"Hehe! After all, I've been practicing archery for half a month, though I still had no idea how effective close-quarters swordsmanship would be!"
Shi Heng felt a surge of secret satisfaction after shooting down a flying python on his very first try. With his current arm strength exceeding ten thousand catties, it was truly like using a cleaver to butcher a chicken.
"Alright, let's explore nearby and not wander too far off. Move in groups of three, and Shi Heng, stick with me," Shi Linhu instructed the rest of the group on the spot.
Their hunting party consisted of ten people split into two small squads of three, with the remaining four handling different tasks: two guarded the game while two followed behind to set traps. Shi Linhu was in charge of taking the newcomer, Shi Heng, under his wing.
The mountain range wasn't just ordinary forest. Perhaps due to the unique topography of the flat earth and dome sky, conventional geography simply didn't apply here. The landscape featured towering mountains, deep ravines, lakes, rolling hills, and even small basins, continually redefining Shi Heng's understanding of the Great Wilderness.
Before they knew it, they had hiked a few miles when Shi Linhu raised a hand to signal caution.
Looking ahead, about five hundred meters away, two single-legged kui beasts were grazing. Resembling oxen, they had only a single leg, and their calls sounded like thunder. Although Shi Linhu was now capable of fighting one in hand-to-hand combat, their close-range sonic attacks were extremely troublesome, so whenever possible, it was always best to take them down with ranged attacks.
"Heng lad, go up that tree with Xiao Qiang and shoot them with arrows. I'll go draw one over!"
"Understood!" With that, Shi Heng and Xiao Qiang took their bows and climbed into a nearby large tree.
Shi Linhu moved off to a clear patch of ground on the other side, giving himself an open field of vision.
*Whoosh.* He pulled his bowstring to the limit and loosed an arrow.
*Boom!* An arrow struck one of the kui beasts in the leg, and it crashed to the ground.
With only a single leg, the kui beast had to hop to move.
Shi Linhu was currently in the early stage of the Blood-Moving Realm, and his bow used specially crafted, massive bone arrows. Thus, a single shot had completely robbed the single-legged kui of its mobility.
Seeing its companion fall, the other single-legged kui dodged a second incoming bone arrow, locked onto the direction it came from, and began hopping toward Shi Linhu.
Up in the tree, Shi Heng and Xiao Qiang had already drawn their bowstrings all the way, waiting for Shi Linhu's signal to attack.
Five hundred meters wasn't a great distance, especially for a ferocious beast of the mountain forests. Moving as if on flat ground, it closed the distance to Shi Linhu in just a few blinks.
"Shoot!"
"*Whoosh! Whoosh!*" Shi Heng aimed for the single-legged kui's head, but lacking experience, he only managed to strike its spine. Xiao Qiang aimed for the eyes; though he hit his mark, his strength was insufficient, and the beast did not lose its fighting capacity.
To humans, single-legged kui beasts were normally quite easy to hunt because of ranged archery, but once they closed the distance and managed to let out a roar, they became extremely tricky.
It must be said that Shi Linhu possessed high skill and boundless courage, daring to provoke two single-legged kui beasts at once while bringing along two greenhorns.
"Not bad! You actually managed to hit it this time. Practice a bit more these next few days and you'll be able to handle things on your own!"
Even as he spoke, Shi Linhu sprinted directly toward the single-legged kui. In the blink of an eye, the two were about to collide. The beast was already preparing to unleash its roar before closing in, but Shi Linhu's strength far exceeded its own. Before it could make a sound, he pushed off with both legs and kicked straight into the creature's chin.
*Boom!* The single-legged kui's chin shattered instantly, and it collapsed, never to rise again.
"The captain is amazing!"
Xiao Qiang scrambled down the tree in a flash and ran off into the distance to retrieve the other single-legged kui that Shi Linhu had killed with his second arrow.
Shi Heng, however, stayed up in the tree. A sudden sense of dread gripped his heart, and his eyelids twitched repeatedly.
"Xiao Qiang, don't go over there!" Just as he was about to call out to Xiao Qiang, who had already walked two hundred meters away, he saw a massive striped giant tiger burst out from behind a boulder on the nearby slope. Faint precious light shimmered between its tiger stripes as it prepared to pounce on Xiao Qiang.
Evidently, the giant tiger had originally intended to hunt the single-legged kui, only for them to preempt it, leaving the beast somewhat enraged and humiliated.
The giant tiger was about four or five meters long and weighed around a thousand catties, clearly acting as the overlord of this nearby forest. Fortunately, it wasn't a deeply vicious mixed-blood descendant; otherwise, Xiao Qiang's life would certainly have been forfeit.
Seeing that something was amiss, Shi Linhu reacted instantly. He dashed toward Xiao Qiang, nocked a bone arrow, and loosed it.
Seeing the bone arrow fly toward it, the giant tiger was forced to check its momentum. It turned its head and actually caught Shi Linhu's bone arrow in its jaws.
Xiao Qiang turned tail and fled in the direction Shi Linhu had come from.
"Roar!" Mountain-descending tigers were the most ferocious of all; he hadn't expected to run into such a beast right at the start of the hunt.
Still, considering they were quite deep in the mountain range, encountering one was hardly surprising if they kept their guard up.
The three of them and the tiger formed a triangular standoff. Xiao Qiang's arm strength was three thousand catties, posing no real threat to the giant tiger, so the beast's primary caution was directed at Shi Linhu.
Meanwhile, Shi Heng hadn't previously displayed his arm strength of over ten thousand catties, and his archery had only shown the ordinary three thousand catties of force, which was why the tiger had dared to leap out to commit violence and steal their prey.
Shi Linhu possessed seven thousand catties of arm strength in the early stage of the Blood-Moving Realm, yet the giant tiger's was even greater. If he were unfortunate enough to be bitten, the consequences would be extremely perilous.
"Roar!"
"Ah!"
The giant tiger lunged at Shi Linhu amidst a series of sonic booms. As it reached a position directly above Shi Linhu's head, he drew a broadsword, rolled sideways on the ground, and prepared to slash horizontally at the tiger's paws.
The giant tiger had no intention of letting him succeed.
*Thwack!* A two-meter-long, thick tiger tail struck Shi Linhu's iron armor like lightning.
*Bang!* The impact between the tiger tail and the iron armor produced a metallic ring that set everyone's teeth on edge.
Shi Linhu was knocked back a few steps, his iron armor dented inward, a flush rising to his face as he sustained an injury.
In their very first exchange, Shi Linhu came off slightly the worse for wear. Pressing its advantage, the tiger gave chase, leaving Shi Linhu with no choice but to dodge and look for an opening.
*Clack! Clack!* Moving like a whirlwind, the man and the tiger exchanged blows for several rounds, shattering and toppling the giant trees and boulders all around them.
Sensing that things were going poorly, Xiao Qiang had already turned back along their original path to fetch the other squad for reinforcement.
Meanwhile, Shi Heng had quietly slipped down from the tree, crouching behind a boulder on one side. He picked up his dragon-horn bow and pulled it back with all his might.
Just as the giant tiger and Shi Linhu were locked in fierce combat, right at the moment when the tiger's old momentum was spent and its new strength had yet to rise, a single sound rang out.
*Whoosh!*
*Roar!*
A massive bone arrow slammed straight into the giant tiger's heart from the side.
*Thunk.* The giant tiger collapsed, never to get back up.
Right until its death, it had no idea that a misjudgment of strength would lead to its instant death at the hands of Shi Heng.
"Heng lad! Well done! *Cough, cough!* Haha! Magnificent!" Shi Linhu had never expected that just as he found himself in mortal danger, the giant tiger would be killed by a single arrow from Shi Heng. His joy was beyond words.
Dealing with the giant tiger had already put Shi Linhu at a disadvantage; he had planned to drag out the fight until the other squad arrived for backup, but the outcome had taken such an unexpected turn.
"Just how much arm strength do you have now, kid? This striped giant tiger was glowing with faint precious light—give it a few more years and it probably would have developed its own Divine Technique! You can't pierce its hide at all without five or six thousand catties of arm strength! You little rascal, you were holding back!" Shi Linhu had completely believed Shi Heng's previously displayed arm strength of two to three thousand catties, and now his astonishment was boundless.
With an embarrassed expression, Shi Heng replied, "Linhu brother, I didn't mean to hide it. On the day of the Medicinal Bath, I really only had a bit over two thousand catties of arm strength. It was only after half a month of training that it climbed to over six thousand catties. I usually don't need to use my full strength when practicing archery, so I never bothered to test it."
"Haha! Wonderful! A magnificent blessing! Come on, let's carry this big cat and the single-legged kui back to camp!" Shi Linhu was overjoyed. The greater Shi Heng's potential and strength were, the better life in Shi Village would be in the future.
With that, he hoisted the giant tiger and one of the single-legged kui, then called for Shi Heng to carry the other single-legged kui and the flying python as they headed back toward the camp.
Before they had gone even a mile, the sound of hurried footsteps drifted toward them from the direction of the camp.
"Linhu brother! Are you alright?" It was one of the members from the second squad who spoke.
"Do I look like I'm not alright?" Shi Linhu chuckled, shaking the giant tiger on his shoulder as he spoke.
"How is that possible? Xiao Qiang said you were about to be overwhelmed, so he ran back in a panic to get us for backup. How did you manage to hunt it so quickly?" A young, strong clansman stared with wide eyes, looking at the tiger's carcass in absolute disbelief.
"Haha! Have a guess!" With his spirits soaring, Shi Linhu rarey decided to make a joke.
"Linhu brother, did you have a breakthrough in the middle of battle and master Bone Inscriptions?" That was the only possibility the young warrior could think of.
"Haha! No! Not even close! The Heng lad shot it dead with a single arrow!"
"How is that possible?!"
"Hiss... Didn't the Heng lad only have three thousand catties of arm strength?"
"Yeah! What's going on here, captain?"
Shi Linhu's entire squad, including those who had been setting traps—all ten of them—had now gathered around.
"The Heng lad's arm strength is now six thousand catties!"
"*Hiss!*" (+8)
A collective intake of cold breath echoed through the air.
"The Heng lad was keeping his true strength hidden all along! In just half a month, his arm strength actually grew to six thousand catties! Unbelievable!" a young warrior sighed from the bottom of his heart.
Shi Heng quickly waved his hands to deflect the praise. "Not at all, not at all. It's all thanks to the Old Chief's Medicinal Bath. It grew a little every day over the past half month, so I just didn't get around to testing my arm strength."
"Sigh! It's just a pity that we don't have a way to enjoy the Old Chief's Medicinal Bath! There's just too little Precious Medicine and essential blood!" Hearing his words, several young warriors looked somewhat dejected.
"Alright, let's go! Our village's strength is growing stronger by the day—everyone will have their chance in the future!" Shi Linhu comforted them.
With that, he shouldered the tiger carcass once more and headed back to the camp, ready to rest up and resume the hunt.