The Wisdom of the White-Haired Boar and the Chen Martial Arts School's Predicament

He first nocked an arrow and shot a nearby boar dead. By then, the other two boars were already squealing.

The boar farthest away saw one of its own killed on the spot and immediately turned tail and ran.

The other was not so lucky. It had already run several meters, but the Avatar still shot it dead with two arrows.

But the boar's squeal had completely given away his position.

Before long, clouds of dust billowed in the distance as more than a dozen boars charged over.

Another seven or eight gradually converged from other directions.

Judging by their numbers and how quickly they had reacted, the Avatar knew there had to be an intelligent mutant among them.

But he looked around and saw nothing unusual.

Seeing the herd drawing closer, the Avatar could not spare any attention for the mutant for the moment.

He slung the compound bow across his back and broke into a sprint, circling around the charging boars to reach their north.

As he drew closer to the boars' den, he saw a nest at least several dozen square meters in size, built from dry grass and branches.

As the commotion grew louder, several more boars ran out of the nest one after another.

Among them was a boar with a tuft of white hair on its head, though it was about the same size as the other adults.

The moment the Avatar saw it, he fired an arrow without another word.

But the boar was surprisingly nimble and clever. As soon as it saw Wang An raise his compound bow, it ducked back inside. The arrow did not miss, though. It struck another boar behind it in the foot, pinning it down and making it squeal.

But after a piercing squeal came from the den, more and more boars charged toward the Avatar.

Seeing that the white-haired boar would not come out for the time being, he did not press the matter.

Instead, he ran north until he reached the foot of the mountain and drew all the boars in the area after him. Then he continued east, making a wide loop around the entire den before running back.

With the Avatar's stamina and speed, the boars naturally could not catch up or compete with him.

Some of the older and younger boars gradually fell behind, unable to keep pace with the herd.

Some more boars farther away also came running over and joined the herd.

By the time Wang An ran back near the trees where the other team members were waiting, the herd had grown to more than forty boars.

Up in the trees, Chen Yanshan, Liu Tingquan, and Mo Yuemei stared dumbfounded as their captain led the entire herd around by himself as if he were walking dogs. At last, they had some idea of his strength.

Seeing that the Avatar was still running with ease and even took a moment to glance at them, they knew their captain had yet to exert his full strength. Their last lingering worries about his actions immediately vanished.

After the Avatar ran past them, they judged that most of the boars in this direction had been lured away. They immediately climbed down and made their way toward the foot of the mountain on the left.

When he was almost at the ambush site they had agreed on with the city martial arts school.

He deliberately glanced back and saw the white-haired boar following them from a distance with several stronger boars, letting out an occasional roar to direct the entire herd.

The sight surprised him somewhat. The white-haired boar looked a little like a general on a battlefield, directing the course of events.

An intelligent creature like that, capable of commanding so many boars, already had a way to die!

So, as he ran, he wondered how he could find a chance to kill it.

Elsewhere, the members of the Chen Martial Arts School exploration team stood in the trees, bewildered and shocked as they felt the vibrations from the herd of boars running together.

Their captain, Chen Sen, felt the commotion and knew that a considerable number of boars had been lured over.

His face was dark, and he was already cursing the entire family of the Changnan Interstellar exploration team in his heart.

He had thought that the Changnan Interstellar exploration team would manage to draw over twenty-some boars at most, which would have been good enough. With bad luck, there would have been thirty-some at most.

But judging by the commotion, he would have believed it if someone had said there were more than fifty. Now he truly felt like killing the Avatar and the others.

Still, things had come to this, so he had better think about how to resolve the crisis.

While he was still trying to think of a solution, the Avatar came running over with the herd behind him.

When the Chen Martial Arts School members saw that only the captain was there, they were shocked and puzzled, wondering what had happened to the other three members of his exploration team.

But before they could react, the Avatar had already bounded over and climbed straight up a large tree beside them.

He immediately let out a shout at the people who were still standing there in a daze.

"What are you waiting for? Attack!"

His booming voice brought the others back to their senses. They drew their bows and began shooting at the boars.

Chen Sen had been thinking of stopping his team members from attacking, but when he saw the arrows they had already loosed, he ultimately left the words unsaid.

The Avatar, meanwhile, deliberately slowed his rate of fire, observing the white-haired boar from different angles as it continued directing the herd in the distance.

The boar let out several complex, low grunts, as though it were saying something.

Two other boars seemed to have heard something. They immediately charged into the herd ahead and repeated the same grunts.

The boars that had chased him to the foot of the trees had been completely bewildered, not knowing how their target had ended up in a tree.

At once, as if they had received an order, they rushed to the roots of the five or six large trees and dug desperately with their tusks, biting through the roots and tearing them out.

The members of the Chen Martial Arts School, who had been shooting at an unhurried pace, immediately changed color at the sight, their faces turning grim.

Their exploration team captain, Chen Sen, felt a chill run through his heart when he saw this. He had clearly underestimated what the herd was capable of.

He immediately shouted in a loud voice.

"Everyone, attack the boars that are digging! Target them first!"

Hearing the order, the others seemed to have found someone to rally around. They immediately began firing arrows frantically at the boars digging at the roots beneath the trees.

But their compound bows had draw weights of around fifty pounds, even though they were also equipped with special arrowheads for hunting large creatures.

To kill an adult boar, they had to hit it in the eye or brain. Otherwise, it took at least three or four arrows to the body to incapacitate one.

After a minute or two, seven or eight boars had fallen and been pulled out from under the trees by the others. Compared with the thirty or forty boars, that was still nowhere near enough.

The Avatar looked at the several main roots that had been dug up beneath the trees and saw the great trunks beginning to tilt slightly. He knew they would not hold out much longer.