Earth Gnawer Pack

When the group stepped into the hunting grounds again, the atmosphere was clearly different from last time.

No one joked, and no one made unnecessary sounds. With every step and every patch of grass they parted, the hunters swept their gazes in all directions, their ears constantly catching for even the slightest unusual movement in the woods.

Biao took the lead, his steps steady and cautious, the leather cord around his knife hilt clenched so tightly in his palm it seemed ready to melt.

Lin Yi followed close behind, his blood and qi circulating slowly through his body as he remained ready to erupt at any moment.

After entering the heart of the hunting grounds, the team split up again.

They scattered in pairs, searching along the stream valley and forest edge in a crisscross pattern.

This time, no one complained about the trouble. Every shadowy corner had to be carefully checked, and every suspicious shrub had to be pried open with a spear tip to see what lay inside.

After searching for about half an hour, a brief, low whistle came from ahead. It was Mang's signal.

Lin Yi immediately met up with Mang. Following the direction Mang indicated, he saw a patch of damp mud by the stream, densely covered in cloven hoofprints.

The tracks varied in size and overlapped layer upon layer, making it clear there were quite a few. The soil had been churned loose, and several clumps of short grass beside it had been gnawed down to stubs.

Mang crouched down and ran a finger around the edge of one footprint, a glimmer of excitement appearing in his eyes.

He lowered his voice and explained to Lin Yi, "Earth Gnawers. They look like plump mountain goats, with thick fur and plenty of meat. They live in herds; a group can have as few as a dozen or as many as several dozen. They like settling on grassy flats beside streams like this.

"Judging by the size and number of these tracks—about eleven."

Lin Yi nodded, committing all those characteristics to memory.

Biao was the first to arrive at the meeting point.

His tracker's eyes only swept over the footprints in the mud once before reaching the same conclusion as Mang.

He straightened up and quickly surveyed the surrounding terrain. The gloom pressed into his eyes by Falcon's grievous injury finally dispersed a little. "They're not far. The tracks are still fresh. They should be behind that low slope ahead."

Once the other ten members had arrived one after another, Biao called everyone together and roughly drew a simple map of the terrain on the ground with his knife tip.

He pointed out several spots. "The Earth Gnawer herd is behind the low slope. We'll form pairs and encircle them from all sides, with one group each to the east, south, west, and north. Don't let them escape in any direction.

"We move on the signal of a long whistle. Once it sounds, we attack together."

Everyone nodded in unison and swiftly dispersed to their assigned positions.

Lin Yi was still paired with Mang, responsible for the east side.

Keeping low, the two made a wide circle along the edge of the stream. Treading silently on the soft humus, they crept into their designated position.

The wild grass, more than half a man tall, provided excellent cover. Crouching behind it, Lin Yi could vaguely see those grayish-white figures on the other side of the low slope, their heads lowered as they grazed.

They truly were far larger than ordinary mountain goats. Their backs were thick, as though padded with a layer of felt; their four hooves were sturdy and powerful; two short horns curved backward like crescents. As they buried their heads to feed, the fluff on their necks trembled with every movement.

Eleven. Mang's estimate had not been off by the slightest fraction.

Lin Yi slowly tightened his grip on his spear, gauged the distance and wind, and quietly set his blood and qi flowing through his body.

A moment later, a piercing long whistle tore through the silence of the forest.

Almost the instant the whistle sounded, Lin Yi burst from behind the grass!

His spear dragged an arc behind him. The blood and qi of his entire body surged into his right arm, and the blood-gold lines of the Savage Bull Diagram suddenly lit beneath his skin. The immense force of one hundred and twenty thousand jin gathered at the spear tip.

He sank his waist, twisted his hips, and hurled it with all his strength.

The spear became an afterimage as it ripped through the air! The air was torn apart with a sharp, brief shriek. The largest Earth Gnawer had not even had time to lift its head before the spear tip pierced through its left ribs, emerged from its right, and drove deep into the mud along with the entire shaft!

The Earth Gnawer let out a brief, miserable shriek, its four hooves clawing madly at the ground and flinging mud and grass clippings high into the air.

But after struggling a few times, its movements grew weaker and weaker. In the end, it fell completely still, its limbs sprawled stiffly across the ground.

Lin Yi did not pause.

His body moved, and after a few swift bounds, he arrived before the nearest Earth Gnawer.

That beast was trying to turn and flee, but the sight of its companion being nailed to death by a single spear had clearly scared the guts out of it. It ran in a crooked, wavering path, charging straight toward Lin Yi instead.

Lin Yi sidestepped its panicked charge, casually pulled the spear from the ground, and flicked his wrist. The spear tip swept out in an arc.

Another clean, decisive thrust entered through its neck and pierced its throat. The Earth Gnawer kicked twice against the ground before going still.

Lin Yi pulled out his spear and swept his gaze around, instantly locking onto Mang, who was locked in a standoff with an Earth Gnawer not far away.

That beast was exceptionally sturdy. Mang's stone axe only left a bloody gash when it struck the creature's shoulder, failing to deal a fatal blow. Instead, it drove the beast into a frenzy. Lowering its head, it charged toward Mang's chest with its pair of short horns.

Mang twisted aside to avoid it, but he could not finish it off for the moment.

Lin Yi did not hesitate. He raised his spear over his shoulder again, gathered his blood and qi, and the blood-gold lines flashed as the spear flew for a third time!

Pfft—!

The spear tip pierced precisely through the Earth Gnawer's neck, forcibly nailing its charge to a halt halfway through. Its enormous, heavy body staggered two steps forward from inertia before crashing onto its side. Its four hooves twitched twice, then fell still.

Mang turned and glanced at Lin Yi, shaking the beads of blood from his axe blade. "Thanks!"

Then he spun around and ran toward the clansmen who were encircling the remaining beasts on the other side.

Lin Yi rushed to the Earth Gnawer, bent down to pull out his spear, tapped off the ground with his toes, and swept toward the next battlefield.

His movements flowed like drifting clouds and running water. With every rise and fall, his spear would claim the life of an Earth Gnawer.

In less than a moment, more than half the Earth Gnawers within the encirclement had fallen.

The remaining few tried to break through, only to run straight into the clansmen closing in from both flanks. Stone axes and spears greeted them in turns, and they were quickly cleaned up.

The entire battle took less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

Biao was the last to sheath his knife. He kicked over the Earth Gnawer corpse before him to make sure it was dead, then straightened and let out a long breath of foul air.

He turned to watch Lin Yi approach and could not help looking him up and down several times.

"Kid, your strength is getting more and more freakish." Biao clicked his tongue and shook his head as he wiped the blood from his blade on the grass. "That spear had to carry at least one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty thousand jin. Even without a martial technique boosting you, your raw strength is probably close to the upper stage of the Tide-Chasing Realm, isn't it?"

Lin Yi grinned. "Almost sixty thousand."

Biao fell silent for a moment, then cursed. "...Monster. It took me thirty years of training to reach eighty-five thousand. How many days has it been for you?"

Lin Yi patted his arm. "Big Brother Biao, I've just been lucky."

"Luck is a skill too." Biao could not be bothered to stand on ceremony with him. Turning around, he shouted to the others, "All right, all right, hurry up and clean the battlefield! This haul is enough to feed the tribe for half a month!"

The clansmen all responded, their movements visibly much brisker than before.

Some crouched down to gut the beasts and drain their blood, some tied the prey's hooves together with vines, and others had already begun skinning them on the spot so the carcasses would be easier to carry.

A cheerful mood spread through the crowd. Several hunters chatted and laughed as they worked, and the atmosphere that had been stifled for so long finally loosened somewhat.

Lin Yi wiped the blood from his spear on the grass. Just as he was about to bend down and shoulder the last Earth Gnawer, Mang got there first, hunching over and slinging the prey across his shoulder.

"You did the most work this time. No matter how you look at it, it shouldn't be your turn to carry it." Mang spoke in a muffled voice. His solidly built body carried an Earth Gnawer with a certain ease.

"From now on, you handle the killing, and we'll handle the carrying."

Biao chimed in from the side. "That's exactly right. This little weight isn't much of a burden to us. Just be our killing weapon in peace."

Lin Yi looked at his empty hands, then at the prey slung one after another over everyone's shoulders, warmth welling up in his heart.

He smiled and shook his head without insisting.

He stretched lazily and walked in the middle of the group, surrounded by the broad backs of hunters carrying their prey.

No one noticed that deep within the dense canopy behind them, a pair of dark green eyes was silently watching their departing figures.

Those eyes hung among branches more than three zhang above the ground, their pupils narrowed into vertical slits, utterly motionless amid the mottled light and shadow.

They watched the procession carrying its prey gradually recede along the dirt road. The eyelids blinked once, exceedingly slowly, before the eyes silently vanished into deeper shadows.