Chapter 31 — The Hunter Squad

"Father, Mother." Teng Xuanji strode into the family courtyard.

Inside the main hall, his father Teng Yuening smiled and said, "Qingshan, we were waiting on you. Three or four hours of spear practice a day is quite enough, really." Teng Yuening, Yuan Lan, and his sister Teng Qingyu were already seated around the wooden table. Teng Xuanji set his spear against the wall and sat down to eat.

"I know." Teng Xuanji took two bites, then looked up. "Father, Mother, I want to join the hunter squad."

"The hunter squad?" Yuan Lan turned rather hesitantly toward her husband, Teng Yuening.

Teng Yuening frowned. "Qingshan, you are only nine, and you want to join the hunter squad?" The hunter squad was the band of the clan's fiercest men, led by Teng Ningyue, who often went into the Dayan Mountains to hunt game, so that every household in Teng Rongjun might at least have meat to eat. And the pelts of the beasts fetched good money as well.

"My strength ought to rank in the top ten within the estate," Teng Xuanji said with a smile.

At that, a hint of a smile crept onto Teng Yuening's face.

At the year-end rite when he was nine, Teng Xuanji had lifted a boulder weighing six hundred jin, and clearly that had not been his limit. In sheer strength alone, Teng Xuanji could indeed rank in the top ten of Teng Rongjun.

"Haha, you have fine talent, and it is true you ought to be tempered." Living in this cruel world, Teng Yuening was open-minded about such things. He laughed and said, "Starting tomorrow, you join the hunter squad. I will go speak with your grandfather this afternoon; tomorrow morning, go straight to the training grounds and meet up with the clan's hunter squad."

"Thank you, Father." Teng Xuanji was overjoyed.

Beside him, Yuan Lan shot Teng Yuening a glare, as though resenting that he had agreed to their son's request.

"Brother, will you bring me a little wild rabbit?" Qingyu fixed her big, unclouded eyes on Teng Xuanji.

"No problem," Teng Xuanji said with a smile.

"Brother is the best to me." Qingyu giggled.

"Qingshan," Teng Yuening said suddenly, "I have noticed you often carry several throwing knives. You practice with them often in the woods to the west, do you not?"

"Just a bit of casual practice," Teng Xuanji said with a smile. His father was the blacksmith, so it was simple enough for him to take ten throwing knives from the forge. In his past life he had poured great effort into the throwing knife; now he only played with them a little while resting from spear practice, to keep his feel for them.

After all, a throwing knife could strike at range, and paired perfectly with his spear.

"I am only reminding you: whatever you practice, practice it with focus," Teng Yuening said offhandedly.

The next morning, the sky was barely light.

His little sister Qingyu was still fast asleep, while Teng Yuening, Yuan Lan, and Teng Xuanji—the three of them—were already in their own courtyard.

"Qingshan, you have talent and your spear work is good. But the Dayan Mountains are full of fierce beasts and venomous snakes, and you must be careful. When you truly fight a savage beast, you must not show the slightest cowardice." Teng Yuening still gave his solemn charge. He knew well that Xu Yuanyue had strength and fine spear work, but when it came to a life-and-death struggle, the sight of blood might turn his legs to jelly—and then how could he fight?

If fear turns a man's legs to jelly, his strength cannot be brought to bear.

"Qingshan." His mother Yuan Lan also gave her charge. "Do not show off. Stay with the other clansmen. Here, put on this beast-hide coat."

He wore leather boots, and over his body a beast-hide outer robe. The robe had been stripped from thick-hided beasts, then treated and made. Wearing it was like donning a simple suit of armor, and it served as protection.

"Rest easy, Father, Mother. I am off."

Holding a green nanmu spear, Teng Xuanji strode out of the courtyard.

At the training grounds, because it was still early and the sky barely light, morning drills had not yet begun, and there were not many people about. But the members of the hunter squad had already begun to gather, many of them talking and laughing, every one of them bold and free-spirited.

"Haha, the future finest hero of our Teng Rongjun has arrived!" Teng Xuanji had just entered the training grounds when he heard the voice from afar, and he walked toward it with a smile.

"Qingshan!" Teng Ningyue strode over, laughing aloud, and clapped Teng Xuanji hard on the shoulder. "Good lad, joining the hunter squad at nine. In all the history of Teng Rongjun, you are the first!"

"I only got in at thirteen. Qingshan really is formidable." A sturdy youth, over seven chi tall and likewise wearing a beast-hide robe, said with a laugh.

"Cousin," Teng Xuanji greeted him with a smile. That man was none other than Teng Xuanzheng.

Elsewhere on the training grounds, other clansmen were training hard, and the glances they cast at the hunter squad members all held a trace of envy. To be a member of the hunter squad was to be a man of some renown in the clan, each one possessed of strength not to be underestimated.

The hunter squad, counting Teng Xuanji who had joined that very day, numbered thirty-two.

"Good, everyone is here. Let us set out!"

The thirty-two hunters of Teng Rongjun, each with spear in hand, longbow on back, and beast-hide robe, departed from Teng Rongjun.

"Qingshan, once we are on the mountain, do not fall behind. On Xu Yuanyue's first trip up, everyone loses their way in the mountains at first. And there are dangers they do not understand. This is your first time—watch much, listen much." Teng Ningyue instructed Teng Xuanji all along the way, and Teng Xuanji listened.

In truth, in his past life, wilderness survival was something an assassin had to learn.

Only, whether the forests of this world were the same as those of his past life, Teng Xuanji could not be sure, and so he did not dare be careless.

In the early morning, the Dayan Mountains lay silent, and a hunter band advanced toward the depths of the mountains.

"There are no fierce beasts on the outer slopes; mostly just wild rabbits and pheasants. The true fierce beasts are deep in the mountains." Teng Ningyue spoke as they went, and just as he spoke, a small wild rabbit in the thorn bushes nearby, startled by the crowd, darted off to flee.

Teng Xuanji's eyes lit up, and the spear in his hand stabbed at the rabbit swift as a viper.

Thump. The spearhead struck beside the rabbit, then with a quiver it flicked against the rabbit's body and sent it tumbling head over heels. Teng Xuanji lunged forward and caught the rabbit with one reach of his hand.

"Fine spear work." Many of the clansmen around saw it and praised him.

To catch a rabbit without wounding it took no small skill.

"Why take it alive?" Teng Ningyue laughed.

"Uncle, my Qingyu asked me to bring her a wild rabbit to play with," Teng Xuanji said, and bound the rabbit's legs, then put it straight into the pack on his back.

The clansmen around could not help laughing. They had not yet reached the deep mountains, and every one of them was clearly at ease. Along the way they also shot two pheasants. After nearly an hour, the hunter squad finally entered the dangerous region—also the region richest in game.

"Everyone sharpen up," Teng Ningyue said in a low voice.

At midday.

Deep in the Dayan Mountains, the hunters of Teng Rongjun were roasting a maned wolf near a water source.

"Luck is only so-so today. So far just two pheasants, one maned wolf, and one warthog," Teng Xuanzheng muttered. Teng Xuanji glanced at the maned wolf, already skinned and roasting. "As expected—perhaps because of the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, the fierce beasts in these mountains are larger than the wild beasts of my past world, even within the same species."

In his past life, a maned wolf weighed about fifty or sixty jin; this one was over a hundred.