bookrebus Chapter 187 Handahan Enters the Horizon
Chapter 187 Handahan Enters the Horizon
All three gun barrels were aimed at the small elm tree in front of them.
A dark shadow sat there, backlit, as if watching them, and a patch of white fur flashed by.
The hunting dogs began to bark, and Big Tiger charged at the dark figure ahead, with Little Cannon and White Mastiff close behind, launching a fierce attack. Only Iron Hammer lagged slowly at the back.
Li Ju'an held his gun close to the face, but it was too far away for him to tell if the person opposite him was human. If it were a patrolling forester or a beekeeper who used to be stationed at the production team, shooting someone at this time of day would be a serious matter.
He used his gun barrel to block Song Desheng's gun barrel next to him and said, "Slow down."
Suddenly, the hunting dog fell silent.
Hunting in the mountains with dogs is the safest method, but the strangest thing happens: the hunting dogs don't bark or make a sound.
Song Desheng panicked: "What's going on? It's one thing for Da Hu not to bark, but why aren't Hua Er and that big-mouthed white egg barking either?"
Each hunting dog has its own temperament. Little Cannon is fierce and always rushes forward with the lead dog when things get tough. When he grows up, he'll be a fearless double-flowered red-handed dog. White Egg, Black Tiger, and Flower Girl also charge, but they only follow behind the lead dog, barking to encourage it and create a fierce atmosphere to deter the prey. Then, when they see an opening, they pounce and rip off the prey's ears and anus in one swift motion.
The white mastiffs and the spotted-eared tigers are smarter; they can observe the terrain and, when the tiger charges, they can flank from both sides, forming an encirclement and blocking the prey's escape route, thus preparing for the den's demise.
Therefore, when hunting dogs are surrounding their prey, they bark wildly and aggressively. Only when they enter the biting and territorial stage, with their teeth firmly gripping the prey's throat, hind legs, and back, will they fall silent.
But even if the one that stayed in its nest dies, Hammer will still bark. That lazy girl never bites.
Now that all eight hunting dogs were silent, the three men's hearts pounded.
Lu Zhiqiang exclaimed first, "Damn! This is weird!"
He took two steps cautiously with his gun in hand, when he suddenly noticed that there were faintly visible graves standing on the mountain behind him.
The graves were a mix of new and old, like those in a county town. Some of the older graves were even rotten, and there were some yellow talismans on them; I wondered if they were yellow talismans brought by mountain folk or Taoist priests.
Lu Zhiqiang panicked. This big, strong man had always been brave enough to fight, charging in without hesitation, and had never hesitated even when facing a cannonball. Now he whispered, "The weasels are in charge now."
Song Desheng suddenly remembered the traps scattered all over the ground earlier, and said, "The people of Wangxingtun are really cunning! No wonder they set traps all the way into the mountains, they were waiting here."
The Xiongcang that Li Ju'an wanted to go to was behind that mountain; to get there, one had to cross the mountain ridge.
He rummaged through the bark markings on the side, leaving another bark mark on top, and said, "Let's go, don't believe in any demons or monsters. Let's ask the mountain god for passage."
The three men followed the hounds' tracks, which was quite strange. The hounds' tracks were all there, and as they continued along the path, their pace quickened to a trot, and they found all eight dog tracks.
The stranger Song Desheng found it, the less he dared to move forward. Goosebumps erupted all over his body as he said, "Not a single dog is missing. It's too strange. And there are no other wild animal tracks. It couldn't be a tiger that tracked us forward."
If you surround a dog, there will surely be prey running ahead.
The dark figure the three had just seen left no footprints in the snow, which made the hairs on their bodies stand on end and their steps falter.
As dusk approached, the weather was getting dark around 4 PM, especially since it's the end of the year.
Li Ju'an pondered that he should first find a hunter's hut to rest in, or find the forest ranger's duty room, or a wooden hut left by a beekeeper in the past to make do for the night.
Lu Zhiqiang pointed to the ridge and said, "The mining area's work area is over there. But this is an old work area, and I don't know if there are any people left here now."
Regardless of whether anyone stays behind or not, finding a sheltered house is a good thing.
Li Ju'an marked another spot for bark removal and led the two men toward the work area on the ridge.
Along the way, the group saw many snares, as well as large ice packs containing piles of wild animal bones, and four-meter-long logs with wires underneath, though the wires were damaged. It was clearly a large snare used to trap medium to large animals.
Li Ju'an squatted down and swept the skull with his flashlight. He observed that the skull resembled that of a deer, and the hooves were about one and a half fists in size. Judging from the appearance, it was quite old.
Song Desheng didn't dare go too far. He pointed to a large patch of chokecherry trees in front of him and said, "So many fruits have fallen and no one has picked them up yet."
There were still one or two fruits left hanging on the tree, and they looked so dry that even if you picked them off, you couldn't eat them.
Lu Zhiqiang felt a chill run down his spine, his arms were cold and shivering uncontrollably. He rubbed his arms vigorously and said, "Let's hurry on our way. This old graveyard is creepy. No wonder those traps from so far away are still there; they've all been given to the mountain god."
He was referring to the traps on the ground, filled with frozen animal carcasses. Many were buried under the snow, while some were peeking out from behind tree roots where snow didn't accumulate, allowing you to see people setting the traps, but no one was actually using them.
Song Desheng, quick to follow up, joked, "It's not necessarily that no one is trying to sneak in the trap; maybe the person trying to sneak in the trap is no longer around."
He tried to bolster his courage with lame jokes, but was met with fierce glares from the two men, so he quickly shut his mouth and stopped talking.
This mining area is called Baihuiyao, and it's an old mining area.
The three of them bypassed a lot of traps and snares, and when they reached the top of the mountain, there was a fence in the distance, as if someone lived there.
The courtyard fence is over a meter high, made of wooden poles standing side by side, with a small wooden house in the middle.
Because they were far away and the sky was dark, the group couldn't see very clearly. The mountain crows all flew towards this one spot, cawing as if to say, "Hurry, there's meat!"
Lu Zhiqiang slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "We've finally found the gatekeeper of the work area! Let's go, let's go to the duty room and get a cup of hot tea."
Song Desheng hesitated greatly and said, "You dare to go to the place Lao Gua ran away to? Brother, are you really so eager to be reborn without fear of death? Aren't you afraid that this is Huang Daxian's lair, and there are several stunning beauties waiting for you inside?"
Whether he was truly stunning or not, Li Ju'an didn't know, but he knew that Song Desheng, even with a wife, was still eyeing other beauties. He patted the back of Song Desheng's head and laughed, "Even if it were a stunning beauty transformed by the Yellow Immortal, you wouldn't stand a chance. You'd better stay behind us and hold your gun."
As Song Desheng was muttering to himself, a commotion suddenly broke out near the duty room in the distance. It turned out to be a Handahan, caught in a snare, struggling to break free and running wildly toward them.
Handahan, or moose, can reach a length of 3 meters. This male moose has very beautiful antlers, which are tall and strong, with two super large antlers on its head that look like two fans.
The hand-held deer was startled when it stepped into the snare, making a great commotion. This snare was originally intended for small to medium-sized prey, but it couldn't catch the legs of the large deer like the hand-held deer, and could only make it run away in fright.
Li Ju'an used the trunk of a plum tree to prop up his Mosin-Nagant rifle, aimed through a 3.5x scope, and pulled the trigger.
The 7.62mm bullet flew toward Handahan's deer head.