ran in the front, Chi Shan was on the left, Chi Dan on the right, while Chi Yan was in the center of the formation, the safest location, and the healer Chi Suo slightly behind him.
Gu Yue Chi She, being the reconnaissance Gu Master, served as the team's eyes and ears. From time to time he would stick his tongue out into the air and give out hissing noises. Because of the Snake Tongue Gu that he used for scouting his tongue was transformed into a bright red forked tongue of a snake.
Suddenly Chi She opened his mouth and said, "Before us, three medium-sized animals. Suspected to be wild deer."
"Drive them away." Gu Yue Chi Shan's expression did not change and he immediately issued an order.
The goal of their mission was to find and wipe out a nest of foxes, so they would not waste their time on harmless animals for no reason.
The direction of the five-person team remained unchanged and went straight forward. Three wild deer appeared on the way, turned around and scattered away.
A while later Chi She opened his mouth again. "A group of medium-sized animals. Suspected to be goats."
"Keep going," Chi Shan commanded.
As the group went down the mountain, more wild beasts began to appear, mostly being harmless.
At one point Chi She's expression changed. "A single large-sized creature at ten o'clock. Suspected to be a wild bear."
"Engage." Chi Shan called out after a moment.
The group shifted their direction slightly and began to jog toward the roaring wild bear.
A hundred and fifty meters later they noticed a large brown bear digging a beehive.
Wild beasts are not normal in this world and this wild bear was no exception. Unlike a wild boar, a wild bear could be considered to be a level above an ordinary beast, its strength was at the level of a regular hundred beast king wolf, having extremely thick hide and powerful physical strength; there was even a very small chance that there was a Rank 1 Gu worm residing in it.
Next to the bear was a large natural dark-yellow beehive attached to a tree. The beehive was massive, as large as a plastic box pallet, and was partially damaged with honey flowing out of it.
There was a swarm of bees flying around the bear as they seemed to fight it and sting it; among them there were a few large golden bee soldiers as large as a fist, but the bear ignored them and kept eating at the beehive.
There was a smell of sweet wine in the air.
"It's a medium-sized beehive. Those without strong defensive Gu worms, stay in the back and be careful. There might be Wild Gu worms in there," Chi Shan said in a low voice.
"Such a large beehive. There should be a bee queen Gu worm in it," the elderly man added in an experienced tone.
"We must act quickly or the bear might kill the Gu worm," Chi Shan said with a stern face and looked at Chi Yan. "Chi Yan, stay in the back and let us handle it. If you're in danger use Fire Cloak Gu, but be careful to not hurt others."
Fire Cloak Gu could mildly burn enemies around the user. Naturally, that included allies as well.
"Got it," Chi Yan nodded.
Chi Shan also nodded and immediately moved in along with the middle-aged man.
Chi She, Chi Suo and Chi Yan stayed in the back.
As Chi Shan approached the bear and the beehive, a dark steel-like luster flashed around his figure. Meanwhile the middle-aged man's skin turned dark-brown, thick and scaly like a snake's.
When the bear turned toward them, the middle-aged man puffed out his cheeks and spat out a white viscous substance that abruptly expanded in mid-air, becoming a huge spider net. It used its strong viscosity and trapped the bear full in the face along with a bunch of bees.
The bear began to struggle fiercely in the net, slowly breaking it apart, but Chi Shan immediately stepped forward and brandished his fist, pounding onto the bear's head.
With a bang, the bear's head was smashed in. The giant wild bear, that an ordinary Rank 2 Gu Master would struggle with, died in one breath.
Chi Dan then quickly pulled out a large gourd that Chi Shan immediately used to catch the honey wine that was dripping out of the beehive due to the damage the wild bear caused.
Meanwhile Chi Dan, the crowd control master, moved in to search and catch any wild Gu that might be in the area.
"What defensive Gu is Chi Dan using?" Chi Yan asked in the distance.
"It's a Lizard Skin Gu, advancement route of Beast Skin Gu, junior brother," Chi Suo answered in a collected tone as she didn't retract her eyes from the beehive in the distance. "It's a Rank 2 Gu. It's cheap to refine and nurture."
Chi Yan nodded in understanding. Chi Dan was not a defensive Gu master, hence the Gu worms outside of his field of expertise had to be cheap to feed and couldn't interfere with his main job like the cheap but heavy Rock Skin Gu would.
Twenty minutes later Chi Shan came back while dragging the giant bear by its leg, while Chi Dan remained near the beehive spitting out some kind of fog into the air and attracting the attention of all of the bees.
Chi Shan looked at the others and said, "We got six liangs of honey wine, quite a lot of honey and there was also one wild Rank 1 Gu worm. Unfortunately the beehive must have only expanded recently. It didn't have any Rank 2 Gu worms."
Beehives have honey, and honey is the Bear Strength Gu's food. Thus, the Xiong clan has great demand for honey. In addition, in normal small hives there was only honey. Only those large or medium hives had the precious honey wine made from a large accumulation of honey and it was even more valuable.
And there was also a Rank 1 Gu worm!
Because of that the other team members smiled upon hearing the news, looking slightly moved.
On the flip side, even though the loot was good, many groups would not be able to collect it. That's because they needed a defensive Gu Master with a strong defensive-type Gu to withstand the stings.
However, Chi Shan's group was one of the top groups and had all bases covered; it was child's play for them, and everything was looted in under half an hour.
Chi Shan continued, "Chi Dan will join us shortly once he gets rid of the bees following him. Let's move on."
Following that the group continued while Chi Shan continued dragging the bear's corpse across the ground.
After walking quickly for around 10 minutes, the group of four stopped, while Chi Dan had also rejoined the group at one point. It turned out that Chi Dan had only used some mild poison to distract the bees and didn't want to destroy the beehive, allowing it to keep producing the honey.
Chi Shan looked toward Chi Yan. "Chi Yan, if the mission that we're doing is important we would normally ignore most wild beasts along the way, but since we encountered a wild bear, we might as well cull it to keep the surroundings safe."
"The beehive was an unexpected lucky encounter," Chi Suo added with a small smile.
"Yeah, I get it. Killing a bear only took you a moment, so why not kill it?" Chi Yan said.
Chi Shan nodded and then squatted down in front of the bear that he was dragging all the way. "Chi Yan, let us show you how to skin and dissect a wild bear…"
While Chi She kept an eye on the surroundings, Chi Shan and Chi Dan began dissecting the wild bear, teaching Chi Yan.
"~Ssss. A medium sized creature suspected to be a wild wolf. It found us and is approaching," Chi She reported at one point.
"Engage." Chi Shan stood up, his facial expression not changing.
A while later, a thin gray wolf entered the area. Upon seeing so many people, it silently turned around and began retreating.
"I'll get it," Chi Yan said as electric currents began to crackle across his body and mainly his legs.
Immediately he broke into a sprint and started chasing after the wolf.
It took a moment for the old wolf to eventually realize that it really needs to run its fastest to survive. Taking advantage of this moment's lag and by running in a straight line Chi Yan , quickly caught up to the wolf. With a strong Rank 2 movement Gu, his running speed was even faster than a wolf's.
With a wave of his hand, Chi Yan sent out three fireballs.
The fireballs flew through the air faster than an arrow and two of them struck the escaping wolf a dozen meters away, killing it on the spot.
Chi Suo clapped with a smile as she came closer. "As expected of our Chi faction's genius!"
"That was pretty good," Chi Dan added.
Chi Shan nodded at Chi Yan in approval as his silent visage reflected praise. After coming closer, he picked up the wolf corpse with two charred holes in it and carried it back to where the bear laid.
As the group continued dissecting the large bear, over time the smell of blood attracted other wild beasts from time to time, but they were all taken care of.
Among them there was a wild boar that was simply chased away, as well as two large pawed foxes that were both hunted down.
The group took this chance to allow Chi Yan to practice and kill the foxes while they surrounded them to prevent their escape.
In the end they collected the wild bear's fangs, its entire front paws, the fangs from the back limbs, its eyeballs, teeth and its snout. These were all valuable parts of a bear that served as Gu Materials or Gu food. Bears had an incredible sense of smell and the bear's snout was especially the most valuable.
Then there was also the wild bear's fur. Collecting the wild bear's fur was by far the most time consuming, but thanks to Gu worms and superhuman strength it wasn't as troublesome as it would be when only using knives back on Earth.
The bear's fur was enormous and heavy. To save time the group took off the fur from the bear's neck, torso and upper limbs, not bothering with the rest. They also cut the fur along the limbs and long the stomach to make the skinning easier, because the main use of this fur was to use it as a Gu material and not for making clothes like on Earth.
As for the meat, it also served as food for some Gu worms, but the bear was simply too big and heavy, while the group's physical strength and storage was limited, so it was simply left behind.
In the case of the gray wolf, the group dug out its yellow eyeballs as a proof of their kill just like they did with the bear and collected its teeth, while everything else was left behind.
A large amount of regular wolf eyeballs can be exchanged for a single primeval stone in the Internal Affairs Hall as a reward for helping to keep the surroundings of the village clean, also increasing the small team's evaluation. It was the same with the bear eyeballs.
Meanwhile the foxes, as large as wolves, were not skinned and instead Chi Shan picked them both up in their entirety to carry over his shoulders.
"We wasted a lot of time here. The fox nest shouldn't be far. Let's continue with the mission," Chi Shan commanded and the group set off.
A few miles away the group indeed found a den and Chi She detected two foxes hiding inside. Since the other two foxes that the group hunted were male, they assumed that the remaining two foxes must be female.
"Chi Dan, smoke them out." Chi Shan waved his hand silently and in tacit understanding the group spread out around the den while Chi Dan went in.
Near the den Chi Dan used his Gu worm and began to breath out some kind of smoke or mist that was likely poison, sending it into the inn.
Not long later two foxes ran out of the den coughing just to be caught into Chi Dan's net right after. The sticky net was a rank 2 Gu worm and the weak foxes were completely unable to resist.
'This guy is such a carry…' Chi Yan thought as he looked at the old man.
Chi Shan then moved in and smacked the heads of the two foxes, killing them on the spot.
Following that, the two female large pawed foxes had their front limbs cut off and were skinned just like the bear, while the two dead larger male foxes were still carried by Chi Shan over his two shoulders in their entirety.
"Good. With this our mission is completed. Let's return," Chi Shan said as he looked at the others.
The group returned to the Gu Yue village in the late afternoon.
After the five walked out of the Internal Affairs Hall, Chi Shan distributed the primeval stones they earned. Chi Yan got seven pieces, while the rest of the members including Chi Shan got two each.
When a newcomer joins a small group, the clan would usually give a large reward for the mission as a form of supporting the newcomer. For the culling of the front pawed foxes the reward was originally 5 primeval stones if the team managed to bring back the foxes' paws and fur in perfect condition, but because of Chi Yan it was multiplied by three, being at a whole 15 primeval stones.
The primeval stones were so easily earned, the members all broke into a smile.
However, the main reason for their smiles was because the majority of the gains from today were yet to come, coming from the beehive that they encountered by chance.
"After selling the loot from the beehive and the wild bear, I'll calculate what we gained and give you the primeval stones for it in the next few days," Chi Shan said and then turned to Chi Yan. "Chi Yan, for most missions I distribute the rewards based on contribution, and as a team leader I receive at least 30%. What we gain from the beehive will also be distributed based on contribution. It means that me and Chi Dan will receive the largest portion of the reward, but everyone else in the team will also receive some."
"Sure, it sounds fair ," Chi Yan nodded.
Chi Shan nodded. "Next, I accepted a mission to hunt a white tiger that's terrorizing one of the hamlets down the mountain. We can't wait too long with this mission, so we'll only have a single day of rest. In two days from now we'll set off in the early morning again."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone