Chapter 264: Chapter 196: Raising Tigers Like Pigs
The morning sun rose, casting out a myriad of golden rays.
Li Xiang had unknowingly "fought" his way out of the Primeval Forest. He stood atop a mountain peak, gazing far to the east. His eyesight was excellent, and with the clear weather today, he could even see where the sea and sky met in the distance.
This was because Vietnam is a long, narrow country with a coastline of over three thousand kilometers. Although his phone was off and stored in his system’s warehouse, he could find his way home just by using his bearings and the coastline. Simply put, as long as he ran north, he would eventually cross the border into either Yunnan Province or Guangxi Province.
There seemed to be a small city at the foot of the mountain in the distance. Since Li Xiang was already here, he figured he might as well buy some local specialties.
In a place like Vietnam, most transactions were done in cash. While they had an official currency, the Vietnamese Dong, using US Dollars was also acceptable. Not only was it accepted, but it could even be a status symbol.
Just as Myanmar had its three treasures, Vietnam naturally had its own three famous specialties: White Tiger Rubbing Ointment, Vietnamese Perfume, and Vietnamese Horn Combs.
But after wandering around for a bit, Li Xiang found that many of the Tiger Bone Plasters were fake, so he only bought some perfume and horn combs.
As for the White Tiger Rubbing Ointment produced by some of the larger factories, while not fake, the "White Tiger" in the name was just the name of an herb or a brand logo. It didn’t contain any actual tiger.
Just like how wife cakes don’t contain any wives.
"Brother, you looking to buy some authentic Tiger Bone Ointment?" a man asked in Chinese as he sidled up.
The man had been following him for a while. Li Xiang had been wondering what his intentions were, but he hadn’t expected this.
He had probably caught the man’s attention by asking many shopkeepers about it but never buying anything.
Li Xiang, wearing a hat, sunglasses, and a mask, nodded and said, "Do you have the real stuff? I don’t want any fakes." His sense of smell was extraordinary; one sniff was all he needed to tell if something was good or not. It was a skill he’d honed back when he was hunting for Black Truffles.
"Of course it’s real. We only take US Dollars, but the price is a bit higher. You’ll know if it’s authentic once you see it for yourself," the man said, patting his chest.
"Are you Chinese?" Li Xiang asked curiously as he followed the man.
"No, I taught myself Chinese."
Li Xiang praised him, "Your Chinese is surprisingly good."
"Just trying to make a living. I go to China often."
The two chatted idly as they walked, and they soon arrived at a secluded courtyard. A foul stench assaulted their nostrils, but mixed within the odor was a rich, pure medicinal aroma.
The roar of a tiger echoed out, but it lacked power.
The man quickly reassured Li Xiang, "Don’t be afraid. They’re all locked in iron cages. It’s very safe."
Then, Li Xiang witnessed a shocking scene.
In a sunless basement, dozens of tigers were locked in individual iron cages. Nearby was an "ointment workshop." Numerous bloody tiger pelts lay on the ground, likely skinned not long ago, and several "brewing pots" were bubbling away, simmering the "ointment."
On some shelves were tiger meat, tiger paws, and tiger bones.
The tigers were not fierce at all; they all looked terrified, listless, and devoid of any Spiritual nature. One of them let out a low growl—it must have been the one that roared earlier. A man disciplined it with an electric baton and even poked it with an iron skewer. The tiger immediately collapsed to the ground, not daring to make another sound.
Li Xiang discreetly scanned the area. Not a single one had Extraordinary potential.
Li Xiang: "..." ’You guys are even more ruthless than I am,’ he thought.
He had long heard that Vietnam’s underground tiger trade was rampant, but seeing it for himself for the first time was still deeply shocking.
In comparison, when he hunted beasts, he always gave them a quick end. He was much more "civilized."
’No wonder I couldn’t find any wild tigers in the Primeval Forest. It seems you’ve caught them all,’ Li Xiang mused to himself.
In reality, these tigers had been raised from cubs bought by the locals. Some came from the neighboring country of Laos; they weren’t wild tigers captured directly from their habitat.
Vietnam was once a primary habitat for the Indochinese Tiger (a subspecies of tiger in Southeast Asia). Due to the powerful underground industry, it was naturally difficult to find any wild ones. Perhaps only Thailand had slightly more.
Li Xiang figured that to find wild tigers, he might have to go to Thailand, India, or Siberia. Of course, once his speed improved, he would also visit the African Grassland, where there were even more ferocious beasts like lions and hyenas.
The American Continent, especially South America, was also a place teeming with wildlife.
However, unless he encountered a cub with Extraordinary potential, it would be difficult to take any of these beasts as a Spirit Pet. But even if he did find a uniquely talented cub, he probably wouldn’t be able to bring it back with him. He could only let it grow in the wild locally and then come back for it after the Apocalypse arrived.
It wasn’t like Tuantuan, who was a national treasure and had a gentle temperament.
Someone had once proposed sending Tuantuan and its mother back to the Primitive Forest Reserve, but no one knew where they came from. Furthermore, a professor on the expert team advised against too much interference, suggesting it was better to respect the wild pandas’ autonomous choice of habitat. This in itself was an important research topic.
Besides, with Tuantuan and its mother living on Bamboo Mountain in Li Family Village, it was more convenient for them to collect samples later, study their living habits, and establish a genetic database for wild giant pandas.
"What do you think? Absolutely authentic. The formula is an ancient secret, passed down through the generations. The effects are definitely potent." The man greeted the people inside in Vietnamese, then took a few jars of Tiger Bone Ointment and handed them to Li Xiang.
Li Xiang twisted off the lid and took a sniff. Indeed, it smelled very authentic.
"How long do you have to boil these tiger bones?" Li Xiang asked curiously, glancing at the large medicine pots in the distance.
The man replied, "Usually seven days."
Li Xiang nodded, then pointed to the tiger pelts on the ground and asked, "How much for the tiger pelts?"
"Depends on the size. Six thousand US Dollars at the minimum for one."
"Too expensive." Li Xiang shook his head. He didn’t have that much US currency on him anyway. Besides, an underground workshop this rampant was clearly run by bad people. He wouldn’t rob ordinary civilians, but he wouldn’t be soft on these "local tyrants" involved in organized crime.
"You brought me directly to your workshop. Aren’t you worried about the news getting out?" Li Xiang probed.
"Haha, since we dare to do this business, of course we’ve got all our bases covered, top to bottom." The man looked at Li Xiang and said in a low voice, "I suggest you don’t look for trouble. Otherwise, you’ll die a miserable death. Even if you are from China, I can make sure you don’t leave Vietnam alive."
As for Li Xiang reporting them after returning to his country, the man wasn’t concerned in the slightest. Vietnam was a sovereign nation, after all. And they had protection from influential people to run their business locally.
"I wouldn’t do that." Li Xiang smiled, immediately paid for the Tiger Bone Ointment, and left quickly. The man thought Li Xiang was scared and flicked the US Dollars in his hand smugly. ’Chinese people like this are the easiest to rip off,’ he thought. ’The price was two or three times higher than usual.’
The next day, the people at the underground tiger workshop were dumbfounded. All the live tigers, the skinned tiger pelts, and the packaged Tiger Bone Ointment had completely vanished. The iron cages had been violently destroyed. All that remained were the herbs simmering in the pots and the tiger meat on the shelves.
The few guards on duty had been knocked unconscious and knew nothing when questioned.
Over the next few days, incidents of tigers and tiger pelts being plundered by a Mysterious Man occurred all over Vietnam. According to incomplete statistics, at least seventy-some "underground workshops" were hit, involving over a thousand tigers and several thousand pelts.
Damn, when the news spread, the public was stunned.
"Does our country have that many tigers? I remember the official figure was only a little over three hundred."
"You know that’s just the official number. These were all undiscovered before, all from the black market."
"Raising dozens of them at a time in pens... are they raising pigs or tigers?"
"Weren’t the Indochinese Tigers supposed to be endangered, on the verge of extinction?"
"’Endangered’ refers to wild tigers, which are indeed close to being functionally extinct. The farmed ones probably don’t count, right?"
Someone argued, "This isn’t our fault as Vietnamese people! These pelts and Tiger Bone Ointments are basically all smuggled to China, South Korea, and Japan. The Chinese, especially, buy the most. No demand, no slaughter. It’s all their fault!"
Li Xiang felt that cushions, clothes, and boots made from tiger pelts were naturally more comfortable to wear than regular cloth, but he couldn’t take them out to use just yet.
How could ordinary fabric, even pure cotton, ever compare to genuine high-quality fur?
In the frozen world of the Apocalypse, the pure-yang tiger pelts would naturally be a top-tier item.
He tried some of the Tiger Bone Ointment himself. The quality was indeed excellent, with no side effects or allergic reactions. So he distributed some to the elderly in the village, and of course, his own grandmother and maternal grandparents got some too.
Take Third Granny, for example. She was getting old and often complained about aches and pains, but after using Li Xiang’s Tiger Bone Ointment, she felt much better.
The main purpose of this Tiger Bone Ointment was pain relief, improving circulation, and invigorating blood flow to remove stasis. Its effects were miraculously fast, especially for conditions like rheumatism, joint pain, and sciatica. It also worked on pain in the lumbar and cervical spine, shoulders, and limbs, as well as muscle numbness and soreness. It was highly effective for a stiff neck from sleeping, everyday cramps, sprains, and even minor burns. Furthermore, since it contained mint oil, it was an excellent aid for motion sickness, mosquito bites, itchy skin, and summer heatstroke.
His grandmother also loved the horn comb.
This comb was made of real horn, not a fake. It was thicker than domestically produced ones, with fine workmanship, a smooth surface, and was sturdy and durable. It was said that it wouldn’t warp for a thousand years or fade for ten thousand.
Moreover, as a green, environmentally friendly, and natural material, horn has been considered a good component of traditional Chinese medicine since ancient times. Legend also had it that horn products could ward off evil and protect a household.
As for the perfumes, Li Xiang gave some to Yao Yao, Zhao Xueqing, Lei Xiaohui, and the others.
Vietnam was once a French colony, so Vietnamese Perfume could be considered to have a "distinguished lineage." They were quite good, and the girls all loved them.
Li Xiang said they were a gift from a friend. Everyone knew their boss had some particularly wealthy friends, so no one suspected a thing.
He had paid for these perfumes and horn combs, unlike the tiger pelts and other items he’d plundered from the underground workshops of organized crime syndicates.
