Chapter 6: The Terrifying Savage Beast

Night had already fallen, and the deep mountain forest was shrouded in silence.

The ironwood fire blazed brightly, but what boiled in the pot was not meat, but iron sword grass.

“Hup!”

“Hah!”

After devouring the remaining ten or so pounds of beast meat, Chu Feng felt his body strengthen once again, his power now even more robust. Lifting the massive stone weighing over a thousand pounds had become much less strenuous for him. He hurled the giant rock over two fathoms high, caught it effortlessly, and then flung it far into the distance.

Boom!

The boulder crashed to the ground, burying itself several feet deep into the earth.

Through repeated practice, sweat poured from Chu Feng as he worked, yet his strength grew increasingly fluid and controlled. Still, this was brute force—mere raw power.

The second stage of the Body Tempering Realm required more than that; it called for refined strength, skillful force. Practicing brute strength was straightforward—if you had the power, repetition sufficed. But skillful force required guidance, a manual of techniques; without it, not only would one fail to achieve the desired results, but reckless practice might even dissipate or ruin one's own strength.

Though Chu Feng had never eaten pork, he’d seen pigs run; this basic martial wisdom was not lost on him.

But where could he find a manual for refining strength? Night had fallen, the market long since dispersed. He hadn’t expected such rapid progress—just a few dozen pounds of beast meat, and he’d broken through the first stage. If only he’d known, he would have lingered at the market and bought a guide.

It seemed he would have to wait until dawn to search for a book. But though his hands could rest, his mind could not. Time was too precious. If not training his limbs, he’d exercise his mind. Now was the perfect moment to study the storage pouch—was it truly as he suspected, only able to conjure metallic items, and only exact replicas?

As Chu Feng pondered this, unwilling to waste even a moment, a sudden beastly roar shattered the stillness.

The cry was strange—like a wolf, yet not a wolf; like a tiger, yet not a tiger. It seemed to rise from beneath the earth, as though the beast, having cried out, had burrowed underground. The force of the call made the forest leaves tremble and even the ironwood fire flicker.

Chu Feng’s heart skipped a beat.

“Not good—a savage beast attack?!”

In the Beast Pen of the Fear Gate, Chu Feng had seen many wild beasts; the sound he’d just heard was unmistakably not from an ordinary animal, but from a wild, savage beast. When the wildness of a beast reached its peak, it became savage.

Savage beasts far surpassed mere animals, just as wild animals were superior to domesticated livestock—there was simply no comparison. With Chu Feng’s current strength at the second stage of the Body Tempering Realm, he could easily tear apart wolves and tigers, but to face a powerful, ferocious savage beast, he would likely stand no chance at all.

“How could there be a savage beast here? There’s no trace of animals, let alone the scent of a savage beast lingering in this area. How could one appear now?”

Chu Feng was filled with both doubt and fear.

Generally, savage beasts only roamed areas teeming with animals, as animals were their food source. Where prey was abundant, savage beasts would appear. Yet here, not even a wild dog or wolf could be found—surely a savage beast had no business being here.

It couldn’t be the aroma of those fifty-odd pounds of meat either; the scent of savage beast meat was so dense it did not disperse, nor could it drift far. Even if a savage beast caught the scent, such a meager whiff would not suffice to lure it—wouldn’t even fill a gap between its teeth.

“It seems I’ll have to run for it. But will I make it? What a shame about the whole pot of iron sword grass—wasted, abandoned here for nothing…”

Chu Feng grieved inwardly, but after hearing the savage beast’s roar, he dared not linger another moment.

Splash!

Just then, not far from Chu Feng, the surface of the river erupted with a mighty crash, sending a curtain of water soaring dozens of feet high as vast quantities of water were displaced.

At the same time, a thunderous boom shook the earth, as if some enormous object had crashed heavily from the sky. The force must have weighed tens of thousands of pounds—the trees swayed, the ground trembled.

“What’s happening?”

Chu Feng lay motionless on the ground, not daring to stir. In the face of a savage beast, if escape was impossible, playing dead was a wise choice. Savage beasts were drawn to vibrant life or powerful martial blood; a low-level martial artist like Chu Feng, feigning death, would be beneath their notice, and might escape unharmed.

But this situation was exceedingly strange.

Under the night’s shadow and at a distance, Chu Feng couldn’t discern exactly what was happening, but one thing was certain: whatever had shot from the river and crashed to earth was no mere rock or log, but a living creature—a savage beast!

“Why isn’t it moving? Could it have died in the fall? Best if it has! Be patient, watch a little longer.”

Chu Feng fixed his gaze on the immense silhouette in the distance, wishing with all his heart that fortune would favor him with some stroke of luck.

After a long while, the river’s surface grew calm once more, the forest deserted by both man and beast. Chu Feng finally relaxed—whatever it was, it must truly be dead.

He crept cautiously forward to see what lay ahead.

When he was within two fathoms, he finally made out the thing’s identity, and his heart leapt in shock—he nearly jumped out of his skin.

Lying on the ground before him was an enormous, golden-scaled serpent!

This giant python stretched nearly thirty feet long, its girth as thick as a millennium-old tree—no single man could have encircled it with his arms. Its entire body gleamed like solid gold, as if cast from molten metal.

Its two eyes, large as washbasins, stared lifelessly at Chu Feng from several yards away.

Chu Feng’s heart pounded madly; even in death, the aura and majesty of this savage beast were enough to terrify him, keeping him from approaching recklessly.

Such a fearsome golden python—perhaps not even a diamond-horned rhinoceros could handle it. How had it died? Could it have fallen prey to one of the legendary greater spirit beasts?

Chu Feng scrutinized the serpent’s body and finally spotted a bloodied hole, fist-sized, at its heart.

A torrent of blood gushed from the wound, forming a crimson river.

So this was the fatal wound—a single blow to the heart. What unimaginable power it must have taken to kill such a beast in one strike!

Chu Feng marveled for a moment, then a thought struck him: this colossal corpse could be an unparalleled resource for his martial training.

It was true that once a martial artist surpassed the first stage of Body Tempering, further consumption of savage beast flesh would no longer increase raw strength, but feasting on high-quality beast meat could only bring benefits, never harm. Even if he couldn’t eat it all, he could sell it at the market—the value of golden python meat far surpassed that of red-striped tigers or blood-headed king bears.

He grinned—he’d struck it rich after all, and his fright had not been for nothing. But wait—the python’s belly was swollen, as if it contained something sizable.

Chu Feng’s gaze fixed on its midsection. That beastly roar he’d heard earlier clearly hadn’t come from the python—it must have been its prey, still alive inside. Perhaps a giant wolf or tiger?

Drawing a foot-long dagger, Chu Feng sliced into the python’s belly to discover what lay inside.

The golden python’s hide was thick as armor—fortunately, Chu Feng now wielded strength in the thousands of pounds; otherwise, no ordinary blade could have pierced it.

Soon enough, he had cut a gash over three feet long along its abdomen.

From the bloody cavity, with a wet thud, something slid out of the python’s belly and rolled to the side.

“What is this…”

Chu Feng’s eyes widened as he stared at the creature, trying to make out what kind of beast it was.

In the flickering moonlight, when he finally saw clearly, he let out a startled cry, nearly collapsing in shock.