In recent years, the rear mountains had grown increasingly dangerous as more and more ferocious beasts appeared. Quite a few hunters had died, and now few people dared risk their lives to hunt there.
On top of that, war raged at the border. Beiyan Pass had conscripted nearly all the remaining hunters.
As a result, the prey in the rear mountains had multiplied rapidly. It could be said that game was everywhere.
After crossing a mountain ridge, Li Chen spotted a gray rabbit standing upright on a grassy slope ahead, looking around cautiously.
His ingrained wilderness survival instincts immediately told him: when a rabbit climbs high, its burrow is close by.
He quietly circled around from behind.
Sure enough, halfway up the slope, he discovered a concealed rabbit hole.
He immediately used nearby trees to conceal his figure.
At that moment, the wary gray rabbit was hopping down the slope toward the burrow, completely unaware that death was approaching.
He drew the bow, nocked the arrow. Super concentration instantly magnified the rabbit in his vision.
Just as the gray rabbit reached the entrance of the hole, the string snapped, the arrow flew, and the rabbit was pinned to the ground.
A perfect shot to start the hunt. Li Chen felt satisfied.
With that super-concentration ability like a buff enhancing him, even while drawing the bow intermittently, Li Chen transformed into the Dayan God of Arrows and began harvesting relentlessly.
As he advanced deeper into the mountains, anything that ran on the ground, leapt in trees, or flew through the sky—once it entered his sight—had almost no chance of escape.
After walking and stopping intermittently for over an hour and shooting more than twenty arrows, he had filled an entire large sack with game.
He slung the prey over his back and retrieved his arrows.
Seeing that dusk was approaching, he began heading out of the mountains.
However, when passing a towering ancient pine tree, he suddenly stopped.
Looking carefully, his eyes flickered with surprise.
The sturdy trunk had been worn down into a deep hollow nearly one meter tall. Pine resin still flowed within it.
“Wild boar?”
Li Chen examined the pine tree, then studied the footprints around it, narrowing his eyes.
Resin rubbed onto the back—boar armor formed.
His survival experience told him clearly that a wild boar had been rubbing itself against this pine tree for years, using the resin to drive off parasites.
Judging by the size of that hollow, the boar likely weighed at least 200 to 250 kilograms.
There were also massive tusk marks gouged into the trunk, likely from the boar using its tusks to pry open the bark before rubbing itself.
A wild boar coated in hardened pine resin armor—back in modern times, even an ordinary shotgun might struggle to penetrate its thick hide. Yet its tusks could easily pierce through a human body.
Fortunately, he had not encountered that beast today. With his current weakened body and this ordinary hunting bow, his chances of survival would have been slim.
Thinking of that, he immediately quickened his pace toward the foot of the mountain.
Half an hour later, he emerged from the forest and reached the entrance of the village.
The village was called Muer Village.
It earned that name because most of its men, though not registered as artisans, knew some carpentry skills. The former Li Chen’s father had been among the best.
Crossing the slope ahead and passing the large elm tree at the entrance—its bark stripped and tender leaves long gone—the village came into view.
Under the elm tree gathered a group of women, including the ones who had returned earlier from digging wild vegetables.
Having finished their meals and with nothing better to do, they sat together at the village entrance, sorting wild vegetables from their baskets while chatting endlessly.
No matter natural disaster or human calamity, idle gossip never ceased.
“Huh? Isn’t that Li family’s eldest boy? Didn’t you say he went hunting? Why is he back so soon?”
One of the women happened to glance up and noticed Li Chen, stretching her neck to look more closely.
“He must’ve caught nothing,” Wang Caifeng snorted with a laugh.
“Exactly. Which hunter goes up the mountain and returns in less than three to five days? He left just after noon, and now it’s not even fully dark yet?” Ma Lian added with a dismissive smile, her curvy figure swaying as she spoke.
“Don’t mock him so quickly. It looks like he really is carrying quite a lot on his back. Could he actually have caught something?” Liu Jincui turned to look, surprise evident in her voice.
“Sister-in-law Xu, you must be seeing things. That little thug knows how to hunt? If he actually brings something back, I’ll publicly feed him buns. Of course, rats don’t count.”
Ma Lian laughed boldly, and the women around her burst into loud laughter.
But at that moment, Li Chen walked closer. Everyone could clearly see two gray rabbits tied together over his left shoulder.
Just those two rabbits alone were enough to make every woman’s eyes widen.
Each rabbit probably weighed around 3 to 3.5 kilograms.
Moreover, he carried a bulging sack on his back, and occasionally bits of fine feathers drifted out from within.
Walking toward them in the glow of the setting sun, he looked like a moving granary filled entirely with meat.
Every woman swallowed unconsciously, as though already smelling the fragrance of boiling meat.
“Li family’s eldest boy, what did you catch?” Liu Jincui asked in astonishment.
“Just a few pine grouse and rabbits. Not much,” Li Chen replied with a faint smile.
He held a favorable impression of Village Chief Xu’s wife. In times when his household had run out of food, the kind Liu Jincui had secretly given his little maid-wife a few coarse flour buns. He remembered that favor.
Stopping, he reached into his sack and pulled out a pine grouse, handing it to Liu Jincui. “Aunt Xu, thank you for helping my wife before. Please accept this as a small token of gratitude.”
“Oh my, this is too much. I can’t possibly accept something so precious!” Liu Jincui exclaimed, startled, waving her hands frantically.
In the past half year, hundreds of thousands of refugees had poured into the northern region from inside the passes. Combined with the war at Beiyan Pass and the blockage of supply routes, local production could barely sustain the population.
Famine had already arrived.
In times like these, even a few kilograms of grain could cost lives.
It was said that refugees inside the passes lay dead from hunger across the fields, and in desperation, some had even resorted to unspeakable acts to survive.
A pine grouse weighing around 1.5 kilograms could save lives at a critical moment. How could she dare accept it?
“Aunt, there will be more. Please take it,” Li Chen said gently, setting the grouse down.
Liu Jincui swallowed softly, picked up the pine grouse, and turned to Ma Lian with a teasing smile. “Sister Lian, do your earlier words still stand?”
Laughter erupted around them.
Ma Lian stared at the pine grouse, greed rising in her eyes. She breathed faster and looked at Li Chen.
“Eldest boy, shouldn’t everyone present get a share? Why give only Sister-in-law Xu and not your little sister-in-law here? If you give me one too, I’ll trade you this. But you’d better be capable. If not, I’ll end up getting a pine grouse for free.”
As she spoke, she deliberately lifted her chest.
Yet her eyes were filled with mockery.
This pretty-faced youth was nothing but appearance. Rumor had it he could not perform.
The surrounding women burst into laughter again, half teasing and half serious. “Yes, yes, everyone should get a share! Eldest boy, don’t favor one over another! We can trade with you too—if you’re capable!”
“If you want to eat, go hunt it yourselves,” Li Chen replied calmly.
His eyes narrowed slightly, and in that instant, they turned ice-cold—like a blade freshly lifted from winter’s frozen waters.