King of the Wilderness

Lin Yu’an peered through the gaps between the trees and saw a massive nearly vertical cliff, towering on the hillside like a weather-beaten fortress.

"That’s it!" He dashed towards the cliff with all his strength.

Finally, on a steep slope, he found a perfect spot that almost made him shout in excitement! A spacious, grotto-like cave naturally formed by the inward recession of a colossal cliff!

Unlike a traditional deep cave, it resembled more of a semi-open terrace embraced by the giant rock.

The entrance was wide, about seven to eight meters, the depth around four to five meters, and the height reached about ten meters, forming a magnificent natural dome.

The light of the setting sun poured in unobstructed, casting a warm golden hue over the back wall of the cave.

He walked in quickly, his feet crushing the flat, dry sandy-gravel ground with a rustling sound. He touched the cave wall with his hand, feeling the rough rock formed by millennia of erosion by wind and rain, hard and reliable.

Due to the cave’s openness, its interior was well-lit and ventilated, free from any dark, damp, or decayed smells, leaving only the scent of rock and sunlight.

Its back and sides were impervious cliffs, and below lay a steep ravine filled with shrubs and boulders.

"Perfect..." He leaned against the sun-warmed cave wall, panting heavily, his face showing a post-crisis smile.

He took off the Willow Branches backpack from his back, feeling relieved of the burden.

He looked around this solid, spacious, sunlit space and said to the camera, "This is not a shelter; this is a fortress, more like a shrine on the cliff!"

"Anything wanting to attack me has only one way to go—that is to rush up this only platform from the open ground right in front of me."

With only a few hours left before nightfall, he dared not waste a single second.

The first thing Lin Yu’an did wasn’t set up any complex traps, but start systematically building a multi-layer noise barrier.

He explained his strategy to the camera, both in action and language, "My goal is to create a sound defense matrix, completely depriving the cats of their most deadly weapon—stealth."

Subsequently, he used a piece of dry bark as a simple rake to clear away all the soft and decayed leaves, moss, and soil from the fan-shaped area in front of the cave entrance, exposing the hard rock and sandy ground below.

Then he gathered a large number of dried, crisp broad leaves and thin, dry branches from the surroundings and spread them over the cleared area again.

Now this became a crunchy carpet that, under the weight of a cat, would definitely produce a crisp, unhideable cracking sound.

But he wasn’t done. He dashed into the nearby woods, searching specifically for those long-dead, break-at-a-touch dead shrubs and branches.

He didn’t bother to sharpen them but dragged these branch-laden sticks back to the cave entrance, arranging them in an artfully chaotic manner.

The interlaced, semi-leaning, semi-erect network behind the noise carpet formed a sparse, waist-high blockade.

After all this was done, he began the final task—fuel storage.

Like a highly efficient machine, he frantically collected everything flammable in the dimming light. Sweat soaked through his clothes, but he didn’t care. Soon, a mountain-like pile of firewood was stacked in a dry corner of the cave interior.

When nightfall fully descended, he ignited the fire at the center of the platform at the cave entrance.

This time, unlike yesterday’s effort, he directly took out the precious super match from the Willow Branches basket—the Wood Hoof Fungus Fire Starter Jar made in the morning.

After half a day of smoldering, the mushroom’s surface no longer felt warm, but when he untied the vines and removed the moss plug blocking the opening, a dense, smoky scent with a hint of char rose immediately.

"Look here," he brought the Fire Starter Jar closer to the camera, showing the internal cavity of the mushroom where the ember and surrounding tinder emitted a steady, bright dark red glow in the darkness.

"This is the charm of a portable fire starter; as long as you ensure minimal oxygen inside, it won’t extinguish. Now, I just need to awaken it."

He took a small handful of the driest, fluffiest dead grass fibers, carefully placing them into the mushroom’s cavity, gently touching the crimson tinder layer.

Almost instantly upon contact, the dead grass fibers curled and blackened like they were scorched by a hot iron, then burst into a smoke several times thicker than before!

"Here it comes!"

He quickly tilted the mushroom, pouring the smoking grass onto the base of a small fire-starting pyramid made with dry bark and the finest dry twigs, ready long ago.

Then he crouched down, blowing rhythmically at the smoke.

"Hoo... hoo... huff huff..."

With the injection of oxygen, the smoke thickened, and a faint flame glimmer appeared inside the pyramid. Suddenly, with a soft "pop" sound, an orange-yellow flame thrust its head out fiercely from the gaps between the twigs!

"It’s lit!"

With ample oxygen and a dry supply of fuel, the fire quickly grew larger, greedily licking the surrounding twigs, crackling reassuringly.

Soon, flames roared, the flickering firelight illuminating the spacious grotto-cave as bright as day, also dispelling the last chill seeping from the night-covered forest.