The Stone-Back Boar turned at the last second.
Lin Feng had covered the fifteen meters in a low sprint, using the sound of the wind in the treetops to mask his approach. He was fast, faster than most people his age, but the boar's senses were keener than he had expected.
It swung its heavy head and caught him on the shoulder with the flat of its tusk.
The impact knocked him sideways into the undergrowth. He rolled, came up with leaves in his hair, and a sharp ache was spreading from his shoulder down his arm. His bones were not broken as he checked quickly, rotating the joint. They were just bruised, possibly slightly torn at the surface, but nothing much.
The boar let out a snort and charged again.
Lin Feng stepped aside rather than backing up, using the animal's own momentum against it, the way his past life's training had drilled into him so many thousands of times that the movement happened without thought.
He let the boar rush past, then came down hard on the back of its neck with both forearms, putting his full weight behind the strike.
The boar stumbled and went to its knees, trying to rise.
Lin Feng did not give it a chance though. He locked both arms around its neck from behind and applied pressure, steady and relentless, until the animal's struggles weakened and then stopped.
He held the position for another full minute after the boar went still, just to be certain. Then he released it and stepped back.
The forest was quiet except for birdsong and the distant sound of the stream.
For a moment, nothing happened. Lin Feng stood there, catching his breath, his shoulder aching, wondering if he had imagined the whole thing about the lotus.
But then it began.
It started as warmth.
A gentle heat in his lower dantian that spread outward slowly, like the first rays of sunlight reaching over a mountain peak. Then something more. A flowing sensation, like water running uphill, defying what it should have been able to do.
From the dead boar, something invisible to the naked eye moved.
Lin Feng could feel it even though he could not see it. A current of energy lifting away from the animal's body and flowing toward him. It entered through his skin, sank into his meridians, and found its way to his dantian without any guidance from him.
The lotus received it.
The black and white petals opened slightly as the energy arrived, the way a flower opens toward light. The energy was absorbed, and for the space of ten breaths, Lin Feng felt a clarity in his meridians that took weeks of normal meditation to achieve.
The devoured Qi settled into his body and became his own.
He stood very still and processed what had just happened. It had worked, effortlessly and automatically. He had not needed to perform any technique or apply any conscious method. The lotus had simply taken what was available when the boar died and delivered it to his cultivation.
He estimated the gain: roughly equivalent to three days of his normal nighttime breathing exercises, delivered in a matter of seconds.
His mind began doing calculations immediately.
The forest around the clan compound covered several square kilometers. It was home to dozens of Savage Beasts and, deeper in, small numbers of First-Order Spirit Beasts. If he hunted regularly and carefully, keeping his activities quiet and his movements untracked, the compounding effect on his cultivation could be enormous.
And this was just the beginning. This was a single weak boar. What would happen when he devoured something stronger?
Though curious, he filed the question away for later and started walking back toward the clan compound, already planning his next excursion.
***
Over the next three months, Lin Feng hunted every night he could manage.
He was careful about it. He never went to the same area twice in the same week. He never returned through the same gap in the wall. He never came back with beast blood on his clothes, taking the time to wash at the stream before heading home.
He hunted Stone-Back Boars first, until they gave him negligible gain. Then he moved to Cloud-Tooth Wolves, which were faster and meaner but significantly more rewarding when devoured.
Then to the Iron-Shell Turtles that lived near the deeper pools, slow-moving but possessing a dense internal Qi from years of absorbing minerals from the river mud.
Each beast he hunted was a calculation. How much risk? How much reward? Could he manage the fight alone without weapons, relying only on his body and his combat instincts?
Sometimes he misjudged. He came back from one outing with two cracked ribs from underestimating a pack of Mudclaw Foxes. He spent a week recovering, careful not to let anyone notice that he was moving stiffly. Another time, he was caught in the open by a Heavy-Mane Ape and spent an alarming three minutes running for his life through the dark forest before managing to lose it.
But mostly, he succeeded. And every success fed the lotus. And every time the lotus fed, he grew stronger.
By the time the autumn leaves began falling, Lin Feng had quietly crossed from early Skin Tempering into Bone Tempering without anyone in the clan noticing a thing.
As the first realm and foundational stage, Body Tempering Realm cultivators absorb Heaven and Earth Qi to strengthen their bodies. It has 9 sub-levels that include; Skin Tempering, Muscle Tempering, Bone Tempering, Organ Tempering, Blood Tempering, Marrow Tempering, Meridian Opening, Acupoint Awakening, and Peak Body Tempering.