Chapter 301: Encounter
“Those who successfully refine Blood Qi become the King’s warriors.”
Zi, her face flushed red, announced to the crowd.
That night, Zi selected three strong hunters, including Deer, and taught them the Blood Food Transport Method and the fixed posture exercises.
Duan tried to learn as well, but was rejected by Zi.
“You need to reflect on your faults. Deer forgave you, but that does not mean you are without sin. The cultivation method of Blood Qi is a gift from the King; I must teach it impartially. Only the tribe’s strong hunters are qualified to learn it first.”
Duan retreated in shame. He stayed alone in a corner of the cave, lying on a pile of slightly damp straw, lost in thought.
The next day, Deer took all the males hunting as usual, and this time he brought Duan along.
“Duan, from today on, you are also a hunter of the tribe.”
Under the sunlight, Deer’s smile was very warming. He continued, “I was a bit too harsh with my punishment before. You are a man of the tribe and should hunt with us. If you have any ideas in the future, talk to me more.”
Looking at Deer’s smile, Duan felt a bit of warmth in his heart. Just as they were about to set off, Zi stopped them.
“I want to join the hunt too.”
Hearing Zi’s cool voice, the expressions of the tribe’s men went blank. Deer rarely refused her, but this time he did.
“Zi, you are a woman, and a noble Witch. It is not suitable for you to participate in hunting.”
Upon hearing this, Zi narrowed her left eye slightly and stared at Deer and the others. She assumed a fighting stance.
“Come at me all together.”
Eventually, the men, with bruised and swollen faces, agreed to let Zi join the hunt. Even as a group, they hadn’t been able to beat Zi, a single woman.
Ace observed and evaluated this with great interest. Although Zi had birthed and could use Blood Qi, in terms of Life Level, she was still inferior to an ordinary human from the Material Plane.
In the dreamscape, she was larger than the ant she had appeared as before, but compared to Ace, she was still incomparably tiny.
“The life gap between an ordinary mortal and me shouldn’t be this huge. This gap is comparable to that between a Demigod and a mortal. The inner world of this space is too strange, as if everything has been shrunk and fast-forwarded.
“It’s like a Pocket World!
“Even stranger is the lack of Mana. In this world, Mana is almost ubiquitous, and the Sea of Reality and Illusion is an ocean of Mana. Whether it’s a space, a plane, or a demi-plane, it definitely requires a massive amount of Mana to support it. What exactly is the cause that would form a No-Mana Environment?”
Ace did not remain in a dispersed state to observe this Pocket World, as that drained his Mana too quickly. By comparing it with his main body, he had roughly determined the time flow ratio between this Pocket World and the Main World.
One hour in the Main Material Plane was roughly equivalent to one year in this Pocket World. As long as Ace could control his Mana loss, living for tens of thousands of years in this Pocket World wouldn’t be a problem.
While Ace was pondering, Zi and the others had already started hunting. They split into two groups: one group was responsible for driving prey using slings and stone spears, while the other group dug pits and set up rope traps.
They were careful to avoid fierce beasts like tigers, leopards, and wolf packs, focusing their attacks on herbivores like yellow sheep.
In one morning, they caught three yellow sheep and two pheasants. Zi wasn’t very interested in this form of hunting. She decided to find a fierce beast on her own and deal with it.
Zi didn’t do this to establish dominance. As the noble Witch and the messenger of the Invisible King, she naturally held the highest status and authority.
Zi was considering the fact that three people needed to undergo Blood Food cultivation. To put it plainly, this cultivation meant eating meat and drinking blood vigorously, supplemented by fixed postures to lock in the vitality and nutrition, allowing one’s own vitality to gradually fill up.
This was also a test by Ace on the Pocket World. If this world were truly a No-Mana World similar to his previous life, even with cultivation, it would likely be impossible to fill up on vitality and birth Blood Qi.
Because Vitality Power itself is a special manifestation of Mana, after Zi birthed Blood Qi, Ace was certain that this No-Mana Pocket World was only superficially without magic; its foundation was inevitably related to Mana.
Carrying a stone spear, Zi climbed a tree with movements as agile as an ape. The men weren’t worried about her; instead, they felt relieved. After all, Zi’s combat power was too strong, giving them a tremendous sense of oppression.
Hard work pays off. Near evening, Zi finally found a suitable prey: a fat and strong adult wild boar.
Zi took out her sling from the animal skin pack on her back, placed a polished round stone into the sling, swung it, and threw it with force.
Bang!
The wild boar was dizzy from being hit by the stone falling from the sky. It looked around furiously and finally spotted Zi in the tree.
It charged over and unhesitatingly rammed the tree trunk, wanting to shake Zi down. Zi condensed her Blood Qi into her legs. With a nimble leap of her long legs, she jumped to another tree.
The sling swung again, and another stone hit the wild boar. The force was much stronger than the last time, hitting the boar right in the eye. Blood flowed instantly.
The wild boar roared in pain and charged at the large tree where Zi was. It actually snapped the tree directly.
Zi landed steadily with a side flip. She leveled her stone spear, Blood Qi diffusing throughout her body, her body tense like a strong bow.
When the wild boar charged, Zi jumped violently, landing directly behind the boar. Stone spear thrust!
The wild boar howled in pain. With the stone spear stuck in its body, it ran off in a cloud of dust.
Zi summoned her tribesmen, and they split up to search for the wild boar.
When they found the dying boar, another group of wild humans had already surrounded it.
“This is our prey! What do you want?”
As soon as Zi approached with her people, fifteen hunters from the opposing side surrounded them.
Both sides faced off with raised stone spears, eyes filled with anger.
Deer walked forward a few steps, threw his stone spear aside, held up a pheasant, and walked to the opposite side. He said to the wild humans, “We killed this wild boar; the stone spear in its rear is ours. But we are all humans; there is no need to fight each other. Please accept this pheasant.”
The opposing wild humans looked at each other. A burly man threw away his stone spear, walked up, and said, “I am called Wu, the leader of our tribe. One pheasant is not enough. We have a hand’s count more men than you. We want more!”
Deer argued strongly and negotiated with Wu for a long time, but Wu demanded half of the boar meat, which Deer found truly unacceptable.
“We have more people than you. If we really fight, we might win a miserable victory, but you will all die.”
As Wu’s voice fell, the tribesmen behind him howled along to build momentum.
Zi walked straight up, gave a loud shout, and kicked a nearby tree trunk, snapping it in two. Her cold voice rang out: “We’ll give you one hind leg plus a pheasant. The women in our tribe are all as strong as me, and the men are even stronger than me!”
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