Chapter 606: The Wild Boar King Kills Another Person

This was perfectly normal; a hunter could run into anything. But the time it took for Xue Liwei to arrive, kill the badger, and let his five dogs rest before moving on had cost them nearly an hour.

By the time the Dog Gang picked up the scent of the Big Cannon Egg again, the wild boar had already left its lair.

Then, the chase was on—the boar fled while the dogs pursued, fighting as they went.

What Xue Liwei expected even less, however, was that there was a pit here.

In the parlance of the Mountain Runners, this kind of pit was called a Turtle Pit. A small Turtle Pit was a boar’s burial ground.

But a large Turtle Pit was where a boar was crowned king.

This cannon eggs had enthroned itself as king right here, and the sacrificial offerings for its coronation were none other than Xue Liwei’s pack of dogs.

BANG! Xue Liwei fired another shot toward the Turtle Pit. He was holding a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle provided by the Yong’an Forest Farm’s security team, so he didn’t have to reload after every shot. But after he fired, dirt flew up, and he hadn’t even grazed a single boar bristle.

His eyes red with fury, Xue Liwei was desperate for revenge, but he couldn’t see the boar in the pit at all. Even with the Type 56 rifle, his efforts were useless.

Xue Liwei moved forward again until he was about three meters from the pit. He could even see the opposite edge of the pit’s opening, but he still couldn’t see inside.

Xue Liwei had been a Mountain Runner for five or six years. He’d encountered situations like this before and knew that if the pit was deep, he’d have to get within half a meter of it to have any chance of aiming at the boar inside.

The problem was, this boar wasn’t some inanimate object. If Xue Liwei got too close and the boar charged out, he wouldn’t come out on top in a close-quarters fight.

But Xue Liwei also knew how to handle this. Keeping his rifle aimed at the Turtle Pit, he glanced left and right. Spotting a rock not far to his right, he moved over to it quickly, still aiming. He slowly crouched down, keeping the rifle steady with his left hand. With his right hand, he felt for the rock, grabbed it, and quickly stood up, tossing it into the pit.

Xue Liwei’s aim was true. The rock went straight into the pit. Instantly, a RUMBLE came from inside, and dust billowed out.

The unsuspecting boar, thinking something had entered the pit to attack it, began to thrash about inside.

Seeing this, Xue Liwei quickly moved forward and to the left. Over there was a stick about a meter long and as thick as a goose egg. He planned to pick it up and throw it into the pit as well. Only by startling the boar out of hiding would he get a chance to shoot.

Xue Liwei reached the stick. He kept the rifle held in his left hand, the stock pressed against his left chest, and crouched down to pick up the stick with his right hand. Just as he was about to stand, a plume of dirt shot up from the pit two meters away.

‘This is bad!’

When the unexpected happened, Xue Liwei’s brain and hands weren’t in sync. Before his mind could even process the situation, he had already raised the stick and thrown it at the boar.

If he had just dropped the stick and fired his rifle, he might have been able to turn the tables. But by the time he had raised the stick, his brain finally caught up, and by then it was too late.

With the stick already raised, it was like an arrow on the bowstring that had to be loosed. Xue Liwei could only hurl the stick at the boar, but there was no time to bring the rifle to his cheek to aim.

He didn’t even aim, just pulled the trigger. BANG! BANG! Both shots missed, landing to the boar’s left and right. His retreat was far slower than the boar’s charge.

The boar rushed right up to Xue Liwei, thrust its head under his crotch, and flicked its head upward. A blood-curdling scream was heard as Xue Liwei was tossed behind the boar, landing heavily on the ground.

The boar turned and charged him again. Getting close, it lowered its head, drove its snout under Xue Liwei’s body, and gave a sharp forward heave. Another scream, and Xue Liwei was thrown directly into the Turtle Pit, instantly falling silent.

“Hurry! Hurry!”

“Up ahead!”

“The boar! The boar!”

At that moment, shouts rose and fell not far away. The boar’s ears twitched, and it bolted straight ahead.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

From one hundred and fifty meters away, Hong Yuntao and the other two men opened fire.

But at this point, the boar only had its rear end facing them. In the parlance of Mountain Runners, this was called ‘shooting it in the ass,’ and with only a pig’s rump for a target, it was an incredibly difficult shot.

Six shots, not a single hit. In the blink of an eye, the boar vanished.

“Quick!” Hong Yuntao shouted, lowering his rifle. The three of them rushed to the Turtle Pit and scrambled to pull Xue Liwei out.

Xue Liwei was still unconscious. Seeing blood on his back and legs, a panicked Hong Yuntao quickly unbuttoned Xue Liwei’s clothes, tore up his undershirt, and examined the wound on his back.

A gash about a hand-span long ran parallel to his spine. The flesh on either side of the wound was peeled back, and it was bleeding nonstop.

Hong Yuntao hastily pulled a bandage from his pocket and began wrapping the wound, telling the other two security team members to tend to the injury on Xue Liwei’s thigh.

“Tighter!” Hong Yuntao yelled at his men. If the wound on the thigh wasn’t wrapped tightly, Xue Liwei could bleed to death.

BANG! Just as Hong Yuntao finished speaking, a gunshot rang out from up ahead.

Hong Yuntao froze. He looked ahead and muttered, “Who fired that shot? I hope to god they got that boar. That thing is a goddamn menace!”

This morning, Hong Yuntao and two security team members had accompanied Xue Liwei up the mountain ahead of the others.

Near Crow’s Hollow, Xue Liwei’s Dog Gang had caught a badger, a small victory. Then they picked up the boar’s trail, and the five hounds chased it for over five li.

Hong Yuntao and the other two security team members had fired plenty of bullets in their day, but they’d never done any field training in the mountains. Once they started running, they couldn’t keep up with Xue Liwei, who was a year-round Mountain Runner.

By the time they arrived, Xue Liwei was already down.

After they finished bandaging Xue Liwei’s wounds, Hong Yuntao took one look and saw that Xue Liwei’s face was as white as a sheet.

“Oh my god!” Hong Yuntao knew this was bad. He quickly placed a hand under Xue Liwei’s chin and cried out in alarm. He tossed his rifle to one of the men and had the other help get Xue Liwei onto his back. Then, Hong Yuntao started running down the slope with Xue Liwei on his back.

One team member stayed behind him, helping to steady Xue Liwei, while the other picked up the rifle Xue Liwei had dropped and ran to catch up with Hong Yuntao.

The boar and the men were gone. The smoke of battle had cleared from the field, leaving only the mournful howl of a single hound.

The hound whose spine had been snapped by the boar wouldn’t die right away. For it, being alive was a form of torture.

About ten minutes later, two men appeared on the slope: Zhao Youcai and Wang Qiang.

That morning, while Hong Yuntao had gone up the mountain with Xue Liwei, Liu Jinyong had stayed at the New Logging Camp to wait for Zhao Youcai.

When Zhao Youcai arrived, Liu Jinyong issued him and Wang Qiang their gear and then accompanied them up the mountain.

The three of them, led by Zhao Youcai and Wang Qiang, followed the boar’s tracks to the place it had laired the day before. But they only found the stench of urine, no boar.

Zhao Youcai made a quick decision and led Wang Qiang and Liu Jinyong over to this area to head it off. But just as they arrived, they saw a Big Cannon Egg come down the slope, cross the Wood Transport Route, and head up the opposite hillside.

Zhao Youcai had just raised his rifle when the Big Cannon Egg disappeared into the thicket, leaving only its rump visible.

Zhao Youcai adjusted his aim upward slightly, but after he fired one shot, silence fell over the thicket on the opposite slope.

Zhao Youcai and the others gave chase, but they found the grass was deep and the forest dense on this side, making it impossible to pick up the boar’s trail.

Then Liu Jinyong said he had heard someone fire six shots in a row just now. Figuring it must be Xue Liwei and Hong Yuntao’s group, he suggested they go find them and join up.

Zhao Youcai didn’t refuse. Although partnering with Xue Liwei meant that Xue, as the owner of the lead dogs, would take the larger share of any earnings, that was the rule of the hunt, and Elder Zhao always abided by the rules.

Besides, Zhao Youcai was very interested in Xue Liwei’s pack of dogs. He knew that these days, in this part of the Northeast, you could only find crossbreeds of Mengxi and “stupid dogs” from Zhao Dong. For Xue Liwei to get so many dogs like that, he must have connections in Zhao Dong.

Zhao Youcai, who had recently been thinking about building up his own Dog Gang, was eager to ask Xue Liwei if he could help him acquire a few dogs. As for the cost, he, Zhao Youcai, could afford it.

But just as the three of them came down from the opposite slope, they saw Hong Yuntao’s group coming down from this one.

Seeing Hong Yuntao carrying someone on his back, Liu Jinyong went forward for a look. Realizing the situation was dire, he quickly followed Hong Yuntao to help get Xue Liwei to the horse-drawn cart.

Seeing Xue Liwei’s condition, Zhao Youcai knew the man was in bad shape. A wave of unease washed over him. This was the nephew of an old acquaintance, after all. To be gored to death by a boar like this… it filled Zhao Youcai with sorrow.

Therefore, Zhao Youcai wanted to go back with them to see if he could be of any help.

But the horse-drawn cart they had come in had limited space. With Xue Liwei lying in the middle, there was no room for anyone else, so Zhao Youcai and Wang Qiang started walking back to the New Logging Camp.

But as they passed the recent battlefield, Zhao Youcai heard the wailing of a dog and hurried up the slope to investigate.

When he reached the top and saw the scene, Zhao Youcai couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.