Just as Zhao Jun and Zhang Yuanmin stepped out of the cornfield, a series of barks erupted ahead. Their spirits lifted, and they both broke into a run, chasing the sound.
Before he had gone twenty meters, Zhang Yuanmin was falling further and further behind Zhao Jun. But there was nothing to be done about it—his legs were just too short.
But then Zhao Jun suddenly stopped as well, watching as Black Tiger came charging toward him.
In his two lifetimes of hunting, Zhao Jun had never seen a dog like this, one that barked as it charged back toward him.
Black Tiger reached Zhao Jun and paused for less than a second before spinning around and gleefully dashing forward again.
"ARF! ARF! ARF! ARF..."
At that moment, about seven or eight hundred meters away from Zhao Jun, Gu Yang was hugging a tree with tears streaming down his face.
After Black Tiger had left, the Black Bear stood and watched it go for a moment before looking back up at Gu Yang in the tree.
The instant his eyes met the Black Bear's, Gu Yang's heart filled with endless regret. 'If I'd known it would come to this, why did I even bother? I should have just found a well-off family and married into it.'
Down below, the Black Bear was feeling unwell. Its innards felt like they were on fire. This was a side effect of the poison; although the Bear Gall was continuously working to purge the toxins, they were still relentlessly corroding its body.
The Black Bear was disoriented, its head foggy. It tilted its head back to look up the tree, but a bear's eyesight was poor to begin with. After being poisoned, its vision had become even blurrier.
"ROAR..." The Black Bear opened its mouth and let out a casual cry.
But that single cry was more than Gu Yang could handle. Though he was a kid who had grown up in the mountains, he had never roamed them, and this was the first time he had ever seen a live Black Bear.
Hearing the Black Bear cry out, Gu Yang felt a chill shoot up from the base of his spine. It traveled up his back, raising goosebumps and shivers wherever it passed.
When the chill hit the back of Gu Yang's neck, it instantly enveloped his entire brain. In that moment, his scalp tingled. "Ah!" With a cry he couldn't hold back, a warmth spread through his groin as a hot stream trickled down his leg.
He had pissed himself!
Beneath the tree, the Black Bear only felt a warm liquid land on its head, accompanied by an acrid stench from above.
Mountain beasts are different from humans. Black Bears, in particular, are drawn to acrid, fishy, and foul smells. Rotting, maggot-infested meat in the summer was its favorite delicacy.
Smelling the sharp odor now, the Black Bear placed its front paws on the tree trunk, kicked off with its hind legs, and started climbing.
"Ahhh..." As the Black Bear scrambled up, Gu Yang was scared witless, screaming and wailing at the top of his lungs.
"ARF! ARF! ARF! ARF..." Just as despair washed over Gu Yang, a series of barks rang out once more. Black Tiger was racing back.
But Gu Yang just kept hugging the massive tree, his face pressed tightly against the bark, all hope extinguished from his heart.
But sometimes, hope appears in the deepest moments of despair.
When Black Tiger reached the base of the tree, it looked up and barked. Hearing the dog, the Black Bear stopped climbing. It had only just started, and it wasn't even two meters off the ground.
Once at the base, Black Tiger turned its body sideways, glanced up, then launched itself upward with its powerful hind legs, mouth agape.
Despite having a crippled front leg, Black Tiger's hind legs were strong, and its leap was high enough to reach the Black Bear.
It was also different from a normal dog. A normal dog would lunge head-on at the tree, which would result in it biting the bear's rump. But not Black Tiger. It braced its shoulder against the tree as it leaped.
Because of this, its bite landed squarely between the bear's legs.
This was a female Black Bear, but that area was still not immune to a dog's bite.
The Black Bear stretched its neck and let out a piercing, tragic shriek. As the bear's howl echoed, Gu Yang, still in the tree, trembled even more violently, tears and urine streaming down him, nearly causing him to fall.
THUD!
Something did indeed fall from the tree, but it wasn't Gu Yang. It was the Black Bear. The pain from Black Tiger's attack was unbearable, and the Black Bear pushed off the tree, tumbling to the ground!
The moment the Black Bear had shrieked, Black Tiger was already running away, tail wagging. It sped off, leaving a trail of barks in its wake.
"UNGH... UNGH..." The Black Bear tried to get back up, but its body was already extremely weak. It struggled for a long time before finally managing to climb to its feet.
By this time, Zhao Jun had arrived within three hundred meters. He could vaguely make out a person in the tree and also heard the Black Bear's roars.
And, of course, Black Tiger's one-of-a-kind bark.
Moreover, the barking was getting closer.
Black Tiger ran all the way to Zhao Jun, circled him once, and then took off toward the south again!
For a fleeting moment, Zhao Jun truly wanted to raise his gun and blow Black Tiger away. He had no idea what the dog had just done; he only thought the mutt wasn't pulling its weight and was just causing trouble.
When the Black Bear got up from the ground, its vision had become so blurry it could no longer make out the grass and trees around it. Hearing the annoying barking coming from the north, it cautiously began to feel its way in that direction.
Three hundred meters was a short run for Black Tiger. It approached the Black Bear, stopping three or four meters away, and began to circle it, barking continuously.
The Black Bear looked up and could only see a blurry figure flitting around it. It tried to lunge, but Black Tiger easily dodged.
"ARF! ARF! ARF! ARF..." After being "attacked," Black Tiger barked and disappeared from sight, leaving the Black Bear to roar in pain and fury where it stood.
Just then, Zhao Jun pushed through the tall grass and arrived. He didn't see Black Tiger, only the Black Bear staggering in circles on the ground.
Zhao Jun knew this was the potassium aluminum cyanide taking effect, but that didn't stop him from raising his gun, aiming for the back of the Black Bear's head, and firing a single shot.