Chapter 1285: Chapter 1280: Danger in the Mountains

“Ah, let him go, let him go. The mountain path is hard to traverse, and the Witch Doctor is quite elderly. We really fear that something might happen to him. Originally, two young men from the village said they’d accompany him, but the Witch Doctor insisted on going alone. Everyone couldn’t convince him otherwise, so in the end, he went up the mountain by himself.”

“Alright, farewell.”

Jin Zijin turned around and pulled Yue Rujing along.

“Are we heading up the mountain now? This mountain looks rather vast. Shouldn’t we make some preparations first?” Yue Rujing said.

Jin Zijin patted the backpack on his back.

This was a backpack made by Youyou, incredibly convenient.

“So Senior Brother had already prepared well in advance,” Yue Rujing remarked with a smile.

The two of them ventured deeper into the mountain, following the paths to find their target—this was Jin Zijin’s forte.

It was a skill he honed back when he had searched for Jin Ziyuan and his father in the back mountains of Lotus Village.

The Witch Doctor who entered the mountains didn’t deliberately hide his tracks, and finding the traces he left behind wasn’t particularly difficult.

Yue Rujing watched Jin Zijin demonstrate his tracking skill in awe and clicked his tongue in amazement. “Senior Brother, when did you become this impressive?”

Jin Zijin merely said flatly, “Six years in Lotus Village—I only picked up this one skill.”

“What about hunting?” After all, the game they had been eating along the way was hunted by Jin Zijin.

Jin Zijin chuckled and said, “Yes, hunting too.”

Those six years in Lotus Village had not been spent in vain; besides learning how to track and hunt, he had also returned with Youyou.

As the day wore on, the sky darkened. They had already been in the mountains for five days.

Jin Zijin picked out a dry cave to serve as their shelter for the night.

Yue Rujing cheerfully gathered some dry wood to start a fire, and before long, Jin Zijin had successfully hunted a rabbit.

This rabbit would be their dinner for the evening.

Yue Rujing retrieved some fruits he’d gathered in the mountain during the day—as a bonus, they had rabbit for dinner and fruit for dessert.

It had been a long time since Yue Rujing had spent a moment of closeness with Senior Brother like this, and he felt as if he’d traveled back to their days together at Qi Mountain. This sensation was wonderful.

“Ajing, grab the salt from the bag quickly.”

Gu Youyou loved gourmet food, and Jin Zijin had perfected the art of roasting the perfect rabbit.

The aroma soon wafted from the rabbit, drifting out of the cave and spreading through the Yunhe Mountain forest.

This mountain, towering and vast with its undulating ridges, stretched up into the clouds. The rising mists beneath their feet resembled rivers of clouds flowing endlessly.

However, the fragrance traveled too far—it attracted a black bear from the mountain.

A massive, dark silhouette stood at the cave’s entrance, its mouth drooling. Yue Rujing was so startled that he dropped the rabbit leg he’d been halfway through eating to the ground.

“Yikes! There’s a bear!”

Jin Zijin glanced back, then calmly said, “Looks like we’ll be having bear paw tomorrow.”

Just as his words fell, the black bear lunged toward them.

Facing ordinary people, a black bear might prove troublesome, but against someone like Jin Zijin and Yue Rujing, it might as well be delivering its own bear paw.

Jin Zijin swiftly sidestepped to dodge the bear’s strike without a hint of panic, continuing to bite into a piece of rabbit meat.

On the other side, Yue Rujing—still indignantly fuming over the sudden appearance of the bear that had startled him enough to drop his rabbit leg—promptly drew his short sword and thrust it directly into the bear’s body.

One strike was not enough to kill the bear; instead, it enraged the beast. It roared ferociously and lunged at Yue Rujing. Yue Rujing cursed loudly, then immediately leapt to the cave’s wall to evade the attack.

The bear crashed into the cave wall with the momentum of its pounce.

But just then, something entirely unexpected happened.