In the Wilderness

Landing on the ground in a few quick moves, Ling Yi continued using the method of Butcher Dismembering an Ox, following the grain as he cleaned the small branches and leaves from the branch. Then he handed it to the long-impatient Zhang Lei, pulled out the wooden stick stuck in the ground beside him, gave it a casual flick, and said:

"All right, Lei Ge, let's keep going. We still haven't settled lunch for noon—"

"Or are you planning to just gnaw on the flatbread we brought when the time comes?"

"No way—!" Zhang Lei heard this, planted the precious "divine weapon" he had just obtained on the ground, and blurted out, "At the very least, we've got to arrange a Beggar's Chicken!"

"Let's go—!"

Swinging the dark wooden stick forward, Zhang Lei was in high spirits. "Today I'll let you see how much progress I've made lately—!"

Watching Zhang Lei's back as he brandished the wooden stick and strode ahead, Ling Yi chuckled and shook his head. Then he lowered his gaze to the stick in his own hand and sighed inwardly with some feeling, If I'd had this stick when I was young, not a single rapeseed flower within ten li would've kept its head—

Immediately after, he raised the stick and tapped the trunk of the Iron Birch Tree beside him, hard as refined iron. Amid the clang~ clang~, Ling Yi signaled for A'Huang and Meow Meow to spread out and stay alert at all times, then stepped forward to catch up with Zhang Lei's figure.

Time became hard to gauge in the Old Forest's cold, gloomy surroundings. The light overhead looked the same from beginning to end, neither growing brighter nor dimming.

But in Ling Yi's spiritual perception, above the tree crowns more than twenty meters high, the sunlight was exceptionally blazing at this moment.

It was probably around noon now.

With that in mind, Ling Yi carried a bundle of branches in his arms and walked toward Zhang Lei, who was not far away, swinging his Martial Soul "Hoe" to dig a pit. As he walked, he called out, "Lei Ge, it's getting late. Speed up a bit. Once this is done, we'll go meet up with Meow Meow and eat..."

"Whew—"

Hearing this, Zhang Lei wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and nodded hard at Ling Yi, who had already arrived at the edge of the pit. "Don't worry, it'll be done right away. With this depth, that thing's whole family definitely won't be able to get out..."

After saying that, without waiting for Ling Yi to respond, he lowered his head again and began swinging his Martial Soul "Hoe."

Seeing Zhang Lei so full of drive, Ling Yi crouched at the edge of the large pit, which was nearly a zhang wide, about two meters deep, with smooth walls that went straight up and down. With the sickle in his hand, he quickly shaved down branches roughly as thick as his own arm.

Soon, after about the time it took to drink a cup of tea, when Ling Yi had sharpened the last branch, he said to Zhang Lei, who was at the bottom of the pit using a wooden stick to slap the four walls and make the earthen surface more compact, "All right, Lei Ge. Just plant these wooden spikes down there..."

As he spoke, he tossed the branches piled beside him, sharpened to points at both ends, toward the bottom of the pit about two meters from Zhang Lei.

When Zhang Lei bent down to pick up the wooden spikes, Ling Yi leaped down and landed beside him. He spread his arms, scooped up six or seven spikes at once, walked to one side of the pit bottom, and began planting one end of each spike into the ground, nearly two feet deep, leaving only about a third exposed.

With the two of them working together, it did not take long before this Trap Pit, which had been no small amount of work, was finally completed.

Climbing back up to the ground along the rope, Zhang Lei stood at the edge of the Trap Pit, his heart filled with a sense of accomplishment.

This big pit had taken him and Ling Yi more than a month to dig, coming here every few days. During that time, he had constantly worried that the target, or something else, would step into it early and ruin it...

Fortunately, their luck had been good, and none of that had happened.

He did not want it to really turn out the way Ling Yi had said, that if they failed halfway, they could just treat it as practice for the Hoeing Form.

If he really wanted to cultivate the Hoeing Form, wouldn't it be better to dig a Fish Pond beside the village? At least then he wouldn't have to be on edge here.

While Zhang Lei was sighing with feeling, Ling Yi had already laid out dozens of pre-prepared thin wooden poles, each one five zhang long, in orderly fashion across the Trap Pit. Then he tugged Zhang Lei's arm and headed toward a clearing not far away.

After walking several dozen more steps, a patch of Blue Silver Grass about twenty square meters wide appeared before their eyes.

No need to say anything. Keep working.

Fortunately, the previous month or so had not been wasted. This patch of grass had long since been dealt with by the two of them.

They lifted up pieces of turf about a meter square one by one, stacked them into a pile, then carried them over to the Trap Pit and laid them flat, piece by piece, over the thin wooden poles arranged above it.

After all this was done, both Zhang Lei and Ling Yi could not help letting out a breath of relief.

Their eyes met. After they both chuckled a few times, Ling Yi spoke first. "Let's go. We'll wash up at the Stream up ahead, then go find Meow Meow~"

After saying that, he turned his head and whistled into the forest.

The next second, a yellow figure shot out from behind a large tree and arrived in front of the two of them in the blink of an eye.

It was A'Huang, who had previously been assigned by Ling Yi to roam the surroundings, stand guard, and keep watch for attacks from wild creatures in the forest.

The two of them took A'Huang with them, packed up the rope, sickles, and other items, then set off toward the northeast.

There, a Stream flowed gently, nourishing the trees and greenery within this stretch of forest and making the place even more lush.

At the same time, it was also one of the drinking-water choices for many birds, beasts, and wild creatures in the southeastern area where the outer and inner parts of this Old Forest met.

Arriving beside the Stream, they used the gurgling water to wash and wipe their hands, faces, heads, necks, and other places, but Ling Yi and Zhang Lei did not directly drink the stream water that appeared very clear.

They turned and continued walking upstream along the flow. After another hundred meters or so, they reached a stretch of Chaotic Stone Beach and only then stopped.

Under a grayish-white boulder as tall as a person, Ling Yi bent down, moved aside several fist-sized pebbles on the ground, then lifted a wooden board, revealing a water pit beneath it as thick as an adult's thigh.

At this moment, the water pit was already full of clear water, reflecting Ling Yi's clean, handsome face with a satisfied smile at the corners of his mouth.

"A Yi~ A Yi—!" Zhang Lei's shout came from seven or eight meters away.

Ling Yi stood up and looked toward the sound. He saw Zhang Lei holding the Iron Birch staff he had just obtained today, picking two pitch-black mud balls out of a black charcoal fire pile that had only scattered dark-red embers left, then waving at Ling Yi.

Using the bamboo tube he had brought with him, Ling Yi filled it full of water from the pit, came over to Zhang Lei's side, and poured the water into a stone pot that had been polished to a decent shape. Then he took one of the mud balls Zhang Lei handed him and casually knocked it apart against the large rock beside him, revealing the yellow-green Lotus Leaves inside.

In an instant, the fresh fragrance of Lotus Leaves and the aroma of chicken filled the air, rushing straight into the noses of Ling Yi and Zhang Lei, as well as A'Huang and Meow Meow, who had come running over after smelling it.

Meow Meow was still all right. Although her eyes were fixed on the Beggar's Chicken in their hands, her seated posture remained elegant. She merely narrowed her eyes atop a large rock, waiting for Ling Yi and Zhang Lei to feed her.

A'Huang, however, was rather impatient. His fluffy tail wagged like a palm-leaf fan as he kept circling around Ling Yi and Zhang Lei. His long tongue hung out, and drool was visibly spilling from his mouth, drawing a look of disdain from Meow Meow beside him.

Ling Yi added a few pieces of dead wood to the dying fire and stoked it back up. With a chicken wing clenched between his teeth, he tore off the head, neck, and rump of the Beggar's Chicken and tossed them to Meow Meow and A'Huang, letting the two of them take the edge off their cravings first.

Beside him, Zhang Lei copied what he did. After feeding them, he showed off the chicken leg meat in his mouth while helping Ling Yi set the stone pot over the fire.

Ling Yi took several damp yellow mud balls from beneath the large rock where Meow Meow had been. When he peeled them open, they revealed the marinated wild rabbit and grass carp wrapped inside lotus leaves, as well as two skinned water snakes, their pale flesh and bones exposed.

After that, Ling Yi and Zhang Lei would occasionally stuff a piece of chicken into their own mouths or into Meow Meow's and A'Huang's, while placing the wild rabbit and grass carp by the fire to roast.

As for the two water snakes, they were cooked into a pot of delicious snake soup in the stone pot~

That afternoon, after eating and drinking their fill, Ling Yi and Zhang Lei deeply buried the soil, withered leaves, and the like around the Trap Pit that had been left over the past month by A'Huang and Meow Meow, all of it reeking of their urine and excrement. Only then did they set off on the road home.