The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

"ROAR... ROAR..."

The bear’s roars echoed through the mountains, making Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu’s scalps tingle.

It was a primal fear. Even a battle-hardened veteran like Zhao Jun couldn’t help but feel a surge of alarm.

He looked in the direction Li Baoyu was pointing and saw a brown bear striding through the woods.

Zhao Jun lowered his rifle, clapped Li Baoyu on the shoulder, and said, "Let’s go!"

"Huh?" Li Baoyu was taken aback. ’Why don’t we just finish off this brown bear first?’ he wondered.

Gripping his rifle with one hand, Zhao Jun pointed with the other in the direction the mother Black Bear and her cubs had fled. "Let’s go check it out," he said to Li Baoyu. "If we get a chance, the two of us could bag four Bear Galls today."

Hearing this, Li Baoyu’s eyes lit up.

He’d heard that it wasn’t just the state-run stores buying Bear Galls anymore; even the state-run pharmacies had started purchasing them.

And the price for Bear Galls had gone up again. A gall from a Little Black Bear like those could fetch anywhere from eight hundred to a thousand yuan.

If they could really get four Bear Galls as Zhao Jun said, they’d make around four thousand yuan in a single day!

To put that in perspective, Li Baoyu didn’t even make that much money in a whole year at his job!

Li Baoyu lowered his rifle and set off with Zhao Jun, traversing the mountainside.

Traversing the mountainside, to put it plainly, meant walking horizontally across the slope. It was bound to be exhausting.

But they couldn’t just trail the brown bear directly, could they?

Only when the brown bear had chased its prey down the slope and into the gully did Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu descend.

The slope was part of Qingtang Forest, so the gully below was bound to be a thicket.

The gully was filled with thorny bushes and shrubs, most with stems as thick as a grown man’s finger.

Hunting dogs would have been completely blocked if they tried to pass through here.

But the brown bear just plowed right through it!

Patches of shrubs and bushes fell before it as the brown bear let out a continuous, booming roar.

Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu were still traversing the mountainside, about a hundred meters above the gully. Their route ran almost parallel to the brown bear’s path.

It was hard to say if it was a case of an apex predator’s dominance.

The brown bear pursued at a steady pace, while the mother Black Bear and her cubs ran for their lives, yet the distance between them never widened.

From three to four hundred meters away, they could hear the brown bear’s murderous roars, which sent the two Little Black Bears into terrified squeals.

By this point, the mother Black Bear and her cubs had already passed Naoxia Pond. They were still in the gully, but the terrain ahead was no longer so dense, with only a few sparse birch trees scattered about.

Birch trees are different from other trees. Most trees send their roots straight down, but a birch tree’s roots spread out horizontally.

On an old birch, the root system is like a giant plate.

Because their roots grow sideways, birch trees are easily toppled by strong winds.

Just ahead of the mother bear and her cubs was one such wind-felled birch. Its trunk lay on the ground, but its massive root system jutted up from the earth at an angle.

It looked like a natural shelter.

One of the Little Black Bears dove headfirst under the birch’s roots to hide.

The Little Black Bear was terrified out of its wits; the brown bear’s roars alone were enough to make its heart pound in fear.

The mother Black Bear ran another hundred meters or so with the other cub before realizing one of her children was missing. She let out two sharp cries, but there was no response.

Frantic, the mother bear had no choice but to turn back and search.

Hearing its mother’s cries, the cub that had been following her also turned back, retracing its steps.

The mother bear called out as she walked, using a unique sound to summon her child.

When she drew near the wind-felled birch, the hiding Little Black Bear darted out from under the roots and ran to her side.

The mother Black Bear had finally found her cub, but she could already tell by the scent in the air that the brown bear was closing in!

In fact, the brown bear was now less than two hundred meters away from the mother and cubs, and since the grass here hadn’t grown tall yet, there was nothing to block the view.

But bears, as you know, have poor eyesight and must rely on their sense of smell.

The moment the mother Black Bear caught the brown bear’s scent, the brown bear also smelled the mother and her two cubs. It roared and charged forward.

The two Little Black Bears panicked instantly, turning and bolting as if their lives depended on it. The mother bear ran too, but she was much faster than her cubs and quickly overtook them.

The two Little Black Bears squealed as they ran. By reading the scents drifting on the air, the mother Black Bear knew the brown bear was getting closer and closer to her children.

Suddenly, the mother Black Bear stopped. Her cubs ran past her on either side, but when they saw she had halted, they stopped too.

The mother Black Bear let out a sharp, piercing cry, urging her cubs to flee.

But the mother and her cubs had spent two winters together, a full year and a half, and the two Little Black Bears were used to following their mother’s lead. Now that she wasn’t moving, they wouldn’t either.

The mother Black Bear roared and charged directly at one of her cubs.

This wasn’t an escape; it was an attack.

The Little Black Bear sensed something was wrong and took off running. After just a few steps, it glanced back over its shoulder but didn’t stop moving.

The mother Black Bear then charged the other cub, and it ran off with its sibling, looking back every few steps.

The mother Black Bear followed slowly behind them, glancing back as she walked.

"ROAR! ROAR!" The brown bear was getting closer.

The mother Black Bear turned around and walked toward the brown bear.

But after only two steps, she stopped, raised her head, and roared at it.

When the mother Black Bear roared, the large brown bear fell silent. It didn’t charge, but simply walked forward, one step at a time.

When they were less than ten meters apart, the large brown bear stopped, roared at the mother bear, then rose up slightly, lifting its two front paws before slamming them back down on the ground.

Then, the large brown bear lifted its front paws again and brought them down once more.

It was as if it were hopping, as if it were playing.

Just then, the mother bear also rose up. Unlike the brown bear, she stood fully upright like a person, her front paws held up to her chest, right at the crescent-shaped patch of white fur.

"ROAR!"

"ROAR!"

The two bears roared at each other.

But the brown bear was a good half-a-body taller than the Black Bear!

The brown bear weighed over seven hundred seventy pounds!

The mother Black Bear, on the other hand, weighed less than three hundred thirty pounds; not even half the weight of the brown bear.

Yet this Black Bear bravely stood her ground against the brown bear, roaring continuously to intimidate it.

For a moment, the brown bear repeatedly rose and dropped back down but never advanced to attack the Black Bear.

And the Black Bear stood her ground, her roars never ceasing!

The standoff lasted for about thirteen or fourteen seconds before the mother bear made the first move.

But she wasn’t attacking; she turned and fled.

On the western slope of the gully, about thirty meters above the bottom, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu stood with their rifles ready.

Seeing the mother bear turn, Zhao Jun sighed and said, "It’s over."