Hunter becomes Prey
"These are the tracks left by a hoofed animal, probably a rather fat one. It could be a wild boar or some exotic animal particular to this mountain," Chen Wei says as he kneels near the footprints and examines them carefully. He now has three more spears strapped to his waist with thin vines.
"It looks fresh since the soil in the tracks is still wet, but that could be due to the forest's humidity." Chen Wei touches the footprints, which seem to him to have the moisture of an animal that had wet feet.
"...does this mean there's water nearby?" Feng Hua asks doubtfully, holding her spear in front of her body, ready to defend herself.
"Not necessarily. Depending on the animal, it could travel several kilometers away from a water source... but I can't identify that just from the tracks. Besides, I don't hear any sound of running water," Chen Wei says as he looks around, searching for more clues. Aside from some tracks leading in a direction and a few broken branches, he finds nothing. "...and the mountains of the Southern Border don't usually have lakes."
"But at least this makes me think this isn't a popular hunting spot for such a large prey to be wandering around calmly." He looks northward, the direction they have been walking for hours, although he doesn't know exactly how many.
"And the fact that we haven't seen a single hunting trap so far, besides the small smoke generated by the fire, suggests that this group of hunters is quite small... perhaps exploring a new hunting area." As he speaks, his gaze falls on Yu Lian, who is picking leaves from a bush.
Despite his words, Chen Wei still feels a certain level of suspicion due to not finding even the smallest trace left by the hunters, even if this is a new hunting zone for them.
"T-the fewer, the better... right?" Wang Mei's voice is low, filled with guilt and sadness as she speaks beside Chen Wei.
She now feels strange because every time she looks at Chen Wei, she remembers the horrible things he did to the clan. But the worst of all is the guilt she feels within herself because even after everything, she still doesn't hate him. In fact, she feels an even stronger desire to run into his arms for comfort for the crime he himself committed.
In reality, even after seeing everything, she can hardly believe that he truly did it solely for personal gain. So, Wang Mei genuinely believes that he has reasons he might not be revealing, so she can place all the blame on him without considering her possible personal guilt.
"Exactly. As I said, I plan to seek their help by pretending to be someone who got lost from a caravan that was raided, then attack them by surprise when they let their guard down, leaving only one alive so I can interrogate him," Chen Wei says as he stands up, ready to continue walking.
"And if, as I imagine now, there are only four or five of them, it will be even easier."
While Chen Wei speaks, he notices out of the corner of his eye Yu Lian crushing the herbs she picked from the bush into a pulp and applying it to her feet and the cuts and scratches all over her fragile skin, which has never walked through the forest before.
"Are those medicinal herbs used by mortals?" He guesses, seeing the girl picking these herbs when he stopped to examine the tracks and observing what she is doing with them, it's obvious to guess their purpose.
Of course, this wouldn't be a lack of basic knowledge on Chen Wei's part. In fact, it would be the opposite. The excess of knowledge about different medicinal Gu materials he had to learn through arduous study didn't leave time for him to learn and memorize these plants, which are medicinal herbs used by mortals. And obviously, until now, he didn't need them.
But with Yu Lian working in her family's shop that attended to various low-level Gu Masters or "wealthy" mortals and her interest in herbalism, she has a much greater knowledge of these different herbs that can be used by mortals.
"...well, they are Healing Freshness Leaves and can stop pain and prevent infection in cuts..." Yu Lian hands some of the leaves to the three, but Chen Wei rejects them as he has no significant cuts or anything bothering him on his body, which has become more resistant after years of battle.
Chen Wei stands guard while waiting for the girls to apply the medicinal herbs to their injuries, making him realize that their hostility towards him has significantly decreased. This doesn't mean they trust him, but he notices that their bodies aren't constantly tense as before.
"We need to walk faster as it's already past noon, and we're still far from our objective..." Chen Wei tells them, who follow him as they resume their path after finishing applying the herbs to their wounds.
In reality, even though Chen Wei says they need to go faster, he knows they are already at the limit of walking fast enough while maintaining their physical energy. Additionally, it's not safe to run carelessly through a mountain without any investigative Gu. Moreover, Wang Mei, who is pregnant, needs to stop every few minutes to rest, which cannot be avoided.
And even without these factors, it would still take a long time as throughout this journey, they haven't been following a linear route. Since they are walking through the untouched mountains and forests of the Southern Border, they often have to make detours of hundreds of meters just to make some progress towards their goal.
However, this isn't Chen Wei's main concern. His real worry is entirely unrelated and can be described in one word: Animals. More precisely, the lack of these animals, which should be abundant in a forest like this. Except for the tracks he saw a while ago, he hasn't seen a single trace of animals.
This might be expected for medium to large herbivores, but so far, he hasn't even seen small rodents or birds as if they are avoiding coming near him as if something doesn't want him to get prey. Ans he has one main suspect for this.
But suddenly, at this moment, he hears a noise that makes his body tense and prepare for battle. The girls, on the other hand, have bright eyes while Wang Mei is the first to speak with an excited voice.
"That's the sound of running water! Like from a big riv--!" Wang Mei is abruptly cut off by Chen Wei pulling her strongly.
"Careful!! A beast!" Chen Wei speaks with a serious expression on his face as he moves quickly, his ears accustomed to danger, hearing something the girls didn't notice.
At this moment, like a shadow, a crazed and wild black boar with dark green stripes charges with all its might through the spot where Wang Mei was standing. Now, she, along with Yu Lian and Feng Hua, quickly runs to hide behind thick trees.
"Quick, it's a Butcher Boar!" Feng Hua says with worry on her face.
"Should we follow the plan?! What if it charges at us?!" Yu Lian asks, feeling overwhelmed with nervousness as this is her first real life-or-death battle.
"Of course, Chen Wei's life is at risk!" Wang Mei shouts, feeling a strong pain in her belly but having to ignore it for now because of the emergency situation.
At that moment, Chen Wei wasn't nervous or scared at all. He acted with the pure instinct of a killer and thrust his spear with all his might into the boar's ass, causing it to scream in pain. The spear is deeply embedded in the boar's body after piercing its weak point, which is now bleeding profusely.
The boar then, surprisingly, turned fluidly and struck Chen Wei in the stomach before he could defend himself. He was caught off guard by the boar's unexpected agility. However, at least now the boar's full attention is on him, as planned.
"Argh!" Chen Wei groaned in pain as he was thrown backward but managed to keep his balance, which was crucial since this wasn't a game where the boar would give him a break. It charged at him again with a look of pure rage.
"Now!!" Chen Wei shouted as the boar charged at him. Feng Hua, Wang Mei, and Yu Lian threw spears in its path, forcing it to dodge and lose some of its balance.
They obviously didn't hide behind the trees out of fear, wanting to escape the fight. This was the plan they had discussed, to obstruct the path of a beast in some way while staying relatively safe as Chen Wei engaged in physical combat.
This is a basic strategy for dealing with boars, which tend to be animals that can't turn their bodies continuously without losing balance. Both Wang Mei and Feng Hua come from high-class families and have learned a lot about combat theoretically.
Moreover, Feng Hua fought for a long time on the front lines of the war and has considerable skill that allows her to handle a beast without wisdom. The one who has the most difficulty is Yu Lian, who has no combat experience, but even so, she has been continuously taught what to do by Chen Wei along the way.
"Perfect!!" Chen Wei said as he saw the boar running at him furiously but now struggling to maintain its balance.
As soon as the boar was face-to-face with him, Chen Wei, with the rear end of his second spear firmly planted in the ground to act as a stake, quickly knelt, aiming the spear at the wild animal's neck.
The boar collided with the spear, and due to its speed, the stability of the spear, and the thin skin of its neck, the weapon immediately pierced an artery. Chen Wei then rolled to his right, escaping the boar's deadly trajectory in its last moments of fury.
Chen Wei didn't bother to continue looking at the boar's physical state as he ran with all his strength to climb the nearest tree as quickly as possible, just as the three girls did after throwing their spears.
"Ahaha damn, cursed beast hahaha," Chen Wei laughed, covering his stomach, which had a relatively large cut and some broken ribs.
"Chen Wei, are you okay?!" He heard Wang Mei's worried voice coming from a tree nearby.
"Of course I am, for now... but I'll need medical care for this wound don't get worse," Chen Wei said, a weak smile on his face as he looked at the boar writhing on the ground in desperation.
"Thank goodness..." Wang Mei said, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes. She also held her belly, which ached continuously.
Meanwhile, the Butcher Boar ran from side to side, desperately trying to remove the spears deeply embedded in its ass, and especially the one that pierced its neck artery, causing it to bleed profusely, which only worsened as the animal ran in panic.
"Haha, who would have thought my next life-or-death battle would be with a damn Butcher Boar," Chen Wei said with disdain in his voice, aware that this carnivorous boar is a recognized predator in the Southern Border.
"...." The three girls remained quiet with strange expressions after seeing Chen Wei laugh about his life-or-death fight.
Mainly because this boar has a bloodthirsty reputation, hence its name, as it won't stop attacking until everyone is dead, even if it has enough prey to feed on. It won't stop killing.
This was why Chen Wei didn't try to sacrifice one of the two girls; he knew it wouldn't work at all. He chose to take the risk of fighting head-on with his life at stake, which paid off in the end.
This risk was taken because he knew that Butcher Boars are notorious for having poor vision and navigating by smell. He used this to thrust his spear into the boar using its own charge to force the weapon to pierce its neck and hit its artery.
He also took the risk because he noticed that this was just a juvenile due to its size, so it would at most have the strength of a Rank 1 peak stage Gu master. An he knew he couldn't outrun the boar, and if he climbed a tree with it still alive and healthy, it would wait below the tree until Chen Wei was forced to come down.
"Damn, I didn't expect it to turn so agilely..." Chen Wei said, using his hands to stanch his stomach wound, which was the only flaw in his plan.
"It must have some Gu to help with that..." Chen Wei saw the boar staggering and collapsing to the ground in a pool of its own blood, writhing for a few minutes before dying.
"Is it dead? What is that glowing thing?" Yu Lian asked, her heart still pounding with fear and adrenaline coursing through her veins.
"A Gu, as expected," Chen Wei said, seeing a small green Gu flying out of the boar and disappearing into the forest. "...ahh, I don't have any way to capture it."
"That was close. Luckily, it's a male and thus solitary..." Feng Hua murmured, looking at the dead boar but not daring to climb down the tree to check its body for fear of more of its kind being nearby.
"Hahaha, the feeling of a life-or-death battle is unparalleled, no matter the form!!" Chen Wei had a wide smile on his face as he stared at the boar that could easily have taken his life, but he felt no fear, only satisfaction for having slain the animal.
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