At this time, the final section of the hunting ground, where late-stage demon beasts in the Qi Refinement level resided, was alight with fire and brimstone as flashes shone in the depths of the trees and explosions shook the air.
Passing through, one would find that a team of cultivators in the mid to late stage of Qi Refinement were currently systematically besieging a single demon beast, the Dark Backed Rhino.
This was a level 7 Qi Refinement demon beast that was well known for its defensive ability due to its absurdly thick and resistant hide, but it was also the favorite of established hunting teams because it was dumb, slow and easy to besiege.
Like right now. This team only had one cultivator at level 7, who was their leader, with the remaining six people being in varying levels within the middle stages of Qi Refinement. Even with people weaker than the demon beast, due to their formation and coordination, the beast kept turning in circles as aggro was deftly shifted between them while its fortitude was being depleted.
"Keep it up, everyone! When we take this beast down, I will increase everyone's payout by 5%!" The leader, a burly man with bronze skin and a single goatee, shouted, taking out a talisman that held the fireball spell and tossing it forward.
The others, hearing that there would be a bonus, became invigorated. While besieging this creature was relatively easy, it was extremely time-consuming and draining, so many of them were beginning to flag, their minds either drifting off or their focus being scattered.
This promise got them back on track and indeed, about thirty minutes later, the Dark Backed Rhino collapsed to the ground with a wail, its life extinguished. While some demon beasts were better brought back alive, the Dark Backed Rhino was too stupid to use other than as a beast of burden, and the cultivation world had better and cheaper options than such a creature.
As such, most hunted it for the materials it would provide upon being dissected after death. The leader of the group walked forward with a smile on his face, his expression still rather ruddy as he had mostly utilized low-level talismans to attack rather than actually use daoist arts, so he had a lot of spiritual qi remaining.
This was due to two reasons. The first was that low-level talismans were directly cheap to someone of his level. A fireball talisman sold for exactly 1 Spirit Shard, so one full Spirit Stone could buy ten. If he were to send this beast back to the market, his team could avoid the forced buying of the encampment, and they could earn around 79 to 86 spirit stones.
When split among them, he would take 60% of the cut as the team leader and the source of their backing, meaning he would earn at least 47 spirit stones. Seeing as he only used around twenty fireball talismans in this fight, the amount of profit made should not be underestimated.
But the real reason lay in the second factor, which was to guard against sneak attacks. Once again, the system of the market, the hunting ground and the encampments within was geared towards profit for the sect, not profit for the individuals.
Who ate the soup did not matter as long as the marketplace and the Qing Shan sect behind it ate the meat. Even with various protections in place, the danger was still present, and this multiplied the deeper one went into the hunting ground.
In the first sector, hardly anyone poached. The low-level demon beasts were plentiful and easy to take down, so most at the bottom eked out a living from them. The second section was where danger began as both beast and fellow man began to seek out the hunter, making the role switch at any time.
But in the third section, there was no such camaraderie. Here, everyone was either of a high level, had a team or had some form of backing, so they did not fear each other. If one side saw that they had greater strength than the other, then it was killing time.
As for the market guard inspection for killings or disappearances, that was only for those in the same team. If another person who did not register with you slaughtered the entire team and came out, who would waste time to come looking for you?
So as the leader and the strongest person in the team, he had to maintain strong combat capability to be able to protect their interests. This was unlike the weaker members of the team who were like summons in a video game, forced to use their biggest moves repeatedly, which ironically formed the majority of the killing force.
However, it was precisely this that qualified them to have a 40% share of the spoils against the leader. Alone, or even without his presence here, they would not dare to come here, nor would they be coordinated enough to achieve this result, and they also would not have the capacity to protect their harvest.
The leader also had no plans to shortchange them or sacrifice team members. He was a well-known face, so if every time he went in people disappeared, who would join him? Rather, the more he came out successful with these team members and paid them well, the more others would fight to join his team, paying high prices to be included on the roster.
Even these six fellows had paid various prices to be here, so their incoming high earnings were justified.
Right after the leader collected the corpse into his void ring, he was about to take his team to rest before the next hunt when he sensed a huge surge of energy from a place not too far away.
Immediately, his team members glanced at him with shining eyes, knowing that this was likely another cultivator or another team in the midst of battle, so this was the best time to go and see if they could third party to reap the benefits.
Naturally, with gleaming eyes and a heart full of courage after this recent success, the leader of this team smiled and charged ahead with his group, aiming to maximize their gains.