A Bandit Encounter—Kill

Buzz!

A profound realization spread through his mind.

After digesting the insight flooding into him, Feng Chen stopped in a sun-dappled clearing in the woods, a brilliant smile blooming across his face.

This was Perfection.

Though this hunting skill had merely been honed through practical experience and was no profound inherited technique, compared to the self who had entered the mountains unable to even identify footprints, he had improved by far too much.

With a hunting skill at Perfection, his efficiency was astonishingly high.

Even when a wild rabbit huddled beneath the brush with its ears pressed flat against its back, he could spot that tiny patch of slightly different-colored fur from three paces away;

Even when a pheasant hid motionlessly amid dense ferns, he already knew where it was crouching before he reached it.

Every twang of the bowstring sent another prey animal into his bag.

Before long, he had caught five wild rabbits and five pheasants.

The coarse burlap sack was stuffed to bursting, its mouth nearly impossible to tie shut, and the warmth of the prey seeped through the fabric against his leg.

Feng Chen looked up at the sky. The patches of light filtering through the forest had changed from bright white to yellowish. It was probably a little past one in the afternoon.

No more hunting. Time to go back and eat.

He calculated inwardly, wanting to take these prey animals to the nearest town as soon as possible and sell them for money.

Now that he possessed the Rapid Mastery talent, and both his archery and fist technique had reached Perfection, it was time to properly begin Martial Artist cultivation.

Only by buying a few martial arts manuals to practice could he make the best use of this talent.

Having made up his mind, he slung the sack of prey over his shoulder, picked up his bow, and headed back.

Half an hour later!

When he arrived home and pushed open the courtyard gate, the familiar fragrance of wild vegetable porridge rushed over him.

Lin Qing'er had already prepared lunch and was setting bowls and chopsticks on the table.

Seeing him enter, she looked up with a radiant smile. "Husband, you're finally back."

The sack in Feng Chen's hand was heavy. As he stepped over the threshold, it bumped against the doorframe with a dull thud.

He hitched the sack higher and waved it at her. "Yeah."

Lin Qing'er's gaze shifted from Feng Chen's face to the bulging sack, and her eyes widened slightly.

When Feng Chen went into the mountains before, bringing back one or two animals was already like burning incense and praying for good fortune. More often than not, he returned empty-handed.

This sack was swollen beyond shape, with several dark damp patches bleeding through its surface.

Feng Chen saw her surprise but said nothing. He bent down, set the sack on the ground, untied its mouth, and dumped all the prey out at once.

Gray rabbit fur and mottled pheasant feathers mingled together, piled on the ground like a small mountain.

Five rabbits and five pheasants, their fur and feathers glossy, their bodies plump and sturdy, took up nearly half the courtyard.

Lin Qing'er crouched down and touched the still-warm fur of a wild rabbit. This was truly a solid haul.

She looked up, her eyes filled with astonishment. Her lips moved several times before she managed to speak clearly. "Husband, you... you're really amazing now."

Feng Chen smiled, hung the bow back on the wall, dusted off his hands, and said, "I got lucky today. Eat quickly. Afterward, I'm going to town to sell some prey for money."

"Alright, husband."

A happy smile appeared on Lin Qing'er's face as well!

The two sat down for lunch.

It was still wild vegetable porridge with corn cakes, but there were now two extra servings of anticipation at the table, and so much meat piled up in the house.

After eating, Feng Chen picked out two wild rabbits and two pheasants from the pile, carried them into the kitchen, and set them beside the stove. He said to Lin Qing'er, "Keep these for us to eat at home. Clean them up, and we'll have a meat meal tonight."

Looking at the four plump prey animals, Lin Qing'er's eyes curved into crescents, and she nodded hard.

After wiping her hands on her apron, she began considering which one to eat first and which one to salt and preserve.

Feng Chen packed the remaining three rabbits and three pheasants back into the burlap sack, tied it tightly, slung it over his shoulder, pushed open the door, and strode away toward the nearest town!

He was headed for Green Mountain Town.

Lin Qing'er walked to the courtyard gate and leaned against the doorframe as she watched Feng Chen's receding back.

He walked down the village road with broader strides than before, his back straighter than before. The sack over his shoulder seemed weightless, and his entire person carried an indescribable crispness.

The smile on her face never faded, and the corners of her eyes remained lifted in a gentle curve.

She could sense that her husband seemed different from before—more dependable, more reassuring.

"Since husband has gone to town, I'll clean these up."

Lin Qing'er turned back into the kitchen, nimbly tied on her old patch-covered apron, and crouched beside the stove to prepare the two rabbits and two pheasants.

She boiled water, plucked feathers, opened their bellies, and cleaned out their organs. Every step was careful and practiced. Her hands became covered in warm blood and fine feathers, yet the more she worked, the happier she became.

The pheasants' breast meat was thick and firm, while the rabbits' hind legs were round and full of lean meat.

In Green Mountain Village, during this time when the old harvest had run out and the new one had yet to come, there were truly not many families who could eat several solid meals of meat.

Meanwhile!

With the sack in hand and wind beneath his feet, Feng Chen left Green Mountain Village along the narrow path, entered the mountains once more, and headed toward Green Mountain Town.

According to the memories of this life, Green Mountain Town was the closest town to Green Mountain Village and the only market town within a hundred li.

It was about two hours away on foot. The mountain road twisted and turned repeatedly through woods and hillsides. The path had been worn smooth by years of footsteps, while thorny branches from the shrubs on either side occasionally hooked at one's clothes.

After walking for about an hour, Feng Chen stopped.

Several people were swaying along the mountain road ahead.

The path was narrow to begin with, only wide enough for two or three people to walk abreast. Those people staggered along, taking up most of the road as they came toward him.

Looking closer, he recognized them.

They were from Green Mountain Village—and they were also the people who had robbed him of his prey several days ago and beaten him unconscious.

The burly man at the front, broad-backed and thick-waisted with a face full of flesh, was Tiger Liu.

Following behind him were his two clansmen and lackeys, Liu Xiao'er and Liu Xiaosan.

The two were thinner and smaller than Tiger Liu, but the roguish air on their faces was exactly the same.

Tiger Liu and his group spotted Feng Chen approaching with the sack at the same time.

He narrowed his eyes and glanced at the burlap sack in Feng Chen's hand. Seeing the damp stains on it and the angular bulges stretching its bottom, his eyes immediately lit up.

Quickening his pace, he practically ran over to Feng Chen. Liu Xiao'er and Liu Xiaosan followed close behind, moving in from the left and right.

Tiger Liu's eyes rolled as his gaze fixed greedily on the sack in Feng Chen's hand. With a sinister chuckle, he said, "What good stuff did you get this time? Hand it over now, or you'll be in for a hard time."

His tone was casual, as though he were ordering something entirely natural and right.

That was how it had been when they robbed Feng Chen of his prey last time as well. They beat him up, threw him by the roadside, and nothing happened afterward.

"That's right, Feng Chen. If you know what's good for you, hand over your things yourself." Liu Xiao'er stood with his hands on his hips, head tilted, a smile at the corner of his mouth that looked rehearsed countless times. "We won't beat you up this time. But if you don't hand them over..."

He deliberately dragged out the last words and glanced toward Liu Xiaosan.

"Then we'll make sure you never get back up again."

Liu Xiaosan cooperatively picked up the line. The two exchanged a look, and wicked smiles appeared on both their faces, as though they were playing some entertaining game.

Feng Chen looked at the three of them and drew a faint breath.

His fingers tightened briefly around the sack's drawstring, then relaxed.

Looking into Tiger Liu's greedy eyes, he said coldly, "What if I refuse?"

The smirk on Tiger Liu's face vanished at once.

"Refuse? Then I'll kill you."

Murderous light flared in his eyes as his fists cracked.

He knew exactly how to deal with Feng Chen. This guy had always been cowardly. When they robbed him of his prey last time, he had not even dared to fight back.

A few punches were enough to make him clutch his head, curl into a ball, and beg for mercy.

"Do it."

With a sweep of Tiger Liu's large hand, the two lackeys charged at Feng Chen like dogs that had caught the scent of meat.

Watching the two rush at him, Feng Chen's expression instead grew calmer and calmer.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves overhead, flickering across his face.

Other than the vast, dense forest lining both sides of the mountain road, there was no one around. Birds chirped in the distance, and the sound of a stream flowed nearby. This was exactly the kind of place with no village ahead and no inn behind!

When he had merged with the memories of this life, he had already sworn that he would find a way to kill Tiger Liu and the other two.

And now, on this deserted mountain road, what a coincidence—it was the perfect opportunity!

Without the slightest delay,

He set down the sack!

He reached toward his waist and drew the gleaming woodcutter's knife.

As sunlight flashed across the blade, it reflected a sheet of white light straight into Liu Xiao'er's eyes, making his charge falter slightly.

Tiger Liu also saw the woodcutter's knife in Feng Chen's hand. He froze for a moment, then threw back his head and burst into exaggerated laughter. "You brat think you can scare people with that broken knife? Can you even swing it?"

"Yeah,"

Liu Xiao'er laughed along. He picked up a wrist-thick wooden stick from the roadside and weighed it in his hand. "You dare swing a knife at us?"

"Then I'll beat you to death!"

Before his words had even faded, Liu Xiao'er swung the stick down at Feng Chen's face.

The stick tore through the air with a whoosh, and he did not hold back in the slightest.

Feng Chen shifted his feet and easily dodged to the side.

The physical conditioning brought by the Basic Fist Technique at Perfection made the evasion effortless. The stick swept past his ear, and the wind it raised stirred several strands of hair at his temple.