The night was dark, and the waning moon was half-hidden behind thick clouds.
Wolong Mountain crouched at the edge of Apricot Blossom Village like a giant black bear.
The late autumn wind swept through the dead forest, producing eerie, ghost-like howls that sent chills straight into the bones.
An ordinary village girl wouldn’t dare enter the mountains at night.
Most wouldn’t even dare look at them for long in broad daylight.
But for Lin Wan…
This place was practically her natural hunting ground.
In her previous life, she had been a top assassin.
She had survived tropical rainforests and frozen polar wastelands.
A mountain like this was nothing more than a backyard.
She quietly parted the waist-high dead grass and crouched low, melting into the darkness like a ghost.
No torch.
No hunting dogs.
But after drinking the Spirit Spring water, her five senses had become astonishingly sharp.
Her pupils widened slightly in the darkness.
Her night vision naturally activated, and the outlines of the surrounding trees gradually became clear.
Besides the sound of the wind, she could even hear insects crawling through fallen leaves over thirty feet away.
“This body may be weak, but at least its foundation is clean.”
Lin Wan calculated silently as she walked.
She didn’t blindly rush into the deep mountains like a headless fly.
That would simply be suicide.
The greatest strength of an assassin was hunting with intelligence.
She stopped on a sheltered slope and carefully examined the ground.
A row of tiny plum blossom-shaped footprints appeared faintly among the weeds.
Nearby were several fresh, pellet-shaped droppings.
“Wild rabbit.”
A satisfied smile appeared on Lin Wan’s lips.
Following the tracks, she quickly found a narrow game trail frequently used by rabbits.
Now that she had found her prey, it was time to set a trap.
No steel snare?
That wasn’t a problem.
She pulled the rusty woodcutting knife from her boot and swiftly cut several flexible thorn branches.
She also gathered a few sturdy mountain vines.
Her fingers moved with practiced speed.
Soon, an ingenious yet deadly spring snare trap was complete.
She hid the loop beneath a layer of dead leaves on the game trail.
The other end was tied to a young sapling bent tightly under tension.
As soon as an animal stepped on the trigger…
The sapling would spring upright.
The noose would tighten instantly, leaving the prey hanging helplessly in midair.
She had used this exact trap countless times in the Amazon rainforest to kill venomous snakes and small wild animals.
After setting three connected snares, Lin Wan dusted the dirt from her hands and disappeared into a nearby bush.
Now came an assassin’s compulsory lesson—
Waiting.
The night wind grew colder and colder, slicing through her thin clothing like knives.
Lin Wan remained motionless like a stone statue.
Even her breathing slowed to the bare minimum.
Half an hour passed.
Rustle… rustle…
A barely audible sound of leaves brushing together came from the far end of the trail.
Lin Wan’s eyes sharpened instantly.
Every muscle in her body tensed.
By the dim moonlight, a fat gray rabbit cautiously hopped forward with its ears standing straight.
Completely unaware…
It had already stepped into Death’s territory.
One step.
Two steps.
Snap!
A crisp sound of a twig breaking echoed through the forest.
Whoosh!
The bent sapling shot upright with explosive force.
Before the rabbit could react, the vine noose had already tightened around its neck.
It didn’t even have time to scream.
The powerful pull instantly lifted it into the air.
Its hind legs kicked wildly a few times before it rolled its eyes and went limp.
“One.”
Lin Wan didn’t rush out to collect it.
Instead, she continued waiting in silence.
Wild rabbits usually traveled in groups.
If there was one…
There would definitely be another.
Sure enough, less than fifteen minutes later, a slightly smaller rabbit fell into another snare.
Not only that…
She also hurled her wooden spear with perfect precision.
It pierced a wild pheasant sleeping on a tree branch.
A single throw.
One clean kill.
It barely lost a feather.
“Not bad.”
“Tonight’s harvest should feed Yulong for two days.”
Lin Wan stepped out of the bushes, efficiently removed the trapped animals, tied them together with vines, and carried them in one hand.
Two rabbits and one pheasant weighed well over twenty pounds.
The heavy weight of fresh meat made her empty stomach cramp in protest once again.
Just as she was about to head back down the mountain…
A strange sensation of weightlessness stirred inside her mind once more.
She wasn’t entering the space.
Instead…
The remaining Spirit Spring energy inside her body seemed to have sensed something.
Like two magnets attracting one another.
A powerful pull guided her toward something.
“Hm?”
“Treasure?”
Lin Wan stopped walking and turned toward the deeper part of the mountain.
There stood a steep cliff that even the village’s most experienced herbalists avoided.
Fortune favored the brave.
Without hesitation, Lin Wan hid the game in the branches of a large tree, grabbed her woodcutting knife, and quietly made her way toward the cliff.
Jagged rocks covered the cliffside.
Wild grass grew everywhere.
One careless step would send someone falling to their death.
Lying flat at the edge, Lin Wan leaned over and looked down.
The cliff face was covered in slippery moss.
By the moonlight, she spotted a clump of inconspicuous plants growing from a crack in the rock about ten feet below the top.
Their leaves were heart-shaped.
Their vines intertwined and swayed gently in the wind.
At the roots…
A rich concentration of natural spiritual energy gathered so densely that it almost seemed tangible.
It was the exact source resonating with the Spirit Spring water inside her.
“Heart-shaped leaves…”
“Twining vines…”
“Spiritual energy gathering at the roots…”
Lin Wan quickly searched through the herbal knowledge from her previous life.
Suddenly, her eyes lit up.
Her breathing quickened.
“Wild Fo-ti!”
(Polygonum multiflorum.)
Judging by the number of leaves and the thickness of the vines…
This specimen was incredibly old.
At least sixty years.
In ancient times…
A wild medicinal herb of this age was practically priceless.
It was worth a fortune.
I’ve struck gold.
Her heart pounded wildly.
But she immediately forced herself to calm down.
The location was extremely dangerous.
She had no rope.
No climbing equipment.
Trying to harvest it with her bare hands from such a slippery cliff was almost courting death.
Retreat?
That word had never existed in Night Shadow’s dictionary.
Lin Wan removed the cumbersome outer robe, leaving only her thin inner clothing.
She tightened the cloth strips wrapped around her hands.
Taking a deep breath…
She flipped herself over the edge and clung to the cliff like a gecko.
Hiss—
Sharp rocks instantly sliced open her fingers.
Blood began flowing.
Lin Wan didn’t even frown.
Relying on incredible core strength and precise judgment of every tiny protrusion in the cliff face, she slowly climbed downward.
Each movement sent loose stones tumbling into the abyss below.
The terrifying echoes seemed endless.
The ten-foot descent took her nearly fifteen minutes.
Finally…
The Fo-ti plant was within reach.
Gripping a crack in the rock with one hand, she carefully used the woodcutting knife to loosen the stone surrounding the roots.
A precious herb like this lost much of its value if the roots were damaged.
Little by little…
Finally—
Click.
A rock came loose.
Lin Wan reacted instantly.
She grabbed the vines firmly and pulled the entire plant out with its roots intact.
A purple-black root the size of a baby’s fist emerged.
Its surface was covered with strange natural patterns.
A rich medicinal fragrance instantly filled the air, refreshing both body and mind.
“Excellent.”
“At least sixty years old.”
Joy flashed across Lin Wan’s eyes.
She quickly tucked the Fo-ti into her clothes.
Just as she prepared to climb back…
The weathered rock supporting her feet suddenly let out a cracking sound.
Crack!
The stone shattered and plunged into the endless abyss.
Her footing disappeared instantly.
Her entire body weight now hung from her blood-soaked left hand gripping the narrow crack.
“Damn!”
Lin Wan’s expression changed.
The muscles in her arm trembled violently under the strain.
Her strength had reached its limit.
Her bloody fingers slowly began slipping.
Had she really obtained her first fortune…
Only to die here?
No.
Absolutely not.
At that critical moment—
Lin Wan bit down hard on the tip of her tongue.
The intense pain jolted her nervous system, forcing every last ounce of strength from her exhausted body.
The instant her left hand slipped free…
She kicked powerfully off the cliff wall with both legs.
Her body twisted through the air.
Her right hand shot out like an eagle’s claw and grabbed a thick tree root protruding from the cliff edge.
“Ha!”
With a fierce roar, she tightened her core muscles and pulled herself upward in one explosive motion.
Like a carp leaping over a waterfall…
She flipped back onto solid ground.
“Huff… Huff…”
Lin Wan lay spread out on the grass, gasping for breath.
Cold sweat soaked her clothes.
The fingers of her left hand were torn open and bleeding profusely.
The pain was excruciating.
But she smiled.
A wild, triumphant smile.
She touched the heavy Fo-ti hidden inside her clothes.
This…
This was the foundation she needed to survive in this world.
The eastern sky gradually brightened with the pale glow of dawn.
Morning was approaching.
Lin Wan climbed to her feet and roughly wrapped her injured fingers with strips of cloth.
She retrieved the game she had hidden in the tree.
Carrying two rabbits and a pheasant, she walked down the mountain toward the rising sun.
By the time she returned to the ruined temple, daylight had fully arrived.
She pushed aside the broken wooden door blocking the entrance.
“Big Sister! You’re back!”
Curled up on the hay, Lin Yulong immediately sat upright when he heard the noise.
His eyes were filled with worry and lingering fear.
Then he saw the game hanging from Lin Wan’s hand.
His sunken eyes widened into perfect circles.
His mouth dropped open wide enough to fit an egg.
“M-Meat…”
“Big Sister… you really caught meat!”
Lin Yulong rubbed his eyes in disbelief, swallowing hard.
During his three years with the Lin family…
He hadn’t seen this much meat even during the New Year.
“When has your sister ever lied to you?”
Lin Wan tossed the game onto the ground.
Though exhausted to the bone, her eyes shone brightly.
She pulled the Fo-ti root from inside her clothes and waved it before him.
“Not only did I bring back meat.”
“Yulong, get ready.”
“After breakfast…”
“We’re going to town.”
Lin Yulong blinked at the dark, dirt-covered root in confusion.
“What are we going to town for?”
“We don’t even have money to get into town.”
Lin Wan weighed the Fo-ti in her hand.
A confident smile spread across her face.
“We’re going to sell it.”
“And then…”
“We’re going to buy ourselves a real house.”