Infinite Hunter

"Maybe it'll attract a bear," the hunter muttered. The bear didn't see it, but the dog did. It was still light out, and Cheng Yijiu saw the wild dogs running up. "One, two, three... There are three dogs." But with the sound of barking from below, the three dogs ran away one after another. By then, Cheng Yijiu's lunch box had been fully heated, and the broth inside had begun to boil, completely soaking the dry rice and vegetables.

The water boiled, and Cheng Yijiu threw in the soup cubes, which quickly melted. He took the lunch box away from the flame, and casually opened and fixed the foldable fork and spoon, and began to eat. The rifle was beside him, and he was ready to fire at any time if a bear appeared. In the end, the bear did not come, but a puppy appeared. "Isn't this Dazuo's puppy? How did it become a stray dog ​​in the mountains?" The puppy was very friendly and ran to his side on its own initiative.

Cheng Yijiu took out an energy bar—the kind without chocolate—and gave it to the dog. It was best not to feed the dog his meals; they were bad for the dog's health. The little dog was quite useful, at least a good pointer, especially at night, so Cheng Yijiu could really sleep peacefully. Because there was a fire and the wind was blocked, they didn't need a blanket to sleep. Cheng Yijiu wrapped his back in reflective aluminum foil and fell asleep with his rifle in hand.

Around midnight, the puppy nudged Cheng Yijiu, jolting him awake. He gripped his gun. The flames of the fire dimmed, and he carefully turned his head to look around. He saw nothing, then glanced diagonally above and behind him. He saw something like a stone moving in the moonlight. The next moment, the puppy suddenly rushed out, barking directly at the object.

"Smart little fellow," Cheng Yijiu exclaimed, turning quickly and kneeling with his rifle in hand, aiming. The rock suddenly grew taller, the moonlight shining through its back, making the front completely dark and indistinct. Regardless of whether one could see it clearly or not, the movement and appearance clearly showed that it was a bear. It wasn't the crippled one-armed bear, but it was no smaller. Cheng Yijiu took aim and fired without hesitation.

The distance was about fifteen meters. If it had been closer, the bear might have succeeded, but unfortunately, the dog spotted it. Thus, its death came. At this distance, Cheng Yijiu had ample time to take aim, aiming for the bear's heart. After firing the first shot, he quickly pulled the bolt and reloaded the gun. Before the bear fell, he moved the muzzle slightly and fired another shot into the chest and abdomen.

Compared to hitting the head, hitting the chest or stomach has a higher chance of hitting the target, and the damage is no less severe. The bear staggered, then fell heavily to the ground, rolling down the slope until it stopped moving about ten meters below Cheng Yijiu's fire. Cheng Yijiu fetched a flashlight and shone it on the bear—unfortunately, it was white light, bright but with a low color rendering index. Fortunately, Cheng Yijiu could still distinguish the differences in the bear's fur color.

"Is this a red-haired bear? It looks like a brown bear." Cheng Yijiu didn't approach. Instead, he pulled a burning stick from a distance and threw it at the bear's snout. The bear didn't move, letting the flames lick its nose. "It's dead." Cheng Yijiu was about to go over to deal with it, but at this moment, the puppy barked wildly, and a gust of evil wind was behind Cheng Yijiu.

Without a second thought, he dove forward, sprawling and rapidly rolling. The ground shook slightly, the effect of a powerful blow—a fraction of a second, Cheng Yijiu's back would have been completely ripped open. As he rolled, Cheng Yijiu also flipped upwards, hastily firing a single shot directly at the approaching shadow, leaving no room or time to draw the bolt. He continued rolling, simultaneously drawing his Rambo knife.

"How cunning!" the hunter cursed. He had never imagined there would be two bears, one in front and one behind, with the one in front acting almost as bait, shielding the second one following the same route. The firelight flickered, the moonlight shone brightly, and between the light and darkness, Cheng Yijiu could clearly see that this was the one-armed bear. To be able to climb to the top of the mountain and then sneak attack from below, this bear had really worked very hard.

Now the one-armed bear was also rapidly approaching, half-standing up and swinging its one arm, using its own body weight to "chop" down, with great power. Cheng Yijiu managed to dodge and finally avoided another blow. The puppy rushed over and bit the one-armed bear's hind legs - unfortunately, it was still young and its teeth really couldn't bite through the thick bear hide. Cheng Yijiu put his hands on the ground - he didn't dare to roll anymore, because he could fall at any time, and if he fell, he would get hurt and it would be over.

He immediately half-crouched, and at this time the bear's breath could be sprayed on his face. As expected, the bear hugged him and opened its mouth wide to bite him. Cheng Yijiu didn't think twice. He was also a good knife user. Rambo knife is a short knife, so there are short knife close-range fighting methods. Cheng Yijiu rushed towards the direction of the bear's broken arm, and at the same time, the handle of the knife turned into a backhand knife, and the blade was forward, directly across the bear's cheek.

He collided heavily with the bear's half-body, but fortunately, he bent down to keep his center of gravity low, and with his legs spread, he managed to stand steady. The knife sliced ​​open half of the bear's mouth, leaving it with a clown-like appearance. Turning back to face the bear, Cheng Yijiu shifted his fingers, holding the knife in his forehand position, and launched the attack. He shielded with his left hand, struck with his right. The bear was only a beast, and might not be able to see through the feints of a human in a fight—especially since it couldn't discern the threat of a weapon.

So Cheng Yijiu waved his left hand, and the bear also moved, and Cheng Yijiu quickly approached and stabbed with his right hand...

Chapter 19 Fighting

A one-armed bear is actually at a disadvantage in a fight, as it can't attack and defend at the same time. Bears aren't human after all, so they can easily be tricked into reacting instinctively, as is happening right now. Cheng Yijiu approached the inner circle and stabbed. The bear's reaction was not slow either, and upon seeing the enemy enter the inner circle, it instinctively opened its mouth to bite.

Half of the bear's face was soaked in blood. The wound from Cheng Yijiu's knife that had cut open half of its face was not too serious, but the bleeding looked terrible. This was also a killer bear. When it killed seven people in one breath, it was already a crippled bear. So when it saw Cheng Yijiu rushing towards it, it naturally opened its mouth wide and bit him fiercely.

Cheng Yijiu thrust his knife, but due to the bear's large mouth, he changed direction and the knife sliced ​​across the bear's nose. He withdrew before the stab was complete - if he had waited, he would have had no chance of escape. He then rolled away from the broken arm of the bear - the good thing about the one-armed bear is that as long as he remained calm, he could always dodge in time.

Cheng Yijiu had already discarded his rifle, and in this close quarters fight, there was no chance of retrieving it and cocking it. Killing the bear with a hunting knife seemed difficult, but there was a chance—after all, bears couldn't walk upright like humans, and their arms weren't as flexible. So, Cheng Yijiu sprang forward, bypassed the one-armed bear, and struck it directly on the back.

"What thick fur and fat!" Cheng Yijiu exclaimed. His physical strength was still sufficient. He deliberately relaxed the tension in his arms and legs and steadied his breathing. The puppy circled the bear with full energy, barking and occasionally biting its paws—but it was so small that the bear didn't even want to pay attention to it.

"It can't even break the skin, so why bother with the puppy?" Cheng Yijiu shared the same view. The bear was bleeding from its nose and cheeks, and the blood from its nose was making it difficult to breathe. Facing this human, the one-armed bear was also assessing its chances of victory—beasts couldn't think that far, only judging by the momentum.

Cheng Yijiu repeated his usual left-hand feints. This time, he used his left-hand knife to slash the bear's paw from the palm to the elbow. The bear's fur and fat couldn't stop the Rambo knife's blade. This was Cheng Yijiu. If it were anyone else, the knife would have been shattered and the bear would have knocked them down.

The one-armed bear retreated, then ran away in a trail of blood, the kind that rolled all the way down. The bear's injuries were not light this time—not to mention the half-opened face and the cut nose, but also the long and deep wound on the one-armed palm—it was hard to say whether it would become infected or even cause the bear's death.

But Cheng Yijiu had definitely survived. His tarpaulin and aluminum foil were torn, his clothes were torn in several places, and the cutlery he had brought with him had been crushed by the bear. Staying in the mountains wasn't an option. He retrieved his rifle, checked it for damage, loaded it, and waited for daybreak.

As for the bear? Leave it to the wild dogs.

After daybreak, Cheng Yijiu sighed. This time, he had given up halfway. It was a pity that he couldn't carry a short-range gun in Japan, even with the certificate issued by the headquarters. Otherwise, the one-armed bear would definitely not survive. Fortunately, it was the same now. The bear's front paw was seriously injured last night, and following the blood trail would definitely find it.

Cheng Yijiu was also determined to kill all those red-armored "guardian generals" first. Cheng Yijiu held up his rifle and began to track the blood trail. It was actually best to use polarized light to find blood trails. Fortunately, Cheng Yijiu's eyesight was very good now, so he was still able to keep up.

The bear's forelimbs were severely injured, likely due to the profuse bleeding and its inability to exert force on the ground. Therefore, the bear moved bipedally, which made it slower. Just because a bear can stand upright doesn't mean it can walk quickly. Cheng Yijiu determined the direction of the one-armed bear's movement by observing the shape of the dripping blood. Heavy footprints are also easier to identify.

Besides, Cheng Yijiu suspected that the wild dogs in the mountains would not give up this opportunity. If they besieged the one-armed bear at this time, there was a high possibility that it would be killed.

In the end, Cheng Yijiu lost track of the bear. It seemed that the bear was walking non-stop and moving in the stream at the foot of the mountain. Perhaps because the bleeding had finally stopped, Cheng Yijiu could no longer see any bloodstains or footprints.

The one-armed bear's footprints were gone, but there were many footprints of other bears, wild boars, and wild dogs, which might have covered up the original one-armed bear's footprints. Cheng Yijiu was followed by a puppy. "I want to go back." Cheng Yijiu touched the puppy's head, only to see the puppy wagging its tail. Soon, it ran away into the mountains. He could even vaguely see the shadows of other dogs in the distance.

Cheng Yijiu's journey was brief, but he could tell Dazuo that his puppy had become a semi-feral dog. However, he probably couldn't sneak up the mountain anymore. Go home and recuperate, then come back! Hunters from other counties hadn't had much luck, but Cheng Yijiu had at least shot and killed a killer bear. It was at his hands that Piebald died.

The next time he went into the mountains, Cheng Yijiu decided to go directly to Futagotoge. Now it seemed that if what Tian Wulang said was true, then Chijia would most likely be in that mountain - after all, the old man believed that was the castle tower chosen by Chijia. "A mere bear, do you think it's a daimyo?"

When we went into the mountains again, this time there were two villagers following us. They were determined to go no matter what - the bears had caused great harm to the village over the past year. These two were unlucky guys who owed loans - they borrowed money to expand their homestay, but as a result, the mountains were closed due to the bears, and the trip was completely ruined.

Cheng Yijiu believed that the weapons in their hands were only for show. To be truly lethal, they had to be within 30 meters—and that was against a black bear. For a large brown bear or a hybrid bear, it would have to be at least 20 meters. This was too dangerous, so bear hunting had always been done in groups.

Cheng Yijiu went into the mountains alone several times and hunted several big bears. This made the local villagers regard him as a good hunter like Tian Wulang, so it would be a good idea to follow him - this gentleman was much gentler than Tian Wulang's bad temper, and he also knew that cooperation did not mean Tian Wulang's constant scolding.

"I think it will be quite dangerous if we go directly there this time." Cheng Yijiu pointed and said, "Maybe we will have to stay there for two or three days."

Chapter 20 Melee

The two looked a little strange, and when they were a third of the way there, they slipped away for various reasons. Cheng Yijiu didn't mind, since he had already prepared to kill the bear alone. "But the Japanese today are not the same as they were back then. Back then, if I gave them five yen and a rice ball, they would risk their lives to follow me up the mountain to hunt bears - by the way, what was that guy's name? I've forgotten his name."

Back then, the Japanese really didn't care about their lives. As long as they could eat rice, they would do anything. Now, apart from the fact that their lives are probably worth a bit more, their love for white rice remains unchanged. Cheng Yijiu has never seen a nation that loves rice more than the Japanese.

Thinking about this, Cheng Yijiu continued to move towards his goal. He didn't see any bears along the way, but he did see a lot of wild dogs and even an exaggeratedly large wild boar hoof print. "In a mountainous area where particularly large killer bears roam, there are actually wild boars that are comparable in size to the Ussuri wild boar? This is quite a strange thing."

Cheng Yijiu kept observing his surroundings. He felt as if some eyes were fixed on him, but he couldn't find the owners of those eyes. "Is it hidden too well..." Cheng Yijiu knew that human vision was one of the best among animals, especially when it came to distinguishing camouflage.

Humans are not fooled by the camouflage of most animals. Of course, it depends on the location. In a dense forest, a tiger's camouflage is really hard to see through, but the "camouflage" of a brown bear is actually visible. It's a pity that Cheng Yijiu didn't spot the brown bears. Perhaps they were hiding very well.

The wheezing sound was quite loud, accompanied by a sound like a trumpet. Cheng Yijiu just watched as a wild boar suddenly appeared. This guy was probably half a man tall and weighed more than 300 kilograms. Among the Ussuri wild boars, it was considered a big one. Cheng Yijiu didn't pull out his weapon and just shot it.

Because the wild boar didn't seem to have any intention of attacking, it looked at Cheng Yijiu with its small eyes, then snorted and ran to the other side, followed by several smaller wild boars and even smaller piglets. Cheng Yijiu had no intention of shooting either. He had already plundered a lot of wild boars, and the first trophy was a young wild boar's head.

"This wild boar really doesn't take me seriously, does it? I'm probably the most prolific hunter of man-eating beasts alive." Cheng Yijiu complained, waiting for the wild boars to run away before cautiously moving forward. This time, he wouldn't climb to the top of the mountain, but would instead follow the valley between the two mountains, and then begin his ascent at the foot of his target mountain.

Cheng Yijiu hadn't walked far with his rifle when he heard roaring and banging sounds coming from the woods. He thought the sounds were not far away, so he raised his rifle and prepared to go over and take a look. It was a big fight—a big fight between wild boars, bears, and wild dogs.

There were three parties participating in the battle - the wild boars were led by a big wild boar weighing more than 300 kilograms, and there were six wild boars that could go into battle, not counting the small wild boars; the wild dogs were all hunting dogs, and there were nine of them in total who were all adults; there was only one bear, but it was the largest one in the field. Cheng Yijiu estimated that it was close to 400 kilograms, and it was undoubtedly a brown bear.

The fight was chaotic, with all three sides engaged in a chaotic brawl, each attacking anyone who came within sight. Cheng Yijiu watched with fascination, but even so, he still had to be careful to see if a bear would suddenly appear nearby—so he simply climbed up a tree.

It was over ten meters above the ground. Even if a brown bear tried to attack him, it would have to climb up this not-so-thick tree for a while, and Cheng Yijiu would definitely feel it by then. Watching wild beasts fight was really interesting. In this three-way fight, dogs suffered the most because they were the lightest.

Although they are all good hunting dogs, the heaviest of these dogs only weighs about thirty or forty kilograms. In terms of teeth and strength, they are no match for the brown bear. If they were to deal with this brown bear alone, they might be able to slowly kill the bear by relying on calm blood-sucking tactics. However, now that a group of wild boars have joined, that is no longer possible.

Next came the bear. It had been trying to escape for a long time, but it couldn't. Although it was the largest of the group, it was alone and had to be very good at defending itself. Dogs attacked it from all sides, front and back, and wild boars occasionally attacked it. The bear gained nothing, but it did suffer several bite wounds.

The wild boars were in the best condition on the field. They had the freedom to withdraw from the fight, but they were probably too excited to do so. The big boars had thick skin and flesh, and although they had a few bleeding wounds from the bear's claws, this only aroused their ferocity. As for the hounds? Their teeth were powerless against their grease-covered fur.

Cheng Yijiu observed the battle. If the dogs suffered casualties, collapse was imminent. "If there were a dozen dogs, it would be easy, but nine wouldn't be enough." Sure enough, one dog mismanaged while adjusting its attack, falling into the bear's attack range and unable to withdraw in time. The bear slapped it to death instantly.

The dog then began a frantic escape, resulting in one fatality and several injuries. The wild boar engaged in a fight with a brown bear, employing repeated attacks rather than engaging in close combat. If a brown bear were to break its spine from its superior position, it would be eaten alive. Brown bears have a terrible habit of eating their prey alive, unlike solitary tigers, which kill their prey quickly before consuming it.

"I've been watching for so long, and it's brought me a lot of fun. Now it's time for me to give back." Cheng Yijiu sat on the branch and raised the rifle in his hand. The bear had reddish-brown hair from the top of its head, shoulders and back to its tail. It was undoubtedly the species of the red-armored bear.

The other bears might be spared, but the Red Armor bloodline must be killed. This was the requirement of local officials. Cheng Yijiu took his time, aiming the bear in the crosshairs through the white-light scope, and then he fired. After the first shot hit, Cheng Yijiu calmly cocked the bolt, waited a moment, and then fired the second shot.

The wild boar was frightened and turned and ran with the herd, while the brown bear fell to the ground. Cheng Yijiu carefully observed his surroundings for a while - he wanted to make sure if a bear would suddenly appear when he descended the tree. Then Cheng Yijiu used a rope and a noose to rappel directly.

Chapter 21: Shocking

Cheng Yijiu descended from the tree. His caution proved effective; no other bear emerged. This was his last time in the mountains—summer was approaching, and by then the trees and shrubs in the mountains would be densely covered with leaves. Hunting bears in the mountains would be too dangerous. He would have to wait until the leaves fell in autumn. He walked to the spot, rifle in hand, and casually kicked the bear in the head. The bear fell on its back, its tongue drooping from one side to the ground.

Cheng Yijiu didn't need to examine it carefully. Two bullets were fired in quick succession, one hitting the bear's left chest and the other between the chest and abdomen. Regardless, its internal organs were definitely damaged, and heavy bleeding would have been fatal. "A brown bear again? Are the crescent bears in this area being hunted down by brown bears?" Cheng Yijiu pondered. That's right, animals in the same ecological niche have a crowding-out effect. Brown bears will crowd out the black bears' ecology and even actively prey on them.

There was no way that the Japanese black bear could be a match for the brown bear. Cheng Yijiu suddenly remembered that he had never seen a pure-blooded black bear since he entered the mountains.

This bear's skin certainly wasn't going to be skinned. It was an average-sized bear, just over two meters tall and weighing over three hundred kilograms, not worth collecting. Cheng Yijiu ignored the bear and simply turned and walked away. He still needed to go a little further before resting. His personal preference was to rest in a tree. Even though bears can climb trees, resting in a tree is still safer. It was a shame that setting up a hunting platform by himself was difficult. Otherwise, building one high up like the Americans would have been the most appropriate way to hunt bears.

Cheng Yijiu chose two tall trees in the valley. He felled a dead tree and chopped it into pieces with his axe. This time, Cheng Yijiu brought a hand axe with him into the mountains, as well as plenty of long nails. The man climbed up the tree. About ten meters above the ground, there were some very thick branches. Cheng Yijiu stomped on them to test if they could bear the weight, then he directly lifted up the wooden planks that had been tied with ropes.

Fortunately, he went into the mountains alone, otherwise others would have been frightened. This bundle of wood must have weighed over 200 pounds, yet he lifted it up with his arms alternately, without even taking a breath. Then, with a crackling of nails, a crude platform was built. "With upper and lower triangular supports, horizontal binding and nailing, and diagonal reinforcements, it should be enough for a few days of temporary use." Cheng Yijiu was optimistic. The platform was built on branches, and there were two more branches slightly offset directly below.

So even if something happened, he wouldn't fall straight down; there would be a chance to cushion the impact. Cheng Yijiu sat on the platform—it wasn't that cold at night, so he only needed to use waterproof cloth to make a roof and "walls." As for the bear climbing up? If it could really do that, the bear would probably weigh about the same as Cheng Yijiu...

Cheng Yijiu lit his pipe, and curls of smoke drifted up, a unique aroma spreading throughout the air. He was enjoying this leisurely moment. He had a telescope in hand, and whenever he noticed anything unusual, he would raise it to take a closer look. He had built this platform at three in the afternoon, and by five, he had already seen at least four deer and two wild boars. As expected, the animals didn't notice Cheng Yijiu, and they were in their most natural state.

"So, a hunting platform is necessary." Cheng Yijiu sighed as he leaned against a tree trunk separated by a waterproof sheet. It had been a while since he'd felt this kind of wait-and-see feeling. He placed his bag against his waist for comfort. It gradually darkened, but it didn't affect his vision much—he had acquired night vision a long time ago. Moonlight and starlight made no difference to him, just like daylight. At most, the colors turned almost black and white.

"A bear is on the loose..." Cheng Yijiu laughed, for he had finally spotted a bear at nightfall. The bear was only about sixty meters away, and it was his old nemesis—the one-armed bear. It looked significantly thinner than last time, its wounds probably only just healing. This time, Cheng Yijiu wouldn't give it a chance—his rifle's scope locked onto the one-armed bear.

"This is a precious prey, so we must aim carefully and try to kill it with minimal wounds." Cheng Yijiu exhaled and carefully chose his shooting point. He chose to shoot the heart from the side. Cheng Yijiu held his breath and decisively pulled the trigger after two seconds. The gunshot traveled far in the night, and there was also a commotion in the woods. Cheng Yijiu paid no attention to anything else. He just watched the one-armed bear through the scope.

The one-armed bear fell neatly to its side, its three legs still moving, and its head occasionally trying to raise and roar, but it couldn't stand up. Previously, perhaps the bear could have stood up and fought, but now it was too weak to stand. Cheng Yijiu didn't think of firing again. He was already observing other places. According to hunters from other places, the red-armored bear had taken in at least eight bears with criminal records in its territory.

Cheng Yijiu had already killed at least two of them, maybe three or four. The rest was just a matter of waiting for the red-armored bear to appear before him. Cheng Yijiu had hung a few bells on the tree. If any fearless bears tried to climb the tree, Cheng Yijiu wouldn't mind putting a bullet in their heads. The night passed without much incident. Cheng Yijiu woke up to the sun's rays.

He carefully surveyed his surroundings—the spot he'd chosen was at the bottom of the valley, with a stream flowing nearby and relatively open space. Cheng Yijiu continued his rapid descent, then headed towards the direction where the one-armed bear had fallen. He used binoculars to observe the bear's posture, revealing it hadn't changed, and it didn't appear to have been eaten. Brown bears are no exception to the cannibalistic nature of their own species. Just as Cheng Yijiu was about to leave, he suddenly frowned.

"Something's wrong? What's wrong?" He turned and went back to the tree. This time, he saw rather large footprints—those of a brown bear. The bear had circled the tree at least three or four times, and it was hard to say how long it had been there. However, it had not attempted to climb up the tree to attack Cheng Yijiu, and surprisingly, it had not woken Cheng Yijiu up. It had left before dawn, when Cheng Yijiu woke up.

Cheng Yijiu squatted in front of the footprints. "It's really huge." This footprint was larger than any bear he had shot here before, completely commensurate with Chijia's size, which was probably three meters and four meters tall. Cheng Yijiu raised his head and looked at the target mountain not far away. From this angle, only one of the Twin Peaks could be seen...

Chapter 22 Phantom

"Things are a bit troublesome," Cheng Yijiu muttered. This bear had once wandered under the tree where he was, and Cheng Yijiu was completely unaware of it. So you can imagine how dangerous this bear is. If you follow the footprints, this bear is very cunning and is obviously circling. Cheng Yijiu decided to ignore it and deal with the one-armed bear first.

Cheng Yijiu carefully approached the dead bear—the one-armed bear was indeed dead, and it was emitting a strong stench. It wasn't that it had started to rot overnight, but the wounds Cheng Yijiu had inflicted on the bear were festering. The wound on the one-armed bear had just healed, but the pus was still there, caked in the fur and emitting a foul odor. "We don't want the one-armed bear's skin, but we have to take a picture first."

Cheng Yijiu held a camera—Japan was quite good at making these consumer products. He had a relatively compact point-and-shoot camera that used film. He quickly snapped a few pictures and put the camera away. Next, he planned to chop off the one-armed bear's head and take it away. There shouldn't be any other bears around. At least the place where the one-armed bear fell was relatively open, with not too many leaves or bushes.

In a few days, the vegetation here would be growing profusely, and entering the mountains in summer would be dangerous. But for now, Cheng Yijiu could at least guarantee that no bears were within a dangerous distance. He pulled out his large Rambo knife and used the reverse edge of the blade to slice through the hide of the bear's neck. The knife then quickly sliced ​​through the muscle, severing the tendons. He inserted the tip of the knife between the cervical vertebrae, prying left and right, and then cutting downwards.

Cheng Yijiu had separated the cervical vertebrae, and now it was just a matter of severing the neck, including the trachea and esophagus. The one-armed bear was also a brown bear; at least Cheng Yijiu didn't see any signs of hybridity. After cutting off the bear's head, he wrapped it in vines and hung it on a branch below the simple hunting platform he had built. Cheng Yijiu continued to climb, reaching the top of a hill around noon. Across the saddle-shaped ridge was another hilltop, but he didn't see any bears there.

"Lucky luck finally," Cheng Yijiu smiled, as he saw feces—bear feces. "It's an animal after all," Cheng Yijiu thought. However, waiting on the mountain for the bear to appear wasn't a good idea—a hunter should never put themselves in extreme danger. Waiting on the mountaintop could lead to a close encounter. Cheng Yijiu didn't want to engage in hand-to-hand combat with a three-meter-tall brown bear using a Rambo knife.

He confirmed that this was indeed the bear's core area, so he decided to go down the mountain and follow the tracks. A closer look revealed traces of a massive bear everywhere. Even if that Red Armored Bear—let's assume it was Red Armored Bear, even if it was cunning, it couldn't eliminate its instincts. It would undoubtedly leave behind numerous claw marks and other traces. Cheng Yijiu went straight down the mountain. This bear was quite cunning; it might not even come up the mountain.

The hunter returned to the valley and spotted wild dogs stalking the bushes, gradually approaching Erzi Pass, a place they had never been seen before. It seemed Cheng Yijiu, after killing several large bears, had torn a hole in "Bear City," allowing the wild dogs to enter. These dogs and bears were like mortal enemies, and every encounter was bound to result in a deadly fight.

Cheng Yijiu removed the bear's head and dropped it onto a rock. "Hopefully the dogs won't drag it away." He climbed up to the hunting platform again—this time, he planned to stay up all night to see if the big bear would come back. Through the telescope, a pack of dogs appeared, sharing the headless, one-armed bear. Apart from this, nothing else happened for most of the afternoon.

There were no bears, not even one. Cheng Yijiu, sitting on the platform, seemed to have become part of the tree trunk. It was late at night, and the moonlight wasn't very bright. Strange shadows seemed to be swaying in the valley. Cheng Yijiu seemed half asleep, half asleep, and fell into a strange drowsiness. Suddenly, Cheng Yijiu's eyebrows twitched, and he woke up in a strange way.

Something approached silently, like a huge shadow sliding across the clearing in the moonlight. Cheng Yijiu quietly pointed his rifle at an angle. He had no interest in seeing what it was. What else could such a large shadow be except a bear? Wild boars were not so quiet.

Cheng Yijiu roughly aimed and pulled the trigger, ejecting the shell, pushing the bolt to chamber it, and then firing again. The huge shadow suddenly paused, then roared and retreated at an extremely fast speed, disappearing into the woods before Cheng Yijiu fired a third shot. "Did it hit?" Cheng Yijiu was unusually unsure; his senses told him that the bullet didn't seem to "bite" anything.

It was not a good idea to get down from the tree at night, so Cheng Yijiu held the rifle and waited until dawn.

He finally fell asleep, having been awakened by the sound of dogs barking. There were several large dogs under the tree, all of them looking quite valuable hunting dogs—but the fact that there were Boxers and Tosa Inus among them made Cheng Yijiu a little puzzled. Who would take such dogs into the mountains to hunt? The dogs circled the tree a few times and then ran away. Cheng Yijiu waited a while before getting down from the tree. The ground was covered with dog footprints, so Cheng Yijiu couldn't clearly see the traces left by the bear at night.

The head had fortunately escaped being dragged away, while the one-armed bear's carcass had been completely devoured by the dogs. The head was now rotting, the first maggots already hatching. Cheng Yijiu, somewhat disgusted, fashioned a plank out of wood to carry it along. He figured his chances might be numbered, and it was time to descend the mountain—a feeling he'd share. He had a feeling the Red Armored Bear wouldn't appear before him again during this hunt.

"Maybe we have to wait until autumn to win!" Cheng Yijiu muttered. The mission has not failed yet, and he still has time.

He killed the brown bear and the killer bear, One-Armed, which earned him a small bounty. When he returned to the village, he learned that hunters from other directions had also failed—they had successfully hunted several bears, but most were crescent bears, not the ferocious brown bears. A hunter from Iwate Prefecture had encountered Red Armor, but unfortunately, he failed to kill the bear, allowing it to escape peacefully—the day before Cheng Yijiu's night.

At that time, the straight-line distance between Cheng Yijiu and the group of hunters was only about 20 kilometers. Cheng Yijiu sighed, but also felt quite lucky, otherwise his mission would have failed. At the same time, he was also certain that this was really just a bear.

Chapter 23: Attack

Cheng Yijiu removed the fur from the bear's head, trimmed the outer muscles, and then dumped the head into a bucket outside the village—he intended to let the scavenging beetles and flies devour all the organic matter. The one-armed bear was also very large, a sizable brown bear—it seemed that in this area, the red-armored brown bear was truly encroaching on the pureblooded crescent-tooth bear's territory.

Black bears native to Japan are too small. Most are about the size of larger dogs, with the majority of males weighing around 100 kilograms. Meanwhile, the brown bears and hybrid bears of Oshu, led by Akiko, average over 250 kilograms. The killer bears shot by Cheng Yijiu weighed no less than 400 kilograms, prompting Cheng Yijiu to nearly write a paper suggesting they might be a new subspecies of brown bear.

Entering the mountains has stopped, and no hunters are coming in from either direction. It's summer now, and the mountains are high and forested, making it too dangerous to enter. Hunting bears is best done in spring and autumn, though winter is also possible—you can try to rob dens in winter, but brown bears that don't hibernate are extremely dangerous. Red Armor is an example, and it seems the male bears congregating in this area are also showing signs of not hibernating.

Cheng Yijiu didn't stay here the entire summer. He made several trips to Tokyo. Japan was experiencing a period of intense prosperity at that time, a kind of extravagant and decadent lifestyle unlike anything he'd seen in the past. Cheng Yijiu simply went to admire the situation; he didn't personally get involved. He didn't have many desires for this mission, and he certainly hadn't considered having any romantic affairs during this time. He couldn't afford it...

Young Japanese women these days are truly money-conscious. Cheng Yijiu had a lot of money, but he'd counted it all. Even with the golden signboard of the US military headquarters behind him, he still had to spend a lot. The cost of finding a girl would be enough to drive him into chronic bankruptcy. So after Cheng Yijiu took a look at the peep show, he returned to the village. Fortunately, summer in the mountains was short.

He'd seen a news report about a gathering of wild dogs, a completely counterintuitive gathering—"Hundreds of wild dogs swarm across the Guanmen Strait?" Cheng Yijiu read the headline. "Perhaps a precursor to a major earthquake?" This reminded him of the massive gatherings of Tibetan mastiffs in Tibet and Qinghai after the collapse of the Tibetan mastiff myth. These dogs were a mixed breed, and in Cheng Yijiu's opinion, they couldn't be considered a stable lineage, causing considerable damage.

Wild animals, including wolves, don't naturally gather in herds of hundreds or thousands—this would cause enormous ecological stress, leading to a collapse in the food chain and starvation of all predators. The only animals that naturally gather in herds of tens of thousands are insects, lemmings in certain situations, and, most commonly, humans. And if dogs gather in packs of hundreds of individuals? That might work for a while, but within a week, they'll starve to death or attack and devour each other.

The leaves had already fallen, and Cheng Yijiu decided to head into the mountains. He had a feeling—the moment the dogs gathered would be the decisive moment for his mission. He packed all his ammunition—his own homemade ammunition—and his gear. He wouldn't leave the mountain until he had killed his target. As he made his way up the mountain, Cheng Yijiu heard a lot of noise—and near Guishou Mountain, he saw the cause.

There were more than a thousand wild dogs, and there were nearly two thousand, and probably more than two thousand, wild dogs gathered on the plain at the foot of Guishou Mountain - "It's exaggerated! At least half of them will die in a week if this goes on!" Cheng Yijiu muttered, and then he even saw the dog king, "If I'm not mistaken, isn't that the bear hunting dog from Tian Wulang's family?" Along with the barking of dogs, the group of wild dogs quickly dispersed into groups and began to run towards Erzi Pass in all directions.

Cheng Yijiu already felt that this situation was like a dream. The dogs in this place were very smart, but to be this smart was too exaggerated - the same was true for the bears.

Cheng Yijiu didn't immediately climb the mountain. Instead, he climbed to the top of Guishou Mountain and used a telescope to observe the two opposite peaks. "I've never seen anything like this before! The density of bears is so high! Are they fighting?" Cheng Yijiu was truly astonished. The telescope showed at least twenty bears, and these bears were gathered in the opposite mountain. The wild dogs were in groups at the foot of the mountain, and it seemed that they were also prepared for a continuous attack.

Cheng Yijiu hurried down the mountain. Later in the evening, he climbed up to the platform he had originally built. After a summer, it was covered with moss, and the nails were rusted and loose, and the boards showed signs of decay, so Cheng Yijiu replaced them all with new ones. After that, he ate and drank his fill, climbed up, and had a good sleep. He was ready to take the risk and set off at night to start shooting the bears.

"I need to have a sense of rhythm. It's best to kill one bear with one bullet. Otherwise, I might not even have a chance to change bullets," Cheng Yijiu said to himself. It looked like the dogs hadn't started their attack yet, and they would probably have to wait until daybreak. Cheng Yijiu was ready to take the initiative. While hiking, Cheng Yijiu was spotted by the great writer's dog. "Oh, it's the great writer's dog. He's grown a lot and looks mature." Cheng Yijiu didn't touch the dog's head.

The dog ran up to him and barked softly, as if talking to him. Cheng Yijiu looked at the dog and smiled, then patted the gun in his hand. "I'm about to start. How about you be my pointer dog?"

There was no response. When Cheng Yijiu started to climb up, the puppy bit his windbreaker and tried to stop him, "Is it dangerous? I'm here to hunt these bears." This time, Cheng Yijiu squatted down and touched the dog's head, then continued forward, "Besides, even if you pulled me, wouldn't the bear appear on its own?" The shadows moving in the moonlight in front of him were undoubtedly bears, and there were four of them.

"At this size... the local crescent bears are truly pitiful," Cheng Yijiu muttered. He knelt, his rifle in hand, and fired at the nearest bear. On the moonlit night, some dogs hesitated to approach Cheng Yijiu—even though they had previously bravely charged at brown bears head-on, as if Cheng Yijiu were something even more ferocious. This time, Cheng Yijiu aimed directly at the head. Less than fifty meters away, he didn't have much time left.

He had no time or opportunity to shoot four bears—under normal circumstances, but now there were dogs. Cheng Yijiu's first shot hit the bear, blowing off half its head. The bear was dead—most of its brain was smashed and blown away by the bullet. Cheng Yijiu didn't think any other animal could survive in such a situation.

Chapter 24 Helpless

Cheng Yijiu pulled the bolt, and the puppy instinctively attacked the second bear. Leaping up, it bit the bridge of the bear's nose, forcing it to fall backward, exposing its chest and abdomen. Cheng Yijiu then opened fire, aiming for the heart. The rest was left to the dogs—let their teeth tear apart the still-living bear. Several other dogs made the same choice. Like hunting dogs working with their masters, they pounced on the bears from the front or bit their hind legs, forcing them to expose as much of their sides as possible.