’Did he really earn all that money just from selling monster cores? I cannot imagine how many monster cores one would need in order to earn hundreds of thousands of gold coins...’ Yu Rou shook her head helplessly as Yuan, who didn’t even know about selling the monsters’ materials.
"Brother, we can either chop these pigs up like a butcher would and sell their materials separately or just sell the whole corpse at once. Which method would you rather choose? We’d earn more money from selling the materials individually, but it’ll also require much more work," Yu Rou said to him a moment later.
"Let me chop them up for you," Yuan said to her.
"Do you know how to...?" Yu Rou looked at him with a doubting gaze. Butchering a whole monster is not something one can do without training and experience.
"Yes, I have this cooking technique called Thousand Knife Technique, and when I look at these corpses, my mind automatically tells me how to butcher it with my dagger, almost like it’s only natural," Yuan said to her.
"Really? But I am more interested in why you have a technique meant for cooking..." she said to him.
"I’m not sure since I have never done it, but I feel very confident when looking at it."
Yuan approached the three Horned Pigs with the Starry Abyss still in his grasp. He then kneeled in front of the corpses and began cutting monster corpses with the dagger.
His movements were neither too slow nor too fast with each cut done in a single smooth motion, making all of his movement appear extremely natural, almost like he has years of experience already.
"Wow... And you learned that from a cooking technique?" Yu Rou mumbled in awe.
"Yes. Do you want to learn it, too? I still have the technique book with me," Yuan asked her.
"You can share techniques with others?" Yu Rou raised her eyebrows.
"We’ll know once we try it. Let me finish up butchering this pig, though."
After completely butchering the first horned pig perfectly, Yuan began working on the second horned pig, and his movements appeared even cleaner than previously.
"As expected of Brother Tian, he’s learning at an extremely fast pace." Xiao Hua nodded her head in approval after seeing Yuan skillfully butcher the horned pigs.
"I’m not surprised, since my brother is a genius who learned to play nearly every instrument in the world professionally when he was only five years old, after all." Yu Rou also nodded her head, agreeing with Xiao Hua.
"Brother Tian can play the instrument?" Xiao Hua looked at him with wide eyes. Is there something this guy can’t do?
"Not only can he play the instrument but he can play them flawlessly! There used to be tens of millions of people who admire—"
"That’s enough, Yu Rou. It’s all in the past. There’s no need to bring it up anymore..." Yuan suddenly interrupted her with a solemn expression on his face.
"Oh... I am sorry, brother. I got too excited and brought up something I shouldn’t have again..." Yu Rou quickly realized her mistake and apologized to him.
Although Yuan used to play the instrument, because of his illness that crippled his sight, he was forced to adapt to playing the instruments while blind and until he can no longer physically move his body.
"..."
Seeing the depressing atmosphere around them, Xiao Hua decided to not ask any questions for now and silently watched Yuan butcher the last horned pig.
A few minutes later, once all three Horned Pigs were flawlessly butchered by Yuan, he tossed the materials into his spatial ring.
"I’m speechless, brother. Even though that was your first time butchering a pig— a monster, you didn’t make a mess! Even your hands are clean! It’s almost like you never did it!" Yu Rou expressed her admiration for him once again.
"It’s mostly thanks to the knife technique that I could even cut it at all and this knife that made it much smoother," Yuan said.
"Here, why don’t you take a look at the technique yourself?" Yuan retrieved the Thousand Knife Technique he’d bought from the store and handed it to Yu Rou.
"It’s like a book," she said as she began flipping through the pages.
Sometime later, Yu Rou finished reading the entire technique. She looked at Yuan with a tilted head and spoke, "How did you learn the technique? I read the entire thing word by word and still don’t have the skill."
"I did exactly what you just did— I read the book," Yuan said.
He then turned to look at Xiao Hua and asked her, "Are these techniques a one-time use thing? If I already learned a technique from it, others won’t be able to do the same?"
However, Xiao Hua shook her head and said, "That’s not possible. Techniques are not like monster cores where they disappear after one use— as long as you can comprehend the technique, you should be able to learn it."
"Then why can’t I learn it?" Yu Rou asked her.
"That’s simply because you haven’t comprehended the technique. Unless you are a cultivation prodigy like Brother Tian who can comprehend something at a mere glance, you’ll need to read that book over and over again until you can comprehend it. Of course, it is also possible that you are not compatible with the technique. If that’s the case, you won’t learn the technique no matter how many times you read it. However, that usually happens only with the more profound techniques— not some ordinary cooking technique."
"Oh... Then I’ll try again at another time," Yu Rou said, sounding somewhat disappointed.
Yuan and the others returned to finding the Spirit Grass shortly later.
During their journey, they encountered two more monsters, both at the second level Spirit Apprentice realm, which Yuan swiftly and casually dealt with before spending some more time butchering.
Two hours have passed since Yuan and the others began the quest, and they have just reached the area where the Spirit Grass was located.
"What does Spirit Grass look like?" Yuan asked after they reached the location.
"It’s like regular grass but with a blue tip— like this one," Yu Rou spoke as she harvested a single blade of Spirit Grass before showing it to Yuan.
"We need 3 jins of these? That’s going to take forever!" Yuan’s eyes widened after seeing the small grass.
"Actually, these are much heavier than regular grass, so we don’t need as much as you think. Here, see for yourself." Yu Rou handed him the Spirit Grass.
"Wow! You’re right! I can actually feel some weight behind it!" Yuan expressed awe. How can something so tiny and light-looking have such weight to it?
"Brother Tian, the most deceiving thing in the cultivation world is one’s appearance. You should never judge a book by its cover, or you’ll regret it." Xiao Hua warned him.
Yuan nodded his head before he began looking around.
After spending a few minutes looking around, Yuan decided to stop using his eyes to look for the Spirit Grass and began to try something new.
’The Spirit Grass has a unique aura to it... If I can sense it with my cultivation, I should be able to find them even without needing to use my eyes...’
Yuan then began expanding his own aura until he could sense things a few meters around him.
’Wow... Even though my eyes are closed, I can somehow still see the world in my mind, and it seems even clearer than using my eyes...’ Yuan was amazed by this new finding. If only he could use this same technique in the real world. That way, he would still be able to see despite being blind.
«You have learned Divine Sense»
«Divine Sense»
«Rank: Earth»
«Mastery Level: 1»
«Description: As long as one activates their Divine Sense, they will be able to see everything in a certain distance, even things that normally can’t be seen with the bare eyes.»
And within just a few moments, Yuan was able to locate over a dozen Spirit Grass at once.
"..." Xiao Hua looked at the expanded aura around Yuan with wide eyes.
’Divine Sense? Brother Tian somehow learned to use Divine Sense by himself? Even though he can only expand his Divine Sense a few meters, that’s an incredible achievement for someone who’s only at the Spirit Warrior realm!’ Xiao Hua thought to herself.
Normally, only Cultivators at the Spirit Master realm are able to learn and use Divine Sense, yet Yuan managed to learn it when he’s only in the Spirit Warrior realm.
However, compared to eating monster cores and his godlike comprehension talent, it didn’t shock Xiao Hua too much, who was already getting used to his incomprehensible existence.
"Here, Yu Rou. I found 12 Spirit Grass," Yuan showed Yu Rou the Spirit Grass he found using his Divine Sense.
"What! How did you find this many so quickly?! I only found 2 myself!" Yu Rou looked at the small pile of Spirit Grass on his hands with wide eyes.
"Why don’t you try using your cultivation to sense the Spirit Grass instead of looking for them with your bare eyes? It’s much easier and more efficient because they have a unique aura that distinguishes them from the rest," Yuan said to her.
"How do I do something like that?" she raised her eyebrows in a puzzled manner.
"Uhh... I’m not sure either..." Yuan scratched his head, as it was such a natural feeling for him.