Bow nocked but not drawn, Fenghuang Yu crept almost silently through the trees. She quickly realized she was out of practice so it took a bit to get back into the mindset of forest movement and hunting. Yu slowly approached where she heard the snuffling sound and remained still. First, she confirmed that she heard only one beast, then she peeked around the side of the tree without touching it.

Yu was once again wearing the red leather armor given to her by a family of Vermillion Birds after she helped save the youngest from an incursion by a Windstorm Porcupine. It felt good to be back in what she viewed as her “real warrior gear.” Her hook swords were strapped across her back, her whip was at her hip on the left and her bow in her hand, the quiver on her right thigh. Yu was pleasantly surprised to find that her leather armor fit better. The last time she wore it it was too big, meaning she was growing both in height and width. Hopefully, she wouldn’t outgrow it. Either way, she needed to have it identified along with her other gifts from the beast family. So many things to do.

As her right eye peaked around a tree’s edge, Yu saw the digging form of a black and white four-legged animal. It used its front clawed paws to dig and push dirt behind it as it dug for grubs and other insects. The creature had a long thin nose and jaw used to sniff out and reach in to grab its prey. As the soil flew, some landed on its back, dirtying the single thin white stripe down the middle. Yu’s nose wrinkled at seeing that creature. It was a Groundpulse Skunk, meaning it used its strong connection to Earth Qi to find the holes and pathways dug by insects. While this creature's teeth were small, its claws could slice through cloth and skin just as easily as did the dirt. It was also critical to kill them quickly otherwise they released a spray of poisonous Earth Qi-based fluid that not only stank to the high heavens, it also burned, causing puss-filled lesions and blisters to form. While not fatal through contact, if ingested, the poison had been known to result in a long and painful death by drowning in one’s own fluids when not treated. Not a pleasant way to go.

Thankfully, as a creature not specialized in combat; they mostly sprayed and fled. Yu silently took a single step around the tree and tightened her back and shoulder muscles, drawing the bow. The arrow’s nock laid against the side of her chin, just below her cheek. Arms steady, she targeted and the fingers of her right hand released, her left staying perfectly still. A snap, woosh, and thunk sounded and the skunk fell to its side, dying almost instantly from the arrow shaft sticking out of the center of its side.

Yu exhaled and waited for a few seconds, simply watching. Seeing no breath being drawn from the creature, she sent her bow into her ring and stepped up to the creature wearing a small smile. The arrow had punctured its heart. It was a perfect shot, which pleased her given how long it had been since she wielded a bow. Then again, it was from like 15 paces so there was nothing to be proud of really.

Taking out the butchering kit she had purchased earlier in the day, Yu opened it and withdrew an extremely thin and slightly curved knife. That was a knife that specialized in removing the skin from creatures. Yu began the dirty work of dressing her kill, which involved bleeding it, skinning it, removing and burying the intestines and other waste, removing the various organs, and then finally the meat from the bones. This creature’s bones had little to no value so she just left them for another creature to enjoy. Were this a long-term stay, they might have served a purpose such as bait or trap. But she was there to actively hunt until it got dark and then head back. Everything else of value she stored and kept.

Yu reflected on the outcome of her butchery and thought it not too bad. Again, she was out of practice but thankfully she remembered to start at the areas with the least value until she got back into it and ended up with meat she believed could sell to the sect. The most valuable item was the poison sack from its flank which she very carefully placed in one of the jade storage containers she had purchased for just that purpose.

Yu washed her hands with one of her newly purchased waterskins and left the area. Reviewing her goals. Yu tapped her badge and the quest that was causing so much consternation in the sect appeared before her.

Mission Name: Food for the Masses

Mission Difficulty: Moderate

Mission Type: Beast Hunting

Duration: 30 days (24)

Reward: {Variable} points per jin of usable meat

Repeatable: Yes

Description:

Every cultivator needs to eat meat to grow strong. Within the forests and planes of the sect are many of the beasts we use to feed you disciples. Once per month this quest is posted for a registered group of cultivators to hunt for food for the sect. You will be required to provide no less than 50 jin per group member of usable meat. Everything that is not meat will be returned in points per value of the product at the time minus the cost of butchering or can be returned physically but you will be responsible for the point cost of the butchering. You may butcher the animals yourselves but only usable meat will earn points.

Note: Point value will be determined by the type and quality of animal meat returned. A minimum of 500 jin is required to consider the quest a success.

She needed 500 total jin in weight at a minimum which meant about 100 skunks worth of meat. Thankfully, the quest being repeatable meant she could turn in the meat throughout the 30-day mission duration so it didn’t sit in her ring. While it wouldn’t go bad thanks to the nature of the ring, who would want raw meat sitting around if they didn’t have to? The other two quests were similar but with herbs and poison sacks and both were also listed as repeatable.

***

Yu continued her silent stalk through the forest and managed to kill six more four-legged grade 1 creatures in two hours, which wasn’t bad. This place definitely had a more dense beast population than the forest close to her home. It made her wonder if the sect imported creatures. Well, it was none of her business either way.

While heading deeper, Yu heard something that made her smile. She jogged forward silently and approached the sounds of battle. Yu had heard the squealing and roaring of a fight between beasts which was always an opportunity for a sneaky human. What Yu saw raised her eyebrows in surprise. A feline, specifically a Wood Affinity beast known as a Bark-skinned Lynx, was facing off against a boar at least twice its size. That boar was familiar and with a visual scan, she confirmed it was indeed a Mad Earthen Boar. It was slightly bigger than the one she shot but failed to kill back home, but unlike her last boar, this one had two sets of serrated tusks, meaning it was a grade 2 beast. The lynx opposite it, crouched and hissing, had two rings of brown and black spots around its back telling Yu that it too was a beast of the second grade. This battle surprised Yu because she had barely entered the forest and this area was supposed to be exclusive to grade 1 creatures.

Yu looked around the area and found a tree that could work. She stalked around the pair, watching as the boar charged and the lynx agilely dodged and raked its side with sharp claws. This, of course, angered the boar even more and thus it started stomping, flinging dirt everywhere. The boar charged again but this time it swung its head side to side and struck the lynx hard enough to fling it sideways. As all cats do, it twisted its body in mid-air and immediately returned to its feet and hissed furiously. The fur of this lynx was as hard as the bark of a tree and thus it survived the strike with nothing more than a scrape.

Finally reaching the tree, Yu climbed carefully and then crouched on a branch, overlooking the two combatants. She withdrew her bow and knocked one of the steel arrows that she had purchased earlier in the day. They had longer bladed heads offering a much higher weight impact which would allow them to puncture even the tough hides of these two beasts. The downside of the arrows was that the weight caused a dramatic reduction in their flight distance as well as causing the height drop to occur sooner. As she was close to both and shooting at a downward angle, neither negative would affect her materially, so Yu withdrew a second identical arrow and left it dangling from her last two fingers of her draw hand. She took aim and waited.

Even after minutes of fruitless combat, the two demonic beasts would not give up. Then it happened. The boar knocked the lynx aside, which ended up being right below Yu. The mad beast charged and Yu tracked it with her aiming hand. Just as it was between steps Yu released and her arrow shot forward. Yu sent Qi into her body and immediately whipped the hanging arrow up and her bow down. Meeting in the middle, Yu knocked, aimed, and drew in a single motion, the bow turned nearly straight down. She released just as the first arrow slammed home into the mad boar’s right eye. Its body fell and tumbled forward, dead immediately from the steel arrowhead puncturing its brain. The second arrow found a home in the feline’s neck but must have skimmed off bone because it barely punctured.

Yu sent her bow into her ring and dropped down, pulling her swords free during the fall. The lynx leaped to its feet and then was immediately slammed back down as the weight of a silver-haired cultivator landed astride its back. It released a hissing roar and was just pushing up as two pointed steel hilts burst through its bark-hard skin and into its throat. It was in shock and could not react as they withdrew. Then all it saw were those very same glittering steel objects aiming for its eyes. It tried to move its head and dodge to the side but it was far too late and then all the creature saw was darkness.

***

It had taken nearly an hour to dress both kills. She was extra careful with the pelt of the lynx as it was worth quite a bit more than any other single piece of the grade 2 demonic beasts save their beast cores. Once again washing her hands, Yu looked up at the sun and saw she had less than two hours before she needed to head back.

Yu stood and looked around. What had caused these two creatures to battle here? She walked the area but could not find anything of consequence and so put it aside until later. Updating her map and marking the location as a point of potential interest, Yu found the tracks that the boar had come from. Her prior experience told her that where the boar’s sleeping location was could hold interesting things like Qi plants. As she had a quest for Qi plants, she felt this could be an easy way to earn some points.

She had been collecting as she wandered but none of it was terribly impressive in her mind to that point. Hopefully the future would offer better results.