3: Chapter 3 Treasure Hunters

"And at this stage, the best way to replenish energy is to eat."

Thinking of this, Xu Yan took out his phone to check his bank account balance.

"14,159.26."

"Sigh, I don't know how long this will last."

Sighing, Xu Yan put down his phone.

Although he had figured out the mechanism for grinding stats, it also brought him a new problem.

That was that he didn't have much money left.

In his pursuit of becoming a Transcendent, he had spent all his savings over the past three years, either enrolling in various martial arts training classes or spending large sums of money buying so-called "Awakening Potions."

His body had been ruined precisely because of frequent injections of "Awakening Potions."

Fortunately, before his head could go sharp, the company that sold him the drugs had been taken down by the police.

"Forget it, I'll deal with making money later; this money is enough for now."

With a slight movement of his mind, Xu Yan added his free stat points to his Constitution.

[Constitution: 0.64 → 0.67]

Adding 0.03 to his free stats at once, Xu Yan felt the soreness and fatigue in his body after exercising completely vanish.

After tidying up a bit, Xu Yan went to the shower to wash up and went straight to bed.

For the next three days, Xu Yan devoted himself entirely to grinding stats; he would eat and then exercise, then exercise and eat.

As for whether this was bad for his body or if he needed to consider a balance between work and rest.

Xu Yan's stance was: I only care about grinding stats; I'll leave the rest to the panel.

Name: Xu Yan

Status: Slight injury

Age: 26

Strength: 0.7

Agility: 0.72

Spirit: 0.69

Constitution: 0.97

Assignable stat points: 0

Xu Yan looked at the results of his three days of self-forgetful training and felt very satisfied.

Over these three days, he was able to grind out an average of 0.1 free stat points per day, all of which he added to his Constitution; as for the increases in the other three stats, they were natural growth following his exercise.

At first, Xu Yan was a bit surprised, but after thinking about it, he felt it was reasonable. After all, this was reality; it made no sense for his body not to change with daily exercise.

"Work hard, and aim to get my Constitution to 1 today."

Closing the panel, Xu Yan began exercising again.

But unlike the previous few days, with his Constitution now close to that of a normal person, doing squats and jogging to grind stats was too slow.

This was something he discovered yesterday after his Constitution reached 0.9.

Previously, his body was in poor condition, so he felt exhausted after even a little exercise, which naturally made grinding stats fast. Now that his body was gradually recovering, he needed to increase his exercise intensity to continue grinding stats.

Therefore, Xu Yan prepared to run a round trip along the road leading up the mountain from the village today, which was about five kilometers.

He wouldn't enter the mountain now; after all, since the resurgence of spiritual energy, it wasn't just humans who had awakened as Transcendents; animals and plants had too.

Although the mountain behind Xu Family Village didn't have a name, it was connected to the Longji Mountain Range, which separated the south from the north.

After the resurgence of spiritual energy, the Longji Mountain Range was one of the dangerous areas clearly marked by the authorities, and ordinary people were forbidden from setting foot there.

Once everything was ready, Xu Yan locked his door and set off lightly.

Meeting some villagers on the road, Xu Yan smiled and greeted them as uncles and aunts.

Although he had been keeping to himself since returning, the villagers all knew that Xu Qi'an's son had returned.

After all, there were only about a hundred households in the village, mostly elderly people who loved to gather and chat, so any news naturally spread extremely quickly.

"Little Xu, are you going into the mountain?"

Just outside the village, as Xu Yan was warming up and getting ready to run, a voice suddenly came from behind him.

"No." Xu Yan turned around: "Aunt Li, I'm just exercising; I'm not going into the mountain."

Aunt Li was the person who had recognized him at the village entrance when he first returned.

"It's good that you're not going into the mountain." Hearing this, Aunt Li clearly breathed a sigh of relief, then couldn't help but urge: "But don't get too close to the foot of the mountain either."

"The news said that the spiritual energy content is increasing every day, and there must be more Mutant Beasts and plants in the mountain."

"It's better for us ordinary people to stay far away."

"Mm, I know, Aunt Li."

After saying goodbye to Aunt Li, Xu Yan looked at the distant, rolling mountains with a complicated expression.

He was naturally aware of the dangers in the mountain, but danger also came with opportunities.

Mutant Beasts and plants were treasures from head to toe, but unfortunately, they weren't meant for ordinary people.

Ordinary people had neither Transcendent power nor weapons or firearms.

Let alone Mutant Beasts, even if they encountered ordinary wild beasts, unless they were professional hunters, they would most likely not escape death.

"Right, once my stats are up, I can hunt Mutant Beasts to make money!"

Xu Yan's eyes lit up. One had to know that the market price for exotic beast meat had already been hyped up to a terrifying 100,000 per catty, and even then, there was no supply to meet the demand.

After all, martial artists needed Qi and blood to practice martial arts, and ordinary food could hardly satisfy their needs. Only exotic beast meat and mutated plants, commonly known as treasures of heaven and earth, could meet their requirements.

Moreover, research had proven that even ordinary people, if they could consume exotic beast meat long-term or take special "treasures of heaven and earth," had a chance to step into the Transcendent realm.

Xu Yan had once had the idea of relying on eating exotic beast meat to become a Transcendent.

But unfortunately, as an ordinary person with neither channels nor money, trying to achieve transcendence through this path was no different from a pipe dream.

Gathering his thoughts, Xu Yan began to jog.

It had just rained, and it was early spring; plus, being close to the mountain, the temperature was relatively lower, so naturally, Xu Yan was wearing more clothes.

The result was that he started sweating not long after he began running, and by the time he reached the foot of the mountain, his undershirt was already soaked with sweat.

He had wanted to slow down for a while before running back, but when the cold wind blew, his wet clothes immediately gave him a chill to the bone. Not daring to delay, Xu Yan immediately turned back and ran.

Halfway back, Xu Yan suddenly saw a group of three people walking in his direction.

Two men and one woman, all dressed like hikers. One of the men had a beard and was slightly older; the other was carrying a mountain-climbing backpack that was as tall as a person, and the bag was bulging, looking like it weighed several dozen kilograms.

Yet that man's steps were steady and calm, completely unaffected by the backpack, as if the person-high backpack didn't exist at all.

"Hmm? Are these people planning to go into the mountain?"

Xu Yan guessed in his heart and subconsciously wanted to call out a warning, but then realized something, so he immediately withdrew his gaze, preparing to leave directly.

But just as he approached the group, the woman among them suddenly called out to him: "Hey handsome, let me ask you something."

Xu Yan sighed inwardly; if it wasn't necessary, he really didn't want to have any interaction with these three people.

From their attire and the indifferent gaze of the man carrying the person-high backpack as he glanced at him, Xu Yan knew what this group did.

A hunting team, or rather, treasure hunters.

A Transcendent squad specializing in hunting Mutant Beasts and searching for treasures of heaven and earth.

Such squads were generally composed of one or more Transcendents, paired with experienced hunters.

Although Transcendents looked down on ordinary people, not every Transcendent was an experienced hunter.

After all, no matter when or where, people with unique talents would always be treated differently.