The riverbed of Ghost Gate Gully had been scoured into all manner of strange shapes by years of mountain floods,
The cliffs on either side were embedded with pebbles large and small,
Like skeletons buried in midair, their hollow eye sockets gazing down upon the bottom of the gully.
Jiang Fa stepped forward over loose pebbles, slowing his breathing, not daring to let his guard down in the slightest.
There was no path through the gully. He could only find footholds in the gaps between stones, and every step sent gravel skittering down, knocking against the gully walls with hollow echoes.
After he had walked roughly three li, the bottom of the gully gradually widened, and the cliffs on either side grew lower.
He was already not far from the middle stretch of Black Wind Ridge.
His main purpose on this trip was to reach the place Lin Feng had told him about, where a large patch of Blood-Coagulating Grass grew, still unripe.
If Lin Feng had spoken the truth, this trip would certainly not be wasted.
He walked a little farther.
Scattered beast bones began to appear on the ground. Some still had blackened flesh clinging to them, with flies buzzing in circles around them; others had already turned white, sun-dried and cracked, and crumbled to powder with a crunch underfoot.
The faint sound of water came from ahead, and Jiang Fa quickened his pace.
He rounded a bend, and the view suddenly opened up.
A slender waterfall squeezed through a crack in the cliff and dropped into an emerald pool, sending up a fine mist.
The pool was clear to the bottom, and several palm-sized gray fish darted in and out of the crevices between the rocks.
The mud beside the pool was densely covered with tracks,
The plum-blossom-shaped paw prints of Iron-Backed Wolves, the cloven hoofprints of Stone-Skinned Wild Boars,
And several trails of paw prints a full size larger than a human palm, sunk deep into the mud,
Jiang Fa drew his broad saber, lowered his body, and slowly circled along the bushes at the pool's edge,
His gaze swept back and forth between the tracks beside the pool and the bushes, while his ears caught every tiny sound: the rustling leaves, the ripples on the water, and the distant calls of birds.
He spent nearly an hour circling the pool, confirming that there were no signs of savage beast activity nearby,
Only then did he carefully take out the map, look around, and compare it with the surrounding terrain, feature by feature.
A moment later,
Jiang Fa's gaze fell on one corner of the pool, and his eyes immediately lit up.
He walked over and pushed aside the weeds and bushes.
There, at the foot of the cliff beside the pool, he discovered a clump of low-growing plants,
Their leaves were round, their edges gleaming faintly purplish red, and several clusters of dark red fruits the size of rice grains grew at the tips of their stems.
Blood-Coagulating Grass!
And not just one plant, but an entire clump. A quick glance revealed at least a dozen.
Jiang Fa tightened his grip on his waterskin, his heart suddenly beating several beats faster.
Blood-Coagulating Grass was precisely the main ingredient of Blood Condensation Pills,
A single mature plant could fetch fifteen taels of silver at an herb shop. If it was of good quality, people would scramble to buy it even at twenty taels.
Before he entered Black Wind Ridge, Lin Feng had specifically mentioned that Stone-Skinned Wild Boars often appeared around Blood-Coagulating Grass,
Those beasts loved nothing more than gnawing on its roots and stems.
If he found a large patch of Blood-Coagulating Grass, he might even be able to follow the vine to the melon and locate a boar's lair,
And the tusks and hides of Stone-Skinned Wild Boars also fetched a high price at the herb shop.
Jiang Fa suppressed his excitement and did not immediately step forward to harvest them.
He drew his broad saber again,
And crept along the pool toward another section of the cliff, stopping every few steps to listen and sniff.
Besides moisture and the smell of mineral rock, there was a faint musky stench in the air,
It was indeed the scent of a Stone-Skinned Wild Boar,
But it was not particularly strong, and the wind had scattered most of it. It had very likely been left several days ago.
He returned to the foot of the cliff, crouched before the clump of Blood-Coagulating Grass, and examined it closely.
There were sixteen plants in all,
The leaves of three had already wilted slightly, and the soil around their roots bore signs of rooting,
Exposing half a section of dark red rootstock, though fortunately it remained largely intact.
The remaining plants were flourishing, with thick stems and fleshy leaves, the purplish-red rims gleaming with an oily luster in the sunlight.
Excellent quality!
Jiang Fa carefully dug up the Blood-Coagulating Grass one plant at a time, avoiding damage to the fine roots as much as possible. He packed wet mud around the roots, wrapped them in oiled paper, and placed them in his bundle.
He did not hurry to leave, but continued onward in the direction of the musky stench.
He remembered Lin Feng's words very clearly,
Although a Stone-Skinned Wild Boar was only a low-grade first-tier savage beast, its most valuable parts, its tusks and hide, could together fetch a decent price,
Since he had discovered a trace of one, there was no reason to ignore it.
Following the scent north for a little over a li, he came upon a patch of mud churned to a pulp among the trees.
Dead branches and weeds lay piled every which way in the middle of the mud. Several trees as thick as the mouth of a bowl had been gnawed full of gouges, their bark scored with tusk scrapes deep enough to expose the bone.
At the edge of the muddy patch was an earthen hole half a person's height, its entrance piled with dried ferns. The smell was drifting out from inside.
A wild boar's lair.
Jiang Fa tightened his grip on his broad saber and leaned close to the entrance, listening carefully.
A low snoring came from within, slow and rhythmic. It was clearly fast asleep.
He took a deep breath, bent down, and slipped through the entrance.
The cave was dim, the air hot, stuffy, and foul. The musky stench was so thick it could almost make a person faint.
The space inside was neither particularly large nor small. An enormous Stone-Skinned Wild Boar lay on its side on a pile of dry grass, its belly rising and falling with its snores.
Its hide was rough, thick, and grayish brown. Plates of hard, bony armor covered its back, looking like chunks of stone embedded in its flesh.
Jiang Fa did not hesitate.
Holding his breath, he approached the boar step by step, every footfall painstakingly careful.
Only when he had reached the Stone-Skinned Wild Boar,
Did he grip the saber's hilt with both hands and aim its tip at the soft flesh on the boar's neck, where no bony armor covered it,
He drew a deep breath, and in an instant, all the force in his body rose from the soles of his feet, passed through his waist and hips, then his shoulders and elbows, and poured into both arms.
He drove the saber down hard.
The instant the tip pierced its flesh, he felt a sluggish resistance, but at that moment, the force of the Mountain-Breaking Stance took effect,
That force traveled along the blade, pierced hide and flesh, and drove straight into the most fragile gap between the joints of its neck vertebrae.
With a sharp crack,
The saber tip punched through the gap between the neck vertebrae.
The Stone-Skinned Wild Boar's eyes snapped open, and it let out a shrill, agonized squeal,
Its massive body rolled and thrashed violently, all four hooves kicking wildly and sending dirt showering from the cave walls.
Jiang Fa held the hilt in a death grip, refusing to let go, his entire body nearly flung into the air.
But he gritted his teeth and pressed all his weight onto the hilt, driving the blade another fraction deeper.
The boar's struggles grew weaker and weaker, its piercing squeals gradually turning to low gurgles,
After several more breaths, the Stone-Skinned Wild Boar finally went completely still.
Jiang Fa pulled out the saber. Dark red blood coated the blade and dripped from its tip.
Panting heavily, he staggered back two steps, his back striking the cave wall hard,
His forehead was covered in sweat, which ran down his cheeks and dripped onto the dry grass at his feet.
After catching his breath for a moment, he took the dagger from his waist, crouched down, and began processing the boar's carcass.
There were two tusks, each as thick as a thumb, dense in texture and gleaming faintly beneath the oil lamp.
He stripped off the boar's hide, folded it neatly, and bound it tightly with hemp rope.
Of the boar's meat, he cut off only the thickest, fattiest meat from its hind legs, rubbed it evenly with salt, and wrapped it up,
He abandoned everything else in the cave. The bloody smell would soon attract other savage beasts, and he had to leave before they discovered this place.
By the time he emerged from the boar's cave, the sky had already begun to darken.
The light among the trees had turned a hazy, dusky yellow, and the daylight filtering through the gaps in the canopy grew ever thinner.
Jiang Fa found a shallow stream and washed the blood from his blade, then scrubbed himself with wet mud to remove the smell of blood.
Then he found an old banyan with luxuriant branches and leaves, and swung himself up into its crown,
He found a reasonably level hollow at a fork in the trunk, placed his bundle behind his head, and closed his eyes, leaning against the trunk.