Su Yu withdrew his mind from the familiarity panel and looked at the empty jade bottle, shook his head in resignation: " Without the essence of monster blood, the declining speed of cultivation is truly uncomfortable."
Thankfully, he finally made a breakthrough.
To break through the fourth level of Body Refinement Realm, Su Yu has exhausted all resources in the past two months, and the essence blood of the monster he hunted earlier was already depleted.
After he received his monthly stipend, he brought back some more blood of the mid-stage first-ranking monster.
He spent all his Spirit Stones to barely breakthrough the fourth level of Crocodile Demon 108 Physical Training Techniques.
However——
Su Yu felt the changes in his body as well as the erupting, hidden, massive force inside him.
The resources thrown into this were worth it.
After his body's blood and qi fully retracted, Su Yu came outside, looked at the pitch-black night as well as the medicine field left with only the chirping of insects.
"I can try hunting the Earth Rock Rats." Su Yu pondered in silence.
Waiting for those people to calm down was not easy.
If he doesn't earn some money, he won't be able to afford his following cultivation expenses.
Returning to his room, Su Yu began to grind beast-attracting powder. The previously purchased materials were well preserved and there was no problem in using them now.
After preparing five bait powders, Su Yu silently arrived at a secluded medicine field, mixed it with Spirit Rice and set five traps, then left.
After more than two hours, Su Yu came back to check.
To his delight, three Earth Rock Rats had been trapped, including a big Rat of the mid-stage of the first rank.
"Including the bounty materials, at least sixty inferior Spirit Stones are at hand." Su Yu joyously approached and grabbed the head of the big rat monster and twisted fiercely.
Crack!
The head twisted a full 360 degrees, and the rat's eyeballs protruded due to this. Its skull almost got twisted off.
If one were to compare twisting the head of this mid-stage first-rank monster after breaking through to the fourth level of Body Refinement realm with the time when he was in the third level, Su Yu felt it had become much easier.
In the past, he had to unleash his full physical strength to achieve this, now he could easily twist off the head of a mid-stage first-rank monster without any effort.
"Let's go home." After ruining the two remaining baits mixed with Spirit Rice, Su Yu stealthily returned home with the three Earth Rock Rats.
The next morning.
When the other people had just gotten up, Su Yu had already arrived at the Medicine Tower in the manor with a burlap sack in hand.
Inside, an old man with white hair was reading the account books with a frown. Seeing Su Yu enter, the old man smiled.
"What can I do for you?" the old man asked kindly.
Upon seeing the elder, Su Yu immediately paid his respects: "Third Elder, I came to collect the bounty."
Passing the sack over while he spoke.
The old man was the Third Elder, Su Chang, who was in charge of maintaining the medicine garden and the planting and operation of the spiritual medicine.
This Medicine Tower was the center of the medicine garden.
Seeing a mid-stage first rank and two early-stage first rank Earth Rock Rats in the bag, Su Chang looked surprised, and looked at Su Yu, "Did you hunt these?"
Su Yu responded immediately, "I hunted them with a few senior brothers, I am just one of the ones here to claim the reward."
Still, Su Chang praised him, "Well done. To be able tohunt a mid-stage first rank Earth Rock Rat, you have already eliminated a huge problem for the medicine garden."
There were a large number of Earth Rock Rats but most of them were early-stage first-rank monsters. Mid-stage first rank Earth Rock Rats were rare.
Late-stage first-rank earth rock rats hadn't even been sighted.
After giving praise, Su Chang took out the bounty and the value of the three monsters' materials in inferior Spirit Stones. Since the mid-stage first-rank Earth Rock Rat didn't have any essence blood materials, including bounty, it totalled only forty-two inferior Spirit Stones.
The bounty alone accounted for thirty inferior Spirit Stones.
The materials from the early-stage first-rank monsters were not worth much.
After receiving the Spirit Stones, Su Yu respectfully excused himself and left the Medicine Tower.
A week later.
At night, Su Yu once again made five portions of beast-attracting powder, and this time he hunted two early-stage First Order earth-rock rats.
The next day, he found a time when the Third Elder was not in the medicine tower, to go and collect his bounty, and also bought some materials.
This time, he got fourteen lower-grade spirit stones.
Half a month later, on the third hunt.
This time, Su Yu hunted a total of four early-stage First Order earth-rock rats.
The next day, he received twenty-eight lower-grade spirit stones in exchange.
And with his accumulated spirit stones, he exchanged for a suitable magic artifact in the medicine tower: the Red Luo Blade.
A lower-grade magic artifact forged from the special Red Luo ore, about two feet and two inches long, it looked like a short blade with a slightly curved blade, sharpened on one side.
It has only two special features, sharpness and armor-piercing.
The price is sixty lower-grade spirit stones, not expensive.
With a magic artifact in hand, Su Yu still had twenty-four lower-grade spirit stones left.
In the following time, Su Yu didn't plan to hunt ground-rock rats so frequently, at most half a month, or once a month.
In the medicine tower, the Third Elder Su Chang looked at the bounty records with slight astonishment. Within half a month, the junior named Su Yu actually hunted a total of nine earth-rock rats.
This number was somewhat unusual.
Taking another look, not long ago Su Yu spent sixty lower-grade spirit stones to exchange for a lower-ranking magical artifact, Red Luo Blade.
"Good lad, he still said that he was hunting earth-rock rats with his senior brothers before…" Su Chang chuckled, "But he turned around and bought a lower-grade magical artifact by himself?"
If he hadn't checked the account records, he wouldn't have found out.
"Could it be that this young lad has a trick up his sleeve for hunting earth-rock rats?" Su Chang thought it was interesting and paid attention to Su Yu.
You should know that Su Yu is only seventeen years old, and his record is of the second level of Qi refinement.
But he could hunt middle-stage First Order earth-rock rats, which was very abnormal.
However, Su Chang just paid a little attention to Su Yu and didn't bother to investigate Su Yu's secret, there was no need.
Returning to his own house.
Su Yu refined that lower-grade magic artifact, Red Luo Blade, and nurtured it with his mana in his Dantian.
This artifact is not for long-distance use, but for close combat, to bring out the advantages of his own body refinement technique.
After all, his current strongest strength is his fourth level body refinement technique, as compared to his second level of Qi refinement.
"Next, focus on practicing the Wutong Green Wood Technique." Su Yu looked at the red Luo Blade maagical artifact in his Dantian, and took a deep breath.
With his fourth level body refinement technique and a lower-grade magical artifact at his side, his safety was at least a bit stronger.
He is no longer a rookie cultivator who is at the mercy of others.
Nurture the magic artifact, cultivate mana, and cultivate the body refinement technique with the blood essence of a mid-stage first order monster.
Su Yu's life in the medicine garden is very regular, from nine in the morning till five in the evening, every day watching his proficiency in cultivation techniques steadily increase, he felt satisfied.
However, after the body refinement technique reached the fourth layer, the blood essence of the mid-stage first order monster didn't have much effect.
The speed at which the proficiency of the body refinement technique increased became as slow like the Wutong Green Wood Technique's mana.
This peaceful life suddenly changed after more than half a year.
Su Yu just asked the Third Elder of the medicine tower for a holiday, planning to go home to River City for a look, but before he could leave the medicine garden, bad news came.
Su Qingyi and several medicine garden cultivators were ambushed by the Lin family while they were out on leave. Only Su Qingyi escaped back to River City, but he was also seriously injured.
The others were all killed by the Lin family.
For a time, the relationship between the two major cultivating families in River City became particularly tense.