Chapter 118: Hunting
Editor: Atlas Studios
“There they are!” Qi Haoran suppressed his excitement and said, “There are two of them. Let’s do this.”
“Let’s wait a little longer. Look at that stomach. It’s a female deer pregnant with a baby deer. Let’s look for the deer herd and see if we can find it. When the time comes, we’ll shoot the male deer.” Mu Yangling pulled Qi Haoran back and said, “Deer are social animals and have always moved together. The deer herd might be nearby.”
Qi Haoran patiently continued to wait behind the bushes.
Unable to stand the cold, Fan Zijin blew at his hands and asked, “Are we just going to wait?”
“There’s water here and these two deer are here to drink water. Can’t go wrong guarding the water.”
Qi Haoran couldn’t help but look at Mu Yangling. “Do you hunt deer often?”
“Nah. We only go into the mountains in autumn and winter. The deer in the mountains aren’t like rabbits, so we don’t dare to hunt too many. There are many hunters in Xingzhou Prefecture.”
Qi Haoran nodded and said regretfully, “When we were in Lin’an Prefecture, if we wanted to hunt, we could only go to the hunting ground because there were very few huge prey in the forest. Deer meat is truly delicious. It was already not bad if we could get a pair of its hind legs in winter. When I heard from Big Brother that there were deer herds in Chef Mountain, I dragged Zijin over.”
Lin’an Prefecture was prosperous, so the prices were naturally high. Here, one could buy a deer for ten taels of silver, but in Lin’an Prefecture, one might not be able to buy it for 100 taels of silver because there were too few things and too many nobles.
As the Qi family and the Fan family were only third-grade and fourth-grade families, they could not compete with the influential people in the capital.
Having followed Mu Shi into the mountains to hunt deer a few times, Mu Yangling already had a hunting method. At this moment, she brought the four of them to find a suitable ambush location. Indeed, not long after, deer walked over one after another. They lowered their heads and drank water in the waterhole with the two deer. From time to time, they would look up warily at their surroundings.
When the number of deer exceeded 18, Mu Yangling took out the weeds in her mouth and whispered, “My arrows are very accurate. The moment I shoot, you’ll be able to see blood. What about you?”
Qi Haoran hurriedly expressed his stance. “Of course I’m not weak either. I can shoot it at the neck in one shot.”
Mu Yangling looked at Fan Zijin, who turned his head away. Qi Haoran helped him out. “He’s good at studying.”
Mu Yangling understood. “Then the two of us will be in charge of shooting the deer, and the rest of you will be in charge of rounding up…”
After making some arrangements, Mu Yangling took two steps forward with Qi Haoran. “Remember, only kill male deer. How many you can kill depends on luck. Don’t chase after them.”
There were many ferocious beasts in the forest. If they chased after the deer herd, they might lose their way. Should that happen, no matter how capable they were, they would only be slaughtered.
“Let’s go!” As soon as Mu Yangling finished speaking, she stood up and nocked an arrow at the same time. The arrow flew out and pierced into the neck of a male deer under Mu Yangling’s gaze. The male deer fell to the ground in pain and could only raise its neck and scream silently.
Qi Haoran, who was beside her, was not slow either. Almost at the instant Mu Yangling shot out her arrow, his arrow also shot out and aimed at the neck of a male deer.
The deer herd immediately became chaotic and fled in all directions.
Mu Yangling and Qi Haoran did not stop. They kept drawing their bows and shooting arrows. Some hit the deer’s neck, killing it with one arrow, and some hit the deer’s body and were carried away by the deer.
Fan Zijin brought Fei Bai and Yanmo to surround and capture such deer, so as to not let them escape.
After the deer herd dispersed, Mu Yangling and Qi Haoran jumped up and ran to help stop the injured deer.
Fan Zijin ran through the forest in a sorry state. In the end, he simply sat on the ground angrily. “I’m not doing it anymore. You guys do it yourselves.”
However, Qi Haoran was having a great time. He jumped up and punched the injured deer’s head, causing it to fall to the ground with a bang. He let out a carefree laugh and shouted, “Awesome!”
Mu Yangling threw a rock at him. “Shut up. Do you think the commotion isn’t loud enough? Hurry up.” As she spoke, she grabbed a deer that was running towards her and pressed it down with all her might, knocking it out with a punch.
Fan Zijin’s mouth fell open. How much strength did she have to exert, considering the running momentum and the weight of the deer?
Although Qi Haoran was also shocked, he had fought with Mu Yangling many times and so recovered from his shock quickly.
When everyone dragged over the deer they had hunted, everyone was shocked. “There are actually five of them. Not bad, not bad.” Mu Yangling was very satisfied. “Let’s drag the deer out.”
Fan Zijin frowned. “Do you think I can drag it?”
Mu Yangling and Qi Haoran looked at his limbs and shook their heads together.
Mu Yangling said, “I can take two myself.”
Qi Haoran gritted his teeth. “I can carry two, too.”
Fan Zijin frowned and pulled him back. Glaring at him, he said, “Alright, if you can’t carry them out at once, why can’t you make two trips? Do you think a deer is like a rabbit?”
“If we go out now, we might not be able to get the deer when we come in again. The animals in the forest have sharp noses and the smell of blood here is too strong.” After some pondering, she said, “Let’s weave a raft and drag it out. I always do this when I hunt too many prey in the mountains.”
Fan Zijin’s eyes widened. “You have time to weave a raft, but you don’t have time to go out and call for help?”
“Fei Bai, go and pull a few vines over with Yanmo. Hurry up. Qi Haoran, come and help me. Fan Zijin, just stay here and watch.” Mu Yangling turned around and left after saying that.
Qi Haoran hurriedly followed. Before leaving, he didn’t forget to glare at Fei Bai and Yanmo. “Hurry up and go!”
Fei Bai and Yanmo hurriedly ran to pull at the vines, leaving Fan Zijin to stare at them.
Mu Yangling climbed onto a tree and snapped a branch before throwing it down. She said to Qi Haoran, “Break all those leaves and twigs.”
She was strong, had good eyesight, and climbed trees quickly. In just a short while, she climbed five trees and threw down seven branches as thick as a child’s arm. Then, she jumped down from the tree and removed the twigs and leaves with Qi Haoran.
When the two of them dragged the tree branches back, Fei Bai and Yanmo were still tugging at the vines. Qi Haoran couldn’t stand it and went over to help. He exerted strength in his hand and a vine was pulled off. Qi Haoran handed it to her.
As soon as Mu Yangling arranged the branches, she took the vines and wrapped them around them. In less than 15 minutes, a raft was ready. Mu Yangling tugged at it and felt that the vines were strong enough, so she said, “Alright, two deer can be placed on it.”
As he spoke, he picked two of the smaller deer and placed them on the raft. Then, he carried the fattest one and pulled the raft using his hand. Turning around, he said, “Alright, the remaining two are yours. Hurry up.”
Fan Zijin, Fei Bai, and Yanmo watched with their mouths agape. Qi Haoran had already picked a larger one to carry. Although he was only 12 years old, he had practiced martial arts since he was young, so it was not difficult for him to do so using his internal energy.
However, Fei Bai and the others were different. Although they were two to three years older than Qi Haoran and Fan Zijin, they still had difficulty carrying a deer.
Fan Zijin gritted his teeth and rolled up his sleeves. “Come, I’ll carry it with you.”
Fei Bai and Yanmo quickly got to work.