Chapter 10: Wolf Hunting

By the firelight, Baifeng saw clearly that what was in the camp was a wolf with a massive frame but which seemed very thin; for some reason, it was actually not afraid of fire and had come to Baifeng's location to steal food.

Seeing Baifeng crouched and standing, the wolf immediately made a preparatory move, emitting a low growl from its mouth to threaten Baifeng, even trying to find a good angle to pounce and kill this bipedal ape.

This was not modern society; in those days, wolves would hesitate when facing humans, as they knew something of human prowess. But humans now were merely in the lower-middle tier of the food chain.

Knowing there was no avoiding it, Baifeng simply bit down on the Stone Knife, held an axe in both hands, and prepared to fight it.

The wolf lowered its body and began moving left and right, testing Baifeng. Baifeng dared not strike rashly, only able to plant his stance firmly, his body turning left and right along with the wolf.

The wolf seized an opportunity and pounced directly at Baifeng's thigh; startled, Baifeng stepped back and smashed down hard with the axe.

The wolf did not bite Baifeng, but Baifeng's thigh had already been gashed by the wolf's claws; the wolf only had its back grazed, causing no serious injury.

Because of the adrenaline, Baifeng's hands began to tremble, and he did not feel pain from the wound on his leg; stimulated by Baifeng's blood and seeing that Baifeng was in a bad state, the wolf intended to deliver a killing blow.

The wolf jumped directly, aiming to bite Baifeng's neck; Baifeng blocked the wolf's fatal strike with the axe handle, but the wolf had already knocked Baifeng to the ground, constantly searching for a position to bite through Baifeng's neck.

Baifeng struggled fiercely, using the axe handle to push against the wolf's head; later, the axe slipped from his hand, and Baifeng used his hands to push it away.

In the chaos, Baifeng seemed to have grabbed the wolf's neck, and then the wolf struggled fiercely to bite Baifeng's neck; Baifeng kept gripping the wolf's neck, and when Baifeng felt the wolf's attacks gradually losing strength, he rolled over and pinned the wolf down.

Baifeng wrapped his arm around the wolf's neck, using a cross-face grip with both hands, struggling to strangle the wolf. Although he felt the wolf beneath him stop moving, Baifeng dared not be the least bit careless.

Baifeng not only did not let go of the wolf's neck he was strangling, but he exerted even more force. After strangling it for a while longer, Baifeng's own arm was almost out of strength before he dared to let go.

And the first thing Baifeng did was take the Knife and stab it into the wolf's neck, delivering a final blow to ensure there would be no accidents.

Feeling the warm wolf blood slowly flowing out from the neck, Baifeng finally dared to sit down and rest; his hands were already trembling incessantly; having not seen a large beast with his own eyes for so long, Baifeng had almost forgotten about this.

Baifeng moved closer to the fire pile, using the firelight to look at his wound.

There were scratches from claws on his arm, but the wounds were very shallow, and the blood was almost dry; however, the wound on his leg had three claw marks on his left leg, the ones on the sides slightly shallower, and the one in the middle relatively deep. But it had not reached the point of needing stitches.

It had not hit an artery, but blood was still flowing; Baifeng grabbed a handful of grass ash and sprinkled it on, using the grass ash to stop the bleeding. There was really no other way; even if Baifeng had been a doctor in his past life, with nothing available, he had no choice.

Fortunately, his physical constitution was good enough, and with a handful of grass ash, the bleeding stopped very quickly.

Baifeng looked at the sky; in not much longer, the sky would be bright; startled by the wolf like this, Baifeng could not sleep either, so he simply huddled by the fire pile, waiting quietly for dawn.

When the sunlight shone brightly, the breakfast Baifeng was cooking was also ready; after eating slowly, Baifeng pulled the wolf's carcass over to examine it carefully.

This wolf's skeleton was large, but it was basically just a skeleton left; it was very thin, and looking at the state of its fur, it was already an old wolf.

Baifeng surmised that this must have been an old wolf king; after being driven out of the pack by a new wolf king, it could only forage alone; if a pack of wolves had come last night, Baifeng would have already become wolf dung and returned to Nature.

Wolves hunt through teamwork to kill large animals; if this old wolf hunted alone, the success rate would be very low; it must have been so hungry it had no choice but to risk bypassing the fire to steal food.

Actually, in terms of size and strength, a human can completely defeat a wolf; knees and elbows are hard Weapons, it is just that humans are too afraid of getting hurt.

Baifeng, having just arrived in the wilderness, was fortunate to have encountered this old wolf, allowing him to kill it at such a small cost.

Baifeng used the Knife to peel off the wolf's hide and put it with the rabbit skins; when things were ready, he would process the hides.

Baifeng did not know what wolf meat tasted like, but logically, if dog meat can be eaten, wolf meat should be too.

So Baifeng cut off a small piece and roasted it over the fire; when it started sizzling with oil, he picked it up and tasted it—sour, astringent, tough, and it got stuck in his teeth; it was not tasty at all.

But Baifeng dared not waste a bit of meat; although it was hard to eat, he still processed it into pieces and put it on the smoking rack to smoke.

The wound on Baifeng's leg had completely stopped bleeding; Baifeng boiled a pot of water, added some salt, and then used the salt water to gently clean the wound.

It was not a serious wound, but Baifeng was still afraid of infection, especially in Summer; this temperature and humidity were too suitable for pathogens to multiply.

Fear was fear, but there was no other way; life had to go on. After what happened last night, Baifeng's plan to build a house had to start from now.

The kiln was lit, and the dried pots and jars were put into the kiln and sealed; with coal, Baifeng did not need to spend time chopping wood and tending the fire, only needing to throw coal inside every half hour.

While firing the kiln, Baifeng stepped on mud to make Tiles; because his left leg was injured, he could not make movements that were too large, so Baifeng's progress was very slow.

However, Tiles were easy to make; step and press them into mud cakes of equal thickness, then use a Knife to divide them into small mud cakes of equal size, and shape the small mud cakes into an arc—that was a Tile embryo.

Baifeng made two hundred at once; feeling that it should be enough to build a decent house, he stopped working and placed the Tiles in a flat place to dry.

As for the house, Baifeng planned to make an earth-and-wood structure; the roof would be wood plus Tiles, and the walls would be made of earth—convenient and fast, and warm in Winter and cool in Summer.

However, to make walls, one must also make earth foundations, which are large earth Bricks; they do not need to be fired, otherwise, just piling up mud would absolutely not work. It would not be sturdy enough and would collapse with one kick.

But Baifeng did not plan to do it today; making earth foundations also required making a tool; it would not be too late to do it after the Tiles were fired.

Now Baifeng was holding the bamboo basket used for coal yesterday and went out to find wild vegetables; after all, eating only meat would not do.

By Summer, many wild vegetables had already grown old to reproduce offspring, not as tender as in Spring, and they would also have a bitter taste.

The most common thing in this place was Bitter Lettuce, which is also a type of Chinese medicine called patrinia, as well as dandelions; Baifeng picked some of the tender ones.

By a small stream, Baifeng also discovered a lot of Gujiao, which is water bamboo; after the roots and stems are infected by fungi and swell, they are the water bamboo used for cooking, though under normal circumstances, they would produce *gumi* (water bamboo rice).

Baifeng checked and it had not been infected, so when Autumn came, Baifeng would still be able to harvest a lot of *gumi*.

On the way back, Baifeng found a patch of lamb's quarters in a corner; he hadn't noticed it when he came. Regardless of the season, the leaves of this thing are always very tender, and Baifeng liked eating it very much.