Chapter Twelve: The Land of Garrison and Cultivation

  Lying in his own tent, Liu Yu thought about what Bo Nan had said to him today.

  The Beastman Kingdom, due to food shortages and some grain-producing areas being close to the Fanaud Empire, has been affected by frequent wars in recent years, which have severely impacted the kingdom's food supply. Therefore, King Kero personally issued an order to develop the Dessa Mountains, previously only used for underage Bimon blood refining, into a new grain-producing area.

  Because the Dwarven fortress has already been established in the westernmost part of the Beastmen Kingdom's original territory, all the places where people were recruited to open up land are located in the eastern part of the kingdom, thousands of miles away from the Deza mountain range. The demand for food during wartime is increasing without decreasing, and in order to alleviate the urgent need, the servants from the three major training camps nearby have been reduced to a minimum to come here to open up land. Moreover, those who come here, including Baimon, although they don't have to farm, generally have to take care of their own food, clothing, and shelter, and will no longer be able to rely on others like before.

  And Liu Yu only knew that the elder of Tui Luo didn't tell them, after this blood refining, they could only go home once for the Beast God Festival, and next year after the spring began, they would have to train here again as preparation for joining the army after becoming an adult.

  "Ah, it seems I won't be able to stay home for long this time either." Liu Yu muttered to himself in his heart, feeling somewhat dissatisfied and resentful towards the Fano Empire, which was always at war with the Beastman Kingdom. However, the fatigue of the day soon caught up with him, carrying him off into a dreamland.

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  The next evening, more than ten miles away from the campsite, in a dense forest, Liu Yu wore a brown leather armor, with an iron helmet on his head, a long sword and an axe hanging from his waist, holding a spear of over two meters, with a cloth bag and a bow and arrow on his back, walking cautiously alone in the woods.

  At this time, Liu Yu was secretly scolding the ruthless county magistrate in his heart. Last night, Liu Yu slept very soundly and even dreamed that he had returned to Earth and was eating all kinds of Chinese delicacies. Who knew that before he finished eating, he was directly picked up from bed by a man who was stronger than Meng Zong.

  Said to be the highest officer of the four camps, Duwei ordered all participating Bi Mong to set out immediately and start bleeding, without delay. Dizzy Liu Yu, drooling and carrying dozens of kilograms of weapons and food, wearing heavy leather armor, was escorted by that warrior a few miles away before being forced to continue on his own towards the deeper part of the forest.

  "Damn it, I'm so unlucky as a prince. It's not just about food and clothing, but even sleep is bad." Liu Yu was speechless again when he thought about the content of this blood refining.

  He is to stay in the jungle for a month but was only given five days' worth of rations. He must also kill a magical beast above level three, bring back its magic core and return to camp on his own within a month to be considered successful. If he gets lost and can't find his way back to camp, it will also be considered a failure.

  Everything else is easy to say, but this food is the most worrying for Liu Yu. Before, when he was killing the Lidi beast with his team, Liu Yu thought that there were monsters everywhere in the forest, and as long as he was careful and only targeted the weak ones, this mouthful of food shouldn't be a problem.

  Only when they arrived at the jungle did they realize that it wasn't like this at all, and after walking for several miles, they didn't encounter a single large demon beast. With great difficulty, they encountered an Angle Rabbit, but this guy reacted extremely quickly, and before Liu Yu could even shoot an arrow, he ran away without a trace. Afterwards, they encountered a Groundhog Mouse, which saw Liu Yu and immediately burrowed underground. Liu Yu, with his liver fire raging, directly used a Fireball Technique to blast the spot, but all that was left on the ground was a hole, and there was no prey. Like this, Liu Yu searched for prey while proceeding cautiously, after all, if he were to encounter a demon beast stronger than himself due to bad luck, it would still be very dangerous with his current abilities.

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  "Ah!" In front of a giant tree that needed two or three people to hug, Liu Yu straightened his waist, stretched out a big lazy waist, and let out a long breath. Looking at the late sky, Liu Yu, who had been walking for a day and was already exhausted, began to look for a place to sleep. Fortunately, he found a tree hole that could just accommodate him. Liu Yu gathered some firewood from all around and piled it in front of the hole, casually throwing out a small fireball to ignite the firewood. Soon, the somewhat chilly tree hole warmed up.

  Sitting in front of the bonfire, Liu Yue gradually felt warmth and suddenly thought he knew how Fiete and those earth mages started fires. He imagined Fiete's frantic appearance and felt that his dual-element magic was still quite useful. Of course, if that elder who valued him highly were to find out, he would definitely be in trouble.

  Liu Yu untied the bundle and took out the cured meat and black bread, eating his first dinner after escaping from prison.

  In a somewhat dark forest, a plump white rabbit was peacefully eating grass under a large tree. Its slightly stout body made it look very cute. In this forest where many beasts and monsters roam, a rabbit must always be on guard against predators, so its two bright red eyes would occasionally observe the surroundings, and its two ears would also listen vigilantly to the sounds of the surrounding woods, believing that as soon as there was any movement, it would immediately run away.

  In the bushes over ten meters away from him, Liu Yu's pale face carefully drew his bow and arrow. He was extremely cautious with every move, adjusting his breathing first, then slowly positioning his bow and arrow to aim at the prey. He didn't touch anything or make a sound. He knew that even the slightest noise would scare the prey away. With the slowest speed, he took a deep breath, concentrated his strength, aimed at the target, and quietly waited for it to completely relax.

  An arrow with a hint of golden glow pierced through the dark forest, heading straight for the joyful horned rabbit that was eating away. The rabbit had been observing its surroundings for a long time without any movement, so it had let its guard down. By the time it sensed danger, it was too late.

  "Haha!" Seeing that he had nailed the rabbit to the tree with one arrow, Liu Yu rushed out of the grass heap, his face looking as if he had obtained the whole world. A kind of excitement from the heart was written on his face. After taking down the rabbit, Liu Yu immediately started piling up firewood to roast the meat. Stroking the fat rabbit, Liu Yu seemed to say to it: "I finally caught you."

  This is the eighth day since Liu Yu started his blood training, and inexperienced Liu Yu almost starved himself to death in this forest. At first, he didn't control his food intake, and as a result, five days' worth of rations were finished in three and a half days. After that, Liu Yu began his difficult hunting journey.

  Like this horned rabbit, Liu Yu had encountered several times, but he who didn't know how to hold his breath always scared away the prey before releasing the arrow. This made him have nothing to eat except drinking stream water every day and digging some wild vegetables in the following days, but there were really few edible wild vegetables in the forest and many of them were poisonous.

  It's mid-summer now, and Liu Yu hasn't seen many edible fruits either. As a result, Liu Yu has been starving for most of the time. However, after more than two days, he was so hungry that his face turned pale, and his eyes became like "national treasures".

  He himself speculated that if it weren't for Huang Jinbi's physique being exceptionally strong, his own physical condition in his past life would have been so starved that he wouldn't be able to get up. And after continuous hunting failures, Liu Yu finally learned his lesson, restraining his desire for food, holding back his breath, and patiently waiting for the opportunity to come.

  A burst of crackling firewood sounds accompanied by wafting meat aromas, seeing the meat was done Liu Yu began to devour it eagerly around the bonfire.

  After the meal, Liu Yu carefully picked up the leftover meat that he hadn't finished eating. With this leftover meat, he wouldn't have to worry about food for a day. For the first time, he felt that being full was such a happy feeling.

  Sitting cross-legged beside the fire, Liu Yu stroked his swollen belly and began to ponder the task of Blood Refining. Neither his family's honor nor he himself would tolerate failure in Blood Refining; if he failed, he would have to stay here for at least a year to continue cultivating.

  And he left marks along the way, believing that going back shouldn't be a problem. What's left is to kill a three-stage or higher magical beast, which is also what Liu Yu worries about the most. He hasn't even encountered many wild beasts, let alone magical beasts, not even their shadows.

  However, Liu Yu speculated that this place was still too close to the campsite, and it was possible that the beastmen who were stationed here for hunting would often come to hunt and kill all the surrounding demons. The stronger and more intelligent demons should have left as well. Therefore, he thought that if he ventured deeper into the forest, he should be able to gain something.

  (This is my first book, and I've seen some readers encouraging me in the review section over the past few days. I'm really grateful, so I'll work even harder to write more. However, to go further still requires more support, so I'm calling out for recommendation votes - please help me out! Thanks in advance for your support!)