Chapter 46: What do you call this? This is called waste utilization!

That voice was not loud, plain and ordinary, yet it struck like a heavy hammer against Skinny Monkey's chest.

Skinny Monkey froze entirely, his body paralyzed as if hit by a binding spell, nailed to the spot, unable to move a single inch.

The bushes where he had hidden now seemed to have turned transparent, offering not a shred of safety anymore.

Slowly, bit by bit, he raised his head, locking eyes directly with Xu Feng, who had turned around.

There was little emotion in those eyes—no anger, no murderous intent. They simply looked at him with absolute calm, as if gazing at a stone by the roadside.

Yet it was precisely this calmness that terrified Skinny Monkey far more than any fierce or menacing expression could.

In the silent mountain forest, the sound of his own heartbeat felt as loud as a beating drum.

"C-Come out," Xu Feng's voice sounded once again.

Skinny Monkey's legs turned to jelly, and he crawled out of the bushes, using both his hands and feet.

He dared not stand straight. Hunching his waist and lowering his head, he looked precisely like a thief caught red-handed.

"B-Brother Tiger, he..." Skinny Monkey's voice trembled beyond recognition. He wanted to explain, only to find his mind entirely blank, incapable of stringing together even a single complete sentence.

"Did Wang Erhu send you?" Xu Feng asked.

Subconsciously, Skinny Monkey nodded, then hurriedly shook his head, and finally could only pull a miserable face, bobbing his head like a pestle pounding garlic.

Seeing this cowardly display, Xu Feng couldn't even muster any anger; he simply found it somewhat amusing.

He unloaded the game from his waist and tossed it onto the ground—a veritable pile of it.

Then, he found a clean rock to sit down on, fished a small piece of dry ration from his pocket, and began to chew on it leisurely.

"Go on then, what did he send you to do?" Xu Feng's tone was as casual as idle chatter.

Stealing a glance, Skinny Monkey looked from Xu Feng to the mountain of game on the ground, and the last shred of wishful thinking in his heart shattered completely.

With a heavy thud, he dropped to his knees, paying no mind to the twigs and rotting leaves littering the ground.

"S-Sir Xu! Master Feng! This has nothing to do with me!" Tears and mucus streamed down Skinny Monkey's face instantly as his voice carried a sobbing whine. "It was all Wang Erhu! He forced me to come!"

Pouring beans from a bamboo tube, he confessed Wang Erhu's entire plan in one breath.

From how Wang Erhu made him tag along, to ordering him to create obstacles and throw stones at opportune moments—in short, doing everything possible to disrupt Xu Feng's hunting, solely for the purpose of winning their wager and welshing on the debt of building the brick bed and erecting the courtyard wall.

"He said... he said if I didn't come, he'd break my legs when I got back..."

Weeping bitterly with snot and tears running wild, Skinny Monkey scrubbed himself completely clean of any blame:

"Master Feng, I'm just an errand boy! How could I ever dare to go against you? I was watching from the back just now—your archery is practically the art of immortals! I didn't even dare to get close!"

Having heard it all, Xu Feng said nothing. He merely continued chewing his dry ration, a playful hint lingering in his gaze.

Seeing no reaction from him, Skinny Monkey grew even more panicked, assuming Xu Feng was truly enraged. Terrified, he kowtowed repeatedly on the ground, his forehead striking the gravel with loud, dull thuds.

"Master Feng, in your boundless mercy, please spare me as if I were nothing more than a fart! I'll never dare do it again! I'm kowtowed to you!"

"Alright, stop kowtowing." Xu Feng finally spoke up. Swallowing his last bite of dry ration, he brushed the crumbs from his hands. "Keep going like that, and you'll turn yourself into a fool even if you weren't one to begin with."

Skinny Monkey halted his movements, lifting a face smeared with mud and tears, and gazed pitifully at Xu Feng.

"Get up." Xu Feng stood up, walked over to the pile of game, and gave it a light kick. "You came just in time."

Skinny Monkey blinked, utterly failing to grasp the meaning behind those words.

Xu Feng pointed at the pheasants and hares on the ground. "See that? With this much stuff, I'd actually be a bit worried about how to carry it all back by myself."

His brain failing to turn the corner for a moment, Skinny Monkey stared blankly at Xu Feng.

Xu Feng grinned, flashing a row of white teeth—a smile that, in Skinny Monkey's eyes, was far more terrifying than anything else.

"I've always had the compassionate heart of a Bodhisattva."

Xu Feng trotted out this catchphrase once more. He patted Skinny Monkey's shoulder with a force that made the fellow's posture sink by half a foot.

"Look, you followed me all this way, I can't let you make the trip for nothing. Wang Erhu told you to come cause trouble for me; as for me, I'm telling you to come help me out. What do you call this? This is called putting waste to good use."

"Ah?" Skinny Monkey was completely dumbfounded.

"Ah, what?" Xu Feng tossed a thick hemp rope down at his feet. "Tie all these up securely and put them on your back. From now on, whatever I hunt, you're responsible for carrying."

Gazing at the massive pile of game on the ground and then down at his own scrawny frame, Skinny Monkey turned green.

Weighing at least forty or fifty catties combined, and this was only the beginning?

"S-Sir Xu... I..."

"What? Unwilling?" Xu Feng's eyebrows arched sharply, and that fierce aura flared up again. "If you're unwilling, that's fine too. I can tie you up right now and hang you from this tree. When Wang Erhu and his gang come looking for you later, we'll see if there are even a few bones left of you."

A chilling mountain wind swept through the forest, making Skinny Monkey's neck feel ice-cold as he vividly envisioned himself being torn apart and devoured by wild wolves.

He gave a violent shudder; how could he possibly dare utter half a word of refusal?

"Willing! Willing! This little one is ten thousand times willing!" Scrambling on all fours, Skinny Monkey grabbed the hemp rope from the ground and began binding the game with nimble hands and feet.

By now, he had figured it out completely: opposing Xu Feng meant death, and slave-driving for Wang Erhu also meant death. He might as well honestly play the beast of burden for Xu Feng—at least that way, he stood a chance at staying alive.

Nodding in satisfaction, Xu Feng hoisted his bow back over his shoulder and slung the quiver. "Be quick with your hands and feet, and keep up. If you fall behind, bear the consequences."

With that, he turned and continued deeper into the mountain forest.

Pulling a bitter face, Skinny Monkey expended nine bulls and two tigers' worth of effort to hoist the massive bundle of game onto his back.

The sheer weight pressed him down with a stagger, nearly driving him flat onto the ground.

Gritting his teeth, he steadied himself with a wobble, planting his trembling, sieve-like legs and running for dear life to catch up with Xu Feng's pace.

The next hour transformed into an absolute nightmare for Skinny Monkey.

He watched helplessly as Xu Feng strolled through the woods like a leisurely gentleman taking a walk in his own backyard, stopping and going at whim.

Yet every single time he stopped, it meant the release of an arrow.

"Swish!"

A hazel grouse dozing on a tree branch dropped down instantly in response.

"Swish!"

A bamboo rat peering out from a rock crevice was pinned dead in its spot.

"Swish! Swish!"

Two roe deer foraging side by side tumbled to the ground one after the other, struck by arrows almost simultaneously.

Skinny Monkey's jaw went from initial astonishment, to numbness, and finally hung open permanently.

Trailing behind Xu Feng, he mechanically picked up the game from the ground, tied them securely, and hung them from his body.

The burden upon him grew heavier and heavier—shifting from forty or fifty catties initially, gradually up to seventy or eighty catties, and finally, when Xu Feng brought down a half-grown wild boar cub, Skinny Monkey felt as though his spine was about to snap in two.

He had never imagined there could be this much game in the mountains—so plentiful it seemed they were lining up to wait for Xu Feng to shoot them.

Nor had he ever imagined that hunting could be so effortless, so casually elegant.

There was not a trace of a hunter's tension or caution in Xu Feng's movements; it felt much more like casual, effortless picking.

What the hell kind of hunting was this? This was clearly wholesale shopping!

Panting like an ox, sweat soaking through his clothes, Skinny Monkey felt his legs grow as heavy as if filled with lead.

Gazing at the figure ahead whose stride remained utterly effortless, he felt a towering wave of hatred toward Wang Erhu bloom in his heart for the very first time.

Wang Erhu, I screw your ancestors! Who the hell told you to pick a fight with a living king of hell like this, dragging me down into the mud with you!

Xu Feng seemed to sense the increasingly heavy, ragged breathing from behind. He paused and glanced back over his shoulder.

He saw that Skinny Monkey had been entirely submerged beneath the pile of game, with only his head visible, his face dead pale and lips purple, looking on the verge of collapse.

"Alright, that's enough for today," Xu Feng announced.

Hearing those words, Skinny Monkey felt as though he had received an imperial pardon. His legs went limp and he slumped directly onto the ground, causing the game strapped to his body to spill out in a chaotic clatter.

He panted heavily, feeling as though he had just been fished out of the water.

Xu Feng walked over, picked out the two largest roe deer and the small wild boar from the pile of game, tied them together with rope, and hoisted them onto his own shoulder.

That weight was heavier than everything Skinny Monkey had been carrying combined, yet when Xu Feng hoisted it, his body merely dipped slightly before straightening up into an unyielding posture.

"Let's go, time to head back," Xu Feng said indifferently.

Gazing at Xu Feng's broad back and then down at his own wretched state, Skinny Monkey cast every shred of unconvincing defiance far beyond the highest clouds.

Struggling to crawl up from the ground, he once more bundled up the pheasants and hares and hoisted them onto his back. Though still heavy, it felt immeasurably more reassuring than before.

At least this terrifying fiend had said they were heading back.

When the two of them emerged from the mountain forest one after the other and returned to the familiar fork in the road at the village entrance, the sun had already climbed straight overhead.

Xu Feng halted, glancing back at the deserted mountain path on the left, a cold smirk curving the corner of his lips.

"It seems your Brother Tiger's luck today isn't looking too good."

Panting hard, Skinny Monkey did not dare to answer.

He knew very well that as for Wang Erhu and his crew—let alone bagging any game—if they managed not to get lost in the mountains or dragged off by wild beasts, it would mean their ancestors' graves were smoking with good fortune.

Without dwelling on it further, Xu Feng shouldered the heavy game and led his unpaid beast of burden into the village.

This scene was quickly spotted by the villagers.

Xu Feng walked in front, carrying three large game carcasses on his shoulder with an upright posture and a steady, imposing presence.

Trailing right behind him was a bruised and battered Skinny Monkey, resembling an overloaded camel hung from head to toe with pheasants and hares, swaying unsteadily with every step, his face a portrait of utter despair.

This intensely striking visual spectacle left every single onlooker with their jaws dropping to the ground.

"My dear lord! Is... is that Xu Feng?"

"Isn't that Wang Erhu's little tail-wagging dog, Skinny Monkey, carrying things behind him? How'd he end up acting like a coolie for him?"

"Look at the stuff on them! Two roe deer! A small wild boar! And all those chickens and hares! Have they... have they hunted down half the living creatures on the mountain?!"

The villagers chattered animatedly, the look in their eyes toward Xu Feng transforming from prior awe into absolute terror.

This was no longer just a "crippled" man who could fight; this was practically a mountain deity descended to earth!

As for those villagers who had followed Sun Defa just yesterday to make a scene at Xu Feng's doorstep, they turned pale with fright at this moment. Catch sight of Xu Feng walking past, they lowered their heads from afar, wishing desperately they could burrow into a crack in the ground.

Turning a blind eye to the surrounding gazes, Xu Feng walked straight to his courtyard gate and dumped the game from his shoulder onto the ground with a dull thud.

"Skinny Monkey, leave the stuff here. You can scram now."

Hearing this like heavenly music, Skinny Monkey scrambled clumsily to unload his burden. Not even daring to utter a single polite parting phrase, he bobbed and bowed in a series of deep bows toward Xu Feng, then turned tail and bolted away without looking back, moving faster than a hare.

Watching his wretched and fleeing figure, Xu Feng gave a light chuckle, turned, and pushed open the courtyard gate.

Hearing the commotion, Lin Xue hurried out to welcome him. When she caught sight of the mountainous pile of game at the courtyard entrance, she too froze, her clear eyes filled to the brim with astonishment.

Dusting off his hands, Xu Feng smiled at her and said, "Wife, look—forget about building the brick bed now, someone's even sent us the money to build the courtyard wall."