After all, he was only a sixteen-year-old boy. Seeing Lin Xiyue look down on him like this, he stubbornly refused to admit it.
Lin Xiyue looked at his proud and tsundere little expression and couldn’t help but laugh. What a cute little brother.
“Alright, you’re the strongest. Then I’ll trouble you to carry these things. Let’s go a little further in—I want to gather some more herbs.”
In truth, she also wanted to see if there were any other valuable medicinal herbs.
Although there were quite a few herbs on the outskirts of the forest, most of them were common and not worth much. Even prey was rare. If they went a bit deeper, they might encounter more good things.
“No way. If we go deeper, there will be fierce beasts. What if we run into a pack of wolves or a blind bear? The two of us would end up as their dinner. For safety’s sake, we should just wander around the outer area.”
Lu Yanqiu wasn’t timid, but both his elder brother and his mother had repeatedly warned him never to enter the depths of the forest.
Lin Xiyue also knew that Lu Jinghuai had been injured by a blind bear deep in the forest and had barely survived. So it was understandable that Lu Yanqiu didn’t want to go further in.
“How about this—you wait here while I go in and take a quick look. If I don’t come back in two hours, just head down the mountain. Don’t wait for me.”
Lin Xiyue didn’t want to bring Lu Yanqiu along to risk danger. But she had her spatial storage—she could hide inside it if something happened—so she wasn’t afraid of going deeper into the mountains.
“No way. You’re part of the family too. I can’t just watch you go risk your life. Are you trying to hunt? How about I take you to the place where my brother set traps? There’s more prey there, and it’s not that dangerous.”
How could Lu Yanqiu allow a young girl like Lin Xiyue to enter the deep mountains alone? After a long round of persuasion, Lin Xiyue had no choice but to give up on the idea of going deeper. She decided she would go by herself when she had the chance in the future.
Lu Yanqiu led Lin Xiyue to a place where Lu Jinghuai used to set traps.
It was close to a water source, so small animals often came here to drink. Lu Jinghuai had truly chosen a good location—if the traps were properly set, catching prey wouldn’t be a problem.
Unfortunately, the traps had been there for too long. Many had already been damaged.
Lin Xiyue didn’t know how to repair traps, but she was skilled at hunting.
Using a wood-cutting machete, she shaved several bamboo poles and sharpened one end. At first, Lu Yanqiu had no idea what she was planning to do. Then a wild chicken appeared.
Without warning, Lin Xiyue suddenly threw the arm-length bamboo spear in her hand.
The wild chicken barely had time to flap once before it was pierced by the bamboo pole and died. However, Lin Xiyue’s strength wasn’t enough, so the bamboo didn’t pass completely through the chicken’s body.
This move left Lu Yanqiu completely stunned.
“Xiaoyue, that move of yours is amazing!”
He ran over, picked up the wild chicken, his eyes full of excitement and disbelief. Could an ordinary person really do that?
“With enough practice, you could do it too,” Lin Xiyue said, giving him a look that said I believe in you.
“So when you killed that rabbit earlier with the machete, it wasn’t luck, right?” Lu Yanqiu suddenly realized.
Lin Xiyue raised an eyebrow but didn’t answer.
Lu Yanqiu felt as if he had discovered some incredible secret and stared at her curiously.
But Lin Xiyue was completely focused on searching for prey and paid no attention to the curious boy behind her.
“Don’t move.”
Lin Xiyue suddenly stopped walking, causing Lu Yanqiu behind her to stop as well.
He looked ahead and saw that near the river in the distance there was a group of wild boars. More precisely, a large boar leading several smaller ones, currently drinking water by the river.
Lin Xiyue gripped the bamboo spear tightly and also held the machete firmly in her hand.
Before Lu Yanqiu could even react, Lin Xiyue had already rushed out. At the same time, the bamboo spears in her hand flew out one after another.
Of the three spears she threw, two failed to pierce the boar’s thick hide and fell to the ground. Only one struck its abdomen, but it caused nothing more than a superficial wound.
The moment Lin Xiyue rushed out, the boar panicked and tried to escape while protecting the piglets. Seeing Lin Xiyue chase after it relentlessly, the boar immediately snorted, turned around, and charged straight at her.
“Watch out!” Lu Yanqiu cried.
Seeing Lin Xiyue about to be rammed by the boar made him break out in cold sweat. Fortunately, Lin Xiyue had good reflexes—she dodged the attack and even managed to slash the boar with her knife.
Unfortunately, the boar was simply too big. Lin Xiyue’s small body hadn’t been trained, and even though she was skilled, killing such a large animal wasn’t easy.
She had underestimated just how thick and tough the boar’s hide was. Her earlier slash had made it bleed quite a bit, yet it was still extremely fierce.
Lu Yanqiu wanted to help, but he couldn’t find an opening. Just as he was worrying, the boar suddenly charged toward him instead.
Lin Xiyue shouted in alarm, “Move!”
But Lu Yanqiu didn’t have Lin Xiyue’s reflexes. Even though he tried his best to dodge, the boar still rushed at him. Seeing he was about to be hit, Lin Xiyue no longer cared about holding back her strength.
Taking a shortcut, she sprinted over at full speed. With a leap, she jumped onto the boar’s back.
Raising the machete high, she brought it down fiercely.
The boar squealed in pain.
Thinking that catching this boar would mean they wouldn’t have to worry about food for quite some time, Lin Xiyue was determined to kill it.
Watching the small figure riding on the boar’s back, Lu Yanqiu was filled with shock. Was this really something a normal woman could do?
Especially the ruthless decisiveness she showed when she raised and dropped the blade—Lu Yanqiu was genuinely frightened.
If Lin Xiyue hadn’t slashed the boar earlier and forced it to change direction, he might already have been either gored to death or trampled.
Lin Xiyue was still fighting the boar, but it was obvious she was already exhausted. She could only wait for the boar to bleed out and collapse.
She exerted force, pulled the machete out, and stabbed down hard again.
The boar screamed in agony, then crashed into a tree and collapsed onto the ground.
Lin Xiyue was completely drained. Being thrown around by the boar had made her dizzy and disoriented. The moment it fell, she was also flung off its back.
“Xiaoyue!”
Lu Yanqiu shouted and quickly ran over. He saw Lin Xiyue lying on the ground, panting heavily.
“Are you okay?”
He helped her sit up and checked her body. Seeing that she only had some minor scrapes, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Lin Xiyue took the water pouch from her waist and gulped down a big mouthful before finally feeling better.
The pouch contained spiritual spring water. Not long after drinking it, she felt her fatigue vanish, and her exhausted body rapidly recovered.
After a moment, she let out a long breath.
“Phew… I’m fine now. How’s your foot?”
She had noticed earlier that he was limping while walking, so he must have injured his foot.
Lu Yanqiu moved slightly, and a sharp pain immediately shot through his ankle.
“I think… I twisted it.”
“Stretch your foot out. I’ll take a look.”
Lin Xiyue reached out as if to examine it, but Lu Yanqiu looked at her suspiciously.
“You know how to treat injuries? Maybe I should just wait until we get down the mountain and have Uncle Liu in the village check it. He used to be a barefoot doctor. His medical skills aren’t great, but it’s still better than letting a little girl like you handle it.”
Seeing him hesitate, Lin Xiyue immediately grabbed his leg and pulled it over.
“Hiss—ow, ow, ow!”
Ignoring his cries, she rolled up his pant leg and saw that his ankle was indeed swollen into a large lump. She immediately knew the bone had shifted out of place.
“Bear with it.”
The moment she finished speaking, there was a crack.
Lu Yanqiu screamed in pain.
“Stop howling. You’ll attract wolves. Try moving your foot now.”