Chapter 35 - Chapter 35: Chapter 32 The King of Banyan Trees in the Deep Mountainsi (2/2)

Tomorrow, carrying a bundle of phoenix tree wood to fetch his bride would surely go smoothly.

Because phoenix wood represented good fortune and celebration.

Until the sun set, they still had not seen woodcutter Liu Dazhuang return. Liu Dazhuang’s wife and son began to worry.

This had never happened before!

The Liu Family was numerous and influential within the village. Fearing that Liu Dazhuang was in danger, his wife asked the Liu Family in the village, as well as several close neighbors, to search for him in the mountains.

The search party ventured deep into the mountains and came upon traces of blood.

A sinking feeling in their hearts, they acknowledged that Liu Dazhuang might have met with calamity.

Following the bloodstains, they found a large pool of blood and excrement among some fallen brushwood, as well as two feet still wearing straw sandals.

Upon seeing those sandals, Liu Dazhuang’s wife immediately collapsed to the ground crying, “These are my man’s shoes, his feet… Woohoo, how tragically you died!” After several cries of sorrow, she held her breath and fainted away.

The villagers promptly carried Liu Dazhuang’s pair of feet and his wife out of the mountains.

Later, experienced hunters from the village examined the bite marks on the feet and confirmed that they were the work of a hanging-eyes tiger.

A hanging-eyes tiger is a euphemism for a tiger.

Its eyes in the night resemble two hanging green lanterns, with “big cat” meaning tiger.

Common people, out of fear of the tiger, would even avoid saying its name.

Fearing that if they did, they might actually encounter a tiger while chopping wood in the mountains.

As for how Xu Zhenchang went on to get married, no one knows, but even now the Liu Family won’t speak to him. If they come across each other on the road, Liu Family members turn their heads and walk past with cold faces.

Qin Niu ventured deeper into the mountains, and his main goal this time wasn’t actually hunting.

He wanted to find a quiet place to cultivate, preferably to build a cultivation spot high up in a tree.

Practicing the Everlasting Spring Technique required attuning with nature, and he believed that merging with nature would certainly yield twice the results with half the effort.

Furthermore, the weapon-nourishing method mentioned by Master Ou also piqued his interest.

If he could find a suitable place to nurture his blade, that would be perfect.

As he continued deeper, signs of human presence became increasingly rare.

Giant trees with trunks more than half a meter in diameter became more common. Without human felling, many trees could live for over five hundred years, some even for five thousand without trouble.

Apart from these ancient trees stretching to the clouds, ferns, low shrubs, tall trees, various weeds, and climbing plants were also essential components of the forest.

Like a harmonious family, they lived joyously in these mountains.

The deeper he went, the more lush the vegetation became. There was barely any path; thorns grew wildly, making his progress increasingly difficult.

Moreover, the deeper he went into the mountains, the stronger his feeling of unease became.

He was still very weak, and there were too many creatures in the deep mountains that could claim his life.

Looking around, his line of sight was limited, with the abundant brushwood and trees obstructing his view. Among them, he truly felt as insignificant as a speck of dust..