Chapter 404: This thing isn't as big as the legends say!

After hearing the movement, Li Long gave a start. He immediately jumped off the horse, led No. 76 to the side, tied the reins to a tree on the side, took down his Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, and stooped to sneak toward the depths of the valley.

Before reaching the pool, Li Long saw a male roe deer with horns on its head kicking the water there, then lowering its head to look for something in the water, and then eating something into its mouth.

Subsequently, this roe deer turned its head and saw Li Long.

When it froze for a moment, Li Long raised his gun, and just as Li Long was trying to aim, the roe deer turned and ran. Li Long only had time to fire one shot, seeing blood splash on the roe deer's shoulder—very high up, it almost missed, it should have only pierced some skin and flesh, a minor injury.

The roe deer let out a miserable cry and quickened its speed to run toward the woods on the side. Li Long chased after it with large strides.

At this moment, he had already forgotten about No. 76; chasing this roe deer was the most important thing!

The roe deer didn't run into the depths of the woods; it scurried upward along the edge of the mountain, perhaps also worried that the woods were too dense and would slow it down. It wasn't running very fast, and every time it exerted force, the wound on its shoulder would spurt out a stream of blood, and its movements would slow down. This was also the reason why Li Long dared to pursue—if it were an uninjured roe deer, Li Long would have turned around and given up—he definitely wouldn't be able to catch it.

It was just that every time he chased close and stopped to raise his gun to fire, the roe deer would scurry into the woods. Clearly, it was also a clever fellow!

Running and chasing, Li Long soon chased this fellow to the end of the valley. There was a ruin left by an extinct volcano, and not a single blade of grass grew in the pile of rubble. The roe deer scurried into the pile of rubble, jumping and running toward the southeast.

Li Long had once chased a small wild boar here, but that wild boar had run toward the southwest. This large pile of rubble covered a wide area, and Li Long's movements slowed down to prevent being poked by the rubble. The roe deer's movements also slowed down, because the rubble had no pattern, making its path forward complicated.

"Bang! Bang!"

Running forward for another few hundred meters, Li Long finally found an opportunity, raised his gun and fired at the roe deer. After two consecutive shots, the roe deer finally fell under the gun.

Li Long let out a long breath; at least it wasn't a wasted run.

He calculated that this journey was about one and a half kilometers. The road wasn't very far, but it was undulating, and it was almost all uphill. By here, the altitude was already nearly two thousand meters. Although there was no altitude sickness, it still wasn't comfortable.

Resting in place for a while, Li Long slowly walked toward the place where the roe deer fell.

Ahead, the stones were even more chaotic; some were as sharp as ice picks, some were square or round and irregular, and some were crisscrossed and propped up. Not far in front of where the roe deer fell was that large pile of strange-shaped stones that looked like the Sydney Opera House.

The stones looked like they had been pushed together when two plates of the earth's crust were pushing against each other during an orogenic movement, and the stones in the middle had been pushed up and together.

It was a natural arch-shaped structure, three or four meters high, and there seemed to be a stone cave underneath.

Li Long first looked at the roe deer; it was dead. He carried his gun and came to that "opera house." If he had a mobile phone or a camera, he could take a picture here; it was absolutely a good view.

Unfortunately, he didn't have one.

But to be honest, just this stone could really become a tourist attraction, and then he lowered his head and looked toward the natural mountain cave under the stone.

This mountain cave was different from the other one that had rock salt; the opening here was relatively wide, but just like the "eight-character" gate of a yamen in the past, the opening was wide, but one could see at a glance that the space inside was very small, shrinking into a stone crevice.

Habitually thinking about whether there would be any good things inside, Li Long just hesitated for a moment, then carried his gun and walked inside.

The stone crevice was said to be narrow, but it was actually about a meter wide, barely enough to accommodate two people entering, but the further in, the smaller the space became, and it wasn't straight; it felt like it was going downward.

This space was airtight, and it didn't look like there were any other ventilation holes. Only going in less than a meter, Li Long smelled a heavy, fishy, foul smell!

There was something inside—or rather, there had been something inside!

Li Long immediately gripped his gun tightly and carefully looked inside.

It was very dark inside, and the further he walked, the darker the field of vision became. Just when Li Long intended to turn around, he heard a slight breathing sound!

Almost subconsciously, Li Long was about to pull the trigger!

It was just that subsequently, he felt that the breathing sound didn't seem very heavy, and it was very long and slow.

Was there an animal hibernating?

Li Long carefully continued to observe. After a while, adapting to the light inside, Li Long saw that there was a stone wall ahead, which meant the passage turned.

Li Long hesitated.

If it were a straight path and there was something hibernating inside, he could just fire a shot and quickly retreat.

Now it was a turn; if he fired a shot and that thing didn't come out, or came out halfway, neither advancing nor retreating, wouldn't he be stuck there?

Should he fire or not?

Encountering this thing for the first time, Li Long was a bit bewildered; he had never dealt with this before!

However, he thought about it and finally decided to fire a shot.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly and as carefully as possible walked inside. When he reached the turn, he stopped, poked his head in to look, and felt that there was still a cave depth of about less than three meters inside the turn.

And that hibernating fellow was inside.

He couldn't see clearly what it specifically was, but Li Long guessed that the only thing that could hibernate was probably a bear!

Thinking about it, he was still a bit excited—he had seen bears from afar at the hot spring before, but had never hunted one. Now that he might hunt a bear, how could he not be excited?

Because it turned to the right, Li Long couldn't aim well. He turned half his body, with his left foot in front pointing to the bottom of the cave, and his right foot pointing outward. He planned to run out after firing a shot.

If that fellow came out, he would find a place to take cover and continue firing.

He shouldn't be pounced on, right?

Li Long thought it wasn't appropriate and retreated again.

After coming out of the "opera house," Li Long looked around and found a place with stones five or six meters away, thinking this was a good place for cover. Then he visualized the route he would run out, and only then did he walk in again.

Li Long walked very slowly and was also very nervous. After all, this thing wasn't the things he had hunted before. Even if he had been in close contact with wolves before, they were only about the size of a dog. After hunting many, Li Long felt that if he were given a stick, he definitely wouldn't be afraid of them.

But this thing was different. Let alone being given a stick, even if he were given a large machete or an axe, he wouldn't dare say he would win steadily if he encountered this thing.

He would probably be done for.

So he was nervous. Fortunately, when he walked to the corner, that animal suspected to be a bear hadn't woken up and was still snoring there.

Li Long, according to the standing posture he had planned, aimed his gun inside, steadied his breathing, and fired a shot at that fellow's belly!

Before, when firing, it was always in the open, so he didn't feel how loud the gunshot was, but at this moment, even wearing a hat, he felt that the sound of the gunshot echoing in the narrow space was really damn loud!

While complaining in his heart, Li Long put away his gun and ran outside, and then he also heard that thing's roar!

It had woken up!

What Li Long worried about most was killing this thing with one shot, and then it would die inside the stone crevice, making it difficult to drag out.

After all, this thing weighed at least over a hundred kilograms, right? It might be much larger, and this cave was a corner. To drag it out by himself, he was afraid it would be difficult to do.

After Li Long ran out, according to the predetermined plan, he rushed behind a triangular stone. There were several irregular notches on the stone, one of which was exactly at Li Long's chest. He stooped to rest his gun here, unfolded the bayonet, aimed at the cave entrance, and waited for the bear to come out.

His breathing was very rapid, and the gun body was swaying slightly because of his breathing. Although Li Long really wanted to calm himself down, facing such a fierce beast, how could he calm down all of a sudden?

A roar came from the cave from time to time. Clearly, the bear was also very painful. What made Li Long a bit happy was that the bear hadn't died. Next was the moment to wait for the hunt.

However, after waiting for several minutes, the bear didn't come out. He was a bit anxious; would the bear be relatively cowardly and not dare to come out?

He looked left and right, stretched his foot to rake in the snow, found a stone the size of a fist, and threw it fiercely into the cave.

He didn't throw it well; it hit the edge of the eight-character gate and didn't enter the small cave, but it did cause a sound, and the bear's roar grew louder upon hearing the movement.

Li Long gained confidence, found another stone from the snow, aimed, and threw it fiercely.

This time, the stone accurately hit inside the cave, hit the cave wall, and rolled in a few times. The bear's roar grew even louder, and it was clearly getting closer.

Clearly, the bear took the stone throwing as a provocation, and it was going to deal with the fellow who dared to provoke it!

And then Li Long saw a furry fellow rush out of the cave—it really rushed out, not squeezed out!

Its size was much smaller than Li Long had imagined, less than two meters, feeling not as tall as Li Long. It was quite fat, and there was a wound below its chest that was bleeding.

A brown bear! A brown bear that wasn't very tall. As soon as it came out, it first looked left and right, but before it finished looking, it spotted Li Long, then roared at Li Long and charged over!

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Although Li Long was observing, his hand hadn't left the trigger after throwing the stone. At this moment, he fired directly, and all three shots hit the bear's body—two on the body, one on the head. The bear was hit in a vital spot, yet it still pounced to the front of the stone. Li Long, while dodging around the stone, fired two more shots at the bear's wide-open mouth!

He could almost smell the foul air spraying from the bear's mouth, and the bear's angry, red eyes were also clearly visible!

After these two shots were fired, the brown bear could no longer hold on, and its body fell backward.

Li Long didn't dare to go up immediately. He retreated two steps, opened the distance from the bear, and fired two more shots at the bear's head.

Wasting bullets is wasting bullets; this bear's vitality was really too strong. It had been hit by so many shots and still almost pounced on him. He couldn't be careless!

The bear didn't move, and the bullets hit its head, splashing blood and brains.

A bit wasteful... Li Long didn't know why, but this thought popped into his mind at this moment.

After confirming that the bear was dead, Li Long immediately went up with his gun. Even though he was sure the bear was dead, he still held his gun with the bayonet fixed, afraid that the bear would come back to life.

Fortunately, it was impossible to come back to life. Blood flowed all over the ground, and the bear didn't move. Li Long finally let out a long breath; this time it was confirmed dead.

So what to do next?

Li Long wiped the cold sweat off his forehead; in fact, his back was also covered in cold sweat—just now, when the bear pounced over, the wide-open mouth and the bear paws with long, sharp claws all made Li Long feel that he was so close to death!

This made him forget what to do after the bear died.

!.

Ten seconds later, Li Long reacted; he should open the belly and take the most valuable bear gall. Thanks to the short videos and novels he had read in his previous life, he knew that the first thing to do at this time was to take out the bear gall, otherwise this thing would soon be gone.

Putting the gun away and placing it to the side, Li Long pulled out the knife he carried with him and made a cut on the bear's belly.

This brown bear didn't look like it had a large frame, but there was quite a lot of fat on its belly; it was quite fat. The knife was very sharp, and after cutting open the bear skin, thick fat was revealed, yellowish-white, in layers.

Further in, cutting open the belly, a smell of foul air rushed toward his face.

Although he had opened the bellies of many animals, Li Long still couldn't help but turn his head away; this smell really wasn't pleasant.

After this air dissipated a bit, he turned his head back, made the cut on the bear's belly skin larger, tried his best not to hurt the internal organs, and then reached in to rummage.

The gall grows on the liver, so he pulled the liver and found the gall.

This green gall was slightly larger than an ordinary egg. Li Long carefully cut it off together with the bile duct with a knife, and then rummaged through his satchel, but couldn't find anything suitable, so he simply cut a large piece of his undershirt from inside his clothes, wrapped the gall, put it in his satchel, and would deal with it when he went back.

Next, he was a bit bewildered again, and then reacted. The most valuable things left on this bear should be the bear paws on the skin. He didn't know much about the others, and he probably had to ask Chen Hongjun, or ask Li Xiangqian directly if his leader wanted this thing.

The most important thing to do right now was to drag the bear back.

Although this bear looked like it was over a hundred kilograms and less than two hundred kilograms, there was still a roe deer behind.

This place had high terrain, and No. 76 probably couldn't come down, so Li Long could only find a way himself.

He first straightened his body and looked around, wanting to find a place without rubble, use the plastic sheet to drag the bear and the roe deer down the mountain, and then turn to where No. 76 was, and use No. 76 to pull these two goods back.

Anyway, the bear's belly had already been opened, the heat had been released, and he wasn't afraid of the belly rotting. The rest was to go back and deal with it slowly.

Just this one gall, how could it sell for five hundred yuan, right? Li Long thought happily.

After all, it's rare to be able to hunt a bear in the Tianshan Mountains. For example, Huang Yang and the others, they could hunt snow leopards, but he hadn't heard of them hunting a bear.

It was just that the bear's size was a bit small, which made Li Long a bit dissatisfied.

He had once seen the bear that appeared on the Duku Highway in a video, huge, two or three meters tall, a large section taller than the police in the past, and the meat on its body was like waves. That's what you call a brown bear, right?

Was this a juvenile?

Li Long thought so, but he didn't have any side help. He carried his gun over, pulled the roe deer over, and after opening its belly, he didn't move it. He would deal with the internal organs when he went back. People wanted the whole body, no need to peel the skin.

After planning the route, he spread out the plastic sheet, and with difficulty flipped the bear's body over and rolled it onto the plastic sheet.

Just flipping this body used up almost all his strength—after the bear died, its body hadn't become stiff yet. Lifting the head, the body didn't move; lifting the body, the legs didn't move—dead heavy, that's what it meant.

It wasn't a whole anymore.

Now Li Long felt that this bear was just the right size. If it were any bigger, he really wouldn't be able to get it back, and if things went wrong, he would only be able to cut off the four legs and drag them back.

Resting for a while, he put the roe deer on the bear, then went to gather the two corners of the plastic sheet, slung his gun, and dragged it downward.

He couldn't drag it.

He didn't dare to use too much force, afraid that if he dragged it too hard, he would tear the plastic sheet directly, so he could only use clever force.

Li Long could only tighten the two corners in his hands, drag more, and hold more plastic sheet in his hands, so that the force would be greater.

The plastic sheet barely moved, but Li Long let go of his hands. He went up and used his gloved hands to rake the snow under the plastic sheet thinner, so it would be easier to exert force.

Dragging the plastic sheet again, Li Long barely managed to pull the heavy object and go toward the northeast—there was no rubble on the surface of the snow there, so it shouldn't tear the plastic sheet. Going down also required turning, so this tested Li Long's control.

As long as it was pulled, the rest would be easy to handle. While pulling, he thought of a novel "Xue Gang Anti-Tang." It seemed that in it, Xue Gang pulling the iron cart was also like this at the beginning; pulling was difficult, but once pulled, it formed inertia, and it became faster and faster, and more and more handy.

Was he like this now?

But he thought in his heart, next was a large downhill slope. The speed of the things on the plastic sheet sliding down became faster, even exceeding Li Long's intention. He hurriedly changed direction, dragged the plastic sheet and walked obliquely, to avoid sliding down faster and faster, and finally just flipping the "cart."

Fortunately, he reacted quickly, soon controlled the sliding speed of the plastic sheet, and then turned according to the route he had planned.

This area had no trees, which was better. After passing the middle of the mountain, he would have to enter the pine forest next. Li Long was a bit troubled.

He had to put down the plastic sheet, first scout the mouth ahead, find a suitable route, and then drag the plastic sheet forward.

Otherwise, if he rashly entered a road that looked like it had no trees, and when he walked over and there was no road ahead, it would be much more troublesome to drag it up again.

Fortunately, although this was a pine forest, the trees didn't grow very densely, and there were always some gaps that allowed Li Long to pass through not very leisurely.

When Li Long dragged the bear carcass on the plastic sheet to No. 76, he was already exhausted.

The bear's body was still stained with water, and at this moment it had frozen into ice.

Fortunately, this was winter; if it were summer, flies might have already covered it.

Fortunately, No. 76 didn't have any accidents. When Li Long appeared, it even snorted to welcome its master's return.

It was just that after smelling the bear's scent, No. 76 was clearly agitated, wanting to break free from the reins and leave several times.

Li Long had to go up to soothe it, and it took a good while for it to calm down.

Next, take the rope, tie it to the plastic sheet, and then tie the bear and the roe deer together, wrap them up with the two corners of the plastic sheet, so that the bear wouldn't fall off during the walk.

The rest was to lead the horse and walk back.

Finally relaxed! (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 405 =====