Chapter Twenty-Six: Second-Tier Brown Bear

The sky, heavy with dark clouds, was torn open by a flash of lightning, immediately followed by a rumble of thunder. The long-awaited downpour arrived at last, drenching Cangzhou in sheets of rain.

At the wine stall, Li Pingyang bought two umbrellas and a bamboo hat. The two of them walked side by side beneath the umbrellas, rain cascading all around, while a white horse, its head protected by its own bamboo hat, trailed behind them.

Large raindrops pounded the road, forming little muddy pools. When Li Pingyang saw his shoes had been soiled, he stubbornly refused to walk any further. With no other choice, Zhou Li hoisted him onto his back.

Carried by Zhou Li, Li Pingyang kept glancing back over his shoulder. For some time now, he had felt as though something was following them.

After they had gone some distance, a figure standing behind a tree poked its head out, timidly peering after them.

It crept after them, keeping a safe distance. Whenever it sensed it had been noticed, it hid, waiting until the two walked farther away before following again.

“Zhou Li, I’m hungry,” Li Pingyang said.

“I’m hungry too, sir. I’ve heard bear meat is delicious! But I’ve never tried it. They say bears often appear on these mountain roads nearby—why don’t we catch one to taste?”

“Excellent, excellent!”

After walking a while longer, they suddenly stopped and looked toward a patch of grass behind them. They took turns speaking, clearly directing their words at the hidden follower.

As they spoke, their faces twisted into wicked expressions. At the sound, the grass rustled, and the hidden creature trembled in fear, not daring to make a sound.

It had come out looking for food, never expecting to run into two perverted uncles. Its original plan was to leap out, frighten them, snatch their food, and run!

After a while, when silence had fallen and the two were no longer speaking, it parted the grass for a peek—just in time to see the two men squatting before it, staring right back.

The creature jumped in fright, its brown fur puffing up like a hedgehog. It scrambled from the grass, pressing its back against a tree to keep its distance, holding something in its claws.

It was a dopey-looking brown bear, with two round ears. It stood on its hind legs like a person, a small bamboo basket strapped to its back, filled with wild fruits it had gathered.

Li Pingyang pointed at what it was clutching. The brown bear looked down, and when it saw that it was hugging a venomous snake—which was flicking its tongue at it—its face turned green with terror.

He thought to himself, “It’s over. I’m doomed!”

(The snake, for its part, looked utterly innocent. “I was just having a big poop when I was snatched away. Who can I complain to?”)

The snake bared its fangs and lunged at the bear’s neck. By the time the bear tried to swat it away, it was too late. In the split second before the snake could bite, Li Pingyang drew his sword and struck.

The snake’s head and body parted cleanly in two and dropped to the ground. In Li Pingyang’s ear, a system prompt sounded: “Congratulations! You have slain a level-1 Red-Tailed Snake.”

Red-Tailed Snakes were the lowest creatures listed in the system’s Bestiary. It would take killing ten thousand of them to gain a level! Not only a waste of time, but where would he even find so many?

If not for saving the bear, he wouldn’t have bothered.

The bear, evidently a female, had been frightened to tears, two trails glistening at the corners of her eyes. Li Pingyang turned to leave after saving her, for this brown bear was also recorded in his compendium.

But for now, he had no wish to kill her.

From the moment they had been followed, the system’s senses had already alerted Li Pingyang to a second-tier beast in pursuit. He was merely curious—what kind of beast had the nerve to follow him?

Did it have a death wish, coming straight to his doorstep?

Upon seeing it was merely a foolish, second-tier brown bear, he decided to let her go. Besides, she was such a source of amusement, he could not bear to harm her.

According to the system’s data, this bear had never hurt anyone. She had reached the second tier not by eating people, but by foraging for wild fruits. By chance, she had eaten a spirit fruit that looked like ordinary fruit, which raised her level. Otherwise, she would have remained a bumbling, tier-zero beast.

Zhou Li had been quietly observing, noticing that this official seemed to be pretending not to know martial arts. To put it in modern terms, he was playing the fool to catch the tiger.

Clearly, his inner strength was above Zhou Li’s own. The speed with which he drew his sword just now surpassed even that of two fifth-rank masters like Xie Changfeng; he could easily have killed them.

Yet he managed to give the impression that, without Zhou Li’s protection, he might die at any moment. Zhou Li shuddered inwardly—this man was terrifying!

Li Pingyang and Zhou Li continued onward, but to his surprise, the bear still trailed behind them. He stopped in his tracks, summoned his dagger from thin air, and asked, “What do you want? Why are you following me?”

The brown bear nervously patted her bamboo basket. Li Pingyang realized she seemed to be thanking him for saving her, and wanted to offer the fruits she had gathered as a token of gratitude.

Li Pingyang declined, but the bear shook her head, as if to say he had misunderstood. She removed the basket from her back—she wanted him to look at it.

There was nothing special about the basket, just tough bamboo strips woven together. He inspected it for a long time, but saw nothing unusual.

By chance, he tilted the basket at an angle; in the light, he noticed an engraving hidden on the inside—a name, carved by a knife.

Li Tianming.

Seeing those three characters, Li Pingyang felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck him. He stood frozen to the spot. He could not fathom why this name would appear on a bamboo basket.

Anyone else’s name would be unremarkable, but this one—of all people, why him?

Li Tianming was the name of his father, missing for seventeen years, vanished without a trace, his fate unknown.

Earlier, inside the giant purple-eyed python, he had found a skeleton about his father’s size, clothed in his father’s jacket. He had found it inexplicable then, unable to understand why the jacket had been there.

And now, on the bamboo basket carried by this second-tier brown bear, he encountered another clue about his father. Was this truly a coincidence? Merely someone with the same name?

He had a vague sense that he was retracing his father’s path, as though his father were right beside him. He felt certain his father was still alive, and that he was drawing ever closer.

Finding a place sheltered from the rain beneath a massive rock, Li Pingyang decided to speak with the brown bear about the origin of the name.

Drawing his dagger, he skinned the red-tailed snake he had just killed, removed the inedible parts, washed it clean, cut it into three sections, and skewered them on sticks to roast over the fire.

Once half-cooked, he turned them, grilling them until they were cooked through but not too dry. Zhou Li had never eaten snake before—let alone roasted snake. At first, he was reluctant.

But when he saw both man and bear eating with relish, he could not resist, and finally took up a piece for himself.