With Madam Present, Hunting a Tiger (Please Read On)

Madam Wen wore a fox-fur cloak over her shoulders, embroidered with auspicious clouds of longevity. She rode a magnificent Redblood Steed, arriving through the snow.

Fragrant sachets, jade belts, and all manner of exquisite ornaments adorned her.

Her long hair was tied up, lending her a valiant air. Her lovely face was radiant, as though she were a divine being.

A longbow hung from the right side of her saddle, decorated with many ornaments. The most eye-catching was a tiger-shaped piece of Huangyu County jade, which Madam Wen held in her hand, her fingers lightly stroking the tiger's head.

Fifty Swiftfeather Arrows hung from the left side.

Qiuyue, the maidservant, led the reins in front. Though she too was finely dressed, beside Madam Wen, she could only serve as a green leaf setting off a flower.

Madam is participating too.

Li Xian thought to himself.

"Have the rules been explained clearly to them?" Madam Wen asked indifferently.

Pang Long replied respectfully, "They have been explained clearly."

"Then let us begin." Madam Wen spoke. This so-called Winter Hunt was, in the end, simply something she wished to enjoy.

These house guards were merely there to accompany her.

As soon as her words fell, Madam Wen squeezed her legs, and the Redblood Steed charged into Bear-Tiger Mountain. The mountain was thick with tangled branches and trees, yet the steed moved as though treading level ground, vanishing from sight in just a few breaths.

Bear-Tiger Mountain was a sprawling range. It contained lakes, rivers, cliffs, and Densewood Forests; its terrain was all-encompassing.

Otherwise, Madam Wen would not have chosen it as her hunting ground.

The Winter Hunt lasted three days. Yet though it was said to last three days, many Grade-D House Guards emerged in less than half a day.

Most merely shot wild rabbits and birds.

The reward money was pitifully small, but at least they could make soup and stew meat, eat their fill, and count it as participation.

Madam Wen rode ahead alone, leaving dust in her wake.

Li Xian and the other house guards entered the forest one after another.

Besides the Swiftfeather Arrows bestowed by Madam Wen, he had also prepared two hundred ordinary arrows.

"I only have ten Swiftfeather Arrows. That means I can hunt at most ten prey animals, so I should aim for the larger ones."

Li Xian traveled through the forest.

The terrain here was exceedingly complex, with both the difficulty of snowbound ground and the intricacy of woodland.

Fortunately, Li Xian possessed the Treading Snow trait, allowing him to save much effort and trouble.

Suddenly, a wild rabbit leaped past.

Li Xian swiftly nocked his bow and fired. His strength was perfectly measured; the arrow pierced the rabbit's heart and nailed it to the ground.

The rabbit kicked its legs once, then died on the spot.

"It seems there is an abundance of prey here."

Li Xian's eyes lit up. He had initially worried that this mountain range would contain few animals and require great effort to search.

Yet he had only just entered the mountain and had already encountered a rabbit.

Where there were rabbits, there had to be fierce beasts that ate rabbits. From one small sign, he could glimpse the whole picture—this forest was rich in resources!

"To hunt truly large prey, I'll have to venture deeper into the forest."

"An opportunity must not be missed. My martial arts may not be the strongest, but when it comes to hunting and archery, I am certainly no worse than anyone else."

"Work hard... It may not be impossible to shoot three great bears!"

Li Xian headed deeper in.

After walking for roughly two hours, he reached the inner region. He could clearly sense that there were far fewer traces of people nearby.

Many Grade-D and Grade-C House Guards had no intention of hunting large prey at all. Naturally, they would not risk venturing deep inside. In the primeval forest, anyone could become prey.

Retreating when faced with difficulty could preserve one's life.

"Phew..."

Li Xian stopped and found an open patch of ground. He gathered dry firewood and lit a campfire.

He skinned and gutted the rabbit he had hunted that morning, then roasted it over the flames, keeping his strength up at all times.

"Hunting is not a matter of rushing for a moment..."

"Unfortunately, this hunt only lasts three days. If it lasted longer, I could try setting traps."

Li Xian gnawed on the rabbit meat.

Without seasoning, it tasted like dry firewood. Yet once it entered his stomach, warmth spread through him, and his strength increased by several degrees.

"A water source..."

After eating and drinking his fill, he continued onward. When Li Xian spotted a river, his face immediately lit up with delight.

Wild beasts needed to drink water too.

As long as he guarded the water source, he would surely encounter large prey.

"There are claw prints too. Judging from their depth and size, I'm afraid... they belong to a tiger!"

"It must weigh several hundred jin at the very least!"

Li Xian was thrilled. He hid in a clump of weeds and waited in calm concentration.

Unfortunately, the tiger did not appear. Instead, he saw a wild deer. Li Xian hesitated for a moment before shooting it anyway.

He first used an ordinary arrow to pierce through the deer's heart. Then he took out a Swiftfeather Arrow and added another shot.

Deer blood flowed in a crimson pool.

It was a great tonic, and Li Xian naturally would not waste it. He drank the deer blood raw.

[You drank deer blood. Consumption proficiency +5]

[Proficiency +2]

[Proficiency +1]

[Skill: Consumption]

[Proficiency: 379/500 Initiation]

Li Xian looked like a beast that drank blood and ate raw flesh, his mouth covered in blood.

Yet the benefits were equally obvious.

Within his Dantian, Inner Qi flowed out little by little like a trickling stream.

It grew a few degrees more robust.

"If only I could drink deer blood every day."

"I've heard that soaking in deer blood can strengthen one's flesh and blood as well. What a pity it is far too extravagant. I cannot even afford to eat it, so how could I speak of bathing in deer blood?"

Li Xian took out the Meat-Shrinking Bag. Its material was peculiar: when Inner Qi was poured into it, it became soft and could be freely stretched and enlarged. Once the Inner Qi was withdrawn, however, it gradually contracted until it was the size of a fist.

"The great thousand world truly holds every strange thing imaginable."

"Though I gaze at the moon from the bottom of a well, I can still see a little of it."

He covered the deer's body with the Meat-Shrinking Bag, then stepped back three paces. The bag gradually contracted... until it became the size of a fist.

A wild deer weighing over a hundred jin had actually been compressed to such a size.

What astonished Li Xian was that when he opened the Meat-Shrinking Bag again and took out the deer, its body was still intact.

It had not turned into a lump of meat or a pulpy mash...

He truly could not understand the principle behind it, only finding it endlessly novel.

Just then—

Li Xian suddenly rolled to the right. A striped tiger pounced onto the spot where he had just been.

"That was close... I nearly fell for it."

"In this forest, I am prey too."

Li Xian narrowed his eyes, his expression calm. He swept his right leg through the snow and used Clearwind Sway from the Clearwind Leg.

The gust from that kick swept up accumulated snow. In an instant, it plastered over the tiger's eyes.

Though Li Xian had made great progress in martial arts and his Inner Qi had grown more condensed, fighting a tiger barehanded would still leave him at a disadvantage.

He immediately turned and ran. The tiger let out a great roar and lunged after him. Li Xian darted around a tree, sent Inner Qi into his legs, and kicked off hard.

He leaped more than a zhang high, grabbed hold of a vine, and swung himself away.

He flew some distance farther. While still in the air, Li Xian twisted around, nocked his bow, and fired.

His fingers moved in rapid succession as three arrows flew out one after another. The tiger was no weak creature either; despite its massive frame, it was extraordinarily agile. It twisted left and right, evading two arrows, but the third came from a tricky angle.

It was Li Xian's killing move.

Pfft...

The arrow buried itself in the tiger's leg. The tiger howled in pain and showed signs of fleeing. Li Xian cursed, "Wretched beast, you still want to run?"

With a sweep of his right hand, he drew out five arrows. Yet Five Arrows at Once was not good for controlling accuracy, and his arrows were limited, so he had to conserve them.

Though Li Xian nocked five arrows, he fired them one by one. His movements flowed without pause: two arrows sealed off its path, two feinted, and only the final arrow was infused with Inner Qi...

It concealed a chilling killing intent.

Just as expected, though the tiger was cunning, faced with such an offensive, it did not know what to do.

An arrow struck its body, and it collapsed into the snow.

His first tiger hunt was complete!