Chinese Martial Arts: My Super Beast Clone

Time passed by, and the forest was quiet, with only the occasional chirping of birds and the rustling of leaves in the wind.

From night to dawn, and then to noon, the sun's angle gradually shifts.

Lin Hai remained motionless. Two squirrels climbed onto the branches above his head and nibbled on nuts they had found from somewhere, leaving him covered in shells and crumbs.

During this time, several rabbits, a group of wild boars, and some other wild animals and birds came to the pool to drink.

As the sun gradually set, the light in the woods dimmed. After dusk, the air temperature dropped, and a thin layer of white mist rose from the surface of the pool.

"Click."

A very faint, crisp sound—the sound of a dead branch snapping underfoot.

Lin Hai's gaze pierced through the gaps in the leaves, fixing on the edge of the bushes on the west side of the pool.

In the dim shadows of the woods, a faint, bluish-green light appeared. The light was not bright, like the color of tender buds in early spring. The jade-horned deer, with its slender body and a pair of small, jade-like antlers on its head, cautiously peeked out from the bushes.

The jade-horned deer did not immediately head towards the pool.

This mythical beast had lived in the wilderness for an unknown amount of time and possessed an extremely high level of alertness. It stood at the edge of the bushes, its two long ears constantly twitching, catching the slightest sounds around it.

Lin Hai sat on a thick branch seven or eight meters high, holding his breath. He dared not stare at the jade-horned deer for too long. On his way to this forest last time, he had heard the hunter Lao Qi say that both humans and wild animals are very sensitive to the gaze of others. If you stare too long, your killing intent or malice will be revealed through your gaze.

Lin Hai couldn't tell if those words were true or false, but he chose to believe them rather than risk it, so he only glanced down at the ground out of the corner of his eye.

The white-horned deer stood by the bushes for a good three or four minutes, and only after confirming that there were no predators around did it take its long, slender legs and slowly walk towards the pool.

When it reached the water's edge, it lowered its head and drank a few mouthfuls of water.

Just then, its nose twitched twice.

The fresh scent of aquatic plants was mixed with a strange sweetness.

The jade-horned deer turned its head following the scent, and on a relatively flat clearing about ten meters away, there were several bright red fruits scattered about.

Lin Hai broke the apples in half, exposing the flesh to the air, and the juice emitted a rich, sweet aroma.

The use of apples as bait originates from an ancient poem that Lin Hai heard in his previous life: "The deer cry 'yoyo,' as they eat the wild apples."

He pondered that since the ancients wrote it this way, deer probably preferred apples.

He didn't know that the "ping" in the poem referred to a type of wild grass, which had nothing to do with apples.

But every mistake has its advantages.

The jade-horned deer's nose twitched several times in that direction, its body stiffening visibly for a moment before relaxing. It tilted its head, seemingly hesitant.

The sweet aroma of fruit drifted over on the evening breeze, and for a precious beast that had been running around in the wild for many days and was extremely exhausted, this was quite an temptation.

The jade-horned deer hesitated for a moment. It looked around, its hooves trembling nervously on the soft mud, but in the end, it couldn't resist the temptation of the fruity aroma and took small steps toward it.

Three steps, two steps, one step.

The jade-horned deer stopped in front of a cut apple and sniffed it.

Its two lips curled up, and it rolled half an apple into its mouth, chewing it quickly.

Juice spilled everywhere, and the jade-horned deer seemed to find the taste excellent, which lowered its guard a little as it lowered its head to pick up a second piece.

Its forelegs took a small half-step forward, landing precisely on a thin layer of fallen leaves.

"Smack."

A slight clicking sound of a mechanism.

The mechanism popped open, pulling a coarse hemp net soaked in tung oil that was buried under the surrounding soft mud.

The two small trees on either side, which had been stretched taut like bows by the thick hemp rope, suddenly came loose.

With a "whoosh".

The tree trunk rebounded with tremendous force, lifting the coarse hemp netting off the ground.

Startled, the jade-horned deer strained with all four hooves to leap away. But no matter how fast it was, it couldn't outrun the rapidly rising net.

The hemp net, soaked in tung oil, was incredibly tough. It instantly covered the jade-horned deer completely and, using the rebound force of the tree trunk, pulled it off the ground.

After a violent shaking, the jade-horned deer was suspended upside down more than two meters above the ground by the tightly tightened net. It struggled desperately, kicking and pulling at the net ropes with its hooves, letting out desperate cries, but the more it struggled, the tighter the net became, and it had no way to escape.

It became.

Lin Hai breathed a sigh of relief.

He slid quickly down the tree trunk and looked up at the jade-horned deer flapping in mid-air. He was about to go forward and cut the hemp rope tied to the tree trunk to lower the jade-horned deer down.

Just as he took his first step forward, the dragon lizard that had been on guard nearby gave him a warning.

Lin Hai stopped abruptly, and the hairs on the back of his head stood on end in an instant.

silence.

The chirping of insects around us had completely disappeared at some point, and even the wind seemed to have stopped flowing.

There seemed to be a pungent, fishy smell in the air, the unique odor of wild beasts that eat meat and drink blood year-round.

Lin Hai slowly turned around.

A massive silhouette emerged from behind a tree that would take three people to encircle, just thirty meters away from him.

The yellow and black stripes, in the early nightfall of the forest, resemble an ancient totem.

That adult male tiger had somehow gotten so close.

He was over ten feet tall, with limbs as thick as pillars. As he walked, the thick muscles on his shoulders and back rippled with each step, containing terrifying explosive power. At this moment, he was staring intently at Lin Hai with his amber vertical pupils.

Thirty meters is just a breath away, a single pounce, for a beast of this size.

Lin Hai's palms were slightly sweaty.

This male tiger definitely weighs over 500 pounds, and with its full power, it could crush the skull of even a wild boar on the spot.

Lin Hai slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out the newly bought brass knuckles.

Brass knuckle dusters are forged from fine iron and are quite heavy. The protruding part at the front is polished into the shape of a tiger's head, and the two protruding "tiger teeth" are extremely sharp.

Lin Hai slipped the metal knuckles onto his right hand, clenching his fist. The metal against his knuckles gave him a reassuring feeling.

Then, he used his left hand to untie the cloth bag on his back, took out a round ball tightly bound with coarse cloth, and held it steadily in his palm.

This is a packet of lime powder.

Holding the two items in his hands, Lin Hai felt more confident.

He stood there with his feet slightly apart, adopting a stance resembling a tiger-taming stance.

A man and a tiger stood silently facing each other across an open space more than twenty meters apart.

The jade-horned deer in mid-air was still wriggling restlessly in the net, but this tiny sound was completely blocked by the forest and the male tiger.

The male tiger did not launch an attack rashly.

It is the apex predator in this forest, with a wealth of experience. It lowers its massive head, its forequarters slightly hunched, and its thick tail sweeps slowly behind it like a steel whip, striking the bushes with a dull thud.