Hunting a black bear requires patience, as black bears are very smart and any slight flaw will alert them, rendering the trap ineffective.
Anyway, when Zhao Ya returned to the trap the next day, he found it empty.
Not discouraged, Zhao Ya set it up again and placed a new bait inside the trap.
Niu Yuan had taught him about bait specifically, saying it must first have a salty taste.
Because, for wild beasts in the mountains, salt is the most precious thing, and a piece of fresh meat with salt is irresistibly tempting to them.
Secondly, it shouldn’t be too obvious.
Beasts are not fools; especially those mutated creatures are very clever.
If you place the bait too obviously, it won’t work.
Zhao Ya carefully arranged the bait according to Niu Yuan’s instructions, then found a place to hide.
Patience is a basic quality of an excellent hunter.
Zhao Ya stayed hidden in the forest for more than an hour, his eyes fixed on the animal trail.
Finally.
As if attracted by the bait’s aroma, a distant patch of grass began to stir, and a gigantic black bear slowly emerged.
At the sight of this black bear, Zhao Ya’s eyes lit up.
Because it was clearly a mutated black bear.
Zhao Ya stayed hidden, quietly waiting.
This black bear was very cautious, slowly approaching the bait without actually going for it, clearly observing the situation.
Finally.
Unable to resist the temptation of the bait, it tentatively stretched out its front paw to press the ground.
No movement!
Zhao Ya had anticipated this and thus set the trap’s trigger very high.
The black bear finally let its guard down, stepping into the trap and about to bite the bait.
At that moment, the wire snare hidden under the fallen leaves sprang, ensnaring the bear’s hind leg. At the same time, numerous logs flew from all directions, each studded with sharp blades, stabbing fiercely into the bear’s body.
In pain, the black bear let out a roar.
Simultaneously, Zhao Ya drew his bow and arrow, aiming straight at the bear’s wide-open mouth and releasing the arrow.
After shooting the arrow, Zhao Ya drew his Meteorite Iron Saber and charged forward like a gust of wind.
He did not follow Niu Yuan’s guidance to slowly wear down the prey.
Because although Niu Yuan and his group had rich hunting experience and decent skills in handling blades, they were still ordinary people, lacking Zhao Ya’s formidable Qi Blood.
Once the prey was trapped, the rest was simple.
Zhao Ya rushed to the front and with one slash, severed the black bear’s spine.
As it collapsed, Zhao Ya’s blade plunged directly into its eye, ending its suffering.
After a successful hunt, Zhao Ya swiftly cut open the bear’s belly, extracting the bear gall and storing it in a pre-prepared vial.
As for the rest of the flesh and blood, Zhao Ya didn’t waste it; he packed up the bear’s paws and other edible parts before returning to the city.
Upon returning home, Zhao Ya first used several preservative herbs to pickle the bear gall, then eagerly started cooking the bear meat.
However, after busying himself for half a day, when Zhao Ya finally tasted the bear meat, he was utterly disappointed.
He felt no significant Qi Blood from the bear meat, comparable to the pork sold in the market.
The key issue was that it tasted awful.
Zhao Ya finally understood why so many martial artists in Wuxiang City didn’t venture into the forest to hunt.
The flesh of these wild Exotic Beasts had little nutritional value.
Only certain parts, like the bear gall from this black bear, had medicinal properties, but even those needed to be combined with other herbs to be edible.
So no wonder those Earthworm Dried Meat and Cured Green Bamboo Snake from the Inner City were all artificially cultivated.
In the days that followed, Zhao Ya went hunting outside the city every day, quickly improving his hunting skills and soon became an experienced old hunter.
However, as time went on, Zhao Ya noticed that the situation outside the city was becoming worse.
Initially, the refugees could still enter the city, but as their numbers soared, Wuxiang City’s capacity reached its limit.
Thus, the three major families of the Inner City posted guards at the city gates, preventing the refugees from entering.
Unable to enter the city, the refugees gathered at the forest’s edge and quickly formed various large and small communities.
While venturing into the mountains, Zhao Ya often saw starving refugees taking desperate risks by attempting to hunt in the forest.
However, these people, exhausted from long-term hunger, were in no condition to survive in the dangerous forests.
Without exception, they all ended up as meals for the wild beasts in the mountains.
Besides this, security in these refugee settlements began to deteriorate rapidly.
For those who were starving, laws and morals were less significant than a piece of moldy bread.
Without external restraints, these enclaves quickly devolved into a jungle society where the strong preyed on the weak.
If you had power, you could freely take others’ possessions, or even their lives.
In just a few days, Zhao Ya personally witnessed no less than a dozen fights or murders.
For this, Zhao Ya was powerless, watching in silence.
He could save one or two, but with so many people, even with his exceptional abilities, Zhao Ya couldn’t save them all.
One day, just as Zhao Ya was preparing to enter the forest for hunting as usual, he suddenly heard a weak voice beside him.
"Kind sir, please have pity on me and save my child!"
Looking in the direction of the voice, Zhao Ya saw a woman holding a child at the forest’s edge, leaning against a big tree and looking at him.
Seeing Zhao Ya stop, the woman struggled to her feet, trembling as she spoke.
"Kind sir, they want to eat my child. That’s why I ran here. Please have pity on me, give my child something to eat! I am willing to do anything for you!"
As she spoke, she made a feeble attempt to straighten her chest, but long-term starvation had left her emaciated, even causing the feminine features to become hollow.
Zhao Ya fell silent.
Despite the woman’s extreme thinness, looking almost like a skeleton, the child in her arms seemed better off, still skinny but with a hint of color on his cheeks, looking curiously at him.
"Sir, just a piece of bread for the child!" The woman implored when she saw Zhao Ya remain silent.
Zhao Ya sighed, retrieved a small bag of rations from his pack, and handed it to the woman.
"Eat it quietly here, and be sure not to let anyone see, understand?" Zhao Ya cautioned.
Upon receiving the ration bag, the woman knelt down with a thump, bowing repeatedly to Zhao Ya.
"Thank you, kind sir, thank you!"
Zhao Ya shook his head, "That’s enough, there’s no need for that, hurry and eat."
With that, Zhao Ya turned and entered the forest.
After he left, the woman shakily pulled a piece of flatbread from the ration bag, chewed a few times, and then began feeding it to her child.
After such prolonged hunger, she had no milk, and could only feed her child this way.
Meanwhile, as Zhao Ya ventured deeper into the mountains, his mood turned somber.
He knew he wasn’t a saint, but today’s scene deeply pierced his heart.
A mother willing to pay any price for her child, and still, someone wanted to eat her child.
Zhao Ya suddenly didn’t know how to describe his feelings.
He could only exhale deeply, muttering softly under his breath.
"Damn this world!"
Today’s harvest was good, as Zhao Ya managed to hunt two Golden Flower Snakes, obtaining their snake galls, adding more medicinal materials to his stock.
By evening, as Zhao Ya emerged from the deep forest with his spoils, he did not see the woman from earlier at the forest’s edge.
His heart sank as he quickly exited the forest, spotting smoke rising from a distant refugee campsite, accompanied by the faint aroma of cooking meat.