After leaving the South Court dining hall, Lin Feng headed straight back towards the rear mountains and plunged into the forest.
Drawing on his experience from the prior two days, he moved with greater familiarity and far less fear. He navigated the dense undergrowth swiftly, soon arriving at the territory of the Blue-Horned Rhinoceros. Fortune favored him again – he found the massive beast in the same spot as yesterday.
Calling out a greeting from a distance, Lin Feng sought a suitable rock. He carefully placed the day's offering of ten supreme-grade pills onto it and retreated slowly.
The Rhino seemed more eager today. It had already risen to its feet and begun lumbering over as soon as Lin Feng produced the pills. Reaching the small pile, it lowered its horned head, sniffed deeply. A glimmer of what looked like satisfaction flickered in its eyes. Its thick tongue darted out, efficiently scooping all ten pills into its mouth.
Yesterday it ate supreme-grade pills, and today its reaction seems similar to that first day after consuming all those scrap pills... Yet it clearly enjoys these better quality ones. Lin Feng noted internally, his heart lifting with cautious optimism. His theory seemed increasingly plausible.
Leaving the Rhino's domain, Lin Feng continued his rounds, visiting each spirit beast in turn. Notably, today the Purple-Crowned Thunder Crane hadn't 'flown out'. It even descended the mountainside as Lin Feng climbed towards its usual perch. Heart pounding with terror at the thought of being snatched up, Lin Feng hastily flung ten supreme-grade pills outward. The magnificent crane executed an elegant swoop above him, deftly catching the pills mid-air before soaring back to the mountain peak.
To Lin Feng's immense relief, none of the spirit beasts displayed dissatisfaction with the upgraded pill quality. If anything, they seemed quite pleased.
...
The day's delivery mission concluded smoothly. Just as Fei Biao had suggested at noon, Lin Feng returned to his quarters before darkness fully claimed the sky.
Judging from the past two days of feeding the beasts supreme-grade pills, the method was clearly viable. This meant Lin Feng could simply allocate a small portion of his repaired pills for the spirit beasts and keep the lion's share for himself.
While this solved one significant problem, Lin Feng felt no joy. The news he'd received earlier that day presented an even greater obstacle...
New disciples were barred from leaving the mountain for six months.
This rule effectively obliterated Lin Feng's initial plans. If he couldn't find a solution, his newly tested strategy of keeping the bulk of repaired pills would be useless—no descent meant no access to more herbs, and without herbs, how could he possibly repair more pills?
"I must find a way down the mountain. And the sooner, the better..."
That night, Lin Feng lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling, his brow furrowed in concentration. His existing supply of herbs suitable for repair was critically low. Once exhausted, he wouldn't be able to repair any pills. He'd be forced back to feeding the beasts worthless scrap pills, jeopardizing the fragile peace he'd established.
...
The next day followed the same pattern. Lin Feng spent the morning studying the introductory Dao of Alchemy jade slip. After lunch, he entered the rear mountain forest, dutifully delivering the daily 'rations' to each spirit beast.
He discovered a gratifying development: several beasts hadn't wandered far from their usual spots. Locating them was significantly easier, drastically reducing the time spent searching the dense woods.
He returned from the forest that evening well before sunset.
On the subsequent day—Lin Feng's fifth in the Spirit Beast Garden—he finally witnessed a tangible benefit of feeding the beasts supreme-grade pills. As he entered the designated territories deep within the forest, he no longer needed to search. The spirit beasts emerged of their own accord, appearing before him.
For the first time, Lin Feng felt a flicker of what it meant to be the 'keeper'. Of course, it wasn't that the beasts had become docile pets. Their intelligence meant they recognized the bearer of good things and emerged eagerly. Lin Feng didn't let this go to his head; he made no attempt to approach them closely—he valued his limbs too much.
This new behavior streamlined his delivery duties immensely. Compared to the exhausting hours spent tracking elusive beasts on his first day, his rounds were now completed in a fraction of the time.
The supreme-grade pill feeding strategy was proving successful. However, the herbs Lin Feng carried were rapidly dwindling. Facing this scarcity, he had no choice but to put into action a plan he'd been contemplating for days.
...
On the sixth day at noon, Lin Feng ate his usual meal in the South Court dining hall. He then entered the rear mountain forest and delivered the pills to each spirit beast at record speed. Today, he gave each beast a generous portion of twenty supreme-grade pills. As he handed them over, he made a point of addressing each one:
"This is enough for two days. I won't be coming tomorrow, alright?"
After completing his deliveries, Lin Feng did not head back to his dwelling. Instead... he turned and walked deeper into the rear mountains!!
He had reasoned it through. The Lingyue Sect's rule forbidding new disciples from leaving for six months blocked any 'official' route down the mountain. Waiting patiently for half a year was simply not an option. That left only one path: the 'unofficial' one.
Slipping out through the main gate or its vicinity was far too risky; discovery seemed inevitable. Therefore, Lin Feng's chosen escape route was through the rear mountains themselves.
For most Lingyue Sect disciples, the rear mountain forest represented extreme danger. Venturing in, even in groups, offered no guarantee of safety. Few dared enter alone. The idea of using it as a clandestine exit route was virtually unthinkable; anyone considering it would likely abandon the notion due to sheer terror. Just as Fei Biao had recounted, disciples who had foolishly tried sneaking out this way in the past met horrific fates.
However, while these tales successfully deterred other disciples, they failed to intimidate Lin Feng. Armed with his powerful defensive artifacts, he judged he could survive encounters even with tier-3 early or mid-stage demonic beasts. Besides, he didn't plan to delve into the deepest, most perilous regions; his goal was merely to circumvent the sect's formal boundaries and emerge outside its jurisdiction.
Typically, anyone attempting to traverse the rear mountains—whether entering the sect from the wilderness or leaving the sect via the woods—would inevitably have to cross the territories of powerful spirit beasts. Trying to sneak past them unnoticed was next to impossible. Yet Lin Feng, as the designated 'beast keeper,' bypassed this obstacle entirely. He walked openly through their domains... watched by the very beasts themselves as he departed.
He set out in the afternoon. Lin Feng estimated that traveling at full speed, he could clear the forest before dawn. From there, he could reach Lingyue City; at his pace, the journey should take roughly half a day. Procuring the necessary herbs should occupy another half-day. Then, returning overnight would bring him back to the Lingyue Sect vicinity by the morning of the day after tomorrow.
As Fei Biao had rightly pointed out, his position afforded considerable 'freedom.' Supervision was minimal. An absence of a day or two was unlikely to raise immediate suspicion. He gambled that this brief, covert trip would go unnoticed.
...
...
"AOOOOOO!!!"
A final, agonized howl ripped through the silent night sky as the last tier-2 mid-stage Flameback Dire Wolf fell to Lin Feng's Crimson Soul Flying Sword.
"Huff..." Lin Feng exhaled a shaky breath, wiping cold sweat from his brow. He tossed a supreme-grade Spirit Restoration Pill into his mouth. Moving quickly, he scooped the carcasses of all five wolves into his storage ring before pressing onward.
Dawn was nearing. Nearly ten hours had elapsed since his departure. Lin Feng had pushed relentlessly through the dense Lingyue Sect rear mountains. His high-grade defensive artifact rendered attacks from tier-1 and tier-2 beasts largely harmless. When confronted, the Crimson Soul Flying Sword proved devastatingly effective, cleaving through any beast foolish enough to attack him. His progress felt unstoppable, a path littered with the corpses of aggressive predators.
The small pack of tier-2 Flameback Dire Wolves he'd just dispatched constituted the toughest challenge encountered so far. Thankfully, relying on his formidable tools, he'd prevailed without sustaining serious injury.
The density of demonic beasts noticeably decreased after that encounter. Finally, just as the first light of dawn began to tinge the horizon, Lin Feng emerged from the dense forest. He stood approximately a hundred miles south of the Lingyue Sect's main gate, precisely as planned.
Within the Lingyue Sect, disciples possessing the strength to traverse the rear mountains weren't nonexistent—but they were typically elite core disciples. Such individuals had no need to skulk through forbidden woods; official permits were readily available to them. Therefore, it was safe to say Lin Feng had likely earned a dubious distinction: the first outer disciple in Lingyue Sect history to successfully sneak out via the treacherous rear mountains.