35: Chapter 35 Unknown Beasts, A Bountiful Harvest

After putting on the wolf king leather armor, he hung the iron-core bow on his left shoulder and slung the quiver over his right.

Forty-six wolf-tooth arrows were placed in the most accessible spots, along with twenty ordinary iron arrows.

For this mountain sweep, Lin Ye also planned to grind his proficiency in Basic Archery.

He picked up the bingtie staff and gave it a casual flourish.

With Lin Ye's current strength, a mere hundred-jin bingtie staff was something he could now wield with ease.

Shouldering the bingtie staff, Lin Ye opened the door and walked out.

"Are you... planning to head into the mountains?" Wang Gang couldn't help but ask when he saw Lin Ye fully armed.

"Yes, I'm going to hunt some game and practice my archery while I'm at it."

Lin Ye raised the longbow in his hand.

He didn't mention he was going on a sweep, lest he scare Wang Gang half to death.

Wang Gang nodded upon hearing this. "Alright, come back early."

With Lin Ye's strength as a Ninth-Grade Martial Artist, as long as he didn't enter the depths of Heifeng Mountain, there was basically no danger, so Wang Gang wasn't too worried.

Lin Ye gave a response and turned to leave.

He first went to ask Second Uncle for leave.

Second Uncle was drinking tea under the shed. When he heard Lin Ye was going hunting, he didn't ask much and just waved his hand dismissively.

With Lin Ye's current level of forging, there really wasn't much left for him to teach.

Saying goodbye to Second Uncle, Lin Ye headed straight for the Martial Arts Training Ground.

Zhao Shanhe was currently teaching the militia saber techniques. Seeing Lin Ye's attire, he sheathed his saber and walked over.

He looked Lin Ye up and down.

"A Breakthrough?"

"Yes," Lin Ye nodded.

If even Wang Gang could see it, it would be strange if Zhao Shanhe couldn't.

After all, the difference in aura between someone who had entered the ranks and someone who hadn't was quite significant.

Zhao Shanhe nodded. "Go ahead. You really should gain some practical combat experience."

Watching Lin Ye's figure gradually disappear at the village entrance, a smile of admiration appeared on Zhao Shanhe's face.

A Ninth-Grade at twenty years old—this boy's future is limitless!

...

After entering the ranks, Lin Ye's speed had also significantly increased.

In less than half an hour, he had covered the distance that previously took him an hour to walk.

However, once he entered Heifeng Mountain, he slowed his pace.

His eyes scanned the ground, and various traces left by wild animals came into view.

Scratch marks on bark, paw prints on the mud, and creases on the edges of grass blades.

These details were automatically captured by his eyes and then analyzed and summarized by his brain.

Although the Basic Tracking Technique didn't increase combat power, its utility was by no means small.

Especially now, using it to find the tracks of animal herds was incredibly convenient.

Before he had even walked a li, grunting sounds came from ahead.

Parting the bushes, he saw three wild boars rooting frantically under an oak tree.

The largest one weighed at least five hundred jin, with protruding tusks; it looked like it wouldn't be easy to deal with.

Lin Ye took down his longbow, took out an ordinary iron arrow, and drew it into a full moon, the arrowhead pointing straight at the largest boar.

With his Copper Skin newly formed, his hands were steadier than before.

He didn't even need to consciously control it; the tight skin membrane automatically stabilized his movements.

Swish!

The arrow pierced through the air, sinking into the boar's neck with a thud and passing right through it.

However, the boar's vitality was astonishing; even after suffering such a fatal wound, it didn't collapse immediately.

Instead, it became even more violent and began attacking its companions indiscriminately.

Facing their suddenly crazed companion, the other two boars had no time to react and were sent flying by the impact.

Swish!

Another arrow was fired.

This time, the arrow went straight into the boar's forehead.

The rampaging boar instantly collapsed, grunted twice, and then its four legs went limp as it stopped moving.

The other two boars got up and shook their heads. Just as they were about to pick a fight with their companion, they were so terrified by the sight that they turned and ran.

However, accompanied by two whistling sounds, these two boars followed in their companion's footsteps.

Lin Ye hung the bow back on his shoulder, walked over to pull out the arrows, wiped them clean on the boars, and put them back in the quiver.

Then, he tied the three boar carcasses with vines, hung them on a tree, and continued deeper.

With the help of the Basic Tracking Technique, Lin Ye could easily find the traces of wild beasts.

Along the way, he specifically targeted large beasts.

As for the small ones, even if he encountered them, he acted as if he hadn't seen them; they weren't a threat anyway.

It had to be said that the proficiency gained from killing living creatures was indeed much faster than shooting at stationary targets.

In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, a notification sounded in Lin Ye's ear:

"Ding! Your Basic Archery Realm has increased. Current Realm: proficient (6/10000)."

[Basic Archery] (White)

Quality: Common

Realm: proficient (6/10000)

Effect: Increases shooting speed by 30%, increases shooting range by 30%, and moderately increases accuracy when used.

As a flood of memories rushed in, Lin Ye felt his mastery of archery had reached a new level.

If before he could achieve a hundred percent hit rate within thirty meters...

Now, as long as a target appeared within fifty meters of him, it basically couldn't escape his lock-on.

Of course, this excluded targets with absurdly high movement speeds.

Throughout the morning, Lin Ye swept through almost the entire ten-li area nearby.

He wasn't sure if he had stumbled upon a wild boar's nest, but he had shot thirty boars alone. He hung them all up with vines, intending to drag them back to the village later.

Soon, Lin Ye reached the gully he had seen while searching for Wang Gang.

A gully twenty to thirty meters wide was indeed difficult for an ordinary Martial Artist to cross.

But for the current Lin Ye, this distance was nothing.

Activating his Basic Qinggong, Lin Ye soared like a large bird straight toward the forest on the other side, landing lightly on a tree.

The forest here was denser, and the trees were taller.

Clearly, this was no longer the outer perimeter of Heifeng Mountain.

One of the goals of his trip was to see if he could find that Wild Boar King.

Since it was an exotic beast, it naturally wouldn't be wandering around the outer perimeter.

So he planned to go a bit deeper to take a look.

Anyway, with his current strength, even if he were attacked by three exotic beasts at once, he could still make a clean escape!

The further he went, the denser the forest became. Some of the old trees had trunks so thick it would take two or three people to encircle them.

The canopies blotted out the sky, completely blocking the sunlight.

No wonder no one dared to enter the depths of Heifeng Mountain.

Setting aside the exotic beasts, just looking at this gloomy environment felt eerie even in broad daylight.

Lin Ye's pace slowed down unconsciously as he pushed his tracking technique to the limit, but unfortunately, he found no traces of any large beasts from beginning to end.

After walking another two li deeper, Lin Ye suddenly stopped.

There was a trail of footprints in the bushes ahead, but they weren't the round hoofprints of a wild boar; they looked more like the paw prints of a wolf.

Lin Ye crouched down and measured them with his hand.

They were nearly twice as wide as his palm, with the claws deeply embedded in the soil, and each step was spaced far apart.

"Could there be another wolf king on Heifeng Mountain?"

With doubt in his mind, Lin Ye continued to track the marks forward.

Before he had gone a hundred steps, a pile of droppings appeared at the base of a tree.

The droppings were already dry, covered with a layer of dead leaves; they had been left at least half a month ago.

After another few dozen steps, he found another pile.

Eventually, all traces vanished at a rocky slope.

Climbing to the top of the slope, Lin Ye looked in that direction.

The forest over there was even darker, the canopy blotting out the sky so completely that no sunlight could penetrate, making it look pitch black.

Lin Ye thought about it and decided not to go any further.

His main goal today was to clear out the animal herds on the perimeter; there was no need to clash with this unknown exotic beast.

Moreover, these paw prints were more than twice as large as the previous Silver Wolf King's. If they really met, it was hard to say who would be the one doing the beating.

Using his tracking technique to mark the scent of the droppings, Lin Ye turned and headed back.

...

As the sun began to set in the west, Master Lin, who had been busy all day, prepared to return home.

He took down the prey he had hung on the trees one by one and strung them together with vines.

A total of forty-seven wild boars, three wolves, plus two big white rabbits.

Although the big white rabbits weren't large beasts, Lin Ye had a craving.

He happened to come across a nest, so he casually shot two to take back for a treat.

All this prey combined weighed more than ten thousand jin.

If it were before he had entered the ranks, Lin Ye naturally wouldn't have been able to drag it.

But now...

Lin Ye tried it; it was a bit of a struggle, but not a big problem.

By the time Lin Ye dragged that long string of prey down the mountain path, he was drenched in sweat from exhaustion.

It couldn't be helped; the mountain path was too rugged, and the vines had snapped once midway, which really wore him out.

At this time, some villagers returning home from working in the fields heard the commotion. Looking back, they were so startled that their hoes fell straight to the ground.

Only when they saw the figure in front of the group of beasts did they heave a heavy sigh of relief.

Good grief, they thought a herd of beasts was coming down the mountain.

News spread quickly. By the time Lin Ye reached the village entrance, a large crowd of villagers, young and old, had already gathered.

Wang Tiezhu also squeezed through with a few militia members on guard duty. When he saw the massive pile of wild boar carcasses on the ground, he was also momentarily stunned.

"Brother Lin, did you wipe out a wild boar's nest on the mountain?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Lin Ye untied the vines and stretched his shoulders.

"I just cleared out the wild boar herds on the perimeter a bit, to save them from coming down and damaging the crops every now and then."

As he spoke, he picked out four of the largest boars from the pile and shouldered them. One for the village chief, one for Second Uncle, one for the Captain, and the last one to take home, just in time to help Brother Gang recover.

"As for the rest, I'll have to trouble Brother Tiezhu to help distribute them."

Although the number of beasts this time wasn't huge, it was well known that wild boars were famous for being plump and sturdy.

In terms of meat yield alone, it wasn't any less than the wolf meat from last time—perhaps even more—enough for everyone to get a share.

Upon hearing this, Wang Tiezhu immediately called the militia forward to start portioning the pork by head count.

Leaving aside the joyous atmosphere at the village entrance, Lin Ye had already arrived at the Captain's house carrying the pork.