Two Blessings at Once

In the darkness of night, Zhou Ye spotted the wild boar herd arriving right on schedule and immediately sprang into action.

A raised platform had long been built behind the gate. Zhou Ye first carried bundle after bundle of wooden throwing spears up there, then climbed onto the platform himself.

He planted a torch beside him and peered outside by its light.

Several vague black shapes of wild boars could be seen frolicking around the Old Camp under cover of darkness.

Zhou Ye was instantly annoyed. These beasts were way too arrogant, weren't they? Did they think he was a turtle in a jar? Did they not take him seriously at all?

After waiting for a while, Zhou Ye saw one large and one small wild boar approach. He shouted provocatively, "You filthy pigs! Come over here if you've got the guts! You think I'm afraid of you? Damn it!"

The two boars turned to look at him, their eyes clearly filled with confusion. They could not understand a word Zhou Ye said and had no idea why this little bug had gone mad.

However, Zhou Ye was already holding a throwing spear. With a whoosh, he hurled it... accurately landing it right in front of the two wild boars.

Though he had added one point of strength, his strength was still at minus two, so this was as far as he could throw a spear.

But the insult was immense. The two wild boars were visibly enraged, pawing at the ground with their forehooves and letting out threatening snarls.

Whoosh—!

Another throwing spear fell onto the large boar's head, only to bounce off its thick skull.

After suffering such repeated humiliation, they could endure it no longer.

The two wild boars stopped hesitating and charged straight toward the gate...

Seeing that the boars had taken the bait, Zhou Ye's lips curled slightly. Yet the wooden throwing spears in his hands did not stop; he continued hurling one insult after another at them.

The two boars finally charged to the gate, only a few steps away from it.

Then, without warning, there was a boom. The ground collapsed beneath them, and both boars fell into the trap, their bodies pierced by the dense forest of sharpened wooden stakes below.

This was the trap Zhou Ye had dug during the day. As expected, the two stupid pigs had fallen for it.

Grievously wounded in an instant, the two boars let out miserable howls that startled the entire herd. The ground began to tremble as a swarm of wild boars launched a charge, rushing toward the gate as well...

But in the darkness, visibility was poor.

By the time the herd noticed the trap, the boars in front could not stop in time and were shoved into the pit by the boars behind them.

The herd immediately descended into utter chaos. But Zhou Ye had no intention of letting those beasts go. Aiming at the boars beneath the gate, he continuously threw spear after spear. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Faced with such living targets, Zhou Ye became wildly excited. What he did not notice was that his status panel was constantly flashing, Basic Throwing experience +2, +3, +2...

That said, wooden throwing spears were not particularly powerful. With the two boars at the bottom serving as cushions, the later boars were not seriously injured.

Thus, after the panic subsided, most of the wild boars climbed back out of the pit, leaving behind only one medium-sized one.

But after such a shocking change, the herd had become birds startled by the mere twang of a bowstring. After blindly running about for a while, they panicked and fled toward the mountains and forest without looking back...

At dawn, the three wild boars had already been dragged into the camp.

Faced with such a haul, Zhou Ye could not stop grinning. Last night had truly brought two blessings at once.

One was the increase in Basic Throwing experience. He had never expected that after just one battle, his Basic Throwing proficiency had already reached 34 experience points. The progress bar had passed one-third?

From the looks of it, combat could indeed stimulate experience growth and was not limited by the daily cap of eight points. If he wanted to improve his martial skills quickly, he would have to temper himself in battle from now on... No! No, no!

Zhou Ye immediately came to his senses. He had nearly wandered onto the wrong path. He needed to stay steady and not get reckless; the way of lying low was king!

The other blessing was the three wild boars.

The largest was a sow weighing just over 300 jin. The smallest weighed forty or fifty jin, while the medium-sized one weighed just over 100 jin.

He should deal with these wild boars first.

But when he removed the organs, he found that the sharpened stakes had not damaged the boars' intestines. After thinking it over, Zhou Ye chose the two larger ones and stripped out all their sausage casings.

Wild boar organs were best left uneaten. Wild boar hides were not much use either.

After cleaning everything up and confirming that the herd had indeed gone far away, he tossed all the scraps deep into the forest.

At that moment, Zhou Ye began considering what to do with all that wild boar meat. Honestly, this was the trouble of being blessed—there was simply too much pork left over.

If he brought it all back, the twenty jin of salt he had would not actually be enough to cure it into salted meat.

Then... he might as well leave it here and smoke it!

After picking through the meat, Zhou Ye finally kept the small boar, a rack of ribs, one hind leg, and over thirty jin of streaky pork. He also cut off more than sixty jin of fatback to render lard. He cut up all the remaining wild boar meat and prepared it for smoking.

He kept the squad leader's wooden cabin and cleared out the soldiers' cabin. After blocking up all the doors and windows, he turned it into a smokehouse.

In any case, the Old Camp had no shortage of firewood for smoking meat, and Zhou Ye had specifically selected a large pile of pinewood...

And so, rows of wild boar meat hung from racks. A fire had been lit below, and dripping fat made it crackle and pop.

Smoking took quite a while, about a full day. It was the perfect excuse to remain another day and ensure that the wild boar herd had completely left.

He went into the nearby forest and found some wild scallions and wild ginger. After chopping them up, he began rendering the lard...

By the afternoon of the next day, Zhou Ye finally returned to Little Camp carrying the first batch of his haul.

He used more than five jin of salt to cure the hind leg and rack of ribs. Since he had already eaten the first two strips of salted meat, he needed to keep some supplies in reserve.

The small pig would be made into roast suckling pig. As for the several jin of pork cracklings left after rendering lard, he could save them for later. He minced the streaky pork, mixed in all kinds of seasonings, stuffed it into the casings, and made quite a few sausages.

To his surprise, after making the sausages, there was still minced meat left over. Zhou Ye went to the vegetable patch and cut some chives. After making chive filling, he wrapped quite a few dumplings.

The roast suckling pig could wait until tomorrow! Today, he might as well eat dumplings.

At dinner, Zhou Ye wiped out every last dumpling. As he drank the original dumpling broth to aid digestion, tears welled up in his eyes. He could not help missing home a little. This was the taste of his hometown!

It truly left one with endless aftertaste. Nothing beat dumplings!