King of the Wilderness

After eating and drinking to his heart’s content, he began the final wrap-up work. He carefully wrapped the remaining grilled fish, along with the nearly finished fish head skeleton and tail, in banana leaves and placed them in the back basket.

These would be his strongest cards against fatigue and hunger for the next two days.

Then, he completely extinguished the fire, erasing all traces.

Saying goodbye to the bamboo forest that brought him countless surprises, Lin Yu’an strapped on the heavy basket of willow branches again and set off once more on the rugged path over the mountain ridge.

"Alright, fellows, breakfast time is over, now it’s time to pay the debt! Yesterday, due to resupply, we made far less progress than anticipated."

"Today, I must make up all the lost time! The goal is to cross this damned ridge before dark!"

He no longer paused frequently to explain as before, instead entering a state of near sprinting.

His body operated like a precision off-road machine, moving at high speed on the rugged and steep mountain path.

Using the Deer Antler Spear he made last night as a trekking pole and third support point, he constantly probed and supported his way forward.

His silhouette leaped and climbed among the tangled roots and slippery rocks, like a monkey darting through the forest.

His eyes rapidly scanned the surrounding environment, his brain mapping out the most efficient and effortless route in fractions of a second.

Time flew by in the sweat and heavy breathing, and since setting out in the morning, he had been marching intensely for over five hours straight.

During that time, he took only two brief breaks to hydrate and eat dried grilled fish for energy.

Around two o’clock in the afternoon, after climbing a perilous ridge saddle overlooking the valley he came from, preparing for a third short respite.

A faint, extremely discordant odor, carried by the biting mountain wind, pierced his nostrils.

The sweat on his face hadn’t yet been wiped away, but his expression froze instantly.

It was neither the fragrance of plants nor the earthiness after rain. It was a nauseating mixture of blood, decay, and the stench of wild animals.

Lin Yu’an’s expression turned grave immediately, almost instinctively swiveling his enormous frame to completely hide behind a massive rock and a dense rhododendron bush.

All his senses were heightened to the extreme. Squatting down, he removed his backpack, trying to minimize his presence.

Then, he cautiously lifted his head, making a silence gesture to the camera and whispered in the lowest voice, "Something’s not right...I have a bad feeling."

"Since I set out this morning, I’ve hardly stopped. By my stride estimate, I may have advanced over five kilometers of mountain path at full speed."

"I crossed two small hills and climbed nearly six hundred meters in altitude, a speed far exceeding my expectations. I thought I had completely left last night’s danger behind..."

He took a deep breath, trying hard to discern the source of the ominous smell in the wind. "But now it seems, we’re not escaping the danger, but rushing into another one!"

In that instant, Lin Yu’an cast aside all exhaustion and complacency, his heart, pounding from the intense exercise, now feeling as though seized by a cold hand.

His entire demeanor underwent a fundamental shift. From a high-speed advancing off-road machine, he transformed into a Hunter blending smoothly with the environment!

Using the complex terrain of the ridge, rocks, rhododendron bushes, and fallen trees as cover, he stealthily moved toward the source of the sinister smell in an extremely slow creeping stance.

Every step landed on the softest moss or the sturdiest rock, ensuring not a sound was made.

His advancing posture no longer involved walking upright but lowering his center of gravity, moving stealthily like a crouching leopard.

Every movement brimmed with caution, the formidable Deer Antler Spear tightly gripped in his hand, its point aimed forward, ready to react to any sudden situation from every corner.

The odor grew stronger, almost to a suffocating degree.

Finally, he crouched behind a massive rock, cautiously peering out.

The scene before him made his battle-hardened heart clench violently! A surge of mixed anger and dread shot from his spine to his head!

Right in front, less than thirty meters away, in the center of a violently crushed bush, lay a massive black carcass, that of a full-grown Asian black bear!

Its body was enormous, even in death, it exuded a daunting sense of awe.

But its state of death was unbearable to look at, like a disassembled, shattered component.

However, what chilled Lin Yu’an even more was that next to the black bear carcass lay another smaller corpse, that of an unknown breed of hunting dog.

Its body was lean but robust, with some dappled fur. A rough collar was still around its neck, but several gory wounds marred its abdomen and hind legs.

It was discarded there carelessly, its eyes wide open, as if refusing to believe that this was its fate.

Lin Yu’an captured this grisly scene thoroughly with his camera, his fingers trembling slightly, not from fear, but from an overwhelming anger.

This was not a hunt for survival at all; it was sheer slaughter, treating all life with no respect, like a heartless assembly-line massacre, happening right on the soil of his homeland!