Frenzy wanted Hua Yan to find some Ferocious Beast meat to eat.
Though Hua Yan knew that it was in order to make him stronger, he wanted to vomit blood. Heck, forget Ferocious Beast meat, in normal times, Hua Yan didn't even have the money to eat regular meat.
Ferocious Beast meat was by no means cheap!
How would it be! It was a cultivation boosting resource. The strong were respected, so the value of this meat, which allowed one to become stronger, could only be imagined. Such a thing would not be available for low prices. Furthermore, it had a high demand and a ridiculously low supply.
After all, Ferocious Beasts couldn't be killed by the average man! There was a lot of planning involved in the execution of Ferocious Beasts. Even the weakest of these beasts were equivalent to someone at the peak of the Ballooning Stage. Hence, it made sense that there wasn't enough meat to be passed around for cheap, affordable prices.
"If you can't afford to buy any, go procure some through other means," Frenzy suggested, "This is a task of non-trivial significance. Do whatever you must."
Frenzy's wording made it seem as if it wanted Hua Yan to go steal some meat. Such a thing would not be easy, even for him. Those that could hunt this type of meat would not leave it unprotected. If they could afford to hunt the Ferocious Beasts, it was probably better not to mess with them, since they were stronger than the Ferocious Beasts.
It would be more efficient for Hua Yan to go out and hunt Ferocious Beasts himself, instead of having to wiggle through all this unnecessary trouble for their meat!
The only problem with this was that Ferocious Beasts were really powerful and they lived deep in the nameless forest. If Hua Yan was ambushed by more than a few of them, he would definitely lose his life. Not to mention, he didn't even have a base cultivation.
If others heard that he wanted to hunt Ferocious Beasts in such a state, alone nonetheless, they ship him off to an institution for crazy people.
Hence, this method of acquiring the meat was also improbable and impractical.
Then, the next alternative that Hua Yan had was to earn money and then purchase the meat through legal routes. If he were a Main Branch member, or perhaps even one of the more privileged Side Branch members, this wouldn't be a problem. He would be able to do tasks that offered a nice pay, so he'd be able to acquire some Ferocious Beasts meat in sumptuous quantities.
But he didn't have such a luxury.
If he were to go the regular route, earning money like he had always been, he would get nowhere.
If he could find a slightly better job, and work for the same wage as all the regular Side Branch members, then, while he would be able to procure some meat, he would not be able to buy them frequently.
This was also the reason why ordinary Side Branch members usually didn't have any cultivation to speak of. Either that, or they had really low cultivation bases that wouldn't be progressing anywhere.
Ferocious Beast meat just wasn't for everyone. One needed to have a certain wealth for it. This said a lot about cultivation in Gin Town. Only the rich could get anywhere. The poor would starve and have trouble finding regular meals, let alone meals that consisted of Ferocious Beast meat.
But, things were a little different now for Hua Yan. He was no longer who he used to be. Thanks to the events that had taken place today, he had escalated in status and received a new identity.
With this identity that many others could only envy he would be about equivalent to one of the more privileged Side Branch members, provided he did his job right.
"Just this much isn't enough," Frenzy mentioned, "The ashes are in a place that you can't yet reach with your current power. If you want to retrieve them, you'll need to find a lot more meat first. Even with this new status of yours, you won't be able to rise through the ranks so quickly. You'll need to consider other sources of income."
Hua Yan thought about this. Though he didn't know how much he would be making as one of Hua Pan's ordinary goons, he expected that it would not be able to satisfy the cost of buying a lot of meat in a short time.
With his older job, he used to make anywhere from around 45-90 silvers a month; the pay was variable depending on his employer's mood. Furthermore, a lot of that money that he made was used up on food, clothing and his sister.
He never really had much of a savings, because he was barely making ends meet. The average person in Gin Town needed around 25-30 silvers a month to live. In Hua Ding Manor, the cost of living was a bit more expensive because the monthly rent was higher.
Hua Yan was not a Main Branch member, so he had to pay around 40 silvers a month on rent alone. This amount was crazy! But there were many that willingly paid it because the Hua Clan was truly a good place to live in. It offered many benefits to its members that other places simply could not match.
Anyway, with his older job, it was hard for him to sustain the cost of living for both himself and his sister. With this new job, he expected that doing such a task would be much easier.
An ordinary member of the Side Branch might make around 100 silvers a month. As for someone that was contracted under Hua Pan, their base salary could be anywhere from 400 to values that Hua Yan did not dare imagine.
It depended on the skill of a gang member. Not all of them were paid equally. Nevertheless, even the least skilled goon could earn a pretty mouth-watering amount.
Yet, this was still hard to satisfy the most basic costs for Ferocious Beast meat.
1 kg of Tier 1 Beast meat cost around 100 silvers! In other words, it was equivalent to the average monthly income of a Side Branch member. No wonder people had such trouble with buying it.
If Hua Yan spent all of his money on Ferocious Beast meat, he would be able to acquire a few kilograms of meat. The only problem was that he didn't know how much meat he needed to eat or how long it would take for him to get sufficiently strong enough to fulfill his goals.
He sighed in frustration. He needed another way.