Chapter 172 Arctic Fox (XII)

August is coming to an end, and in the tundra areas far from the poles, day and night are gradually alternating.

The newborn fox cubs were terrified when they saw the sunset for the first time since they grew up!

As the sun slowly sank into the horizon, the world was swallowed up by endless darkness.

The fox cubs were innocent and stupid; how could they have ever seen such a scene?

They thought that alien species attacked the sun and then defeated it, scaring them into hiding in their nests.

At first, the night was very short.

Just as the stupid fox cub hid in his den, the sun rose brightly again.

The little foxes, who had never seen the world, rushed out and yelled at the sun, celebrating that the sun had defeated the evil forces.

If you don’t know, you might think they are mini Tengu, responsible for eating the moon.

Day and night cycled several times, and the nights became longer and longer. The fox cub gradually adapted to the night and was not as excited as at the beginning.

Experienced Arctic creatures know that when the sun begins to set, the weather is about to turn cold and the habitat will soon be covered with ice and snow.

The migratory birds flap their wings and set off to the warm south to spend the winter.

Among them, there is a large group of birds called Arctic Terns, which have the longest migration path in the world. Every year, they fly from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and then from the Antarctic to the Arctic, truly traveling around the world.

The animals that do not have wings and cannot travel around the world have begun to store up fat in order to resist the cold winter by eating a lot.

Arctic hares and lemmings drag the leftover grass into their nests as food reserves, while musk oxen and reindeer eat it from morning to night and have almost no time to chew the cud.

Predators living in this area also need to deal with the test of cold winters.

In the months before winter, Arctic wolves rapidly expand their territories and use any means necessary to hunt.

The Arctic Circle is so large that as they expand their living space, they will naturally occupy the habitats of other animals.

If they occupy other wolf packs' territory, the worst that can happen is a fight. The Mackenzie wolves, for example, control their population through fighting.

If some unlucky wolves are not smart enough to seize the territory of the Fox Army, they will not be able to live in peace.

The Arctic fox is small in size and has limited combat power. Yu Yiyun knows that she has little chance of winning a head-on confrontation.

Every time a pack of wolves occupied their territory, they would quickly evacuate with their fox cubs.

When the wolf pack members let down their guard and were busy looking for prey or playing, Yu Yiyun took the opportunity to turn back and catch them off guard.

The Fox Legion has weak combat effectiveness and is not suitable for head-on combat.

Yu Yiyun used her petite body to make the big dogs run around in circles, attacking their weakest points.

The majestic alpha wolf had its tail bitten off. Not only could it not stay there any longer, it couldn't even hold its head up in front of its family members, so it retreated in disgrace.

After several wolf packs failed in their attempts to capture territory, stray wolves soon spread the news throughout the Arctic, telling the entire wolf clan that "there is a group of foxes here that you can't mess with."

The wolf pack closest to the Fox Legion breathed a sigh of relief.

Thankfully, due to last year's experience, when the Fox Legion first arrived, the nearby wolf packs wisely did not provoke them.

Otherwise, it would be difficult for a group of big wolves like them to get a complete tail together.

[The dog is crying.jpg]

During his lifetime, Yu Yiyun had been the son of Tiger King Shanjun and the apprentice of Wolf King Quinn, perfectly inheriting the fighting genes of the two beast kings.

Like Quinn, he led a huge army of foxes and drove the wolves far away, but that was not the end.

The pig held the half tail torn from the leader wolf in its mouth, and imitated the tiger, smearing the wolf's blood on the edge of its territory.

Wolves have a keen sense of smell. As long as they smell blood, they know that a fierce battle has taken place here and they will definitely not dare to approach easily.

Sure enough, for a long time afterwards, not only did the red foxes avoid the fox army, but even the Arctic wolves did not dare to provoke this group of ferocious foxes of the fighting race.

Before winter came, the Fox Army successfully established itself in this land rich in prey.

When the land is covered with ice and snow and the strength of the herbivores is weakened, the Fox Army will surely survive the cold winter with unity and courage!

Yu Yiyun watched the fox cub grow up day by day. He rubbed against this one and that one happily, then jumped to his youngest sister and said goodbye to her.

"Hmm~" Sister, I'll leave the house to you~

"Woo-woo?"

The youngest sister tilted her head, as if asking, "Where is brother going?"

I want to explore this world!

Yu Yiyun held her head high and stuck out her belly, describing the fooling around in a fresh and refined way.

The youngest sister snorted softly and continued to clean her hair while lying there. She did not express much about Yu Yijun's scumbag behavior of "abandoning her sister and nephew".

Today, the Fox Army owns a rich territory, and the little foxes are almost half a year old and can join the hunting as a combat force.

As her brother's favorite fox, the youngest sister diligently learned all of Yu Yiyun's fighting skills and is fully capable of leading the large family to fight against natural enemies and the severe cold.

Fortunately, with the youngest sister around, Yu Yiyun, who is forever young and always likes to fool around, can take the next step with confidence.

It has been a whole year since Yu Yiyun came to the Arctic, and the only areas he has explored are the islands and land near the coast.

Most Arctic foxes spend their entire lives wandering around these places.

But Yu Yiyun is different.

The Arctic in his understanding is the pole and the vast glaciers!

Yu Yiyun, who once challenged the top of the world's third pole, happily embarked on a journey to explore the glacier wearing a protective suit that can withstand extreme cold.

Exploring a glacier is no easy task.

Although Yu Yiyun can swim, she is small in size and can only store a limited amount of calories, so she cannot stay in the water for a long time like a polar bear.

In the bitterly cold winter, if the fur gets wet, even an Arctic fox is at risk of freezing to death relying solely on its thin subcutaneous fat.

In the Arctic in autumn, the glacier coverage rate is low, and the coast is still filled with roaring sea water.

The puppy who dreams of infinity must wait until the glaciers freeze before he can walk on the ice to reach the pole.

The little fox was full of confidence and walked without recognizing any relatives until he came to the coast closest to the pole.

When you reach the coast, the first thing you need to do is to find food.

The sea breeze is howling and the temperature is getting lower day by day.

The Arctic fox has a small body and consumes energy quickly, so it must ensure sufficient and timely energy intake to be able to withstand the severe cold.

In recent days, the daylight hours have become shorter and shorter, and the vegetation near the coast has been eaten bare. Lemmings and Arctic hares have either hidden themselves or moved to places where food is more abundant.

Yu Yiyun searched for a long time but had difficulty finding suitable prey.

If other Arctic foxes find that they cannot find enough prey, they will display the characteristics of nomadic animals and move south to follow the tracks of prey.

Luckily, we pigs eat everything and are willing to snatch anyone’s food.

On the third day when the sea froze, Yu Yiyun encountered several polar bears, which seemed to be waiting for the coast to freeze.

A polar bear found the carcass of a whale washed ashore and took it for itself.

The knowledgeable Yu Yiyun ran over and recognized it as a bowhead whale, the largest whale in the entire Arctic.

Bowhead whales can reach more than 20 meters in length and weigh more than 100 tons.

Even if a polar bear eats three meals a day, it would still be enough to eat for a whole year.

The ferocious and powerful polar bear originally planned to monopolize the bowhead whale.

As a result, it was besieged by other bears. The bear was outnumbered and could not finish eating the food before it was completely rotten, so it allowed the other polar bears to approach.

Soon, the polar bears who were waiting for the glaciers to freeze came following the smell to enjoy their first meal of the autumn.

Generally speaking, when polar bears are enjoying their prey, other animals on land dare not approach at all.

Many foxes that live in the same habitat as polar bears dare only stay far away, waiting until the polar bears finish eating before moving over to pick up the leftovers.

Bowhead whales attract so many polar bears that they come in waves to hunt their prey.

From a distance, I thought the whale had grown hair.

If an ordinary fox encounters this situation, it would not dare to approach the snow leopard even if it asked for a hundred times the courage.

Yu Yiyun was very brave. He ran over with his tail wagging, and dug a spot between the two polar bears to crawl into.

The bears on both sides noticed him and angry sounds rolled in their throats.

There were too many bears gathered around for any one to monopolize the prey, so the ferocious polar kings reluctantly shared the prey.

They are the ceiling of bear family's combat power and have brutal temperaments.

Whenever they encounter a weak animal snatching food, even an underage polar bear will ruthlessly drive it away or even bite it to death.

A mother bear with cubs passing by saw so many male bears gathered here.

Even if they were hungry, they would not risk sacrificing their own cubs and come over to get a share of the pie.

Male wild beasts have similar habits. As long as they bite the female beast's cub to death, they have a better chance of passing on their bloodline.

They can't even tolerate a baby polar bear, let alone an arrogant Arctic fox?

"Oh~" It smells so good~

Yu Yiyun seemed unaware of the danger. He took two bites of the whale meat, and his newly grown white hair turned the color of dragon fruit.

He raised his red puppy face, looked at the bears glaring at him, and asked innocently:

"Hmm?" Don't you two want to eat?

The polar bear was successfully angered by the little fox's attitude. He roared, raised his paw and slapped it hard.

Unfortunately, there is no internet in the bear world, so they could never imagine how much experience the fox in front of them had gained from their distant relatives.

Yu Yiyun had dealt with brown bears countless times and had already mastered the bears' attack methods. Before the bear's paws fell, he would jump high and hide between the other bear's paws.

The bear that launched the attack initially raised its paw again.

The bear, who was used as a shield by the pig, became angry and started to attack as well.

Zhu Wang shrank his head and went around behind the polar bear's pillar-like legs.

The first bear's anger value was max, and its falling bear paw hit the other bear's sturdy leg hard.

The second bear was planning to attack the little fox running around under him, but he was kicked by another bear for no apparent reason. He got so angry that he barked like a dog, stood up and overturned the bear next to him.

Bear No. 1 rolled twice, turned over while howling, and stood up.

Two bears, each three meters tall, wrestled with each other in a standing position, like boxers wrestling.

Yu Yiyun unceremoniously took over the place where the two had just been eating, munching on the whale meat and making a crazy noise at the same time.

"Yingying~" Good job! Use more force~

"Hmm?" Didn't you two have dinner?

The two bears, who had been fighting for no apparent reason, were exhausted, hungry, and both injured, so they reluctantly decided to temporarily cease fighting.

They turned around and found that the culprit beast had eaten and drunk its fill, and was lying on the rocks with its belly turned up to bask in the sun.

One bear got so angry that it walked over, roaring, and hit him with all its might.

Yu Yiyun rolled around a few times and slammed his bear paw hard on the big rock.

Xiongxiong let out a wail and became completely obedient.

For the next half month, Yu Yiyun ate on time and gained a lot of weight.

During this period, many polar bears disliked him.

But roaring didn't work on the little fox, and he couldn't catch it with his claws. He could only watch as the prey became less and less and the fox became fatter and fatter.

In the blink of an eye, it was the autumnal equinox, the Arctic went from polar day to polar night, and only half of the bowhead whale was left.

There is only a thin layer of oily ice near the coast, which breaks into pieces with a slight touch of claws. It will take some time before it truly freezes.

Some polar bears couldn't wait and jumped into the water, swimming to the already formed glaciers.

Some polar bears were guarding their prey, planning to wait until they had finished eating before heading to the glacier.

The bears naturally assumed that the mean little fox couldn't swim for long and would wait until the bowhead whale had eaten everything and cleaned up the debris before leaving.

Who would have thought that on the second day of the autumnal equinox, Yu Yiyun would happily set off with the first wave of polar bears heading for the glacier!

He really couldn't swim for a long time, but the polar bear splashed into the water, splashing huge waves, and several pieces of ice were carried over by the waves.

The glaciers have begun to freeze and the floating ice is not melting so easily.

Yu Yiyun chose a piece of ice that was neither too big nor too small, enough to drift with the current without causing her to fall off, packed a few large pieces of whale meat, and set off on her own small ice boat.

Yu Yiyun lay on the ice, observing the movement of the polar bear under the water, using the waves it splashed as propulsion for the ice boat, and occasionally using her paws and hind legs to control the direction.

The stone camera that was responsible for following Yu Yiyun couldn't follow her into the water, so it stayed on the shore helplessly watching the little fox drift away...

The video was transmitted back and the crew was silent.

"The protagonist is gone, what should we do now?"

"It was too cold in the Arctic, and it was nighttime, so we didn't have a plan B."

The documentary director stared at the screen and came up with a bold idea.

"Otherwise, shall we go and film it ourselves?"

"Are you crazy? That's the North Pole at night!"

"You mean to ask us to carry dozens of kilograms of equipment and brave the temperature of minus dozens of degrees Celsius to film a fox drifting on the ice?"

Before the director could say anything, the chief photographer suddenly stood up.

"This is a great idea, I'd love to go!" he said excitedly, "Isn't Drifting Fox worth it? I have a feeling this will be the best Arctic documentary ever!"

Although floating ice can drift on the sea, its direction and speed are uncontrollable.

Yu Yiyun drifted for three days, and only the last piece of whale meat was left, and the nearest glacier was still just around the corner.

The waves are in a state of dynamic equilibrium, and whenever an ice floe approaches another piece of ice, the tension of the sea water pushes them apart.

Yu Yiyun looked at the glacier that was so close yet still out of reach, and thought in embarrassment: Do you really want me to swim across?

Help!

It's not winter yet, but the temperature has dropped below zero.

Yu Yiyun put her paw into the water and dug around a few times, and then had to change her paw.

If you jump into the water, you won't freeze to death, but you will definitely be freezing cold.

Anyone with a little knowledge of physics knows that when the temperature drops below zero, the water on the fluff will change from liquid to solid.

Yu Yiyun once took a hot spring bath in Yellowstone Park and was fed up with the hard days of rubbing tiny ice crystals from her hair.

"Hmm!" Water!

"Bing bing!" Freeze!

The little fox poked its head out and tried to cast a spell on the sea water to make the ice floes and glaciers become one.

Just as I finished moaning, a huge push suddenly surged from behind.

Before Yu Yiyun could react, the ice floe was sent forward by the huge thrust and hit the edge of the glacier.

At the moment of the collision, Yu Yiyun felt as if she was sitting on the Titanic, and she only had time to rescue the most important thing, her flesh.

Then with a bang, he fell out and rolled several times on the ice. When he got up, he still had meat in his mouth.

Yu Yijun shook his fur in embarrassment and looked towards the edge of the glacier angrily, wondering which big guy was so unethical?

He thought it was a narwhal or a bowhead whale. When he surfaced to breathe, he was bored and found a little fox on the ice, playing with him.

When I looked carefully, I found a ship coming.

"Hmm?"

Zhu Wang showed the confused expression of an old man on the subway looking at his phone.

Most of the Arctic Ocean is international waters, with no restrictions on ship navigation.

But the temperature has dropped sharply in recent days, and the Arctic Ocean has frozen tens of thousands of kilometers every day. Experienced ships will not easily approach the glaciers.

If you get frozen and can't break the ice, you'll have to wait until next spring to leave.

Unless, the target of the people on the boat is the glacier.

In winter, the Arctic glaciers have wind speeds of hundreds of kilometers and temperatures of dozens of degrees below zero Celsius.

Apart from polar bears and the madman Yu Yijun, who else in the world would go to the glacier at this time?

——It’s true.

Yu Yiyun held the meat in his mouth and observed for a while. He saw the people on the boat abandon the boat, then jumped down fully armed with cameras in their hands.

"We found the little fox. Is the equipment working properly?"

"No problem! This new device can operate at ultra-low temperatures and is perfect for photographing polar animals."

"Everything is OK, but there is a small problem."

"What's the problem?"

"When you stopped the boat just now...it seems that you knocked the little fox away."

“…”

The scene was very embarrassing for a while.

The photographer, who was brave enough to challenge himself, looked up and made eye contact with the angry little fox.

"Bing!"

Yu Yiyun howled loudly, then turned and ran away with the meat in his mouth.

After many lives, Yu Yiyun has become accustomed to photographers following her like a fanatical stalker.

Although privacy is sacrificed by having a little person following you, safety is greatly guaranteed.

Yu Yiyun jumped away, looking for a suitable habitat on the glacier.

The Arctic environment is different from that of Antarctica. Antarctica is a large landmass where human facilities such as scientific research stations can be built. It is also easier to visit Antarctica than the Arctic.

The Arctic Ocean is a vast ocean, and even near the poles, the ice cap melts in the summer.

Therefore, unlike other frozen waters, the Arctic glaciers look like a flat piece of glass.

Above the glacier, those areas that are frozen layer upon layer look like rugged hills covered with white snow.

Animals living on glaciers will dig holes in the ice around the icebergs to build warm nests for themselves.

"Oh~" It's right here~

Yu Yiyun walked around for a few times and chose a huge protruding iceberg and decided to build his own nest here.

There is white ice and snow all around, and it feels cold just looking at it.

But almost all animals that live on glaciers all year round have the ability to build "snow caves".

Deep snow caves can transform ice and snow into barriers, locking in the air inside to form an insulating layer, helping them stay warm in polar regions where temperatures are dozens of degrees below zero.

Experienced Arctic foxes will also use snow and ice to build walls, making the interior very warm.

Yu Yiyun thought that he was already a mature fox, so building a nest was a piece of cake for him, right?

He ate the last bite of meat with a roar, then chose a place where the snow was thick and began to dig a hole with a grunt.

After digging three or four meters, the little fox came out of the cave, panting with exhaustion.

Drilling holes looks easy, but it is difficult to do.

If I had known earlier, I should have caught a few Arctic hares to build nests for me.

Arctic Hare: Did I provoke you?!

The little fox, who had very poor hole-digging skills, decided to stop working for the time being and replenish his nutrition as soon as possible.

Autumn happens to be the period when polar bears concentrate on replenishing nutrition, and each bear catches dozens of seals on average.

In order to store fat, they eat the fattiest parts of the seal and discard the parts with lower fat content.

Yu Yiyun, who weighs only about ten pounds, could starve herself to death by tagging a polar bear and following him to pick up trash.

Yu Yiyun's plan was well thought out, but its implementation was not so smooth.

It is not difficult to mark the polar bear, as Yu Yiyun was swimming along with the bear.

After searching along the glacier for a while, he found the powerful polar bear that had first occupied the bowhead whale on the coast.

The polar bear recognized the fox, but his eyes did not linger on him for too long.

Domineering beasts all have one common problem: they look down on weak enemy beasts.

Yu Yiyun kept a distance of several hundred meters and followed the polar bear until he came to a breathing hole on the ice.

Even if the glaciers freeze, mammals in the ocean still need to breathe and will use various methods to create ice holes for breathing.

For example, they often catch ringed seals. They use their front paws to judge the state of the ice surface, find weak or cracked locations, and then use their bodies to impact to form holes.

Most polar bears will stay near the caves and wait for the seals to come up to breathe.

This polar bear is clearly more skilled.

It determines the state of the ice surface, actively uses its claws to dig through the thinner ice layer, creates a few breathing holes, and waits for mammals to float up to breathe.

Yu Yiyun squatted in the distance and watched, thinking that he had met a big boss.

After a while, a black seal head popped out of the breathing hole closest to Yu Yiyun.

"Hmm?"

Yu Yiyun glanced at it, then looked at the bear squatting diagonally and warned loudly.

When the seal heard the fox barking, it immediately went back to its cave.

The polar bear smelled the seal and ran over, but it missed the seal.

The male bear remained calm and continued to wait by the breathing hole where the seal had just emerged.

Yu Yiyun was so hungry that she lay there and heard the faint sound of water.

After a while, a seal emerged from the breathing hole right behind the polar bear.

Seeing the polar bear guarding the cave, the seal went back without saying a word.

The polar bear turned around and looked at the breathing hole he had dug, with confusion written all over his face.

The little fox yawned listlessly, watching the polar bear wandering between several breathing holes but finding nothing, and felt his blood pressure rising.

Stupid bear, why do you have so many breathing holes?

What about whack-a-mole?!

At this moment, Yu Yiyun even wanted to be abstract and ask that classic world question:

Why don't polar bears eat penguins?