“Half a day, right?” Cui Wanshan glanced at his watch. “It’s just past eight o’clock now. We’ll try to get to Bear Ridge before midnight. Once we get there, we’ll have to find the bears’ hiding places.”
Although the place is called Bear Ridge, I estimate there are only a dozen or twenty bears on the entire mountain. If we're unlucky, we might not even find one in half a day.
“That makes sense. Reaching Bear Ridge is only the first step. If bears were so easy to find, everyone would be doing it. Our goal this time is to get it done within three days, that’s what my wife and I said.”
"Three days, that's about right. If we're lucky, it might not even take that long. The main thing is that we're not very familiar with the situation at Xiongxiazi Ridge, so we'll need to familiarize ourselves with the environment once we arrive."
Hunting may seem like about bringing the prey into our possession, but the most crucial thing is to come back alive. Knowing yourself and your enemy is the key to success.
“That makes sense, Old Cui. You truly are a seasoned hunter. I made the right choice coming to you. It seems many of my previous ideas were still immature. If I had come directly, there might not have been any problems.”
"Haha, it's okay, you'll get used to it eventually. It's not difficult at all, and this isn't your forte anyway. But Xiao Wang, you're so young, yet you're already putting in this kind of hardship. You've got a lot of potential."
"Brother Cui is right, I am very hardworking, but my brother won't admit it. I am determined to become the best hunter within a hundred miles, no one else is as good as me!"
"Tianxin, can't you be a little more modest? What did I tell you? You've already forgotten! People should be humble!"
"Brother, you just don't believe I can be better than you, right?"
"You're better than me?"
Wang Tianxiao laughed, "Alright, alright, then you should do your best and learn from your Brother Cui. I learned a lot from him."
"I know, anyway, anyone I meet is better than you."
Everyone burst into laughter.
After laughing, they packed their bags again and continued on their way.
After walking for another half hour, we arrived at the place where we had fought the jackals last time. The battlefield was now buried under heavy snow, and almost nothing could be seen.
Wang Tianxiao paused at this spot, and he and his two brothers exchanged glances, both thinking of the dangerous and terrifying night.
Then, I picked myself up and moved on.
After walking for about half an hour, or maybe an hour, we left Yangziling and officially arrived at Mengbaling.
There is a clear dividing line between Mengbaling and Yangziling.
Mengbaling is a bit lower in elevation; going from Yangziling is like descending into a basin.
Because of its low-lying location, many streams and other waterways converge at Mengbaling, resulting in a more complex vegetation environment on this mountain.
There is also competition among plants.
Because of the rich diversity of plants, many plants with very similar living characteristics and resource requirements will appear, and these plants will form a fierce competitive relationship in the same environment.
Weaker plants, through forced evolution, gradually find their place in the world.
Therefore, this mountain range does not have very tall trees, and is mostly covered with broad-leaved forests. It is somewhat similar to the eastern peak of Yangziling.
The western peak of Yangziling is mostly covered with coniferous forests.
What plants grow is related to the terrain and environment.
However, for Wang Tianxiao's hunting team, the vegetation environment of the broad-leaved forest in Mengbaling was actually better.
It's winter now, and the broad-leaved forest is bare, offering no hiding place for anything.
Then you don't have to worry about wolves sneaking up from behind and surrounding everyone.
You can see very far away at a glance.
"Should we keep going, or wait a bit?" Cui Wanshan asked.
"Uncle Liu, how are you?"
Wang Tianxiao was most concerned about Liu Yuan's physical strength, after all, he was almost sixty years old, and he didn't want anything to go wrong.
Are you asking me?
Liu Yuan asked him casually.
"?"
Wang Tianxiao said with a wry smile, "Uncle Liu, don't push yourself too hard. We don't need to be in such a hurry. The temperature is low, and if we exert too much physical strength, we won't be able to handle it."
"Don't worry, even if you fall, I might not."
“Sigh, you old man, you’re so stubborn.” Wang Tianxiao chuckled speechlessly and said to Cui Wanshan, “Then let’s keep going. Mengbaling is low-lying and the temperature will be relatively higher. Let’s see if we can find a sheltered place to rest for a while before heading to Xiongxiazi Ridge.”
"Okay, let's do it that way."
Since everyone had no problem with it, Cui Wanshan didn't say anything more.
He has no problems, no one else does. He spends half a day running in the mountains almost every day, so his stamina is top-notch.
Everyone began to move forward in silence again.
Being in a low-lying area has its advantages.
Walking on Mengbaling, the wind was much calmer, the ground was slightly flatter, and there was much less snow on the ground than on Yangziling.
Therefore, the progress is much faster than originally expected.
What's even more interesting is that once everyone went inside, they discovered that Mengbaling is actually longer from north to south than from east to west. Now that everyone is walking from east to west, the distance is much shorter, which further reduces the travel time.
That's a good thing.
With this double boost, the Mengbaling Pass, which was originally planned to take three hours to traverse, was completed in about two hours.
We were originally planning to rest for a while in Mengbaling, but it looks like we won't be able to.
The group walked to the edge of a cliff and looked up to see a tall, white precipice that was more than a hundred meters higher than the mountains behind it.
Cui Wanshan stopped, and everyone else stopped moving as well.
"It looks like we've reached the end of Mengbaling. The cliff ahead should be Xiongxiazi Ridge. Let's rest here, eat something, and recover our strength. It's warmer here. Once we get to the top, it won't be easy to find another spot."
Wang Tianxiao looked ahead and thought Cui Wanshan's words made sense, so everyone started to rest on the spot.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
