Chapter 546: Life and Death

For the sake of stealth and speed, hunters naturally cannot wear Iron Armor; furthermore, many hunters are not Soldiers and have no Iron Armor to wear. Everyone simply wears full sets of Hemp Cloth clothing with their trouser legs tied tight to prevent venomous insects from crawling in, which also provides protection against mosquito bites.

Although there are no particularly venomous mosquitoes, there are blood-sucking insects here far more terrifying than mosquitoes. Baifeng only knows their common name is Zhelufeng; they are as large as wasps but are not bees. They use their long, sharp mouthparts to pierce the bodies of any animal to suck blood. They are called Zhelufeng because in the summer, they are frequently seen on the bodies of donkeys.

But there are no donkeys in Huaxia yet; however, they are also very numerous on cattle and horses. They do not even spare humans. Unlike mosquitoes, which come silently, sneakily pierce, suck their fill, and leave—causing no pain at the time—the "Zhelufeng" are different. You will feel the pain immediately, and they also like to come during the hottest times, unlike mosquitoes which pick the afternoon and evening.

Various other venomous insects are also not uncommon, though their toxicity is not too great; they only make people feel pain and swelling. Here, Baifeng has discovered that the only thing that can truly kill a person is the hornet, but as long as you are not too unlucky to bump into a hornet's nest, they will not actively attack you.

That hunter who was tossed aside had no protection on his body. After being tossed a few times, his body was already red. Everyone quickly picked up their Weapons, but with the person and the pig together, they were not confident they wouldn't hurt the person, so they could only be very anxious and then make sounds to try to get the wild boar to charge toward them.

But seeing it had no effect, Xi no longer hesitated, directly pulled his bow, aimed at the wild boar's heart and lung area, and shot an Arrow over. It was a direct hit. The wild boar was caught off guard, immediately began to wail, stopped its attack, and its body tilted somewhat.

The hunter holding the Spear saw this, immediately disregarded the danger and rushed up, delivered another Spear thrust to the lung area, and then quickly retreated. The wild boar, having been attacked in a vital spot, also had its life force rapidly fading away.

Taking advantage of the fact that the wild boar no longer had the ability to attack, everyone quickly stepped forward to treat the wounded man. His body had been gored in several places, his clothes were already torn to shreds, and the most serious injury was at his buttocks, where a large chunk of flesh had been gouged out, and blood was still flowing out incessantly.

The hunters, having no experience in medical treatment, were in a panic. A Soldier recalled the emergency hemostasis methods he had learned, but facing a wound on the buttocks, they had no way to deal with it—how to stop the bleeding, and from where to stop it?

His abdomen was also severely injured; two large holes could be clearly seen on his stomach. The hunter who had been gored did not feel pain for the moment, but he felt that he might be dying, so he could not help but wail.

Xi was not a doctor either. Although he was the captain, he was also at his wit's end. Seeing that the wild boar was already dead and their companion was also somewhat weak, they were still a day's distance from Lema City. Because they had been using the wooden hut built during the road construction as a Battalion to rest and hunt from in order to capture more prey, and the prey captured each day was simply processed there before being sent to Lema City the next day, almost all hunters were like this.

The wounded man felt miserable at this moment: "I'm in so much pain, I feel so sick. Can you take me to Lema City? I don't want to die, I don't want to die..."

Xi immediately made a decision to take the wounded man and rush toward Lema City; even if he died on the road, it was better than dying in the wilderness because no one saved him.

Of the ten of them, five remained here to process the prey, and the rest of them took turns carrying the wounded man and running toward Lema City.

Everyone had no objections. Xi was the first to carry the wounded man. After placing him on his back, he immediately felt the sensation of moist, warm blood flowing on his back. The wound on the man's buttocks was also pulled again because he was carrying him, and the excruciating pain made him scream involuntarily.

Xi's scalp tingled, but he kept walking toward the foot of the mountain without stopping. There were many leaves and branches on the road, and there were also hidden rocks under the leaves; one careless step and one would fall, so there was another hunter in front of Xi clearing the path.

The wounded man's voice grew smaller and smaller, and Xi became more and more anxious. With this happening to his own teammate, his own friend, he could not find peace of mind no matter what. He could only keep calling out: "Zhang! Make some sound! Zhang! Hang in there a little longer!"

But Zhang only said very weakly: "I'm so tired..."

Xi felt increasingly anxious in his heart, and could only keep calling to him, while the speed of his feet kept increasing: "Zhang! Hang in there! You must not die!"

Xi suddenly felt the arm wrapped around his neck loosen, and then it suddenly tilted backward, causing him to slip and fall hard to the ground as well. He only felt the bone in his buttocks throbbing with pain, but he could only grit his teeth and stand up.

The other hunters had already gone ahead. They had wanted to catch Zhang, but the incident happened too suddenly, and with Xi falling as well, they were unable to react in time.

When they wanted to help Zhang up, they discovered that Zhang's chest was no longer rising and falling. They hurriedly shook Zhang, but there was no reaction from Zhang's pale face.

Xi crawled to Zhang's side in a panic and pressed his ear to Zhang's chest, hoping to hear a heartbeat. Although he knew this was the fate already sealed for Zhang, who wouldn't hope for their friend to survive?

Xi tried to use his limited first-aid knowledge to perform CPR on Zhang, but as soon as he put his hand on Zhang's chest and applied force, his own tailbone throbbed with pain, causing him to curl up instantly.

Because of his pressure, a spurt of bloody foam emerged from the wound on Zhang's abdomen. Only then did everyone confirm that there was no hope of saving Zhang.

The hunters saw Xi's painful expression and thought he was feeling grief. Just as everyone was the same and preparing to comfort him, they saw Xi's painful expression did not look like it was due to grief, and there was cold sweat still dripping down. Thinking of how Xi had just fallen, everyone immediately realized that Xi had been seriously injured by the fall.

The dead were already dead, and now they still had to pay attention to the living. So they hurriedly went to check on Xi. Fortunately, Xi only felt that his buttocks were very painful, and it hurt whenever he moved, but he wouldn't die; he would be fine after resting for a while.

Just like that, everyone stood guard with sad expressions over a gradually cooling corpse, occasionally driving away the flies that had come smelling the blood, and then asking if Xi felt a little better.

After resting for a good while, Xi felt he was no problem, so he leaned on a tree and slowly stood up, but as long as he moved in a certain direction, the pain would appear immediately.