Chen Ying was not worried about the safety of the Mountain King; after all, it was the real king of this place, a tiger of the land.
The forest in sight was all its territory.
Yin Li groggily woke and slept again until he was fully awake and manageable around noon the next day.
"I'm okay now, really okay, there's no need to delay everyone's time on my account."
When hearing the group discussing whether to rest another day, Yin Li quickly stopped them.
"Another night would be fine. Let's wait until tomorrow morning, and if there's no problem, we can set off."
They couldn't wait here forever; although Chen Ying was confident in his medical skills, the others weren't aware. It was safer to get out and have a check-up at a hospital as soon as possible.
After guarding Yin Li for a night, Chen Ying went into the tent to catch up on sleep after lunch.
Half-asleep, he seemed to hear someone call out a few times, but he couldn't open his eyes. With a furry warm thing snuggling onto him, Chen Ying struggled to open his eyelids, caught a glimpse of familiar colors, and reached out to hug the heat source and continue sleeping.
The people outside were dumbfounded, petrified on the spot.
Dao Meihua's cousin-in-law almost lost her jaw, and finally, she came back to her senses, looking at her sister-in-law with a complex expression.
"Isn't he a bit too thick-skinned?"
"No worries, he's used to it; he often does this at Jiamu Gully."
The cousin-in-law's eyes widened instantly, her jaw almost falling again.
Dao Meihua turned, squatted next to a small wild boar on the ground, still a piglet.
So, the Mountain King went to avenge Yin Li? How did it know which wild boar had harmed Yin Li?
A thought flashed in her mind, and Dao Meihua stood up with a "whoosh," "Brother Li, please come with Ah-Mu and me for a run to where the incident happened yesterday."
Old Gao, being very smart and already suspicious, immediately slapped his thigh, "Could it have wiped out the entire wild boar pack?"
With the way this one acts, it wouldn't be surprising.
Dao Meihua had them take photos and make notes, especially giving close-ups of the several fatal tusk marks on the piglet.
Then, a group went to the incident site, and after a search, they found eight wild boars in total—five big and three small—dead in the woods.
One of the wild boars had been half-eaten, seemingly to suit He Daiwang's appetite!
They took pictures and recorded them one by one, taking nearly two hours to finish the task.
"Leave the bodies here; other animals will come to clean up," Dao Meihua put away the camera, looked around, and led her team back the same way.
Returning to the camp, Chen Ying was awake, leaning against the Mountain King, still a bit listless.
"So, how many did you kill?" Seeing Dao Meihua return, he stood up to help put things away.
"Five big ones and three smalls, one big boar, a soon-to-be-mature young boar, and three sows."
Dao Meihua handed him the camera to look for himself.
"Including this one, that's nine, not few at all."
Such wild boar herds of a dozen are also rare, as they are usually in groups of four or five.
After looking through the photos, Chen Ying and Yin Li clicked their tongues, "Impressive, this big one took out a whole wild boar pack which wasn't weak in combat power either, by itself."
Yin Li, getting into character, even saluted the Mountain King, thanking it for avenging him.
Unfortunately, the Mountain King was too lazy to pay him any mind, focusing only on nudging Chen Ying's hand, urging him to continue the massage.
"You avenged Ali, shouldn't he massage you? Why cling to me?"
With a laugh, he patted the Mountain King's back of the head, mock-disgusted while kneading it hard, giving the Mountain King a vigorous massage.
The satiated Mountain King rolled lazily on the ground like a big cat, stretching its body and rolling around several times, before sharpening its claws on a nearby tree, leaving behind bark scraps before sauntering off.
This Mountain King has quite the personality.
After a good night's sleep, Yin Li felt nothing unwell the next morning; his mind was clear, his vision normal.
He even felt sharper and responded more quickly than before.
After leaving the camp, the Mountain King headed to the site of yesterday's wild boar hunt.
Several dhole were already there tearing at it, and seeing the Mountain King approach, they backed off a few steps, growling menacingly at it.
The Mountain King couldn't be bothered to spare them even a glance, grabbed the largest piglet, and turned away.
One dhole tried to retrieve the meat, but was bitten by two other companions.
It yelped innocently, looking back, and saw its leader glaring at it as though it were a dead dog.
If the leader could speak, it would surely have cursed "fool" harshly.
The Mountain King ate slowly halfway up the mountain, watching Chen Ying and the others leave.
It was clever, knowing that the two-legged beast couldn't stay with it forever. It just followed out of curiosity about what kind of creature the little one spoke of it was.
It didn't know much else, but the massage felt quite comfortable.
"Miaow, did you see him?"
The Big Beauty jumped onto the rock, avoiding getting too close to the Mountain King.
"Didn't I tell you? His scent is quite comforting."
"Yes, but he's nothing special; he's so weak, he can't live here."
The Big Beauty lay down discouraged, its tail sweeping back and forth.
"Indeed, he can't stay."
The Mountain King glanced at it, "How's your mother, all better?"
"All better, the two little ones are fine too. Those two-legged beasts have already sent Mom home."
The Mountain King had no interest in Big Beauty's mother at all. If Big Beauty weren't clever and unlike other animals who trembled at its sight, it wouldn't have glanced at Big Beauty even once.