The Almighty Martial Arts System - Chapter 289

“Remember what we said yesterday?” Pang Xiong asked Jiang Fei with a hint of provocation as they were about to head up the mountain.

He was referring to their agreement to compete today over who could bag more game.

“I remember. How are we doing this?” Jiang Fei wiped his hunting knife, casually twirled it with a flourish, and replied with an easy smile.

He usually wielded a sword, trained in the Dugu Nine Swords style. But he wasn’t completely clueless with a knife either. This wasn’t a long blade but a short dagger that could even be used as a throwing weapon. As a skilled martial artist, Jiang Fei handled it far more deftly than any ordinary person.

Pang Xiong adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his eyes narrowing almost imperceptibly. After a moment’s thought, he said, “There are eight of us in total. We can split into two teams, each of us leading three people up the mountain separately. How about that?”

Before Jiang Fei could respond, someone else objected.

It was Yang Zaixing. “Hey, hey, Pang Xiong. We all know you’re good, sure, but no need to look down on us like that, right? We came all this way to hunt, just wanting to have a good time. Listening to you now, it sounds like we have to take orders from you two and become your team members? That won’t do. I say we all go our separate ways and compete to see who bags the most game! In a fight, we might not be your match, Pang Xiong, but in hunting, you might not be ours!”

At this, Han Xu, Wu Ke, and the others all voiced their agreement.

These guys were all experienced hunting enthusiasts, no novices here. Who needed to be babysat or paired up with anyone on the mountain?

Ye Yuanyuan frowned, seeming to notice something. She glanced cautiously at Pang Xiong before turning to Jiang Fei and asking, “I’ll go with you. It’s your first time hunting here; you’re not familiar with the rules.”

Jiang Fei smiled.

He didn’t know what the aloof yet warm-hearted, meticulous, and observant Ye Yuanyuan had picked up on. But he shook his head and said lightly, “Let’s go with their suggestion. As for not knowing the rules of this hunting ground…” He turned to look at the tall, leggy young woman in leather pants beside him and added with a smile, “I have a guide here. As long as you all don’t think I have an unfair advantage bringing a Tibetan Mastiff and an eagle along.”

Wu Ke, who was handling a compound bow, waved his hand. “No problem. Your mastiff is built solid; taking down ordinary prey should be no issue—probably just one pounce to tear the game apart. But this is a wild hunting ground. The game here isn’t your usual small prey; there are wild boars over four hundred jin! To take down those beasts, we’ll have to rely on ourselves…”

Jiang Fei nodded. “Alright then.”

So the group heading up the mountain soon split up, each choosing a different path and slowly disappearing into the dense, old-growth forest.

The hunting grounds were indeed teeming with game. Within half an hour of Jiang Fei and his female guide starting up the mountain, the fierce, lion-like Simba had taken down a roe deer and two wild goats. His methods were brutal; all three prey were mauled beyond recognition, their necks snapped with a single bite.

Although Simba had become much more intelligent after taking the pet evolution serum, his innate Tibetan Mastiff aggression hadn’t diminished. Back in Dao Village, Simba always got especially excited during mountain hunts. This time, understanding Jiang Fei’s intent to some extent and knowing this hunt was on a much larger scale, his wild instincts were fully roused.

The eagle wasn’t slacking either. Its sharp talons were like blades. Whenever it spotted a hare or a badger, it would dive down, either snatching the prey up mid-air or splitting its head open.

With these two fierce creatures so actively involved, Jiang Fei, carrying his hunting knife, found himself with little to do for the time being.

“What kind of large game do you have in these mountains?” Jiang Fei asked the guide idly as he followed behind Simba.

“Large game? Probably black bears and wild boars,” the guide replied in a sweet, pleasant voice.

The guide Jiang Fei had chosen was different from the ones with Han Xu and Wu Ke. She lacked their worldly air and didn’t seem like a woman of loose morals. For men with a bit of a ‘perverse’ streak deep down, this slightly aloof type was far more attractive than those who were overly familiar.

“How big do the boars get? Any boar kings?” Jiang Fei nodded and asked further. He remembered Ye Yuanyuan mentioning before they came that this hunting ground had just opened and held quite a few ‘prizes’ that hadn’t been hunted yet. If they waited too long, it would be too late.

“There should be some boars over four hundred jin in the mountains. But as for boar kings over five hundred jin… I can’t say for sure,” the guide said, seemingly unaware of how terrifying a five-hundred-jin boar king could be. She spoke calmly, without any trace of fear.

Hearing this, Jiang Fei’s eyes lit up. “It would be great if we could run into a black bear or a five-hundred-jin boar king today.”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a low growl came from Simba up ahead in the bushes. The growl carried an excitement and fervor only Jiang Fei could understand, as if summoning him to hurry over.

Simultaneously, the eagle circling low above let out a sharp cry and began to dive and circle lower.

Something big!

Hearing the cries from Simba and the eagle, Jiang Fei’s eyebrows shot up, his face filled with excitement.

It had to be major game; otherwise, Simba and the eagle wouldn’t be calling out like this. With ordinary prey, they would have just killed it straight away and brought it to him.

Without hesitation, Jiang Fei immediately shot forward. Not waiting to see if his guide could keep up, he sped like an arrow into the thicket ahead.

Seeing this, the guide’s normally quiet expression turned icy. She raised her hunting rifle, aiming at Jiang Fei’s figure leaping and disappearing rapidly through the trees. But his path was too erratic, not a straight line, so she lowered the rifle again and set off silently.

Swish!

Surprisingly, this seemingly delicate guide—not exactly frail, but no muscle woman either—moved with extreme speed. She darted through the forest with agile grace, quickly pursuing the direction Jiang Fei had disappeared in and where Simba’s growls were coming from. She was fast as the wind, like a ghost.

About ten seconds later…

In a small clearing, a giant black-furred wild boar and an unusually large Tibetan Mastiff stood facing off, low growls rumbling from their throats.

This was indeed a giant boar. Simba’s size was already intimidating—over ninety centimeters long, nearly a meter tall, weighing close to a hundred kilograms.

But this boar?

It was easily more than twice Simba’s size! Its body was two meters long, and by eye, even if it didn’t hit five hundred jin, it had to be at least four hundred eighty or ninety. Its two tusks were sharp, about five centimeters long, making it look like a monster straight out of a Hollywood movie.

For modern city dwellers, it was hard to imagine the sheer impact of this scene. Both animals were tensed, faces狰狞, fur standing on end like fine needles, neither making a move.

Logically, a beast like this, a veritable boar king, shouldn’t fear a hunting dog. Its size alone meant it could charge and trample even wolves or leopards, let alone a dog.

The fighting ability of most Tibetan Mastiffs wasn’t actually that high; their reputation was largely inflated by dog dealers. Claims like “one mastiff can take three wolves” weren’t very credible. At the very least, that didn’t apply to most mastiffs; only a very rare few might have that capability.

Simba was naturally one of those rare few.

Seeing his master arrive, Simba’s suppressed wildness could no longer be contained.

“Growl!”

Instead of retreating, he let out a deep, provocative-filled roar and took a step forward towards the boar king, twice his size.

“Squeal!”

The boar king was a wild animal too, and ultimately couldn’t tolerate such blatant provocation. It snorted heavily and charged at Simba.

What did a nearly five-hundred-jin wild boar charging look like? It was like a moving hill, a bulldozer, crushing forward with a suffocating presence!

Thud!

The two titans of their respective domains collided. The mastiff, often stereotyped as stupid and clumsy—indeed, less intelligent than a pig—showed remarkable cleverness and agility from the start of the fight. It leaped aside, avoiding the boar’s head, and went for its neck.

But this wasn’t a goat; the boar’s neck was thick, impossible for the mastiff’s jaws to snap. The boar king let out a miserable squeal, the injury to its neck enraging it further. With a powerful shake, it threw Simba off.

Facing such an opponent for the first time, Simba rolled as he was thrown and got back up, poised to pounce, attacking from the boar’s rear.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The two giants clashed and rolled through the woods, tearing at each other, their fur soon stained red with blood, both wounded. Jiang Fei watched, thoroughly engrossed, pleased with Simba’s demonstrated combat prowess, though also surprised by the boar king’s strength.

Not long after the fight began, Jiang Fei laughed loudly. “Simba, you’re usually so cocky, but you don’t seem so tough now! Get out of the way, stop showing off. Let me handle this beast!”

Hunting knife in hand, using the Triple Cloud steps, Jiang Fei leaped twice and joined the fray.

Fighting animals was completely different from fighting people. Having come all this way, Jiang Fei wasn’t about to miss this chance. Even if Simba could eventually take down the boar king, Jiang Fei didn’t plan to let him do all the work.

Just as Jiang Fei jumped into the fight, the guide appeared silently among the trees not far away.