Earth Gnawer Herd

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 they took and every patch of grass they parted, the hunters swept their gazes across all directions, their ears constantly catching any unusual stir within the forest.

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 vitality circulating slowly through his body, keeping him ready to erupt at any moment.

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

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

This time, no one thought it troublesome. Every shadowy corner had to be inspected carefully, and every suspicious bush had to be pried open with spear tips to see what lay inside.

After roughly half an hour of searching, a short, low whistle came from ahead. It was Mang's signal.

Lin Yi immediately met up with Mang and looked in the direction he indicated. On a patch of damp mud beside the stream, densely packed cloven hoofprints covered the ground.

Some prints were large, some small, layered over one another. There were clearly quite a few of them. The soil had been churned loose, and several clumps of short grass nearby had been gnawed down to stubs.

Mang crouched down and ran his fingers around the edges of the hoofprints, a spark of excitement appearing in his eyes.

He lowered his voice and explained to Lin Yi, "Earth Gnawers. They look like fat mountain goats, covered in thick fur and heavy with meat. They live in herds; a single herd can have as few as a dozen or as many as several dozen. They love settling on grass flats by streams like this.

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

Lin Yi nodded, committing all those characteristics to memory.

Biao was the first to reach the meeting point.

His tracking-trained eyes only swept once over the prints in the mud before he reached the same conclusion as Mang.

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

Once the other ten members arrived one after another, Biao gathered everyone around and roughly sketched a simple map of the terrain on the ground with his knife tip.

He pointed at several spots. "The Earth Gnawer herd is behind the slope. We'll surround them in pairs from all sides, with one group each at east, south, west, and north, so they can't escape in any direction.

"We move on the signal of a long whistle. The moment it sounds, everyone attacks together."

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

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

Keeping low, the two circled wide along the stream's edge and silently made their way to the predetermined position over soft humus.

The wild grass, more than half a man's height, made perfect cover. Crouching behind it, Lin Yi could vaguely see the gray-white figures on the other side of the low slope lowering their heads to graze through the gaps between leaves.

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 stout and powerful; their two short horns curved backward like crescent moons. As they buried their heads to feed, the down around their necks trembled with each 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 vitality circulating through his body.

Moments later, a shrill long whistle sliced through the forest's silence.

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

His spear traced an arc behind him. The blood and vitality of his entire body surged explosively into his right arm, and the blood-gold patterns of the Savage Bull Diagram flashed to life beneath his skin. A 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 might.

The spear became an afterimage as it tore through the air! A sharp, brief shriek rang out as the air was ripped apart. The largest Earth Gnawer had not even had time to raise its head when the spear pierced through its left ribs, burst from its right side, and drove deep into the mud with the entire shaft behind it!

The Earth Gnawer let out a short, piercing wail, its four hooves frantically gouging the ground as dirt and grass clippings flew high.

But after struggling a few times, its movements grew smaller and smaller. 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 leaps he arrived before the nearest Earth Gnawer.

That beast was trying to turn and flee, but seeing its companion nailed dead by a single spear had clearly scared the wits out of it. It ran crookedly and erratically, charging straight toward Lin Yi instead.

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

Another clean, decisive strike. The spear entered through its side neck and pierced straight through its throat. The Earth Gnawer's hooves kicked twice against the ground before falling 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 large. Mang's stone axe had only left a bloody gash on its shoulder, failing to deal a fatal blow. Instead, it had enraged the creature. Lowering its head, it charged Mang's chest with its pair of short horns.

Mang dodged sideways, but he could not bring it down in a short time.

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

Pfft—!

The spear tip pierced precisely through the Earth Gnawer's neck, forcibly pinning its charge to a halt halfway through. Its huge, heavy body staggered two steps forward from momentum, then crashed onto its side. Its four hooves twitched twice and stopped moving.

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

Then he spun around and rushed toward the tribesmen still closing in on the other side.

Lin Yi reached the Earth Gnawer, bent down to pull out his spear, and with a tap of his toes, swept toward the next battlefield.

His movements flowed like drifting clouds and running water. Between every leap and landing, his spear inevitably claimed an Earth Gnawer's life.

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

The remaining few tried to break out, only to be blocked head-on by tribesmen closing in from both flanks. Stone axes and spears struck them in turn, quickly finishing them off.

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

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

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

"Your strength is getting more and more ridiculous, kid." As Biao wiped the blood from his blade on the grass, he clicked his tongue and shook his head. "That spear had at least one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty thousand jin behind it. Even without the enhancement of a martial skill, your physical body must be nearing the upper stage of the Tide-Chasing Realm, right?"

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. "Brother Biao, I was just 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 tribesmen answered one after another, their movements noticeably lighter than before.

Some crouched to gut the prey and drain its blood. Some tied the animals' hooves together with vines. Others had already begun skinning them on the spot, making the whole carcasses easier to carry.

Cheerful emotions spread through the crowd. Several hunters chatted and laughed as they worked, and the atmosphere that had been repressed for so long finally loosened a little.

Lin Yi wiped the blood from his spear on the grass. Just as he was about to bend down and carry the last Earth Gnawer, Mang beat him to it, hunching down and tossing the prey over his shoulder.

"You contributed the most this time. No matter what, it shouldn't be your turn to carry it." Mang spoke in a deep, muffled voice. His sturdy 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 focus on being our killing weapon."

Lin Yi looked at his empty hands, then at the prey piled one after another across everyone's shoulders, warmth rising in his heart.

He smiled and shook his head, no longer 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 retreating figures.

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

They watched the procession carrying prey gradually disappear down the dirt road. Their lids blinked once, extremely slowly, before silently vanishing into deeper darkness.