After placing the basket on the ground, Wang Tianxiao calmly picked up his gun, cocked it, and aimed it at the stag.

He was fairly certain that the male deer was probably the female deer's mate, and that it was there for her.

This is a very strange thing.

In the deer world, polygamy is common. A male deer can live with twenty or thirty female deer at the same time, and they all get their attention equally.

This is completely different from many large carnivores.

Animals like lions, tigers, and leopards are generally monogamous. Even if an individual has different partners, they cannot do so openly. Moreover, apart from their primary partner, any casual mates have no status whatsoever.

Therefore, Wang Tianxiao originally did not believe that there was a deep emotional bond between deer and their mates.

But what's wrong with this buck? He seems to care a lot about the doe in the basket, and he's even risking his life to intercept the hunter who could kill him.

"Tianxin, check how serious Dafeng's injuries are?"

Wang Tianxiao pointed his gun at Lu, unwavering.

He was in a state of hesitation at this moment. Ninety percent of his thoughts were to shoot the buck directly, while the remaining ten percent were that if the buck was willing to take risks for his wife and children, it would be worthy of his respect and admiration.

Wang Tianxin squatted down and gently lifted Dafeng's long hair, discovering a wound more than ten centimeters long and deep enough to expose the bone on Dafeng's left rib.

The male sika deer's antlers are its most powerful weapon. When it gets angry, even large carnivores have a hard time dealing with it, let alone a half-grown dog like Dafeng.

It's likely that the dog will be defeated in just one exchange.

Fortunately, it didn't continue its attack, otherwise the dog might have been pushed off the cliff on the spot.

"Brother, Dafeng is badly injured. We need to go back and treat his wounds immediately. We can't linger here any longer."

Wang Tianxiao nodded, a resolute glint in his eyes.

Since that's the case.

Let's send him on his way.

The female deer and fawn can still be domesticated, but there is absolutely no point in capturing the male deer alive. Even if they were captured alive, they would have to be killed.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, the sika deer suddenly ran a few steps and jumped onto a slope with a vertical drop of 60 or 70 degrees. Like a monkey, it quickly climbed up the cliff and disappeared behind the mountain.

"We can't let them get away. Don't underestimate deer and think they're gentle creatures. In reality, they can be quite fierce, and they're not as kind as you might imagine. They'll also bully lone animals smaller than their herds."

Seeing this, Liu Yuan reminded Wang Tianxiao.

"I know."

Wang Tianxiao squinted, his spearhead tracking the deer's silhouette.

He didn't want to find out what the deer was trying to do; his subconscious told him that sending it home was the best option.

Once this guy is released into the Deer Cliff, who knows what kind of trouble he'll cause.

Since we've chosen to live in the mountains, we can't be too soft-hearted. The deer hurt the dog so badly; how can we not get rid of it?

"Bang!"

With a thought, the hand moved in unison; the bullet shot out of the barrel and disappeared instantly into the deer's neck.

The deer was still running when it was hit by a bullet the instant it leaped over the ridge. Its body paused in mid-air, then landed on the mountainside and began to roll downhill.

"Get out of the way!"

Wang Tianxiao hurriedly reminded him.

Everyone quickly dodged, and Da Feng, who had just collapsed on the ground, was picked up by Wang Tianxin and quickly retreated a distance.

If something weighing over 100 kilograms falls from a height of 70 or 80 meters, it's no small matter; it could probably kill someone on the spot.

"Bang...bang...bang"

The deer's body kept bumping and falling down the mountainside. Sometimes it would be bounced up by protruding rocks and fly a little higher, but it would soon fall down again.

A dozen seconds later, with a loud bang, it finally crashed to the ground.

He coughed up blood, his head twitched slightly, and then he slowly closed his eyes.

The shot may not have been completely fatal, but falling from such a height would kill even a healthy deer.

Dafeng was peacefully nestled in Wang Tianxin's arms, but upon seeing the deer die, it angrily barked at it a few more times and struggled to rush down and bite the deer.

Wang Tianxin couldn't hold it back, so he had to let it go. But after it rushed to the deer, it slowed down and tentatively bit the deer's calf. When it found that the deer didn't move, it started barking at it arrogantly.

"Let's go back quickly. The deer isn't completely dead yet. If it dies completely, its blood won't be usable, and it will make the deer meat taste terrible."

Wang Tianxiao stopped rambling and rearranged the tasks.

Liu Yuan carried the deer basket himself; the old man was strong and not to be underestimated.

Wang Tianxiao simply picked up the buck and quickly returned to the stadium.

Fortunately, it was less than 200 meters from the station. Although it was hard work and he had to rest two or three times, Wang Tianxiao still managed to carry and drag Lu back to the station.

Upon returning to the depot, he did nothing else but, with Wu Wenhua's help, hang the deer upside down from a locust tree next to the depot, catch it in a basin on the ground, and then slit the deer's throat with a knife.

The deer blood needs to be released quickly.

If the deer wasn't caught so close to the hunting grounds, he would need to release the blood on the spot; otherwise, the blood would dissolve into the meat, making the meat taste terrible and prone to rotting.

The blood of an adult sika deer is about ten kilograms, but the exact amount depends on the deer's actual weight.

This deer isn't particularly large, weighing only slightly above average, so conservatively speaking, it's estimated that about eight or nine pounds of blood can be released.

Sure enough, after releasing it, I checked the estimated weight of the blood basin and it was about right.

When Wang Tianxiao bled the deer, Liu Yuan and several others watched from the side. Wang Tianxiao didn't let Wang Fang see the bloody scene, worried that it would frighten her.

Deer blood has a very short shelf life. Even in the current winter temperatures of minus ten degrees Celsius, the most effective shelf life for raw blood is only seven days.

After seven days, the function of deer blood will gradually deteriorate, and some microorganisms that are harmful to the human body will grow.

Therefore, deer blood must either be dried immediately after extraction and processed into deer blood powder, or it must be made into beverages like deer wine to preserve its properties for a longer period.

Because hunting this deer was completely accidental, and the deer was practically delivered to his doorstep, he hadn't prepared any wine in advance, and the drying conditions weren't right for the time being, so he had to wait until later to go to the city to buy wine.

Fortunately, it was indeed very cold, and the deer blood, which had been left outdoors for a short time, had already congealed into lumps and then frozen into red blood jelly.

He asked Wu Wenhua to temporarily move the blood jelly to the side and cover it with a clean cloth.

After releasing the deer blood, the real main event begins.

The mission has only just begun.