After the body has been pushed to its limits, in order to develop potential and temper the body, there must be enough food or elixirs to replenish what was consumed. Otherwise, the body will remain weak for several days before slowly recovering.

This is the valuable experience that Ethan Brooks has summed up over the past three years.

Chapter 003: Recognizing the Barbarians as Kin

This time, even after eating four or five jin of roasted beast meat, it still couldn’t make up for the massive consumption just now—the hunger coming from deep within his body was not alleviated in the slightest.

Ethan Brooks put down his medicine basket and took out the two stalks of Yuyang grass he was lucky enough to pick that morning, broke off half a stalk, and slowly chewed it in his mouth.

The juice of the grass was bitter, but as soon as it went down his throat, the medicinal power turned into a warm current, directly seeping from his throat into his blood and bones. Ethan Brooks could vaguely feel that at this moment, the vital energy throughout his body was being strengthened.

Ethan Brooks thought to himself, no wonder a single stalk of Yuyang grass could be traded for an iron tool from those traveling merchants of the great tribes—the medicinal power really is potent.

For ordinary people, taking spiritual medicine has its limits.

Overconsumption is harmful; if the body is too weak to absorb the supplement, and one takes more spiritual medicine than the body can handle, the most common outcome is the body exploding and dying.

However, after swallowing one stalk of Yuyang grass, the effect of the medicinal power penetrating his bones had not yet diminished, and his body, pushed to the limit, still had the capacity to absorb more. Ethan Brooks secretly felt that his physical strength had increased a bit more during this period, so he immediately swallowed the second stalk of Yuyang grass, chewing it slowly and thoroughly...

Although he couldn’t use mystical arts to refine the medicinal power, Ethan Brooks still closed his eyes to experience the mysterious sensation of the medicine entering his bones.

After a long while, Ethan Brooks opened his eyes, feeling his whole body surging with boundless strength. The mountain ridges in the evening light before him appeared even clearer and brighter, indicating that his eyesight had also improved significantly.

Ethan Brooks tied the grass rope over his shoulder, then pushed the giant beast’s carcass into the stream, and sure enough, it felt much lighter than before.

※※※

Ethan Brooks followed the torrent-filled mountain ravine, walking six or seven li into the mountains, with the ravine twisting twice along the way. His body was once again pushed to its limits.

By this time, night had completely fallen.

Dark clouds covered the sky, looking as if a heavy rain was about to pour down.

In such weather, even the strong of the Blackstone Tribe wouldn’t venture out easily; and looking downstream, there were indeed no signs of Blackstone tribesmen searching with torches, which put Ethan Brooks somewhat at ease.

Dragging the exotic beast’s carcass onto the riverbank, Ethan Brooks collapsed to the ground, feeling as if his bones were about to fall apart, his mouth full of blood.

Not to mention his hands and body, which had been cut and bloodied by jagged rocks—pushing his body to such extremes, even his internal organs were covered in cracks, and every spit was a mouthful of blood.

If not for Ethan Brooks’s special constitution, an ordinary person would probably have died of exhaustion on the riverbank long ago.

The beast meat he carried had long been eaten. Aside from the Yuyang grass he took earlier, the other herbs Ethan Brooks picked that morning were all ordinary; chewing them in big mouthfuls could only slightly relieve his hunger and thirst.

No longer caring about the preciousness of the roe deer’s fat, Ethan Brooks pulled the roe deer out of his medicine basket and directly cut off a small piece of meat with a stone knife, stuffing it into his mouth.

Over the past three years, he had long since gotten used to a life of eating raw meat and drinking blood.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the roe deer meat entered his mouth, aside from its exceptional tenderness, when he endured the bloody taste and chewed carefully, the flesh and blood going down his throat actually produced a faint warm current that spread throughout his body.

No wonder this gentle exotic beast was also classified as a wild variant.

The life essence contained in the roe deer’s flesh and blood was not much less than that of Yuyang grass.

Normally, it took six or seven jin of beast meat to fill him up, but after eating just half a jin of raw roe deer meat, he already felt full, and his strength quickly recovered.

Ethan Brooks thought to himself, no wonder all the tribes around Mangya Ridge regard wild and exotic beasts as precious supplements—the effects really are extraordinary.

Ethan Brooks glanced at the black-scaled beast he had dragged onto the riverbank. His understanding of this world was still too shallow; he didn’t know exactly what kind of rare wild variant this black-scaled beast was, but he knew its flesh and blood must be filled with astonishing life essence.

The night was pitch black—he couldn’t even see the stone trees four or five steps away, nor did he know if there would be another heavy rain during the night. Dragging the black-scaled beast along the mountain stream would be fraught with unknown dangers.

To prevent the exotic beast on the riverbank from being washed away by a sudden rise in the mountain flood during the night, Ethan Brooks tied one end of the rope to a cliff tree as thick as two people’s arms.

Finally, he climbed up the tree himself, tied himself to a branch with a rope, and decided to spend the night there...

※※※

From afar came the sound of rustling, and Ethan Brooks was suddenly startled awake from his sleep, only to find that the dark clouds in the night sky had dispersed, and the clear moonlight was shining over the mountains and valleys, making the whole world seem submerged in a crystal-clear lake.

The faint sounds were from wild beasts passing through the distant forest.

This place was not far from the Black Mountain Tribe, and was the hunting ground between the Black Mountain and Black Python tribes. Generally, there wouldn’t be any particularly fierce beasts or birds of prey here.

Perhaps the greatest danger was the possibility of Black Mountain tribesmen entering the mountains under the cover of moonlight at any time.

Seeing the clear sky and bright moon, Ethan Brooks dared not linger any longer. He untied the rope, jumped down from the tree, pushed the black-scaled beast into the mountain stream, and continued on his way.

The water in the mountain stream had not lessened at all, but this time, after walking fifteen or sixteen li through the deep valley, Ethan Brooks’s body had not yet been pushed to its limit.