Chapter 30: The Strange Left Eye
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While fleeing for his life, Xu Yan alternated between staying perfectly still and running like the wind, dodging left and right as he tried his best to avoid the beast packs while approaching the mountain base.
After all, he was a living person. At first, not many wild beasts had noticed the living creature since they were surrounded by other beasts, but gradually, some fierce beasts like tigers and leopards had caught the scent of a human. Several massive black tigers began closing in.
During his rapid movement, Xu Yan suddenly paused, crouched low, then remained completely motionless.
He finally heard a strange yet somewhat familiar sound, like Little Black eating. Before he could think much about it, the approaching fierce tigers had already appeared in Xu Yan’s line of sight. Xu Yan could clearly see the blood rings in the black tigers’ eyes, so he burst into motion again, sprinting desperately toward the nearby mountain base.
The blood food had not only attracted wild beasts but also demons. Similar to the wolf demon deep in Old Grave Mountain, these black tigers with blood rings in their eyes were all terrifying demons. If he were surrounded, Xu Yan’s fate would be obvious.
The distance to the mountain base grew shorter and shorter, but the encroaching tiger demons made Xu Yan’s heart sink to the bottom.
Xu Yan’s movements were indeed agile, and after years of practicing stone-throwing techniques, his stamina was remarkable. However, what pursued him from behind weren’t just wild beasts, but demons that even innate martial artists would fear. Seeing a living creature trying to escape, several black tigers immediately pounced, getting closer and closer to Xu Yan.
The tightly gripped stones were about to be thrown. Xu Yan didn’t want to sit and wait for death—if he used his stone-throwing technique with full force, taking down two fierce tigers shouldn’t be a problem. Just as he was about to throw the stones while running, the black tigers pursuing from behind suddenly stopped in their tracks. Not only did they stop chasing, but they turned and fled.
A dozen zhang away, the snorting and munching sounds became increasingly clear.
Xu Yan knew that wasn’t a pig eating, but some fierce creature rapidly gnawing on corpses. In the chaotic battlefield, he couldn’t see clearly what was crouched among the pile of bodies, but his feet never stopped. With a few leaps, he finally reached the small path at the mountain base, then climbed up without looking back, ascending the high mountain.
‘As long as the demon tigers didn’t pursue him, Xu Yan could escape with his life.’
While Xu Yan was climbing the mountain, for just an instant, the snorting and devouring sounds stopped briefly. From the sea of corpses, a gaze looked his way—that gaze held no fierce glint or killing intent, but rather seemed somewhat affectionate. Then the snorting and munching sounds resumed loudly. Around the area where those strange and terrifying sounds emanated, not a single wild beast or demon dared approach.
On the mountaintop, the little Taoist priest lay on a bluestone, gasping for breath and laughing at himself with self-mockery.
‘The strangeness that occurred with his left eye had nearly cost him his life in a beast’s belly. It seemed his left eye could not only see strange things but also held secrets he didn’t know about.’
‘What could be inside his eye?’
Xu Yan thought for a long time but couldn’t figure out what might exist in his eye. Fortunately, this time he had escaped danger, and he should return to Yuan Mountain Stronghold.
Despite having an excellent opportunity to escape, Xu Yan had no intention of leaving just yet.
‘Because his little black pig was still in the stronghold. The little Taoist priest who depended on his pig for companionship couldn’t bear to abandon his partner. Besides, in just over ten days, he would have been at Yuan Mountain Stronghold for three months. By then, with no one monitoring him, he could easily escape.’
‘A group of bandits wouldn’t pursue a penniless little Taoist priest.’
When returning to Yuan Mountain Stronghold, the dark clouds gradually retreated, and a bright moon appeared at the horizon again. The mountain forest seemed cold and clear.
While identifying directions, Xu Yan pondered the strangeness of his left eye. As he walked, his return route to Yuan Mountain Stronghold had already become different from when he came.
After all, this was his first time walking through this mountain forest. Getting lost wasn’t likely, but the return route had become somewhat longer.
‘It was just walking a bit more mountain path—for a little Taoist priest who carried water and did chores all day, this bit of fatigue was nothing.’
Under the bright moon, Xu Yan’s steps became lighter. The troubles with his left eye were gradually cast aside—this was also the benefit of being a pig: no worries, no troubles.
Traveling through the mountain forest, Xu Yan’s pace on the mountain paths wasn’t slow. But as he walked, his steps began to slow down, finally stopping in front of a patch of emerald green grass.
The grass patch before him was somewhat strange. Its emerald color was different from other wild grass, giving people a feeling of vibrant life force when they looked at it. However, what others saw as vitality looked quite different to Xu Yan’s eyes.
He saw wisps of miasma lurking deep within the emerald grass patch.
‘This barren mountain wasn’t foul water—there were no water sources nearby. Miasma generally existed in swamplands and would never appear in a grass patch. If miasma appeared in grass, it could only mean one thing.’
‘Large numbers of venomous insects were dwelling beneath this green grass!’
Carefully crouching down, Xu Yan began searching around the edge of the grass patch. When he lifted a stone, a large centipede with a black head and red belly, over a foot long, was about to escape.
Pressing down on the centipede’s head with one hand, Xu Yan pinched the centipede’s neck with two fingers and easily lifted it up, bringing it before his eyes as he muttered to himself: “What a big heavenly dragon. Once dried, it would make excellent medicinal material.”
The hand holding the centipede remained perfectly still. No matter how wildly the large centipede’s venomous pincers flailed, they couldn’t reach Xu Yan’s hand.
Centipedes were also called heavenly dragons and were indeed medicinal materials. The larger the centipede, the stronger its medicinal properties. The old Taoist priest at Riding Clouds Temple understood medical principles. If the people of Riverside Town had headaches or fevers, they would go find Xu Daoyuan for treatment. Having followed his master for many years, Xu Yan couldn’t be called a famous doctor, but he understood most medical principles and had caught plenty of centipedes.
Putting the large centipede into the small cloth bag he carried with him, Xu Yan looked at this patch of emerald grass and scratched his head: “So much centipede-attracting grass—could someone have deliberately planted it?”
Centipede-attracting grass was also a type of medicinal material that Xu Yan recognized. This herb had a special characteristic—it could emit an extremely faint fishy smell that humans could barely detect and wild beasts disliked, but it could attract venomous insects like centipedes and scorpions. Generally, when entering the mountains and seeing centipede-attracting grass, Xu Yan would always search around it and would definitely catch a centipede or venomous scorpion.
Centipede-attracting grass wasn’t valuable, but centipedes and venomous scorpions, once dried, could be sold for some money.
Catching a centipede was just something he did in passing. What puzzled Xu Yan was this patch of very orderly-looking centipede-attracting grass. He had seen plenty of wild centipede-attracting grass deep in Old Grave Mountain, but most grew scattered here and there, and there wouldn’t be too much. A large, neat patch like this—if someone hadn’t deliberately planted it, Xu Yan wouldn’t believe it.
‘Could there be someone in Yuan Mountain Stronghold who understood medical principles?’
Scratching his head, Xu Yan had lived in Yuan Mountain Stronghold for over two months. Apart from being fierce and aggressive, he hadn’t discovered any doctors among that group of bandits.
‘There were definitely more centipedes and venomous scorpions deeper in the grass patch, but Xu Yan didn’t want to catch any more. These things were all highly venomous—getting bitten would be very troublesome.’
Leaving the centipede-attracting grass patch, Xu Yan traveled several li of mountain road and finally returned to Yuan Mountain Stronghold. He went alone to the vegetable garden and walked toward the pig pen.
He wanted to tell Little Black about the strange things that had happened today.
This was his habit. Whenever he saw anything strange or unusual, Xu Yan liked to talk to Little Black for ages. He believed Little Black could definitely understand.
Because they were the same kind.
It was already the middle of the night. At this hour, pigs would be sleeping soundly. Yuan Mountain Stronghold raised quite a few domestic pigs, and their snoring sounds filled the vegetable garden continuously.
Coming near the pig pen, Xu Yan searched for Little Black’s figure by moonlight. The others were all domestic pigs—only Little Black was a wild boar, very easy to distinguish.
After scanning the pig pen several times, Xu Yan’s brow gradually furrowed. A hint of ferocious expression appeared in his eyes, and his hands began to clench. The demon locked away in his heart showed signs of loosening again. This violent feeling had only appeared when his master died. Just two months apart, it was appearing in Xu Yan’s heart again, and there was only one reason.
His Little Black was gone!
