Morning mist still hung halfway up the mountainside above Emerald Mountain Village.
With his black-python-sinew heavy bow on his back, a woodcutting saber at his waist, and two freshly steamed meat buns in hand, Lin He ambled over and knocked on Old Man Sun's battered wooden door.
"Elder Sun! Eaten yet?" Lin He called at the top of his lungs.
Old Man Sun, who was sharpening his woodcutting saber in the courtyard, glanced up at him. Surprise flashed through his cloudy old eyes. "Young fellow from the Lin Household, this early in the morning, with all that gear... heading into the mountains again?"
"You bet. Going into the mountains to make a fortune." Lin He strode casually inside and set the meat buns on a nearby wooden table. "Fresh out of the steamer. Fill your belly while they're hot. Elder, we're going for a big score today."
Old Man Sun set his work aside and eyed him suspiciously. "What big score? There's nothing in those mountains but boars and rabbits. Do you expect gold ingots to sprout there?"
"Gold ingots aren't worth a fart. This is worth far more."
Lin He leaned closer and lowered his voice. "Elder, the Li Household in the county town has posted a bounty. They're urgently buying Fanged Spotted Rabbits from within a hundred li. Guess how much they're paying for each one?"
Old Man Sun frowned. "Fifty copper coins? A hundred at most."
Lin He held up one finger and waved it before Old Man Sun's eyes. "One low-grade Spirit Stone."
"What?!" Old Man Sun's hand trembled, nearly knocking the whetstone off.
His old eyes flew wide, as though he had heard some fantastic fairy tale. "One... Spirit Stone? For those Fanged Rabbits running all over the mountains? Have the immortals gone mad?"
"The Li Household's guardian spirit beast is waiting for the bloodline essence from these rabbits. The news has practically spread through the whole town like wildfire. I saw it myself outside the Drunken Immortal Pavilion yesterday, and I checked the details with the proprietor. There's a time limit on this deal. Once we pass this village, there won't be another shop."
Lin He patted the heavy bow on his back. "Elder, you've got plenty of experience. You never miss when you're tracking rabbits. As for me, you've seen my strength. Drawing a bow and shooting arrows is no trouble."
"If we join forces and catch seventy or eighty, won't that set us up for the rest of our lives?"
After hearing him out, Old Man Sun took two smacking puffs on his tobacco pipe, his gaze flickering intensely.
His son worked as a servant in a cultivation Lineage and endured endless humiliation. If he could get his hands on a few Spirit Stones, why would his son still have to bow to other people's whims?
"Let's do it!" Old Man Sun knocked his pipe against the sole of his shoe, his hoarse voice carrying a fierce edge. "But we have to be careful. With a bounty this high, there'll definitely be plenty of people heading into the mountains."
"If we run into beasts blinded by money up there, they'll be harder to handle than wild animals."
"Don't you worry." Lin He touched the woodcutting saber at his waist and grinned, revealing white teeth. "We're no vegetarians either."
Once they had packed their gear, the two plunged into Green Mountain, one behind the other.
The mountains really were different from usual today.
They had barely crossed two of the outer peaks, yet they hadn't seen so much as a pheasant feather. The turf had been trampled into a mess, clearly swept by wave after wave of people.
"Tsk, tsk. Looks like that bounty really packs a punch," Lin He muttered as he pushed aside thorny shrubs.
Just then, a rustling came from the woods ahead.
Old Man Sun immediately signaled, and both men crouched down.
Peering through the leaves, they saw another man dressed as a hunter opposite them. He had a full beard and held an old wooden crossbow as he rummaged through an empty rabbit nest, cursing under his breath.
"This is fucking bizarre. Not even a rabbit hair. Did those bastards come sweep the mountains at midnight?" The bearded hunter looked up and caught sight of Lin He and Old Man Sun.
He first took a wary half-step back, his gaze sweeping twice over the heavy bow on Lin He's back before turning to the elderly Old Man Sun. His taut muscles relaxed a little, and he greeted them with a smile that never reached his eyes. "Oh, you two trying your luck too?"
"You said it." Lin He stood and brushed the dirt from his trouser legs, putting on an innocent, helplessly sour face. "That Li Household bounty has drawn in everyone, even people with nothing remotely to do with this. We've been wandering around all morning, and we haven't even seen a warm rabbit dropping."
The bearded man spat. "Tell me about it. This business isn't easy. I searched that hollow up ahead too. Completely empty. If you two don't mind, why not try the west?"
"Thanks for the directions, brother. We'll take a look out west, then." Smiling, Lin He cupped his hands.
The two parties passed each other.
After they had walked some distance, Old Man Sun lowered his voice. "Don't listen to him. That western route he pointed out is downwind. All the scents get blown that way. The rabbits will have fled long ago."
"We'll head for that shaded stone forest to the east. When Fanged Rabbits get frightened, they like squeezing into cracks between rocks."
"Old ginger really is the spiciest. We'll follow your lead." Lin He gave him a thumbs-up.
When they reached the eastern stone forest, the terrain was indeed much more complicated. Strangely shaped boulders stood everywhere, their crevices thick with damp, shaded moss.
Old Man Sun bent over and sniffed the wind, then crouched to study the faint marks on the ground.
"This way." He beckoned. "Deep prints, short spacing. A fat one, and it's trembling too. Probably scared out of its wits by the noise outside."
They slipped silently around a large boulder.
Sure enough, in a rocky hollow a dozen paces ahead, a ball of yellow-and-black fur huddled in place.
"They're worth most alive. Don't hit anything vital," Old Man Sun reminded him in a breathy whisper.
Lin He nodded and slowly drew a refined-steel wolf-fang arrow, setting it against the bowstring.
The heavy bow with its hundred-and-twenty-jin draw seemed weightless in his hands. As he drew a deep breath, he pulled the bow into a perfect full moon.
"Go!" Lin He released his fingers.
A muffled whoosh sounded.
The arrowhead pierced the Fanged Rabbit's hind foot and pinned it to the soil.
Lin He lunged forward, seized it by the scruff of fate, and deftly trussed it up with vines.
"Heh, a win right out of the gate!" Lin He stuffed the rabbit into a sack and grinned with delight.
With the old hunter's experience and the suppressive force of a heavy bow at the level of a pure body cultivator, the next hour was simply a one-sided slaughter.
Before long, the sack held two lively Fanged Rabbits.
"That's enough. Quit while we're ahead." Old Man Sun checked the sky. "It won't be safe any deeper in. Two are already enough for us to split."
"Elder, there's another fresh footprint up ahead. One more score, and we leave!" Lin He was caught up in the excitement now, his mind filled with shimmering reflections of Spirit Stones.
Old Man Sun hesitated, but followed him anyway.
Sure enough, a third Fanged Rabbit was poking its head about at the edge of a patch of low shrubs ahead.
Repeating the same trick, Lin He loosed an arrow that pierced the rabbit's hind leg with precision and pinned it to a stump.
"Haha! A triple kill!" Excited, Lin He slung his bow over his shoulder and strode over to collect his easy prize.
Just as he bent down and reached out, his fingertips about to touch the rabbit's fur.
"Whoosh-"
The sound of something cutting through the air suddenly rang out from the bushes diagonally behind him on his right!
It was a bolt forged from refined iron, flying at tremendous speed straight toward the right arm Lin He had extended to grab the rabbit. If it struck, his entire arm would be crippled on the spot.
Had this been Lin He a few days ago, he would probably already have been clutching his arm and screaming.
But his body had just been tempered by pure essence of the sun.
His muscles and nerves now possessed almost freakish reaction speed and intuition.
Within a thousandth of a second of hearing that whistle, Lin He's body reacted before his brain.
He sharply folded at the waist and rolled left at an extremely contorted angle, his right arm brushing along the ground.
"Duang!"
The bolt slammed into the soil where Lin He had been, its fletching still quivering wildly.
"Fuck your ancestors!"
Lin He broke out in a cold sweat, then savage fury instantly surged to his head. This fucker was going for the kill!
As he rolled, his left hand had already drawn a wolf-fang arrow in one smooth motion, while his right scooped up the fallen heavy bow.
The instant he dropped to one knee, strength exploded through his waist and abdomen, and the hundred-and-twenty-jin bow was once again drawn fully taut.
His gaze locked onto a dark figure in the bushes to his right, who had just poked his head out and had not yet managed to pull back.
"Die, you bastard!"
The bowstring cracked. Carrying terrifying kinetic force, the refined-steel wolf-fang arrow tore through the air with a piercing shriek.
The dark figure clearly had not expected Lin He to dodge, much less retaliate so quickly and so fiercely.
He had only just let out a strange, terrified cry and tried to evade when the arrow was already before his chest.
"Squelch!"
The sound of a sharp blade entering flesh rang out, followed by a heart-rending scream. The tremendous impact hurled the dark figure backward, smashing him hard into a tree trunk before he tumbled into the grass.
"Young fellow from the Lin Household!" Only then did Old Man Sun react. Hunting bow in hand, he rushed forward, his face deathly pale.
"I'm fine." Lin He stood, his face so dark it looked as though water might drip from it. Ignoring the rabbit on the ground, he held his woodcutting saber blade-down and walked toward the bushes, step by step.
Parting the bloodstained weeds, he found a man clutching his right thigh and rolling frantically on the ground. The refined-steel wolf-fang arrow had pierced straight through his thigh and pinned him to a thick tree root.
Lin He looked down at him, his gaze cold as ice. "Oh, isn't this the brother who gave us directions earlier? What a coincidence."
The man on the ground was in such agony that tears and snot covered his face. It was none other than the bearded hunter. The old crossbow lay beside his hand, only now there was no bolt on it.