Chapter 54 - 50: Wild Boar Bully
He shook the two loaches out and tossed them into another plastic bucket filled with water.
The loaches were fresh and alive. After being tossed into the bucket, they swam around nonstop, stirring up ripples in the water.
"Loach soup is delicious. Xiaowu, I want to have loach soup tonight."
Qin Ziwu readily agreed. "Alright!" He suddenly slapped his head in frustration. "Ah, I forgot to ask about those mushrooms we picked yesterday. If they’re edible, we could’ve added them to the soup to enhance the flavor."
"Haha, that would’ve been fine, but don’t eat them until we’ve confirmed they’re safe." Qin Ziwen casually retrieved the Earth Cage.
"We need to move this Earth Cage. The feng shui here is terrible. The first day, the cage got broken, and the second day, a snake showed up."
𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
He carried the Earth Cage several dozen meters upstream. There was a gentle slope there, with lush water plants by the riverbank. It was another good spot to set the cage.
After a moment of hesitation, he decided against setting the Earth Cage down. Starting tomorrow or the day after, he planned to head northeast to try and find the altar in the northern mountain range.
If he set the Earth Cage here, he would have to come back tomorrow. The journey itself was time-consuming; a round trip would waste the better part of a day.
So, he just packed all the snare-trapping equipment into his bag as well. Since he didn’t plan on coming back this way tomorrow, there was no point in setting traps.
He took the map out of his pocket, compared it with the river’s flow, and used the map’s markings to quickly determine the approximate location of the wild kiwis.
The three of them walked for some distance through the forest.
Qin Ziwen stopped and looked around. "Do you smell that?"
Qin Ziwu frowned. "I do. It smells like a corpse."
The stench of death was unmistakable, especially from one’s own kind.
Once you’ve smelled it, you never forget that unique scent.
Deng Guang began to search the surroundings. "If we can smell it, it must be close."
After a careful search, they soon spotted a body lying face down on the ground not far from the base of a tree.
The body belonged to a male. His head was turned to the side, his expression contorted in agony. His shirt was hiked up to his waist, and his cheeks and palms were covered in dirt.
The exposed skin was covered in purplish-red livor mortis.
There were contusions on his hands and feet, and ants crawled in and out of the wounds.
A chill ran down their spines.
A dead body here meant there was danger nearby.
Qin Ziwen roughly estimated from the body’s condition, "He couldn’t have been dead for long. Yesterday at the latest."
The temperature in the forest wasn’t low, and in this environment, a body would decompose quickly. Plus, there were plenty of insects in the forest. If he had been dead for too long, the body wouldn’t look like this.
"He was stabbed through here." Deng Guang pointed from a distance at the corpse’s shoulder. Something seemed to have pierced clean through it, leaving a bloody mess where bone was visible.
Qin Ziwen frowned. "It probably wasn’t a large carnivore. If it were a predator, there would be signs of it being eaten, but as of now, I don’t see any bite marks."
Qin Ziwu guessed, "So it must have been a highly aggressive herbivore? And the wound is on his back, so he must have been caught while trying to run away."
Deng Guang guessed, "Could also be an omnivore."
Staring at the puncture wound on the corpse’s shoulder, Qin Ziwen grew more and more puzzled. A possibility suddenly occurred to him. "Could it be a wild boar? This looks like it was made by a tusk."
"A wild boar? The one we saw yesterday couldn’t jump that high." Qin Ziwu shook his head and pointed at the wound. "For a boar to gore him in this spot, it would have to be enormous."
As soon as he finished speaking, the air fell silent for a moment.
Deng Guang gave a dry laugh. "No way, right? We saw a wild boar yesterday, and it wasn’t nearly that big."
"The animals here are generally larger than on Earth. We’ve seen crocodiles over seven meters long. It’s not impossible for a boar to be bigger too." At this thought, Qin Ziwen felt that their surroundings weren’t safe.
He looked up. The Beaked Eagle was perched on a branch, vigilantly surveying the area without making a sound.
’Good. It seems there’s no immediate danger.’
Qin Ziwu asked, "So, are we still going to pick kiwis today?"
Staring into the depths of the dense forest, Qin Ziwen was silent for a long time. "We’re going. We’ve already come this far, and our destination is just ahead."
He took out his phone and took a picture of the body.
"This might be Li Yue’s companion. We’ll ask him when we get back."
Qin Ziwen warned, "We ran into a wild boar on our route yesterday. That means this area might be its usual territory. Everyone, stay sharp."
Fortunately, they reached their destination without any further incidents. The group picked all the remaining wild kiwis from the tree and put them in their bags, filling one and a half backpacks this time.
With some experience walking in the forest now, the three of them were moving faster. Qin Ziwen took out his phone; it was just past noon, twelve o’clock. There was still plenty of time.
After taking out their dry rations and eating, Qin Ziwen thought for a moment and decided to press on deeper into the forest.
"SKREEEEEE!"
A piercing shriek echoed through the forest.
The Beaked Eagle beat its wings, sounding a warning.
They all looked in the direction it was flapping, down the slope to their side. A massive, pitch-black beast had crept up on them at some point without them noticing.
A chill went through them. ’This thing is smart. It actually knows how to sneak up on prey.’
Realizing it had been discovered, the great boar at the bottom of the slope stopped and let out a threatening warning sound from its throat.
Behind the great boar, a smaller one came into view. Next to the adult, the piglet looked as small as a toy figurine.
"Go!"
Qin Ziwen said decisively.
They couldn’t go down the slope; they had to find another way.
Luckily, the slope was covered in vines and branches. The great boar was too large to charge straight up.
The three of them went down the back of the slope. This side was steeper, but it was thick with trees. Grabbing onto the trunks, they made a quick, hair-raising but safe descent.
"Let’s go. We’ll circle around."
Behind them, the great boar stomped its way to the top of the slope.
"SKRAW!"
The Beaked Eagle shrieked, diving from the sky and clawing for the boar’s eyes.
The great boar raised its head, its tusks sweeping sideways, but the Beaked Eagle flapped its wings in mid-air, feinting to evade the attack.
The great boar prepared to continue up the slope, but the Beaked Eagle dove from behind and to the side, clawing at the piglet. The two-hundred-pound piglet squealed in terror.
This forced the great boar to turn back and protect the piglet.
The Beaked Eagle didn’t press the attack, just kept harassing it.
The boar shook its head, thoroughly annoyed, and roared furiously at the sky.
Even after the Beaked Eagle spread its wings and flew away, the great boar remained frozen in place, watching warily for a long time. Then, it glanced in the direction Qin Ziwen and the others had fled, grunted twice, and slowly led the piglet away.
After getting away down the back of the slope, Qin Ziwen’s group circled around, not stopping for a moment.
Compared to other animals, humanity’s greatest advantage is its superior endurance.
Qin Ziwen said in a low voice, "I suspect the man who died was attacked by that boar."
That boar snuck up on us, clearly intending to attack. This might not be the first person it has killed.
If not for the Beaked Eagle’s warning and stalling, they probably wouldn’t have had time to escape once the boar got close.
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