The old forest was vast, stretching across several large mountains and covering many villages.
It had once been famous for the ferocious tigers that roamed there.
Later, the neighboring villages formed tiger-hunting teams and killed off the tigers.
With no large beasts to keep them in check, wild boars and fierce packs of jackals and wolves gradually ran rampant.
The place became far more dangerous than before, and very few people dared to come in to hunt.
Chu Xun practiced his archery as he made his way into the woods.
He drew the bow and nocked an arrow.
He aimed at a sparrow perched on a treetop not far away.
Swoosh!
The feathered arrow sliced through the air, passing cleanly by the sparrow.
After plucking off a single feather, the sparrow spread its wings in alarm and flew to another treetop.
This bow really is hard to hit with.
Chu Xun tugged at the recurve bow in his hand, somewhat disappointed.
Too bad he didn’t have a gun. With his skill, hitting the mark every time wouldn’t be hard.
He had used modern compound bows the most.
They had strong power and high accuracy… basically, you hit wherever you aim.
He used traditional-style bows less often, but he was still not bad with them.
After trying several arrows just now, he had roughly figured out the recurve bow’s accuracy.
Next time, he shouldn’t miss.
He looked at the arrow that had already vanished into the dense foliage.
With a thought, the recurve bow and quiver in Chu Xun’s hands instantly disappeared.
He picked up the five arrows given to him by the old village head from the ground.
Then he took the recurve bow out of the warehouse again.
The five feathered arrows in the quiver gleamed with a dark sheen.
Convenient. This saved him the trouble of picking up arrows.
After slinging the quiver onto his back, Chu Xun looked at the sky.
It should be just past noon, with about three hours left until dark.
Plus half an hour to get back.
That meant he had about two and a half hours to hunt… more than enough.
He went deeper into the forest for about half a shichen. The mountain woods were steep and overgrown with brush.
Chu Xun remained alert at all times.
The rustle of wind in the leaves reached his ears, sounding especially crisp in the silence of the forest.
Rustle.
Suddenly, a bush ahead and to the right shook slightly.
It instantly drew Chu Xun’s attention.
The arrow shot out at once, the sound of it cutting through the air sharp and piercing.
With a swoosh, it stabbed straight into the bush.
Immediately after, a gray-furred hare burst out, moving incredibly fast as it fled into the distance.
But Chu Xun was faster. Another sharp arrow was already on the bowstring.
Whoosh… it shot straight toward the hare’s body.
The hare darted and twisted, but in the end it still couldn’t outrun the arrow.
With a wet thud, it pierced the belly and pinned the hare to the ground.
Its two hind legs kept kicking desperately, as if it were still trying to escape.
Got it. Chu Xun quietly let out a breath of relief.
He was pretty lucky… he had bagged a hare not long after entering.
Chu Xun pulled out the arrow and weighed the plump hare in his hand. It was about five or six jin.
That was enough for the whole family to enjoy a good meal.
But rabbit meat was different from other game. It had almost no fat, only protein.
People said that eating only rabbit meat could make you starve, and that wasn’t just talk.
It was because of its high protein ratio.
Digesting rabbit meat took more energy than the meat itself provided.
If you ate it for a long time, you would not only get thinner and thinner, but also end up with an imbalance in your nutrition.
He still needed to hunt some other prey.
Chu Xun took out some cloth strips he had prepared, tied up the hare’s wound, and hung it upside down from his waist.
From here on, he had to be even more careful when hunting.
The smell of blood seeping from the hare might attract other predators.
If a pack of jackals or wolves showed up, that would be troublesome.
He searched the woods for a while longer, and the air inside gradually became damp.
He had reached a deeper part of the forest.
Chu Xun stayed patient. If he still found nothing after another five hundred paces, he would leave immediately.
He had not gone far when a series of “cluck, cluck, cluck” sounds suddenly reached his ears.
He stopped at once, lowered his body, and slowly moved to his left.
Soon, Chu Xun saw several colorful wild chickens beside a tree not far ahead.
They were leisurely pecking at grass seeds on the ground, completely unaware of the danger approaching.
Among them was a rooster leading the flock.
It held its head high, looking very grand as it paced around and inspected the many hens under its command.
What a fat flock of wild chickens.
Chu Xun’s eyes lit up. Back when he was in the army, he and his comrades often spotted wild chickens deep in the forest.
Unfortunately, they were already protected animals at the time, so they did not dare to touch them.
But now? Heh heh… he’d kill them and make soup!
He hadn’t expected this flock of wild chickens to dare come down from the trees so brazenly to peck at food.
Weren’t they afraid of being caught by a pack of jackals?
Chu Xun shook his head. Whatever. He was killing these chickens no matter what.
He bent his bow and nocked an arrow, first aiming at the rooster at the front. It was the largest, with the longest tail feathers and the most meat.
Taking a deep breath, Chu Xun slowly pulled back the bowstring.
Wild chickens were extremely alert. If he missed, they would surely scatter in all directions and fly into the dense canopy, making them hard to kill.
Chu Xun stared intently at the rooster’s movements, his fingers gripping the bowstring tightly.
The moment the rooster turned at the edge of the grass slope and was about to pivot, whoosh!
A sharp arrow flew out and instantly pierced the rooster’s chest and abdomen!
Cock-a-doodle…
The rooster let out a shrill cry and collapsed to the ground, flailing wildly.
The remaining hens immediately scattered in panic, beating their wings and fleeing in all directions.
But after all that preparation, how could Chu Xun let them all get away?
Another sharp arrow shot out, killing an old hen that had flown onto a tree and thought she was safe.
Then Chu Xun quickly stepped forward, drew his bow, and nocked another arrow, preparing to shoot down another hen flying closest to him.
But when he saw where that hen was fleeing, Chu Xun laughed and put away his bow and arrows.
This hen was really stupid. Instead of flying higher, it had flapped into a low thornbush.
Its wings and feathers were caught on the thorns, and no matter how it struggled, it could not break free.
Stupid chicken. Eating it would probably hurt his intelligence. Better to catch it alive and keep it at home for eggs.
Whenever he felt like eating eggs, he could just reach into the nest and pretend to take one.
Then, with a swoosh, he could buy an egg from the shop.
That way, the family would have a legitimate source of eggs.
Chu Xun stepped forward and grabbed the chicken by the neck.
Then he used cloth strips to tie its wings and legs tightly and hung it together with the hare.
After that, he also tied up the two dead wild chickens.
A plentiful haul. Chu Xun looked at the spoils hanging from his waist, smiling.
One hare, three wild chickens, and one of them was alive.
That kind of record would leave even the most experienced hunter stunned.
Going deep into the forest really had its advantages… there was prey everywhere.
He just didn’t know why he still hadn’t run into any predators along the way.
The sky was already getting dim, so Chu Xun packed up and prepared to leave.
But after walking only a few dozen paces, a strong, rotten smell of blood mixed with the stench of rust drifted to his nose.
Chu Xun quietly turned and looked toward a low-lying hollow in the distance.
Only dried blood had that kind of foul smell. Something animal seemed to have died there.
Moving slowly, Chu Xun crept toward the hollow.
After parting the weeds in front of him, what came into view was the rotting corpse of a young sika deer.
Its head had been nearly torn open, the horrifying wound shocking to the eye. Not a single patch of skin or flesh on the body was intact.
Flies swarmed around the corpse, spreading a nauseating stench.
Chu Xun silently regretted the waste. The deer meat had gone bad, and the deer blood had dried up. It was no longer edible. What a pity.
Just as he was feeling disappointed, his eyes swept over the deer’s head and suddenly froze.
Above that deer head, there was actually a pair of deer antlers covered in layers of velvet!
…
『PS: Chu Xun drew his bow and aimed at the wild chicken when, all of a sudden, the chicken spoke in human language: “Chicken, you’re too beautiful, sing, dance, rap, basket… cluck!”
“You imitate him very well, but in the end you are not him. Die!”』