163: Chapter 163 The Mountain Trail

It is said that Xiao Niao, known in the Jianghu as "You Shihua," crouched on the ground with practiced ease under the confident gaze of his two companions, pulling back his bowstring to aim at the wild boar on the outermost perimeter.

Based on his observations, of the five wild boars over there, apart from the [Irritable Red Wild Boar] that appeared to be the leader, the other four ordinary wild boars were scattered in four directions, looking exactly like underlings in black suits and sunglasses guarding a boss while he soaks in a hot spring—they looked quite impressive.

However, precisely because of this, the distance between the four ordinary wild boars was a bit wide, which lowered the difficulty for his subsequent task of separating the monsters.

After adjusting a few details and confirming his aim, Xiao Niao couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement in his heart.

Back in the village, he could only play by shooting wooden arrows at scarecrows in the fields. In just half a day, he had left the village and was now actively attacking five wild boars with a single bow and arrow. This transformation made even someone as shy and introverted as him feel secretly thrilled.

Snap—Whoosh!

While he was still excited, his hand accidentally let go of the bowstring.

"Damn, it's over." Xiao Niao felt a sudden sense of foreboding, but upon seeing the direction the arrow flew, he breathed a temporary sigh of relief. Since he had already drawn the bow fully and aimed at the wild boar, even though he had accidentally released the bowstring, the arrow was still flying toward the wild boar.

The only issue was that because he was a bit excited, his left hand holding the bow handle had unconsciously lifted up when he released the string, causing the arrow's flight trajectory to be a bit higher...

Tang Yao gave a soft "Wow" and said, "I didn't even notice it, and whoosh, it just shot out."

Hu Gualing asked in a low voice, "This arrow... didn't it fly a bit too high? Can it hit?"

Xiao Niao glanced at the arrow's flight path and realized it was indeed flying a bit too high. It was foreseeable that it would land a little further than originally aimed, but since the wild boars were quite far apart, such a small deviation shouldn't cause any problems.

Thinking this, Xiao Niao maintained the image of a top-tier pro player he had just established and said calmly, "Don't worry, there shouldn't be a problem."

Just as he finished speaking, the wooden shaft steel arrow indeed flew over the head of the ordinary wild boar he had originally aimed at, gliding a short distance further before losing momentum and plunging tip-first into the ground.

The ordinary wild boar, perhaps lacking intelligence, didn't know what an arrow was and thus didn't detect the players' presence. It was simply distracted by the gliding arrow and turned its head to look at it curiously.

"Phew, it seems the monster's intelligence is worrying. As long as it doesn't hit, we won't be discovered. So, I'll just shoot another one..."

As Xiao Niao was thinking this, a game notification appeared: [You have learned the Lob Shot skill during the shooting process.]

Lob Shot? Xiao Niao was puzzled for a moment but didn't dwell on it, because he no longer had time to think about such trivial matters. In his field of vision, a red damage number quietly floated up.

-10.

Upon seeing this damage number, Xiao Niao's expression changed instantly.

He saw that where the red number had floated up, the red-haired wild boar that had been leisurely bathing in the mud pit let out an angry roar and flipped over. It shook its upper body, spraying mud and water everywhere, while looking around to see who was so bold as to launch a sneak attack while it was bathing.

The four underlings around the red-haired wild boar also sensed their big brother's abnormality and quickly approached the mud pit to guard the red-haired wild boar.

The red-haired wild boar's gaze suddenly fixed, looking toward the direction where Xiao Niao, Hu Gualing, and Tang Yao were, and it let out an angry grunt that sounded like it was issuing an order.

Hu Gualing couldn't see clearly what was happening at the mud pit, but he saw the wild boars suddenly moving, so he assumed Xiao Niao's arrow had taken effect and asked hopefully, "How is it? Did the aggro pull succeed?" Just after asking, he noticed Xiao Niao's expression was very wrong and felt a bit nervous: "Did you pull two? Or three?"

Before he could finish, an even greater commotion came from the mud pit. The red-haired wild boar walked out of the mud pit in a few steps, stood by the edge, shook off the arrow and the wet mud from its body, pawed the ground with its four hooves, and then shot out like a cannonball.

The four ordinary wild boars were not to be outdone. Although they were a bit slower than the red-haired wild boar, the four of them sprinted together, instantly kicking up rolling yellow sand in a truly magnificent scene.

Xiao Niao screamed, "Run!"

Upon seeing this, Hu Gualing and Tang Yao immediately knew this definitely wasn't caused by just one or two wild boars, so they turned and ran without a word.

When Xiao Niao shouted, he had already put away his bow and arrow and sprinted into the distance like an arrow released from a string. His stamina and Physique were both poor, but his burst speed was not slow at all. In fact, during the starting phase, he stepped on his "Wind Fire Wheels" and was even faster than Hu Gualing, who was a Student Athlete. Thus, among the three, he immediately ran to the front, shouting as he ran, "Run along the bottom of the cliff!"

Hu Gualing and Tang Yao didn't have time to think about why and ran after Xiao Niao.

The speed of the five wild boars was naturally much faster than the three of them. Even for Xiao Niao, he only managed to burst out a speed that faintly exceeded the wild boars for the first few seconds; afterward, his speed gradually slowed down. In contrast, the wild boars slowly accelerated after starting, and once their speed was up, they showed no signs of slowing down.

Not to mention that among this group of wild boars, there was one with a prefix: the [Irritable Red Wild Boar]. Its speed was faster and more ferocious than the ordinary wild boars, charging at the very front of the herd and quickly closing the distance between them and the three players.

Relying on his gifted escape ability, Xiao Niao kept sprinting along the foothills. Suddenly, he noticed a gap in the cliff wall to his front left and couldn't help but stop to look for a moment. He saw that the entrance to this gap was very narrow, barely able to accommodate one person, but it was quite deep inside; he didn't know where it led.

Could it be that Tang Yao was right, and they had encountered a secret cave hiding peerless martial arts?

However, there was one strange thing: the passage was so deep, yet it didn't seem dark at all. Where was the light source coming from?

Xiao Niao felt a bit strange and looked up, only to see that there was no obstruction above the passage, allowing a clear view of the sky. He then suddenly realized that this wasn't a secret cave at all, but rather a natural passage formed by the gap between two adjacent high mountains leaning against each other.

In a flash, Gualing and Tang Yao caught up from behind.