My Cultivation Techniques Upgrade Automatically

Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Isn’t That a Bit Too Extreme?

Subduing the Great Terror!

Liu Linshan had never imagined his life could be this thrilling.

But he also knew Wu Chen wouldn’t bring this up for no reason. With two corpses conveniently available, it was the perfect time to put them to use.

”Young Master Wu, you mean to use these two bodies as bait for whatever is hiding in these mountains?”

”Exactly, but...”

Wu Chen looked at the two corpses—one with a snapped neck, the other with a blade wound—and made a few slicing motions with his hand.

”The smell of blood should travel far this way. It ought to attract the attention of whatever’s out here.”

Liu Linshan’s breath hitched. ”So, how... how many pieces?”

”A piece here, a piece there.”

Wu Chen said it without a ripple of emotion, as if it were a trivial matter.

After speaking, he began to survey his surroundings.

Dusk was falling, and the forest grew increasingly dim.

Still, he could easily spot several ancient trees with trunks as thick as water vats, their canopies like lids and their gnarled branches twisting together like writhing pythons.

He pointed to a few trees with interlocking branches. ”Scatter the body parts around those trees up ahead. We’ll spend the night up in the branches.”

”The branches on these trees are thick and connected. If anything unexpected happens, it’ll give us room to maneuver.”

”When the Great Terror appears, I’ll deal with it. You just run.”

Liu Linshan nodded and got to work, silently swinging his blade to prepare the corpses as Wu Chen had instructed.

After receiving pointers on his blade techniques from Wu Chen, he had no trouble fighting those in the same realm.

Therefore, dismembering the corpses was a familiar task.

While he was busy, Wu Chen used both his hands and feet to climb the trees and scout out a good spot.

He analyzed the interlocking branches, planning routes for advance and retreat in case danger appeared, just to be safe.

Halfway up, he spotted a tree hollow and heard a hissing sound from within.

”You’re hissing in alarm too?”

With nothing better to do, Wu Chen nimbly reached in and grabbed a sharp-headed viper.

Without a word, he tied it into a bow and tossed it into the distance.

Then, he stuffed several bundles of dry rations into the tree hollow.

Soon, all preparations were complete. The two found a fork where branches intertwined and settled down to rest, half-reclining.

Before long, the sun set, a cold moon rose, and the sky turned completely dark.

A chill began to permeate the mountain. The wind rustled through the branches, creating a wailing sound like an old woman’s cry, unsettling the mind.

Even harder to bear was the mountain chill that seeped through their bodies.

However, one was in the Flesh Refining Realm, and the other had spent a month eating and drinking well, cultivating exceptionally strong Qi and Blood. They could withstand this bit of cold.

Up in the branches, Wu Chen could only think of the Great Terror and the great opportunity it represented, so his eyes were wide and round.

By the moonlight filtering through the gaps in the leaves, he stared intently at his surroundings, watching for any sign of movement, afraid he might miss his chance.

He kept this up for half the night, his mind on high alert, but eventually, he couldn’t help but doze off.

Liu Linshan, on the other hand, was an old Hunter. He knew how to wait out his prey, taking short naps but waking at the slightest disturbance.

THUMP!

Suddenly, Liu Linshan heard a noise from below the tree. It wasn’t a quiet one, either.

Startled, he turned to look at the spot beside him where Wu Chen was supposed to be. ”What’s going on?”

But Wu Chen’s voice came from below the tree. ”It’s nothing. My clothes fell.”

Liu Linshan nodded, but something felt off. ’My clothes fell? Would that make such a loud noise?’

Wu Chen said, ”Because I was inside them...”

Liu Linshan: ”...”

Liu Linshan almost burst out laughing.

But remembering all of Wu Chen’s past deeds, he didn’t dare.

After that tumble from the branch, Wu Chen was wide awake. He decided to focus all his attention on watching for the Great Terror’s arrival.

But in the pitch-black night, the only sounds were the howls of wolves and roars of tigers from distant peaks and the wind sighing through the forest. There were no other unusual movements.

This continued until dawn, when the morning mist in the forest dissipated and their surroundings gradually became clear.

Still, nothing had appeared.

’Even with such a lavish feast of blood and flesh, it could tell it was a trap, so it didn’t show up?’

’You damn thing, Great Terror!!’

After waiting a while longer and confirming that nothing was coming, Wu Chen could only give a helpless wave, signaling to Liu Linshan that they could leave.

There was no point in waiting any longer. This mountain forest was vast. If a Great Terror truly existed and was so easy to find, Zhuangzi wouldn’t have sent two hundred people into the mountains in the first place.

With that thought, the two retrieved their packs from the tree hollow, jumped down, and set off at a brisk pace in the direction Zhou Yuntao’s group had taken.

Before long, their figures vanished into the woods.

Half an hour after they left, two figures in black fitted clothes flashed through the woods, landing under the very tree where they had stood watch all night.

These two were disciples of the Blood Slaughter Sect who had followed the Guards from the herb-planting estate to participate in the herb-gathering trial.

”HISS!”

The two had followed the scent of blood. Now, they stared at the scene beneath the tree: severed limbs, pieces of corpses scattered here and there, and mottled, blackened bloodstains.

There was also a gray snake, tied in a bow, writhing but unable to break free.

Even for them, who were used to killing and carving out hearts, the sight made them gasp in cold horror. ”What ruthless methods! Even more brutal than cleaving someone in two!”

Amid the gruesome scene of dismembered limbs and dense bloodstains, the two men’s faces were utterly colorless, as pale as paper.

”Could... could there be a Great Terror here?!”

One of them couldn’t hide the tremor in his voice as he unconsciously took two steps back.

”Impossible!”

The other disciple firmly objected, but the trembling of his fingertips betrayed him.

He said, ”An Elder from our sect once came to Broken Blade Mountain to clear out the vicious beasts. He made sure no Great Terrors were left here!”

”This must be the work of one of our sect’s Elders!”

His expression was much more stable now, but his face was still deathly pale. He had clearly been terrified by the scene as well.

He approached the tree and examined the remains, finding an answer:

”These are all blade wounds, not tears from brute force. There are no claw marks from beasts, either. This was done by a person.”

”Furthermore, the angle of the cuts is exquisite, separating bone from flesh with perfect precision. This must have been a master of the blade!”

”As for why this pile of minced flesh was left here... I believe an Elder from the sect must have done it intentionally, so that we may comprehend blade techniques from it!”

”So...”

He came to a conclusion: ”This must be part of our herb-gathering trial!”

”Part of the trial?”

The other Demon Sect disciple frowned, looking at the carnage on the ground. ”Isn’t that a bit... extreme?”

...

Wu Chen and Liu Linshan walked for several miles.

The vast mountains were filled with jagged rocks and overgrown with vegetation.

Of the two hundred or so refugees, they hadn’t seen a single soul.

”Did they all go deeper into the mountains?” Wu Chen stood on a bizarrely shaped rock, frowning as he scanned the area.

’You think everyone’s like you? Ignoring the herb-gathering to go looking for a Great Terror?’

Liu Linshan grumbled to himself. He had lived for over forty years and been a Hunter for thirty of them.

This was the first time he had ever seen someone actively chase danger deep in the old mountain forests.

’That’s not what my master taught me back in the day!’

Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly saw Wu Chen’s figure blur. With a SWISH, he leaped off the rock and shot forward.

It looked like he had found something.

Liu Linshan slung his pack over his shoulder and immediately followed.

After taking a dozen or so long strides, he saw a refugee in coarse clothes lying silently beneath a tree.

The refugee had been dead for a while. His expression was twisted in agony, as if he had witnessed something utterly terrifying before he died.

A large, scarlet stain soaked the clothes on his chest, where a gaping hole had been torn open, leaving it empty.

”To kill a man and take his heart!”

Wu Chen quickly bent down to examine the wound.

If a beast had done this, it wouldn’t have only eaten the heart. The fact that this body had only a single wound on its chest was rather strange.

”Master Liu! Look at this wound!”

Wu Chen leaned down and pointed at the bloody hole in the refugee’s chest, his expression filled with unconcealable excitement.

”In a normal fight, you just kill your opponent.”

”But taking the heart... this must be the work of the Great Terror!”

Liu Linshan looked at Wu Chen’s excited face and fell silent.

’Did you completely forget that just last night you had me chop up a body into pieces, a piece here and a piece there, while you slept right above it?’

’And now you’re calling a single missing heart from an otherwise intact corpse the work of a ”Great Terror”?’

’Where’s the logic in that?!’