Chapter 83: Wilderness Tempering
Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Wilderness Tempering
"Commander Tang Wen!"
"Commander Tang Wen is here!"
In the wilderness, at the Hunting Team’s camp, a sentry shouted loudly.
Having previously witnessed Tang Wen single-handedly slay an Earth Beast, everyone in the wilderness Hunting Team now saw him as a living legend.
Captain Liu ran over to greet him, both surprised and delighted. "Commander Tang Wen, what brings you here?"
"Just passing through."
Seeing the confusion in Captain Liu’s eyes, Tang Wen explained, "I’m planning to head deeper into the wilderness to hone my Martial Techniques."
Inside the camp, artisans were rebuilding the stone houses destroyed by the Earth Beast.
The two exchanged a few simple words. Since it was still early, Tang Wen continued on his way.
Out on the plains, a westerly wind blew, filling the air with yellow sand.
Tang Wen had come prepared. He took a pair of goggles from the pack on his back, covered his mouth and nose with a scarf, and took off at a run, sprinting toward the location on his map.
He didn’t stop until noon, when he finally found the mountain spring marked on the map.
The area around the spring was covered in jagged rocks. The spring itself emerged from the top of a massive boulder, its water trickling down through crevices to form a pool below.
Seeing the nearly dry and murky pool, Tang Wen decisively climbed the smooth boulder to get water directly from the spring’s source.
The water was cool, sweet, and had no strange taste whatsoever.
Figuring he’d be coming here for water regularly, Tang Wen brought up a few clean stones from below and stacked them around the spring’s opening. Then, he found a heavy Stone Slab and placed it over the top.
This would both prevent birds and beasts from contaminating it and still allow water to flow down, so the animals and Exotic Beasts below could continue to drink from the pool.
He wondered if the spring would dry up completely in the coming months.
If it did, life would become difficult for the creatures of the wilderness.
After drinking his fill and washing his face, Tang Wen stood atop the boulder and scanned his surroundings. On the boundless plains, he saw only a few wild mountain goats nibbling on shrubs.
Tang Wen noted their location, then turned and moved to a different spot to practice.
[Flying Locust Stone, Expert (5113/6000)]
A Fireball flew up at extreme speed and slammed into the mountainside!
A warm current surged from his spine and flowed into his right hand.
Tang Wen’s eyes were resolute. His muscles bulged all over his body, nearly bursting through his clothes.
SWOOSH!
The pebble flew from his hand.
Tang Wen treated it as if he were throwing a knife.
’No sonic boom?’
’Did I fail?’
VMMMM!
Just as Tang Wen was about to shake his head, a terrifying roar suddenly echoed across the wilderness.
The sound grew louder and louder!
It was like a jet fighter tearing through the sky!
"Holy shit!"
The Flying Locust Stone tore through the air, distorting the light around it before creating a deafening BOOM.
The stone slammed into a lone thorn tree. WHOOSH! The tree instantly splintered into pieces, which burst into flames before they even hit the ground. A few seconds later, the fire died out, leaving only floating ash.
This was caused by the pebble’s extreme temperature.
Tang Wen stood frozen on the spot, only snapping out of it after a long moment.
"Damn, that’s on par with a rocket launcher... no, a tank’s smoothbore cannon! The power is probably about the same!"
He had finally succeeded in applying his Observation Method Power to a Hidden Weapon.
He smiled, picked up another pebble, leaped high into the air, and channeled his power through Visualization.
The pebble roared away, accelerating to the speed of sound and letting out a shriek as it tore through the air!
This time, there were no trees to block it.
Tang Wen watched through his Thousand-Mile Telescope as the pebble flew thousands of meters in the blink of an eye, eventually becoming a black dot before vanishing from sight.
The striking distance was impressive, but he frowned.
Long range wasn’t particularly useful to him.
His opponents were either Martial Artists or High-level Exotic Beasts.
Neither would be foolish enough to just stand there and let a Flying Locust Stone hit them.
After some thought, he walked up to a large boulder and stopped about ten meters away.
He used his Visualization, launching the Flying Locust Stone as if it were a blade.
BANG!
The boulder shook violently, and the pebble shattered with a CRACK, turning to dust.
Tang Wen walked over and brushed the spot. The stone powder fell away with a soft rustle.
He looked again at the boulder, which was over a meter thick, and saw it was now covered in a spiderweb of cracks.
He gave it a light push with his palm, and with a few cracking sounds, the boulder broke into pieces.
’The power is decent, I guess, but something’s still not right.’
The destructive force of that last strike was only equivalent to a full-power burst from a Third-class Martial Artist using a Contemplation Method.
Naturally, Tang Wen was not satisfied.
It wasn’t much stronger than a burst of his pure physical strength.
He had just used his Contemplation Method, yet it still couldn’t break the sound barrier the instant it left his hand.
Something was definitely wrong.
It seemed that treating the pebble like a blade and just "chopping" it forward didn’t transfer 100% of the Power into the stone!
Tang Wen stood there for a long time, lost in thought, but couldn’t come up with a better method.
’Do I really have to find a "Hidden Weapon Visualization Technique"?’
’Easier said than done. Where would I even find one?’
’And even if I did, why would anyone just let me learn it?’
With a thought, he opened his Experience Panel—[Flying Locust Stone, Expert (5113→...→5613/6000)]
His Experience Points were soaring, at least.
He immediately threw a few more, and the Flying Locust Stone reached its threshold.
[Flying Locust Stone, Expert (6000/6000)]
"It’s called an Experience Panel, but my Realm still gets stuck. This is ridiculous!"
With his Experience Points maxed out, Tang Wen had an even stronger feeling that once Flying Locust Stone leveled up, the Experience Panel would inevitably undergo some kind of change.
It was unavoidable; he could only hope it was for the best.
VMMM! VMMM! VMMM!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Not sparing any stamina, Tang Wen unleashed a series of Visualization Bursts.
Across the wilderness, beasts fled and Exotic Beasts took cover, scattering as if from an earthquake or a flood.
’Hmm, from the looks of it, when I use the Contemplation Method to power it, the Flying Locust Stone can reach the speed of sound within twenty meters, and within a hundred meters, it can break Mach two or three...’
’If it could reach the speed of sound the moment it leaves my hand, the power in the latter half of its trajectory would be even greater.’
A dozen or so bursts was a considerable drain on his stamina.
An ordinary Second-class Martial Artist would probably be unable to even lift their arm at this point.
But Tang Wen was only slightly drained.
Even if a First-class Martial Artist were to show up right now, he could still put up a fight.
From noon until dusk, Tang Wen stayed there, experimenting with different force-application techniques.
CLIP-CLOP, CLIP-CLOP.
The sound of horse hooves approached.
Hm?
"Who’s there?"
Tang Wen whipped his head around and bellowed.
"It’s us! Commander Tang Wen! It’s us, don’t attack, don’t attack!"
Two Guards on horseback raised their long spears and yelled.
The two were extremely nervous, afraid that Tang Wen might kill them with a casual wave of his hand.
They were men from the wilderness hunting camp, under Captain Liu’s command.
"It’s you. Is there trouble at the hunting camp?"
Wiping the sweat from their brows, the two men dismounted and said cautiously, "There was a huge commotion over here just now. Our captain was worried about you, so he sent us to check things out."
"I’m fine. The commotion just now was from my Cultivation. No need to worry."
"Yes, of course. On our way here, we saw a Black Rock Sheep, but our horses couldn’t catch it."
"A Low-level Exotic Beast, the Black Rock Sheep?" Tang Wen’s interest was piqued.
"And a ram, at that."
As everyone knew, rams were more valuable.
"Tell me which direction, and I’ll go take a look. You two can head back. If I catch the Black Rock Sheep, I’ll make sure you both get a share of the meat!"
"We wouldn’t dare!" the two said, grinning so widely their eyes disappeared.
They were only Martial Disciples; just being on good terms with a Young Commander like Tang Wen was enough to make them happy.
As for getting a share of the meat, they wouldn’t even dream of it.
For Tang Wen, part of his reason for practicing in the wilderness was to hunt and stockpile food.
Finding prey on his own was a difficult and slow process; it was best to cooperate with these Hunting Guards.
By the time the two men rushed back to the Hunting Battalion’s camp, it was already the middle of the night.
Back at the camp, an unusually large bonfire was burning.
’Could it be?’
Before the two could get closer, Tang Wen called out, "You’re too slow! Come and have some mutton."
"Come on! You two lucky bastards," Captain Liu added with a wave.
"The Commander is truly as fast as a god!"
Tang Wen’s speed far surpassed that of a galloping horse; catching a Low-level Exotic Beast like a Black Rock Sheep was as easy as reaching into his pocket to grab something.
Thanks to his generosity, each of the two men received a twenty-jin front leg.
This drew a wave of envy from the others.
Mutated Beast Meat was very filling. Half a jin was enough for an ordinary person to work outside all day in heavy snow without getting hungry.
With the current drought, never mind how much grain twenty jin of Mutated Beast Meat could be traded for; even if made into jerky and eaten with a little Maize, it was enough food to last one person a month.
And this was precisely Tang Wen’s intention: to let them know that cooperating with him meant there would be meat to eat.
After he rested at the camp for a night, many Guards came to him, each offering clues.
They were very familiar with the nearby area. While they couldn’t say for certain what kind of Mutated Beast was in which direction, they could at least point him in the general vicinity.
The next day, Tang Wen took the sheep’s legs and hide, leaving the rest of the meat for the Hunting Team.
He took a long spear and once again set out into the wilderness.
He had a premonition that his Experience Panel was about to change!