Black-White Strange Pig

"Master, I'll get to it right away."

Wang Er grabbed his butcher knife, aimed it at the sow beside him, and was about to gut it.

"Wait!"

Li Beichen stopped Wang Er in his tracks.

"Brother Wang, something isn't right here. Don't kill this pig just yet; come home with me!"

He grabbed Wang Er, intending to leave the residence.

Seeing them attempt to leave, several burly men in thin, moon-white shirts blocked the gate, preventing their departure.

"Are you trying to force a sale!"

Li Beichen furrowed his brows and kicked out.

In the midst of the movement, he had already utilized the force-generating method of the first form of the Giant Elephant Fist: Giant Elephant Stomp.

Bang!

One of the burly men was kicked back several steps.

Li Beichen did not use his Locust Stones; the ones he carried were specially crafted to kill wolves, and using them on these ordinary people would easily lead to a murder charge.

The leading old man, seeing that Li Beichen dared to strike, stomped his cane.

All the moon-white figures swarmed forward.

"Stop fighting! Stop fighting!"

Seeing Li Beichen being surrounded, Wang Er hurriedly shouted.

"Master, I'll kill the pig for you right now, please don't make things difficult for my brother Beichen!"

"Why aren't you doing it yet!!"

The fat old man glared fiercely at Wang Er.

"Wang Er, you can't kill it!"

"Elephant Charge Strike!!"

With a roar, Li Beichen unleashed the final form of the Giant Elephant Fist, charging like a wild elephant and shoving all the moon-white figures beside him away.

Seeing this, the fat old man's eyes widened abruptly as he glared at Li Beichen.

In a trance, Li Beichen saw several steel blades stabbing toward him.

At that very moment, a few lines of small text appeared before Li Beichen's eyes.

[Technique: Giant Elephant Fist - Incomplete (Entry Level)]
[Progress: (0/500)]
[Trait: Physique significantly improved, Strength significantly improved, Stamina significantly improved]

Instantly, Li Beichen grew an inch taller, his physique became three parts stronger, his muscles became clearly defined, and his weight increased by over ten pounds.

Furthermore, the scene before his eyes receded like a tide, revealing the truth.

There was no fat old man, only an aged, vicious black-and-white pig.

The steel blades were merely illusions.

And those moon-white figures were nothing more than fat-eared beasts.

The grand residence was merely Wang Er's own pigsty.

As for the one tied to the long wooden bench, it was not a sow, but Wang Er's wife, who was several months pregnant.

"What a vicious, evil beast!"

Li Beichen knitted his brows, anger surging in his heart.

He immediately pulled out a specially crafted stone and launched a Locust Stone in a fit of rage.

His Locust Stones were already capable of killing wolves, and now, with his physique elevated, their power was even greater.

At close range, it was comparable to a crossbow bolt.

Bang!!!

The flying stone struck the black-and-white pig, bursting its eyeball.

Immediately following, Li Beichen exerted force through his soles, lunged forward, and brought his sandbag-sized fist down mercilessly onto the beast's skull.

This Strange Pig, having been severely wounded by the Locust Stone, gradually ceased to breathe under Li Beichen's fists.

As for the dozen or so other fat pigs, they were merely ordinary domestic pigs; once the Strange Pig was injured, they reverted to their dull-witted state, huddling together and not daring to move.

As for Wang Er, he finally broke free from the illusion.

"Ah! My wife!"

He dropped the butcher knife and hurriedly untied his wife.

A wave of intense lingering fear surged into his heart.

If Li Beichen hadn't stopped him, one stroke of that blade would have left him to spend the rest of his life in agony.

Li Beichen helped Wang Er support Sister-in-law Wang as they led her out of the pigsty.

By the time they laid Sister-in-law Wang onto the kang, the sky had already grown dim.

"Brother Wang, you go fetch the physician first; I will stay here and look after your wife."

"Right, right, fetch the physician."

Wang Er was still somewhat dazed, but upon hearing Li Beichen's instructions, he hurried off to bring back a doctor.

Half an hour later, Wang Er returned with the physician.

"Rest assured, your wife has only suffered a fright and is otherwise unharmed. I will prescribe some medicine to calm her nerves and nourish the fetus; with proper rest for a period, she will be fine."

Hearing the physician's words, Li Beichen knew the couple was out of danger.

After the physician left, he bid farewell to Wang Er.

"Brother Wang, take good care of your wife. I'll be heading back now. As for that Black-White Strange Pig, just help me strip the meat when you have a moment."

Thud, thud, thud.

Wang Er knelt on the ground and kowtowed heavily to Li Beichen several times.

"Brother Beichen, I owe everything to you tonight; otherwise..."

"There's no need for this, Brother Wang. It's late, I'm heading back."

The next day, Li Beichen heard news coming from the neighboring Shanghong Village.

The family that had originally hired Wang Er to slaughter the pregnant sow had been wiped out entirely.

Their bodies were mangled and torn to pieces, gnawed beyond recognition by a pig.

Even the constables vomited all over the ground upon seeing it.

It turned out that the Black-White Strange Pig had first slaughtered the entire household in Shanghong Village, and still unsatisfied, it had sought out Wang Er, intending to use its illusions to make him taste the agony of having his wife and child killed.

Fortunately, Li Beichen's Giant Elephant Fist had leveled up, shattering the illusion; otherwise, he would have fallen victim here as well.

As for Wang Er, Li Beichen told him not to spread the word.

Having survived this ordeal, Wang Er resolved to quit the butchering trade for good.

He finished slaughtering the dozen or so pigs he raised himself and then sealed his blade.

He planned to focus solely on his braised meat business from then on.

As for the Black-White Strange Pig, Wang Er skinned and butchered it, delivering all the meat to Li Beichen's house once it was processed.

There was a full one hundred and eighty jin of meat, with a yield rate of about fifty percent.

He cut off a small piece, boiled it in plain water, and intended to eat it with a bit of salt and chili powder.

"So... this is the meat of a strange beast."

Li Beichen popped a piece into his mouth, chewed it a few times, and swallowed it whole.

Within moments, a surge of heat spread from his stomach throughout his entire body.

Suddenly, Li Beichen's skin flushed deep red, and he felt an endless supply of energy waiting to be vented.

Li Beichen rushed outside and began practicing the Giant Elephant Fist.

Once, twice, three times.

A full hour later, the heat in his body finally began to subside.

Yet, Li Beichen felt invigorated, his spirit and energy full with no trace of fatigue; it seemed this Black-White Strange Pig could also nourish the mind.

He looked at his panel.

It had increased by a full five points!

"What potent efficacy!"

Li Beichen had only eaten half a jin, yet it had such an effect. Looking at the remaining hundred-plus jin of strange beast meat, he felt as if he were looking at a rare treasure.

"However, summer is coming soon. It won't do if this meat spoils."

Li Beichen thought for a moment, kept a few jin fresh, and cut the rest into strips the size of a thumb.

He seasoned them with chili and salt, letting them marinate overnight.

Then, he found thin bamboo poles to thread them on, set up a small fire, and smoked them throughout the day.

Once they felt firm to the touch, Li Beichen steamed them thoroughly.

Finally, he smoked them dry once more.

The strips, originally the thickness of a thumb, were now reduced to the thickness of a chopstick.

Li Beichen took a strip and chewed it; the aroma of the meat was intoxicating, and it had an exceptional chew.

"Not bad! This way, it can be preserved for a long time."

However, after being smoked into jerky, the original one hundred and ninety-plus catties of fresh meat were reduced to just over ninety catties, a loss of more than half the weight.

Yet, this Strange Pig jerky was brimming with energy, a concentrated essence.

With just a single strip, weighing two or three taels, Li Beichen felt no physical depletion or mental fatigue throughout his entire day of training.

With this jerky, the progress of Li Beichen's Giant Elephant Fist once again began to advance by leaps and bounds.