Chapter 42: A Bountiful Harvest

"Let's go, let's go check it out."

Huang Shan and Huang Hai took the lead, with Su Yu closely following behind, and Huang Jianmin bringing up the rear as the group walked over.

"Oh, so it's Uncle Duancai. I was wondering who it was. We heard gunshots and came over to see what's going on. Is there a situation?"

Living in the same village, everyone knew each other. Huang Duancai, in his forties, was leading his two sons as an independent hunting party.

"Ah, it's Dashanh and Xiaohai. Nothing much, just ran into a solitary lone wolf. Scared it off with a shot."

"Huh? You missed?"

"No, it clashed with the hounds. I was afraid the hounds would get hurt, so I fired into the air."

Only then did the others understand. It turned out to be a lone wolf, most likely a deposed alpha that had lost a fight for a mate.

Such wolves were extremely vicious. Although growing old and unable to defeat a new alpha, precisely because of their age and experience, they were fiercely cunning. Even after failing to claim leadership and getting injured, they remained far more dangerous than ordinary wolves.

"Who would have thought? Not only is there a wild boar roaming nearby, but also a solitary lone wolf. Everyone, please be extra careful. Beasts like wolves are masters of ambush and terribly sly. An aged lone wolf won't be afraid when it encounters humans; instead, it will choose its prey to devour, targeting the back of a person's neck. Be very cautious, everyone."

No one would ever underestimate a former alpha wolf. Lone wolves either starved to death or died in battle because they had no other choice. Like any beast driven to a desperate corner, they were exceptionally ferocious.

"We're heading that way, so we won't tag along with you. You guys be careful too. We're off."

Huang Duancai led his sons and several hounds away.

"Uncle, do you think what he said is true? Could he have run into the wild boar and purposely covered it up?"

Everyone had their own selfish motives. Didn't Huang Shan's uncle discover traces of the wild boar up north and keep quiet about it from the rest of them?

After all, while shared game was split evenly among the village hunters, whoever actually made the kill got to take home an extra boar's head and a set of innards, which meant several extra meals of meat.

"Huang Duancai doesn't have that kind of cunning. What he said is probably true. Be careful, everyone. Since they went to the right, we'll head to the left."

Regardless of whether the other party had encountered the wild boar or not, if they chose not to speak of it, nobody could force them to admit it.

"Hey, where are Dabao and Bone?"

As they spoke, the men looked around, only to realize the dogs had already caught a scent and bolted off in pursuit.

"Could this... could they be tracking that wolf?"

"Probably not. Wolves are carnivores sitting at the top of the food chain. When have you ever seen hunting hounds track a tiger or leopard? It's not that they can't smell them, but once they catch the scent, they feel uneasy and dare not track them at all."

Su Yu remained silent, standing quietly to the side. He wasn't relying entirely on the hounds anyway; he possessed his own tracking skills.

Host: Su Yu
Age: 19
Physique: 10
Strength: 15
Speed: 10

Skills: Fishing Lv3+, Basic Archery Lv9, Tracking IV+4+, Hand-to-Hand Combat IV1+
Skill Points: 19

He had originally thought about pushing his archery to level 9 to see if a massive breakthrough would occur. After all, failing to break through even with nineteen points meant it had to be extraordinary.

Yet, having reached nineteen points and still unable to upgrade it left him somewhat anxious. Time was money, after all, so he decided to invest the points into tracking instead.

No sooner said than done; all nineteen points were instantly consumed, transforming Tracking IV+4 into Tracking IV+7.

Host: Su Yu
Age: 19
Physique: 10
Strength: 15
Speed: 10

Skills: Fishing Lv3+, Basic Archery Lv9+, Tracking IV+7, Hand-to-Hand Combat IV1
Skill Points: 0

The moment his tracking proficiency changed on the panel, Su Yu gained a profound new understanding of tracking. His six senses underwent subtle alterations: his hearing became sharper, allowing him to perceive sounds from much farther away, and his vision not only reached greater distances but also gained night-vision capabilities.

When Su Yu's archery had reached Lv9, his vision was already quite exceptional, as archery naturally correlated with eyesight—without good eyesight, hitting targets was impossible.

However, archery's contribution to night vision was very limited. While not entirely nonexistent, it was barely better than an ordinary person's.

Tracking was entirely different. It enhanced tracking abilities just as effectively in daylight as it did in the dead of night, naturally granting Su Yu true night vision.

"Xiaoyu! Xiaoyu! What's wrong with you? I called you several times and you didn't answer."

"Ah, Brother Xiaohai, what did you say? I just zoned out for a second and didn't hear you clearly."

Huang Hai shook his head, thinking to himself that they were out hunting, yet Su Yu had managed to daydream.

"Nothing important, Big Brother is calling us over. Dabao found some game, let's go check it out."

"Oh, got it."

As Su Yu walked at the rear of the group, he inhaled the residual scents lingering in the air. The forest was thick with a multitude of odors—various plants mingling with different animal droppings.

At first, Su Yu had been completely unaccustomed to it, often covering his nose and mouth with his hand as his head spun with nausea, feeling like his senses were about to overload.

Yet, over time, he gradually learned how to control his sense of smell. He could isolate individual scents from the air stream and filter them out so that the surrounding odors faded into the background, allowing him to focus exclusively on tracking a single target while returning his olfactory sensitivity to normal levels.

This way, the smells were no longer overwhelmingly pungent, and he no longer needed to cover his face.

At the same time, he could now look at broken twigs and flattened grass in the forest and instantly deduce what kind of creature had caused them. It was almost like a simulation running in his mind, as if an animal had genuinely passed through right before his eyes, showing him precisely how every blade of grass had been bent.

Good grief, this ability was insanely overpowered.

It was somewhat akin to environmental simulation, yet with pinpoint accuracy. Truly incredible.

"Xiaohai, let's go this way. We don't need to go over there."

Su Yu grabbed Huang Hai's arm, pulling him in a completely different direction.

"Hold on, Dabao went that way. Why are you dragging me this way?"

"Oh come on, Dabao is taking the long circle. We're taking a shortcut. Just follow me."

His nose could detect scents from a vast distance away, as if an invisible thread were guiding him forward step by step, allowing Su Yu to deduce the general location along the way.

Naturally, no physical thread existed; it was all simulated within his mind. But Su Yu was thoroughly confident that the direction the hounds had taken would ultimately lead to where he was heading.

With no other choice, Huang Hai shouted a quick notice to his uncle up ahead and followed Su Yu onto a narrow side trail.

*Thwack!*

An arrow struck a wild pheasant dead on.

*Thwack!*

An arrow pierced a wild hare.

*Thwack!*

An arrow hit a roe deer square.

"I can't go on, let's take a break, seriously. Big brother here simply can't keep up with your pace anymore. Let's just wait here for Big Brother and the others."

Su Yu led Huang Hai around a hillside and stopped near a patch of reed marshes. Goodness gracious, Su Yu had acted as if he entered a combat mode—one moment a rabbit, the next a pheasant. At first, Huang Hai had been thrilled, running off to retrieve the game.

But Su Yu was like an absurdly experienced hunter, bagging something every few steps. Huang Hai felt like a hapless fool just running behind to pick up the loot until he was utterly exhausted.

Su Yu glanced down at the ground. Indeed, there was quite a pile; no wonder Huang Hai was complaining.

Strewed thickly across the ground were one roe deer, three hares, three pheasants, eight magpies, five pine martens, and even seven or eight sparrows.

"You said Dabao and the others were coming this way, but where are they? Weren't you just pulling my leg? Did you just say that so I'd pick up all this game for you?"

"How could that be? Look, your brother is here."

Su Yu pointed ahead, and sure enough, Dabao and Bone came trotting toward them from the front, followed by Huang Shan and his uncle.

"I'll be damned, they really came straight toward us? Are you a god? How did you know Dabao and the others would end up over here?"

Su Yu already had his explanation ready. "It's simple. If they kept going that way, they'd run into Uncle Duancai who just left earlier. We couldn't very well steal his territory. And if they kept heading north, didn't you say there's a lake over there? Since the south is the way we came from, the only direction left was west."

"Damn, so that's how it is. Why didn't I think of that?"