sbdcsierra Chapter 1783 Amber Dragon
Chapter 1783 Amber Dragon
Chapter 1783 Amber Dragon
Zhao Jun's prestige within the Zhao family gang needs no further explanation. Although no one knew why he suddenly changed course, since he said he wanted to go downstream along the river, even Wang Qiang had no objections.
Thus, Li Baoyu led the way with his gun on his back, followed closely by Zhao Jun and Wang Qiang, while Zhang Yuanmin, Xie Chen, and Zhao Jinhui brought up the rear.
After walking down for more than half a mile, they saw the river split into two forks ahead, so Zhao Jun led the Zhao family gang across the river ahead of them.
The river wasn't very deep, and the group crossed to the other side by stepping on the protruding blue stones.
Upon reaching the other side, Zhao Jun and Wang Qiang each led three men, and they entered the territory of Yongxing Brigade along both banks of the river.
The other two members of Zhao Jun's group were Li Baoyu and Zhao Jinhui. As the three marched, Li Baoyu led the way, while Zhao Jun and Zhao Jinhui followed, but separated to the left and right. Zhao Jun was on the left, and Zhao Jinhui on the right.
The two pairs of six people walked slowly forward, looking at the surrounding trees along the way.
This was what Zhao Jun had told them. The river flows from the sunny side to the shady side here. According to the secret formula, the stone dragon and the wooden dragon might be hidden in the forest on both sides of the river.
However, the two forests on both sides of the river are very large, and even if there are wooden dragons and stone dragons, it is not easy to find their locations.
Therefore, Zhao Jun told everyone to pay attention to the surrounding trees. If there were signs of ginseng on the trees, it meant that Lao'anzi was not far away.
If the ginseng spot is not found, Zhao Jun will have to rely on observing the mountain scenery to determine the location of the ginseng.
The ability to observe mountains and discern scenery is a skill possessed only by top-tier ginseng masters. Compared to the secrets of the ginseng gang, which are passed down orally, observing mountains and discerning scenery is more mysterious, and very few people possess it.
Zhao Jun had never been taught this skill in either of his lives; however, in his previous life, he had worked as a ginseng hunter in Russia. Because the Russians did not have a ginseng hunting culture, the Changbai Mountain range in Russia contained abundant wild ginseng resources. Zhao Jun's harvest in the old forests of Russia in one month was enough to equal the annual harvest of a ginseng gang.
This is precisely why many people were willing to risk their lives to go to Luosha Mountain to release animals during those years.
In those mountains and forests that once belonged to ancient China, Zhao Jun had seen many ginseng roots left on the trees by ancient herders. It was precisely because of those ginseng roots that Zhao Jun had reaped such a bountiful harvest when he was herding ginseng in Rakshasa in his previous life.
Although Zhao Jun was uneducated, he was clever and good at summarizing. He used ginseng omens to identify old hills. Over time, as he encountered more old hills, he gradually figured out some patterns in them. This was his rudimentary skill of observing mountains and interpreting landscapes.
Observing the mountain scenery takes a lot of time, requiring repeated wanderings around the mountain area. Only by thoroughly understanding the mountain shape, terrain, vegetation, soil, rainfall, sunlight, and other factors can one determine the location of Lao'anzi.
To find the ginseng-bearing sites containing stone dragons and wooden dragons on both banks of the river where the water turns from sunny to shady, Zhao Jun would need to spend at least a week wandering around the area. And what he lacks most right now is time.
Walking through the mountains and forests, Zhao Jun could neither see Li Baoyu leading the way nor Zhao Jinhui to his right.
Just then, two bird calls drifted into Zhao Jun's ears. Upon hearing the bird calls, Zhao Jun instinctively held his steel gun to his chest.
Zhao Jun knew that it wasn't a real bird call, but a signal from Li Baoyu.
Zhao Jun crouched down and moved forward with light steps, his eyes scanning the surroundings, not daring to relax for a moment.
After walking about twelve or thirteen meters, Zhao Jun spotted Li Baoyu hiding behind a pine tree.
Zhao Jun quietly approached Li Baoyu from behind and followed Li Baoyu's gaze.
There was a sheep in the woods, with bluish fur and curved horns, leisurely strolling around.
"Hanging the sheep!"
Upon realizing it was a hanging sheep, Zhao Jun immediately brought his gun to the sheep's face.
His movements were already very fast, but just as Zhao Jun raised the gun to his face, the ram suddenly turned its head and disappeared lightly from in front of the gun muzzle.
After the hanging sheep disappeared, Zhao Jun had just put down his gun when he felt the light above his head dim.
Zhao Jun then turned around and saw Zhao Jinhui standing behind him.
At this moment, Li Baoyu turned and glared at Zhao Jinhui, complaining, "Look at you, you scared the hanging sheep away, didn't you?"
Zhao Jinhui replied to Li Baoyu with a bitter face: "Brother Li, how can you blame me? I didn't dare to walk fast, I moved here step by step."
Li Baoyu wanted to say something more, but Zhao Jun stopped him.
Zhao Jun glanced to the right and saw Wang Qiang, Zhang Yuanmin, and Xie Chen approaching quietly.
Wang Qiang lowered his voice and asked Zhao Jun, "What's wrong, nephew?"
Zhao Jun replied, "I saw the sheep hanging there, but I didn't manage to shoot it."
As soon as Zhao Jun finished speaking, Zhao Jinhui quickly said, "Brother Jun, it really wasn't me who scared it away..."
As Zhao Jun put away his gun and stood up, he said to Zhao Jinhui, "I'm not blaming you, Jinhui. This thing is too damn accurate. At the slightest sound or smell of smoke or grease on us, it takes off like a madman."
It wasn't that Zhao Jun was deliberately defending Zhao Jinhui; Zhao Jun genuinely didn't hear Zhao Jinhui make a sound when he came over. If even this situation could scare away the sheep, then there's nothing that can be done.
At this moment, Zhang Yuanmin leaned over and whispered to Zhao Jun, "Brother, what should we do now? Should we chase this 'hanging sheep' or set up traps and pincers around here?"
“Let’s walk a little further,” Zhao Jun said. “Let’s follow the river and look at the back slope.”
After saying this, Zhao Jun added, "When we split up, let's check if there are any old signs on the trees, or any traces of hanging sheep horns."
Now that we've arrived here and happened to discover this place where the water flows from the sunny side to the shady side, Zhao Jun decided to take a trip there.
Although he had been to this mountain area twice, he wasn't very familiar with it. He made a special trip to familiarize himself with the area. He went from this side of the river and returned from the other side, making sure to traverse the forests on both sides of the river.
So for the rest of the journey, Zhao Jun didn't have everyone split up; the six of them waded through the woods following the direction of the water flow.
The more the six walked, the steeper the mountain became and the more turbulent the river became. They could hear the sound of the rushing water from twenty or thirty meters away from the bank.
But the forest became increasingly cool, with fewer and fewer trees, while the trunks grew thicker and stronger.
The six men walked side by side, with about two meters between each other. Zhao Jun and Wang Qiang were on the side closer to the riverbank, both holding guns with the muzzles pointing downwards, ready to respond to any unexpected situations.
As they walked, Zhao Jun and Wang Qiang spotted a green figure darting from the woods towards the riverbank. The two men whirled around, simultaneously raising their guns to each other's faces.
"Bang! Bang!" The two men each fired a shot. One shot hit the river, splashing water everywhere; the other shot hit a rock, the bullet bounced off and landed on the bank.
The two put away their guns, and then Li Baoyu said, "Brother, the hanging sheep has run to the other side."
Zhao Jun put away his gun and glanced in the direction Li Baoyu pointed.
At this moment, Wang Qiang also lowered his gun and said, "This damn thing is too damn fast. It was gone by the time I fired that shot."
After saying this, Wang Qiang glanced at Zhao Jun and said with a wry smile, "Nephew, if your father were here, he might have really shot it dead."
This wasn't Wang Qiang trying to boost others' morale while diminishing his own. Every time Wang Qiang went up the mountain with Zhao Youcai, he could feel the gap between himself and Zhao Youcai gradually widening.
In other words, Zhao Youcai improved every time, and the improvement was visible to the naked eye. For a gunner, that's the most amazing thing.
Just how good is Zhao Youcai's marksmanship these days? Wang Qiang couldn't describe it. But he felt that although he couldn't hit that hanging sheep just now, if Zhao Youcai were here, he would most likely be able to kill it.
Hearing Wang Qiang's words, Zhao Jun did not refute them. On the day the black tiger went missing, after everyone returned home, Wang Qiang recounted how Zhao Youcai had killed the black bear. After listening, Zhao Jun knew that Zhao Youcai's marksmanship had now far surpassed his own.
There's an old saying: "In literature, there's no first place; in martial arts, there's no second." Hunters rarely submit to others, but if the opponent is truly stronger, then there's nothing more to say.
Just like Zhao Jun, whose name as the Tiger-Taming General resounded throughout the mountains. From the western and southern parts of the mountains, even the hunters in the eastern valleys, no one dared claim to be stronger than Zhao Jun when they heard of him. Because no one believed they could capture a Siberian tiger alive like Zhao Jun.
As for Zhao Youcai, just like Li Ruhai's comment on him: "Zhao Youcai is an invincible sharpshooter, but his fate is too unlucky."
Zhao Youcai's reputation has not yet reached the point of being famous throughout the mountain area, and on the western side of the mountain, his reputation is not being spread very well.
After that, everyone stopped talking about Zhao Youcai's marksmanship. At this moment, Zhao Jinhui pointed to the left, which was the direction he had just come from, and said to Zhao Jun, "I was looking at a tree over there. The heartwood of that tree is gone, and only half of it is standing in that corner, all black."
"That was struck by lightning." This was Wang Qiang's answer to Zhao Jinhui on behalf of Zhao Jun. This chubby boy had lived by the sea since he was a child and had never been to the mountains, so everything he saw seemed new and exciting.
The group didn't take Zhao Jinhui's words seriously and strolled forward a couple of steps. Suddenly, Li Baoyu exclaimed, "Oh dear!" and called out to Zhao Jun, "Brother, that looks like a large pine torch."
Pine resin is a substance formed after a pine tree dies, when the resin seeps into the wood and undergoes long-term aging, corrosion, and drying.
People in Northeast China often use it to start fires, but in another twenty or thirty years, because of its high oil content, unique patterns, and pine scent, it will be made into collectible bracelets. At that time, it will no longer be called pine torch, but amber wood or northern agarwood.
But these days, nobody considers it a good thing. People in the forest don't even use it to start fires, because they think it produces too much smoke and will blacken the house.
Suddenly, Wang Qiang raised his leg and kicked the large pine torch.
Then he turned to Zhao Jun and laughed, “Before the Spring Festival last year, your dad led us into the mountains to fight that pig god. But then, it started snowing heavily in the afternoon, and we were about to be trapped in the mountains. When we realized we couldn’t make it, we lit this stuff and headed home. Good heavens, when we got home, everyone was covered in soot from the smoke.”
Zhao Jun chuckled upon hearing this. He remembered that morning when he and Li Baoyu were going up the mountain to find Zhao Youcai and the others, but as soon as they left the village, they saw four little black devils.
But Zhao Jun's laughter stopped quickly. He pushed aside Xie Chen in front of him, took two quick steps forward, squatted down, and used his hand to clear away the rotten pine wood that Wang Qiang had just kicked apart.
The tree had been weathered for many years after it fell, but not the entire tree had formed seeds. Like the section in front of us, what Wang Qiang kicked apart was the rotten part without any oils; the middle and bottom parts were full of seeds after he kicked it open.
"Nephew, what are you looking for?" Wang Qiang asked. Zhao Jun raised his hand and pointed to the side, saying, "Uncle, pry that side open, don't kick it."
"Huh?" Wang Qiang was taken aback. Although he didn't know what Zhao Jun was going to do, everyone in the Zhao family gang listened to what Zhao Jun said. Before Wang Qiang could make a move, Zhang Yuanmin next to him pried open the rotten pine wood at the top of the tree, revealing a calf-thick seed underneath.
Seeing this, Zhao Jun got up and searched left and right. At this time of year, some of the grass was already above knee-high, and the leaves of the pheasant wings had unfurled. Not far away, there was a large, dark patch covered with a thin layer of moss.
Zhao Jun hurried over and saw that it was another large piece of pine resin, the kind that had been struck by lightning.
This large piece of seed was half exposed on the ground and half buried in the soil.
Zhao Jun gently brushed aside the surrounding withered leaves and grass, and saw a tiny seedling sprout less than two centimeters above the ground, its trunk still unstretched like an elephant's trunk.
Today is May 20, 1988, the fifth day of the fourth lunar month. We have just entered Ya Cao City.
At this moment, Zhao Jun did not speak, but instead pointed to a piece of weathered pine wood about half a meter long lying to the side.
Upon seeing this, Zhao Jinhui quickly picked it up and handed it to Zhao Jun.
Zhao Jun took it, flipped it over, stood the pine fork upright, and then slammed it into the ground, shouting, "Fool!"
At this moment, Wang Qiang and the others were all stunned. How did they find a stick just by strolling around? When did hunting in the mountains become so easy?
Seeing no response, Zhao Jun shouted again, "Fool!"
This time, Li Baoyu reacted immediately and loudly replied, "What grade of leaf!"
The unopened seedlings naturally made it impossible to tell what grade of leaves they were. Zhao Jun, leaning on a short pine fork, announced loudly, "Sixth-grade leaves."
"How many seedlings?" Li Baoyu asked again, and Zhao Jun laughed loudly, "They're all over the mountain!"
After saying this, Zhao Jun knelt on the ground, preparing to lift the ginseng.
The Zhao family gang came out today to search for the hanging sheep, but after arriving here, they suddenly discovered that this place is a sunny slope where the river flows to the shady side, so they came here to explore the way.
Now that the club has been discovered, Zhao Jun has not brought any weapons with him.
"Brother!" Zhao Jun called to Zhang Yuanmin, "Go and break me a fork."
Zhang Yuanmin responded and hurriedly walked to the side. According to the length and thickness of the antler spoon, he broke off a section of tree branch and then flattened one end with a clod of soil to avoid it being too sharp and cutting off the ginseng roots.
Zhao Jun took the branch and gently brushed away the soil between the elephant trunk and the pine torch. The soil was very loose and easily dispersed.
Break through the soil, and beneath the small elephant trunk seedling is the ginseng's growth point, followed by the large horse tooth rhizome.
But when Zhao Jun tried to push the dial down further, he couldn't move it anymore.
But Zhao Jun was not surprised but delighted, because he knew that the torch had been moved to the pine torch.
There are three dragons in the mountains: the wooden dragon, the stone dragon, and the little white dragon.
Among the wooden dragons, there is a rather special one, which is called the Amber Dragon because it grows in pine resin and becomes one with it.
"The river flows from the sunny side to the shady side, the stone dragon and wooden dragon flow on both banks." There should be more to this secret saying, but Zhao Jun didn't know what it was.
Just now, while searching downstream, he saw the pine torch at the bottom and suddenly thought of the amber dragon. He decided to give it a try and came to check it out. Unexpectedly, he actually found a treasure.
There's another chapter coming up, and they're bringing this up.
(End of this chapter)