Seven days later.
Lu Zheng returned from Lin Wan’s house in the morning, ordered spicy hot pot takeout for lunch, ate it with smoked fish and steamed buns, then changed clothes, stuffed some dried meat in his pocket, and travelled to the ancient world.
“Swoosh!”
He appeared on a branch of an ancient tree, about two people’s height from the ground.
“Squeak squeak squeak!”
His sudden appearance startled two squirrels playing on the branch, which darted into the forest as grey shadows.
Glancing around, seeing no predators like leopards or snakes on the tree, Lu Zheng slightly relaxed his tense body.
He leapt lightly to the ground, took out a compass to check his bearings, then pulled out an entrenching tool, clearing obstructing branches and shrubs as he walked.
His eyes never stopped scanning the surroundings.
The ancient deep forests were indeed a treasure trove, no wonder people said to live off the mountains. In these seven days, spending just afternoons in the mountains, Lu Zheng had already gathered plenty of valuable herbs back in his modern home.
Not to mention high-value old mountain ginseng and yellow essence, he’d also dug up angelica, notoginseng, paris polyphylla, golden thread lotus, and dendrobium.
“How am I starting to feel like a professional herb gatherer?”
“Hm?” Lu Zheng’s eyes caught something.
In a nearby bush, a flash of light flickered and vanished.
Heh, a scavenger looking for an easy meal.
Lu Zheng glared, stepping forward, his blood qi surging, aura flaring.
“Woo—”
With a whimper, a yellow-and-black leopard spun around and vanished.
Lu Zheng shook his head, chopping another branch with his shovel. This wasn’t the first time, and since he wasn’t short on food, there was no need to kill unnecessarily.
An hour later, Lu Zheng reached the mountain’s peak.
Standing on a large rock at the summit, he surveyed the landscape, observing the terrain and spotting areas suitable for growing herbs.
“Hm, this mountain range stretches endlessly, gathering wind and qi, a rare blessed land where spiritual energy converges. There must be treasures here,” Lu Zheng muttered to himself, half-seriously, “Doesn’t this feel a bit like cultivating immortality?”
In truth, he didn’t know much, just noticing a spot surrounded by three large mountains.
White Cloud Temple taught physiognomy, divination, blessings, and feng shui, but Daoist Mingzhang hadn’t taught Lu Zheng, thinking he didn’t need it.
Lu Zheng hadn’t sought to learn either, feeling it wasn’t necessary.
“Well, once I have enough luck, I should dabble in various knowledge.”
Fixing his bearings, Lu Zheng dashed down the mountain.
…
Sniffing, he noticed the air suddenly felt fresher.
Halfway down, Lu Zheng’s eyes lit up as he spotted a plant with purplish-red flowers.
“Good stuff!”
He approached, used the shovel to loosen the soil, then switched to a herb hoe, carefully peeling back the earth to reveal the plant’s roots.
Old mountain ginseng!
Lu Zheng dug a pit over two square metres to extract the ginseng, roots and all.
“If this ginseng isn’t a hundred years old, I’ll eat it raw!”
His eyes gleamed as he weighed the ginseng in his hand, at least over a kilo.
Jackpot!
After storing it in the modern world, Lu Zheng returned, full of hope, and pressed on.
“Splish splash—”
Water sounds reached him.
Lu Zheng’s ears twitched as he moved forward.
“Rustle rustle—”
“Meow!”
A cat?
Lu Zheng raised an eyebrow but ignored it.
If he could scare off a leopard, a mountain cat was no threat.
Turning a mountain hollow, the trees and branches thinned. Through gaps in the foliage, Lu Zheng saw the scene ahead.
A trickling stream, a low cliff, a patch of flat grass, and a mountain cat leaping side to side at the hollow’s entrance, growling incessantly.
“What’s it doing?”
“Rustle rustle—”
Lu Zheng peered closely, noticing that as the cat leapt, something small seemed to shift with it.
No, the small thing moved first, and the cat followed, blocking it in the hollow.
The hollow was gourd-shaped, with the cat guarding the exit, trapping the small thing inside.
But the cat didn’t dare enter, as that would let the small thing slip past and escape.
The two were at a stalemate.
Lu Zheng squinted, unable to make out the small thing, so he raised the binoculars hanging from his chest.
In view was a red-and-white four-legged creature, barely a foot tall, shaped like a horse or deer, with a head like a cow or sheep, its body glistening. On its back was a massive lingzhi, nearly as big as itself.
“What the hell? A lingzhi horse?”
Lu Zheng had only held a faint hope, never expecting to actually find one!
The mountain cat’s movements were slowing, clearly running out of stamina.
The lingzhi horse, however, showed no fatigue, still darting side to side, trying to break out of the hollow’s trap.
But the cat didn’t give up, instinctively knowing that eating this creature would bring great benefits.
It mustered its remaining strength, leaping back and forth, occasionally lunging forward to try and catch the lingzhi horse.
Lu Zheng lowered the binoculars, scanning the terrain.
A gourd-shaped hollow entrance. Since the lingzhi horse moved on the ground without climbing, it either couldn’t scale steep slopes or couldn’t move on pure rock.
To the left, the cliff’s slope was gentler.
To the right, a stream flowed past.
Lu Zheng looked up, the cat’s movements growing sluggish.
No time to waste, time to gamble.
He crouched, quietly moving to a tree on the right side of the entrance, then zipped to the modern world, grabbed a long-unused item, and hurried back.
Just as he returned, a red-and-white blur bolted from the entrance, racing to the riverbank, right to the tree where Lu Zheng stood.
Lu Zheng jolted, raising the net gun in his hands.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Three large nets fell from the sky, covering a dozen square metres.
The blur was caught in the ropes, stopping abruptly, rolling into a tangled heap, the nets wrapping tighter.
“Meow!”
The mountain cat pounced, only to find a tall figure in its path.
Lu Zheng grabbed the cat by the scruff, tossing it onto the tree.
“Meow!”
The cat hissed fiercely at Lu Zheng, then fled.
Lu Zheng grinned, approaching the struggling mass of nets, picking it up, “Talk about a close call, you almost got away!”
“Chirp chirp chirp!”
“Spare me! Spare me!”
