Chapter 61: Dangkang, the Tusked Pig
“Two worlds, advang side by side.”
This was the strategy An Jing and the Sword Spirit decided upon after discussing it. “If we enter danger in the Huaixu Realm, we’ll go to the other world to avoid it. The same applies in reverse.”
“In the Huaixu Realm, I have to evade the possible hunt by the Heavenly Will Demonic Sect, the search by the Red Armuards, and the potential pursuit of a Heavenly Demon.”
“I o quickly raise my power, leave these deep mountains, return to a town withi ’s territory, s my identity, and lie low.”
“In this world, I have to head quickly for a poputed area to gather information, figure out the loguage, observe their behavior, imitate their s, and then ceal my identity among them.”
“I still have a piece of spirit jade, as well as a bck jade skull I use as trade material. I’m not sure of its exact value, but I should be able to settle myself for a bit.”
“However, the ons in this world are extremely dangerous too—those gunpowder ons and Spiritlight Guns… I’ll have to be very careful.”
“If it’s possible… maybe capture someone alive first?”
“Or maybe see if I help the locals wheiming’s right…”
The pn was id out. , he just o wait for the rain to stop.
“What a pity.”
Gazing out from the cave entra the ing grayish-purple rain clouds, An Jing patted his stomach with sret. “I nning on scouting the nearby forest for something to eat. Now I’ll probably just go hungry… hm?”
Suddenly, An Jing heard a “de-de” sound of hooves in the distance, heading toward the cave entrance.
Even mixed with the r rain and thunder, he—having already begun his cultivation journey—could pick out that sound clearly. He rose to his feet, employed Mysterious Steps, and silently hid behind a rge boulder at the cave mouth.
Then he saw two tusked beasts that looked swine-like but not quite, sp two massive fangs, dash through the acid rain and into the cave. These creatures, tusked pigs, stood about three and a half chi(feet) tall. Their bck-brown hides were so tough that even Baleful Qi acid rain couldn’t corrode them.
heless, they obviously did not like being drenched by the acid rain. The moment they ehe cave, they shook themselves off, sending those corrosive droplets flying and revealing their strong, muscur bodies and yers of fat.
“Whoa, look at that meat.”
Inwardly praising them, An Jing’s gaze darkened and he unsciously swallowed. “I never would’ve guessed I’d get this lucky…”
He murmured to the Sword Spirit, “Is this the ‘you won’t have bad luck’ you were talking about?”
“It’s a dangkang.”
Within his Sea of sciousness, the Sword Spirit quickly reized what these twe beasts really were: “This is a type of auspicious beast. Their ialent accelerate the growth of pnts and crops, and they manipute spirit pnts. They serve both as forest guardians and bringers of bountiful harvests. In our era, they were protected as auspicious beasts.”
“These two have a diluted bloodline, so at best they’re small spiritual beasts—even so, they’re not weak. A on Internal Energy martial artist would find them hard to handle.”
“This is your Heaven-Ordained Fate. No matter how good your fortune, you still o fight and hunt to earn your harvest.”
“That’s how it should be, but… Sword Spirit.”
Never mind whether it’s an auspicious beast, a dangkang, iant boar-like tusked pig. At present, An Jing had one simple thought: “Is it edible?”
“If so, is it tasty? How do I cook it?”
The Sword Spirit responded suctly: “Yes. Delicious. Roast it.”
“Uood.”
So, while the two tusked pigs were still shaking off the acid rain, behind the boulder, a hungry-eyed An Jing silently gripped his jade dagger and densed a Blood Essence Death Bde.
A quarter of an hour ter, An Jing’s makeshift fire was already crag.
He had disposed of the two tusked pigs in just three breaths’ time.
On the first breath, he used Mysterious Steps to leap out from behind the boulder, then unleashed Armor-Pierg True For orike through the left tusked pig’s eye socket, all the way into its brain.
On the sed breath, the other tusked pig, sensing An Jing’s attack, let out a dangkang?like cry. With that wondrous bestial roar, a few dark-brown roots burst forth from the back of the now-dead tusked pig, attempting to coil around An Jing’s arms and ankles.
Ohird breath, An Jing pressed off with his toes, his body seemiless as he bounded over the roots in a light arc. The Death Bde in his hand swept sideways through the neck of the sed tusked pig as it charged him.
By the time An Jing he sed tusked pig’s head was also falling free, releasing a massive spurt of deep-purple blood.
“Your martial skill is at a stage of plete mastery; you’re not far from being a fwless grandmaster.”
The Sword Spirit, An Jing easily dispatch these two creatures—whose power level was around a mid-tier Internal Energy martial artist and enough to trouble aire hunting squad—couldn’t help but offer praise: “Any ordinary Internal Energy martial artist would be sughtered if they ran into you.”
“An Jing, were you some Martial Path grandmaster in a previous life? Or maybe a Sword Immortal?”
“My martial arts are just so-so. It’s just that the Imperial Heavehod is extremely well-suited for assassinations and surprise attacks.” An Jing dispelled the Death Bde from his hand and started carving up the tusked pig’s hide and flesh with his jade dagger.
While deboning and removing the innards, he eborated, “The Fag Abyss to Nurture Qi Stao lie in wait and hold my breath, Mysterious Steps to strike from surprise, bursting forth with True Force, plus my Heaven-Ordained Fate’s 【dense Qi into Armaments】 Divine Ability, giving me a sword that cuts iron as though it were mud… I’m fident I could assassinate someo the Internal Fortification stage.”
“Two tusked pigs with a bit of auspicious beast blood ’t be any harder to kill than the Medie Manor Lord, they?”
As for his previous life, An Jing still wasn’t sure. “Holy, is my martial skill really that great? I keep thinking this is something any normal person could do… Everyone ba the martial halls could ha easily, right?”
“They might even do it faster than me. My martial aptitude is pretty average.”
“Average?” the Sword Spirit retorted. “Who are you paring yourself to, exactly? You call this level ‘average?’”
“I don’t remember.”
A Sword Spirit and a person, both with memory loss and talking about the past could only arrive at nothing clusive. By the time they set that aside, An Jing had already used deft skill to gut the eusked pig.
came removing the bones and innards.
One by one, An Jing harvested the prime cuts from the tusked pigs—the back, the legs, the fat. The back cut was the spinal meat, tender a for roasting; the deboned legs could be smoked for easily portable rations; and the waist fat could be rendered into oil for ter use.
He tossed aside the other internal ans and scraps. He had her the time nor the carrying capacity for them.
“In any case, there’s no way an ordinary person is this nimble,” the Sword Spirit cluded, having watched the entire operation. An Jing looked down at his hands ahe same. “And e to think of it, how did I learn these butchering skills?”
Whatever the case…
After clearing out the innards and anizing the pork, An Jing built a small stoove he cave’s walls. Using his own fire sourd fuel, he kindled a fme and began roasting the meat.
Tusked pig flesh urplish-red color aed a distinct, fragrance. O was cut open and bled, the st grew even fresher.
When he skihe beast, An Jing discovered that the skin on its back wasn’t all that tough—in fact, it was quite soft. The real prote eculiar work of live pnt roots parasitizing its back, woven into a thick yer of “living” pnt armor that served as a barrier against the corrosive rainfall.
Even now, that armor was still moving slightly.
This tusked pig possessed a special pnt-maniputing ability ied from its bloodli could trol vegetation through its cry.
In a forested enviro, even An Jing would have found it troublesome, but fortunately, because they’d sought shelter from the warship-caused acid rain in a bare cave devoid of vegetation, they could only employ the symbiotits on their backs.
(End of Chapter)
*Yatun = Tusked Pig.
