It was rather noisy in the forest. The constant shuffling of footsteps ruined the quiet ambiance and alerted two hares to a foreign presence. Their ears perked up as well as their heads as they scanned the area and waited to see if they would need to scamper away.
From the opposite direction the hares ran away from, a bow-wielding man emerged from the bushes he had been hiding behind. Another pitchfork-holding man came out from behind him along with a highly-excited young male with a small hunting bow. Two other youths were behind; one was a sickly-looking young man with a long staff and a st.u.r.dy-looking male with a wood-chopping axe.
“Ah! There’s a hare over there!”
The young man with the bow whispered. He was already notching his bow to aim at the hare when the man in front of him held his hand up.
“Don’t loose your arrow so quickly, Stone!” The male warned, “We’re chasing after a deer’s tracks, you’ll scare it away. Stay behind us and don’t make a sound.”
“Oh…” Dejected, Stone unnotched the arrow from his bow and sighed.
Bai Yunfei had an amused smile on his face. Today marked the first time Stone would be hunting with the rest of the males, so there was no way he wouldn’t be excited. It didn’t even have to be a hare for Stone to be excited by. He was already ready to fire at any sparrow that he saw. But for all his excitement, he never hit a single arrow yet.
It was already the fifth day since Bai Yunfei arrived in this village. It took Bai Yunfei two days since his arrival for him to feel recovered, though Bai Yunfei still hadn’t any new memories to remember. Fortunately, he was already getting used to a lifestyle here in the village. He saw how the primary source of food for the village relied on the young males to hunt for in the mountains, so in order for him to live here for now, Bai Yunfei figured it was best that he contribute to food procurement and join in on the hunt.
He and two other youths were tailing behind four more well-experienced hunters for the experience. The middle-aged man that warned Stone earlier was his father, or uncle Wu. Aside from him, the one with thick eyebrows and at the very front was a man with the surname of Zuo, and the one behind him was his son, Zuo Shou.
Another thing worth mentioning were the two shadows following the hunters. Two dogs. One was jet-black and scarily large; this was a special type of dog breed for hunting purposes. The other was the wrinkly yellow Lao Sha. It looked rather weak.
The first dog was attentively sniffing at the ground as it followed behind the humans, but Lao Sha was lazily walking about from bush to bush as if looking for something.
Uncle Zuo and Wu were both quite attentive to their surroundings as they led the group, but it wouldn’t be for another half hour before uncle Zuo would suddenly bend close to the ground to hide behind a bush.
“Be careful, we have ourselves a situation!”
Everyone grew alert at once. Hiding their presence as best as they could, the group behind whatever bush was closest to them.
“Ah! That dee—”
Stone physically clamped at his lips almost as quickly as he cried out. Fortunately, he hadn’t spoiled their location. Heaving out a sigh of relief, he drew still and stared anxiously and in fear at the sight ahead.
Bai Yunfei couldn’t blame Stone for being pale in this current moment, he was feeling slightly uneasy himself. A deer was indeed in front of them, but it was lying in a pool of blood and was currently being torn apart and devoured by two carnivorous wolves.
The game they were hunting had already been taken by these two wolves!
But uncle Zuo and Wu looked rather pleased at this. A deer and two wolves; this was quite the profitable hunt today!
Uncle Zuo glanced over at Zuo Shou. Nodding, the two raised their hunting bows and aimed it at the two wolves.
“Tw.a.n.g! Tw.a.n.g!”
The strings tw.a.n.g in the air as two arrows were let loose through the bushes. At the sound, the heads of the two wolves snapped up in fright before leaping away from the deer to try and run away!
“Aoo!!!”
But one of the wolves came cras.h.i.+ng down! Uncle Zuo’s aim had been true! The wolf on the left had its hindleg struck by his arrow and tumbled down to the ground.
The other wolf Zuo Shuo aimed at had been fortunate enough to evade the arrow. It snarled and looked ready to pounce at the hunters, but it thought otherwise after it realized its companion had been struck down. Backing away, the wolf began to turn around to flee!
“Ha!!”
Uncle Wu was already charging out from the bushes. Pitchfork poised to strike, the man leaped at the grounded wolf and pushed his weapon down onto its throat to kill it!
“Tw.a.n.g! Tw.a.n.g”
Another two arrows were let loose from the two bowmen in an attempt to stop the second wolf from escaping. But it was too late. The wolf was already too far away for their arrows to bring down.
And when it seemed like the wolf really was about to get away…
“Wooos.h.!.+”
A shadow image traveling faster than the two arrows caught up right away with the wolf!
“Aooo!!!”
A howl of pain even more tragic-sounding than the first one erupted from the wolf as a longstaff went straight through the wolf’s body and anch.o.r.ed it to the ground!
The skewered wolf spasmed as it tried to escape, but it was powerless. Desperate, but powerless, the wolf soon lost all signs of life and grew still…
“That’s…”
No one spoke for a while. They were all staring at where the second was struck down with a wide-open mouth.
They all turned their heads to look at the empty-handed Bai Yunfei. The staff that had impaled the wolf was thrown by him!
Like them, Bai Yunfei was also staring down at his own hands. Not even he knew that a result like this would happen.
The only thing he was aware of was that the wolf was about to escape. He wasn’t even thinking about anything else when his hands were already snapping back to let the staff fly…
“Ah!!” Stone was the first to break the silence. “How’d you do that, big brother Tang? That…was…amazing!”
Bai Yunfei felt embarra.s.sed with how everyone was giving him such a strange look. He scratched his nose bashfully and smiled. “I…don’t know. I guess I’m stronger than I thought…”
“Haha! We got ourselves two wolves and a deer! It’s an early feast tonight!
Stone was already scampering towards the corpses of the wolf Bai Yunfei killed to pull the staff out from.
“Rrrrr…..rrrrrr….”
The giant black dog next to Zuo Shou began to snarl right away. It was staring in a different direction of the forest with a menacing growl, but its eyes looked almost fearful by whatever it saw!
“Stone! Come back, quickly!!”
Recognizing the signs of danger, Zuo Shou immediately called out to have Stone come back.
“What?!” Stone’s hands fell from the long staff to stare incredulously at Zuo Shou. Before he could ask any questions, however, a giant shadow suddenly leaped out from the bushes near him!
“Roarrr!!!”
It was an imposing figure. Larger than any of the other males in the group, the shadow revealed itself to be…a giant grizzly bear!
“Ahhh!!”
Terrified, Stone fell to the ground. He scrambled to his feet to try and run away in the opposite direction of the bear, but he tripped and fell over a vine!
“Aoo!!!”
A black shadow flew over Stone’s head as the giant dog pounced at the bear to distract it!
“Bang!!”
Unphased by the dog, the bear tossed one of its paws forward to send the dog flying away!
The dog—while gigantic in comparison to other dogs—was minuscule to the bear. Flung high into the air, the dog fell back down to the ground and tumbled to a halt with wounds almost unbearable to look at.
The bear looked away from the dog to stare at Stone. An ominous glint flashed in its eye, as if symbolizing its readiness to kill the ‘prey’ in front of it.
“Stone!”
Uncle Wu was already running forward in an attempt to protect Stone. He and his pitchfork were a little too far away, however, and the bear was simply far too close to Stone. Zuo Shuo and his father were also preparing for action. Notching their bows, the two aimed at the bear and were prepared to let loose when all of a sudden, a person came running at the bear!
Bai Yunfei!
His speed, to put it simply, was unbelievably fast. Hardly anyone could even see the blurry outline of his person as he zoomed in front of Stone and slammed his fist into the bear’s throat!
Like the dog, Bai Yunfei was practically a child in front of an adult, and his fist was especially tiny. The bear wouldn’t even feel an itch from the punch, but rather than see Bai Yunfei’s punch do nothing, everyone’s jaws dropped open when…
“Bang!!”
Bai Yunfei’s fist met enough resistance in the bear’s throat that the ground beneath his feet cratered under the force. Something akin to a gust of wind blew out from where the man and bear were before the latter suddenly…went flying into the air!
“Boom!!”
It crashed back down to the ground several meters away. Staggering as it tried to get back onto its feet, the bear had a glazed light in its eyes and had blood dripping freely from its jaw. It managed to give a low snarl, however, and stood up in preparation to utterly ‘devestate’ the ‘prey’ that had dared harm it.
“Whoosh…”
But a streak of dark-yellow light came at it before it could move and snapped at the bear’s throat to rip it open!
There was an odd tearing sound as blood and gore flew everywhere. A sizeable chunk of the bear’s throat had been torn out!
A large piece of the bear’s throat was missing now. Having noticed its sudden decline in health, the bear looked terrified. It opened its jaw to roar, but no sound came out. With its throat gone, there was no way it could.
A shaking paw rose up as it struggled to move, but the action proved to be far too laborious. The paw dropped back down to its side before the bear…collapsed dead on the ground!
It was dead!
Something was on top of the bear’s body with a chunk of the bear’s throat still in its jaws…it was Lao Sha!
At some point after Bai Yunfei knocked the bear away, the sickly-looking shar-pei dog took action and had an uncharacteristically dangerous light in its eyes!
It lasted only for a moment.
Now that the bear was dead, Lao Sha spat out the flesh and fur it had in its mouth and leaped down. Striding two meters away from the bear, it began to shake as if terrified and ran behind Bai Yunfei’s side for cover…
“……”
“……”
This time, not even Bai Yunfei could stop himself from staring at Lao Sha with a stunned expression…