Mountain Looting: Targeted by a Leopard at the Start

Chapter 80: Chapter 80: The Little Fox Cries Bitterly! Chapter 80: Chapter 80: The Little Fox Cries Bitterly! Xu Yang continued panning for gold in the mountains.

The area surrounding the river was all dense forest, completely devoid of any traces of human activity.

Here in the deep mountains, danger lurked everywhere.

For animals, even drinking water by the river required utmost vigilance, as a fierce beast might pounce from anywhere.

Yet, Xu Yang felt no sense of caution at all.

Instead, his attention was focused entirely on the river water.

After all, he had two Leopards keeping him company on the shore.

With the large Leopard lying on the grass, no other animal dared to come close.

During this time, indeed, a Sika Deer hopped to the riverbank to drink water.

When it emerged, it locked eyes with the female Leopard.

Frightened, it turned tail and ran, leaping high and disappearing into the jungle in the blink of an eye.

The female Leopard was not hungry then, so she showed no desire to hunt.

Xu Yang continued his gold panning journey, feeling great about the ability to earn money efficiently through hard work.

He shoveled a few shovelfuls of sand onto the filtering board, waited quietly for a while, then submerged all the gravel and pebbles in a bucket of water, before sieving them several times.

He could then pick out the river gold gleaming in the sand.

The luster of the river gold was somewhat dim, not very shiny, but its quality was very good.

Of course, panning for gold was entirely dependent on luck.

Sometimes, after several sievings, not a speck of river gold could be found.

He could only move to another location and sieve again.

The Leopards looked curiously at Xu Yang working in the river, not understanding the logic of human actions.

The little one, feeling bored, even meowed a few times at Xu Yang.

“I’m busy, I’ll be up in a bit,”

Xu Yang waved his hand and responded.

It must be said, the scene was somewhat striking.

One man working in the deep mountains, accompanied by two Leopards.

Such a scene was rare in the wilderness.

Thus, Xu Yang kept himself busy.

The sunlight above him grew increasingly blinding.

Fortunately, wearing a cool straw hat and having an “Effective Sun Protection” passive skill, otherwise after two days of such toil, his skin would have turned as dark as that from military training in college.

At noon, Xu Yang sat by the shore to rest, and took out two scallion pancakes and a bottle of water for lunch.

Little Leopard, seeing him eating deliciously, came over to sniff the scent of the scallion pancakes.

“Want to try? You’re a wild Leopard, you can’t eat this kind of food,”

“You’ll have to hunt and eat small animals in the future,”

“Just to be clear, if you come to my farm, don’t cause trouble with the animals I raise, I’d rather feed you some meat.”

Xu Yang patted the little guy’s head as he spoke with a smile.

Leopards, being large feline species and top predators, are essential for a healthy natural ecosystem.

Yet, Little Flower seemed to have its thoughts, howling a few times, which Xu Yang did not understand.

After lunch and drinking a bottle of water, Xu Yang checked the gold he had collected.

It was all particularly fine gold grains, accumulating to around 7 to 10 grams in total.

With the price of gold over 500 yuan per gram, he could earn about 5,000 yuan that morning.

The profit from gold panning was indeed high.

Of course, there were two reasons for this.

The first was that no one competed with Xu Yang. If hordes of people came here to pan for gold, finding even a single grain would be considered lucky.

The second was that this river, located by the Treasure Compass and never before exploited by anyone, contained gold.

Timing, location, system,

With everything in place, the amount of gold he could find was naturally substantial.

“Income is not bad,”

“I’ll work hard again this afternoon,”

“But, you can’t do too much of this gold panning; how to handle the gold afterward is also an issue.”

Xu Yang thought to himself.

Such things had to be done gradually.

Now, the farm was just beginning to be operated, everything was yet to be restored, and there were only two greenhouses, which were as small as could be,

Barely better than a family workshop.

Even in the mountain village, some families managed three or four large greenhouses.

But for Xu Yang, investing in a single large greenhouse cost over 100,000 yuan, and since he did not have much money, it was somewhat stressful.

He could only proceed one step at a time.

After resting by the shore for a while, Xu Yang played with Little Leopard again.

The little one loved frolicking with Xu Yang.

When Xu Yang petted it, it would lie on the ground, exposing its belly, its thick paws tucked in, looking utterly relaxed.

Its temperament was gentle and sweet.

The patterns on Little Leopard’s body were very striking, oddly enough, in Xu Yang’s eyes, leopard print clothes were a fashion disaster, unbearable to look at, but the leopard spots on Little Leopard looked very attractive.

There were people who liked to wear leopard print jackets or trousers.

Xu Yang always thought they looked hideously ugly.

Of course, he kept his composure outwardly, knowing his own aesthetic preferences was enough, respecting others’ choices.

Yet the leopard spots on Little Leopard and on the female Leopard looked beautiful.

The black spots seemed to shimmer.

Indeed, the original is always the best.

“Alright, I need to get back to work,”

“You rest a bit,”

Xu Yang put on his high-top rubber boots, stood up, and walked back into the river, continuing his great endeavor of gold panning.

As long as he panned for gold, his body seemed to possess endless energy.

Every scoop was an unknown.

There might be gold in it, or there might not be.

This feeling was very captivating.

The midday sun was harsh, the river water illuminated even more brightly by the light.

Wearing a straw hat, though drenched in sweat, Xu Yang didn’t feel any discomfort.

The shadow of the straw hat protected his face, a towel hung around his neck, possibly only exposing his arms, but he still felt quite nimble.

This level of sun exposure would leave many people sunburnt in the evening, possibly even peeling skin.

The skill “Effective Sun Protection” rewarded by the system seemed particularly important at this moment.

Xu Yang was panning for gold alone in the mountains.

Silently making big moves.

He was a man who could keep his composure.

This type of temperament was rare among streamers, seeing as most of them couldn’t wait to let the whole world know whenever something happened.

After several uses of the sieve, there wasn’t a single granule of river gold in the sand and gravel.

Xu Yang was slightly depressed, but he still continued to pan for gold at an unhurried pace.

This time, among the gravel and stones that were sieved, there were a few specks of gold grains, one of which was about 1 gram, the largest of today’s find.

“There’s more river gold in this area than I thought,”

“Because the riverbed in this area is relatively low, when the river flows through here, the heavier metals and stones tend to accumulate underneath.”

“There might be a gold mine in the mountains or underground; the gold grains are brought out by the groundwater.”

Xu Yang thought to himself.

This place had indeed become a new “spot” for him.

He would come to the mountains to pan for gold whenever he was free.

By three in the afternoon, Xu Yang planned to head back.

He still had over two hours of mountainous trail to walk, and he wanted to look for some mountain produce along the way.

Even those that weren’t valuable were fine.

He went to the riverbank, changed into light sports shoes, and packed up his tools.

Then, with a backpack on his back, a red bucket in one hand, and a shovel in the other, he headed out of the mountains.

The bag of gold grains was now full, amounting to about 20 grams in total.

Earning ten thousand a day.

The earnings were indeed staggering.

However, dealing with gold was another matter since it was highly regulated; buying and selling gold required verification of its source.

If he went to the black market, the price would be lower.

But if there were problems in the black market, the gold’s origin would also need to be traced.

So this kind of money could not be earned in excess.

On his way out, Xu Yang saw some mushrooms and wood ears, which he picked and carried in his hand.

Along the way, a female leopard and her cub left to patrol their territory.

Xu Yang chose a path that passed through the back mountains of the village.

There would be villagers “mountain rushing” in the back mountains.

Two villagers encountered Xu Yang, and seeing him carrying a bucket and a shovel, they asked:

“Out looking for mountain goods? How’s the harvest?”

Xu Yang waved his hand and sighed,

“Didn’t find anything good today, just some wood ears and yellow mushrooms.”

“These wood ears, I can just take them home and mix them in a cold dish.”

“A wasted trip!”

Seeing Xu Yang’s demeanor, the two also subtly laughed.

“It’s hard to find anything now, you need to go deeper into the mountains.”

Xu Yang nodded, “Isn’t that the truth.”

After greeting them, he walked straight away, carrying the bucket.

Zhao Benshan once said, we have a bad cultural habit, and that is to find joy in others’ misfortune, and to feel uncomfortable when others are doing too well.

Xu Yang understood this principle.

Even when he found something good during a live stream, he would keep a low profile and attribute it to luck.

When encountering villagers, he certainly couldn’t say he had found something valuable.

Anyway, he lived his own life.

He made his way to the village, still five kilometers from his farm.

Xu Yang really didn’t want to walk anymore, so he went to the family store, left the wood ears for his parents, and then asked his dad to drive him back in a van.

Another busy day.

Back at the farm, Xu Yang first took a shower, changed his clothes, put on a pair of light slippers,

then put all the gold in a white medicine bottle, hid the bottle in a pair of cotton shoes only worn in winter, put the cotton shoes in a shoe box, and placed it under his bedside cabinet.

He also weighed the gold; today’s haul was 22 grams of gold, and together with the four larger pieces from before, these added up to a total of 115 grams of sand gold.

Worth over 50,000 yuan.

The charm of gold was evident.

This also served as his small gold reserve.

As a farmer, having a small gold reserve was normal.

He planned to rest well in the afternoon as he had promised his online friends to go into the mountains for a live stream tomorrow, mainly because he had accumulated enough uses of the Treasure Compass.

It was time to wander in the mountains.

“After this trip to the mountains, I’ll head to the city, find a decent bathhouse, and get a foot massage,”

Xu Yang thought to himself.

Getting a foot massage was quite interesting.

If the therapist was even slightly good-looking, it would be even more interesting.

Xu Yang moved a small stool and sat in the yard, enjoying the breeze.

It was dusk, and the wind was gentle and soothing.

Just then, Xu Yang suddenly heard a whimpering sound.

He turned his head and saw a little fox running in his direction, crying pitifully as if it had been crying.

“What’s the matter?”

Xu Yang immediately stood up.

The little fox ran up to Xu Yang and could no longer hold back its tears, sobbing loudly.

“Who bullied you? Did you lose a fight with your brother?”

Xu Yang patted the little guy’s head, soothingly.

The two male foxes often fought, but it was generally playful and wouldn’t make one cry.

At this moment, another two little foxes also ran over.

They looked normal, as if someone else was responsible for making this fox cry.

Just as Xu Yang was wondering who could have made the little fox cry, he saw Tabby Cat Sang Biao walking towards them casually.

Seeing the tabby cat, the two little foxes immediately ran behind Xu Yang, baring their teeth.

The aggrieved little fox, while crying, kept its eyes on Sang Biao, seeming to have suffered a great injustice, crying even louder.

Xu Yang could only smile wryly.

He could only continue to soothe it with gentle strokes.