“I should be the one to tell you about this.”

Xiao Hua looked at Long Chen and then glanced at her grandpa.

“Xiao Hua…” The old man frowned.

“Grandpa, Long Chen is my man. He will also be one of our villager’s people in the future. He has the right to know about this.” 

The old man argued no more. The others all quickly drank their thin porridge and returned to their homes, leaving only the three of them.

“That Magical Beast was offered as a sacrifice,” explained Xiao Hua to Long Chen.

“Offered as a sacrifice?” That was the first time Long Chen had heard of such a thing.

“Yes. Your wounds were too severe, and you were on the verge of death. We had no other method but to send you to the forest god. The forest god healed you, but the price was that we had to offer the Magical Beast as a sacrifice. That’s also why you were able to completely recover in just a short three days.”

Did gods really exist in this world? This completely toppled his understanding.

“Not only that, but because your injuries were so severe, our village also had to offer all the meat we had stored away. And even so, we still owe the forest god more. We’ll have to pay back our debt slowly through hunting.”

Only now did Long Chen understand why the entire village only had some thin porridge to eat.

The young men definitely required meat in order to get stronger. But because of him, they could only go hungry. He couldn’t help but feel bad about this.

“Long Chen, I’m explaining this to you not so that you will feel guilty. But you’re also a member of the village now, so I thought you had the right to know this.” Xiao Hua quietly explained this all.

However, that only made him feel even more ashamed. This kind of trust and goodwill made him feel incomparably warm, especially since he was used to the cruel schemes inside the royal capital.

“Can you tell me about this forest god?”

Xiao Hua looked at her grandpa, and only after he nodded did she tell him a true story that was practically mythic.

Not long after this village was first established, one of their ancestors found an extremely mystical tree. At that time, that ancestor had been wounded by a Magical Beast and almost died. After fleeing from it, he had arrived there.

The tree had dripped a drop of liquid onto him, and their ancestor’s heavy wounds had completely healed in just half a day.

In order to thank the large tree, they had hunted down a wild beast and placed it as a sacrifice in front of the large tree. Then, they saw the huge tree actually swallowed that dead beast in the blink of an eye.

Ever since then, whenever someone was injured, the villagers would all run over to the tree to be treated, and every time the tree would completely restore them.

In order to display their reverence and respect for the tree, they had begun to call it the forest god. Not long after they began to offer sacrifices to the tree, it actually began to communicate with them and established an agreement with them.

It could heal the villagers’ wounds, but they would need to offer sacrifices to it in reciprocation. As for the amount of sacrifices, it would depend on how heavy the wounds were.

This was just like a doctor asking for payment. But in all these years, the forest god had never asked for that much as a reward.

However, Long Chen was an exception now. The forest god had demanded a shocking price to save Long Chen.

“What did it want?” asked Long Chen.

Xiao Hua looked at Long Chen and ground her teeth. “Ten first rank Magical Beast and one second rank Magical Beast.”

Long Chen was shocked. A single first rank Magical Beast already required Xiao Hua’s entire village to prepare for a long time and it still posed an extremely great danger.

As for a second rank Magical Beast, that would require several Blood Condensation experts to join hands in order to kill one. To the villagers, that was something completely impossible. That so-called forest god’s price was far too great.

Looking at Long Chen’s indignant expression, Xiao Hua hastily said, “Long Chen, you definitely can’t feel any resentment towards the forest god; the forest god has always been extremely fair over all these years. No matter how heavily injured we were, it never required such a high price. There’s definitely a reason for it to demand so much this time. Plus, now you’re healed. You can help us, and I trust that we’ll be able to quickly repay our debt. Even if it was ten second rank Magical Beasts, we still would have accepted. We couldn’t just silently watch you die…”

In the end, Xiao Hua began to sob. She fell into Long Chen’s chest. Her grandpa sighed. “Long Chen, the forest god is absolutely fair. There’s definitely a reason for it to demand such a price. Don’t get angry.”

“I want to go see the forest god.” Long Chen wanted to figure out just what this forest god was.

As for the price that it had demanded, Long Chen wasn’t worried at all. Now that he had recovered, first rank Magical Beasts could be killed in an instant. As for a second rank Magical Beast, as long as he wasn’t careless, that was also something he could bring down.

A second rank Magical Beast was equivalent to a human Blood Condensation expert. However, due to how tough a Magical Beast’s physical body was, humans on equivalent levels were not an equal match for Magical Beasts.

But who was Long Chen? He had no fear for anyone below the Tendon Transformation realm. He didn’t like to have to owe anything. If he confirmed that this forest god wasn’t some fake swindler, he wanted to pay it back as fast as possible. He also wanted to know just what this god was.

Xiao Hua’s grandpa acquiesced and so, Long Chen followed Xiao Hua out of the village on a mountain path.

Xiao Hua was very familiar with this area. With a bow and quiver on her back, she would pause to listen to the surroundings every now and then.

She would also occasionally go bring Long Chen to check some of the surrounding traps and snares that they had set up to see if they had captured some wild beasts.

But there was only disappointment. They checked a dozen snares, but none of them had caught anything.

“It’s so sad that we have no meat. We need meat in order to strengthen our bodies. It’ll get very difficult to hunt without any more…” sighed Xiao Hua.

They were hunters, and meat was something that strengthened them. Having gone without any meat for several days, the villagers’ morale had been greatly impacted.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle that debt. Since it was because of me, just let me resolve it myself,” laughed Long Chen.

Xiao Hua’s expression changed and she angrily retorted, “What are you talking about? Your matters are my matters, which are also the village’s matters. How could we let you go face danger alone?”

Long Chen smiled and shut his mouth. He truly did like this village’s ambiance. There was no selfishness, only a peaceful coexistence. Just how luxurious and rare would such an ambiance be in the world of the royal capital where fights and schemes arose every day?

This was a beautiful place, but Long Chen couldn’t possibly stay, let alone muddle along to make kids.

But his life was saved by the villagers. He had to repay this debt before leaving.

“Wait a moment.”

Suddenly, Xiao Hua stopped. Looking at the footprints on the ground, her expression was completely serious.

“A bear has just recently gone past here. Based on the depth and size of the footprint, it should be a matured Burst Bear. It’s definitely longer than three meters and should have passed through just two hours ago based on the color of the soil.”

Xiao Hua was definitely worthy of being a highly and experienced huntress. She was able to tell so much from just a footprint. The Burst Bear was a first rank Magical Beast that was exceptionally berserk, making it extremely hard to deal with.

Even if the whole village joined hands, they still wouldn’t dare to handle this Burst Bear. They had the ability to attack the Cliff Leopard because its specialty was in its speed, and its attacking and defensive prowess were not particularly great.

As long as they paid attention to its movements and they had enough people, they definitely stood a good chance of killing it.

But the Burst Bear was not the same. It specialized in defensive strength and power. No matter how many people they had, it would all be useless.

“It looks like we should make a detour,” determined Xiao Hua.

“Why?” Long Chen didn’t understand.

“Fool, do you really have to ask? We aren’t a match for the Burst Bear. Even if all the fighters in the village assembled, we still wouldn’t have a high chance of beating it.”

“Says who?”

“You… you really are trying to piss me off!” Looking at Long Chen’s foolish wooden manner, Xiao Hua was both angered and anxious. But suddenly she thought of something and blinked. “You aren’t thinking of going to kill the Burst Bear, are you?”

“Of course.”

She was silent for a moment. She immediately thought of when Long Chen had fought with the Cliff Leopard. At that time, Long Chen had been an absolutely unstoppable god in her eyes.

And according to her grandpa, Long Chen had already received extremely heavy injuries before meeting the Cliff Leopard, otherwise, he probably would have been able to kill it on his own.

Now looking at Long Chen’s current expression, she finally realized that Long Chen might really possess the strength to kill a first rank Magical Beast.

“Have you killed a first rank Magical Beast before?” probed Xiao Hua.

“Nope.” Long Chen shook his head. This was the first time he had gone away from home, and although he had eaten Magical Beast meat several times, those had been defeated by Wilde.

But Long Chen muttered inside, “Although I haven’t killed a Magical Beast, I’ve slaughtered quite a few Blood Condensation experts.”

Xiao Hua shook her head. “Then let’s just let it go. Killing a Magical Beast isn’t done just by relying on a high cultivation base or who is stronger. You have to rely on waiting for a good opportunity. Skill and experience are extremely important. Since you haven’t killed a Magical Beast before, we should try to avoid such a risky scenario. Hunters never take such risks; otherwise, it would be the hunter who is turned into the prey.”

“You don’t take risks? Then what do you call what you did to save me?” laughed Long Chen.

“Tch, you’re not allowed to ever bring that up!” Her face reddened and she threateningly raised her fist.

“Haha, ok. I won’t joke with you anymore. Don’t worry, I won’t risk our lives on a gamble,” said Long Chen firmly.

Long Chen no longer had any of his joking mischievous air. Now he was completely serious and gave off a feeling of great confidence and security.

She didn’t know why, but seeing him like that immediately caused her to calm down and relax. Even her terrifying impression of the Burst Bear became lighter.

With Xiao Hua guiding the both of them with her hunting experience, the two of them followed the tracks for two hours and found a large natural cave.

Within that cave, the originally sleeping Burst Bear suddenly opened its eyes, staring at the two people who had invaded his territory.

“ROAR!”

The Burst Bear suddenly jumped up. Its huge three-meter-tall figure violently charged towards the two of them.

Looking at the wildly charging Burst Bear, Xiao Hua turned pale with fright. That was the first time she had ever let herself be so exposed to a Magical Beast. That went against everything she knew as a huntress.

But Xiao Hua noticed that Long Chen remained as calm as ever. His gaze was indifferent as he punched out with his right hand.