Sacrifice is the routine basic operation among Divine Nest Hunters.
In his previous life, Zhang Yuan played "Illusory Trace" for ten years, and the profession he played the most and knew the deepest was Divine Nest Hunter, so he was of course extremely familiar and skilled with it.
But reality is not a game, it cannot be easily handled by simply tapping the keyboard and clicking the mouse.
This was also his first real-life sacrifice!
Zhang Yuan's left fingertips touched the soft flesh of the wild boar, and immediately a strange feeling rose in his heart.
Ancient spells silently bloomed on the tip of his tongue at the same time.
In the next moment, the Divine Nest Badge on the back of his left hand appeared, emitting a faint glow.
Meanwhile, the flesh under Zhang Yuan's fingers rapidly lost its color, decaying and rotting in the span of a breath, much like the accelerated wilting of flowers by a thousandfold.
In the blink of an eye, there was only a pile of dark gray ashes left on the ground!
A message immediately popped up in Zhang Yuan's vision.
[Source Material +0.7]
This half of the wild boar, sacrificed to the Divine Nest, yielded 0.7 points of Source Material.
Not much, but not too little either.
Zhang Yuan felt somewhat regretful—if he had sacrificed a whole large wild boar, the Source Material obtained would be at least over 1.5!
He wasted no time and immediately invested all of the Source Material into the first nest chamber.
Source Material can either feed the host within the nest chamber, accelerating its growth and leveling up,
or be directly fed to the Divine Nest itself, prompting evolution.
When the Divine Nest upgrades, not only will the number of nest chambers increase, but it can also enhance the host's capabilities.
However, for the current Zhang Yuan, investing the precious Source Material into the host is evidently more important.
Because he urgently needed to improve his strength.
Zhang Yuan glanced at the Divine Nest panel and then closed it.
After investing the Source Material, the growth of the host also requires time and cannot be accomplished in one go.
But he could feel the stir of the originally dormant Black Giant Ant inside the nest chamber.
It was growing!
Zhang Yuan packed up his Hunting Bow and Firewood Knife, then hoisted up the other half of the wild boar.
It was the height of summer and the weather was hot. If he didn't get the spoils home quickly to process, it would rot and smell, rendering it unsellable.
He turned to the Crow Feather who was feasting and said, "I'm heading back, could I trouble you once more?"
The path he had passed was like a forest maze, and Zhang Yuan wasn't confident he could find the correct way home on his own.
So he had to politely ask the Crow Feather for help again.
The Crow Feather didn't lift its head, but suddenly swung its left wing, shooting out a black feather.
It instantly hovered before Zhang Yuan, then floated lightly toward the woods ahead.
"Thank you!"
Zhang Yuan's eyes brightened, and he quickly followed the feather.
Carrying over a hundred pounds of wild boar meat, he trudged through the dense woods following the Crow Feather's feather, sweaty and strenuously, finally making it out of Qianfeng Mountain before nightfall.
Interestingly, the Crow Feather's feather surprisingly accompanied him to the mountain path entrance.
"Thank you!"
Zhang Yuan sincerely expressed his gratitude to it.
The feather's guidance, although the return journey was arduous, ensured he didn't take a single wrong step.
To Zhang Yuan's surprise, shortly after he spoke, the Crow Feather suddenly flashed and flew into the thickets a dozen steps away.
"Ah!"
A cry of surprise broke out, and a man in plain clothes jumped up in terror, clutching a Firewood Knife.
Zhang Yuan was startled.
At a glance, he recognized the man as the notorious loafer in Chen Family Village, Chen San!
Chen San's parents had passed away. Spoiled by his family from a young age, he had developed the bad habit of idleness.
He usually avoided work, often hanging out with a few disreputable friends, engaging in petty theft, and was detested by most villagers.
This guy was actually lurking at the mountain path holding a weapon, clearly harboring malicious intentions.
"Give me the wild boar!"
His heart still pounding, Chen San glared fiercely when he realized his true intentions had been exposed: "Otherwise, don't blame me for being rude!"
It was indeed a robbery!
Zhang Yuan wasn't surprised; this guy was probably lying in wait long before.
Now that the ambush had failed, he had chosen to rob directly!
Without a word, Zhang Yuan dropped the wild boar and charged at Chen San with his Firewood Knife.
If the Crow Feather hadn't warned him earlier, he might have become the victim under the blade already.
In such situations, Zhang Yuan didn't feel any need to negotiate with Chen San.
When on a narrow path, the Hero prevails!
Chen San never expected Zhang Yuan to rush at him so directly, without any fear or hesitation.
Surprised, he hastily raised his weapon.
However, Zhang Yuan moved swiftly, reaching Chen San in the blink of an eye and swung his Firewood Knife heavily towards his head.
This strike was almost identical to the first blow Zhang Yuan delivered when taking down a wild boar before!
In fact, this was no haphazard move from Zhang Yuan; there was a rationale behind it.
Even though in the past three years, Hunter Gao hadn't taught Zhang Yuan any Martial Arts, Zhang Yuan had often secretly observed him practicing fist and saber techniques.
He had been secretly mimicking and learning.
Although such secret learning didn't allow him to master the skills easily,
day after day, year after year of training, strengthened his body and allowed Zhang Yuan to grasp some "Killing Moves".
This very strike he practiced tens of thousands of times, drilling it to perfection.
To avoid being discovered by Hunter Gao, Zhang Yuan never demonstrated it publicly.
Now executing it again, he reached his limits in terms of speed, power, and precision.
Most importantly, the record of slaying the wild boar had given Zhang Yuan sufficient confidence and courage!
Chen San was older and broader and taller than Zhang Yuan, but startled by the Crow Feather's earlier disruption and not anticipating Zhang Yuan's violent attack, it spelled his doom.
Faced with Zhang Yuan's might, Chen San instinctively tried to block with his Firewood Knife.
Clang!
The weapons clashed fiercely, and though his Firewood Knife only halted momentarily, Zhang Yuan's blow soon deeply embedded into Chen San's forehead.
His body shook all over, eyes filled with disbelief.
When Zhang Yuan yanked back the Firewood Knife with force, the loafer flopped to the ground, lifeless like a boneless dead dog.
No breath remained in him.
Zhang Yuan held his knife, fresh blood dripping from the blade.
His heart was extraordinarily calm.
Across both lifetimes, this was Zhang Yuan's first time killing, with no previous experience.
Yet, he felt no discomfort, nor any guilt or regret.
Because there is no room for even an ounce of weakness in this world; otherwise, he would become someone else's prey, helplessly carved at a whim on the chopping board.
Chen San's malice preceding him justified Zhang Yuan's counterattack, so why would he feel any guilt or unease because of it?
Clap clap clap!
Just then, clapping echoed suddenly behind Zhang Yuan.
Startled, he immediately turned around.
Only to find a man dressed in tight attire had appeared a dozen steps away.
This man clapped while saying with a smile, "Splendid, splendid indeed. I never expected someone as talented as you to be in this small mountain village!"
Zhang Yuan couldn't help but feel his heart sink.
The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind?
For he recognized the man as the Chen Family guard who came to cause trouble at his house the day before yesterday, along with the Steward Zhang.
The man was very likely a Martial Artist!