Chapter 273: The Water-Avoiding Golden-Eyed Beast

In Wang An's view, "skimming the perimeter" was just hunting while strolling, and the hardest part was finding the prey.

Therefore, after the three of them burrowed into Roe Deer Gully, they began to wander aimlessly.

During this time, they encountered many footprints, but the tracks were all quite old; the prey had long since run off to who knows where.

An hour later, the three of them had walked out of Roe Deer Gully on the other side, yet they hadn't found a single feather.

Consequently, the three of them began to circle back, and it was at this moment that Wang Li couldn't help but say:

"Fourth Brother, you mean to tell me those people who skim the perimeter just wander around blindly like this every day?"

Wang An, while observing his surroundings, replied: "If we don't wander like this, what other good method can you think of?"

Wang Li scratched his head and said: "This wastes too much time. If they don't run into anything, wouldn't their whole day be wasted?"

Wang An glanced at Wang Li without speaking, continuing instead to scan left and right.

Mu Xueli said to Wang Li: "Let me tell you, Fifth, not hitting anything is a common occurrence. You and I are just lucky to have your Fourth Brother leading us; otherwise, for people like us, we wouldn't hit a single feather all winter."

Wang Li nodded and said: "Yeah, there are so many people who hunt year-round, and I don't see them doing any better than the three of us."

Upon hearing this, Mu Xueli said: "Then you're wrong. We haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg. That old Xiao Pao who sold me the dogs—which winter doesn't he collect twenty or thirty bear gallbladders? Aren't sable furs precious? His family has four or five of them right now, plus six or seven dried deer penises."

After Mu Xueli finished saying this, not only was Wang Li stunned, but even Wang An widened his eyes.

Seeing the expressions of the two, Mu Xueli thought they didn't believe him, so he said a bit anxiously: "It's true. Before the New Year, I went to his house to pay my respects with my father, and old Xiao Pao asked me to go to his back room to move some wine. I saw it in his back room."

Wang Li subconsciously asked: "Brother Mu, why would you go to his house to pay New Year respects?"

Mu Xueli was stunned by the question. Mainly, Wang Li's brain took a turn a bit too sharply, making the pile of excuses Mu Xueli had prepared completely useless!

Just as Mu Xueli was about to answer, Wang An suddenly said: "You two look to the south. What kind of thing is that?"

They saw a large beast about 1 li away to the south of the three of them.

The reason it was called a large beast was that at such a distance, they could clearly see what this thing was.

You have to know that at a distance of 500 meters, looking at a person, they are just a large dot; if it were a smaller animal, you wouldn't be able to tell what it was at all at such a distance.

Mu Xueli and Wang Li, upon hearing this, fixed their eyes on it and exclaimed almost simultaneously:

"Holy crap, a moose!"

"Holy crap, a camel deer!"

A moose,

also called a moose, is a very large type of deer.

Moose are very easy to distinguish. For a male, the iconic feature is the two large antlers on its head, and these two large antlers are fan-shaped.

Of course, a female

has no antlers, but regardless of whether it is male or female, their front shoulders are higher than their back, looking a bit like a two-humped camel missing one hump.

This thing actually looks quite unique and is highly recognizable. Basically, anyone who has seen it once will definitely be able to recognize what this large beast is at a glance next time.

Because in the eyes of many people, this thing looks incredibly ugly.

In myths and legends, people call the moose the "Water-Avoiding Golden-Eyed Beast."

In *Journey to the West*, one of the four great classics, the Bull Demon King's mount is this very thing.

Therefore, this thing can swim, and its swimming ability is extremely impressive.

It is said that this thing can swim in the water for a long time, has excellent breath-holding skills, and can also forage for some water plants or algae to eat underwater.

A moose is seriously quite large, usually weighing eight or nine hundred jin, and a size of over a thousand jin is normal.

However, precisely because its physique is too large, this thing eats 24 hours a day, except for brief periods of sleep.

As long as it is not sleeping, it is basically eating, eating continuously, never stopping. Anyway, within a day, it basically does nothing else; it is either looking for food or eating food. No one knows when it will ever be full.

Wang An said with a smile: "The three of us are quite lucky today to run into such a fierce creature."

"Yeah, it would be really satisfying to kill such a big guy," Mu Xueli said happily.

Wang Li also said with a smile: "This is my first time seeing a live moose. I'm blessed today, hahaha."

Wang An laughed: "Let's go. Right now we are crosswind; let's circle to the downwind side before opening fire to kill it."

After Wang An finished speaking, he took the lead and walked forward.

Although the moose has a massive physique, it is very agile and nimble, and when its four long legs get going, it is also quite fast.

The most critical thing is that this thing walks in deep snow as if it were on flat ground.

If it starts running in the snow, there is no difference in speed compared to running on a normal road!

Furthermore, as long as it is a deer, its nose and ears are never anything less than impressive.

Although the moose has a massive physique and impressive combat power, and this thing has almost no natural predators in the deep mountains,

it is exactly the same as other deer in that it is very easily startled.

And after being startled, this thing is just like other deer; it flicks its big hooves and runs for its life, and a person simply cannot catch up.

But since they had finally run into it, Wang An definitely couldn't let it run away.

Therefore, after the three of them walked to the downwind side of the moose, they began to approach it carefully.

From time to time, they had to wait for the wind to pick up before continuing to move.

Because the wind could not only blow away the scent of the three of them but also hide the slight "crackle, crackle" sound of people stepping on the snowy ground.

Even so, when the three of them approached to within about 200 meters, they didn't dare to continue approaching.

Because at this moment, the moose seemed to have become alert.

It stopped eating the tender buds on the bushes and raised its head to look around, while also carefully listening to the sounds nearby.

One can imagine that if the three of them hadn't been on the downwind side at this time, this moose would definitely have run off long ago.

After the wind blew again, Wang An quickly said in a low voice: "Aim for the head. I'll count to three, and the three of us will fire at the same time."

Wang An saw from the corner of his eye that the two were ready, and began to count: "1, 2, 3."

Just as Wang An's voice fell, with a "bang," the sound of gunfire rang out. The three of them fired almost without distinction, so the three gunshots sounded like one.

After the shots rang out, they saw this large moose fall onto the snowy ground without even struggling once.

Seeing this, Wang An and the other two ran quickly toward the large moose.

When they reached the moose, the three of them discovered that all three bullets had hit the moose's head.

However, because the three of them had fired from the right rear of the moose, the bullets had all entered from under the antlers and exited from the front.

One has to say, this moose's head was seriously quite hard, because the hole where they exited wasn't very large.

Wang An looked at the dead moose and suddenly thought of a major event, so he shouted anxiously: "Quick, make a few tree bark boxes!"

After Wang An finished speaking, he ran toward the nearest linden tree, and Mu Xueli and Wang Li followed closely behind.

3 minutes later, three very awkward and ugly tree bark boxes were placed under the moose's neck.

Mu Xueli didn't need to be called; he stabbed a knife into the moose's neck.

When it comes to bleeding, the sooner the better.

The follow-read rate is dying; please, I beg for follow-reads, thank you, thank you. Rewards are appreciated.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 274 =====