Firewood

"I'm sorry, I didn't expect to have any visitors."

He took off his straw hat and put down his axe on the table.

After wiping off the sweat from his forehead, he proceeded to pour some tea from the teapot on the table.

Lin Fan turned around and saw Ho Jie.

Ho Jie was around the age of sixty, with gray hair and an old scar from his eyebrow to his cheek.

"Welcome, I'm Ho Jie from An Xiang village."

"An Xiang village? But I've never seen you around."

Lin Fan felt confused when Ho Jie said he was from the same village.

In his memory, he had never seen him before.

Ho Jie chuckled, "I left so many years ago, before you were even born."

Zhang Xi seeing that they were getting along well, said, "Since both of you are from the same village, I shall leave you two to it."

As it was near nightfall, Zhang Xi had to get back to the Physique Peak, so bid farewell and hurried back.

"I'm Ho Fu's brother. He had asked me to take care of you and my nephew."

"Has he told you about..."

"Tan Family? Yeah, just watch out for Tan Fei and Tan Rui. We are in Physique Peak's boundary; if other peaks' disciples want to come and cause trouble, they would have some explaining to do."

Ho Jie then showed Lin Fan around: where to fetch water, get daily supplies, register for his contribution points, and most importantly, where to chop and gather the wood.

After that, it was dinner.

The meal wasn't much, only some rice and meat.

Lin Fan took one mouthful of the rice, and he immediately felt something different.

He felt warmth in his stomach, and a burst of energy came back to him.

With eyes wide open, Lin Fan looked at Ho Jie.

"That's a mix of spirit rice and normal rice.

"The spirit rice helps to replenish your energy and improve your body's ability to absorb Qi.

"As menial disciples, we only get some spirit rice per week, nothing compared to the outer and inner disciples.

"The outer and inner disciples will be allocated more.

"Here, try out the meat; it's from a demonic beast, aids in your cultivation too."

Lin Fan picked up a piece of the meat with his chopsticks and tried it.

The same thing happened, but this time the warm feeling and burst of energy lasted longer.

Looking at Lin Fan's reaction, Ho Jie chuckled and said, "Don't expect it to be so sumptuous every day though. Today was special, a welcome meal for you."

Putting down his chopsticks, Lin Fan clasped his hands and bowed to Ho Jie, thanking him for his generosity.

Ho Jie chuckled again, with his hand stopping Lin Fan's bow. "Stop with all the formalities; we are on our own now.

"Best for you to try and get stronger.

"If you make it to the top for the annual menial disciple rankings by fighting and beating all competitors, you would then be able to be promoted to outer disciple."

The menial disciple rankings intrigued Lin Fan.

But first, he would need to familiarize himself and try to start cultivation and gather cultivation resources for himself.

After all, there was also Tan Rui to settle with.

When they'd finished dinner, Lin Fan washed up and went to bed.

In the night, howls of beasts could be heard in the woods.

But strangely, none of the beasts came close to their wooden hut.

When it was past midnight, he could also hear Ho Jie leaving the wooden hut.

Ho Jie was up to something.

However, Lin Fan didn't follow, as after all, the system didn't prompt him with any malevolent intent.

...

Next day.

When Lin Fan woke up, the sun was just about to rise.

Ho Jie had fetched water from the well and started to steam some buns.

"Here, change into this. All junior menial disciples wear this," Ho Jie threw a black-colored robe to Lin Fan when he saw him awake.

Lin Fan realized Ho Jie wore a brown robe, which must have been for senior menial disciples.

He changed into the black-colored robe and after breakfast, they started their day.

Thwack.

Thwack.

Chopping sounds echoed in the woods as Lin Fan chopped into a tree trunk as wide as his waist.

He was alone in the woods as Ho Jie needed to transport the chopped firewood to the menial disciples' quarters.

As he focused on felling the tree in front of him, a familiar sound erupted in his mind.

[Ding!]

[Detected 5 souls with malevolent intent incoming!]

[Terminate 5 squirrels with malevolent intent for 50 vengeance points.]

Squirrels?

Lin Fan took a double take to make sure he hadn't seen wrongly.

The creatures in these woods were definitely different.

Suddenly, a squirrel darted out from the tree trunk at Lin Fan.

It was no match for Lin Fan's Iron Claw.

Splat.

Blood and fur splattered all over.

Two other squirrels came at him with their bloodshot eyes.

With a swipe of the axe in his other hand, the two squirrels got cut into two halves.

Then there was silence.

The remaining two squirrels were nowhere to be seen.

Just when Lin Fan thought they had run away, some leaves floated down from the top.

He looked up and saw two squirrels diving down from the branches at him.

These are some smart squirrels, Lin Fan thought to himself.

He took a step to the side, and the two squirrels missed and fell to the ground.

With his right leg, he stepped on one of the squirrels and threw his axe at the other.

A familiar sound erupted in his mind again.

[Ding! Congratulations on terminating malevolent intent.]

[Vengeance points + 50.]

[Current Vengeance Points: 300]

Looking at the information, Lin Fan smiled and felt that he was starting to like these woods.

At this rate, he should be able to level up his physique to Level 4 very soon.

Only 100 more vengeance points to go.

He continued to cut down the tree, and when it fell, dragged it back to the wooden hut to chop it into pieces.