Pig

The wild pig’s charge was abruptly interrupted as four arrows soared through the air and lodged themselves straight in its face. The boar, however, was tough. Its hide and skull were not nearly as damaged as they might appear. Still, of the four projectiles, one precisely pierced its right eye.

Overtaken by pain, the beast faltered in its charge. But even then, that arrow was not enough to put it down. The angle was not correct to pierce right through its brain, but the loss of half its vision, coupled with the searing agony, was enough to throw it off its game... Before it could recover, a shadow lunged toward it.

A Dagger-Axe was brought down right onto its forehead. The weapon’s sharp protuberance drove right through its hide and skull, killing it on the spot. The beast was left only to twitch for a few moments before slumping on the ground, undeniably dead.

And if it wasn’t, the twisting and removal of the weapon that delivered a mortal blow to its brain was sure to finish the job.

“I guess we found tonight's dinner” Edrick joked as he walked up next to Lihua, retrieving his arrows and cleaning the blood and strands of fur that had gotten caught on them.

The inner disciple only needed to unsummon her weapon for the blood on it to come falling.

“You can summon and dispel it pretty easily, you should be fairly close to reaching perfection with your technique, right?” he commented, taking off his backpack and deftly retrieving the tools needed to take apart the boar.

Although it was a beast with a strong elemental affinity, at the end of the day, it really was just a big boar with greater nutritional value.

It was said that beasts like this one were especially precious to the untalented and regular masses. The benefits of eating such meat were far more apparent when you were a weak cultivator, or not a cultivator at all.

So it was common for cultivators without much future to become hunters of such beasts, selling them in mundane markets for high prices. It was a good business, as it's well known that wild beasts were far more nourishing than those bred in captivity. So even the upper-echelon could not put up a strong competition against those lesser cultivators, not that they wanted to anyways, there were far more profitable ways to make money off the back of the peasants…

“I’ve been stuck close to perfection for a while. It feels like I've hit a bottleneck just before the finish line” replied Lihua with a sigh “I am hoping that whatever I can find in this secret realm will help me get past that bottleneck. Once I perfect ‘Dagger-Axe Mastery’, I will finally be able to pick a new technique”

She had chosen this technique for its simplicity to begin with. Although it was a good weapon cultivation technique, as was demonstrated by the ease with which she penetrated the Earth-Carrying Boar’s defences... It was a typical one. It allowed you to summon and unsummon your weapon at a high level of mastery, ensuring that you were always armed but not encumbered.

But it had no special move attached to it, nothing similar to what Edrick could do with Oni Smash, for example, but that technique was really mostly focused on that special ability. The rest was somewhat lacklustre.

In fact, Edrick’s weapon cultivation techniques had been mostly picked for their pure enhancement rather than practicality. None of them allowed him to summon or dismiss his weapons, so he had to carry them at all times.

That downside manifested with greater power, but for the average person, it certainly was more handy to be able to always have a weapon on their person, without having to constantly bear its weight.

With a polearm like the Dagger-Axe, it was undeniably more practical.

“Ah, yes, resources that provide a good surge of inner energy are useful in that regard, aren’t they?” he replied as he carved out the beast’s organs.

“Yes, but the sheer amount of energy you might need depends on your innate talent- In that regard, I am not well off, so I need something more precious than I can get… Quite ironic, isn’t it? Those of lesser quality require high-quality goods more than those of great talent…”

“Have you been looking for a while?” he asked, cutting the main pieces of meat from the boar.

“For two years now, it has been quite frustrating. Without that damned bottleneck, I would have already been practising another technique for a while now...”

Edrick swiftly finished taking the boar apart as they spoke. Without much fanfare, he acted like he was putting everything away into his bag after wrapping the parts up, but it instead all went into his storage pouch.

“You know, Lihua, I just so happen to have a readily available resource that you could use. Why don’t I give it to you once we arrive at the mine?” he casually mentioned, making the young woman blink and rub her nape in nervousness.

“There is no need for you to spend anything on me!” she quickly said.

“Come on now, I may have phrased it like a question, but in truth, I fully intend to give it to you regardless of what you say. You are a good friend of Hui and Yin after all, so you are my friend too”

He leaned closer.

“And also, I was told that you might be interested in working at my residence, mmh?”

“W-Well… You know… For someone like me, the occasion of working for someone of nobility like yourself is a tremendous occasion... But I don’t know if I would truly fit in. I wouldn’t want to cause problems” Edrick gently slapped his palm against her back.

“Lihua, a friend of my wives could not possibly trouble me. You have good talent, but the Myriad-Arm Sect is unwilling to invest heavily in you… I am not like them. I’ll make sure you have everything that you need. After all, my residence is like one big family... I don’t just hire anyone to work there. As a result, the treatment you’ll receive will far surpass anything else you might get with any of my fellow nobles” he got awfully close to her ear as he spoke, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

Lihua did not know how to respond. It felt like he was offering a little bit more than just employment as a maid right now… And she wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

Also…

‘Why did he say wives? I am not friends with any of his other wives apart from Hui, right?’ she didn’t know about Yin yet, and even though the situation was a bit confusing, she did not miss the subtle usage of plural.

“Let’s get to the mine first. I’ll give you that resource there, and then, if you like it, why not go and mention it to Pluma and Mumin as well? I heard they were interested too…”

“A-Alright” she fake coughed to try and cover for her stutter.

She usually didn’t think about it because it would be a bit weird to think this way about her friend’s husband, but Anoteros was one handsome, seductive devil. And now that she found herself alone with him, she was getting ideas.

Especially with the way he was behaving with her all of a sudden.

‘Calm down, Lihua… If he makes any advances, you just need to keep cool and say no… It isn’t right to covet your friend’s husband… And there is nothing difficult about just saying no! Really, how hard could it be to refuse that handsome, sexy, tall, muscular, rich man? It’s a piece of cake!’

She sneaked a glance at him.

‘Y-Yes… Nothing simpler!’