When the carriage left the way station, there were double the people then there were yesterday. Whether they were heading to the northern city to find work in trading or salt pork processing, or even if they were going to board a different carriage at the next way station for somewhere else, it didn't really matter to Xavier. But guessing the plans of the other passengers was a distraction that ate up a few hours of his travel time. When he ran out of people to make guesses about, he did the same thing as yesterday and think of things to build in his head.
He spent some time thinking about how to make his flying treasure, and when that was done, he moved on to making a bident. He had used a bident as his main weapon for over five-hundred-years, and in that time, others had joked that it was trident missing a tine or a spear with too many pointy bits at the tip. It was a weapon he was very familiar with, and every detail had to be perfect. From its length and weight to the formations and arrays, every tiny detail had to be precise.
This bident was something he needed for his training. Before he became a cultivation the first time, he could shatter a several foot long section of any of the tree currently flashing past the windows into millions of little splinters. But if he tried the now, he would shatter his hand and arm into many pieces. His body was weak, and his cultivation wasn't strong enough to make up for it yet. Even if it was, he still needed to train his body's reflexes and get his body to move the way he wanted. Training was one of many things on the list that he needed to do in order to not only get back what he had, but to greatly surpass his old self.
When thinking about things he wanted to do, or build stopped being a distraction, night had already fallen. And soon after the carriage pulled into another way station that looked the same as the first one. The only differences were that there was no smell of wood smoke and feces, there was only the very thick smell of blood, fresh and rotten. Another difference was there was an extra type of carriage in this way station. These carriages weren't meant for people, they had n windows or wood stoves, they had ice in them to keep pig carcasses cold.
Like the first way station, this was Xavier's third time being here. But unlike the second time he visited the first way station, after the Heavenly Alliance destroyed this way station, they replaced it with a small city to process the wild boars of the hunting grounds. He was able to sneak in and buy supplies before heading to the hunting grounds, but when he came back, he massacred everyone in that small city during the night. His small army of ghosts had fed well that night.
This night happened just like the previous night, got his key and room number, ate dinner at the tavern, went to his room and cultivated, then went to sleep. But after breakfast, he didn't head to the carriage. He instead walked towards a building hidden in the dark last night, it was where the hunters dropped off the boars they killed. Beyond that building was a massive valley situated between two mountains where massively large wild boars grew. This was the hunting ground.
Xavier was just one of several dozen heading to the hunting grounds, but he was the youngest. This got him some looks from the older hunters, but no one said anything, they were more concerned about the day's hunt to worry about some kid. After entering the valley everyone began to head off in their own directions, Xavier walked along the left most direction close to the slope of the mountain. This was the path he took the first time, and the path he would take this time as well.
Mostly the hunters would only travel a few hours into the valley before trying to hunt for a boar or two, this would leave them plenty of time to bring the boar back to the way station before nightfall. Xavier had different plans; he was planning to go far deeper, a place that was a day and a half to two days hard walk in the valley. It was a nice spot near a stream, lot of wild vegetables and low-level spirit herbs.
While he was walking Xavier was also looking for a large wild boar without scars on his body. After an hour of walking, he had passed up several boars for being too small or have their hide to damaged. Then he found one that would work, it wasn't quite as big as he would like but it would work for what he needed. Sneaking as close to it as he could, he used a movement technique to get within arm's reach of its backside. He began to use a spell from a beast taming sect's inheritance, to tame the boar. If he succeeded, he could ride the boar all the way to the spot near the stream. And if he failed, he would have an angry boar that would try to kill him.
As he began to use the spell, his hand glowed a blood red color. Putting his hand on the boar's skin, it began trembling as it tried to flee. As his spiritual energy invaded the boar's body, the epic battle of wills that all new beast tamers experience the first time they tame a beast didn't happen. His six-hundred-year-old will crushed the wild boar's three- or four-year-old will instantly. The beast was his to command, but since he wasn't a true beast tamer his control over it wasn't perfect. If he ordered to run through a forest fire, it might rebel out of fear, and he couldn't instantly kill it with a thought. But it would serve his needs for the time being.
Now that the beast was under his control, he began to tie ropes around the boar to act as reigns when he rode it. They wouldn't be able to control the boar, he would be using his newly formed connection to the boar, the reigns would just allow him to hold on as the boar ran. Ordering the boar to lay down, Xavier threw a blanket over the back of the boar and climbed on and almost fell off when it stood up again. Even with the blanket it was uncomfortable riding on the back of a boar running at full speed.
After a little four hours, the boar was exhausted almost to the point of collapse, but he had arrived at the spot he wanted to. A clearing with a stream nearby, and a stone cliff face behind him. He had lots of luck the first time he came here, and he hoped for the same luck this time.
As the boar gasped for air, Xavier pulled back his arm and punched the boar in the back of the head, severing its spine from its skull. The boar's legs collapsed under it, slamming to the ground hard, Xavier had to quickly jump off and dodge as the boar rolled over. A few minutes of twitching and the boar was dead. Placing his hand over the boar Xavier began extracting the soul of the boar; after refining it with soul fire, he now had a soul orb with a boar ghost soldier.