Chapter 65: Entering The Mountains
“There’s a wild chicken!”
“Shh!”
Swoosh! An arrow flew out, and the wild chicken fell from the dense branches and leaves.
Pei Yan excitedly stepped forward, picked up the plump wild chicken, turned to shake it at the crowd, and grinned: “We’ll stew soup tonight, and everyone can get a bowl.”
Pei Qinghe raised an eyebrow and smiled: “One isn’t enough. We’re entering the mountains today to hunt more wild game. Tonight everyone will have meat to eat.”
Pei Family Village had plenty of grain, with mixed flour steamed buns and vegetable soup enough to fill everyone up every day. Every three days, they could eat meat once. Only like this did they have abundant physical strength and energy to practice martial arts and train.
At the mention of eating meat, Pei Yan swallowed her saliva greedily. Next, her eyes searched everywhere, she shot three arrows, and brought back a wild rabbit.
Pei Yun and Mao Hongling’s archery was equally precise, and they soon had their own catches.
However, in front of Pei Qinghe’s divine and never-missing divine arrows, they could only graciously yield.
Dozens of people entered the mountains together. For safety, they went in groups of five, not far from each other. At the slightest unusual movement, they would immediately blow the bamboo whistle.
The mountain forest had mushrooms and wild fruits, running wild game, and also venomous snakes hidden in the dark and prowling wild beasts. In her previous life entering the mountains to hunt, the Pei Family suffered heavy casualties. Pei Qinghe was even scratched on the cheek by a tiger, disfiguring her face.
Relying on the mountains to eat from the mountains, the endless Yan Mountain Range was a treasure trove full of thorns. They couldn’t abandon the entire mountain forest due to risks. Today, Pei Qinghe brought more than thirty people into the mountains to hunt, bringing all the bows and arrows, with each person carrying at least two sharp weapons—a very sufficient preparation.
Beep!
The sharp bamboo whistle sound suddenly rang out, continuous, revealing panic and urgency.
Pei Qinghe’s gaze sharpened, and she swiftly headed southeast. Pei Yan and the others followed quickly behind. With enough to eat every day and relentless training, Pei Qinghe had grown taller. Running at full speed through the mountains was as swift as a leopard.
The wild beast’s roar echoed in the mountain forest. The five Pei Clan women who encountered the fierce beast held weapons and tried to kill it. The weakest one had a pale face and was trembling all over, yet she didn’t cry out.
It was a black bear. It should have been awakened from hibernation, its movements somewhat sluggish. The black bear had two arrows in its body, neither in vital spots, which instead aroused its ferocity.
While running at full speed, Pei Qinghe drew her bow and shot an arrow. The sharp arrow swooshed off the string, flew over a hundred meters, and stabbed straight into the black bear’s left eye.
The black bear was in agony and suddenly went berserk with a roar.
“Quickly climb up the trees to evade.” Pei Qinghe shouted loudly.
These were all things they had trained on normally. Now was not the time to worry about graceful poise. Several Pei Clan women quickly climbed the trees, narrowly avoiding the frenzied black bear.
Pei Qinghe shot another arrow, aiming at the black bear’s throat.
The black bear had thick skin and flesh; one arrow caused blood to spurt, but it didn’t fall. Instead, it became even more frantic. The black bear charged toward the direction of the sharp arrow.
Amid the crowd’s cries of alarm, Pei Qinghe drew her long saber, the snow-bright blade edge flashing as she fought the frenzied black bear.
In her anxiety, Pei Yan drew her long saber and rushed forward.
Pei Qinghe shouted: “Everyone else stay back— all climb the trees.”
In the fight, Pei Qinghe stabbed a saber into the black bear’s other eye. With both eyes blinded, the black bear roared madly in rage, and immediately after, another saber thrust straight into its throat.
The black bear finally collapsed, heavily falling into a pool of blood.
In that short moment, it was thrilling.
Pei Qinghe wiped the cold sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and glared angrily at Pei Yan: “Before entering the mountains, I instructed everyone that when encountering fierce beasts like black bears or tigers, hide and evade—don’t confront them head-on. You rushing over just now, were you afraid of dying too slowly?”
Pei Yan’s left arm had bloody scratches, stinging painfully. She grimaced and retorted: “Even so, I can’t just watch you fight the black bear alone.”
“Live together, die together.”
Pei Qinghe continued to glare: “When will you change this reckless and impulsive nature of yours?”
Seeing that Pei Qinghe was truly angry, Pei Yan lowered her raised head and cried out: “Ouch! My arm hurts!”
With a cold face, Pei Qinghe stepped forward and quickly applied medicine and bandaged Pei Yan.
Doctor Bao had been busy for two days in the heavy rain, preparing dozens of medicine packets. Each medicine packet contained external wound medicine and clean bandages, as well as powder for venomous snakes, insects, and ants, and more. At this moment, the medicine packets came in handy.
The people in the trees all came down. The Pei Clan women who came searching after hearing the bamboo whistle and beast roars also gathered around.
“Qinghe, you actually killed a black bear single-handedly!” Mao Hongling couldn’t help exclaiming: “I heard that Father-in-law once fought and killed a tiger when he was young. Your valiance surpasses even his.”
Everyone looked at Pei Qinghe with reverent gazes.
Such invincible valiance was like a god descending to earth, inspiring reverence and submission, wholehearted following.
After bandaging Pei Yan’s injury, Pei Qinghe looked up: “Today’s hunting ends here. Take all the prey and let’s go down the mountain.”
The black bear weighed hundreds of pounds, not easy to drag down the mountain. Pei Qinghe used her saber to cut off four bear paws and peeled off the complete bear skin. The bear meat was gamey and tough, so there was no need to take it.
The crowd carried the prey and followed Pei Qinghe out of the mountain forest.
In the mountain forest where a pile of black bear meat was left, several figures quietly appeared.
The bloody bear meat was haphazardly piled under a tree, with insects and ants drawn by the bloody smell.
Several men of varying heights with disheveled beards and hair swallowed hard at the gamey, rough bear meat: “They don’t want this bear meat?”
“If we secretly pick it up and take it back, it’ll be enough to eat for several days.”
“What if she comes back and sees the meat is gone, then flies into a rage and comes looking for trouble?”
At these words, everyone fell silent.
They were all refugees, hiding in the deep mountains. Normally they survived by picking wild fruits and hunting. In heavy rain weather, they went hungry. Being bitten to death by venomous snakes or wild beasts in the mountain forest, dying of illness or starvation—it was all commonplace.
Now with such a large pile of meat right in front of them, enough to fill dozens of people for several days. It would be a pity not to take it, but thinking of that terrifying girl who killed the black bear, everyone’s legs went weak and foreheads dripped cold sweat.
“I heard the Great Chieftain of Black Bear Stockade died at her hands.”
A skinny man with a full beard lowered his voice: “The people of that village were killed by Black Bear Stockade several years ago. In the end, Black Bear Stockade was wiped out by Pei Family Village.”
“Truly, what goes around comes around, retribution is certain.”
“With Pei Family having such a God of Slaughter, and Beiping Army as backing. I hear Shi Family often sends grain over.”
The refugees and hidden households in the mountains weren’t completely cut off. In the past few months, Pei Family Village had quietly become a new legend in the mountains.
Today, when Pei Family Members entered the mountains to hunt, they happened to run into them and didn’t dare show themselves at all, hiding in a concealed mountain cave.
Then, they personally witnessed a shocking scene.
They didn’t dare take the bear meat that Pei Qinghe had discarded.
Suddenly, a voice piped up: “We can’t keep living freely in the mountains anymore. Why not go seek refuge in Pei Family Village.”
