Hunting

Chen Jianghe crouched behind a dense thicket, his breathing suppressed to the absolute minimum.

He had been lying in wait for nearly an hour.

Twenty paces ahead, a wild boar weighing roughly eighty pounds was rooting for food by a mud pit. Its tusks were upturned, its bristles like halberds, and its legs were short, thick, and powerful—clearly a wild creature that spent its life roaming the mountains, brimming with vitality.

Chen Jianghe's gaze was calm as he slowly swept over the boar's neck, behind its ears, and along its spine, his mind rapidly calculating the distribution of vitals and the optimal angle for his blade.

Three years in the slaughterhouse had seen thousands of animals dismantled under his knife. Pigs, cattle, sheep, dogs... the skeletal structure, the path of the tendons, and the location of the vitals for every type of livestock were already etched into his marrow.

However, this wild boar was ultimately different from penned livestock; it was untamed, highly alert, and possessed a thick hide that ordinary blades struggled to pierce.

Chen Jianghe's right hand slowly reached behind his waist.

His fingertips did not touch his Butchery Blade, but rather a half-foot-long sharpened piece of hardwood—something he had specifically prepared after entering the mountains.

The boar seemed to sense something; it jerked its head up, its small eyes scanning the surroundings with vigilance.

Chen Jianghe held his breath and focused his spirit.

Three breaths later, the boar lowered its head to root for food once more.

The moment its head dipped and the side of its neck was fully exposed—

Chen Jianghe moved.

His body lunged from behind the brush like a hunting leopard, covering the seven or eight paces in a flash. The wooden spike in his hand pierced the boar's neck, three inches down, with pinpoint accuracy!

Puchi.

The sound of the spike entering flesh was faint.

The boar shuddered violently, its front hooves kicking up. Just as it began to turn its head to bite, Chen Jianghe's left fist followed like lightning, slamming into its snout.

A sliver of Dark Strength surged forth, shattering the throat bone and stifling the scream before it could even leave the beast's throat.

The boar's eyes bulged, its limbs twitched convulsively, but within two or three breaths, its massive body went limp.

Chen Jianghe did not let go immediately.

He pressed one knee onto the carcass, gripped the wooden spike with his right hand, and slowly rotated it half a turn. Simultaneously, his left fist struck the heart area again, the Dark Strength penetrating deep to shatter the cardiac vessels.

A double-kill to ensure there was no room for error.

Confirming the boar was dead, Chen Jianghe quickly scanned his surroundings.

The forest was silent, save for the wind through the leaves.

Only then did he begin to process the prey.

Drawing the Butchery Blade from his waist, his movements were fast and steady. Every cut precisely avoided major blood vessels, the blade gliding along the bone to preserve the most essential parts.

In the time it took to brew a cup of tea, the boar had been fully dismantled.

The four hind leg cuts and the tenderloin were removed intact, carefully wrapped in oilcloth, and stuffed into the basket on his back. Of the organs, he took only the heart and liver, wrapping them as well.

Without lingering, Chen Jianghe followed the path he had memorized, quickly departing the clearing.

This pattern continued for five days.

He acted with extreme caution; every step he took was preceded by an observation of his surroundings, and every new location was scouted for an escape route.

Relying on the map provided by Li Chengyue and his own keen senses, he gradually mapped out the terrain, water sources, animal activity patterns, and even the shift-change intervals of the Green Dragon Guard patrols in this area.

His hunting targets remained small to medium-sized beasts. Once a kill was made, he would process it immediately, take the best cuts, and leave.

Then, he would return to that Hidden Stone Cave.

He had tidied up the cave. He sliced the hunted meat into strips, hung them in a ventilated area to air-dry, and consumed a moderate amount each day.

In his spare time, Chen Jianghe would repeatedly practice his Three-Body Stance and Five Elements Fist within the cave, digesting the essence of the flesh he consumed.

[Fate: Heaven Rewards Diligence, Success is Assured]

[Current Skill: Three-Body Stance (Mastery)]

[Progress: 89%]

[Current Skill: Five Elements Fist (Mastery)]

[Progress: 51%]

[Effect: Internalized Strength, Penetrating Pulse-Shattering]

Although the meat of these ordinary beasts could not provide the surging vitality of Exotic Beast Meat, it had the advantage of being a relatively stable source.

On the afternoon of this day, Chen Jianghe had just hunted a roe deer. He was cutting off the prime tenderloin and hind leg meat, wrapping them in oil paper.

Suddenly, his ears twitched.

Thirty paces away, there were footsteps.

They were not from a beast; the footsteps were chaotic and uneven. There were at least three people, and their gaits were unsteady—clearly, they were not in peak condition.

Chen Jianghe quickly shoved the meat packets into his pack, his left hand quietly reaching for the bag of lime powder in his tunic, while his right hand pressed against the hilt of the blade at his waist.

He crouched low, hiding behind an ancient tree as thick as a man's embrace, holding his breath to observe.

He saw three figures walking toward this direction.

They were all in their early twenties, wearing the uniform dark blue short-sleeved tunics of a martial arts school, with blades hanging at their waists.

The leader was a square-faced youth with a newly scabbed scar on his left cheek;

To his left was a short, stocky man with a fierce gaze that could not hide the exhaustion in his eyes;

To his right was a tall, thin man with a sallow complexion and dark circles under his eyes.

Their clothes were covered in mud and grass clippings, their cuffs were frayed, and their scabbards bore many signs of impact; it was clear they had been trekking through the mountains for quite some time with little to show for it.

"Damn it, we've been circling for ages and haven't even seen a rabbit!" the stocky man spat. "If we don't find something to eat soon, I won't just be unable to train—I'll be too weak to even walk!"

"Less talk, save your energy," the square-faced youth frowned. "If you want to eat meat, we have to head deeper."

"Deeper?" The tall, thin man shrank back. "Senior Brother, there are exotic beasts in the deep woods... with our mediocre skills, isn't that just walking to our deaths?"

"Then what do you suggest?" the square-faced youth glared at him. "The school can barely put food on the table as it is; the scraps of meat they give us aren't even enough to fill the gaps between our teeth! If we don't get meat to nourish our blood and qi, forget about making progress in our training—it's questionable whether we'll even make it out of this Black Wind Ridge alive!"

Cursing and grumbling, the three of them reached the spot where Chen Jianghe had just processed the roe deer.

Suddenly, the stocky man twitched his nose. "Huh? There's the smell of blood! Fresh!"

The square-faced youth's expression changed. He scanned the surroundings rapidly, his gaze finally landing on the spot where Chen Jianghe had been working.

"Someone just slaughtered a beast here!" The square-faced youth's eyes lit up. "The blood hasn't dried yet; they can't be far!"

The three of them were instantly revitalized, following the faint bloodstains and footprints, and soon discovered Chen Jianghe's trail.

Chen Jianghe sighed inwardly.

He had been discovered after all.

He could have sensed them earlier and slipped away quietly, but he had been distracted while processing the prey, and the terrain here was too open to fully conceal his tracks.

Since that was the case...

A cold glint flashed in Chen Jianghe's eyes.

By now, the three had followed the trail and closed in.

The square-faced youth took the lead, with the stocky man on the left and the thin man on the right, forming a triangular formation that vaguely surrounded Chen Jianghe.

Their eyes first landed on Chen Jianghe—wearing a dark gray coarse-cloth tunic with a common Butchery Blade at his waist, he looked like nothing more than an ordinary herb gatherer or hunter.

But immediately, their gazes were drawn to the pack on Chen Jianghe's back.

The pack was bulging, and dark red grease seeped from the edges; it was clearly fresh meat just hunted.

In these times, with meat prices in the outer city skyrocketing and the cost of hunting in Black Wind Ridge being so high, this pack of meat was enough to make any martial artist green with envy.

The square-faced youth and the stocky man exchanged a look.

Greed ignited in their eyes like a wildfire.

In this chaotic world, the weak are prey to the strong.