Chapter 2: One meal hungry, one meal full for many years: I wish I could eat even my bones...
"What's that sound?"
The snow leopard, carrying a blue sheep in its mouth, had just climbed over the mountain wall. Its furry ears twitched subconsciously when it heard the sound. It turned its head and looked behind it in confusion, but saw no trace of other wild animals.
The blue sheep with its neck pierced by the fangs was still making a dying struggle, trying to get rid of the snow leopard. The biggest mistake it had made in its life was that it mistakenly thought that all snow leopards were the same as Xu Nian and lowered its vigilance.
So it paid a heavy price for it.
The snow leopard's sharp conical fangs make it invincible when tearing the skin and flesh of its prey. Los threw the still struggling ibex directly to the ground. Just as the ibex tried to get up, it was pinned down by the snow leopard again.
This time, Los's fangs tore open the ibex's neck directly, and blood spurted out, covering its face. Los excitedly raised his furry tail, licked the ibex's warm blood, and tore its body into pieces.
A blue sheep can indeed be a satisfying meal for a snow leopard.
However, some snow leopards were so full that their stomachs were full, while others were so hungry that their chests were pressed against their backs, and they were only able to survive by relying on their fur.
After losing his prey, Xu Nian had no choice but to resign himself to his fate and look for new prey. He finally came across a half-eaten skeleton of a mountain goat. Fortunately, the temperature was low, so the skeleton was not inedible and there were some scraps of meat on it.
He immediately prepared to move forward, but heard a sharp scream from the sky. A mountain vulture spread its wings and swooped down directly towards Xu Nian's position, scaring Xu Nian so much that he stepped back repeatedly.
But he quickly realized that the scraps of meat in front of him were most likely the only food he could find nearby, and Xu Nian almost immediately pounced on it.
With no hunting experience, he imitated a video of a snow leopard hunting he had seen, stretched out his body, and pounced towards the vulture. His overly powerful pounce successfully caused the vulture to fold its wings and take several steps back.
“Ouch—woo—”
He roared, trying to scare away the vulture with such determination. Even though his calls were incoherent, as long as he was a snow leopard, the vulture chose to give up the rotten meat in front of it after thinking for a few seconds.
After all, it didn't want to compete with a snow leopard that looked extremely hungry for such a small amount of meat, so it didn't see through the snow leopard's nature of being strong on the outside but weak on the inside.
Xu Nian guarded the food tightly, and only when he saw the vulture spread its wings and flew away did he breathe a sigh of relief. He felt dizzy and dizzy from hunger. If he didn't eat something, he was really afraid that he would be reincarnated again after only two days of living.
A bloody smell rushed into his nostrils. Animals' sense of smell is much more sensitive than humans'. He could accurately tell from the smell of blood whether the meat was fresh or not, but this was not important to him at the moment.
He bared his fangs and bit the bone in front of him, but found it difficult to bite. He simply scratched the bone with his claws, then squeezed his head in with difficulty and licked the little bit of meat on it with his tongue.
This mountain goat must have been dead for a few days. In the low temperature of the snowy mountains, the meat was still quite fresh. Xu Nian almost held the bones and chewed them, eating up all the meat on them, and then licked his fangs with satisfaction.
"Look at it from a bright side. At least I've become a snow leopard, not a sheep." Xu Nian consoled himself, "Otherwise, this would be half of me."
He lay down beside the remaining bones and took a short rest, his long and thick tail swinging behind him. The base of the tail was completely motionless, but the tip of the tail liked to curl up from time to time.
Looking around, there was only one snow leopard on this side of the mountain wall. Xu Nian opened his mouth and yawned. The cold wind made his fur a little messy. He turned his head and licked his fur, looking like he was living in peace and tranquility.
If Xu Nian hadn't heard a low roar coming from not far away, he would not have planned to get up, but the sound sounded a little scary and was definitely not something a herbivore could make.
Xu Nian was so frightened that his fur stood on end and he subconsciously wanted to run away. His beautiful green eyes were filled with surprise and doubt. He looked around but couldn't find where the sound came from, but it was definitely not a good thing.
"I can't stay here anymore." Xu Nian looked at the remaining skeleton with some embarrassment, as if he was thinking about something. However, before he could think clearly, when the second roar came, Xu Nian's tail froze. This time he no longer hesitated, made a quick decision, turned around and left here with his tail in his mouth.
He held the long furry tail in his mouth and stepped on the snow with his heavy paws, leaving a series of paw prints.
A few minutes later, the vulture that had just flown away landed on the ibex skeleton again. It lowered its head to peck at the remaining meat, and then found that there was no meat, not even a bit of skin on the skeleton.
The vulture stared at the skeleton in a daze, then tilted its head and looked at the back of the snow leopard running away. It was the first time it encountered a leopard that ate cleaner food than it, the "scavenger" of the snow mountains.
There really isn't a single bit left.
…
"We are surrounded by mountains and there seems to be no trace of herdsmen's life. It seems that we are completely trapped in the mountains." After eating the meat, Xu Nian finally had the energy to think about his situation. The snowflakes floating in the sky fell on his fur, but these snowflakes were simply not worth mentioning to the snow leopard with thick fur.
When Xu Nian walks on the snow, the patterns on his body have good concealment, which can protect them from being easily discovered whether they are on the mountain walls or on the snow.
The snow leopard's claws are much larger than those of other leopards and are particularly prominent, allowing them to step very firmly on snow piles or rock walls. However, Xu Nian is still a novice snow leopard and is not yet proficient in this.
However, he quickly understood the snow leopard's resistance to falls. After all, he didn't want to count how many times he had fallen from the cliff in just two or three days. The leopard was covered in dust and its ears were drooping.
Probably because he had been doing this for twenty years, this was the first time he had a tail, and it was such a long and thick tail. He was not very skilled in using it, so Xu Nian always liked to walk with his tail in his mouth.
A passing fox was carrying a plateau rabbit in its mouth. It looked at the snow leopard walking with its tail in its mouth for a few more times, then turned around quickly and ran away in the opposite direction.
On the other side of the cliff, Los, who had eaten and drunk his fill, left the remaining mountain goats behind. He licked his paws, his leopard eyes filled with the wildness and vigilance that only belong to wild animals.
After sniffing around, it walked to a stone wall nearby, turned sideways, rubbed against the stone wall for a while, leaving its scent there, and then turned around and left with peace of mind.
Los used this opportunity to tell other snow leopards that this was his territory and this was his prey. Other snow leopards could judge his age and physical condition based on the scent left by Los.
It, Los, a two-and-a-half-year-old adult male snow leopard, hates other snow leopards in its territory the most. Whenever it meets one, it will fight. So far, it has never been defeated.
But just two days ago, it jumped off a cliff while hunting a mountain goat and injured its hind leg.
"Hiss." It turned its head impatiently and looked at its left hind leg. The wound was injured again when it was hunting blue sheep. Los became a little annoyed. He licked the wound perfunctorily and swung his tail twice behind him.
The wind direction changed, and a cold wind blew from the other side of the rock wall. Los, who was licking his fur, suddenly paused. His impatient expression froze him for a moment, and then he frowned, sniffed the air in the wind, and smelled a strange scent of his own kind in the blood.
And this breath seemed to be approaching it.
Los became alert instantly and tensed his back. His muscle lines were very obvious, and his body was more fluid when he ran, perfectly in line with the violent aesthetics of the beast.
But it did not rush into the fight recklessly. Instead, it used the stone wall as a hiding place, concealing its body, waiting for the stupid fellow to come and then give the other party a fatal blow.
However, to its surprise, it waited behind the stone wall for a long time but did not see the strange fellow.
"Isn't it trying to steal my territory?" The tip of Los's thick tail was slightly raised, and his leopard eyes were full of hesitation. He looked outside very cautiously, not missing any movement, but the smell did not continue to move forward.
Because this "strange snow leopard" was already lying comfortably on the snow. Taking advantage of the fact that there were no other animals around, it even rolled in the snow before getting up. After shaking off the snow on its body, Xu Nian let out a long sigh.
The cold wind was blowing in the opposite direction, so he didn't even smell a snow leopard not far away, waiting for his arrival with its eyes fixed on him.
In this snowy mountain, dangers are lurking everywhere.
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