At noon, Yezi tasted the lion meat. It tasted a bit like rabbit meat, slightly dry and a little bitter. This wasn't a problem with her cooking skills, because it wasn't burnt and not much salt was added.

Overall, it tastes worse than wildebeest and antelope meat. It's fine for filling your stomach, and it's acceptable to eat it once in a while, but if you eat it for several meals in a row, Yezi would rather go out and find an antelope.

Tongtong also tried it, but perhaps girls have a more sensitive sense of taste; after just one bite, Tongtong refused to eat any more.

Looking at the dozen or so lions with their butts piled together, Ye Zi smiled helplessly. It seemed she had no choice but to throw them away.

After lunch, Tongtong used an entrenching tool to sprinkle ash on the lion skin, while Yezi continued processing the skin.

After a round of dusting was finished, Tongtong went for her afternoon nap. Yezi, who was working on the bark, suddenly heard birds chirping in the air.

Looking up at the sky, I was surprised to see that vultures, large birds common in the African continent and scavengers, were just as annoying as hyenas.

Looking at the vultures circling in the sky, and then at the piles of lion meat not far away, Ye Zi understood that the vultures had their eyes on the meat.

Vultures prefer meat that is just beginning to smell rotten, not already rotten.

These lions died at Ye Zi's hands in the early morning. After being exposed to the sun all morning, they had begun to emit a putrid smell, a smell that humans, and even most animals, cannot detect.

Only vultures and hyenas can smell it.

Although the lion meat definitely had to be thrown away, Ye Zi hadn't left yet, so it was his stuff, and he wasn't one to just stand by and watch himself be robbed.

Another concern was that a group of scavenging vultures would land and eat the meat, and their stench would affect his and Tongtong's mood.

Vultures are not good people; almost all the videos and news circulating online are negative, showing them digging up buried humans to feed on children starving to death in war-torn regions.

There are also those who never hunt, always scavenging for scraps, and when they do hunt, it's usually to target various animal cubs.

It also helps nature. Vultures are known as scavengers on the African plains. During the dry season, they can clean up the carcasses of various animals on the plains, thereby reducing the possibility of outbreaks of disease in the animal population.

Vultures are also considered guiding lights; whenever you see a vulture circling overhead, it means there are corpses below or a battle is taking place.

The vultures are waiting to feed.

Not only do hyenas like vultures, but lions also like vultures during the dry season. When they can't find food, lions have to eat carrion to avoid starving.

Therefore, vultures often play the role of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind; the vulture is that mantis.

In ground combat, vultures are no match for hyenas, let alone lions. So, the food they just managed to get their hands on is snatched away, and they can even become food themselves when they are too engrossed in eating.

As the vultures circled, they approached the ground. Once within a hundred meters, three vultures broke away from the circling formation and swooped down towards the lion's carcass.

Ye Zi knew this was a test, to see if anyone was guarding the corpses. If not, the circling vultures would swarm in and feast on them.

If so, then it depends on the other party's strength. If you can take it, then take it; if you can't, then wait.

Leaf certainly wouldn't tolerate them; with a flick of his right hand, three pebbles flew out of his grasp.

Two swooping vultures were blown in the head on the spot, and the last one was hit by a blow to the wing, landing crookedly.

The leaf shot out another pebble, and the vulture that had just landed was also blown in the head.

The death of the three vultures didn't cause much of a stir. Since the meat was being guarded, it was time to test their fighting prowess.

Five vultures broke away from the circling group and swooped down, their target still the lion carcass.

There were many vultures in the sky, but even more pebbles on the leaves. Seeing five vultures swooping down, he immediately stood up and shot out five pebbles.

Of the five, four were up, and the last vulture flapped its wings violently and flew back into the air.

Now that the battle had begun, Ye Zi didn't wait for the vultures to probe and took the initiative to start firing at the air.

The circling vultures fell like dumplings being dropped into a pot, and the flock immediately flew upwards.

But this did not escape the leaf's attack range, and vultures were still hit and fell to the ground dead.

The flock of vultures changed their flight direction, no longer circling and ascending, but scattering away.

Ye Zi simply stopped, thinking that chasing them away was enough, and there was no need to kill them all. Then she continued to squat down and process the lion skin.

Before long, the flock of vultures returned, circling in the air, waiting for a chance to feed.

Ye Zi was getting a little annoyed. Why was this thing never going to stop? Even 30% of his companions weren't enough to make them leave, so he had no choice but to keep killing until they were gone.

Stand up, look up, aim, and throw the stone.

Several vultures were shot down, and the flock scattered before gathering together and landing on the ground.

It was more than 200 meters away from the leaf, but it was useless; it was still within the leaf's attack range.

Ye Zi had no intention of being polite to them. The moving targets were not easy to hit before, but now that they were fixed targets, she certainly couldn't let them go.

The sky wasn't an option, the ground wasn't an option, so the flock of vultures immediately took flight, moving far away from the leaves.

This time, there's no need to test them. We can only wait until the leaves leave. Judging from their size, the leaves definitely can't finish all that lion meat; there's still plenty of food left for them.

Ye Zi sighed helplessly. The hit rate was already very low at this distance, so there was no need to waste the pebbles. She simply continued processing the lion skin.

Not long after, the system suddenly issued a notification:

"Host, the hyenas are here."

Frustrated, Ye Zi threw down the cleaver she was using to scrape wood ash, got up, and looked in the direction indicated by the system.

A dozen or so hyenas appeared in Ye Zi's line of sight, walking and stopping intermittently.

The leaf got angry and the pebble flew out of her hand.

After the first hyena was killed by the leaf, the remaining hyenas were stunned for a moment, then immediately scattered and fled, not only getting out of the leaf's attack range, but even running away in a flash.

Just kidding, they were a newly formed group, and in the past few days, this sudden attack wiped out most of their kind, and several groups were scattered.

They were lucky to escape this disaster and gathered together to make a living. When they saw the vultures circling, they came over to pick up the scraps, but they didn't expect that the vultures would target the leaves.

Although they could get full by eating their own kind, they had been eating too much of their own kind these days and wanted a change of pace.

The smell of blood and fresh meat caused the hyena pack to run for a while, then turn back and crouch behind the vultures, waiting for their chance.

Ye Zi hadn't expected that using three pebbles would only kill one hyena, while the rest escaped.

He stroked his chin and pondered for a moment. It seemed that the hyenas in the vicinity had been killed and were now terrified, knowing who they could mess with and who they couldn't.

However, these vultures were more patient than he had expected; after losing nearly half of their number, they actually chose to lie in wait for an opportunity.

I didn't even bother to clean up the vulture's carcass and leaves; I continued processing the lion's skin.