Finally, Li Ling was brought to his plot by Dong Bo, which was quite far from the center of the encampment but still in a nice and quiet zone filled with other nearby tents, then began setting up his base for the near future.
"On our way here, I saw that there was a tent with plenty of demon beast corpses. What purpose does it serve?" Li Ling asked once the setup was done.
Dong Bo chuckled. "Observant, very good. That was the second aspect about the encampments I was going to warn you about before I leave you to your matters, so it's just as well."
"When a cultivator goes hunting, not everyone has special beast bags to capture and store live demon beasts, nor do many have storage treasures to store carcasses. As such, many haul the living and dead bodies back to camp after a good day's hunt, but it is this that causes greed and malice to spring up in the hearts of the less fortunate."
Dong Bo spread his hands out. "So rather than living in fear of being robbed, you can opt to sell your catches to the Requisition Store at market price and safeguard your earnings."
Li Ling heard this and nodded, though he sneered inwardly. The threat of being robbed was definitely real, but it was not nearly as easy nor as frequent as many thought. In order to guarantee success in robbing, you needed either great personal skill to be able to kill without getting injured or you needed a competent team.
Yet if you had either of these, you yourself would not lack in hunting rewards, so why rob? Robbing was more dangerous than hunting demon beasts because when it came to hunting, the nature of demon beasts was clear and their areas of activity were documented.
But rob one person who was either hiding their cultivation, was extremely talented and could fight above their rank, or had a great backing, and it was over. It was not realistic to fall into such a category unless your haul was so great and your cultivation so weak that one couldn't resist the temptation.
So the existence of this requisition store was unnecessary. More than likely, the ones who would rob you were the market guards posing as encampment managers, under the guise of 'customs checking' or some other garbage. So unless you had strong cultivation or were affiliated with some force, it was best to honestly sell your goods to the Requisition Store to avoid trouble.
Dong Bo saw that Li Ling understood the underlying message and chuckled once more, patting his shoulder knowingly before taking his leave. Li Ling watched the fellow go with a neutral expression and then turned to his tent, entering it to inspect for any hidden surveillance or traps.
As a low level array master, he was qualified to spot any of such methods, and indeed, there was a minor surveillance array hidden at the edge of the tent. Li Ling assumed this was to prevent any smart alecks who had ways to hide their gains, just like how the government always wanted to keep an eye on its citizens' earnings.
Li Ling simply ignored it, because he only bought this tent as a smokescreen. He planned to spend most of his time in the wild harvesting and growing on the spot, so there was no need to return unless he was absolutely tired or was about to leave.
With that in mind, he prepared the things he would need. He had his short spear from the Li Family which was not even an artifact, being just a normal mortal spear, a pouch with all his spirit stones which amounted to barely over 15, along with another pouch with talismans for various uses, array plates and miscellaneous things like seasoning for his meals.
No, Li Ling did not have a storage pouch or void ring. If he had either of those, he would have long been killed and harvested for them, as they were precious goods even those in the mid level of Qi Refinement did not dare to flaunt openly.
With his inventory full, Li Ling set out from the southern side of the encampment, which led to the actual habitats. The entire Hunting Ground was shaped like a terrace, with each sector divided based on the average cultivation of the demon beasts within.
The first sector that everyone entered was naturally the one pertaining to the low-level demon beasts between Qi Refinement level 1 and level 3. From there, they could cross over to the ones with demon beasts from level 4 to 6 and finally those from level 7 to level 9.
Li Ling naturally opted to stay within the current zone he was in, not willing to court death with his currently banal and lacking combat capabilities. However, it was just as well since the first sector was just right for him to begin his journey towards power and pave the way for him.
As Li Ling traversed, he did not arrogantly rush through but moved with caution, because no matter how organized or segregated, there was always the chance of encountering a higher level demon beast in a lower area. If that happened, there was no alarm you could ring or button you could press to have someone rescue you, so it was up to you and your god to save you that day.
Li Ling grasped his short spear in his right hand as he moved forward through the thickets, eventually stopping when he came across a clearing. Within this clearing was a familiar beast to all humans, the warthog.
However, this one was about the size of a small SUV car and was currently grunting happily as it rolled about in the dirt, scratching its back against the grass and dry wood on the ground.
Li Ling quietly assessed it and found that it was a demon beast at the second level of Qi Refinement, not something he couldn't take on. As such, he began to draw up a battle plan to take down the beast with the least amount of cost to himself, aiming to maximize his benefits!