Chapter 359: This Time I've Run Into a Big One!

After the roe deer was led away, Li Long finally let out a sigh of relief.

One of the most important tasks he had to do these days was cutting grass for the roe deer; this creature was extremely picky, eating at most a small half of each bundle of grass and wasting the remaining large half.

Li Long had actually considered starving the creature for a while but ultimately held back.

He was still thinking of taking it back to pair with the male at home; although Li Long had also thought that with just one male and one female, developing a proper scale would take who knows how many years, this was after all a beginning, and perhaps more could be obtained later?

Besides, if he could truly assemble a pair, that would be an accumulation of merit on his part.

Having sighed in relief, Li Long thoroughly cleaned the small room that afternoon, even scrubbing the floor carefully with warm water.

The smell of the roe deer's urine was quite pungent and not easy to wash clean; after finishing the cleaning, Li Long went to sleep early.

Before the sun rose the next day, he got up; the fire in the stove had not completely gone out, so after tending to it, Li Long simply ate breakfast, as usual pressing down the stove fire and placing a teapot of water on top to heat, then shouldering his rifle and walking toward the mountains.

Drawing on the experience from the previous trip, this time Li Long did not wear his heavy coat, only a padded outer jacket and a fur hat, while carrying bullets, rope, a satchel, a plastic sheet, and a lighter.

He headed for the valley where the young men had spotted deer during their last hunt for game.

Although he was once again trudging through snow and crossing mountains, Li Long was in high spirits this time and moved quickly, reaching that valley in less than two hours.

Li Long rested for a while at the valley entrance, grabbed a handful of snow to eat, and thus cooled his mouth—having walked so far, he had begun to sweat.

After resting for less than twenty minutes, Li Long got up again and walked into the valley.

At the valley entrance, one could see tracks left by animals, some fresh and some old, and quite numerous at that, which made Li Long very happy.

His pace slowed; the snow in this valley was not very thick, there were many rocks and little grass, some shrubs grew here, there were no pine forests on either side, but rather many protruding stones.

Li Long stopped when he reached the middle of the valley.

He discovered somewhat unexpectedly that many of the footprints led up toward one side of the hillside, meaning the tracks diverged here; the footprints heading toward the hillside were likewise a mix of fresh and old, showing both coming and going, but once separated, it became clear that the animal hoof prints were in even numbers, suggesting herbivores such as deer, roe deer, or wild goats, and judging by the size and depth of the prints, there seemed to be both large and small ones.

After thinking for a moment, Li Long followed the tracks up the mountain.

Because the valley twisted and turned, preventing a view all the way to its end, whereas there was a patch of strange rocks on the hillside, Li Long guessed that there might be something here that the animals needed.

After climbing more than a hundred meters upward, Li Long saw the tracks entering a pile of rocks; he crawled in as well and then discovered that within this rock pile there was actually a rather large cave entrance.

It was invisible when looking up from below because a patch of stones blocked the entrance from sight, but once one came up, it became visible.

The cave was over two meters high, irregularly quadrilateral in shape, four to five meters wide, and appeared somewhat deep inside, though not very clear to see.

Li Long had come intending to hunt during the day and thus had not brought a flashlight, but after carefully observing and confirming that these animal tracks indeed went in and out of this cave entrance, he decided to go in and take a look.

He released the safety on his Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, pulled back the bolt to chamber a round, and holding the rifle steady, slowly walked inside.

Less than five meters from the entrance, the cave turned right, though not completely, and along the interior the space suddenly expanded.

The ground was covered with gravel and some protruding large rocks, making walking difficult; there was quite a lot of animal dung and urine on the ground, as well as some bloodstains, though it was unclear how they had been made.

Going further in, the light dimmed, but since Li Long had entered with narrowed eyes, he quickly adapted to the illumination inside, and then he saw that this was already the end of the cave.

The space at the bottom of the cave was quite large, larger than the big room in his wooden cabin, with three or four rocks protruding from the ground, making the terrain complex.

The air inside was not particularly foul, and there was even a slight breeze; Li Long guessed that there must be cracks in the stone leading to the outside.

What were these animals doing inside this cave?

Li Long felt somewhat puzzled; at this moment there was nothing in the cave, so he held his rifle and slowly felt his way forward.

Then Li Long discovered that there was even more animal dung and urine along the base of the walls, and here the stone walls were extremely smooth and possessed a certain translucency—Li Long suddenly thought of a possibility.

He found a relatively high spot, reached out and wiped the wall a few times, rubbed his hand on his clothes, then wiped a bit of that stone wall again and licked it with his tongue—sure enough, a salty and astringent taste!

This was rock salt!

No wonder these animals ran into this cave; they had come here to replenish their salt!

That was perfect!

Li Long smiled, walked out, looked around, then moved forward thirty to forty meters in a direction diagonally upward from the cave entrance, and sat down behind two large rocks.

This spot was excellent; the interlaced area between the two large rocks could serve perfectly as an aiming point, and having prepared here, Li Long felt he could completely ambush those animals coming to lick the salt.

Early in the morning, these animals should have gone out to forage; after eating their fill, they might rest for a while or seek a place to drink water, and then they would come here to lick the salt, since animals also needed salt to supplement their bodies.

Li Long sat down; this place was sheltered from the wind, so approaching animals would not smell his scent, and he only needed to wait patiently.

This wait lasted several hours.

By noon, Li Long was hungry; there was a cold steamed bun in his satchel, and having been somewhat careless this time, he had not brought any dried meat, so he found some snow nearby that he deemed clean, took a bite of the cold bun and then a bite of snow—it was rare to endure such hardship.

Li Long did not feel that he was suffering much; it was mainly that he rarely did this, as usually hunting was settled quickly, and one would leave excitedly with the prey, whereas now he had been waiting for half a day without even seeing a hair of any game.

It was indeed strange.

Li Long even began to doubt whether he had guessed wrong, wondering if the animals only came here to lick salt every few days, in which case he would have waited in vain.

But thinking about what Ha Li Mu had said—that when they fed their sheep, they gave them salt every day—if these animals had discovered this place to replenish salt, how could they possibly come only once every few days?

They must come every day!

Just like Li Long himself: in the past, once he knew that things could be hunted at the hot spring, he naturally went there every day, unless there were no more game there or he could not accurately gauge the times when the game appeared.

Now it all depended on whether his luck was good or not.

The sun began to slant westward, and Li Long felt a bit cold; he now regretted not bringing his heavy coat, for although he had a padded jacket, staying in one place for a long time meant one would quickly freeze through.

Although he was wearing large padded boots, the leather wrappings were unsuitable for long-distance walking and had long been discarded by him, so now his feet were also ice-cold, and Li Long felt he could barely endure it.

Around four or five in the afternoon, just when Li Long was about to give up, two yellow goats came running from the valley entrance.

Li Long immediately became happy; he moved his fingers, wrists, and ankles that were nearly frozen stiff, then raised his rifle and waited for the prey to arrive; when those two yellow goats reached the fork in the path, they did not hesitate at all and ran straight up the hillside; Li Long aimed at them, wondering whether to shoot before they entered the cave or wait until they were inside.

He finally decided to shoot after they entered the cave—blocking the cave entrance, he might even be able to take down both!

Otherwise, given the yellow goats' ability to leap over a two-meter-high wire fence in an emergency, he might not necessarily be able to keep both of them.

The two yellow goats ran and then darted into the cave; just as Li Long was about to get up to block the entrance, he saw three red deer walking over from the valley mouth.

There were two adults and one juvenile, one male and two females—mainly because only one had antlers; calling it a young deer was only relative, as it was actually somewhat larger than that roe deer.

Li Long hesitated; if he went now to shoot the yellow goats, the deer would certainly flee, but if he waited for the deer, the yellow goats would most likely leave early as well.

So which should he choose?

Li Long finally decided to wait for the deer!

He wagered that this family of three deer had also come to lick the rock salt; in that case, even if the argali escaped, having a deer as a fallback was still better than an argali.

Li Long lowered his head to inspect the rifle, slowly pulled back the bolt to check the bullet without letting it eject, then waited quietly.

The three deer stopped at the fork in the road; at this moment, Li Long's heart leaped into his throat—please, come up this way!

The three deer paused at the fork for less than a minute before the fawn finally ran up first, followed closely by the two adult deer behind it.

Boom!

Just then, the argali rushed out of the cave; they must have heard the commotion outside, ran out, and upon seeing the deer, hesitated for a moment.

Then the stag raised its head and let out a cry, causing the argali to turn and flee, running off in the direction opposite to Li Long.

Well, just as he had expected.

Li Long wasn't too disappointed, and then he saw the fawn run into the cave first.

By the time the two adult deer reached the cave entrance, the fawn had already emerged from inside.

Perhaps one couldn't eat too much of that salt either.

The two adult deer gracefully slipped into the cave, and the fawn followed them in.

At this moment, Li Long climbed to his feet, preparing to rush to the cave mouth to block the exit.

But then he was suddenly spotted by the fawn darting out!

Upon seeing Li Long, the fawn froze in confusion for an instant, then turned its head and sprinted back into the cave, bleating as it ran. Li Long knew he was in trouble and immediately dashed toward the cave entrance; before he could get within ten meters of it, all three deer had already charged out!

As luck would have it, the stag charged straight toward Li Long; upon spotting him, it suddenly halted, hesitated for a split second as if wanting to turn away, but then immediately resumed its charge at Li Long, bellowing as it rushed forward.

Li Long was startled; apart from that encounter with the wild wolf, he felt this was the most thrilling moment yet!

Instinctively raising his rifle, he fired at the deer; the bullet struck the deer's front leg, causing it to pause briefly before lunging forward two more steps, its antlers nearly reaching Li Long's face!

Li Long stepped back twice and fired two more shots into the deer's body; finally overwhelmed by its heavy wounds, the beast collapsed to the ground, still struggling to rise, but with a bullet in its leg, it simply couldn't get up.

When Li Long looked again for the doe and the fawn, he found they had already fled far away; he caught only a glimpse of their retreating figures among the scattered rocks before they vanished completely.

This stag weighed at least over a hundred kilograms!

Li Long walked over to the deer; the stag still tried to struggle and gore him with its antlers, but alas, its head merely twitched without any strength left.

The deer wasn't dead yet, but death was not far off.

Li Long holstered his rifle, drew the knife from his waist, and gave the deer a quick mercy kill.

Next, the question was how to get it back.

It was still a long way from here to the wooden cabin, and by the time they got the deer back, it would likely be frozen solid.

But dressing the carcass here was clearly less than ideal; Li Long still wanted to use this place, like the hot spring, as a hunting base. If the scent of blood was too strong, other animals wouldn't come near.

So after a moment's thought, Li Long grabbed the deer by its antlers and began dragging it downward.

A long trail of blood appeared on the snow.

But there was no other choice; Li Long dragged the deer sideways until he reached a spot about a hundred meters from the cave entrance before stopping.

This location was downwind; dressing and skinning the deer here shouldn't affect that area too much, right?

The deer was huge, and since every part of a deer was precious, Li Long, feeling his limbs hadn't fully recovered their warmth, simply cut open the deer's neck, scooped up a handful of deer blood, and drank it down.

Ew...

It tasted terrible!

It felt fishy, salty, and foul!

But since he had already drunk it, there was no point in spitting it out; Li Long forced himself to swallow it down, though he didn't feel much effect from it.

Since he had chosen this spot, he might as well start butchering!

He planned to take all the valuable parts with him and leave the rest here, as a sort of offering to the mountains.

After splitting the belly open, although the deer was a very precious animal, to be honest, the smell of its entrails was equally unpleasant.

Li Long skinned the deer, removed the internal organs after opening the cavity and placed them on the snow, then wrapped the deer's carcass in the hide and tied it up with rope.

Without the internal organs, the deer had lost at least thirty-plus kilograms of weight, making it barely possible for Li Long to hoist it onto his shoulder.

There were too many strange rocks in this area, and a plastic sheet would easily get torn; he planned to carry it out of the valley first, and once he reached an area with thick snow, he would simply drag the deer back using the plastic sheet.

Just like he had done with the wild boar last year; that would be much easier.

Much better than carrying it on his back. (End of Chapter)