In the woods west of Stonebridge Road.
After scouting the surroundings, Li Xing perched in a tree beside the path like a night watchman.
He waited quietly for his prey to take the bait.
In a clearing ahead, a brightly colored piece of flesh lay in the middle of the path.
The man who had set the trap watched his surroundings intently from the tree.
Before long.
A medium-to-large wild boar caught the scent of blood and poked its head out of the bushes.
Li Xing, keeping watch from the tree trunk, spotted the movement at once and carefully checked for any other dangers nearby.
After waiting a while and finding no other prey nearby, the boar slowly moved forward, ready to retreat at any moment.
Using his height advantage, Li Xing took an arrow, nocked it to his hunting bow, and scanned the surroundings for any changes.
The boar suddenly charged at the flesh, snatched up the piece in the middle of the path, and raced into the woods on the other side.
Sensing no threat nearby, the boar began to feast on the flesh in its mouth.
Li Xing seized the moment while the boar was relaxed and feeding. He drew his bow, nocked an arrow, aimed, gathered strength, and fired in one smooth motion.
All that could be heard was a swish through the air.
Before the boar could react, the arrow had pierced its eye and passed through its brain!
Once the boar's muscles stopped twitching, Li Xing leaped down from the tree trunk.
He stepped forward to deal with the boar, which was bigger than he had expected.
He took the rope he had prepared, tied the boar's hind legs together, and hoisted it up over a tree branch!
After tying the other end of the rope to a nearby tree trunk,
he put away his bow and arrows,
drew the Flame of Delight,
and thrust it into the boar's neck.
As the saying went, children from farming families learned to shoulder responsibility early! Li Xing had grown up in the countryside, and while he might not have watched the adults slaughter pigs a hundred times, he had seen it at least fifty times.
So he understood perfectly well why a slaughtered pig needed to be bled!
After watching the pig's blood gush from its neck,
Li Xing took out his hammer-axe while it bled.
He went looking for suitable wood to chop, planning to use his skill to make an emergency wooden handcart!
Just as he was working on the wood,
a chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.
He immediately dropped the wood and scrambled up the nearest tree, using both hands and feet.
Once in the tree, Li Xing steadied his breathing. He used his hands to check that his weapons were at his side while keeping his eyes on the surroundings!
That was when he spotted something unusual!
Around the spot where the boar was bleeding, wolves had been drawn in by the scent of blood.
He watched as the pack gradually surrounded the hanging boar.
Cold sweat poured down Li Xing's body. Luckily, I was working on the wood some distance from where the boar was bleeding, so I had plenty of time to react. Otherwise, I might not have made it today!
Seeing that the pack was excited by the boar's blood, Li Xing wanted to slap himself!
Once again, the difference in awareness and his sense of danger after transmigrating had nearly gotten him killed.
After instinctively shooting his prey, he had treated the hunt like an outdoor cookout before transmigrating. Little had he realized that this was a primeval forest overrun with wolves, not a national park from before he transmigrated!
One, two, three, four... sixteen! Holy shit, I've run into a big pack! Li Xing thought in shock.
Watching a few of the wolves jump up and try to bite the boar hanging in the air, Li Xing noticed other adult wolves off to the side, keeping watch over the surroundings.
Holding his breath, Li Xing observed from the tree, looking for a chance to retreat.
As he watched the pack, an idea suddenly occurred to him.
Where's the alpha? If I can just find and kill it, I'll have a fighting chance.
Having accepted that there was no hope of retreating for now, Li Xing decided to find and kill the alpha.
He drew an arrow and nocked it to his hunting bow.
He searched for the alpha's position.
As he searched, an adult wolf patrolling nearby noticed something strange about his pile of wood.
Just as the wolf was about to howl, Li Xing drew his bow, nocked an arrow, aimed, and fired. In an instant, the arrow pierced its neck.
He nocked another arrow and aimed at the wolf closest to it. Before it could react, he shot an arrow through its skull.
The rest of the pack heard the whimper of the wolf shot through the skull!
In an instant, a wolf behind the pack, in the direction farthest from Li Xing, let out a long howl!
The entire pack went on alert, and Li Xing immediately spotted that wolf's position from his vantage point.
"Found you!"
With those words,
he drew his bow and nocked an arrow in one smooth motion, aiming at the alpha. After briefly gathering strength, Li Xing suddenly closed his eyes and raised the bow toward the sky. The arrow flew upward with a whoosh.
His hunting bow also cracked apart because he had held the draw too long! It could no longer be used.
The sound of the hunting bow breaking carried through the air!
The bow's breaking exposed Li Xing's position.
The pack immediately began moving to surround him.
The alpha did the opposite, retreating and hiding behind cover that blocked his bow's line of fire.
At the sight, a faint smile spread across Li Xing's face.
"I predicted your prediction!"
The arrow Li Xing had fired traced a U-shaped arc through the air, landing behind that very cover.
"Awooo~~~~" The arrow went straight through the wolf's back and out beneath its belly, piercing its waist clean through.
A moan came from behind the pack, and all the wolves stopped in their tracks.
Seeing this, Li Xing immediately judged it to be the moment to counterattack.
He threw down his hunting bow and quiver!
Drawing the longsword at his waist, he roared, "Demacia!"
He leaped from the tree, killing and cleaving an adult wolf apart with one stroke the instant he landed.
Then, shouting all the while, he pursued and slashed at the adult wolves around him.
Seeing their companions' flesh and blood fly ahead of them, while their alpha behind them seemed to have been ambushed and killed,
the entire pack was at a loss for a moment.
Li Xing had thrown the pack's formation into complete disarray. The wolves that recovered and realized what was happening began to retreat.
Those that had not recovered and still faced him were cut down by the Flame of Delight!
One of the wolves let out a long howl as it fled, though he did not know which.
Then the wolves scattered and withdrew.
Seeing the pack retreat, Li Xing quickly climbed back up the tree trunk and watched them go.
After confirming that the pack had indeed retreated,
Li Xing immediately used Void Creation to quickly craft a simple wooden cart by hand!
Bang, bang, bang...
Bang!
The moment the final blow fell, the simple cart was complete.
Without taking time to admire it, he pushed the cart beneath the bled boar, drew his longsword, and cut the rope. Then he pulled the cart toward the main road.
As his hoarding habit kicked in, Li Xing placed the wolf carcasses he passed along the way on top of the boar, one by one. He even loaded that wolf's carcass onto the cart.
But just then, something unexpected happened.
As Li Xing went to pick up the last few wolf carcasses, the carcass in front of him suddenly began sinking into its shadow on the ground, like an object sinking beneath the surface of water.
Seeing this, Li Xing quickly drew his sword and backed against the cart, keeping watch on his surroundings.
Before long, Li Xing saw several skeleton warriors rise from the ground where the wolf carcass had sunk into its shadow.
"Necromancer!"
At the sight, Li Xing quickly took out a signal firework with his left hand, ready to send a signal at any moment.
A voice suddenly came from behind a tree to one side in front of Li Xing.
"Following the will of the shadows, I came to this place."
Then Li Xing saw an old man emerge from behind a tree in the woods. He wore a goat skull on his head and had a long, gray-white goat's beard beneath his cheeks.
"Young man, if I were you, I wouldn't take that thing out so rashly."
As he spoke, he stared at the signal firework in Li Xing's hand.
"Don't worry, I mean no harm. I only want to ask a few questions."
Hearing this, Li Xing pointed his sword straight at the skeleton warrior in front.
"Wizard, is this how you use skeleton warriors to ask people questions? Are a spellcaster's manners something to be cast aside upon coming into contact with necromancy?"
Li Xing stared at the necromancer before him and murmured, "Or is it that you don't intend to ask me questions at all, and only want to use magic to torture my memories out of me?"
Faced with Li Xing's questions, the necromancer gave a disdainful smile. "Interesting! It seems you aren't ignorant either, but please allow my skeleton warriors to remain. The murderous aura around you is simply too strong. I'm doing this so that our conversation can have a decent outcome."
"Wizard, have your skeleton warriors back off! Then I'll grant you a decent conversation. Otherwise..." At that, Li Xing raised the signal firework all the way up. "You know there are quite a few people from our town nearby. Once I send this signal, it won't be a question of decency anymore."
"Heh! You sly brat." The necromancer waved his staff, and the skeleton warriors all stepped back.
Li Xing, however, kept the signal firework raised in his left hand and remained alert to his surroundings.
"Go ahead and ask. I feel pretty good holding it like this!"
Seeing him act this way, the necromancer began to ask his questions.
"Young man, a few days ago, a mass of energy appeared above Elwynn Forest. Later, it vanished somewhere around this part of the forest. What do you know?"
"I don't know anything. All I know is that this morning, a group of shifty, masked burly men were looking for something near our town. Wizard, you'd clearly get more out of asking them than asking us. Of course, if those men are your subordinates, forget I said anything.
"But if they really are your subordinates, sorry for the trouble, but please ask them not to disturb the lives of the people in our town.
"You don't need to keep questioning anyone else in town, either. The town is only so big; nothing that happens can be kept from everyone. So whatever you're looking for has nothing to do with our town."
Seeing Li Xing's clear and unwavering gaze, the necromancer believed what he said.
"All right, I understand. I'll warn them afterward."
After their brief exchange, the necromancer and his skeleton warriors withdrew into the woods, gradually disappearing from Li Xing's sight.
Seeing them leave, Li Xing did not return his sword to its sheath.
He pulled the handcart along while keeping watch on his surroundings. Only when he saw Yilaikesi, Alex, and the others on the main road did he finally relax.
"Whoa! Li Xing, that's quite a haul!"
"Yeah! I've never come back with that much from a hunting trip."
Faced with everyone's admiration, Li Xing replied modestly, "What haul? I just ran into a wolf pack and got lucky enough to come back."
Li Xing didn't know whether humblebragging existed in this world, but in the eyes of the hunters at that moment, he was the king of humblebragging!
Yilaikesi broke the awkward silence. "All right, all right! Let's leave the rest for later. Li Xing, how did your search go? You know what I mean!"
Understanding what Yilaikesi was getting at, Li Xing replied, "We can head back. Today went well!"
Taking his meaning, Yilaikesi led the hunters who had been scouting outside back toward town with Li Xing.
On the way, Li Xing told everyone about everything he had encountered.
When they heard about Li Xing's battle with the wolf pack, they were all dumbfounded.
"Now I finally understand why Uncle Turner recruited you into our town."
"Me too."
"Same here!" × N
As it turned out, strength earned respect wherever one went.
Now Li Xing was at the back, privately telling Yilaikesi about what happened afterward, while the hunters in front helped pull the cart together.
With everyone's help, Li Xing successfully brought the cart and his haul of game back.
In town, people stopped to watch Li Xing and the hunters as they pushed and pulled the simple cart through the streets.
Feeling the people's admiring and envious gazes, Li Xing said to Yilaikesi,
"Yilaikesi, sorry for the trouble, but could you and the other hunters divide up these wolf carcasses? I won't go see Uncle Turner for now. I already told you the details, so please help me report to Uncle Turner first. I also promised to cook for the children at Lucy's house!"
Hearing Li Xing's suggestion, everyone's expressions became quite complicated.
In their eyes, Li Xing was a powerful expert with a dependable character and a mysterious background. The hunters showed him the respect due to a powerful man.
But what earned their respect even more was that, although they all liked Lucy, only Li Xing dared to shoulder the responsibility of caring for the children and hunt to cook for them. His pursuit of Lucy and willingness to give up the fruits of his labor for her filled them with admiration.
Not to mention Li Xing's generosity in sharing his haul with his companions.
All of it left these young hunters full of admiration for Li Xing.
"All right! Go on. I'll report to Uncle Turner first." Yilaikesi patted Li Xing on the shoulder and reassured him.
"That's right! Li Xing, go without worrying. Everyone here supports you and Lucy."
"Yeah! Li Xing, you're a real man. Go forward bravely! We all support you."
"That's right..."
Looking at their disappointed yet moved expressions, and hearing their words of encouragement,
Li Xing found himself flooded with questions.
I'm just going to cook for the children. Why are you all so excited? Before Li Xing could ask the question in his heart, everyone urged him away from the town gate, and he pulled the boar on the cart toward Lucy's house.
The hunters stood watching Li Xing depart, each holding a share of the game.
"Do you think Lucy will have a good life with him?"
"What a stupid question! He's talented and she's beautiful. What's there to wonder about? If you had the strength to take on a wolf pack head-on, raising a hundred children wouldn't be a problem."
"Yeah! But why do I feel so sour inside?"
"Tell me about it~~"
Li Xing looked back at the people standing there, waving their arms and encouraging him. For a moment, amid his confused thoughts, he seemed to realize something.
They haven't misunderstood something about me, have they?
With the sun nearly ready to set, Li Xing had already pulled the cart to Lucy's door.
He knocked!