With a “boom” Li Qingshan put down all his preys in front of Grandpa Cang: “This much should be enough to make up for the food I ate from the village, right!”
The serial sound of saliva being gulped down came from all around. Those hunters who had just come down from the mountain were even more stunned as they stared with big eyes and open mouths. They had a big group of men cooperating together with meticulous planning, but the game they captured unexpectedly wasn’t even as much as Li Qingshan got by himself.
Grandpa Cang discovered that many corpse didn’t show even a trace of injury: “How did you hunt them?”
This was the question everyone on the scene wanted to ask. Li Qingshan thought for a moment and answered with a smile: “I grabbed them with my hands!”
Everyone was about to fall and faint. They were even unable to continue asking their questions.
Li Qingshan took a glance at the game carried down by the hunters: “You also hunted so much, you almost caught up to me. No way, I have to try harder, otherwise won’t I be unable to win.”
Grandpa Cang had no way to explain to him that those preys had to be divided among every single hunter. Each hunter didn’t even reach a single prey hunted on average. On the first day of the hunt, Li Qingshan’s victory was already almost set in stone.
Li Qingshan ate a meal and immediately went back up the mountains.
Those hunters went back up the northern mountains with perturbed moods and explained what had happened inside the village.
“How’s that possible?”
“You bunch must have gotten drunk in the village!”
They hurriedly defended themselves: “It’s real, there really was this much game.”
“This kid!” Sick Yellow Tiger sighed out a long breath and shouted: “Everyone try harder, don’t fall behind him. If all of us added together can’t even match him by his lone self, we might as well all go slash our wrists!”
The hunters rumbled a loud pledge, their morale upsurging.
Sick Yellow Tiger secretly repressed a burst of coughs. When he looked at his palm there was a bright red patch of fresh blood.
A group of men and horses slowly traveled on a mountain path. In the middle was a small palanquin lifted by four porters, crowded around by a dozen family servants and guards.
A fat hand lifted the palanquin’s curtain open, revealing a fat face that asked: “Adviser, how far is this place from Suncheer City?” It was clearly fall, yet he was dripping with sweat sitting inside the palanquin.
A man who looked like a butler said: “My lord, it’s still far away. It’d be already nice if we could arrive tonight.”
Lord Fatty let the curtain drop and mumbled to himself: “I devoted myself to great learning and statecraft, but they actually sent me to serve as the county magistrate in such a remote place. The lord prefect is really confused.”
“My lord, we dare not say such nonsense, it would be bad if it spread to the prefect’s ears.”
Lord Fatty made two hmph hmph sounds and didn’t talk any further.
At this time, the mountain wind suddenly rose and countless forest birds flew up in alarm.
“Awooo!” A roar spread from the dense forest beside the mountain road.
The palanquin dropped to the ground with a “dong.” Lord Fatty’s eyes and mouth became crooked from the fall. “Wha, what’s the matter? Is someone plotting to murder this official?”
“My… my lord, it’s a ti… a tiger!” The adviser had fallen to the ground and his trembling finger pointed in front of him.
A gorgeous fierce tiger jumped down from the slope and dropped on the mountain road, glaring covetously at the palanquin. There was a “王”character on its forehead as it stood majestic and awe-inspiring.
“Huh, tiger, what, it’s a tiger! Some, someone quickly come, seize this animal!”
The adviser was almost about to cry: “They… they all ran away.”
Lord Fatty lifted the curtains and took a look. Indeed, the porters, servants, and guards around them had all cleanly scampered off double-quick. They had reacted as soon as the tiger roar had come. The bottom level working cla.s.ses were still filled with vigilance and quick-wittedness.
Ancient people had such an idiom: “to turn pale at the mention of a tiger1.” For commoners of this era, there was no one who didn’t fear tigers. Fierce tigers eating people was also something that couldn’t be more common.
Lord Fatty said with emotion: “Adviser you’re really loyal, you didn’t betray this official’s thick affections!”
The adviser instinctively said: “Many thanks for the lord’s praise, even if this lowly self had to die with his body torn and his bones crushed, it still wouldn’t repay a thousandth of my lord’s grace.” while cursing in his heart: f.u.c.k it, I… I don’t have the strength to move and leave!
“You first brace yourself, I’ll go save the soldiers!” Lord Fatty drilled out of the palanquin extremely quickly, planning on forcing his way through the road and escape.
The adviser quickly clung to Lord Fatty’s leg: “My lord, don’t leave this lowly self behind!”
The wild tiger’s eyes almost lit up when it saw this bunch of fat meat, and it was about to pounce when its ears suddenly p.r.i.c.ked up. It shrank its body and faced the mountain forest.
The forest gra.s.ses and trees swayed, the rustles echoing closer and closer, the momentum even much greater than the wild tiger that had just appeared.
The adviser mumbled: “What, what’s this now?”
A silhouette leaped out from the mountain forest. This was a young man. His young face couldn’t be called handsome, but it was filled with a soaring spirit as he deftly landed on the mountain path. He faced the ferocious tiger and grinned while baring his teeth: “That’s a rare good prey!”
The fierce tiger seemed to know that the newcomer wasn’t someone good to deal with. It made a threatening pose, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, but it proved entirely useless. Its body quivered, and with a cry it fiercely pounced forward.
Li Qingshan set a foot firmly down and caught the two tiger claws with his hands. A tiger mouth filled to the brim with fangs neared him with a fishy gust of wind that rushed to his face. He shouted in a heavy voice. His true qi surged madly, filling his arms with explosive strength, and in one go he flipped the several hundred pounds tiger on the ground. Then he threw himself on the tiger and rode its back.
He never faced a tiger and had only read about Wu Song fighting a tiger in , so he learned by example. He held on tight to the tiger’s back and threw random punches down.
The tiger suffered pain and roared madly. It fiercely bent his back as if it were bowing and sent Li Qingshan bouncing out in the air. Li Qingshan thought: “The reality is indeed different from what’s written inside books.” The true qi inside his body sank downward and he dropped steadily on the ground, about to contend cautiously with the tiger.
But that tiger took a look at him, made an “Awoo,” then turned around and fled.
Lord Fatty and the adviser had both been staring blankly at the scene, and only returned to their senses at this time, overjoyed at this unexpected turn.
“Young hero, brave warrior, this official is Suncheer City’s county magistrate. You drove away this tiger, this official will heavily reward you!”
But Li Qingshan didn’t even look at them and yelled loudly: “Where are you running off to!” He pursued in great strides like a meteor and grabbed the mace-like tail of the tiger. However the tiger tail was slippery and it wasn’t easy to get a hold of it.
How would Li Qingshan be willing to let go of this great prey in front of his eyes. He chased away after it.
Lord Fatty and the adviser only reacted to this astonishing turn of the situation after a long while. They looked at each other in dismay.
The autumn hunt concluded, and the Horse Rein Village was full of jubilant joy.
Li Qingshan also returned to the village. There were many additional scars on his body to the point of cutting a somewhat sorry figure, but everyone who looked at him exposed a reverent expression. It wasn’t because of his scars, but because of the prey on his shoulder.
His body was shouldering a ferocious adult tiger.
He had pursued this violent tiger for one day and one night inside the mountain forests, only persisting thanks to the endurance bestowed by the [Bull Demon Strong Fist]. He would have lost sight of the tiger’s trail several times during the night if it weren’t for Little An’s help in tracking and chasing the beast.
Facing this king of the mountains, Little An couldn’t go near it either. Ferocious tigers had an innate majesty that scared ghosts into submission, so much so that that the elite tigers that had become tiger spirits could transform the men it had eaten into ghost followers.
The village’s kids rushed around Li Qingshan. Their eyes were all filled with worship.
Sick Yellow Tiger came out himself to welcome him outside the gates, then decreed him first in the hunt. No one in the village dared to object. It wasn’t only the case for ordinary people, tigers were also frightening wild beasts even for hunters. Ordinary hunting bows had absolutely no way to kill a tiger. It would merely excite the vicious nature of the tiger instead. And it was even more of a straight road to death if one expected to use a hunting knife to fight in close combat with a tiger.
Li Qingshan killed a tiger, and it was as if he had gained the tiger’s prestige.
“I don’t have much worth any money, so this Stone Rending Bow will serve as the prize for this autumn hunt!” Sick Yellow Tiger took down the great bow from his back.
“Stone Rending Bow!”
1. Chinese idiom figuratively meaning to be frightened at the mere mention of.