Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 56 Hunting the Boar
The temporary residence that Feng An and Liang Kun chose was quite particular.

Not only is this place far from the main road, but it is also not close to the mountains and forests where wild animals are plentiful. There are a few low mountains and some shallow forests, and springs gushing out in the valleys. It is a good place to stay for a short time.

Everyone was overjoyed that Yun Ce was back, especially Liang Kun, who was on night watch. If Yun Ce hadn't returned, he wouldn't have dared to blink an eye while clutching his spear. When they were on the run, as the group's strongest fighter, he couldn't let his guard down for even a moment.

Now that Yun Ce, the true force of the army, has returned, he immediately relaxed.

"Did you get Lord Yu's foot? The child is still waiting."

Yun Ce took a cloth bag off his waist and handed it to Liang Kun.

"Got it, but it's just two pieces of rotten meat."

Liang Kun took two feet out of the bag, looked at them in front of the fire, and said to Feng An, "They're no different from mine. What white jade, what dragon pattern? It really disappoints me."

Feng An also came over to take a look, but shook his head, with a hint of regret in his voice. He then followed Liang Kun to a nearby place and buried the girl's body in the cloth bag along with Yu Gong's feet.

Yun Ce didn't follow, after all, he wasn't familiar with the girl. He sat quietly in front of the fire, poking at the embers with a stick, his thoughts wandering far away.

Eji made a fortune today, but lost interest in counting it. From the moment she saw Yun Ce, she followed him closely like a puppy, seemingly very uneasy.

Yun Ce raised his hand and pressed her nose, saying, "What are you thinking about?"

"You smell like a woman."

"Oh, I was tired from fighting, so I found a woman's lap to use as a pillow and slept for a while."

"are you asleep?"

"No."

Eji forcefully turned Yun Ce's body down, placed his head on her lap, and whispered, "Now you can sleep."

Yun Ce let out a sigh of relief and closed his eyes.

What happened in Sheyang City made Yun Ce realize one thing: the people here just didn't have the firearms that could threaten his life, not that they were brainless.

When Zhang Min's name first appeared in his life, he was just a beautiful woman, a woman who was said to be the most beautiful in Pingyuan City, and he didn't pay any attention to her.

The second time he saw her in Sheyang City, he thought she was just a brainless, vicious woman. He exposed her as a wicked woman in just a few words, and even thought he had ruined her. He also thought that Peng Jing would take away her property and then dispose of her as property. At that time, he really ignored this woman.

The third time he saw her, that wretched woman was actually using a ballista to shoot him. Although she didn't kill him, it hurt, it really hurt.

Now, this stinky woman insists that he is the one who obtained the Dragon Spirit, and that the battle between the pig and the bear on the plateau was actually related to the Dragon Spirit. The question is, what exactly is the Dragon Spirit?

Wild boars even have a king, and he even has a name. It seems this king, called Pig Wrath, can communicate with people.
I thought that the pig-headed, human-bodied monster I killed was the pinnacle of beast evolution in this world, but I never imagined there were even more advanced ones?
Yun Ce felt he should meet this Pig King, as it would be of great significance for his investigation into the evolutionary state of species in this world.

Lost in thought, Yun Ce's head grew heavy. He turned over and pressed his face against E Ji's belly, which was soft and didn't obstruct his breathing. After a short while, he fell asleep.

Eji hugged Yun Ce's shoulders and looked down at his ears. His earlobes were dirty, with dust, ash, sweat, and bloodstains, and there was a tiny scar on his earlobe.

He had washed his face with water, but not properly; he seemed to be in a hurry.

She moistened her fingers with saliva and gently cleaned Yun Ce's cochlea. He was fast asleep and didn't react at all.

After finally cleaning one cochlea, she thought about cleaning the other one as well. Unfortunately, he just liked to sleep with his face pressed against her stomach and didn't want to turn his head away.

Anji crawled over from the other side of the fire and handed Eji a handkerchief. Eji glanced at Anji, wiped her dirty fingers on her body, and continued to meticulously clean Yun Ce's cochlea.

When Yun Ce woke up, it was already dawn. Feng An, who had been squatting on the mound looking around, returned and said to Yun Ce, who was eating breakfast, "The main road is blocked. I saw many caravans from Sheyang City turning back."

Yun Ce took a sip of the thick bean porridge, put down the bowl, opened the map, and gestured with his finger, saying, "Is there a pass here on the Sheyang River?"

Feng An nodded and said, "This area is under the jurisdiction of the Sheyang River Water Management Officer. If we travel south along the Sheyang River, it will take three days by waterway to leave Chuyun Prefecture and arrive at Guizhou Prefecture. If we want to go to Chang'an, we can also detour through Guizhou Prefecture, but we don't have a travel permit."

"Wouldn't a travel permit from Sheyang City work?"

"No, Chuyun Prefecture is a newly established prefecture, also known as a tributary prefecture. Without a century of assimilation and cultural influence, the Han Dynasty will not recognize Chuyun Prefecture as part of the Han territory. The neighboring Guizhou Prefecture was only separated from the tributary prefecture three years ago and acquired the name Guizhou because it was ruled by the Han Dynasty for 120 years. Anyone from a tributary prefecture who wants to go to the Han territory without a document issued by the Registrar's Office under the General's Office of Chuyun Prefecture will be considered a traitor and can be executed on the spot by local officials."

"Are the Han government officials really that inhuman? By the way, Feng An, you should be a pure-blooded Han Chinese, so how did you end up in Chuyun Prefecture, a tributary state?"

"There was nothing we could do. My grandfather's father embezzled some money while serving as the magistrate of Chaozhou. He was caught by the censor and beheaded. Our whole family was exiled to Yunzhou, where there was no possibility of being pardoned."

"Oh, that must be more than just a little money."

"Who cares? You should have a way to help me and Liang Kun get the travel permit from the Registrar's Office, right?"

Yun Ce nodded and said, "I'll try my best. Is that why you two insist on following me and Eji?"

Liang Kun, who leaned closer, chuckled, "You don't actually think the two of us like you and want to be your advisors, do you?"

Faced with two utterly clueless and irresponsible scholars, Yun Ce could only sigh. No wonder E Ji never showed excessive enthusiasm towards the two of them, but instead treated the girls she had taken in with heartfelt kindness.

Feng An and Liang Kun were both scholars with lofty ambitions. Such people would not easily become someone's retainers unless they failed the examinations in Chang'an and Luoyang and were older.

The girls they picked up are different; they will become Yun Ce and E Ji's property. When the Yun family becomes a powerful clan, they can use them for marriage alliances with loyal subordinates, which would be quite a good arrangement.

Zhang Min waited at the Sheyang River ferry for a day and a night, but the boar demon did not appear. After thinking for a long time, she finally understood why she could not find the wild boar demon at the ferry.

From birth, the pig spirit relied on four legs to run. Although it later evolved to run on two legs, the pig's habits would not change. Even though taking a boat was the fastest way to escape from Yunzhou, this pig spirit would still choose to travel by land, after all, walking was its innate skill.

"Your Excellency, the pig demon is difficult to capture in a short time. Why don't we capture its companions first?"

Zhang Min glanced sideways at the subordinate from the Climbing Star Tower and said softly, "How can you pinpoint the location of a pig demon that has wandered into the wilderness?"

The spy bowed and said, "Hoofprints, excrement."

Zhang Min shook her head and said, "If this boar spirit already possesses the advantages of both humans and wild boars, how will you determine its whereabouts? Will you still rely on hoofprints and droppings?"

The spy bowed again and said, "Your subordinate is too shallow; we should have started with his companions."

As they were talking, a bird about the size of a chicken flew into the house. Zhang Min raised her arm, and the bird grabbed her arm and cawed at her.

Zhang Min took out a fragrant bead from a hidden pocket at her waist and put it to the bird's beak. The bird swallowed it in one gulp, then spread its wings, revealing a metal tube at the base of its wings.

Zhang Min took the metal tube, opened the stopper and looked inside. Then she said to the spy from Panxing Tower, "We were wrong from the start. That pig demon didn't escape to the outside of the city through the tunnel. All the ambushes we prepared in advance failed. It didn't leave the Yu Gong Mansion. Instead, it patiently waited until we were really gone before it came out."

They stole a Thunder Smoke Beast and also killed Peng Jing in the process.

"Look, it's really cunning, more cunning than any spirit I've ever seen."

The spy cupped his hands and said, "In that case, we are actually ahead of that pig demon. I will arrange for men to spread a wide net and make sure it has nowhere to hide."

Zhang Min nodded and said, "Be careful. This pig demon is no less powerful than the Pig King Zhu Nu, but it is much more cunning. Don't divide the manpower too finely, or it will break through the net."

Furthermore, try to capture the pig demon's companions alive; I really don't want to face a crazed, intelligent pig demon.

The spies all accepted their orders and left. Zhang Min mounted a Thunder Smoke Beast, glanced back at the surging Sheyang River, and decided to withdraw all forces from the area.

When Zhang Min left the Sheyang River Water Management Office, she made a point of boosting her confidence.

"What's a pig doing on a boat?"

Yun Ce thought his plan was good. He swept ahead, clearing out all the enemies he encountered. After clearing a section, E Ji and the others would advance a section. In the area he had cleared on his chestnut horse, not to mention Zhang Min, there wasn't even a wild animal to be seen.

As Feng An had predicted, after the riot in Sheyang City, a large number of people fled the city. At first, everyone fought for their own survival, but after discovering the sheep-drawn cart following Eji, their journey became much safer.

As a result, the caravan behind Eji grew longer and longer, becoming increasingly conspicuous on the wasteland.

When the group grew to a massive force of over three thousand people, Eji and her companions mysteriously disappeared from the crowd.

(End of this chapter)