"Do you want to improve your food?" Xiao Feng raised his eyebrow, looking at the little girl and the others.

The little girl immediately caught on and nodded, "Yeah, yeah, Brother Xiao Feng, catch it quickly."

Xiao Feng smiled, made a "quiet" gesture, then picked up a stone from the ground and slowly moved in the direction of the chicken's call.

Before setting off, Xiao Feng specifically instructed to bring a pack of salt, a pack of cumin, and a pack of chili peppers, just in case the food ran out, and they caught some game that would be tasteless without seasoning.

Of course, hunting was a last resort.

Because wild animals can easily carry germs, and if not handled properly, it can lead to uncontrollable serious consequences.

After walking about ten meters to the right, a wild chicken with bright feathers and long tail feathers appeared in sight.

Wild chickens, also called pheasants, according to unofficial history, during the Han Dynasty, Empress Lü's name included the word "pheasant."

Therefore, to avoid taboo, Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, ordered the name to be changed to "wild chicken."

At the instant he saw the wild chicken, Xiao Feng's gaze hardened, three fingers clenched the stone in his hand, squinted his eyes, lifted his right hand, and threw the stone.

"Whoosh!"

The stone flew out, carrying the sound of cutting through the wind.

The wild chicken, leisurely walking through the forest, as if sensing danger, flapped its wings and took off.

"Flap flap flap!"

The wild chicken dodged the stone, leaving behind a few feathers, and darted away swiftly.

Xiao Feng immediately felt embarrassed. Although these wild animals in the woods have a sharper sense of danger, it's normal to miss occasionally.

Nonetheless, thinking about how just a few minutes ago, he had asked the little girl and the others if they wanted to improve their food, he immediately felt he couldn't easily let that wild chicken go.

The boast he made, even with tears in his eyes, should have wings attached to it and let it soar freely across the sky!

"Give me two minutes."

Leaving those words, Xiao Feng chased in the direction the wild chicken had escaped.

He knew how fast that creature could run in the woods, and if he delayed any longer, it would be impossible to catch up.

"Shall we follow him?" The little girl asked.

Lin Zhiyan shook her head, "We better not wander around. Let's wait until he returns."

On the other side, the wild chicken was running through the bamboo forest, as if it were a fish swimming in water, occasionally flapping its wings to fly a short distance, as if deliberately provoking Xiao Feng.

"Whoosh!"

Another stone was thrown, hitting the wild chicken's tail feathers.

"Cluck cluck cluck..."

Under the pain, the wild chicken let out a strange cry and, after landing, ran even faster.

Xiao Feng was getting a bit agitated; the third stone he'd thrown only managed to knock down a few feathers.

While feeling annoyed, it strengthened his determination that he must catch this chicken!

However, just then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a bamboo house flash past.

Xiao Feng slowed his steps, a bit dubious if he had seen it wrong?

But in the moment's hesitation, the wild chicken had already vanished from sight.

Though he was confident that if he really wanted to search for it, he could find it, it clearly wasn't worth the effort just for a wild chicken.

Xiao Feng turned around, walked back a bit, surveying the surroundings to see if there really was a bamboo house.

It turned out, after walking back over ten meters, he indeed found a bamboo house on a clearing.

Surrounding the bamboo house was a fence made of bamboo.

And the yard was divided into two parts; one side had a shed where two sheep and over a dozen old hens were kept.

The other side was a vegetable garden, planted with some winter bamboo shoots.

Beside the vegetable garden, there was a bamboo chair and table, seemingly meant for sitting around drinking tea when idle.

"Living off the mountain, living off the water, this saying is indeed true," Xiao Feng mused.

The bamboo house in front of him exemplified this notion to the fullest.

All the structures, including the tables and chairs, were made entirely out of bamboo, and while appearing somewhat plain, they possessed a kind of simplistic beauty.

If artistic young people saw such a bamboo house, they'd probably be immediately inspired to write poetry and feel a yearning to hide away here.

Then... after ten days or half a month, they'd surely cry and scream to return.

After all, some things don't seem special until they're gone, and once you've had them and lost them, it's not easy to accept.

Like how one couldn't bear using an old phone only capable of calling once they're accustomed to a smartphone.

Xiao Feng wasn't an artistic youth; he preferred to find peace in the bustling city.

To be in the world but not of the world, to enter the mortal realm without being defiled by it—that's the most ideal life!

"Creak..."

Just then, the bamboo house door opened toward the inside.

Xiao Feng held his breath, wanting to see what kind of person would live in such a godforsaken... maybe that wasn't the right expression.

More like a place rarely visited by people, who would live there?

Judging by the fact that there was only one chair in the courtyard, it seemed like only one person lived here.

The door opened, and an old hunched man with a cane in both hands walked out.

The old man appeared around eighty years old, and once down the steps, he froze, as if his eyesight was poor, rubbed his eyes, and asked toward the outside, "Is... is... is, is there..."

Just these few words took the old man a full minute to say, urgently almost driving one crazy.

"Someone's here, someone's here."

Unable to wait, Xiao Feng directly cut in, then stepped into the courtyard.

Following the conventions in novels or TV dramas, old men who live secluded in the mountains are typically sage-like figures.

Upon stating their name, they could make the entire martial world tremble!

However, the old man in front of him, with a beard down his chest, sparse hair hanging over his shoulders, and long eyebrows, his clothes tattered, at first glance would probably be mistaken for a madman.

"Does Elder live alone here?" Xiao Feng politely asked.

"I... I..."

With just two words said, it took him another half a minute.

Xiao Feng frowned slightly, this pace of speech was driving people to madness!

However, that wasn't the main point.

In any other forest, seeing such a madman-like old man might have seemed odd, but not worth overthinking.

But here, it possibly being the place where Sun Shijie's ancestors hid treasures, and still being behind Anping Temple's back mountain, the appearance of such a figure compelled him to think more.

Just then, the old man pointed to the bamboo chair in the courtyard, signaling for Xiao Feng to sit down, and then with his cane, walked up the steps into the house.

When he came back out, he held ink, paper, and a brush in one hand and a teapot with a tea cup upside down on the spout in the other.

Watching the old man's trembling figure, Xiao Feng felt awkward continuing to sit, took the items from him, put them on the table, and helped the old man down the steps.

The old man poured a cup of tea for Xiao Feng, then ground ink, and wrote on the paper: "Haven't talked to anyone in decades, not good at speaking anymore."

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