Chapter 382

"Master Li, do you have to get up this early every time you go hunting for wild boars?"

The sky was still quite dark. Li Long led the way, followed by Qi Jingyue, with Yang Chen and Xie Ruifeng at the back. There was no wind, and the only sound to be heard was the crunching of feet on the snow, which was quite dull and heavy.

Yang Chen then found a topic to ask Li Long.

"If we're ambushing wild boars, this is the only time. At this hour, the boars come down the mountain to forage in places where food is more plentiful, and by the time it's almost dawn, they slip back into the mountains. Wild boars don't have fixed habitats, and they're quite far into the mountains in places people don't often go, so they're hard to find. The best way is to ambush them while they're foraging."

"Then haven't you hunted wild boars anywhere else?" Xie Ruifeng asked, panting heavily. Among the three of them, his stamina was considered the worst; even Qi Jingyue, who looked shorter than him, was stronger.

Perhaps to ease his own embarrassment, Xie Ruifeng would ask questions from time to time, and they were the quite sharp kind.

"I have. I once stumbled upon a wild boar habitat in the mountains and bagged two," Li Long said as he walked. "I've also tracked wild boars and bagged two that way as well. I've also encountered them in that hot spring valley and bagged some there too."

Li Long's words left Xie Ruifeng silent for a while, after which he continued to ask:

"Master Li, you've hunted wolves, you've hunted lynxes, have you bagged any other large carnivores?"

"No." Li Long's words made Xie Ruifeng a bit excited. He had just intended to tease him a few times when he heard Li Long add:

"I haven't encountered any. There was a bear that slipped into the woods after seeing us from afar; I didn't catch up to it."

Well, it wasn't that he hadn't bagged any, it was mainly that he encountered them rarely.

Qi Jingyue was a bit annoyed by Xie Ruifeng's words. She could tell that Xie Ruifeng was somewhat targeting Li Long, but she also wanted to hear about his hunting experiences through his answers, so she followed along in a state of conflict.

The sky wasn't bright at all, and Yang Chen was a bit suspicious of how Li Long found the way, but seeing Li Long's stride was not small and his pace was firm, he shouldn't be getting lost.

Xie Ruifeng began to have trouble keeping up. From time to time, he had to pant heavily and jog a few steps to stay behind Yang Chen. At this time, it was still dark, and there were large patches of shadows on both sides of the valley. Although he knew these were woods, Xie Ruifeng was still a bit afraid, terrified that if he couldn't keep up, he wouldn't be able to find the way once he left the valley, so despite being very tired, he followed closely.

Feeling the submachine gun getting heavier and heavier, Xie Ruifeng regretted bringing so much ammunition. He should have just brought one magazine—maybe he wouldn't even finish one!

This time, not only did Li Long bring plastic sheeting, but Yang Chen also brought a large piece of plastic sheeting, which had originally been in the large room. When he brought it, he specifically said that if they really encountered a herd of wild boars, they would drag them back—the more they dragged back, the better!

Half an hour later, not only was Xie Ruifeng exhausted and already more than ten meters behind Yang Chen, but Qi Jingyue was also panting, and Yang Chen had also opened up a distance of seven or eight meters from her.

Qi Jingyue was even suspecting that Li Long was walking so fast because he was holding a grudge against Xie Ruifeng.

Of course, there was that aspect to it, but another reason was that Li Long wanted to reach that spot as soon as possible. No one could say for sure if the wild boars would go there early. If the boars really arrived there and they were late, that would be the real regret!

"Alright, behind the ridge ahead is a spot where wild boars have gathered before. We'll go up the ridge, and then I'll check the wind direction and find a downwind spot to ambush them. Don't move yet, I'll go up and take a look first. It would be best if the boars haven't arrived yet, then we'll have plenty of time to set up the ambush."

After Li Long finished speaking, he quickened his pace and charged up the ridge.

Watching Li Long go up, Qi Jingyue and the others finally had the energy to take a good rest.

"This Master Li's stamina is really good!" Yang Chen exclaimed. "I feel like I wouldn't be able to walk another kilometer, but I think he could walk another ten kilometers and be fine."

"Specialization is key, after all." Xie Ruifeng finally caught up, supporting his knees with both hands and panting heavily. As he panted, he said, "He does this for a living, so it's normal that he can walk. If you're talking about history or scientific research, that's not his strong suit."

Hearing his words, Qi Jingyue rolled her eyes. He really was like a tiger that dies but doesn't lose its posture; even at this point, he still wouldn't admit defeat with his mouth.

Is it so hard to acknowledge others' strengths?

Li Long reached the ridge, slowed his pace, and then slowly looked into the valley.

There was no movement in the valley yet. He took off his gloves, licked his index finger, and then held it up in the air to feel the wind direction.

He was on the downwind side, which was good; there was no need to move to another spot.

Seeing that the place where the wild boars had been rooting was still more than two hundred meters away, he waved to the people down the mountain.

Yang Chen and Xie Ruifeng were talking and didn't see it, but Qi Jingyue had been observing and barely managed to see Li Long waving, so she immediately said:

"Let's go, move up!"

"What?" Xie Ruifeng asked. Yang Chen reacted faster, followed Qi Jingyue's pace, and said as he walked:

"Master Li wants us to move up!"

Xie Ruifeng hurriedly followed with his gun.

After Li Long led them along the lower side of the ridge for a stretch, he found a suitable spot and said in a low voice:

"Come on, a bit higher. We'll line up, build a target platform with snow right here, and prepare to ambush the wild boars. If the boars come today, then we'll stage an ambush..."

"And what if they don't come?" Xie Ruifeng asked.

"Then we go back," Li Long said solemnly.

"So this was all for nothing?"

"You don't think you can return with a full load every time you go hunting, do you?" Li Long retorted. "No one can guarantee a harvest every time they go out hunting."

After saying this, he moved to the far right and started building the target platform with snow.

He hadn't done this in a long time, and Li Long was a bit nostalgic.

As for whether a herd of wild boars would come over today, he was also looking forward to it. Hunting, after all, is quite exciting just in the waiting time itself. With yesterday's harvest as a foundation, whether the wild boars come today or not isn't actually that important. If they come, it's the icing on the cake; if they don't, it's no big loss.

The gun platform was built simply, mainly by packing the snow down so it wouldn't affect the shooting later.

Turning his head to see Qi Jingyue and the others still honestly building their gun platforms, Li Long lay down, looked at the area below that had been rooted by wild boars, and marked the range he intended to shoot at.

He set a standard for himself: don't shoot the big wild boars, just shoot the small ones; the small ones are easier to handle.

Of course, if it were Qi Jingyue and the others, they would definitely prefer to shoot the big ones, because if you take a big one back to make a specimen, it would definitely look good!

Suddenly, Li Long felt the ground vibrate.

They're here!

He immediately turned his head and said to Qi Jingyue and the others:

"Stop moving! They're here!"

Qi Jingyue was to Li Long's left, then Yang Chen to her left, and Xie Ruifeng on the far edge, following the order they had been advancing in. Except for Qi Jingyue's gun platform, which was almost finished, the other two had only piled up half the snow.

But regardless, now that they heard the movement, no one dared to move anymore.

Li Long hadn't been sure he could really wait for this herd of wild boars to come over; he could only say that the information provided by Halimu was really good—they really did wait for them!

He disengaged the safety, pulled the bolt to chamber a round, and then began to prepare to aim.

Soon, a herd of wild boars charged over from the distance along the valley. At the front were three or four small wild boars, the two or three-year-old kind. These wild boars were the most lively, and their sounds were the loudest; as they ran, they would occasionally butt each other and fight a bit.

It seems this herd of wild boars isn't very large, Li Long guessed.

It doesn't matter. Since the wild boars have come, it means they didn't wait in vain. Now that the herd is one or two hundred meters away, once they reach shooting range, they can just stage the ambush.

This mission is in the bag!

Li Long thought so, and intended to do so. He held his gun steadily, aiming at the predetermined area, just waiting for the wild boars to arrive.

"Bang!"

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, directly disrupting Li Long's rhythm and bringing the wild boars' charging pace to an abrupt halt!

Startled by the gunshot, the wild boars suddenly became chaotic. The half-grown boars at the front turned and ran back, the sows in the middle couldn't brake in time and collided with each other, and the boars at the back roared and turned to run, while also calling for their herd to flee for their lives!

Li Long couldn't care about seeing who had had an accidental discharge; he turned his muzzle and opened fire at the wild boars!

They were still over a hundred meters away. Even though the sky was slightly brightening, he could only see a group of dark, blurry figures fleeing there. At a distance of over a hundred meters, the herd of wild boars actually looked quite small, and with the sky not having brightened much, it was a bit blurry to shoot.

Then Qi Jingyue's gun also rang out, bang bang bang bang, a rhythmic sound; this girl was quite good at holding her breath. "Yang Chen, what's wrong with you?" Xie Ruifeng asked angrily. "At such a critical moment, you had an accidental discharge?"

Li Long didn't expect that the one who had the accidental discharge wasn't Xie Ruifeng, who had an opinion of him, but Yang Chen?

But it didn't matter. The most important thing now was to see if his and Qi Jingyue's shooting had any results.

The wild boars ran back very quickly. In a dozen seconds, the vibration of the ground had disappeared; they had already dashed into the mountain forest. In the short term, or even for the whole winter, it was unlikely they would ever return to this place again.

Qi Jingyue stopped shooting after firing four rounds. Li Long engaged the safety and said to the others:

"Everyone engage your safeties. Let's go, let's go see if we hit anything."

He estimated that even if he hit something, it would be at most one or two. These wild boars had enough vitality; if you didn't hit a vital spot, even if they were injured, they would likely struggle to follow the herd into the deep mountains, and wouldn't stop even if they ran themselves to death.

"Engaged." Qi Jingyue spoke up.

"I... my hand slipped..." Yang Chen's voice was full of self-reproach. "I didn't expect... I was just a bit excited, thinking we'd definitely hit a few later... I didn't expect this gun's trigger to be so sensitive..."

Xie Ruifeng said dissatisfiedly:

"Didn't you say when you came that this gun was the most suitable, and you even specifically had someone calibrate it? How could..."

"Engage the safety first." Li Long reminded him again. "Just now it was against wild boars; an accidental discharge at most means we don't hit anything. Now we're walking forward together; if there's another accidental discharge, you should know the result."

Xie Ruifeng stopped talking and hurriedly engaged his gun's safety, and Yang Chen did the same.

!.

"Sling your guns, let's go, follow me forward." Li Long picked up his gun and walked into the valley.

Qi Jingyue followed, Yang Chen hurriedly followed behind, and although Xie Ruifeng was still dissatisfied with Yang Chen, he had no choice but to follow.

Yesterday, he was the only one who didn't hit a roe deer. Today, although he had some resentment when he followed, he was also holding onto a bit of spirit, wanting to hit something to show his strength.

At first, he suspected Li Long was just taking them along to try their luck. He didn't doubt Li Long when the herd of wild boars came, but just when he was single-mindedly wanting to shoot, he didn't expect Yang Chen's accidental discharge to scare the herd away!

His submachine gun had a short barrel and could only shoot at short distances. As it turned out, he didn't even fire a shot at over a hundred meters—the wild boars had already dashed out of sight before he was ready!

It would be strange if he didn't have resentment!

But there was no help for it; the wild boars had already run away. Although he desperately wanted to kick Yang Chen, who was walking in front, he held back.

Li Long strode to the place where the wild boars had turned their heads upon hearing the noise, and then happily saw a half-grown wild boar lying on the ground.

If counted as a domestic pig, it should be the size of one three or four months old, but for a wild boar of this size, it should be two or three years old.

The wild boar had been hit by one shot in the belly and one in the head. It died very suddenly; it died as soon as it hit the ground, and the blood didn't even smear around.

There were bloodstains dripping forward; it seemed other wild boars were injured, but Li Long looked over, and until the end of the valley several hundred meters away, there was no shadow of a wild boar.

Clearly, the injured wild boar had run away.

"We hit one, who hit it?" Xie Ruifeng walked up and asked curiously.

Qi Jingyue squatted down to look at the wild boar, and Yang Chen was a bit at a loss.

"Don't know." Li Long shook his head. "The sky is too dark, can't see clearly."

"It wasn't me." Qi Jingyue shook her head. "Master Li hit it, I wasn't aiming at this one."

Li Long smiled: "Not necessarily, bullet dispersion... it's hard to say. No matter who hit it, it's good that we have one."

"There's another one injured!" The sky brightened a bit, and Yang Chen also saw the bloodstains in front and shouted excitedly, "Let's chase after them!"

Qi Jingyue and Xie Ruifeng both looked at Li Long, waiting for his decision.

"Can't catch up." Li Long waved his hand. "With this burst of gunfire, these wild boars won't stop until they've run three or four kilometers. Climbing mountains and going down mountains all the way, can you keep up?"

The few of them hesitated.

Actually, if they waited a bit and chased a bit, they might still be able to catch up, but Li Long felt it was enough; he didn't want to create extra complications. The wolf was there, the roe deer was there, and now the wild boar was there too; can he report back now?

"If you want to chase, you can, but who's going to carry this wild boar back? We have to butcher it now, take out the internal organs, and drain the blood." Li Long continued, "After we're done, if anyone still wants to chase, then we'll go chase and see."

As he spoke, Li Long flipped the wild boar over and said to Yang Chen:

"Hold it, I'll disembowel it!"

The wild boar's body hadn't stiffened yet. He slung his gun on his back, pulled out his knife, first drained the blood, stepped on it hard to squeeze out as much blood as possible, and then disemboweled it.

Because Qi Jingyue wanted to transport the wild boar back, Li Long just disemboweled and drained the blood, took out the internal organs, and after seeking her opinion, threw away the internal organs, keeping only the gall bladder.

Of course, Li Long kept the wild boar's stomach, squeezed out the feces inside, and then wrapped it in plastic sheeting and stuffed it into his satchel.

"Master Li, what's that thing for?" Xie Ruifeng asked.

"Wild boar stomach, a folk remedy for stomach ailments." Li Long said casually. "Now this wild boar is like this. If you want to chase, someone has to guard it, or we drag it back to the wooden house directly, and then I'll take the others to chase. After all, if we leave it here unattended, the wolves will likely come and gnaw on this thing, and then we'll have hunted for nothing."

Qi Jingyue and the three of them were in a dilemma.

Chase or not chase?

Li Long didn't care. Actually, if they were to chase, walking a bit further, they might really be able to bag another one or two wild boars, and he could also earn a bit more.

But he wasn't sure if these young people could still keep up. After all, they had consumed a lot of stamina yesterday, and then got up so early today; could they keep up for the rest of the way?

The road ahead could be five or six kilometers, or it could be seven or eight kilometers; no one could guarantee it. Since they were going to chase, they had to chase to the end; giving up halfway wasn't his style. If it were just himself, it would be fine, but there were others.

That's why he threw this difficult problem to the three young people.

"Then... forget it." Qi Jingyue looked at the wild boar, then looked at her two companions. She actually wanted to chase, but now the sky hadn't brightened yet, and in these big mountains, if she let Yang Chen drag the wild boar alone, or if the two of them dragged the wild boar back, what if they got lost?

Among the four, only Li Long could move unimpeded; she couldn't, and the remaining two probably couldn't either. Even if there were footprints from when they came, Qi Jingyue wasn't at ease. What if there was a pack of wolves?

When they came, their parents had instructed them to stay together; even if they didn't hit anything, they couldn't have an accident.

She could be sure that she would be fine following Li Long, but it was hard to say for the other two.

After all, when she heard Uncle Li talking earlier, she knew Li Long had encountered a pack of six wild wolves.

She didn't know the specific situation, but she knew that if a pack of wolves surrounded Yang Chen and Xie Ruifeng, her two companions would have a hard time escaping—even if they had guns.

The hunting reality of these two days let her know that even with a gun in hand, it wasn't safe.

Although a bit frustrated, this was a reality that had to be faced.

Li Long could roughly guess Qi Jingyue's thoughts. He quite admired this girl who cared about the big picture; clearly she wanted to go, but gave it up for the sake of the big picture.

Fine, she has responsibility.

Then Yang Chen dragged the wild boar back.

The sky was getting brighter and brighter, and the road they came on could also be seen clearly.

But even so, Yang Chen and Xie Ruifeng still couldn't be sure if the road Li Long was leading them on was the road they had come on.

After all, in these mountains, there weren't just the marks they had left, but also some traces left by cattle and sheep. The road they walked overlapped with the road the cattle and sheep had trodden for a stretch, and sometimes the road the cattle and sheep had made would fork. If they were left to come back alone, they wouldn't be sure if they could find the road to the wooden house.

So, once separated from the guide, they were actually quite small in the mountains.

Finally, the wooden house was in sight, and they could still see smoke rising from the chimney on the roof of the wooden house. It must be the driver who had built the fire, right? (End of chapter)