Chen Jianghe crouched behind a dense thicket, keeping his breathing as shallow as possible.
He had been lying in wait there for nearly half an hour.
A little over twenty paces ahead, a wild boar weighing roughly eighty jin was rooting around in the mud by a bog. Its tusks curved outward, its bristles stood like halberds, and its four legs were short, thick, and powerful. It was clearly a beast that had spent years roaming the mountain ridges, its blood and vigor running strong.
Chen Jianghe's gaze remained calm as it swept over several vital spots—the side of the boar's neck, behind its ear, and along its spine. He quickly reviewed the locations of its weak points and the angles for his strike.
Three years working in the butchery, and he had carved up more than a thousand head of livestock beneath his blade. Pigs, cattle, sheep, dogs... The skeletal structure, sinew patterns, and vital points of every kind of livestock had long since been etched into his bones.
Still, this wild boar was nothing like a penned domestic animal. Untamed and highly alert, it had thick, tough hide that ordinary blades could scarcely pierce.
Chen Jianghe slowly reached his right hand behind his waist.
What his fingertips touched was not the Butchery Blade, but a sharpened length of hardwood half a chi long—something he had prepared specially after entering the mountains.
The wild boar seemed to sense something. It jerked its head up and warily scanned its surroundings with its small eyes.
Chen Jianghe held his breath and focused.
Three breaths later, the boar lowered its head and went back to rooting.
The instant its head dipped and the side of its neck lay completely exposed—
Chen Jianghe moved.
He shot out from behind the thicket like a leopard. In a flash, he covered the seven or eight paces between them and drove the wooden spike with pinpoint precision into the underside of the boar's neck!
"Pfft."
The sound of wood piercing flesh was faint.
The boar shuddered violently and reared up on its forelegs. It was just turning to bite when Chen Jianghe's left fist shot forward like lightning and slammed into its snout.
A faint burst of Dark Strength snapped its throat bone, choking off the shriek before it could escape.
The boar's eyes bulged as its four limbs convulsed violently, but within two or three breaths, its massive body slumped to the ground.
Chen Jianghe did not let go at once.
He pinned the boar down with one knee, slowly twisted the wooden spike halfway around with his right hand, then struck the boar over the heart with his left fist once more. Dark Strength drove inward, shattering its heart meridians.
Two killing blows ensured there was no chance of failure.
After confirming the boar was dead, Chen Jianghe quickly surveyed his surroundings.
The woods were silent, save for the wind sweeping through the leaves.
Only then did he begin dressing his quarry.
He drew the Butchery Blade from his waist. His movements were swift and steady, every cut precisely avoiding the major blood vessels. The blade followed the bones, preserving as much of the most valuable meat as possible.
In less than the time it took to brew a cup of tea, the boar had been butchered.
He removed the meat from all four hind legs and the tenderloin intact, carefully wrapped it in oilcloth, and packed it into the basket on his back. He kept only the heart and liver from the offal, wrapping those up as well.
Without stopping, Chen Jianghe followed the route he had memorized on the way in and quickly left the clearing.
This routine continued for five days.
He acted with extreme caution. Before taking each step, he checked in every direction; whenever he reached a new place, he first looked for a way to retreat.
With the map Li Chengyue had given him and his own keen senses, he gradually learned the lay of the land in this area, where to find water, the beasts' habits, and even the gaps between the Green Dragon Guard patrols' shifts.
He stuck to hunting small and medium-sized beasts. After every kill, he butchered it quickly, taking only the choicest parts before leaving.
Then he returned to the Hidden Stone Cave.
He had tidied the cave up a little. He cut the meat from his kills into strips, hung them in a well-ventilated spot to dry, and ate a suitable portion each day.
In his spare time, Chen Jianghe repeatedly practiced the Three-Body Stance and Five Elements Fist inside the cave, digesting the vital essence of the flesh he had consumed.
[Destiny: Heaven Rewards Diligence, and All Effort Shall Bear Fruit] [Current Skill: Three-Body Stance (Great Mastery)] [Progress: 89%] [Current Skill: Five Elements Fist (Great Mastery)] [Progress: 51%] [Effect: Strength Concealed Within, Shattering Meridians Through the Body]
Although the meat of these ordinary beasts could not provide a surge of blood and vitality like Exotic Beast Meat, it was a relatively reliable source of sustenance.
One afternoon, Chen Jianghe had just killed a muntjac and was cutting off its choicest tenderloin and hind-leg meat, wrapping them in oiled paper.
Suddenly, his ear twitched.
There were footsteps thirty paces away.
They were not beasts. The footfalls were uneven, some heavy and some light—at least three people, and their unsteady steps clearly showed they were in poor condition.
Chen Jianghe quickly stuffed the meat bundle into his pack. His left hand stealthily felt for the pouch of lime powder inside his clothes, while his right rested on the hilt at his waist.
He lowered his body, hid behind an ancient tree as thick as a man's embrace, and watched in silence.
He saw three figures heading this way.
All looked to be in their early twenties. They wore matching dark-blue martial hall uniforms and carried sabers at their waists.
The leader was a square-faced young man with a fresh scab on his left cheek;
on his left was a short, stocky fellow with a fierce glare that could not hide the hollowness in his eyes;
on his right was a tall, thin man with a sallow face and dark circles beneath his eyes.
Their clothes were caked with mud and grass, their cuffs worn in several places, and their scabbards showed numerous dents. They had clearly been tramping through the mountains and searching for quite some time, yet had little to show for it.
"Damn it, we've been wandering around forever and haven't even seen a rabbit!" The stocky man spat. "If we don't find something to eat soon, forget practicing martial arts—I'll be stumbling just trying to walk!"
"Enough whining. Save your strength." The square-faced young man frowned. "If you want a taste of meat, we have to go deeper in."
"Deeper in?" The tall, thin man shrank his neck. "Senior Brother, there are exotic beasts deeper in... With our third-rate skills, wouldn't we just be walking to our deaths?"
"Then what do you suggest?" The square-faced young man glared at him. "The martial hall can barely feed itself now. The scrap of minced meat we were given isn't enough to get stuck between our teeth! If we don't find meat to replenish our blood and vitality, forget making progress in our training—there's no telling whether we'll even make it out of Black Wind Ridge alive!"
The three grumbled and cursed as they reached the area where Chen Jianghe had just butchered the muntjac.
Suddenly, the stocky man sniffed. "Huh? I smell blood! Fresh blood!"
The square-faced young man's expression changed. He quickly scanned the surroundings, and his gaze finally landed on the spot where Chen Jianghe had butchered the muntjac.
"Someone slaughtered an animal here!" The square-faced young man's eyes lit up. "The blood's still fresh. They can't have gone far!"
The three immediately perked up. Following the faint bloodstains and footprints, they soon picked up Chen Jianghe's trail.
Chen Jianghe sighed inwardly.
He had been found after all.
He could have noticed them sooner and slipped away unnoticed, but dressing his kill had inevitably distracted him, and the open terrain made it difficult to cover his tracks completely.
In that case...
A cold glint flashed in Chen Jianghe's eyes.
By then, the three had followed the trail and closed in around him.
The square-faced young man walked in front, the stocky man on his left, and the tall, thin man on his right. They formed a triangle, loosely encircling Chen Jianghe.
Their eyes first fell on Chen Jianghe—a coarse, dark-gray tunic, an ordinary Butchery Blade at his waist. He looked like nothing more than a common herb gatherer or hunter.
But then the three men's gazes were drawn to the pack on his back.
The pack bulged with its contents, and dark-red grease stains seeped through the edges. It was clearly full of freshly hunted meat.
With meat prices soaring in the Outer City and hunting in Black Wind Ridge costing a fortune, a pack of meat like that was enough to make any martial artist's eyes turn red.
The square-faced young man and the stocky man exchanged a glance.
Greed flared in the three men's eyes like a wildfire.
In troubled times, the strong preyed upon the weak.