After about half an hour of walking, Jiang Yueli could hardly see any of the villagers around her. A little further, even the hunters had vanished. Dense foliage surrounded her. Though it was autumn, the tall trees, trimmed by the winds of the season, were still lush and full.
Her deer-skin boots crunched over dry leaves, the sound echoing through the lonely forest, mingling with the insects’ chirping and birds’ calls. Jiang Yueli gazed at the shadowy woods and continued toward Tianmen Mountain. After an hour and a half, she finally reached the base. The mountain path was steepening, so she took out a flask from her spatial storage and drank deeply. Even with martial arts, climbing a mountain was physically demanding.
Refreshed, she began ascending the mountain. Just as she was about to step up, movement in a nearby grass patch caught her eye. Approaching cautiously, she discovered a man covered in blood, apparently a villager from the foothills.
Flipping him over, she saw he was in his early thirties, pierced in the back by an arrow, clearly unconscious from blood loss.
Realizing he was not Chu Fengchun, she decided to avoid trouble and turn away. But before she could move far, the crunch of multiple footsteps reached her ears—sharp and urgent, amplified by the dry leaves underfoot and her heightened perception from martial arts.
She leapt into a tree with thick foliage to hide. Soon, she saw over ten men dressed in black.
“Found him. The man’s unconscious,” one said.
“Take him back first. Our master is nearby—be careful. He mustn’t escape,” another ordered.
“Yes,” came the response.
The men, highly trained, lifted the unconscious villager and quickly cleaned the blood, leaving no trace. If Jiang Yueli hadn’t seen it herself, she wouldn’t have believed a man had been on the ground just moments ago.
These were clearly not ordinary people. Curious, Jiang Yueli decided to follow them from a distance, careful not to get too close as all of them were martial artists. They traveled for about half an hour, heading in the opposite direction of Tianmen Mountain, finally stopping in a rocky valley.
Though called a valley, it looked more like a long-dry riverbed, mostly sand and gravel, with sparse vegetation. Among the dense forest, this barren patch seemed starkly exposed. The ground bore evidence of extensive disturbance—as if dug deeply.
Jiang Yueli watched the men enter a nearby cave, guarded at its entrance. From time to time, carts carried objects out, dumping them in a pile of shattered stones. These weren’t ordinary rocks—they looked like scraps chipped from something valuable.
Circling behind the stone pile, Jiang Yueli waited for a guard to step away. In that brief gap, she quickly slipped forward and scooped a few stones into her spatial storage. Immediately, she sensed something unusual about them.
She paused to study two of the stones. At first, they appeared ordinary—rough, pitted, not smooth like typical rocks. She tossed them aside, examining a few more. Then sunlight glinted off one stone, revealing a tiny fleck of gold embedded within.
“Whoa… gold?” Jiang Yueli exclaimed.
Could these men be secretly mining gold? Regardless of the country, illicit gold mining was a capital offense.
Curious, she sifted through the remaining stones and found several with notable gold content—enough to extract at least one or two taels.
Although she didn’t need the money, who could resist unexpected fortune? Private gold mining was risky, and here fate had literally handed her treasure.
She decided she would claim her share eventually, but first, finding Chu Fengchun and helping her grandmother was the priority.
Returning to the base of Tianmen Mountain, Jiang Yueli felt lighthearted, her steps brisk.
The climb was not overly steep, and along the way, she noticed traces of someone having passed before—broken branches and freshly discarded herbal leaves—confirming she was on the right path. Chu Fengchun was surely somewhere up the mountain.
Hours passed, and though she reached near the summit, she found no sign of him. She did, however, come across various wild animals and precious herbs. Recognizing ginseng and lingzhi, she collected them without hesitation.
She even encountered a striking red fox and a bear. A single dagger sent the fox into her spatial storage. The bear, aggressive and coming straight for her, met a similar fate. Though subduing it took time due to its size and strength, she secured it in her storage, planning to figure out how to process it later.
As dusk approached, she prepared to continue her search when a wolf’s howl pierced the forest.
“Ah-woo~”
Jiang Yueli’s heart skipped. Wolves traveled in packs. One might not be dangerous, but several could overwhelm even the strongest warrior.
“Ah-woo~”
“Ah-woo~ ah-woo~”
The howls multiplied, echoing from all directions. Jiang Yueli realized the wolves were likely drawn by the scent of blood from earlier. She quickened her pace, narrowly avoiding pursuit.