TL: Etude
"Xiao Jin, stay here. If you have time, help me collect more medicinal herbs and beast blood. Remember to separate the high-level beast blood from the mid-level beast blood and store them in the blood pool," Ye Tian instructed before leaving.
"Master, I understand!" Xiao Jin responded.
Ye Tian wanted to bring Xiao Jin back to Linhai Base, but given its large size and the fact that it was a beast, it would attract too much attention. While Linhai Base did have some domesticated beasts belonging to large families, bringing a special beast like a Golden Silk Dragon Leopard would cause him unnecessary trouble. Moreover, Xiao Jin's strength was not yet on par with his own, so it was better for it to stay in Xiao Qian Ye Forest and collect beast blood for him.
After packing up, Ye Tian took about 100 portions of high-level beast blood and a large bag of medicinal herbs. With all these items on his back, he left Xiao Qian Ye Forest under Xiao Jin's escort.
About eight miles outside Linhai Base, a hunting squad was cautiously searching for beasts. Each member looked quite serious. The squad wasn't particularly strong; the most powerful among them was only in the late stage of the martial warrior realm.
"Boss, I've spotted a young martial warrior. He's carrying a lot of stuff!" one of the members pointed out, looking at a figure approaching them.
The leader looked over and saw a young man, obviously a martial warrior.
"Should we rob him?" someone asked.
The leader hesitated. He didn't think Ye Tian was particularly strong. A young man like him was probably just entering the martial warrior realm.
"Boss, are you worried he has a strong background? We basically know all the martial warriors from our Tieya Base, and he's not one of them. He must be from Linhai Base. With our background, what's there to fear from a small martial warrior from Linhai Base?"
"Boss, let's do this. As long as we don't kill him, no one can do anything to us. Besides, we haven't gained anything today; we can't go back empty-handed."
Persuaded by his subordinates, the leader finally gritted his teeth and said, "Fine, let's do it!"
They had done this kind of thing before, always carefully picking easy targets. Although this time was a bit risky, the rewards would be great if they succeeded.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The members of the hunting squad ran over and quickly surrounded the young man.
"Hand over all your stuff!" the leader threatened.
This young man was Ye Tian.
At this moment, he was somewhat dumbfounded. How bold were these people to actually try to rob him?
With his psychic power, Ye Tian immediately assessed the strength of these martial warriors. They were all at the martial warrior level, similar in strength to the Feng Lang hunting squad. To him, they were nothing but ants.
"Do you really want to rob me?" Ye Tian said coldly.
"Stop talking nonsense. If you don't want to suffer, hand over all your stuff!" The leader threatened again, his knife faintly glowing. It was a sign that he was channeling his elemental energy into his weapon.
Clearly, the leader was about to make his move.
Just then, Ye Tian's knife moved.
These martial warriors couldn't see Ye Tian's actions clearly. They only felt a pain in both hands, and their weapons fell to the ground.
Then, screams filled the air.
"Ah, ah, ah, my hand!"
"My hand is almost broken!" "I don't want to be disabled!"
Ye Tian hadn't crippled their hands; he had merely severed their tendons and even shattered some of their wrist bones. In his previous life, such injuries would have been considered disabling. But in this world, as long as there were healing medicines, one could recover; it would just take time.
Given the injuries of these martial warriors, they wouldn't be able to engage in combat for several months.
The leader of the hunting squad, enduring the intense pain in his hands, looked at Ye Tian with fear. He finally realized that the young man before him was not an ordinary martial warrior but a much stronger one, so fast that he couldn't even see his movements. Such a martial warrior was terrifying.
"What's the current situation in Linhai Base?" Ye Tian asked.
He had been away for over a month and wanted to quickly understand the situation in Linhai Base, which these people should know.
The hunting squad didn't dare not to answer and quickly told Ye Tian what he wanted to know. After listening, Ye Tian frowned.
A lot had changed in Linhai Base over the past month.
And there was one crucial piece of information—Tieya Base was gone!
Yes, gone, wiped out by beasts, with hundreds of thousands dead. Only about a hundred thousand had survived and come to Linhai Base.
Among these hundred thousand, nearly ten thousand were martial warriors. The rest were mostly families of martial warriors. The true civilians of Tieya Base had no chance to escape.
Now, these hundred thousand people from Tieya Base had settled in Linhai Base and were even constructing new buildings outside the base, including an outer wall. Clearly, they were planning to make this their new home.
Moreover, the Lin family of Linhai Base had reached an agreement with the higher-ups of Tieya Base, allowing their people to join Linhai Base, but the Lin family would retain control.
"The Lin family in control?" Ye Tian chuckled upon hearing this.
This was control in name only. The Lin family's strength was far inferior to that of Tieya Base. How could they control the grand martial warriors and even grandmasters from Tieya Base? This agreement was merely a matter of saving face; in reality, the true power now undoubtedly lay with the higher-ups of Tieya Base.
Of course, this didn't affect Ye Tian.
He had no intention of getting involved in their competition. Perhaps before long, he would take his sister Ye Yu to a larger base and would not stay in this small Linhai Base.
"Get lost!" Ye Tian coldly ordered.
The hunting squad scrambled away, quickly disappearing from sight, fearing that Ye Tian might change his mind.
The rest of the journey was uneventful, and Ye Tian calmly returned to Linhai Base.
As soon as he entered Linhai Base, he noticed the differences. There were more martial warriors and more ordinary people; the streets were bustling.
When he got home, "Brother, you're finally back!"
Ye Yu saw Ye Tian and immediately rushed over, her little face full of longing.