"No problem, Mr. Tie. What’s the name of the person you’re asking about?" Xiaoli asked. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"His name is Lin Li. He’s in his early twenties, an Exotic Beast Hunter with a Second Order Middle Stage cultivation..." As Tie Qiu Heng mentioned Lin Li’s name, his face filled with killing intent.

Before anyone else could ask why he wanted to find this person, Tie Qiu Heng spoke up to explain.

"The only reason I was caught by the Superpower Administration Bureau’s Investigators this time was because that meddling Exotic Beast Hunter, Lin Li, stuck his nose where it didn’t belong."

Wang Tao twisted the cap off a bottle of mineral water, took a sip, and asked, "Tie Qiu Heng, if Xiaoli finds out where this guy is, are you going to get revenge?"

Tie Qiu Heng nodded, speaking through gritted teeth, "Ever since I was captured by the Investigators from the Superpower Administration Bureau, I’ve dreamed of that despicable bastard every single night. If I get the chance, I’ll grind his bones to dust."

"Revenge can wait. Right now, our first priority is to figure out how to escape this city safely," Liu Ke said calmly. His unspoken meaning was a reminder for Tie Qiu Heng to put aside his thoughts of vengeance for now.

"..."

Hearing this, Tie Qiu Heng fell silent for a few seconds, then nodded.

Although Tie Qiu Heng loathed Lin Li to the core, he knew he had to prioritize. He wouldn’t stubbornly insist on hunting Lin Li down for revenge just yet.

’Even if I can’t get my revenge right away, there’s no harm in finding out my enemy’s home address first.’

Seeing that the three men had no other orders, the young man, Xiaoli, left the basement.

...

The sun was about to set, painting the horizon with a breathtaking, crimson glow.

In the treacherous wilderness, an agile figure holding a Spiritual Longsword that glowed with a faint golden Spiritual Light stood panting, looking at the Mutant Beasts lying all around him.

"HAAH..."

"Thirty-three."

Drenched in sweat, Lin Li muttered the number. It was the total count of Mutant Beasts he had killed so far today.

Using the motorcycle to make a loud noise to attract Mutant Beasts had worked surprisingly well, just as Lin Li had expected.

In the morning, he had only killed nine Mutant Beasts. But in the afternoon, using the motorcycle’s loud noise, he had attracted a full twenty-six of them.

Aside from two Mutant Beasts that used their awakened Superpowers to escape, he had killed the remaining twenty-four.

’This method works, but it’s exhausting. After all that, my physical stamina and Spiritual Energy are almost completely drained...’

Looking at the corpses of the Mutant Beasts scattered around him, Lin Li felt utterly exhausted, but his joy was palpable.

In a single day, Lin Li had killed thirty-three Tier One Mutant Beasts, bringing his progress to eleven percent.

’If his haul every day from now on is as good as today’s, he could get the Magical Little Fruit in about ten days.’

’But, thinking about it calmly, using the motorcycle’s noise to attract Mutant Beasts went very smoothly today. The ones that came were all Tier One.’

’With my own Second Order Middle Stage cultivation, they didn’t pose much of a threat.’

’But what if, in the future, the noise attracts a large number of Second Order Initial Stage or Second Order Middle Stage Mutant Beasts? Or worse, what if it draws in a Second Order High Rank one? The outcome definitely wouldn’t be as fruitful as today.’

HISS...

As Lin Li’s thoughts churned while he stared at the Mutant Beast corpses all around him, he suddenly sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.

Looking closely, he saw that his left arm was injured.

He hadn’t paid attention to the wound on his arm during the intense battle with the Mutant Beasts. Now that the fight was over, the pain immediately spread through his body.

Judging by the injury, it was a claw wound from a Mutant Beast. It wasn’t a big deal, though—just a flesh wound, the bone was fine.

In that last fierce battle, Lin Li had fought one against six. If his physical stamina and Spiritual Energy had been at their peak, he wouldn’t have been injured.

But he had been fighting all afternoon, and both his stamina and Spiritual Energy were greatly depleted. So, when facing the final siege of six Tier One Mutant Beasts, he had paid the price of an injured left arm to claim victory.

With a thought, the Spiritual Longsword in his hand vanished. A 30-gram tube of fast-acting hemostatic ointment and a bottle of mineral water appeared in Lin Li’s hands.

Enduring the intense pain from the wound, he first rinsed it with mineral water, then squeezed out the hemostatic ointment and applied it.

The wound, which had been torn open by the Mutant Beast’s claws, stopped bleeding just a moment after the hemostatic ointment was applied.

Looking at the wound that was no longer bleeding, Lin Li couldn’t help but sigh. ’This small tube of hemostatic ointment costs three thousand yuan. It’s expensive, but the healing effect is really something else.’

Having made several million yuan in the last two or three days, Lin Li squeezed out an excessive amount of the three-thousand-yuan hemostatic ointment, acting like a bit of a big spender.

After applying the hemostatic ointment, he wrapped his injured arm with some white medical gauze. ’Now, I need to hurry up and take care of these Mutant Beast corpses on the ground.’

Night was about to fall, and the evening air wasn’t as hot as it had been in the afternoon.

The Mutant Beasts that had been hiding from the scorching sun were also beginning to emerge from the shade to roam the wilderness.

The area where Lin Li stood was soaked red with the blood of the more than twenty Mutant Beasts he had just killed.

The scent of blood drifted on the wind. Any Mutant Beasts with a keen sense of smell would easily pick up the scent and follow it here.

Racing against time, Lin Li quickly collected all the Mutant Beasts he had killed into the Mysterious Small Island.

Right now, with his stamina and Spiritual Energy nearly exhausted, if a Mutant Beast suddenly launched a sneak attack, it wouldn’t even need to be Tier Two.

A High-Rank Tier One or even a Peak Tier One beast could severely injure Lin Li. A serious enough wound could mean the end for him.

To be safe, in case a Mutant Beast suddenly appeared and he couldn’t handle it, Lin Li immediately activated his backup plan.

With a thought, a small, bright red fruit appeared in Lin Li’s hand. It was the size of a pigeon’s egg and looked almost identical to a cherry tomato.

Lin Li’s backup plan was to eat a Spirit Fruit to quickly replenish the Spiritual Energy in his nearly depleted Dantian.

CRUNCH.

He tossed the Spirit Fruit into his mouth, chewed it a few times, and swallowed.

After eating the Spirit Fruit, it only took a few seconds.

A surge of abundant Spiritual Energy appeared inside Lin Li’s body. He quickly absorbed this energy from the Spirit Fruit, significantly replenishing his nearly empty Dantian.

This was the most basic and wonderful use of a Spirit Fruit. Even the most common ones were immensely helpful to a Cultivator.

After an intense battle, a Cultivator wanting to restore their spent Spiritual Energy could do so in several ways: they could cultivate to absorb the free-roaming Spiritual Energy in the air, absorb the energy contained within Spirit Stones, or eat a Spirit Fruit rich in Spiritual Energy.

Restoring one’s Spiritual Energy by cultivating and absorbing it from the air is the slowest method.

A Cultivator often needs several hours of cultivation, and those with lesser aptitude require even more time.

Absorbing Spiritual Energy from Spirit Stones to recover is faster, taking about an hour to an hour and a half. Similarly, a Cultivator with lower aptitude would take longer to absorb the energy from a Spirit Stone.

Eating a Spirit Fruit rich in Spiritual Energy, however, is the most efficient method. The recovery effect is the same regardless of the Cultivator’s aptitude.

The consumer can absorb all of the Spirit Fruit’s abundant Spiritual Energy in a matter of seconds, refilling their empty Dantian.

...