Qingliang Mountain, Shuanglin Village.
Snow blanketed the sky, and the wind howled.
Inside a dilapidated mud-brick house.
Su Mo woke from hunger. With nothing in his stomach, his gut had long since cramped with pain. He forced himself through the gnawing hunger, got up, and went looking for food.
He shuffled over to the rice jar in the corner. It was completely empty—not a single grain remained. Su Mo's expression shifted as his eyes fell on the Hunting Knife hanging on the earthen wall, along with a great bow bound in beast hide and a quiver of arrows.
A flood of memories surged into his mind...
Had he really just arrived, only to starve to death?
As it turned out, Su Mo was a transmigrator. He had only just crossed over, and the original owner was also named Su Mo. He was a hunter whose parents had died young. His father had reportedly met with disaster while hunting in the mountains; when the hunters from the village brought his body back, most of it was missing. A Fierce Beast had eaten him. When his mother heard the news, she didn't last much longer before dying of grief, leaving Su Mo alone.
As a child, he had survived on the help of the village elders. Once he was older, he had taken up the Hunting Knife and the beast-hide bow and arrows passed down by his ancestors, heading into the mountains to hunt for a living.
But on his most recent hunt, he had run into Black Wind Stockade, and they had even stolen his prey.
Su Mo slowly lifted the clothes over his chest. A large bruise covered his skin. According to his memories, the men from Black Wind Stockade had left it there when they robbed him of his catch. That injury, combined with having no food, had killed the original owner in the bitter winter cold. Only then had Su Mo arrived in this world.
Su Xin felt the hunger in his body and the pain of the bruise on his chest. He didn't want to die. He wanted to live.
Creak!
The battered, drafty door swung open. A middle-aged man came in carrying some food. Seeing Su Mo's pale, nearly helpless face, he spoke urgently:
"Have something to eat. I caught this rabbit in the mountains today and saved you a hind leg. I know Black Wind Stockade robbed you of the prey you worked so hard to catch. Those bastards are the scum of the earth. They deserve to die!"
Su Mo fought down his hunger, his gaze fixed on the plate in the man's hands. A rabbit leg sat on it, steaming hot and clearly freshly cooked. He knew the man: according to his memories, this was his neighbor from the village, Uncle Chen Shan.
Chen Shan and Su Mo's father had been close friends since they were young. Chen Shan had even carried Su Mo's father's body back from the mountains himself. Over the years, he had often helped Su Mo. But in recent years, the beasts in the mountains had grown fierce and difficult to hunt, and hunters often lost their lives in the wilderness. Bandits had also been running rampant on Qingliang Mountain, with Black Wind Stockade entrenched there, forcibly seizing food and supplies.
Those hunters, whose families had lived by hunting for generations, were all suffering terribly.
"Uncle Chen Shan, if you give me this rabbit leg, you won't have enough for your family."
Su Mo wanted nothing more than to snatch up the rabbit leg and devour it. He was truly starving, and the gnawing hunger had left him almost delirious. But he held himself back. Uncle Chen Shan had a large family of five. Once the rabbit had been skinned and bled, there would only be two or three pounds of meat left. And because of Black Wind Stockade in the mountains and the heavy winter snow, Uncle Chen Shan hadn't caught any prey in a long time.
The five members of his family were all counting on this rabbit to put a meal on the table, yet Uncle Chen Shan had brought Su Mo a leg.
Right now, that rabbit meat was nothing less than a lifeline.
"It's all right. Eat up. The old folks and children at home don't eat much."
Chen Shan's rough hand placed the rabbit leg from the bowl into Su Mo's hands and urged him to eat quickly. Then he turned and left.
"Uncle Chen Shan, thank you!"
As Chen Shan turned and walked out, Su Xin gazed down at the rabbit leg in his hands, its savory aroma wafting up. His thoughts were tangled, but in the end, he slowly spoke.
"Eat it while it's warm. Don't let it get cold."
Chen Shan smiled when he heard that, then turned and walked out of the house, his figure vanishing into the snowy storm outside.
Su Mo looked away, picked up the rabbit leg, and began wolfing it down. He was truly starving. Only after he had eaten the whole leg, leaving nothing but bones, did the hunger in his body slowly subside, its fierce grip finally easing.
Su Mo had truly been frightened by starvation.
"If I want to survive and find food, I have to go into the mountains and hunt!"
Once he had recovered a little, Su Mo looked at the ancestral Hunting Knife and the great bow made of beast hide hanging on the earthen wall. Without the slightest hesitation, he took down the ancestral iron Hunting Knife, slung the beast-hide bow over his back, and hung the quiver from his waist. He also picked up the Animal Trap in the corner.
In this freezing winter, the only way to survive was to go into the mountains.
"Huh?"
Just as Su Mo was about to leave for the mountains, he suddenly froze. A faint warmth rose in his chest, followed by a wave of heat that swept through his whole body. The bruise on his chest slowly began to heal.
As he stood there, stunned, he saw that a golden pearl had appeared inside him at some point, glowing faintly. Ancient, vast runic markings were carved over its surface, drawing the eye so deeply that anyone who looked at it would find themselves unable to tear away.
Su Xin recognized the ancient pearl. It was called the Ancient Profound Pearl, named for the runic patterns on its surface. He had once bought it by chance from a street stall, never imagining it would cross over with him and quietly merge into his body.
Could its faint golden glow and sudden reaction have been caused by the rabbit meat he had just eaten? Su Mo wondered.
When the warmth in his chest faded, Su Mo found that the bruise on his skin had completely disappeared. He was astonished.
Su Mo tried calling out to the Ancient Profound Pearl, but it didn't seem to respond.
He remained calm about it. He already had a guess. He picked up the beast-hide bow and gently drew the string. The bow bent to nearly two-fifths of its full draw. When he released it, the string gave a deep twang.
"This is a three-stone bow. Before, I could draw it only one-fifth of the way, but now I can pull it almost two-fifths!"
This beast-hide bow was a three-stone bow. One stone equaled one hundred and twenty jin, making three stones three hundred and sixty jin.
Su Mo was eighteen this year. Years of hunting had given him great strength, but even so, drawing this beast-hide bow with all his might had been difficult. He could pull it only one-fifth of the way. Yet even then, if he hit prey ten meters away, it would die on the spot. That showed just how powerful the bow was.
Uncle Chen Shan from next door had once tried drawing this beast-hide bow. Though he had bent it much farther, he still couldn't draw the string all the way, managing only three-fifths at most. Su Mo still couldn't draw the bow as far or with as much strength as Uncle Chen Shan.
But compared to before, his strength seemed to have increased.
Was it because of the Ancient Profound Pearl?
Just then, the Ancient Profound Pearl flashed with golden light, and a message appeared.
"By killing beasts and Fierce Beasts, you can obtain their innate traits and use them to strengthen yourself!"
A gleam flashed in Su Mo's eyes. Was this the function of the Ancient Profound Pearl?
After killing animals and beasts, he could obtain their innate traits and use them to strengthen his body.
After checking and packing all his hunting gear, Su Mo decided to head into the mountains to hunt.
There was no food left at home. If he didn't go hunting in the mountains, he would starve to death.
Wolves traveled a thousand miles to eat meat; people traveled a thousand miles just to survive!
The world was shrouded in gloom. Su Mo went into the mountains to hunt for only one reason: to stay alive!
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