Chapter 659

Because it was too late after unloading, everyone ate the noodles made by Sister Yang, and the drivers drove the cars away. Li Long cleared out the side room for Tao Daqiang and the others to stay in, planning to send them into the mountains early the next morning.

The next day, just as the sky was barely brightening, Tao Daqiang and the others were already up.

When Li Long heard the commotion and came out with his clothes draped over his shoulders, he saw these few people had cleaned the side room and were sweeping the courtyard.

"Stop working, let's go, I'll take you to eat breakfast, and after we eat, we'll go into the mountains."

Knowing they were in a hurry, Li Long decided not to wait for Sister Yang to make breakfast and wanted to take them away first.

He went into the house to tell Gu Xiaoxia, came out and told Sister Yang, and then Li Long drove the jeep to take the few people to eat breakfast.

Sister Yang still had some regrets; actually, she had gotten up earlier than usual, but Tao Daqiang and these few people staying in the side room really made it hard to sleep soundly.

Six people—it was crowded in the jeep's trunk, but in this day and age, traffic regulations weren't strictly enforced, and no one had any thoughts about this; it was normal to squeeze in.

After breakfast, Li Long saw that it was too crowded to buy anything else, so he took them directly into the mountains, and then he drove the jeep toward Yushanjiang's winter dugout.

It was more convenient to enter the inner mountains from here. Mainly, it was because this place was relatively close to Talihar's winter dugout; any further in, the jeep wouldn't be able to go.

Li Long didn't know much about the deeper parts of the Southern Mountains, so he felt it was better to walk from a familiar place to avoid getting lost.

Carrying his gun, with his backpack on his back, and walking with steady steps, Li Long walked into the depths of the mountains with great interest.

Li Long easily found the place Talihar described where he had hunted a dozen wild goats. It was just that what disappointed him was that the terrain here was indeed very steep, and it wasn't easy to climb up.

The point was that there wasn't a single wild goat here.

Li Long circled around and climbed onto the mountain ridge, then discovered that there were many more similar, relatively steep mountains further away.

Or rather, everything inward from this area was like that.

It was no wonder that there were no other herdsmen who had built winter dugouts south of Talihar's winter dugout; their winter dugouts were all scattered to the east or west—there were no longer any pastures suitable for cattle and sheep to graze in the south.

Li Long continued to walk forward because he had just faintly seen something jumping on another mountain ridge across a mountain.

These mountain ridges were one higher than the other; right now, Li Long suspected that the mountain he had climbed was already over two thousand meters above sea level, and continuing forward, the altitude would be even higher.

Having the motivation to hunt, Li Long didn't feel tired. He rushed down from the mountain ridge quickly, looking while running to make sure those thorny shrubs didn't prick him, and didn't stop until he reached the bottom of the gully.

Turning his head to look back, Li Long was even a bit impressed with himself—this was a fifty or sixty-degree slope, and he had just rushed down like that?

This rush must have been several hundred meters, right?

While climbing up, Li Long saw some morels growing in the moss within the sparse shrubbery. He picked them and put them into his backpack, then continued to climb up.

When crossing another mountain ridge, Li Long saw a small goat jumping between the mountains opposite.

It should have been a goat kid from last winter, now grown to about ten kilograms, and it was on a steep slope of sixty or seventy degrees. There weren't many shrubs on that slope, just flat stone slabs; an ordinary person wouldn't be able to stand there at all.

This little goat jumped left and right as if stepping on an invisible path, and it hopped right up on a place where Li Long saw no foothold at all.

Halfway up the mountainside, it was licking something between the mountains. Li Long guessed that there should be salt deposits there, and this wild goat should be licking salt.

Li Long wanted to get closer to take a look; he felt that this wild goat that hadn't grown up yet couldn't be the only one. Although he could shoot that little wild goat down across the gully by raising his gun right now, Li Long didn't intend to do so.

This fellow was like an elf in the mountains, and Li Long couldn't bear to shoot it.

Then he would find the herd and shoot the big ones. A wild goat like this wouldn't be fun once it grew up; it would only be good once it grew up and turned into roast lamb or boiled lamb.

That little goat finished licking the salt, turned its head, and saw Li Long. It was stunned for a moment, stared blankly at Li Long for a few seconds, and then felt startled and afraid. Then it jumped toward the mountain quickly, left and right, very agilely and flexibly, and in less than a minute, it jumped onto the mountain ridge.

When it was on the mountain ridge, it turned its head and glanced at Li Long. Seeing that Li Long wasn't chasing it, it relaxed a bit and then disappeared behind the mountain ridge.

Li Long faintly heard the call of a wild goat.

He ran down the mountain immediately. On the way, he also saw sporadic mushrooms, and it seemed there were also morels, but he couldn't spare the time to pick them.

He carried his gun and rushed down the mountainside quickly. The commotion was quite loud, startling several pheasants in the shrubbery.

Rushing down was easier, but climbing up wasn't easy. Li Long didn't have the agile movements of a wild goat, so he had to go diagonally forward, trying to find a slightly gentler area to cross the mountain ridge.

Then he saw a huge cave entrance in the pile of rocks ahead.

This cave entrance was a full three meters high and two meters wide, and it looked like it had traces of having been chiseled by hand.

However, these traces were too old, and if you didn't look carefully, you couldn't see them at all. After all, if the years are long, weathering is still very severe, unlike the clay tablets in some places that are the same as last year even after thousands of years.

The "environment" is different?

Li Long looked at the light in the depths of the cave; it seemed it wasn't closed off. He could see that the path inside went upward; could it be leading to the mountainside?

He carried his gun and walked in.

The cave was very dry and had traces of various animals: claw prints, hoof prints, as well as feces and fur rubbed against the walls.

Continuing to walk inside, Li Long discovered that the ground here was relatively flat, only with an upward slope.

He was eager to go up the mountain, so he kept going inside. As he walked, he adapted to the slightly dim light, and then his peripheral vision discovered that on the stone walls on both sides of the cave, there were some relatively smooth places painted with some simple sketches using brown pigment.

Rock paintings like this are not common on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains.

Li Long faintly remembered that there were Kangjia Shimenzi rock paintings in the Southern Mountains of Huxian next door.

The rock paintings there were mainly carved stone lines, which according to research should have been carved three thousand years ago, existing in the form of bas-reliefs. Their main content was primitive fertility worship, which is those things between men and women.

These rock paintings right now, however, were relatively more high-end. Li Long stopped and looked carefully; the content of these rock paintings seemed to be a scene of a goddess leading her people to defeat powerful animals and demons.

The protagonist was a woman who was larger than the others, with long hair and chest features; she should be a goddess.

In these multiple rock paintings, that woman was very powerful, not only able to lead her people to defeat those powerful wild beasts but also able to defeat the raptors in the sky and demons with strange appearances alone.

The reason for saying those wild beasts were powerful was because in these pictures, that goddess and those wild beasts were relatively larger, and the pictures of those people were relatively smaller.

I don't know if it was intentional or for some other reason.

Then, right under a rock painting of the goddess holding a stick alone, there were traces of burning and smoking.

Li Long guessed, is this primitive worship or sacrifice?

According to historical research, there were originally mountain people living in the Tianshan Mountains, but later it's unknown where they went.

I also don't know what era the rock paintings in this stone cave are from, and I don't know where the people who painted these pictures went.

Being able to let these paintings stay here for so long and still maintain relatively clear texture lines, and still be able to see the colors, Li Long felt it was also quite amazing.

It's just a pity that there are no smartphones right now, and Li Long doesn't have a camera, so there's no way to take pictures.

He thought about buying a camera after coming out of the mountains, and when he had time to come here again, he would take pictures of these rock paintings, which could be considered a contribution to historical research.

After finishing looking at these rock paintings, Li Long hurried forward again. Currently, rock paintings are precious, but in Li Long's eyes, that herd of wild goats is more important.

Continuing to walk inside, this cave is not too deep; from the entrance to the diagonally forward exit, it is about forty meters.

The exit cave is much smaller compared to the entrance, a little over a meter high, and Li Long has to bend over to pass through. After exiting this cave, Li Long saw that he had already reached the mountainside. Although it was still quite steep continuing upward, there was a stone path that could go up diagonally.

I don't know if this stone path is natural, or if it was chiseled out by the people who painted those rock paintings many years ago.

Following this stone path up to the top of the mountain ridge, Li Long discovered that it was quite wide here, a full ten meters or so, unlike the previous few mountain ridges. Those places were usually two or three meters, or even just over a meter, really just like a spine.

He walked forward, and when he was about to go downhill, he saw a herd of wild goats climbing up quickly on the opposite slope.

The distance here to the opposite slope was a bit far; these two mountain ridges were not as close as the previous two, and visually, from here to the wild goats opposite, it had to be at least seventy or eighty meters.

Li Long guessed that it should have been the little wild goat that jumped over just now that issued a warning, so these wild goats hurriedly moved to another place.

This herd of wild goats had more than twenty, and Li Long quickly found the little wild goat he had encountered earlier. Together with it were four companions of similar size; they could be considered the most agile in this herd of wild goats.

Li Long raised his gun to aim, looked at the terrain again, and was somewhat disappointed to find that he couldn't replicate Talihar's tactic.

The opposite mountain ridge was relatively gentler than this side; even if he shot the lead goat, the remaining goats couldn't roll off the cliff due to fright. However, he still raised his gun; he would shoot as many as he could.

When Li Long raised his gun and prepared to shoot, the lead goat at the very front had already climbed onto the opposite mountain ridge.

Then it disappeared behind the mountain ridge. Clearly, the top of the opposite mountain ridge was relatively narrow, which was more suitable for hiding.

Li Long knew he had to aim as quickly as possible; otherwise, in a few minutes, all the goats would go to the back of the mountain.

It's just that these wild goats were very agile, almost without any pausing movements, and had been jumping and running all along; they really had the feeling of treating mountainous terrain as flat land, walking on flat ground.

This brought great difficulty to his pre-aiming—in the past, when ambushing for hunting, it was mostly at that moment when the prey was quiet, or even if it was a wild boar running like this, it was just running in a straight line.

It was very easy to predict the movement route.

But these goats jumping between the mountains, you simply couldn't judge which direction they would go in the next moment.

For quite a while, Li Long had been observing, and only then did he have a bit of a feeling, but right now there were fewer than five wild goats still on the slope.

He couldn't wait any longer. Just as he was aiming at a goat at the moment it had just jumped up and was about to land, and was intending to fire, a roar suddenly came from the other side of the mountain ridge, followed by the screams of wild goats.

Those wild goats that had just jumped and run over suddenly ran back quickly one after another, fleeing in panic toward this side, and then jumped upward regardless of their lives!

No errors in the content at a glance!

Li Long forgot to pull the trigger. While he was still guessing the reason for these wild goats to return, the culprit behind the scenes came out.

A brown bear, a full three or four hundred kilograms in weight and over two meters tall, revealed its head from behind the slope. In its bear paw, it was clutching a small wild goat, and it stuffed it into its mouth as it held it!

Damn it, this bear eating is a bit bloody!

Although Li Long also knew in his previous life that bears don't just eat honey and wild fruits, but also small beasts and the like.

It's fine to watch "Boonie Bears," but when you really run into a bear, don't think they only eat honey, fruits, and fish; incidents of bears eating people from all over the world are not uncommon!

Some wild goats that couldn't escape in time fell down just like that; some were blocked by shrubs and were fine, able to climb up again and continue running down, while some simply fell from the top of the mountain ridge to the bottom!

Li Long raised his gun and fired two shots "bang, bang" at that bear.

Shooting a bear is much more exciting than shooting a wild goat!

It's just a pity that after two shots were fired, the bear just roared, turned its head, and ran behind the mountain ridge.

Li Long looked at the distance between the two mountain ridges and looked at the slope again, feeling somewhat unwilling, but also knowing that unless he hit a vital point, otherwise, by the time he climbed the opposite slope, the bear would probably have run away long ago.

He raised his gun and aimed at those wild goats fleeing in panic—the two gunshots just now also scared these wild goats to death. Originally, they intended to flee to the mountain ridge on this side, but as a result, they ran to the bottom of the gully and went west.

There were still four wild goats struggling in the gully; clearly, they had fallen from the mountain just now, and these few wild goats were injured.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

Li Long started target practice.

After all, they were some very agile animals. In the case of not being injured, these wild goats were very flexible. By the time the gunshots ended, Li Long had hit a total of two.

Compared to the past, the record was a bit embarrassing.

However, there were still four wild goats in the gully that couldn't escape, and Li Long felt it was not bad.

He put away his gun and then looked for the path down the mountain. After reaching the bottom of the gully, he thought about whether he could climb to the top of the mountain again to see the bear.

However, the slope was ultimately too steep. After climbing up more than ten meters, the rest could only rely on grabbing shrubs, and most of those shrubs had thorns, so Li Long had to come down.

Let's just assume that the bear has already escaped.

He carried his gun and came to those few injured wild goats. These wild goats were not very large in size, and several were slightly smaller than adult domesticated goats.

In order to facilitate bringing them back, Li Long picked up the two dead wild goats and prepared to put them back in the jeep first; this had to be done one trip at a time.

Of the six wild goats, only two were slightly smaller, a bit larger than the one he saw at the very beginning, and the rest were adults.

Larger and older wild goats are very experienced when going down the mountain, and most of them won't get injured.

Of course, there are exceptions.

Although it's not safe to leave the remaining wild goats here, there's no other way. The jeep can't drive here, so they have to be left here first.

One round trip takes nearly an hour, mainly because going up and down the slope is too troublesome, and he's also carrying two twenty or thirty-kilogram wild goats and a gun on his back.

But Li Long didn't dare not carry a gun. The appearance of that brown bear made him understand that there are crises everywhere in these mountains; without a gun, no one can guarantee whether they will be able to see tomorrow's sun.

The first trip to put the two wild goats in the jeep, and there was no problem when taking the second trip; those four wild goats were all the same, and one of them even wanted to escape and return to the herd, but it had really fallen too miserably and didn't move a few steps.

But when he came over for the last trip, Li Long was surprised to find that there should have been two wild goats left, but there was only one in front of him.

There were bloodstains in the gully, and then there were traces of dragging. He followed the traces to the slope, and it was not easy to climb up further.

I don't know what kind of animal dragged one of the wild goats away.

I don't know if it was that brown bear.

Or some other animal like a wolf or a lynx.

Li Long carried this wild goat and looked around vigilantly, but there was no movement at all.

He had no choice but to admit his bad luck and turn back.

Five wild goats were enough; just processing them would take a long time.

Right now, it was already lunchtime, and Li Long drove the jeep to Xiaobaiyang Gou.

They had already started eating here. Seeing Li Long's jeep arrive, Old Huang took out Li Long's enamel basin and served him food—today they were eating mixed grain rice with a large stew.

After Li Long finished eating, he drove the jeep to the cabin.

Right now, there was no shortage of meat here, and everyone was busy weaving carrying poles, so Li Long didn't leave any goats.

He drove the jeep hurriedly to the cabin and even brought a portion of food for Sun Jia Qiang.

Sun Jia Qiang was burning a fire in front of the stove outside, and by the looks of it, he was preparing to cook for himself.

"Don't cook, I brought you some." Li Long handed the food he brought to Sun Jia Qiang. While waiting for Sun Jia Qiang to take it and eat, he dragged those five wild goats down and carried them to the spring, and dragged over two large basins, preparing to skin them.

The jeep's doors were wide open, mainly to let the bloody smell inside dissipate.

"Two people came to look for you to trade for fritillaria this morning. Seeing you weren't here, they waited for nearly an hour and then left." Sun Jia Qiang came over with a bowl, squatted beside Li Long, and said while eating and watching Li Long skin them:

"Those two people said they would come back in the afternoon."

"Did they say what to trade for?"

"Said to trade for things..."

Li Long didn't even raise his head and skillfully skinned the wild goat.

"There's not much left then; I took people back into the mountains this morning and didn't buy anything."

"That's nothing; maybe they happen to want meat." Sun Jia Qiang looked at those five wild goats and was also a bit excited, "I really didn't expect you to be able to hunt so many goats in one trip; these are wild, right?"

"Yeah, it was a coincidence." Li Long didn't explain in detail either.

Once he started skinning, it was almost sunset. (End of chapter)