"Remember to teach me the Chaoyang Yiqi Jue."
"Don't worry, I, Li Haomiao, am a man of my word. I will teach you once we get out of this 800-li Huangchuan Icefield."
Xu Yunfan didn't mention it again after hearing this. Although Li Haomiao seemed a little unreliable and was afraid of ghosts, it seemed that he had indeed kept his promises.
When Fang Mushan came back empty-handed, he looked embarrassed.
"I'm sorry, both of you. Prey is too hard to come by these days. I went out looking for it, but... huh?!"
He stared at the whole lamb roasting on the fire with wide eyes, full of shock.
"Where did this come from?"
Xu Yunfan said calmly, slowly turning the roasted whole lamb in his hands.
"Brother Fang, your teaching is excellent. As soon as I went out, I saw this mountain goat, and I shot it in the gut with an arrow. I was lucky enough to get a kill. I didn't expect so many animals to inhabit this 800-li desolate river. I thought we'd just have to eat moss."
Fang Mushan was stunned for a moment, then subconsciously exchanged a glance with Li Haomiao. Li Haomiao looked away calmly, and Fang Mushan sighed.
"I know, this is a benefit for newbies,"
Fang Mushan muttered. Some newcomers to a certain profession, like fishing, always catch bigger and more fish than others on their first try.
Fang Mushan muttered, "Tomorrow, you probably won't be so lucky tomorrow."
Li Haomiao agreed.
After dinner, Xu Yunfan tanned the mountain goat's fur with the plant juice Fang Mushan had collected, hung it up to dry, and then resumed wielding his pickaxe, digging deeper and deeper into the hole, constantly honing his Bronze Body Skill and increasing his proficiency.
He'd eaten most of the Bigu(Fasting)Pills, and it was estimated that it would only take a few days for him to reach full proficiency in the Bronze Body Art.
Li Haomiao and Fang Mushan watched as Xu Yunfan continued to wield the pickaxe, digging deeper into the cave, and they were accustomed to it.
Li Haomiao said lazily, "If you want to master the Bronze Body Art, you need to use secret medicine to practice it. Just burying your head in practice and using hammer techniques to grind your body will only hurt you in the end."
Xu Yunfan didn't even turn around, just continuing to swing the pickaxe. "You know nothing."
"..."
According to conventional procedures, many martial arts require external assistance, especially those that combine horizontal training.
If there were external assistance and secret medicine to assist, the efficiency of practice should be further improved. Xu Yunfan was helpless, but he wasn't discouraged.
Now that he had mastered the skills, as long as he persevered, mastering the art was inevitable.
There's also a difficult, if not incomprehensible, Lin character formula, infused with Taoist allusions and terminology. If it weren't for the initiation technique and the attribute panel,
it would require a highly skilled Daoist monk who has pored over the Daoist canon for decades to understand.
After exhausting himself with the Bronze Body Technique, he rested for ten minutes, then began forming hand seals and silently chanting the "Shangshan Ruoshui" mantra. His mind gradually sank into a state of emptiness.
"You practiced the Lin character formula once, superficially pondering its meaning, seemingly gaining some insight, but upon closer examination, you found nothing."
"You held your breath, concentrating your mind, and a flash of inspiration seemed to flash through your mind, but before you could capture it, it vanished."
"..."
The Lin character formula also includes a visualization diagram, but unfortunately, I haven't mastered it yet, and I can't grasp its key points.
Currently, practicing intense concentration for half an hour is already the limit; continuing any further would be truly exhausting.
His only consolation was that, since practicing the Lin character technique, though not yet at the initiation level, he'd been sleeping exceptionally well.
No matter how exhausted he felt that day, he'd wake up the next day refreshed and refreshed.
After completing his training, Xu Yunfan fought back his sleepiness and crawled out of the deep cave. Under the watchful eyes of Li Haomiao and Fang Mushan, he rolled into a corner, cushioned by the weeds he'd gathered that day, and fell into a deep sleep.
...
"Master Yang, are you sure they dug this?"
A middle-aged man in armor, a longsword in hand, and sporting a mustache, looked with disbelief at Yang Gan, who was exploring the cave nearby.
Yang Gan's eyes twitched, and he reached out and carefully twisted the dirt with his fingers.
"This soil is very fresh, having been dug only a few days ago. Furthermore... there are signs of a fire roasting animals near the fireplace, indicating they've been here before."
"This cave is large enough to house six or seven people, and they've even dug out a fireplace. This would have taken at least two or three martial arts masters an entire night. Sir Yang, are you saying they spent the entire day digging?"
Yang Gan said gravely, "Sir Xu, based on my years of hunting and tracking experience, this is indeed a newly dug cave.
And they used a pickaxe, and they came from Ningguta, definitely the direction the Prince of Yan and his men were heading. It's said Fang Mushan was also traveling with them."
"Fang Mushan..."
Sir Xu twirled his long beard between two fingers, pondering.
"I've heard of the son of General Fang Wen, the Auxiliary General. He's naturally gifted with supernatural powers. If he were digging, it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to dig a cave like this in a few hours. But are they just sitting around doing nothing?"
At this moment, a head emerged from a tunnel below the cave.
"Your Excellency, there's a tunnel inside the cave, at least forty meters long, with a medium-sized space inside."
Yang Gan: "..."
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. How could the Prince of Yan, on the run, have the leisure to dig such a large cave?
Lord Xu narrowed his eyes and looked at Yang Gan.
"Lord Yang, if I'm wrong, and we can't capture the Prince of Yan and his men, we'll all be dead, especially you. I've issued a military order. If you don't follow through, General Zhang will probably have you beheaded."
Yang Gan's heart skipped a beat. He snorted coldly and stood up, saying,
"My Yang family started out tracking and hunting. Our ancestors accompanied the late emperor in tracking prey, so they have their own unique skills. This is definitely a trace they left behind."
Everyone present was silent for a moment, and no one said anything more.
Zhang Shuyang asked Yang Gan to temporarily lead 30 elite soldiers, but of course he was not giving them to him to lead. Strictly speaking, Yang Gan was just a guide.
Although he was just a guide, Lord Xu and his group had no choice but to go in the direction Yang Gan pointed.
After resting for a night in this valley, the group continued their journey. When they tracked down the next site, Yang Gan couldn't help but twitch his eyes at the cave that was even bigger than the previous one.
Someone couldn't help but whispered, "Don't they have enough energy? In such a cold environment, they still have the leisure to dig a few rooms out?"
Yang Gan twisted the fresh soil under his feet and murmured, "It's almost done. It will take no more than two days to dig out this cave."
He was filled with rage. After all, having his professional tracking skills doubted was a profound humiliation. He would certainly seek revenge when the time came.
...
...
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(End of this chapter)