"Holy shit! It's down already?"
Cheng Zongyang never expected that the huge beast would be on the ground after just one arrow.
He was still some distance away, but he could see it lying there, its chest rising and falling.
It looked like it was about to die.
'Just one arrow? Surely not?'
Cheng Zongyang didn't know where his arrow had struck. He had assumed he'd only wounded it and made it bleed, planning to follow up with more arrows and use kiting tactics to wear it down.
'Besides, at a hundred meters, just landing a hit is good enough. How could I expect to hit a vital spot?'
'Looks like my shot was a fluke. Did I actually hit its Internal Organs?'
Cheng Zongyang thought for a moment and decided not to approach. He would wait.
An animal's final, desperate struggle was no laughing matter.
'Looks like my luck is pretty good, taking down a brown bear in one shot!'
While he waited, Cheng Zongyang didn't just stand around. He continued to search and explore the nearby area.
This led him to unearth an aged stalk of Polygonum multiflorum. It had a good shape.
His second uncle was a Doctor at a clinic, so he often dug up Medicinal Materials to sell. Though they were usually common herbs, the county had many Martial Artists, and their demand for Medicinal Materials was high, so he never had trouble selling them.
The Polygonum multiflorum he'd found was at least forty or fifty years old, making it quite valuable. It could fetch at least a few dozen taels of silver.
About half an hour later, a prompt sounded in Cheng Zongyang's mind, and he quickly headed back.
[Killed brown bear. Points +1]
'So, it seems that no matter how large the prey I kill, I only get one Point. But why do I only get 0.5 for smaller ones?'
Cheng Zongyang didn't understand, but he didn't dwell on it.
It was a waste of time to ponder unanswerable questions. He just had to follow the rules of the Wilderness World.
Returning to the brown bear's location, Cheng Zongyang thought for a moment and fashioned a large stretcher.
It took some effort, but he finally managed to roll the bear's body onto it.
Using a rope made from twisted vines, he slung one end of the stretcher over his shoulder and began the arduous task of dragging the brown bear back.
His strength was enough to carry a mountain boar of three to four hundred jin, so with the help of the stretcher, dragging a brown bear weighing over four hundred kilograms was still possible.
It was just strenuous and much slower.
Cheng Zongyang followed the trail he'd left for himself, making his way back to the market hut step by step. By the time he arrived, it was already noon.
"HUUUH..."
He sat at the entrance of the market hut, continuously rubbing his shoulders.
The path was difficult, full of rugged and uneven mountain trails, which had taken a toll on his shoulders.
"GRRROWL..."
His stomach rumbled again.
He ignored the brown bear at the entrance for now, went inside to get his dry rations and water, and began to eat quickly.
Even after finishing all the rations, he was only half full.
Then he ate two Apples.
Next, he went outside, cleared a small area, gathered some dry branches, and lit a bonfire, preparing to roast some meat.
He wouldn't have any strength if he didn't eat his fill.
He took four snakes, each weighing about three jin, coiled them up, and simply tossed them into the fire.
He had only removed the Snake Gall and Internal Organs; the skin was still on, so he wasn't worried about the meat inside getting charred.
He then returned to the market hut and accepted the quest for bear paws.
He then went outside, looked at the brown bear, and took his Firewood Knife to chop off its four paws.
Carrying the bloody paws, he entered the hut, placed them on the counter, and selected "Complete Quest."
—
[Bear Paw Acquisition Quest Complete. Received 100 Points.]
—
The bear paws vanished, and even the bloodstains on the counter disappeared without a trace.
Cheng Zongyang looked at the prompt, then at his Points total, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.
—224.5
'Unsold goods in the cabinet stay for three days. Once they sell out, it restocks the next day. No problem, I can buy more tomorrow.'
'But expanding the cabinet slots requires Gold. According to the description, the fourth slot requires one tael of Gold, the fifth needs ten taels, and the sixth, one hundred taels. It's a tenfold increase each time. After the tenth slot, it requires Points to upgrade.'
'If I want to buy more things, I have to expand the slots. Gold...'
This gave Cheng Zongyang a headache. One tael of Gold was equal to ten taels of silver.
His family's current savings amounted to just over two taels of silver.
After two years of drought, the Government Office's tax silver hadn't decreased but had actually increased. The tax of one and a half taels of silver was due in six days.
He didn't care about the nation's self-destructive Dao, nor did he wonder when it would finally collapse.
He only needed to worry about his own family.
Money was needed for emergencies. Things like headaches, fevers, or injuries were major expenses.
Even though his second uncle was a Doctor and wouldn't charge for his services, his family couldn't possibly pay nothing. At the very least, they had to pay for the medicine.
Therefore, they couldn't spend all their money; in fact, they needed to earn more.
Sitting by the bonfire, Cheng Zongyang poked the flames with a dry stick, his mind racing. Finally, he looked toward the snakes and the brown bear inside the market hut.
'The Snake Galls are gone, so only the snake meat is left to sell. The brown bear has plenty of sellable parts. The paws are gone, but there's still the hide, the Bear Gall, and the meat.'
Bear Gall is also a precious ingredient for medicine, so the price should be good. But there's no rush to sell. I can go to the county and ask my second uncle about the price of Bear Gall."
'It's about an hour's walk to the county, so two hours for a round trip. Minus the time to sell things... hmm, that should work.'
Cheng Zongyang decided to go tomorrow. He had already accomplished a great deal today; it was enough.
He wasn't greedy, and today's haul was substantial.
A large pheasant and thirteen eggs.
Over a hundred snakes, a stalk of Polygonum multiflorum, a brown bear, and a deer.
And a cloth bag full of wild blueberries.
What was there to be unsatisfied with?
Next, he picked out one of the snakes, now charred black. With his Firewood Knife, he peeled away the charcoal-like skin to reveal steaming, snow-white meat.
At the smell of the cooking meat, Cheng Zongyang finished peeling the skin and began to eat directly.
It didn't have much flavor, feeling a lot like eating chicken.
With his large appetite, he couldn't afford to be a picky eater. He wouldn't waste any food that could fill his stomach.
Only by doing so could he quickly replenish the Energy he needed, which would in turn become his strength.
In less than a quarter of an hour, all the meat from the four three-jin snakes—minus skin and bones—had gone into his stomach.
For the first time in a while, he was truly full.
This met his ideal standard for a meal. At home, he only ever ate until he was half-full; otherwise, with his appetite, he would have eaten his family out of house and home.
He rinsed his mouth with a few gulps of light saltwater, swallowed, and then began to organize his things. He would have to leave once it got dark.
He left the brown bear carcass in the market hut. Beside it was a basket brimming with snake carcasses covered by leaves, a large sack also full of snakes, the pheasant with its feet tied, and the wild eggs nestled in the basket.
He left the Polygonum multiflorum and the Ironwood Bow and Arrow behind, taking only his old Bow and Arrow and Firewood Knife as he departed the Wilderness World.
No animals other than him could enter the market hut, and it also had a preservative effect on the meat stored inside, so he wasn't worried about anything spoiling.
When he left the Wilderness World, the sky was already dim. He reappeared in the hidden corner, scanned his surroundings, and seeing no one, began to make his way down the mountain.
By the time he reached the village entrance, it was almost completely dark. He only carried his Bow and Arrow and Firewood Knife for part of the way. At a deserted corner, he retrieved his other items and then headed home.
However, just as he reached his doorstep, he was surprised to see a person holding a torch emerge from his home.
"Whoa! Zongyang, you've brought back quite a haul!"
The man coming out of the house was startled to run into the returning Cheng Zongyang. Though the sky was dim, the torchlight made him easy to recognize. The man was utterly shocked by the sight of Zongyang's load.
On his back, in his hands, slung around his neck... it was an absolutely massive haul!
"Ah, it's Uncle Kun," Cheng Zongyang said calmly, sidestepping the man and heading inside. "Just got lucky. Stumbled upon a snake nest and caught a few, also dug up a bag of wild vegetables. The pheasant was a lucky catch, too."
Cheng Zongyang shook his head. 'Of all the things I planned for, I never expected someone would be at my house right now.'
He knew the man, though. His name was Li Yongkun, another Hunter from the village. They didn't interact much, their relationship limited to simple greetings when they passed each other.
Li Yongkun watched with undisguised envy as Cheng Zongyang entered his home and shut the door.
He himself had spent the better part of the day wandering the mountain forests and had come back with nothing; he hadn't even seen a single wild egg, let alone actual prey. In the end, he'd only managed to dig up some wild vegetables and gather a few cheap Medicinal Materials to sell in town for a bit of wheat bran.
'Something isn't right,' Li Yongkun thought. 'The Outer Mountain is picked clean. How could that kid find so much? A snake nest? A pheasant?'
Though envious, Li Yongkun didn't harbor any ill intentions.
There was a simple reason for this: the father and son of the Cheng Family were the village's top hunters. Cheng Zongyang in particular was a ruthless character. Despite being a teenager who usually appeared as harmless and polite as any other well-mannered youth in the village, anyone who angered him was in for a world of hurt.
Over the past two years, as food grew scarcer, people had done many irrational things. But anyone who tried to cause trouble for his family was dealt with harshly by the boy.
The other children his age in the village were all afraid of him, and they kept their distance, not daring to interact with him too much.
What made even the adults wary was the boy's strength and Archery skills; even the best Hunters in the village had to admit their admiration.
So, while he envied the boy's good fortune in bringing back such a haul, he had no intention of looking for trouble.
'I'm probably the only one who saw him bring all this back tonight. The kid chose to return after dark specifically to avoid being seen by the other villagers. He just didn't expect me to be here tonight and to run into him at his own doorstep.'
'If villagers find out tomorrow and start gossiping or causing trouble, there's no doubt the kid will immediately think it was me who spread the word.'
But the farther he walked, the more he thought about it, and the more suspicious he became. He glanced back at the Cheng Family home and muttered to himself:
"Don't tell me he went into the Inner Mountain?"