Hunting Tigers

North of Second Mountain.

Chen Sanshi had Tracking fully activated; no trace could escape his eyes.

Rabbits, roe deer, mountain goats...

If he wanted, he could carry a goat down the mountain within ten minutes.

But a wild goat weighing over a hundred jin would only sell for two taels of silver.

That would have been good before, but now it was far too little.

His target was a tiger. At the very least, it had to be a Black Bear, leopard, or some other fierce beast.

Following Zhao Qiao's reminder, Chen Sanshi headed southwest.

Along the way, he occasionally encountered martial arts school disciples dressed in brocade robes.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Chen Sanshi had worn his cloth-faced armor for this trip up the mountain.

When the martial arts school disciples saw his armor and heavy bow, they indeed did not dare pick a fight. Most merely glanced at him before going about their own business.

"Why are there so many people?"

After walking five li, Chen Sanshi had already run into at least a dozen people. Even if they were hunting, they should not have been appearing so densely packed together.

Moreover, many of them did not even carry bows or arrows. They wandered about with sabers or swords, looking as though they were searching for something.

The Witch God Cult?

That did not seem right either.

These people looked relaxed, and judging by their clothing, most were disciples of Tailei Martial Arts School.

Chen Sanshi paid closer attention.

A gust of wind passed by. With his exceptional hearing, he clearly caught the martial arts school disciples' conversation.

"White Deer!"

"The school master is injured! Whoever finds the White Deer will be rewarded with property!"

"Hard to say! I heard the White Deer likes to eat medicinal materials. The names of those medicinal materials alone cost over ten taels of silver."

"..."

Chen Sanshi figured out the whole story.

On the night Qin Feng died, fighting had broken out in the city.

When Xiang Tingchun and the masters of the three major martial arts schools had been arresting barbarian assassins, they encountered the Witch God Cult. The Tailei school master had been severely wounded and needed the exotic beast White Deer to heal him, so a reward had been offered.

No matter what rank of disciple they were, anyone who presented the White Deer would immediately be accepted as a core true disciple and could manage a portion of the school's properties in the future. That was why they had all rushed into the mountains as though injected with chicken blood.

Chen Sanshi memorized the exotic beast's characteristics and continued onward.

Tailei Martial Arts School...

He had not seen Zhang Chao and the other man.

Otherwise, he would have fired at least two arrows at them.

After another dozen or so li, he reached the mountainside of a peak.

Two martial arts school disciples carrying bows stood beside the winding, narrow path. One of them had a bow that looked to be seven-strength, already contraband.

They held iron swords in their hands, staring ahead with hesitant expressions, too uncertain to advance.

Chen Sanshi ignored them.

"Hey!"

One of the martial arts school disciples called out to him. "You still dare go forward? There's a Great Worm in the peak ahead!"

"I know."

Chen Sanshi answered perfunctorily, with no intention of stopping.

"Then why are you going? Aren't you afraid of dying?"

Noticing the large bow on the newcomer's back, the disciple's eyes immediately lit up. He looked at the man beside him carrying the contraband seven-strength bow, and after receiving his consent, said, "Why don't we work together? Senior Brother Wei here is a Minor Accomplishment in Blood Refining expert!"

There was a tiger on this peak, something they had discovered only in recent days.

But the imperial court banned heavy bows, and their cultivation was limited. Under normal circumstances, they simply could not afford to provoke it.

Wei Xu had taken the risk of obtaining a seven-strength bow, but he still had little confidence in taking down the Great Worm. If it got close, even a Blood Refining martial artist could not withstand a tiger's killing power.

Running into a soldier carrying a two-stone bow was an unexpected delight.

"This brother."

Wei Xu was brimming with confidence. "I've reached Minor Accomplishment in Blood Refining. If you and I join forces, taking down the Great Worm will be no trouble. Once it's done, we split the proceeds sixty-forty. I take sixty, you take forty. How about it?"

Chen Sanshi frowned at the words. Too lazy to pay him any more attention, he quickened his pace.

"?"

Wei Xu froze, clearly not expecting to be treated like air. "Arrogant!"

"Senior Brother Wei, he doesn't want to cooperate. What do we do?" his junior brother asked.

"I saw that Great Worm from afar once. It's incredibly formidable. Where does he get such confidence?"

Wei Xu said angrily, "Follow him and take a look. Maybe the Great Worm will eat him, and we can pick up the leftovers from behind."

"This Great Worm has already caught other people's attention. If I'd come two days later, it might have been gone."

Chen Sanshi crouched down and scooped up a handful of dirt. From it, he picked out two stiff orange-yellow hairs, then found claw marks, buried droppings, and dried bloodstains in the grass.

He had long since mastered this entire process.

Like following a thread, he traced it to a hidden cave halfway up the mountain.

The cave was roughly five meters in diameter, concealed by dense grass and branches. It would be easy to overlook without careful observation.

In the shrubs about twenty zhang outside the cave, decayed clothing and gleaming white bones were faintly visible. The dead had evidently been there for some time.

"The Great Worm lives in there ninety-nine percent of the time."

Naturally, Chen Sanshi was not stupid enough to enter on his own.

In such a narrow space, the advantages of bows, arrows, and long spears would vanish completely. He needed to find a way to lure the Great Worm out.

Whoosh—

Chen Sanshi suddenly turned and fired an arrow.

More than a hundred paces away, an arrow precisely grazed the body of a roe deer hopping past, leaving behind a streak of blood.

"Eee—"

The foolish roe deer let out a piercing scream.

Whoosh—

Another arrow landed at its feet.

The roe deer was greatly startled and fled in panic toward the cave.

Chen Sanshi had deliberately avoided killing it.

His experience hunting Black Bears told him that dead bait might not be able to draw out prey.

Living bait was different.

Especially for fierce beasts like tigers, whose territorial instincts were extremely strong. They would tolerate no intrusion.

A creature reeking of blood, screaming and running wild through its territory, would certainly not be tolerated by the Great Worm.

Chen Sanshi climbed a tree and took the high ground. Then he continually used arrows to block the roe deer from leaving the area, forcing it to remain around the cave as blood from its wound splattered everywhere during its frantic flight.

The process lasted a full five minutes. The enormous commotion scared all the birds from the forest, yet the pitch-black cave remained utterly silent.

"Not working? It shouldn't be. Tigers are vicious and bloodthirsty; under normal circumstances, they wouldn't hide and endure it."

Just as Chen Sanshi was about to consider another method, a sinister wind swept through the mountains.

Wind followed the tiger, clouds followed the dragon.

It was here!

A black shadow, sturdy as a mountain yet nimble as a leopard, burst from the silent cave. In the blink of an eye, it pounced upon the roe deer, its sharp fangs biting precisely into the carotid artery.

After a few feeble struggles, the roe deer became a lifeless thing.

What a king of the mountains!

Chen Sanshi focused his gaze.

The fierce tiger was over a zhang long and weighed no less than seven or eight hundred jin. Its golden fur gleamed brightly beneath the sun, its sword-like claws were stained with blood, and savage light spilled from its orange-yellow eyes. It threw back its head and roared, making everything within ten li tremble.

No wonder ordinary people would piss themselves at the sight of one.

After killing the roe deer, the Great Worm did not rush to eat. It was clearly not hungry; it had killed purely because the noise had annoyed it.

Clamping the prey in its jaws, it prepared to drag it back into the cave.

At that very moment, the two-stone bow in Chen Sanshi's hands was drawn full like a round moon, and a Wolf-fang arrow screamed through the air.

Bang—

The arrow collided with the tiger's skull and actually gave off a dull thud. In the end, it lodged there by force, piercing through the skull but failing to strike the brainstem and kill it!

When hunting, you don't shoot for the lungs—why are you always fixated on the head? This tiger might be nearing the level of an exotic beast?!

Roar—

Pain enraged the Great Worm. With one swipe of its paw, it snapped the arrow shaft protruding from its brow, then charged toward its attacker amid gusts of wild wind.