Lin Xiao quickly found the place where the Little Spotted Boar was resting, based on the game map in his head.
A round Little Spotted Boar was curled up among the rocks by the cliff.
Its pink skin showed through the light brown fuzz, and the dark stripes on its back rose and fell weakly with each breath.
The piglet was obviously in bad shape.
There was a fresh cut on its left foreleg, and the wound was covered with a dark green ointment—clearly man-made.
It seemed to have just woken up, its eyes dazed, its body trembling slightly.
Then it tried to move its injured leg.
“Owww…”
A painful whimper squeezed out of its throat.
The pain fully woke it up.
Its small black bean eyes instantly turned pitiful, and it began struggling restlessly to stand.
Lin Xiao looked at the herbs covering the piglet’s leg and roughly deduced Lu Renjia’s scheme.
These herbs were the key.
If his guess was right, they could temporarily stop pain and induce sleep, but once the effect wore off after a few hours, the pain would come flooding back.
Lu Renjia and her group had calculated the timing.
That way, they could tamper with the sleeping piglet without angering it.
Then, when Xiao Luoyi was lured here, the piglet would wake up in pain and cry out, and the cry would immediately attract the nearby mother beast.
And a mother beast seeing her injured cub…
Lin Xiao didn’t dare think further.
He quickly took out the berries he had gathered along the way from his Storage Pouch and opened the wrap.
The aroma immediately spread.
The piglet, agitated by pain, jerked its head up and sniffed hard with its wet nose.
Lin Xiao did not approach recklessly.
He crouched down and gently rolled a few plump berries toward it.
The piglet hesitated for a few seconds, pain and appetite battling in its small head.
In the end, it carefully picked up a berry and chewed, momentarily forgetting the pain; its tail even wagged slightly.
Lin Xiao rolled a few more berries over.
This time, he slowly extended his hand, palm open, revealing more berries.
The piglet looked at the berries, then at Lin Xiao, and a hint of trust seemed to appear in its wet eyes.
It limped over and began nibbling the fruit from Lin Xiao’s palm.
Taking advantage of its relaxed eating, Lin Xiao quickly examined the wound.
The wound was not deep but was long, with clean edges.
Clearly, it had been cut by something sharp.
But it had already started to bleed.
He had to treat it quickly.
Lin Xiao took out clean water and hemostatic herbs.
While cleaning the wound, the piglet trembled all over from the pain, but it was obedient and did not struggle.
Lin Xiao quickly chewed the herbs and applied them, then wrapped the leg with clean gauze.
“I need to send you back,” Lin Xiao said, estimating that the mother beast’s den couldn’t be far.
He picked up a bunch of berries and held them in front of the piglet, coaxing, “Come on, this bunch is for you. Lead me to your mother, okay?”
The piglet’s attention was firmly caught.
Enduring the leg pain, it limped after him.
And so, Lin Xiao bribed the Little Spotted Boar with a bunch of berries.
The piglet led the way while Lin Xiao followed behind, staying alert to his surroundings and carefully erasing all traces of their passing.
After walking about half a li, a cave appeared ahead.
The entrance wasn’t large, but the ground around it was covered in large animal tracks, and the air carried a heavy animal scent.
Lin Xiao stopped a short distance from the cave entrance and piled all the remaining berries in a conspicuous spot.
Then he began humming a strange tune.
This was from a side quest in the game.
After completing a series of boring delivery quests, you could learn a small Beast Communication Skill from the Mountain Woodcutter: a specific melody could calm specific beasts.
This skill could lower the aggression of elite Bristle Boars—an official cheat for unskilled players.
He never thought it would come in handy here.
The humming echoed through the forest.
From deep inside the cave came a rustling sound, and heavy snorts grew closer.
A massive dark figure slowly emerged from the cave’s shadow.
When Lin Xiao saw the figure itself, he almost stopped breathing.
This Bristle Boar’s size was beyond his expectations.
Standing at least one zhang tall, its entire body was covered in bristly black-brown hair as hard as steel needles, and its two curved tusks were astonishingly large.
This wasn’t an ordinary mother beast.
This was the Bristleback Boar King, the regional boss of the outer Misty Hidden Forest…
The Boar King came out of the cave and immediately spotted the unfamiliar two-legged creature.
Its nose twitched, and a low growl rumbled from its throat—a clear warning.
Then its gaze dropped, landing on the piglet by Lin Xiao’s feet, and on the bandage on the piglet’s left foreleg. Its huge pupils contracted sharply.
“ROAR—!”
A deafening roar exploded as the Boar King’s eyes instantly bloodshot, murderous intent surging forth.
It stomped its front hooves heavily and aimed its terrible tusks at Lin Xiao.
This was clearly the stance for a charge.
Every hair on Lin Xiao’s body stood on end.
A chill shot straight up his spine.
He knew that running away with his back to the Boar King would be suicide, so he didn’t flee.
He spread his arms to show he held no weapons.
At the same time, he said softly to the piglet behind him, “You ate my berries, I bandaged your wound. That makes us friends, right?”
The piglet seemed frightened by the Boar King’s killing intent at first, but soon poked its head out from behind Lin Xiao’s leg and let out a pitiful grunt toward the king.
That sound made the bloodlust in the Boar King’s eyes recede a little.
It saw the bandage on its cub’s leg, and also saw that the cub didn’t seem to reject this two-legged creature.
Lin Xiao seized that fleeting opportunity.
He carefully took out the last small cloth bundle from his pocket—inside were the plumpest, best berries he had carefully selected.
He gently placed the bundle on the ground and pushed it forward with both hands.
Slowly, he lowered his head to avoid direct eye contact with the Boar King.
With one hand, he gently reached out to the piglet, letting it nuzzle and leave its scent to show closeness.
His other hand slowly pointed at the berries.
The Boar King’s heavy breaths sprayed onto Lin Xiao’s face, warm and pungent.
It stared at Lin Xiao for a long moment, then lowered its head and nosed the piglet, carefully sniffing the herbal scent on the wound.
Fresh and natural, with no malice.
Then it touched the bundle of berries and took a taste.
It lifted its head and looked at Lin Xiao again.
This time, its gaze was much more complex.
Lin Xiao kept his head lowered and said in a very soft voice, “Danger… many cultivators have come down from the mountain. You can’t beat them. You should leave this place for a while. They’ll leave soon.”
He pointed in the direction they had come from, again mimicking the boar’s body language for danger.
The Boar King’s nose twitched, as if catching the lingering spiritual energy left behind by the cultivators’ spells from afar.
After another tense standoff, the Boar King finally made a decision.
It let out a low grunt and gently nosed the piglet, signaling it to follow.
Then it picked up the berry bundle, turned around, and headed into the dense forest deep in the Misty Hidden Forest.
The piglet limped after it.
After a few steps, it looked back at Lin Xiao and grunted.
Only when the two figures—big and small—had completely disappeared into the forest did Lin Xiao collapse to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
The clothes on his back were soaked through with cold sweat, clinging icily to his skin.
The pressure from the Boar King was nothing like what a game screen could convey.
After resting a while, Lin Xiao forced himself to stand up.
He quickly cleaned up any remaining traces, then returned to his own group.
—
Meanwhile, at the cliff in the Misty Hidden Forest.
Lu Renjia stopped and pointed at the pile of rocks by the cliff, feigning excitement.
“It was right there in those rocks! Last time I saw the cub… Huh?”
Her voice cut off abruptly.
Zhou Min and Wu Min were also stunned.
“Impossible…”
Lu Renjia’s face turned ashen. She strode over to check.
The scent of the beast was still there, but the Little Spotted Boar was nowhere to be seen.
Only some old animal tracks and their own fresh footprints remained on the ground.
Xiao Luoyi stood a few steps away, watching their flustered state silently for a moment.
Then she turned her gaze toward the hunting area where Lin Xiao and the others were heading, lost in thought.