Snake Meat Soup

Cang Mountain.

Gu Sheng moved forward cautiously.

Although he had entered the mountains more than a dozen times and was quite familiar with the surrounding area, this time was different. It was his first time entering the mountains alone, so Gu Sheng was on high alert.

Without companions to warn him and stand guard, he had to watch everything himself. Gu Sheng's nerves were stretched taut, and he did not dare relax in the slightest.

In the forest, insect calls rose and fell.

An occasional breeze brushed past, tangling with leaves and dead branches to create soft rustling sounds.

Gu Sheng slowly familiarized himself with it all.

On his first solo trip into the mountains, Gu Sheng did not choose to venture too deeply.

Everything took time. Gu Sheng needed to adapt to this change step by step.

"This time, I'll slowly get used to things around the outskirts. It'd be best if I can catch some wild rabbits or pheasants, but it doesn't matter if I come back empty-handed."

Gu Sheng had prepared himself mentally to return without catching anything.

He held his bow in his left hand and a woodcutter's machete in his right, hacking through the weeds and brush ahead. Gradually, he began to feel like a fish in water.

Compared to entering the mountains with others,

Gu Sheng felt much freer now. He did not need to deliberately conceal his strength.

If danger approached, he could spring into action at any moment.

Rustle—

Gu Sheng's ears twitched sharply as he caught a faint sound—the noise of a small animal running swiftly and brushing against the undergrowth. After over two months of hunting, Gu Sheng was no stranger to such sounds.

Only, the sound was coming from rather far away, more than fifty meters off.

Gu Sheng's eyes lit up.

An ordinary hunter would have no choice but to give up on prey at that distance, but he did not.

Gu Sheng suddenly accelerated.

He nimbly darted through the forest, closing in on the prey.

At the same time, the animal seemed to sense the danger and began fleeing as well, widening the distance between them.

Others would probably have had to give up, but Gu Sheng was qualified to keep chasing.

He sped up again.

Suddenly.

The view before him opened up as he entered a clearing. A fat wild rabbit appeared in his sight over eighty meters ahead, just about to burrow into the next stretch of forest.

At such a distance, an ordinary hunter—even Gu Erniu—could only sigh helplessly and give up.

But Gu Sheng's archery had now reached mastery, and over the past month, he had raised its proficiency to 30%. He could easily hit even a wild rabbit a hundred meters away!

Gu Sheng focused his gaze, his eyes sharp.

The fleeing rabbit seemed to grow larger and larger in his vision, as large as a gong, as large as a winnowing basket. Its movements even seemed to slow down.

He planted his machete in the ground, drew his bow, and nocked an arrow. The arrowhead locked firmly onto the rabbit's body, his movements flowing as smoothly as water.

Whoosh!!

A piercing whistle tore through the air. Master-level archery paired with Gu Erniu's hunting bow complemented each other perfectly, greatly increasing its power. The arrow was unbelievably fast, leaving no visible trace.

The eighty-meter distance vanished in an instant.

The running rabbit was pierced through the heart at once. Blood slowly seeped out around the arrow shaft, and it died in a single strike!

The immense impact nailed the rabbit hard to a dead tree, leaving it no chance to struggle.

Fast, accurate, steady!

Joy appeared in Gu Sheng's eyes.

This fat rabbit had to weigh at least four or five jin. It was enough for several good meals!

He cautiously approached, put away the rabbit, and placed it in the leather game bag he carried with him.

He could not help but sigh inwardly.

"If I had entered the mountains with everyone else, I wouldn't have been able to display my master-level archery so openly. This rabbit probably would have gotten away. Even if we caught it, several people would have had to split it. Now that I have the prey all to myself, even if this fat rabbit is all I get today, this trip into the mountains will still have been worthwhile!"

"If I can hunt a muntjac or a fawn by myself, that'll be even better!"

Entering the mountains alone was more dangerous, but the rewards were greater too!

Especially with Gu Sheng's master-level archery, this was even more true for him than for other hunters.

He had only been in the mountains for a short while and had already gained so much. Gu Sheng was overjoyed.

He had made the right choice.

However.

He did not let his success go to his head. He looked toward the depths of the mountains and restrained his impulse and greed.

"I'll keep hunting around the outskirts!"

Gu Sheng moved through the outer forest.

He became increasingly skilled at hunting alone.

Now that he no longer had to hide his archery, Gu Sheng felt immensely refreshed. Fighting at full strength, firing an arrow and hitting prey from a hundred meters away—the thrill and satisfaction of it were beyond ordinary people's comprehension.

Time passed.

Gu Sheng's game bag now held two wild rabbits and one pheasant.

Together, they weighed thirteen or fourteen jin!

His luck today was quite good. Even around the outskirts, he had reaped such a bountiful haul.

"Autumn truly is a season of harvest. Not just for crops—hunting as well." Gu Sheng smiled from the bottom of his heart.

The sun was slanting westward now, and he looked up.

He prepared to head down the mountain.

Otherwise, once darkness fell, the forest would become far more dangerous.

Even martial artists might not dare spend the night in the forest alone. That would be no different from courting death.

Gu Sheng walked cautiously through the woods.

It had to be said that hunting alone was indeed more exhausting, mainly mentally. He needed to constantly watch for movement around him and could not let down his guard for even a moment.

Gu Sheng estimated that after each trip into the mountains, he would need at least three days of rest to recover his energy and restore his spirits. Otherwise, making consecutive trips into the mountains could easily lead to trouble.

His machete swung again and again, cutting through the weeds and brush.

Wild grass grew quickly in the forest. Even though hunters regularly cleared the paths, fresh growth soon covered them again.

Suddenly.

Gu Sheng's scalp went numb, and goosebumps erupted densely across his body. Before he could think, he rolled across the ground and swiftly dodged aside.

Only when he looked up did he see a red-spotted snake above him, hissing and flicking its tongue.

The snake was over three meters long. Its lower body was coiled around a tree branch while its upper body stood upright. Its brownish-green eyes were cold and sinister, enough to make one shudder.

Had Gu Sheng relaxed his vigilance just now, this red-spotted snake might have poisoned him.

Gu Sheng knew that this snake did not eat people. It had probably sensed the prey in his bag and chosen to ambush him.

Hiss, hiss~!

Its forked tongue flicked in and out, and the red-spotted snake showed no intention of leaving.

Perhaps it was hungry and wanted to take advantage of him.

If he threw out the pheasant and rabbits in his bag, he could naturally save his life, but how could Gu Sheng agree to that?

He had worked hard all day for this hunting haul. Was he supposed to just give it away?

Gu Sheng's gaze turned icy.

The red-spotted snake swiftly wound along the tree trunk, its body undulating at remarkable speed. In the blink of an eye, it had closed in again.

At such close range,

there was no chance to shoot an arrow. Besides, at this distance, the snake's reflexes would likely allow it to evade the arrow.

But Gu Sheng remained utterly fearless.

Archery was not his only specialty!

Chopping Wood had remained hidden ever since reaching perfection. Now, it was even nearing the level beyond perfection, with its proficiency at 70%!

Whoosh!

The red-spotted snake bent its upper body and launched itself forward, like a fully drawn crossbow, shooting through the air like an arrow and kicking up a fierce gust.

Its jaws gaped wide, exposing its fangs as a foul stench rushed toward him.

Gu Sheng was terrifyingly calm, as though he had returned to the night of the wolf attack.

Only, he was far stronger now than he had been then.

The unique perception granted by Chopping Wood at perfection drew him into a marvelous state. The red-spotted snake before him no longer seemed like a snake, but a moving log—a log springing toward him in attack.

The muscles in his arm tightened and bulged with force.

Gu Sheng drew his machete and chopped down, like a rushing current cleaving apart.

The sharpened machete sliced down precisely along the snake's open mouth. Gu Sheng seemed to "see" the layers upon layers of grain within the wood.

They were the snake's bones.

Chopping Wood at perfection—cleave bone, sever sinew!

Rip!

The machete came down. Gu Sheng did not even need to exert much force; borrowing only the impact of the red-spotted snake's own lunge, he effortlessly split it in two along its spine.

It was incomparably smooth, without the slightest resistance.

Blood sprayed everywhere.

The red-spotted snake was split precisely in half and fell onto the dead branches. It writhed for a moment before going completely still.

Gu Sheng panted lightly. Looking at the exposed crimson snake meat, joy appeared in his eyes.

"Tonight, I'm having snake meat soup!"