074 A Sea of Blossoms atop the Mountain

No matter what, I have to seize at least one of those medicinal herbs!

Ahead lay a dense thicket of shrubs, each one as tall as a man. Without hesitation, the wild boar dove straight into the undergrowth, vanishing in an instant. Gritting his teeth, Chen Anquan followed suit, plowing his way through like a tank, forcibly parting the bushes and carving out a path.

“Don’t think you can escape!”

The boar, clutching the herbs in its mouth, was stunned. Taking refuge in the thickets to evade large predators was an instinct etched deep in its genes. Yet, it was entirely ineffective against this human!

As he charged forward, Chen Anquan suddenly noticed that the path ahead had disappeared—was it a cliff, or a slope? He slowed his pace, but the boar didn’t even hesitate; it leaped straight ahead. Chen Anquan stopped at the spot where the boar had jumped, and after confirming there was a slope of thirty or forty meters below, he didn’t pause. He launched himself down after it.

Landing on his back, he slid down as if on a chute, shooting downwards at great speed. The uneven stones and small shrubs along the slope didn’t concern him; he let his back absorb the pain. After all his rigorous training, his willpower was formidable.

The wild boar, seeing Chen Anquan still in pursuit, was dumbfounded. After tumbling several meters at the bottom, it staggered to its feet, only to find Chen Anquan looming over it. In a panic, it immediately spat out the herbs it had been carrying.

Chen Anquan came to a stop at the bottom of the slope, picked up the herbs, and watched the boar disappear into the distance. “So it knows that trick?”

He wasted no time. He had already given up the idea of killing the boar. Now, he had to get back to Chen Juanjuan before something unexpected happened.

Five minutes later.

“Chen Juanjuan is gone? The dog’s gone too? And the mutant wild boar vanished as well?”

The battleground was littered with chaos—dried blood stains barely visible on the ground and several large trees smashed to pieces.

What now?

Chen Juanjuan had truly disappeared!

He glanced at the three large baskets on the ground; the medicinal herbs inside hadn’t been disturbed. There was no cell signal here, so all he could do was try to find Chen Juanjuan as quickly as possible.

Suddenly, the shrubs in the direction of the mountain’s summit began to shake, as if something was moving within.

Just as Chen Anquan tightened his grip on his sickle, a figure burst from the undergrowth… the dog?

“Dog, what happened? Where’s Chen Juanjuan?”

“Woof! Woof! Woof!” The dog circled Chen Anquan, its bark not especially anxious.

He couldn’t make sense of it, so he grabbed the dog as it spun around. The fierce pit bull was pinned by one hand, staring blankly at him before shifting its gaze toward the direction it had just come from. “Woof! Woof! Woof!”

Letting go, he watched as the dog dashed off in that direction. With his nearly full basket strapped to his back, he hurried after it.

The dog’s sense of smell was keen; even if the scent trailed for dozens of kilometers, it could follow it as long as it lingered in the air.

Watching the dog dash toward the summit, Chen Anquan felt a growing sense of dread.

All the most valuable medicinal herbs in the entire Ao Bei Mountain were at the summit! Could it be that these wild boars had discovered the secret of the mountain top?

Man and dog raced through the woods with remarkable speed, reaching a spot not far from the summit in about twenty minutes.

The summit was a wide clearing, like a small plantation, filled with rehmannia—a true treasure trove!

The dog stopped and stood before Chen Anquan, eyes fixed on the summit.

There, at the edge, stood three figures—one tall, two short. Looking closely, he saw they were the mutant wild boar and two large boars!

“Anquan, over here!” Chen Juanjuan’s voice rang out from the summit. Though Chen Anquan frowned, unsure why she was with such dangerous creatures, her tone was calm and untroubled.

“How’d you end up with those boars?”

“I was worried you wouldn’t find me, so I sent the dog to fetch you. Hurry up, I found so many amazing things!”

Chen Anquan felt a chill. Wasn’t the summit just full of rehmannia? Now that Chen Juanjuan had discovered it, this secret would soon be out.

“All right, I’m coming.” His eyes never left the three boars, remaining vigilant. They hadn’t attacked Chen Juanjuan, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t attack him.

As he climbed to the summit, the three boars backed away, clearing a path for him.

At least they know they can’t beat me, he thought.

He set his gaze at the center of the summit.

Chen Juanjuan, beaming, was crouched among a cluster of pink blossoms.

The flowers weren’t just blooming at her feet; the summit was a sea of pink, blossoms spreading everywhere.

No wonder she was so delighted—she was lost in a sea of flowers.

Chen Anquan recognized these as the flowers of the rehmannia plant. Yet these were brighter, larger than any ordinary variety.

Clearly, these were mutated as well!

At last, Chen Anquan realized that all the rehmannia he’d been harvesting here before had been mutant varieties.

“Thank goodness!” He let out a long breath, a bit relieved.

“What’s wrong, Anquan?” Chen Juanjuan looked up from her photos, grinning.

“Nothing.”

He shook his head, glancing back at the three boars who still didn’t dare step onto the summit, waving his sickle. “Don’t get any ideas!”

The three boars obediently retreated a few steps and stood still.

These were all mutated rehmannia. Chen Anquan felt fortunate he hadn’t eaten them immediately, but planned to prepare a batch of the traditional processed variety for his cultivation.

No doubt, these were genetically altered plants—were they considered GMO?

He never ate GMO soybeans or cooking oil—not out of fear, but simply because he saw no need to take unnecessary risks for a small saving.

“Stop scaring the three little piggies,” Chen Juanjuan said with a hint of annoyance.

Little piggies? Chen Anquan was puzzled. “Since when could you communicate with them?”

“Hmph!” Chen Juanjuan pouted, her face full of pride. “When you went chasing after them, I thought the big boar was dead. Out of curiosity, I ran over and touched its head.”

“You really are brave! What if it hadn’t been dead?”

“I believed you could kill it! I heard people say you punched a hole in the village basketball court.”

“All right, but it wasn’t dead.”

“It was close!” Chen Juanjuan laughed. “When I touched its head, it didn’t budge, but then it suddenly opened its eyes and scared me. Apart from its eyes, it couldn’t move.”

“How did you save it?”

“I deliberately picked a flower and put it in my pocket, then fed it to the boar.”

“You really are gutsy! Weren’t you afraid it’d mutate into an elephant?”

“Anquan, can you be more scientific? How could a wild boar become an elephant?”

“It was a metaphor!”

She glanced at the three boars at the edge of the summit. “After the big boar revived, I felt like I could sort of communicate with her, so I wasn’t scared anymore, and she didn’t attack me. She seemed to be telling me there was something good up here and invited me over. So, I rode on her back, but I was worried you wouldn’t find me, so I sent the dog to fetch you.”

“So that’s how it was.”

As far-fetched as it sounded, Chen Anquan had seen enough strange things by now—especially with Chen Juanjuan unharmed—that he couldn’t help but believe her.