A Pig's Life Winner

Qin Luming had seen many strange phenomena involving wild animals, but this was the first time one had actively attacked him.

A snake whose head had been severed, yet still managed to flee with its bloody wound, its neck flesh dragging the severed head along – that was pretty weird, right?

But Qin Luming had seen weirder.

It happened many years ago, when Qin Luming was about fourteen or fifteen. He saw a palm-sized crab tightly gripping a black dog's leash with its large claw. The black dog ran wildly, dragging the crab along, bumping it against branches and rocks, yet the crab, as if it had no will to live, held onto the leash without letting go.

The weird part was that the crab didn't die. Later, it finally let go of the dog, extended its two small eyes, shook itself energetically, and then spat out a string of bubbles… it was probably a bit dizzy.

Even weirder, Qin Luming saw the crab spin around in place for a while, then it spiraled into the air like a helicopter and flew away!

Qin Luming stood there stunned for ten minutes, a flying crab?

It didn't stop there… a while later, Qin Luming saw a faint shadow in the sky. It was also a crab, but this one was incredibly huge, and a little girl holding a plush toy stood majestically on its back!

Qin Luming had binoculars around his neck at the time. Otherwise, no matter how good ordinary people's eyesight was, they would have only thought it was a kite flying erratically with its string broken.

Having seen such strange and unusual things since childhood, Qin Luming had developed a certain immunity, so he wouldn't have his worldview shattered by just anything. However, he also wouldn't filter out things he couldn't understand or easily believe the explanations of self-important experts like ordinary people would.

Qin Luming thought that if he encountered more mutated creatures like this later, this place would be worth visiting often. He could investigate the anomalies here and treat the area around the dam as an otherworldly environment to experience.

He felt a bit regretful that the snake he'd encountered earlier had escaped after he didn't kill it. If the big snake had died here, he could have cracked open its head to see if there was anything like a "spirit core," and then cut off some snake meat to put in his cooler and take back to try… As for the gall bladder, the gall bladder of this mutated giant snake might be a good thing. He could take it to Uncle Tian; he loved eating things that were said to be "nourishing" in traditional health circles.

Snake gall bladders contained many parasites, but they were fine after proper processing. Qin Luming regretted not being able to bring it back for Uncle Tian.

Qin Luming slowed his pace and continued forward, carefully using his entrenching tool to push aside the vegetation. If he encountered terrain that was slightly complex or a particularly dense patch of forest, Qin Luming would first observe carefully before deciding whether to go straight through or around.

After walking for another half hour, he could no longer see the mountaintop where he had set up camp. The terrain became slightly more open. Qin Luming took out his phone to check; there was still no signal.

Qin Luming glanced at the sun overhead, then opened the compass app on his phone. He was immediately surprised to find that the compass direction was completely wrong. He quickly took out his phone and adjusted his position to test it, finding that the needle was shaking violently and pointing to his front right, instead of the correct direction Qin Luming had deduced from the campsite's position and the sun.

The compass built into the phone was a magnetic sensor based on the Hall effect, which was easily affected by the surrounding magnetic field environment. The only electronic device Qin Luming had on him was his phone. Therefore, the anomaly in the compass indicated the presence of a strong magnetic field nearby.

Qin Luming put away his phone, bent down, and slowly cleared the path with his entrenching tool, moving little by little towards the front right.

He maintained a vigilant posture. After proceeding like this for twenty minutes, Qin Luming finally completely bypassed the dam and reached the riverbed that had been dammed up and the hinterland of the valley.

His vision suddenly opened up. He saw traces of excavation and carving on the mountain ridges on both sides. This area was originally intended to store water as a reservoir. Standing by the riverbed and looking around, he saw mountain walls everywhere. Lush water plants were dense, and he could even see some large fish swimming in the clear river water. Qin Luming couldn't help but recall the saying, "A club hits the roe deer, a ladle scoops the fish, and a pheasant flies into the cooking pot."

The remnants of human civilization on one side and the recovery of the natural environment on the other made Qin Luming feel a bit emotional. He remembered a documentary that described Earth after humanity disappeared. The scene before him felt similar to what was described in that documentary.

The shallow riverbed no longer had the flow rate suitable for building a dam. Qin Luming took two steps forward along the riverbed and then heard a pig's grunt.

Qin Luming quickly lowered his body, using his entrenching tool to push aside the waist-high grass, and stealthily moved towards the direction of the pig's grunt.

When he had seen the Big Black Pig last night, it hadn't made a sound. But the characteristic grunting sound of a pig, with its fat shaking, was very distinctive. Qin Luming wondered if it was the same Big Black Pig from last night. Was it with its companions? Was it arguing with other animals? Or was it just grunting for fun?

Rounding a river bend, the grass ahead gradually became shorter. On a patch of cement ground, whose original purpose was unknown, a group of pigs had gathered!

Qin Luming was startled. There was indeed more than just that one Big Black Pig here. Counting them, there were four Big Black Pigs and three Big White Pigs!

The sizes of these pigs were not entirely uniform. The Big Black Pig Qin Luming had seen last night was the largest; the other pigs were about a large circle smaller than it, appearing to be around a thousand pounds each.

This guy was clearly the pig king.

A thousand-pound pig was already quite large; it could easily carry an adult human.

What surprised Qin Luming the most was that the Big Black Pig looked different from the one he had seen last night… It had an exquisite and ornate saddle on its back and was even clad in armor.

This was a mount!

Who would raise such a Big Black Pig as a mount!

The scene before him clearly indicated that someone lived near the dam. A wild pig would absolutely not have a saddle on its back.

What's more, the pig saddle was inlaid with many gems, adorned with beautiful tassels, and a brocade belly wrap covered the Big Black Pig's abdomen.

Although the presence of the saddle on the Big Black Pig's back indicated it was merely a mount, it now stood imposingly. The other three thousand-pound black pigs lay trembling to the side. A Big White Pig was mating with it, and the other two Big White Pigs seemed to be waiting for its favor, occasionally letting out "puchi puchi" panting sounds.

Seeing this scene of a pig's life winner, Qin Luming couldn't help but take out his phone to capture the moment. The signal was gone, the compass was inaccurate, but the camera still worked.

Huh? Just as Qin Luming was looking for a better angle to shoot, he suddenly noticed that behind the group of pigs, many clothes and backpacks were piled up. Around them, phones, trekking poles, water bottles, Swiss Army knives, cameras, and other items were scattered.

Qin Luming looked at these items, which were likely the belongings of Yang Xiaoyan's group. He remembered that there were six of them who came here, three men and three women.

Besides the Big Black Pig he had seen last night, there were six other pigs here – three black and three white, three male and three female.

My God!