Chapter 41: Hunting Musk Deer and the Rules

"Lonely boar" is the local folk term for a solitary male wild boar. Since Huang Jianmin mentioned that this one had been driven out of its territory, it meant that a much larger beast had recently invaded its domain.

The lonely boar had either been unwilling or unable to provoke the newcomer, and thus had fled to this area. Of course, the solitary boar in these Huang Village mountains might not necessarily be the exact one that had injured Huang Hongsheng, but what if it was? That would prove Huang Jianmin's deduction correct.

It was possible that a massive beast had been relentlessly pursuing them. Solitary boars usually traveled with a sow and their litter—effectively an entire family. For a carnivorous predator, if it couldn't easily take down the adult boar, wouldn't it target the boar's mate and piglets instead?

Therefore, being continually hunted down as a food source was entirely possible.

Put simply, the one keeping its eyes on the solitary boar might not be just the hunters; there was likely another giant beast lurking in the shadows, waiting for a vulnerability to strike a fatal blow.

As they walked, Su Yu suddenly halted, drew his bow, and released an arrow in a single, fluid motion.

"Whoosh."

A feathered shaft tore through the wind, and a magpie perched on a nearby tree dropped to the ground instantly.

"Splendid marksmanship!"

Not only Huang Shan and Huang Hai gasped in admiration, but even Huang Jianmin, a veteran hunter, was profoundly astonished.

To Huang Shan and Huang Hai, they merely marveled at the impressive archery, without fully grasping the immense difficulty involved. But Huang Jianmin was different. He was over fifty years old; before the days of old muzzle-loaders, he too had relied on a bow and arrow. He knew intimately how agonizingly difficult it was to master archery. For a young man to attain this level of proficiency was truly remarkable.

"Indeed, exceptionally formidable. That magpie was at least thirty meters away, yet Xiao Yu hit the target with a single shot with practically no aiming. Truly stellar."

"Hehe, Uncle Huang, you flatter me too much. It was just a stroke of luck."

While they were speaking, Huang Hai had already sprinted over to retrieve the game Su Yu had downed.

"Here you go, Xiao Yu. Impressive! Never misses its mark. But magpie meat isn't very tasty; why did you bother shooting it?"

"Oh, I'm raising a young Langqing hound. It's still small, so this is an extra meal for it."

"Haha, so it's for feeding the dogs. You're raising a hunting dog too? Do you know how to train it? If not, I can have my dad sort it out for you; he has quite a bit of experience in training hounds."

Chatting and laughing, the group had already hiked a considerable distance.

"Dabao and Hutou have picked up a scent."

Dabao was the large black dog from Huang Shan's household, while Hutou was the lead hound belonging to Huang Jianmin's family.

Both dogs held their noses to the ground, sniffing intently. Sensing something, they moved in unison toward the same direction, and the rest of the hunting pack followed suit.

"Let's go take a look. They must have found the trail of some prey."

Following the dogs for roughly a mile, they finally caught up with them.

It was a musk deer, pinned down by eight dogs and completely unable to move.

Without a word, Su Yu raised his hand and loosed an arrow.

"Whoosh."

At a distance of fifty meters, the arrow tore straight through the air with a crisp *thwack*, entering the musk deer's left eye and exiting through its right, piercing clean through.

Everyone was frozen in shock. Just a moment earlier, when Huang Shan saw Su Yu reach for his bow, he had been about to stop him, but Su Yu's hand speed was too fast; before he could speak, the arrow was already gone.

It wasn't that they begrudged him the kill—since they were a hunting party, there was no division of spoils based on who landed the final blow—rather, they were afraid he might accidentally injure the hounds.

Yet they never imagined that from fifty meters away, he would score a bullseye straight through the eyes, with accuracy that surpassed even a firearm.

Huang Shan said nothing, simply raising a thumb in silent commendation.

Naturally, Su Yu wanted to secure the kill himself. If one of them had fired a gun without warning and killed the prey, his efforts would have gone to waste.

His experience points directly increased by 15. A musk deer yielded that much more than a blue sheep? Su Yu was somewhat surprised.

Combined with what he had previously, Su Yu now possessed 19 skill points.

He had saved 3 points earlier, gained 1 point from shooting the magpie—making 4—plus the 15 points from slaying the musk deer, bringing his total to 19. Yet it was still not enough to upgrade his archery skill.

Su Yu couldn't help feeling speechless. Was breaking past level 9 really that difficult?

"Xiao Yu, I yield to your archery skills. No wonder you didn't want a rifle and used a bow instead. If I had your skill, I wouldn't use a rifle either."

Huang Hai felt rather helpless; he had gone through the trouble of getting a Hanyang-style rifle, yet hadn't even had the opportunity to fire it.

"Haha, I was a bit impulsive just now. I should have walked closer so as not to risk the hounds, but my archery recently hit a bottleneck and seems on the verge of a breakthrough, so I wanted to practice a bit more. My apologies."

Su Yu wasn't foolish. He had noticed Huang Shan's hesitation earlier and guessed immediately what he was going to say.

After all, the hunting dogs present didn't just belong to his own family. If he had accidentally wounded his uncle's hound, it would have made things awkward.

"No harm done. Xiao Yu dared to draw his bow, which means he had confidence. It doesn't matter who makes the kill. Besides, shooting straight through the eyes without damaging a single inch of fur makes it all the more extraordinary."

Huang Jianmin stepped in to smooth things over, patted Su Yu on the shoulder, and handed a dagger to Huang Hai.

Hunting with dogs was different from hunting without them. When hounds successfully brought down prey, the animal needed to be gutted promptly so the internal organs could be shared among the hunting dogs, while the intestines were hung on tree branches as an offering to the mountain god.

If you didn't reward the hounds in time, they would lose their enthusiasm and turn into slackers in the future—dogs that merely tagged along for fun without putting in any real effort.

Huang Hai walked over, gutted the musk deer, extracted the liver and heart, split the heart in half to toss to the two lead hounds (Dabao and Hutou), and sliced the liver into six pieces to throw to the remaining dogs.

Though it might not be a full meal, if hunting dogs ate their fill, they would stop working. Therefore, hounds were generally never fed before heading up the mountain; they had to go hungry.

"Good lord, it's not light at all—easily fifty catties. Even after stripping the bone, there should be forty catties of meat left, right?"

"Leave it to me."

With that, Huang Shan hoisted the musk deer and loaded it into his back basket.

"Let's move, let's move, keep going."

With a wave of his hand, Dabao began sniffing around again, and Hutou followed closely behind. Since they weren't fully fed, naturally they had to press on.

"Bang."

Not far away, the sound of a gunshot rang out, accompanied by the baying of hunting dogs.

"Could someone have run into the solitary boar?"

"Who would have thought anyone else would come to the north side? I thought we were the only team."

The western side featured dense forests, whereas the other directions were relatively sparse, so most hunting parties headed west. It was unexpected that others shared their idea and pushed directly north.

"Let's go take a look. Who shares our idea? If they've run into trouble, we can lend a hand."

Hearing Huang Hai's words, Huang Shan curled his lip, thinking to himself that Huang Hai probably just wanted to poach their game.

Huang Jianmin let the youngsters chat amongst themselves, walking unhurriedly behind Hutou at his own pace.

Su Yu didn't chime in either, following quietly behind.

"Let's go. We'll find out who it is once we look."

The group followed the eight dogs forward, and before long, they heard the barking of hunting dogs.

"Coo-coo... coo-coo."

Huang Shan imitated a bird call as he led the way. Shortly afterward, someone from the opposite direction mimicked the bird call in response, and then a voice called out: "Who's over there?"

Good grief, Su Yu watched this ritual in utter bewilderment.

Perhaps noticing his confusion, Huang Jianmin explained, "This is to avoid misunderstandings and prevent disturbing other people's hunt. If you just shout out directly, you might expose the hunters or startle the prey, ruining everyone's mood."

"You mimic a bird call first, and if the other side answers, it means they permit you to approach. Otherwise, if you barge in and scare away their game—that's a minor issue. What if they mistake you for a beast and take a potshot at you? Then you'd be in deep trouble."

Hearing Huang Jianmin's explanation, Su Yu finally understood. So many intricate rules and roundabout customs were involved.

"Then why imitate a coo-coo bird specifically? Can't you use other calls?"

"Uh... probably because the coo-coo bird call is the easiest to master."