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Coming out of the room, Wei Yuan was in a fantastic mood.
His belly was full.
He felt like he had endless strength coursing through him.
Just imagine—if he activated the Glutton God's Mouth and quickly digested the exotic beast meat to nourish his body, he'd probably get even stronger in no time.
"Junior Brother, don't tell me… you succeeded?" Zhang Wu walked up to him, eyeing him closely.
"Thanks to your good luck, Senior Brother. I managed it somehow," Wei Yuan said with a smile.
"Congrats, congrats!"
Zhang Wu's eyes lit up. He glanced back at the main hall nervously, like he was up to something, then pulled Wei Yuan aside and lowered his voice.
"I'm guessing Old Li already told you—after taking the secret medicine, our bodies get heavily stimulated. We get super hungry and need to absorb and convert energy fast. Only exotic beast meat can do the trick."
Wei Yuan nodded. "Yeah, he told me."
Zhang Wu chuckled. "That meat Old Li's selling you? One tael of silver for one tael of exotic beast meat. You're looking at thirty taels a month. That's way too expensive! Junior Brother, I've got another source that's a bit cheaper. Interested?"
Wei Yuan paused for a second. "How much cheaper? And how's the absorption?"
Zhang Wu quickly replied, "One tael of silver can get you 1.5 or even 2 taels of meat. The absorption's just as good. The only downside? It doesn't taste great—it's kinda nasty, actually. But come on, we're martial artists. We've eaten worse, haven't we?"
Wei Yuan thought for a moment. "Alright. Get me 3 taels first. I'll try it. If the effect's good, I'll keep buying from you."
Zhang Wu was overjoyed.
Wei Yuan headed to the southern corner and continued training with the stone locks, working on his strength.
After a while, a woman in red approached him. She had a round face, a strong figure, and gave off a bold, heroic vibe.
She smiled at him and said, "You're Wei Yuan, right? I'm Li Hongsu."
Wei Yuan quickly set down the stone locks and greeted her politely, "Hello, Senior Sister Li. What can I do for you?"
Li Hongsu glanced around, then lowered her voice. "We're all from the same sect, right? We should look out for each other. I've got a friend who can get exotic beast meat. One tael of silver for two taels of meat. Want to split a batch with me?"
Wei Yuan was speechless. "How about this—buy two taels for me first. I'll try it out. If it works, I'll consider buying more long-term."
Li Hongsu beamed. "Don't worry, you won't be disappointed!" Then she turned and walked off.
Not long after, someone else came up to Wei Yuan, also offering to sell exotic beast meat.
Then another. And another.
Soon, two more people tried to get close to him with the same pitch.
Wei Yuan finally caught on—this exotic beast meat wasn't all that rare. Turns out a bunch of people had access to it and were openly selling it. It kind of made his hands itch to get in on it himself.
Thinking quickly, Wei Yuan chatted some people up and eventually got to the bottom of it. There were two main sources for the exotic beast meat:
First, some people raised exotic beasts on purpose—usually the docile kinds, kind of like raising pigs. They'd fatten them up and then butcher them.
But raising exotic beasts takes tons of food. Without a stable food supply, it's just not doable.
Second, the mountains, forests, and rivers around Caixu Town were home to all sorts of wild exotic beasts. Skilled hunters could go out and bring them down.
Also, "exotic beast meat" doesn't mean all meat from an exotic beast.
Only certain parts—or just a few specific cuts—have the absorption and transformation effects. Those are what count as real exotic beast meat.
After figuring all this out, Wei Yuan fell into deep thought.
First off, the outside world was full of danger. He was still too weak to go hunting exotic beasts himself. That wasn't even an option yet.
So he had no choice but to keep buying the meat.
Also, once he fully activated the Glutton God's Mouth, he'd definitely be able to devour a lot of exotic beast meat.
But if he kept buying huge amounts from just one seller, they'd start getting suspicious.
So it made sense for him to connect with multiple suppliers and spread out his purchases.
The next day.
As usual, Wei Yuan drew a Divine Spirit card. This time, it was the God of Wealth.
Effect: The God of Wealth descends!
"Dang… too bad. Not really useful right now," he muttered with a sigh.
Later, he went to the Li Residence.
Old Li gave him a wax pill, which Wei Yuan swallowed. Right away, heat surged through his body again. He quickly ran through three sets of moves to absorb and refine the medicinal power.
As the heat faded like retreating waves, the hunger kicked in—right on cue.
He immediately handed over one tael of silver and bought one tael of exotic beast meat. After eating it, the hunger vanished, and his body buzzed with an indescribable surge of energy.
Seizing the moment, Wei Yuan asked Li Degui, "By the way, what kind of exotic beast meat was that?"
But Old Li just smiled mysteriously. "That's a secret. Can't tell you."
Wei Yuan rolled his eyes.
What, is this a business secret now?
That day, Zhang Wu, Li Hongsu, and a few others came to him again with more offers.
Wei Yuan suddenly found himself holding six different types of exotic beast meat, all with different names:
Turtle-Tiger Meat, Red Scale Meat, Tiger-Faced Fish Meat…
All of it was nature.
Luckily, the Qin residence had an ice cellar.
Wei Yuan stored the meat there—it'd keep for a month no problem.
"....."