The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu glided swiftly over the snow on skis made from wild boar hide.

Zhao Jun led the way, with Li Baoyu following close behind.

As they pursued, the snow was blanketed with a dense, countless mess of wild boar tracks.

The snow, packed down by the stampede of over a hundred wild boars, had become exceptionally smooth, allowing their skis to glide over it at incredible speed.

’But no matter how fast we are, we’ll never outpace those four-legged boars!’

’How long is this going to take, just chasing after their tails like this?’

It was just as Wang Qiang had said: you’d never catch them by chasing them from behind.

Suddenly, Zhao Jun, who was in the lead, began to slow down. Though he didn’t understand why, Li Baoyu, who was following, stopped as well.

Once they had both stopped, Li Baoyu came to Zhao Jun’s side and asked, "Brother, why did we stop chasing?"

Zhao Jun shook his head. "We’ll never catch them this way. We need to go lie in wait for them."

"Okay!" Li Baoyu agreed immediately. "So, should I be the one to drive them toward you?"

Zhao Jun shot him a look and chuckled. "You think you can drive a herd that big?"

Hearing this, Li Baoyu thought for a moment, then laughed as well.

He said to Zhao Jun, "Alright, you tell me. What’s the plan?"

The terms Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu used, "lying in wait" and "driving," were both hunting jargon.

This kind of hunt, called a "roving hunt," tested a Hunter’s skills far more than a "dog-assisted hunt."

There were two ways to conduct a roving hunt.

One way was to do what Zhao Youcai and his group did: sneak up on the herd and launch a surprise attack.

The other method, which Zhao Jun was about to employ, was what Hunters called "driving the game."

Driving the game required the cooperation of multiple Hunters.

When hunting without dogs and unsure of the prey’s location, Hunters first had to be intimately familiar with the mountain’s topography and the animal’s habits. Based on this knowledge, they would predict the prey’s path. One Hunter would then set up an ambush at a chokepoint the prey was sure to pass through.

This was known as "lying in wait."

Meanwhile, another Hunter would follow the animal’s tracks, deliberately making noise to startle it and chase it from behind, herding it toward the ambush point.

This was known as "driving."

Both driving and lying in wait required a high level of skill.

You had to know the mountain’s terrain like the back of your hand to set a successful ambush. If you misjudged, the prey would change direction before reaching the chokepoint. That was called a "blown ambush."

With this herd of wild boars, there was no need for a drive; they were already running for their lives. All Zhao Jun needed to do now was find the perfect ambush spot to intercept them.

Zhao Jun gazed at the ridge before him. It belonged to a famous mountain named Ginseng King Mountain. Legend had it that in his great-grandfather’s time, someone had found a Ginseng King on its slopes, hence the name.

As Zhao Jun stared into the distance, even though he couldn’t see the whole range, a complete topographical map of Ginseng King Mountain materialized in his mind.

Zhao Jun pulled Li Baoyu over, seemingly to explain the plan, but it was more as if he were analyzing it aloud for his own benefit.

"The herd is heading south. They’ll skirt below Forest Class 94, and it’s not much farther to the three-way fork below Shennv Peak. Three sides of that are steep slopes, so the herd will have to double back. By the time they reach Forest Class 98, they’ll definitely start climbing the gentle slope."

As he said this, Zhao Jun’s eyes lit up. He pointed and waved his left index finger. "Above that is Forest Class 99. I remember that’s another steep slope. The herd will have to climb it to get over. We’ll go to Shan Erlie and cut them off there."

"Okay!" Li Baoyu had no idea what Zhao Jun was talking about. Though he was born and raised here and had been to Ginseng King Mountain before, it had only been once. He didn’t know the first thing about the mountain’s layout.

’But in his mind, whatever Zhao Jun said, went. All he had to do was follow.’

With that decided, the pair stopped following the boar tracks and instead took a shortcut straight toward Forest Class 99.

The higher they climbed, the steeper the mountain became, and they could no longer use their skis. Li Baoyu broke trail in front, with Zhao Jun following close behind.

The two of them crossed a ridge, passed through a grove of Pine Trees, and came to a steep cliff. The face was incredibly sheer, almost at a right angle to the ground, making it extremely difficult to climb.

Li Baoyu went to the base of the cliff and handed everything he was carrying to Zhao Jun. Then, he grabbed onto a small tree and hauled himself up.

Once Zhao Jun had passed all their gear up to him, he took it, then bent down, stretched out his hands, and pulled Zhao Jun up after him.

After getting up, the first thing Zhao Jun did was grab the rifle. Seeing that the barrel was clear of snow, he finally relaxed.

They gathered their things and followed the mountain path toward Forest Class 99. As they neared it, they took a turn north and arrived at Shan Erlie.

Further north, there was a downward slope, not too long, about four to five hundred meters. At the bottom of the slope was a slanted ridge.

Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu started down the slope. They had barely taken two steps when they felt the ground begin to tremble, as if a thousand horses were stampeding.

That might be a slight exaggeration, but the moment they heard the squealing of boars, both Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu became instantly excited.

The pair scrambled down the slope. By the time they were about halfway down, still less than two hundred meters from the bottom, the first few wild boars appeared below.

"Baoyu, be careful!" Zhao Jun yelled. He ducked behind an oak tree, dropped to his right knee, settled his weight onto his right heel, and raised the rifle. Composing himself, he looked down from his high vantage point.

On the ridge below, more and more wild boars were stampeding from east to west. Zhao Jun pointed his rifle east, toward where the herd was emerging.

More than ten seconds later, he saw it: the Pig God.

The instant the Pig God came into view, both Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu were stunned.

’That wild boar was enormous!’

Zhao Jun swung the muzzle west. The very instant the Pig God’s snout appeared in his Gun Star, he fired.

This was to lead the target. By firing the moment the boar’s snout was in the Gun Star, accounting for the bullet’s travel time and the boar’s forward momentum, the shot should land just behind its front shoulder.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

...

"SQUEAL..."

"SQUEAL..."

The sound of gunshots was accompanied by the unending, agonized squeals of wild boars.

Zhao Jun emptied his rifle in one go. The moment he stopped firing, he lowered the gun and looked up, watching as the massive boar, now limping but its speed undiminished, disappeared in a cloud of dust.

"Brother," Li Baoyu said, walking up to Zhao Jun’s side. His voice was a little hoarse.

"What happened?" Zhao Jun asked in return.

He had been aiming through the Gun Star and saw the spray of blood. He felt he should have hit it, but for some reason, the massive boar wasn’t dead.

’Even if it weighed a thousand pounds, it shouldn’t have been able to take that.’

He had been aiming with one eye closed and couldn’t see the full picture, which was why he was asking Li Baoyu.

"It was a shish kebab," Li Baoyu said. "The bullet went through another boar first. After it passed through that one, I saw it hit the big one in the shoulder blade, but it didn’t punch all the way through."

Zhao Jun sighed. He looked down at the blood and gore littering the ridge below and let out a long, heavy breath.

The Pig God had been surrounded on all sides by the dense herd. After Zhao Jun fired, the bullet had passed clean through one boar before striking the Pig God in the shoulder blade.

’No wonder it was limping.’

"And the second shot?" Zhao Jun asked.

Li Baoyu shook his head. "Same thing. Another shish kebab. It hit him in the ass."