Chapter 630: Venturing Deeper into the Mountain to Hunt

The mountainous area to the North of the Su Family Village was one of the mountain range branches of the Yuzhou Ridge. It was only several kilometers wide but comprised of quite a lot of large and small hills. The place turned luxuriantly lush and green during the summer with its towering old trees, yet it looked desolate in the cold winter.

When Tang Xiu was a child, he followed the adults to venture to the back of the mountain, but only a few times had he ventured deeper into the mountain range. Many old hunters who made a living from hunting may have ventured deeper inside. Su Ben’s grandfather was one among those old hunters, but after Su Ben’s father generation, they did not fullly make a living from hunting anymore.

The tapered towering rocks were queer and were arduously precipitous.

The four men searched for a few hours on the periphery and did not find the trail of the leopard, so they trekked over the mountain and entered a very long valley on the back side. Here Tang Xiu narrowed the range of his spiritual sense to a radius of 50 meters to save his energy.

“Tang Xiu, we will have to jump over that mountain creek later. Remember to do your very best to jump over, or else you’ll fall.” The four men’s trek came to a stop halfway up the mountainside, as Su Ben pointed to the gap of the mountain creek about seven-plus meters away from them.

“Don’t worry!” Replied Tang Xiu.

The gap in the mountain creek was two-plus meters wide and the four jumped over with extra care, and then took a rest for a dozen minutes before continuing with the trekking toward the inside. They climbed over and headed toward the lower terrain. And due to the area located at the back of the mountain, some of the places still had snow that had yet to melt. Walking on the mountain pathway here was arduously difficult.

Su Ben took a glance at the time on his mobile phone. It was 4:30 PM. He stopped and said with all seriousness, “We can only trek up this point today as it will turn dark in about an hour. I’m afraid that we’ll encounter some dangers if we go back too late.”

Tang Xiu took his mobile out, too, and found that there was no signal, and then said, “Let’s spend the night here. Let’s venture deeper to find a hidden place to rest. Night is the time for wild animals and beasts to wander around, so the chance of us spotting that leopard is also bigger if we stay here.”

“This…” Su Ben and Su Quan exchanged dismayed looks and similarly had hesitant looks.

“Even if we are to rush back now, we won’t be able to get to the foot of the mountain until the sky completely turns dark, brothers,” said Su Xiangfei calmly. “Let’s just stay here!”

“Yup, don’t worry!” Tang Xiu glanced at him with satisfaction. “How will I dare to go to the peak of the mountain without two or three more people? I can guarantee your safety since I’m the one who brought you here. That leopard is loathsome. I’m afraid those villagers from the several villages won’t be in the mood to celebrate the New Year if we don’t exterminate it. Besides, I don’t know how many people will have to die when it appears again some other day.”

“Alright, then!” Su Ben and Su Quan finally nodded.

After half an hour, the quartet rushed and arrived at the most bottom of the valley. While looking at the s.h.i.+mmering small lake in front, Su Ben pointed to a stone riprap at the foot of the hill and said, “There’s a cave behind that pile of stones. I used to stay in there when I went hunting with grandpa in the past. Let’s stay here tonight.”

“Yeah, I once came here with your gramps, too.” Su Quan smilingly said. “The old gramps gave us roasted chicken and liquor back then. It was my first time… having a drink! Unfortunately, we came here way too hurried, else I’d have brought some wine had I know we would spend the night here.”

A glint flashed in Tang Xiu’s eyes and a smiling expression climbed up his face. He stuffed his hand into his pocket to conceal taking a half-pound of white wine from his interspatial ring, and then smilingly said, “Well, I came prepared.”

“You really have some liquor in your pocket?” Su Quan was astounded. “Tell me, Tang Xiu, you had already decided to spend the night here before? No, something’s not right. Your clothes won’t be that big, no? It can’t hide a bottle of wine underneath, right?”

“A half-pound of liquor isn’t too big and can be stuffed underneath my clothes’ pocket,” said Tang Xiu with a smile. “Anyhow, go to the cave behind that stone riprap first. I’ll comb the surrounding and get you all some game.”

“I’m going with you, Tang Xiu,” said Su Ben.

“No, don’t worry, Brother Ben!” Tang Xiu shook his head and smilingly said. “I have confidence in my strength. I’m afraid that I must pay attention to take care of you too if you come with me.”

Su Ben did not know Tang Xiu’s strength, yet he realized one thing. After trekking the mountain at noon today, Tang Xiu did not look fatigued at all until now, not even dropping a sweat. One must know that he had been doing a lot of physical exercises every day since he started working in the security team of the Magnificent Tang Corporation for the past six months. He thought that his physical fitness was very good already. But after secretly comparing himself with Tang Xiu, he finally discovered that his metabolism was not as good as his.

“I know that you’ve been smart and cautious since we’re small, but still, you must pay attention to your safety,” said Su Ben in a low voice.

Patting his shoulder, Tang Xiu picked a direction at random and walked toward the dead grove. He picked his speed up immediately after leaving their sight and smoothly traversed the wooded mountain. He released his spiritual sense and spread it out in a wide scope. In just 10 minutes, he had scoured the radius of seven-plus kilometers, and yet he didn’t find any trace of the leopard except for some wild animals.

Two pheasants and one hare. It should be enough for the four of us to eat, no?

Tang Xiu took the precious herbs and stuffed them into his interspatial ring, and then sat with the random prey caught in the rock pile not far from the lakeside.

“Oh?”

Suddenly, Tang Xiu, who was taking the long route to return, had a surprised expression on his face. He suddenly sensed that the concentration of the world energy in the surrounding got richer the more he paced forward. Even the concentration of the world’s spiritual qi became two or three times richer than of other places after pa.s.sing nearly a kilometer.

“Something’s unusual here!”

Tang Xiu quickly stuffed the pheasants and hare into his interspatial ring. He took out the Bloodguzzler dagger and backhandedly wielded it, as he then carefully observed the surroundings as well as estimated the concentration of the world’s spiritual qi, and then headed toward the place with higher concentration. He realized that he was slowly deviating from the direction he must return since the direction was heading toward another mountain on the other side of the valley.

Ten minutes later, he stopped in front of a seven-plus meters high stone forest. Though there were also many trees growing here, his visibility was much further since the deadwood was already scarce. Under the combing of his spiritual sense, however, he found some particularities in this stone forest.

“This is an array of stones formed by nature. I really did not expect there would be a natural stone array here. It has no attacking power, however, so this one ought to be a type of Phantasmagoric Array.”

Having observed it for two minutes, Tang Xiu resolutely stepped into the stone forest. After the estimation and judgment, he easily reached its center. And at this time, the concentration of Heaven and Earth spiritual qi here was already ten times that of other places.

“My luck is not bad, a pity that…”

Looking at the ‘gurgling’ white mist of the spring in front of him, there was a forced smile on Tang Xiu’s face. It was a Spirit Spring, formed by a spiritual vein which contained a huge amount of spiritual energy. If cultivators were to cultivate here, they would definitely get twice the results with half the effort. Their cultivation speed would definitely be a hundred times faster than their usual cultivation if they were to soak themselves inside this Spirit Spring.

He felt that it was a pity since this Spirit Spring wouldn’t be much of a help to him since the energy he absorbed was star force, whereas the spiritual force of the earth had only an auxiliary effect on him.

Suddenly, an idea sprung up inside his head when he remembered Su Ben and Su Quan. He immediately decided to teach these two fellas a cultivation technique. He had decided to groom talents, and they were close to him, his family, thus he knew well their characters and dispositions. These two would be able to help him more in the future if he trained them well.

But something made Tang Xiu hesitant—Su Xiangfei was also with them at the moment. Though he had already changed his disposition, steadier and more mature, after having experienced the drastic change in his family and even had recognized and approved him as family, but they were, after all…

After contemplating for several minutes, Tang Xiu then decided to teach Su Xiangfei a cultivation technique as well. Even though the grievance between them was quite deep in the past, he believed that Su Xiangfei was someone who could change. Not to mention that he had made him lose a lot more. He only needed to show him that he was formidable enough and believed that the cousin would not birth any evil thoughts again toward him.

With that in mind, Tang Xiu immediately withdrew from the stone forest and quickly returned to the cave where the trio was covertly staying. As he arrived there, he saw the trio standing at the entrance to the cave, waiting and observing the surroundings.

“Fill your stomach first. I’m going to present you all with a big opportunity.” Tang Xiu threw two pheasants and hare in front of the trio and smilingly spoke.

When the trio saw the pheasants and hare, surprised looks immediately appeared on their faces. Little did they think that Tang Xiu could actually hunt game in the middle of the night. The trio, however, was confused upon hearing his remark, as Su Quan then asked, “What exactly is the opportunity you want to gift us, Tang Xiu?”

“Eat first,” said Tang Xiu.

After replying, he took out the salt and spices from his pocket. These things were all inside his interspatial ring, but he already stuffed them in small bottles on the way back, so it didn’t look strange.

Collecting dry wood branches to lit up a bonfire.

Su Ben swiftly killed the pheasants and the hare with the knife he brought and had them cleaned at the lakeside. After which he had them roasted on the bonfire. They were offspring who lived close to the mountain and had roasted game whenever they had gatherings. Soon after, the two yellowish roasted pheasant and hare had been roasted.

“What a fragrance! Pity that there’s not enough liquor, though.”

With half a pound of liquor and four men, n.o.body was able to drink more than one or two sips. But with the roasted pheasants and hare, the four still wolfed it down, making them feel warm and nice.

After they finished eating, Su Quan asked again, “You won’t keep us guessing anymore, will you, Tang Xiu? Come on, spit it out. What kind of big opportunity you want to give us, exactly?”

While shooting the trio a deep gaze, Tang Xiu asked, “Before I tell you that, I want to ask you something. Are you all willing to give your lives to me?”

“I make a living from you, eating and drinking with you. So I’ll naturally work to my best effort for you,” said Su Ben without thinking.

Su Quan, however, hesitated for a short while before replying, “We grew up and played together until we turned into adults. We’re tied by blood and kins.h.i.+p as well, so naturally, we’re willing to work hard for you, Tang Xiu. As a matter of fact, my feeling is similar to Brother Ben’s. We are all relatives and brothers. You only need to speak as long as you need something from us.”

Tang Xiu nodded without a word, as he then looked at Su Xiangfei.