"We'll set traps at the cave entrance, then smoke him out. We'll stay at a distance and slowly shoot him to death."
As he spoke, Li Zhi pulled two rough, dark-gray stones from his clothes.
"Flint?" Li Yuan raised an eyebrow.
Flint, also called firestone, was easy to use to start a fire in winter.
Almost every hunting family kept some on hand, in case they got stranded in the mountains during the bitter winter and needed to start a fire to keep warm.
Li Yuan set the traps while Li Zhi went to gather a large amount of branches and moss to pile at the cave entrance and prepare a fire.
Once the traps were nearly ready, Li Zhi lit the fire and slowly coaxed the kindling into flame.
The three of them hid behind a large tree and waited in silence.
A hunter never lacked patience.
Time passed, little by little. About half an hour later,
an angry roar rang out from inside the cave, deafening them.
A huge beast suddenly lumbered out of the cave.
The black bear was as burly as a small hill, its shoulders hunched high. Its coarse black fur gleamed, and its pair of yellow eyes, round as copper bells, glittered with ferocity.
It had clearly had enough of the smoke. Its nose twitched incessantly as it headed toward the traps.
Before long, the black bear charged out and kicked over the culprit that had disturbed its sleep.
At the sight of the black bear, Li Yuan's heart leapt with joy. He promptly raised his bow and nocked an arrow.
None of them had smeared poison on their arrows. They weren't hunting solely to kill the beast; whether they ate the meat themselves or sold it, any poisoned part would be completely useless.
"If you get the chance, aim for its eyes. Make it blind first," Li Zhi reminded him at just the right moment.
Li Yuan took a deep breath, then focused. He waited until the moment was right before releasing his arrow.
The black bear moved cautiously, stopping now and then to look around.
Its four-hundred-plus-pound body pounded against the ground with dull, heavy thuds.
Just as it was about to enter the trap's range, it suddenly seemed to sense something and stopped at the edge, suspiciously sniffing the ground.
"Damn it, the beast's on alert!" Chen Quan whispered.
Li Zhi made the call at once and shouted, "Loose!"
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
Three sharp arrows flew from their bows almost simultaneously, heading straight for the black bear's vital spots.
All three had aimed at its chest. First they would make it bleed, then weaken it and slow it down.
That Black Lump reacted lightning-fast. It suddenly reared up on its hind legs, and two arrows thudded into its thick chest and shoulder.
They sank several inches deep, but didn't inflict a fatal wound. Chen Quan's arrow merely grazed its belly, leaving a streak of blood.
"Roar!"
The searing pain sent the beast into a rage. It let out a deafening roar that shook the mountains and forests, sending birds fleeing in fright.
Its eyes red, it fixed on the direction the arrows had come from. Dropping to all fours, it charged at them like a war chariot.
It veered straight around the patch of traps that had seemed suspicious to it.
"Scatter!" Li Zhi bellowed.
All three immediately dodged in different directions.
As for which of them the beast would chase, all they could do was wish him luck.
How could they hunt for profit without bait?
High risk, high reward.
The black bear picked out Li Yuan, who had posed the greatest threat, and charged straight at him.
Li Yuan moved nimbly, dodging the bear's lunge with a sidestep. At the same time, he fired another arrow over his shoulder, hitting the bear in the rump.
The black bear roared in pain, growing even more frenzied. It turned and swung a massive paw at Li Yuan, bringing a gale in its wake.
Li Yuan leaned back and retreated. The enormous paw skimmed past his face,
then slammed into a nearby tree as thick as a bowl. With a crack, the trunk snapped in two!
Li Yuan's heart jolted at the sight. With that kind of force, even though he was in the Ox Skin Realm, a blow anywhere on his body would leave him with snapped tendons and broken bones.
He seriously doubted even the Stone Skin Realm could withstand that kind of force. Perhaps only Iron Skin could hold out for a moment.
Nearby, Li Zhi and Chen Quan kept harrying the bear with their bows, arrow after arrow striking its body.
The arrows weren't fatal, but they made it bleed without stopping, and its movements gradually began to slow.
It looked like a hedgehog, its black fur stained red with blood. Its breathing grew labored, too.
As he circled the bear, Li Yuan carefully studied its movements.
He watched it rear up and roar, swing its paws, and barrel sideways into its opponents...
The primal strength contained in its massive body and its unique way of exerting force
seemed to merge with the descriptions of Bear Form Fist in the manual he read every day, as well as the calm-as-a-mountain, surging-like-the-tide feeling of Yang Chong's demonstrations.
A powerful urge suddenly welled up in Li Yuan. Hunting the bear with a bow and arrow was certainly fine.
But if he could personally experience its strength and imitate its form and spirit, that might be the true shortcut to grasping the essence of Bear Form Fist!
Just like in the novels and TV dramas he'd watched in his previous life, breakthroughs often came only at the brink of life and death.
Once the thought had taken root, he couldn't suppress it.
But the beast still had strength to spare. He had to wait until it was almost exhausted, just a little stronger than him, before getting close enough to spar with it.
Before long, the black bear lost more blood and slowed further. Its breathing grew ragged; it was breathing out more than it drew in.
Seeing this, Li Yuan understood at once. It was probably about time.
He abruptly tossed aside the heavy bow and quiver in his hands, then called to Li Zhi and Chen Quan:
"Uncle, Uncle Chen! Cover me. I'm going to face it!"
"Brother Yuan! Have you lost your mind?" Chen Quan cried in shock.
Li Zhi's face changed, too. "Don't be ridiculous! Get back here!"
Li Yuan didn't dare be careless. He decided to test the bear with Tiger Form Fist first.
"Roar!"
The black bear seemed enraged by Li Yuan's challenge. It reared up, dragging its battered body forward before lunging. Its massive paw swept down toward Li Yuan's head, bringing a gust of wind with it!
Li Yuan's eyes narrowed. He drew a breath up from his dantian, planted his right leg behind him, and drove the force up from his heel, through his waist and back, and into his shoulder and arm. His hard-practiced Tiger Form Fist erupted in that instant!
"Tiger Roars in the Mountain Forest!"
He silently recited the formula. Clenching his right fist like a tiger reaching out with its claws, he met the enormous paw crashing down at him.
"Boom!"
Fist and paw collided with a thunderous crash!
In that instant, Li Yuan felt as if he hadn't struck a bear's paw at all, but a rock of unimaginable hardness.
His entire right arm began to tremble. His knuckles burned with such pain that he could barely keep his fist clenched.
The force sent him stumbling back four or five steps before he finally regained his balance. Looking down, he saw that the web of skin between his thumb and forefinger had split open, blood streaming from it.
"What terrifying strength!" Li Yuan thought in shock.
Though the black bear was badly wounded and blood covered the ground, a casual swat from it still carried three or four hundred pounds of force.
At full strength, a single blow would have killed him on the spot.
A coppery sweetness surged up Li Yuan's throat, but he forced it back down.
"Good heavens!"
The two men nearby stared, sucking in sharp breaths. They raised their bows and nocked arrows, ready to support him at any moment.
Neither of them had expected the Black Lump, despite being so badly wounded, to still possess such terrifying strength.
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