Mountain Looting: Targeted by a Leopard at the Start
Chapter 325 - 324: Treasure Hunting in the Deep Mountains, Unexpected Gains!

Chapter 325: Chapter 324: Treasure Hunting in the Deep Mountains, Unexpected Gains!

The Northern Mountain has been bustling these past few days.

The students had a practical class every other day, requiring them to come here to graft apples.

The mentor and a graduate teaching assistant were responsible for recording and providing guidance.

Xu Yang would always come over as well, grafting various fruit trees on his own.

He grafted at a swift pace, and he could graft many apple buds onto pear trees on a single apple branch.

Whenever they saw him, the students would think:

When will they be as impressive as Xu Yang,

Mastering agricultural knowledge to such an extent.

Little did they know, Xu Yang had a "cheat", something the others couldn’t learn.

That afternoon, Xu Yang brought all the farm dogs to the forest in the Northern Mountain.

It was so lively here, it was time to let them out to play for a while.

Little Wolf was especially popular.

Several college students wanted to pet him.

"That’s a wolf, isn’t it?"

"It’s that wolf!"

"So cute, such a little one!"

Because Little Wolf was still growing, it was the perfect age for petting.

However, this little guy was very clever; he didn’t let others touch him.

Whoever approached him, he would immediately run a few steps away, always maintaining a two or three-step distance from the students.

If everyone stopped, he would stop as well.

The little wolf was getting smarter by the day.

Little Black was also very popular, with several students fond of this pure black Pasture Dog.

He had a rather handsome appearance, looking quite majestic.

Everyone was surprised by how lovable the animals raised on the farm seemed, the more they watched them.

They were even more envious of Xu Yang’s life.

And so, amidst the bustling activity, more than a hundred pear trees were planted on the Northern Mountain,

Able to be grafted with apple pears.

This was just the first step; Xu Yang still had to continue the breeding process.

Apple pears tasted better with each generation, but the later generations were harder to breed.

It was said that by breeding the fourth generation of apple pears, they could be sold at a very high price, perhaps a hundred yuan per half a kilo.

But that was hard to achieve.

Xu Yang wanted to give it a try,

His planting skills were finally put to good use.

Of course, he wouldn’t see the results this year; the current grafting was in preparation for the next spring.

A winter’s time was enough for these fruit trees to grow strong and robust.

Soon, the Northern Mountain went back to its peaceful state.

After a few days of tranquility, two black bears came to play in the area again.

In the nearby Red Pine Forest, a couple of little squirrels occasionally emerged from their tree holes, basking in the sun and looking around at their surroundings.

The mountain was slowly starting to brim with life.

During this time, Xu Yang began to get busy again.

Autumn had come, and it was harvest season, which meant a lot of farm work.

Over at the farm, the Annona was ripe and needed to be collected for the market.

The market price wasn’t very good this year, a bit worse than the last.

This niche fruit had volatile prices in the Northern market, so the earnings could fluctuate.

Xu Yang made a plan, and considering the Blueberry crop was insufficient, he decided to replace all the harvested Annona with Blueberries.

In the future, the greenhouses would mainly grow Blueberries, along with two greenhouses of Cherries and one greenhouse of bulk fruit, which would be quite nice.

Additionally, several fields of rice and grain were due for harvesting.

Xu Yang’s tractor was put to good use.

Wang Wu drove the tractor out every day to help the villages harvest rice and grain.

Every day many people sought Xu Yang’s help.

Everyone knew farm work was hard and wanted to borrow the farm’s machinery.

Xu Yang was quite generous, and aside from a million-yuan-level tractor, which he used to make extra money, he also had a walk-behind tractor. When fellow villagers came to borrow it, Xu Yang would lend it to them.

The usual compensation was some farm eggs or some vegetables from the garden.

Xu Yang accepted them all.

After all, the walk-behind tractor wasn’t very expensive, so it was no big deal to lend it out.

By doing this, his parents could also become more popular in the village.

That night, Xu Yang checked the Treasure Compass, which had accumulated 11 uses, and it would be full by tomorrow.

How time flies.

He definitely didn’t have time to go out, not even to visit the Da Xing’an Mountain area.

At most, he might find time to quickly visit the unpopulated area of the back mountain.

Completing three Treasure Hunting Tasks wasn’t difficult.

It’s just that he’d done many Treasure Hunting Tasks on the back mountain already, which weren’t yielding anything valuable anymore.

Only minor items.

Moreover, he had helped nearly all the back mountain animals.

Any passing animal that got injured would have several plasters stuck on by him.

"I definitely can’t leave now; I have to keep an eye on the farm every day,"

"People are looking for me every day,"

"There’s no need to do the Treasure Hunting Tasks on the back mountain,"

"There’s only one day’s time... maybe it’s better to pan for gold instead,"

"With 12 uses of the Treasure Compass, I should be able to find quite a bit of sand gold,"

Xu Yang made his decision.

Panning for gold was what he used to do to expend the uses of the Treasure Compass before he had Treasure Hunting Tasks.

But since then, he relied on the Tasks to expend the uses.

Now might be the time to relive that experience again.

After making his decision, Xu Yang prepared his diving-specific swimsuit and goggles, along with dry towels and warm clothing.

He was getting ready to search thoroughly for treasures in the forest tomorrow.

This time, he wouldn’t live stream the treasure hunt.

It was his own "personal solo stage."

Of course, even for a solo stage, he needed a bodyguard, and after much consideration, Xiao Hua was the most suitable choice.

The next morning, Xu Yang set off for the deep mountains with his supplies, leaving the farm behind.

When he found Xiao Hua and her family, Xu Yang called out,

"Xiao Hua, come with me for a Mountain Rush!"

Upon hearing Xu Yang’s command, Xiao Hua immediately ran over happily.

Luna watched Xiao Hua with a fixed gaze, her look seemed to say,

"I bore you two cubs, and you still can’t forget him."

Realizing something was amiss, Xiao Hua hurried over and nuzzled Luna with her head.

Luna huffed and puffed in displeasure but still let Xiao Hua leave with Xu Yang.

A man and a Leopard strolling through the jungle, just like old times.

"Come with me for a Mountain Rush; let’s find some good treasures today. I reckon we might have to go underwater."

Xu Yang smiled as he patted Xiao Hua’s head.

Xiao Hua didn’t quite understand, but she followed him cheerily nonetheless.

Now Xiao Hua’s body was exceptionally robust, and her spots were particularly striking, her belly round and plump.

Leopards always seemed to look chubby, but in reality, they were incredibly agile.

The big, fat Leopard had once again embraced her carefree nature.

Running around and frolicking everywhere.

As long as she was with Xu Yang, she didn’t have to worry about any danger around.

So she could play wholeheartedly.

This was the sense of security that came from Xu Yang.

Sometimes Xu Yang had to call her twice before the Leopard would catch up quickly.

Xu Yang continued deeper into the wilderness and soon arrived at Golden River, scattered with sand gold.

He was all too familiar with this river, which had been a big help in his early career.

He knew exactly what treasures were in every area of the river.

The treasure he was looking for this time was in a deep section of the river.

Once, he found sand gold here, but since he didn’t bring his diving gear, it was difficult to dive.

This time, Xu Yang was fully prepared.

Plus, he already had diving skills, so going down to find a few grains of sand gold was no problem at all.

The Leopard, tired from the journey and with noon approaching, lay down in the shade to rest.

Meanwhile, she casually watched Xu Yang busy himself, not quite understanding what he was doing.

She just saw Xu Yang change into a diving suit, don professional goggles—his equipment was very professional.

He had already located three spots with sand gold.

Xu Yang left his things on the bank and turned back to Xiao Hua, saying,

"Xiao Hua, stay here and don’t move, keep an eye on my clothes and bag."

With that, Xu Yang jumped straight into the river.

Xiao Hua was used to it by now, calmly lying down, waiting for Xu Yang to come ashore.

Xu Yang dived and resurfaced three times, each time bringing back a smaller grain of sand gold.

After thoroughly exploring this area, he had to move to the next section of the river to search.

Today’s mission was all about finding gold.

Deep in the uncharted areas of the forest, with a Leopard for company, Xu Yang felt quite at ease.

Until he used the Treasure Compass for the tenth time to locate a treasure.

At that moment, a system notification sounded.

[Triggered Treasure Hunting Task: Gold in Basalt Cracks.]

[Task Description: A piece of gold is lodged in the basalt cracks; please retrieve it.]

[Task Reward: None.]

[Remark: Sand gold usually settles deep in basalt cracks and is unreachable. Thus far, the Treasure Compass has not targeted sand gold in the depths of basalt cracks.]

"Hmm? A task has been triggered?"

"There’s actually sand gold beneath the basalt cracks."

"That makes sense, gold in the cracks of riverbed rocks; I definitely can’t remove it. The rocks at the bottom are mountain rock, impossible to break open."

"But this task requires me to remove a piece of gold from the basalt cracks."

"That’s a bit challenging."

"Let’s take a look first."

Xu Yang returned to the shore, rested for a while, and caught his breath.

Then, with a small knife in hand, he jumped in again.

Xu Yang always carried a knife around his waist.

The knife was for prevention against entanglement in water weeds.

Some water weeds were long and tough as ropes; once entangled, they weren’t easy to break free from.

At such times, using a small knife to cut the weeds was the solution.

With a deep breath, Xu Yang dove down and quickly reached the target location.

He dug around the riverbed a bit, and soon mud and sand swirled up, then he saw a crack more than half a meter wide in the riverbed, already filled with silt.

The sand gold was under the silt.

No need to damage mountain rock, only needed to dive and clear the silt.

This task turned out to be a test of lung capacity.

It must be said, most people really couldn’t complete this task.

But Xu Yang was proficient in diving, so it really wasn’t a problem for him.

So, Xu Yang set to work, clearing the silt.

For a while, the riverbed was shrouded in a haze of mud.

Small fish passing by were frightened by the scene and scurried away in panic.

They didn’t understand what was happening.

And they would never guess that a terrestrial two-legged beast was treasure hunting at the bottom of the river.