Bai Rouyun was calm as a steady lake; no ripple could be seen in her eyes as she crouched behind a bush, looking at the target right in front of her.

The task was to get as many beast cores as possible throughout the period of time that the Royal Hunting Feast was active. However, most of the beasts within the forest were low ranked. Even if they were carnivores, they were careful of not being caught.

So even if one found a beast, they had to be swift to deal with it. Otherwise, it would just flee, and then all the time spent on hunting it would be wasted.

Bai Rouyun had managed to kill seven beasts on the first day, and now she had located a flame civet.

This flame civet was very careful in its movements, stopping from time to time with its nose in the air, trying to sense if any prey was close by.

It was completely oblivious to Bai Rouyun, who was eyeing it from behind a bush.

Bai Rouyun waited for the opportune moment before she waved her hand. White Qi gathered in her palm taking the shape of a blade.

The color of the Qi of a cultivator in the Acquired Realm was white. The whiter it was, the purer the Qi. Bai Rouyun's Qi was pearl white, so beautiful that it could enthrall someone if they looked at it.

Qi Blade!

With a flicker of her hand, the blade shot towards the flame civet so swiftly that the civet had no chance to escape. A screech resounded in the area, and the heavy scent of blood wafted out.

Bai Rouyun smiled when she saw this. She walked towards the flame civet, which had already died. She took out a small knife and split open the skull, before taking a blood-covered round gemlike item.

This one was red, even beneath the blood, but each beast core had its own color, depending on the element of the beast.

Without wasting any more time, Bai Rouyun wiped the gem and her knife with a cotton cloth, and when she finished, she stored both items in her bag.

She did not waste any time on the carcass; she just left it behind as she walked deeper into the forest.

Since the beginning, she had not encountered any humans, and it seemed that the further she went, the less likely she was to come across others. This was fortunate for her, as she was not willing to be dragged down by humans.

Although she could get more beast cores by robbing others, she wanted to take this chance to challenge herself.

They had been in the forest for three days, but the majority were still in the outskirts. Hence the beasts they encountered were all rank one.

These rank one beasts did have a beast core, but they were of the lowest grade, and contained very little energy. They were basically useless for anything other than crafting.

The deeper into the forest one got, the stronger the beasts became. The outskirts had rank one to three beasts, and if one entered the inner region, they would be able to meet rank four to seven beasts.

There were no beasts above the seventh rank in this forest, since a rank seven beast was a great challenge to the Richu Empire.

Bai Rouyun did not care too much, as she knew that she would never enter the core parts of the forest, and she had faith in her ability to deal with anything up to and including rank three.

Rank three beasts were equivalent to the rank of an Acquired Realm, Heaven Tiered expert, but their strength was greater than that of humans, so while it was considered the same tier, most humans would struggle against a beast at the same rank.

But it was not only the rank that mattered, their bloodline purity also had a great deal to say about their fighting ability.

Beast bloodlines were ranked as Mortal, Fierce, Ferocious, Holy, Divine, and Sovereign bloodlines. A Mortal Bloodline beast was easy to defeat, a Fierce beast was a little harder but not by much; however, Ferocious beasts were getting troublesome, and anything at the Holy rank and above was sought after by everyone in an attempt to tame them.

Bai Rouyun was the same, she had always dreamt about getting a pet with a holy bloodline, but she knew that it was impossible for her in her previous life, as she did not have the backing of an influential sect or family.

In this life, it might be possible to get one if she asked Li Moyun, but she was not willing to do so. She wanted to depend on herself on the way to the apex.

If everything was given to her easily, then she would become complacent. She feared that she would forget what it was like to struggle and become lazy.

She was not willing to risk her future advancement just to get some easy and fast improvements.

On the fourth day, Bai Rouyun had managed to reach a staggering number of thirty-seven beast cores, but she was still not happy.

She continued forward, and soon, she reached a clearing in the forest. A frown appeared on her face as she looked at the clearing since it was very different from what she had expected. She had not sensed that a clearing was coming, how could it suddenly be here?

But she had already stepped into it without knowing. Her feet were rooted to the ground, and when she tried to leave, she found that it was impossible. She was trapped within a formation.