The hunting party always stopped when they had caught enough prey. Due to the agreement between the Beast King and the Xu Kingdom, they had to leave the forest by noon at the latest, and it was still morning.
Lin Xiao Tian cooperated fully, helping out a lot along the way.
Most of the hunting party members were at the third to sixth level of Qi Refining, while their captain, Wan Hao, was at the ninth level. Lin Xiao Tian suppressed his own strength to the ninth level of Qi Refining, making him equivalent to an additional strong fighter in the team.
Furthermore, Lin Xiao Tian was not pretentious at all and followed orders almost to the letter, which earned him Wan Hao's favor.
"Xu Hao, our hunting party lost a member not too long ago. Would you like to join?" Wan Hao asked tentatively.
"Captain, Xu Hao is deaf and mute. How can he understand you when you talk like that?" a team member raised an eyebrow. "Watch me!"
After speaking, the team member began his performance.
"My name is Zhu Kai."
As Zhu Kai spoke, he started making hand gestures. Seeing Lin Xiao Tian's confused expression, Zhu Kai gritted his teeth and actually mimicked a pig.
"Hahaha, Zhu Kai, you're really going all out!"
Everyone burst into laughter.
Zhu Kai's face turned half red, but his gestures made Lin Xiao Tian roughly understand that he was introducing himself.
Lin Xiao Tian smiled and nodded at him.
"Captain, see? That works," Zhu Kai grinned, looking like a simple and honest little pig. The others in the team continued to laugh.
Seeing everyone laughing, Zhu Kai's face instantly flushed red.
Afterward, other team members gradually followed Zhu Kai's example.
Watching their performance, although Lin Xiao Tian wasn't sure what they were saying, he felt a lot more at ease. If these people had seen through his identity, they wouldn't be doing these unnecessary things at this moment.
The group continued deeper into the forest. They encountered many demonic beasts along the way, but with a powerful teammate like Lin Xiao Tian, they faced almost no danger.
Around noon, the group finally began to withdraw from the forest. As Lin Xiao Tian left the woods, his gaze fell upon a few plants on the outskirts.
"This is... a Mind Flower?"
Lin Xiao Tian was shocked. As a Nascent Soul cultivator, he knew perfectly well what this was.
"Who would leave this thing here?"
With this thing present, anyone entering or leaving the forest would be sensed by its owner.
Lin Xiao Tian just couldn't understand why anyone would plant a Mind Flower in this forest. Black Rock City hardly had any powerful figures, and the strongest being in the forest was only a Nascent Soul stage demonic beast. Moreover, Lin Xiao Tian clearly remembered that there were no Mind Flowers here before he entered the forest.
Out of caution, Lin Xiao Tian once again suppressed his aura, keeping his strength at the early ninth level of Qi Refining. This would differentiate him from his past identity as a Foundation Establishment cultivator and prevent anyone from becoming suspicious.
In Black Rock City, Wan Hao and the others led Lin Xiao Tian into a building. As they approached the entrance, Lin Xiao Tian could smell a strong medicinal scent. If his guess was correct, this was a medical clinic.
After Wan Hao and the others entered the clinic, they placed the prey they had caught in the forest on the counter. A young woman stood before them.
Of course, she only appeared young; her actual age was over a hundred, and her appearance was quite ordinary. Lin Xiao Tian, accustomed to beauties, would rate her at most a five by his standards. However, Lin Xiao Tian was not one to judge a book by its cover.
Wan Hao and the others presented the prey to the woman. She nodded slightly, then selected a few demonic cores and some beast furs, accounting for about forty percent of the total value of the catch.
Wan Hao chatted with the woman for a while longer before they happily left the building.
Shortly after, the group also invited Lin Xiao Tian to a tavern.
Wan Hao muttered something that Lin Xiao Tian couldn't understand, so he pretended not to hear. However, during the final ritual of lighting incense,
Lin Xiao Tian finally understood. He saw that he and several others were kneeling before a statue, performing a ritual of worship. Lin Xiao Tian didn't know who this statue represented, so he followed suit. In the end, Lin Xiao Tian did the same.
It wasn't until a year later that Lin Xiao Tian understood what he had done.
It turned out that this was what was known as a sworn brotherhood in this world.
Confused, he became brothers with these people. After a year of tempering, Lin Xiao Tian gradually became accustomed to the life and language of this place.
However, he still chose to pretend to be deaf and mute. After all, everything that had happened when he first arrived in this world had made Lin Xiao Tian deeply wary of his surroundings. No matter how kind these people were, to Lin Xiao Tian, they were still people who could devour others.
During this year, Lin Xiao Tian primarily followed the hunting party into the mountains. Due to his excellent skills, the hunting party had a good harvest in recent years.
One day, Lin Xiao Tian left the forest with the group and went to their usual medical clinic.
The hunting party visited the medical clinic almost every time they returned from the forest. The main purpose was to check if they had brought anything out of the forest that they shouldn't have, such as venomous insects. Some venomous insects liked to hide on humans and then take the opportunity to enter human cities. These insects were mostly fatal to humans.
Lin Xiao Tian naturally knew how to identify these venomous insects, but for now, he could only pretend to be like everyone else.
They were received by the female physician of the clinic, who was also one of the few physicians in the Black Rock City area.
Physicians held a relatively high status in this world. Above physicians were alchemists and elixir masters, like Lin Xiao Tian himself.
Alchemists and elixir masters were extremely rare throughout the continent. Even physicians were less than ten in number in Black Rock City, at least openly.
Normally, scarce professions like physicians would be sought after by major powers. However, the empire, in order to consolidate all physicians under its control, proposed a non-interference policy, meaning that no major power could forcibly recruit physicians. If such an incident occurred, the empire had the right to send troops to intervene or even suppress them.
Because of this policy, almost all physicians were concentrated within the empire.
Of course, a small number of physicians chose to go independent. The empire did not force them but gave them ample respect. Furthermore, in their daily operations, the empire basically granted their requests.
The medical clinic Lin Xiao Tian visited this time was established by an independent physician.
Almost all the hunting parties in Black Rock City were clients of this medical clinic.