An angry screech split the air.

Van reacted immediately and rolled to the side. Something large and heavy crashed into the tree beside him, shaking the ground.

Van regained his feet and came face to face with a giant insect with a dark, segmented body. It lifted a razor-sharp leg and sliced it through the air.

Blackie growled and knocked the insect's leg away. However, this insect had a thick, hairy looking shell that absorbed the impact instantly. The giant bug's attention was now focused on the wolf.

Van acted immediately.

"Flaming Bull Fist!" A thick column of flame burst into the air and scorched the hide of the bug. It screeched in pain.

Angered, the giant insect raised four of its razor-sharp legs at once and stabbed at Blackie.

Van threw himself forward and blocked two of the legs with his arm. The other two legs pierced through his robes and into his skin. At that moment, he activated his Copper Buddha state. His skin flashed copper.

CLANG!

The razor-sharp legs impacted his body loudly. A thin slice of red appeared on Van's skin before the legs slid off his body.

Van channelled his fleshly power and forcefully ripped a leg off. It stabbed into the ground beside them with a dull thudding noise.

Blackie snarled viciously and ripped off its antenna, following his Master's actions.

The giant segmented insect ripped its legs out of the dirt and viciously lunged forwards with its mandibles wide open.

Not good!

Caught off guard as he was trying to move Blackie out of harm's way. Van had no time to activate his Copper Buddha state. The giant insect's teeth sank a centimetre deep into Van's skin.

Furious, Van slammed his fist against the insect's head.

BANG!

A cloud of fire billowed out from Van's fist and burnt the insect's head. Screeching, the insect opened its jaws and tried to move away but Van held onto its face and kept hitting it with his Flaming Bull Fist.

A dense and sour smell emitted from the insect's head as Van's burning fist started to melt through its exoskeleton. With one last screech, it died.

Van pulled his fist from the gooey internals of its head and heaved the body off him. The giant carcass fell onto its back; its legs twitched and spasmed.

"Fuck!" Van exclaimed, looking at the teeth marks on his arm. They were red and angry looking, but little blood spilt out.

He reminisced about the fight and realised that he would have been dead meat without his body cultivation. His inexperience in using his martial skills had really shown. If he had been able to instinctively and fluidly use his Fists of Devouring Flame, the result would have been vastly different.

Van even estimated that the strength of this giant ant was on par some weaker 3rd level Qi Distillation cultivators.

Brooding, he patted Blackie on his snout and went to inspect the carcass. Van tipped the carcass over. The creature appeared seventy to eighty per cent similar to an ant.

Van chipped off a piece of its head armour to use as a token of the kill. Then he ripped off the rest of its exoskeleton. He carved two of the largest pieces into two large bowls and began to scoop out the meat from the inside of the ant. Putting the two bowls in his lap, he yelled:

"Flaming Bull Fist!"

The flames spat out. The ant meat inside the bowls sizzled. Blackie drew near and sniffed curiously.

"This fella sure knows what good stuff is," Van commented as he saw his wolf look at him with big eyes. The young man put the bowl of cooked ant meat down and watched as the wolf snaffled it down happily.

He himself looked at his pile of steaming ant flesh and gulped nervously. It smelt..unpleasant to say the least – but it was still the flesh of a creature that had some cultivation!

Van shut his eyes tightly and gulped it down.

Surprisingly, the taste was not as bad as it appeared. There was a slightly nutty aftertaste.

The rest of the meat from the giant ant was scooped out and eaten. Van found a tiny, pea-like beast core inside its skull.

With their bellies full, Van and Blackie rested on a rock. A warm buzz filled them as qi gently dispersed from the ant meat inside their stomachs.

Van took out the little pamphlet he had gotten and read through it again.

"Every ten demon beasts slain gives you 10 points, with bonuses given if you destroy their nests. Evidence must be provided to attest to the kill. Points can be traded in the sect for valuable goods and materials."

The list was accompanied by a few images of the various pests that preyed on the town's dwindling population of domesticated woolly demon beasts.

He found a picture of a large ant.

"Brown King Ant, large beasts with extremely thick exoskeletons that are resistant to physical attacks. Possess sharp mandibles and razor-edged legs that are known to cleave 3rd level Qi Distillation adventurers in two with one strike. Their mandibles are the most valuable part of their bodies and are often used as garden shears for herb-cultivators."

Van whistled.

"That was a difficult first enemy, but I've learnt a lot. I must pay attention to identify the weaknesses of the creatures and consider their natures."

After a brief rest, Van rode on Blackie's back and continued to find demon beasts using the wolf's keen sense of smell.

This time, Van jumped lightly off the wolf's back and decided to observe the enemy before engaging. In the woods ahead of them was a small rabbit. It hopped back and forth while twitching it ears, listening for danger. When it was satisfied there was none, it dashed forwards and picked up something on the ground.

Giant fangs protruded from its mouth and its eyes turned red. The rabbit tore into the squirming snake it held in its paws.

At that moment.

"River Splitting the Rocks!"

A spear of dark water pierced towards the rabbit. It flattened its ears and hissed at Van.

A Fanged White Rabbit, only the size of the palm of his hand, was extremely famous in Threadspinner Town. Its strength was well on par with normal third rankers and it possessed an extremely high speed.

However, it was the king of cowards!

The Fanged White Rabbit felt the freezing water pierce towards it and ran. The attack ripped its back open. A cold qi entered its body and caused it to slow down slightly.

This slowing effect was enough for Van, who withdrew the bone dagger from his waist and threw it while channelling all his fleshly power.

Sou!

The dagger pierced accurately into the rabbit's back.

It died.

Van collected the valuable Fanged White Rabbit fur and extracted a large thumb-sized beast core from its body. He smiled happily, the soft and silky fur of this rabbit was worth five to six hundred taels of silver.

Adding it to the mandibles of the ten or so Brown King Ants he had killed he estimated his wealth now exceeded nine hundred silver taels. He was the wealthiest he had ever been!

Although Van was excited, he calmed himself down.

"This is still not enough!"

_______

For the next two days, Van relentlessly scoured the woods around Threadspinner Town, striking down every beast he came across.

He soon learned a very effective technique for fighting against beasts with strong exoskeletons:

First, he would hit them repeatedly with his Dark Seas Palm skill. The dark, cold qi inside the attack would cause a slight freezing effect and slow the beasts down. After they were sufficiently sluggish, Van would blast them with his Flaming Bull Fist.

The extreme change in temperature cracked their exoskeletons. The Brown King Ants all died with their entrails spilling out of their shells.

It was a terrifying few days for the local population of Brown King Ants.

Extremely pleased with his finding, Van named the new move 'Thermocycling Fist' and spent a few hours piecing the two skills 'River Splitting the Rocks' and 'Flaming Bull Fist' together. Thermocycling Fist did not do as much damage as Flaming Bull Fist, nor was its freezing effect as good as River Splitting the Rocks. However! It was able to switch between fire and water quickly and smoothly, changing temperatures rapidly and causing extra damage to beasts!

The result was crude and inelegant but very effective.

Every time Van pulled his fists back, screams of terror followed.

"Twenty Brown King Ants, one Fanged White Rabbit.."

"Forty Brown King Ants, one Fanged White Rabbit, ten Black-Spotted boars.."

"Eighty Brown King Ants, two Fanged White Rabbits, twenty Black-Spotted Boars and two Gatling Swallows.."

To kill as many demon pests as possible, Van perfected his Fists of Devouring Flames and Dark Seas Palm by using them to the highest extent he could.

Fists of Devouring Flames was trained to a low-level of achievement while Dark Seas Palm was trained to a medium level. This was because Fists of Devouring Flames was a higher-ranked skill with more moves to learn while Dark Seas Palm was limited to the Qi Distillation Realm. This made the higher levels of achievement in Fists of Devouring Flames harder to achieve.

In the process Van learned one more move from Dark Seas Palm – 'Tide Swallows the Earth!"

When used, a giant tidal wave would block the sky. The immense wave crashed down on the victim with crushing force and carried a vastly more brutal dark and cold qi. However, this move drained Van far more than 'River Splitting the Rocks' did.

With 'River Splitting the Rocks,' Van was able to extend it's reach to a few tens of metres further – making it a good probing attack.

The impact, temperature of the flames and power of 'Flaming Bull Fist' was also vastly improved.

"With this many killed, I should have one-hundred and four points. Plus, the materials I have collected add up to over three thousand silver taels."

There was one and a half days left and Van felt the itch to hunt something more challenging and valuable. At this point he felt that the sect contribution points were a little less important compared to the sheer wealth he could receive should he find and kill a rare beast.

"I must hunt one!"

The problem was that the increasing number of other cultivators that Van had to compete with. As the days rolled past, the number of demon pests within the woods dropped dramatically.

Van returned to a spot he had had much success finding and killing Brown King Ants and saw an interesting sight. About fifty Brown King Ants were carrying fragments of food in a well-organised line.

"Baaaaa!" A domesticated woolly beast complained. It was being carried by a giant ant to god knows where.

Van counted; twenty woolly beasts had been pinched from the farmers by the King Brown Ants. They baaed and struggled helplessly.

Other items Van spotted in the ant's mandibles included other small demon beasts and, grotesquely, a severed arm.

Van followed them at a distance and eventually arrived before an enormous mound. As he watched, the Brown King Ants marched up the mound and dropped the food in their mandibles into the hole.

"Could it be..?"

Van's eyes gleamed with excitement.

This was the big game he had been waiting for!