The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

Minister Li was a good deal smarter than Li Hu and Xing Zhuyong. He wasn’t thinking about capturing this Little Black Bear alive; he just wanted to kill it, take its gall, and sell it for cash.

Actually, if his family wasn’t in such dire straits, Minister Li really would have wanted to get this Little Bear, catch it, and take it home to raise.

The Bear Gall from a fully grown bear was worth much more than this one.

But the two brothers could barely feed themselves at home, so how could they possibly have anything to feed it?

So, they could only steel themselves and make the kill.

Minister Li’s plan was sound, but Li Erchen was too scared. He grabbed the basket on Minister Li’s back, saying he wanted to go home, not even bothering to pick aralia shoots anymore.

"Second Brother!" Shouting at him didn’t work, so Minister Li had to try a softer approach. He said to Li Erchen, "This bear cub isn’t big, but its gall should sell for two or three hundred, right? With that money, wouldn’t we both have enough to get married?"

Getting married was something that could be done lavishly or frugally. Zhao Jun’s family could spend thousands to get him a wife, while the Li Brothers could spend two hundred yuan to get one each.

As soon as he said this, Li Erchen’s feet seemed to take root, and he couldn’t move an inch.

’Getting a wife!’

In all his life, he had only ever gotten married in his dreams.

Li Erchen looked left and right, but seeing no Big Black Bear, he turned his gaze back up into the tree.

"Big Brother, are we really doing this?"

"We are!" Minister Li took off the basket on his back, pulled the Invasion Blade from his waist, and shouted, "Second Brother, mount the blade."

"Alright!" The two brothers were men of action. They found a small tree nearby, cut it down, mounted the Invasion Blade onto the pole, and came together under the tree, looking up at the Little Black Bear.

The Little Black Bear, clinging to the tree, was about three meters off the ground. It was also peeking its head down, watching the two brothers.

"What do we do, Big Brother?" Li Erchen asked Minister Li.

The tree was as thick as a man’s embrace. With no proper tools on hand, chopping it down was out of the question.

"What else is there to do?" Minister Li pointed up and said, "Stab it with the knife."

"Right!" Li Erchen realized, raised the long-bladed pole, and jabbed it toward the Little Black Bear in the tree.

He was 1.82 meters tall, and when he stretched his arm over his head, his hand was already more than two meters off the ground. Add to that the two-meter-plus pole, and reaching the Little Black Bear wasn’t difficult.

But the Little Black Bear was no inanimate object. As Li Erchen thrusted the pole up, the Little Black Bear hugged the tree and scrambled higher. When Li Erchen extended the blade to reach it again, the Little Black Bear just kept climbing.

"Stop stabbing, stop stabbing!" Minister Li, at his side, quickly pressed down Li Erchen’s hand. The tree was over six meters tall. If they kept trying to stab it like this, they’d probably never get the Little Black Bear down.

Li Erchen lowered the blade, looked at his big brother, and asked, "Big Brother, what do we do?"

"What to do..." Minister Li blinked, looked around, and immediately leaned the blade against a nearby tree. Then he said to Li Erchen, "You stay down here. I’ll go up and pull it down."

"What?" Li Erchen was startled and quickly said, "Big Brother, don’t do that."

"It’s fine, don’t worry." Minister Li waved his hand. "I’ll yank it down, and you stab it with the knife from below." Seeing the resistance on Li Erchen’s face, Minister Li barked, "You hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah." Li Erchen nodded repeatedly.

Seeing his brother agree, Minister Li went to the tree, rubbed his hands together, leaped up, and started climbing, hugging the trunk.

The Little Black Bear was now about four meters off the ground. Seeing Minister Li coming up, the cub, only a few months old, didn’t recognize what a human was. It just saw this big lump and figured it must be some kind of dangerous creature.

Scared, the Little Black Bear scrambled higher. It climbed much faster than Minister Li, reaching the very top of the tree in just a few movements.

Now, the Little Black Bear was about six meters high. It hugged the treetop, swaying precariously as it looked down, only to see Minister Li still climbing up.

The Little Black Bear instantly panicked. It had reached the top; it couldn’t climb any higher. But with Minister Li blocking the way down, it couldn’t get down either.

This was what they called having no way to advance and no path of retreat.

The helpless Little Black Bear was terrified and cried out while hugging the tree.

"SQUEAK... SQUEE... AH..."

On the other side of the forest, a Big Black Bear was tearing apart a rotten log to dig for ants.

It had heard Li Erchen shouting earlier. But wild animals have a process of adaptation. Lately, with so many people foraging in the mountains, there were often people yelling loudly, and the Big Black Bear had grown used to it.

Besides, it had just come out of its den and was hungry. For a moment, all it cared about was eating.

But just then, the Little Black Bear’s cries drifted down from up the slope, and the Big Black Bear finally remembered it had a child.

It stopped eating the ants and started running quickly up the slope.

It ran, letting out intimidating roars along the way, trying to scare off whatever was trying to harm its child.

Li Erchen was keeping watch under the tree when he heard a "HRUMPH" sound from the north. Having been chased by a Black Bear twice before, he knew exactly what that sound meant.

"Big Brother! Big Brother!" Li Erchen yelled at the top of his lungs, "Run! The Big Black Bear is here!"

He didn’t need to shout; Minister Li, up in the tree, had also heard it. By now, he had climbed more than four meters up the tree. Any higher and the trunk became too thin to support him.

So, Minister Li was just thinking of reaching out to shake the trunk above him, to see if he could shake the Little Black Bear down.

Just as he was about to reach out, he heard the Big Black Bear’s furious roar.

Panicked, Minister Li scrambled down the tree.

But just as he got down to two meters from the ground, the Big Black Bear arrived!

The Big Black Bear got there and saw Li Erchen standing guard with the blade. So, it charged straight for Li Erchen.

Even with the weapon in his hand, Li Erchen couldn’t muster a shred of will to fight. He immediately threw the blade aside and turned to run.

He ran, and the bear chased. But the Black Bear had only taken a few steps in pursuit when it heard its child crying in the tree.

Desperate to protect its cub, the Big Black Bear turned and rushed toward the tree.

If it had been just a few seconds later, Minister Li would have made it down from the tree.

But at that moment, he was still hugging the trunk more than two meters off the ground.

Minister Li looked down at the Black Bear below, and the Black Bear looked up at Minister Li in the tree. Then, it placed its paws on the trunk and scrambled up the tree in a couple of bounds.

"Oh, god!" Minister Li instantly panicked and subconsciously hugged the tree and climbed higher.

As he climbed up, the Little Black Bear in the tree thought Minister Li was still coming to get it and immediately started screaming even more miserably.

At the Little Black Bear’s cry, the Big Black Bear grew even more frantic and climbed the tree faster.

Seeing the Big Black Bear coming up, Minister Li also got anxious and quickened his pace.

But when it came to climbing trees, a bear was a professional. How could a man possibly out-climb a bear?

Just then, Minister Li suddenly remembered Zhang Yuanmin. He recalled that time he and Zhang Yuanmin had gone to hunt a bear in its den, and he had asked Zhang Yuanmin what to do if the hunt went wrong.

Minister Li remembered Zhang Yuanmin telling him that a man can’t outrun a Black Bear, and in a moment of crisis, the only option is to climb a tree.

When Zhang Yuanmin had said that, Li Erchen, who was there, had scoffed, saying he was talking nonsense. When it came to climbing trees, how could a man possibly out-climb a bear?

But Minister Li also remembered that Zhang Yuanmin had laughed and said it was a ploy: as long as you lure the bear up the tree, you can then jump down and have a chance to escape.

At this very moment, Minister Li recalled Zhang Yuanmin’s advice, but he was hesitant. ’This isn’t like that time, after all. Back then, it was winter and there was snow on the ground; a jump would have been fine. But now, the snow on this sun-facing slope has long since melted. I’ll get seriously hurt if I jump.’

Just as Minister Li’s mind was racing, the Big Black Bear caught up to him. It raised a paw, grabbed Minister Li’s ankle, and yanked him down hard.

THUD!

With the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground, the last thought that flashed through Minister Li’s mind as he blacked out was: "I should have listened to Big Pants!"