Before transmigration, Jiang Liu stayed up all night strategizing over boss raids, so he naturally had a clear understanding of everything in the game.
In the game, there are three major professions: Monk, Taoist, and Swordsman, each with its own characteristics.
Taoists mainly focus on spell-based attacks and can advance into pure "Magic Cannons" known as Heavenly Masters or into the Demon Path, which specializes in evil curses.
Swordsmen primarily rely on physical attacks and can advance into the aggressive Sword Heroes or the defensively skilled Shield Swordsmen.
As for monks? Jiang Liu was of course the most familiar with them because before transmigration, his profession in the game was as a Monk.
The Monk occupation is more support-oriented, and in the late stage, they can advance into the pure healing profession of Compassionate Bodhisattva or become an Immovable Vidyaraja, adept at various control and combat techniques.
Jiang Liu's profession was originally a Compassionate Bodhisattva, adept at all sorts of healing skills, buffs, and even the Resurrection Technique, but that was all in the game. Now that he had transmigrated into a living world, Jiang Liu felt it would be better to advance as an Immovable Vidyaraja in the future.
After all, in the game, you could be resurrected after death, but in this real world, can you be resurrected after death?
Jiang Liu wasn't sure, and he didn't want to gamble with his own life.
"In the early stages of the Monk profession, the main role is still support, so I need to work hard to level up and advance to level 20 as soon as possible," Jiang Liu thought about his future job advancement, feeling the journey ahead was long, especially since he was only level 1 now.
There was no conversation that night, and the next two days passed very peacefully. Cooking meals and cleaning every day, Jiang Liu treasured these last quiet and peaceful days at Jinshan Temple.
One day, after eating lunch and scrubbing the pots and pans, with nothing else to do, Jiang Liu tidied up a bit and headed to the back mountain again.
Being in the midst of growing up, meat was essential to his diet; he just hoped that this time, he wouldn't run into a snow rabbit again.
In the back mountain, a young girl named Gaoyang, dressed in a sturdy outfit exuding an air of heroism, walked through the dense grass, deliberately making a lot of noise to startle the snakes.
Sure enough, after a while, a pheasant took flight in alarm and fled into the distance.
A flash of cold light appeared, and Gaoyang's flying dagger shot out, accurately hitting the pheasant's neck and bringing it down.
Holding the pheasant in her hand, Gaoyang let out a soft sigh, involuntarily thinking of the Novice Monk she had encountered a few days ago.
His cooking skills were truly good, but unfortunately, the Novice Monk hadn't come to the back mountain for several days, and she only found a few animal traps he had left behind.
"Gurgle..." Thinking of Jiang Liu, Gaoyang felt her mouth water and her stomach grumble.
Touching her own belly, Gaoyang felt helpless again.
The last time she caught some game, she thought that the Novice Monk made roasting it look so easy, but to her dismay, it ended up burnt, black and bitter, and hard to swallow.
These past few days, she had only been able to get by on some wild fruits from the mountain.
"I don't believe this young heroine can be thwarted by such a small matter! Today, I must roast this pheasant well!" Gaoyang thought of her recent dining troubles, feeling almost tearful from frustration.
Ah, ah, ah...
However, just when Gaoyang was determined, silently cheering herself on to roast the pheasant well this time, suddenly, loud shouts erupted in the tranquil mountains, drawing Gaoyang's attention.
"Ah!!!" Funnelling his hands into a megaphone shape, Jiang Liu shouted loudly a few times toward the open mountains, feeling exhilarated.
Walking for almost half an hour, he was tired but the mountain air was good; shouting aloud to clear his lungs felt quite nice.
After nearly an hour's trek, Jiang Liu finally arrived at his destination and began to check the simple animal traps he had set up.
Several days had passed, and he wondered if he had successfully captured any prey.
This time, it seems like luck was on Jiang Liu's side. After checking only a few, his eyes lit up slightly.
One of his animal traps had successfully caught a wild pheasant.
Jiang Liu walked over and looked at it, sighing helplessly in his heart. It was a pity it was already dead; otherwise, if he had killed it himself, he could have gained another Experience Point.
"Ordinary small animals, like the snow rabbit originally caught by the trap, yield only one Experience Point after being killed, but the Demon Snow Rabbit that Senior Brother Xuankong killed before gave over 100. It seems that to get a high number of Experience Points, one needs to kill some strong beasts or even Demons," he mused.
Despite his regrets, Jiang Liu's movements were quick. He took the pheasant and went to a nearby mountain stream to process it.
He slit open the body, removed the guts, plucked the feathers—all with swift movements. As he washed the pheasant, its blood merged into the stream water and flowed downstream.
"Eh? What's this?" After he plucked the feathers off the wild pheasant, Jiang Liu suddenly froze for a moment.
It turned out that aside from the wound left by his rudimentary animal trap, there was also a hole in the pheasant's neck.
"Well, well, you little monk, you're killing again, wanting to eat meat, and you've been caught by me again, haven't you?" came a familiar, scolding voice from behind Jiang Liu.
Turning his head, he saw the girl staring at him just like before, saying almost the same words as that day.
"If you wanted to eat it, you could have just said so. You specifically hunted this pheasant and then secretly placed it in my trap, didn't you?" Seeing the girl who had come over, how could Jiang Liu not understand what the bloody hole in the pheasant's neck was all about?
Having her little trick exposed again, a flash of embarrassment crossed Gaoyang's face.
But since she had been found out, Gaoyang didn't deny it: "You couldn't finish this wild pheasant by yourself. Finder's keepers."
"What if I say I can finish it?" Jiang Liu muttered inwardly at the girl's words.
There's a saying that goes, a teenage boy can eat his poor old father into the ground—and at the ripe old age of 15, one is at their most ravenous. A wild pheasant only weighs a little over two pounds. After plucking and bleeding, a person really could finish it all by themselves.
Of course, such words, Jiang Liu naturally would not speak out loud.
The pheasant was hunted by Gaoyang, and rightfully she deserved a share as well.
With adept movements, Jiang Liu had Gaoyang gather some dry branches to return with, lit a bonfire, and then started to prepare the pheasant.
Gaoyang's eyes widened as she carefully observed Jiang Liu's actions, finding them very novel.
Jiang Liu's process didn't seem complicated, but why was it that the food he grilled tasted so good when hers always ended up burnt?
Cooking, Jiang Liu's expression was very serious. Perhaps it was due to the nearly rigorous demands of his uncles, insisting that cooking required undivided attention.
There's an adage that says, a man who is serious can be most charming.
Jiang Liu was focused on cooking, while Gaoyang's attention was on him. For a moment, everything became quiet.
Downstream, a wolf came to the water's edge. If someone else were to be there, they would have certainly screamed.
This wolf was not prowling on all fours like other wild animals; instead, it walked upright on two legs.
Even though it looked like a wolf from head to toe, the way it stood and walked was like that of a human.
It crouched down by the stream, took a few sips of water, and then suddenly, the Wolf Demon brightened up, looking toward the upper part of the stream and spoke human words.
"Is there blood in this water?"