“Eh, there’s actually a bag of jade tokens here—this stuff is really rare.” Samuel Carter rummaged around, found a cloth bag, and poured out more than a dozen pieces of fine jade. These were the jade tokens used as currency on the Pangu Continent and the Eight Gods Isles, and their quality was quite pure. He fondled them for a long time before reluctantly putting them back into the bag.

Samuel Carter set the cloth bag down and picked out a few weapons hidden underneath. He showed no interest in the clothes collected by the demon wolves and called out loudly, “This time we’ve really hit the jackpot. Let’s go out and divide up the loot first—the smell in here is just too awful.”

A demon wolf’s lair certainly wouldn’t smell pleasant. After staying for a while, everyone felt a bit nauseous. The Carter Brothers and David Miller, seeing there was nothing else to gain, scrambled out first. William Carter lagged behind because he suddenly felt the wolf pelt hidden at his chest grow slightly warm. After the other four had left, he reached out and shook those bloodstained, foul-smelling clothes again, and a small jade bead rolled out.

This bead was clear and cool throughout, emitting a faint blue-green glow. It was only the size of a fingertip, yet perfectly round and flawless. He picked up the bead and casually infused it with a trace of immortal energy. Unexpectedly, once the energy entered, it seemed to find its home, swirling lightly inside and breaking through a layer of resistance. A tiny crack appeared on the bead, and a faint wisp of purple energy seeped out. William Carter sensed something unusual and put it away.

David Miller had left the demon wolf’s lair but was still worried, so he poked his head back in and asked, “Chengwu, why aren’t you coming out yet?” William Carter replied, “It’s fine, it’s fine!” The stench in the demon wolf’s lair was truly unbearable, and William Carter didn’t want to stay any longer, so he hurriedly crawled out.

Once outside, William Carter took two deep breaths and finally felt the discomfort in his chest ease a bit. He saw Henry Carter holding a waist-high short staff, Edward Carter carrying the small bag of jade tokens, and David Miller and Emily Thompson each had their own spoils. Knowing the loot had already been divided, he was about to crack a joke when Samuel Carter grinned and handed over a sheathed longsword, saying, “Chengwu-ge, your short sword broke, so you can have this longsword instead. I just drew it out to check—it’s really sharp!”

Having obtained the healing technique from the wolf pelt, William Carter felt this trip had been quite fruitful and wasn’t too interested in the weapons from the demon wolf’s lair. He chuckled and said, “Luckily, we had good fortune this time and managed to get a weapon. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even be able to hunt on the Xici Grasslands next time.” Without a handy weapon, traveling on the Xici Grasslands was quite dangerous. Although William Carter wasn’t skilled in swordsmanship and didn’t have high hopes for the longsword, he still drew it to check its quality.

The longsword felt heavy in his hand, with six characters engraved along the spine, and the whole blade glowed blue like a firefly. As Samuel Carter had said, the edge was incredibly sharp. Even someone like William Carter, who didn’t particularly like longswords, couldn’t help but secretly praise, “What a fine sword.”

This longsword was even better than the short sword given by Uncle Thompson, especially since the blade was both strong and flexible, with a perfectly balanced center of gravity. Even an amateur like William Carter could swing it with ease and satisfaction.

“This sword seems to have some age to it. I wonder who its previous owner was, to have fallen victim to the demon wolves’ plot and died in obscurity.” William Carter sighed inwardly and put the longsword away. Samuel Carter laughed, “Chengwu-ge, you’re too sentimental. Who cares who the previous owner was? In these six cycles of reincarnation, the heavenly path turns endlessly. Unless you’re an immortal, who doesn’t die? If we get the chance to join one of the six sects and master immortal arts, then we can escape the fate of decaying like grass and trees. Otherwise, we’ll end up just like the sword’s former owner sooner or later.”

The group of six made their way back to Xici Town. The journey was quite safe; though they encountered a few demon beasts, the six of them working together easily overcame them. However, not long after they returned to town, a strange rumor began to spread, causing unease among the people of Xici Town.

Chapter 15: Zhang Sheng’s Steamed Buns

It turned out that a few other hunters who had entered the Xici Grasslands at the same time as William Carter and his group had encountered a humanoid monster. This monster possessed immense strength, ran as fast as the wind, and could kill the fierce demon beasts of the Xici Grasslands with its bare hands. If those hunters hadn’t been hiding in a sheltered spot and avoided detection, none of them would have made it back alive.

When these people returned and told their story, it matched exactly with the scene William Carter and his group had witnessed of the demon wolf corpses that had been torn apart by human hands. A few days later, others encountered similar incidents on the Xici Grasslands, and the entire atmosphere of Xici Town changed.

You see, the townsfolk all relied on hunting in the Xici Grasslands for their livelihood. Some hunters, confident in their strength, weren’t too afraid. Though they didn’t dare venture far, catching a few demon rabbits was enough to feed their families. However, hunting yields dropped sharply, and those who only talked big and relied on others’ charity lost their means of survival. Often, they went days without a full meal and stopped gathering at the Xinchen Hall to chat, instead waiting at the edge of town every day to snatch whatever returning hunters brought back.

A few small teams from Xici Town did go out to search for the monster, but all came back empty-handed. Worse, every few days, someone from the town would be injured by the monster, leaving everyone feeling helpless.