Chapter 58: Catching a Turtle in a Jar

  "Hahaha!" Jin Gang Pao cheered as he ran towards a cave in the distance, we followed closely behind.

  "Wait!" I shouted to Jin Gang Pao as we approached the entrance of the cave. "There are footprints."

  The cave is located under a steep cliff, surrounded by boulders everywhere, but the entrance to the cave is smooth and flat, with a height and width of over ten feet, which does not seem to be a natural formation. On the snowy ground at the entrance of the cave, there are footprints of wild animals.

  "Hoof-shaped, doesn't bite people, great! Let's catch it with a jar." Jin Gang Pao heard my shout and squatted down to observe carefully for a while. Seeing that the beast's footprints were hoof-shaped, he happily took out Shen Gui Pao and walked in first.

  Wilderness survival training is a compulsory course for our special forces, and the main way to determine whether unknown wild animals are dangerous to humans is by looking at their footprints. The footprints of large felines are generally shaped like plum blossoms, and it's best to stay far away if you see this type of footprint. Other hoof-shaped footprints are generally from herbivores, which are relatively safe.

  After entering the cave, we put down our backpacks, shook off the snowflakes on our bodies, and trudged through the wind and snow for so long. Finally, we found a place to rest our feet. Not only will we not have to freeze tonight, but we can also eat some long-awaited meat. I happily took out my shotgun and loaded a few rounds. Because the spring in the magazine is not as powerful as that of standard military rifles, we usually don't load it, lest we damage the spring and cause deformation, affecting the feeding of bullets.

  "Lao Yu, it's so dark, can the snow leopards even see?" The cave was much bigger than we had imagined. Jin Gang and I fumbled our way deep into the darkness, but didn't see any of the mountain deer or snow leopards we had envisioned. By now, there was no light at all inside the cave. Although Jin Gang and I could still see clearly thanks to our magic, if there really were prey here, they shouldn't have run this far in either.

  "Go back first and let her stay there, I'm worried about her." Before we act, I had White Wolf guard the cave entrance, also protecting Murong Zhui Feng.

  It's okay, when we came back, she and White Wolf were both there, and inside the cave, there was even an extra pile of withered branches. It seems that while I was hunting with Jin Gang Cannon, Mu Rong Zhui Feng didn't idle around either.

  Lighting a bonfire, boiling snow water, I and Jin Gang Pao put our wind-snow-wet clothes by the fire to dry, then rush up coffee, light cigarettes. Enjoying this rare comfort, Murong Zhui Feng sits on a pile of withered grass drinking hot water, originally Jin Gang Pao also rushed her a cup of coffee, unfortunately she doesn't like it.

  "Old cow, count how many bullets are left." The equipment was all carried by Jin Gang Cannon on his back, while I was mainly responsible for carrying the ration.

  "More than 260, you used a lot of long worms to catch them, I also used some on the road to catch rabbits." Jin Gang Pao has been encountering rabbits and shooting at them these days, but unfortunately, his homemade gun is not as good as the 54-handgun, without a sight, the accuracy is not enough when shooting from a distance. So what he calls "shooting rabbits" is actually just scaring them away.

  "Let's be economical with it, I'll go out and get some more branches, these won't last till dawn." I said as I got up and walked out, while Jin Gang helped Murong Zhuifeng take off his shoes and huddled closer to the fire.

  Taking advantage of the fact that it was not yet completely dark, I searched nearby for some dry branches, while the white wolf somehow managed to chase out a badger, which I shot in the head with one bullet.

  I carried a large bundle of withered branches, while the white wolf laboriously dragged the badger back to the cave. The golden cannon was overjoyed at the sight of the prey, took out his military knife and cleaned it up before stringing it on a stick for roasting.

  "Wow, this guy must weigh over 20 kilograms!" Jin Gang cannon happily seasoned the wild game with condiments. Jin Gang's culinary skills were much more impressive than his martial arts skills, and he had been cooking for everyone on their journey.

  "It's almost done, White Wolf is dragging it with difficulty, the raccoon oil is quite good for treating burns." I lit a cigarette and leaned back.

  "Little brother, following us and suffering so much, do you regret it?" I said to Murong Zhuifeng who was sitting with her knees hugged tightly together in the distance. She didn't like us treating her as a woman, so our way of addressing her hadn't changed.

  Murong chased the wind and shook his head. In recent days, she has been saying less and less, and her time spent daydreaming alone has been getting longer and longer. However, I feel that this is a good thing - isn't it said that stillness leads to far-reaching wisdom? Letting her calm down for a bit might help her remember something.

  At some point, the fragrance came out.

  "Old cow, skillful hands, verbal praise once, continue to work hard." I opened the package and pulled out his favorite high-proof baijiu liquor and threw it at him. The few bottles of Jin Gang Cannon's white wine were his favorite, and before leaving, he begged me to carry them on my back.

  "That's not bragging, this skill can even open a small restaurant." Call him fat and he'll immediately get angry.

  "The fragrance comes from inside." Suddenly lifting his head, he saw Murong Zhui Feng pointing to the depths of the cave and speaking.

  I turned back with Jin Gang Pao, the dark cave was dead silent, but indeed a special fragrance wafted out from the depths, the smell was strong and strange.

  "Lao Yu, how come there's a smell of medicinal plaster?" Jin Gang Pao sniffed with his nose stretched out.

  The fragrance that floated out from the depths of the cave was similar to musk, and Jin Gang Cannon's description of it as having a medicinal smell wasn't wrong either. I lowered my head to see how Bai Lang would react, but who knew that this one movement would give me a fright - originally lying beside me, Bai Lang suddenly hung its ears down and ran towards the depths of the cave with a confused expression.

  "White Wolf, come." I anxiously gave it an order.

  The white wolf heard my voice, turned its head to look at me, then looked at the depths of the cave, hesitated for a moment, and finally ran back.

  "Old cow, it's almost time for us to eat. After we finish eating, we'll change places." The strange smell made me feel uneasy.

  "What's the big deal? It's just a bit of stock flavor, why so much fuss? Besides, what are we afraid of? Oh my god, tiger!"

  Just as Jin Gang said he wasn't afraid, something he feared appeared. At some point, a spotted tiger had entered from the cave entrance and was slowly approaching us.

  "Be on guard!" I habitually used military terminology when I got nervous, the Golden Cannon was closer to Murong Zhui Feng, so I pulled him over and leaned against the stone wall. I took out the Divine Turtle Cannon and White Wolf and leaned against the stone wall on the other side.

  "Lao Yu, what are you waiting for if you're not going to fire?" The Golden Cannon's divine turtle cannon landed beside the bonfire, and with a stretch of his hand, he drew out Gan Jiang from behind his back.

  I waved my hand to stop the shouting of the golden cannon, and the tiger in front of me should be male, with bright fur and a considerable size. However, its movements seemed a bit strange, stiff and slow-paced. Most importantly, tigers should also be afraid of fire, but now we are surrounded by flashing flames and loud noises, how dare it come in.

  My right hand's defensive posture remained unchanged, and the cannon didn't dare to make any moves either, staring wide-eyed as this enormous creature approached step by step.

  "What's going on with Lao Yu?" The cannon master pointed towards the depths of the cave, a look of confusion on his face.

  "Maybe it went into the pot and got stuck?" The tiger walked close to us but didn't stop, instead heading straight into the depths of the mountain cave, not even noticing the white wolf's several barks.

  "You're kidding" Jin Gang Pao also knew I was joking, and pulled Mu Rong Zhui Feng back to the fire.

  "It looks like it's been bewildered by something." I recalled the strange behavior of the White Wolf earlier and made a guess.

  "Five elements are normal, who can confuse it?" It seems that when I was nervous, Jin Gang Cannon still took the time to take a look at this tiger brother's breath.

  "Let's go, change places." I said as I started packing things up. Jin Gang Pao hastily put the half-cooked badger meat into a bag.

  "Give me the dry provisions, don't get them dirty." I grabbed the dry provisions and put them in my backpack.

  "Little brother, let's go." I and Jīn Gāng (Golden Gun) hastily gathered our things to leave this desolate place, seeing Mù Yǒng Zhuī Fēng still standing in the same spot.

  "Get out of here!" Murong Zhui Feng pointed at the cave.

  "Ah?" I and Jin Gang Pao exclaimed in unison. This Murong Zhui Feng, who had been taciturn all along, how did he suddenly come up with such a sentence at this critical moment?

  "Old cow, pull her up and go!" I led the white wolf to take the lead. At this time, we can't listen to her nonsense.

  BOOM!!!

  Just as I was about to walk out of the cave, a huge stone gate suddenly moved from west to east, sealing the entrance tightly!

  "What have you done?" I suddenly turned my head, only to see Murong Zhui Feng holding a purple gas, pressing it against a certain part of the stone wall. Next to him stood Jin Gang Pao, his face filled with shock.

  "I remember this place, you have to go from here..." Murong Zhui Feng withdrew his hand, muttering.

  I stepped forward quickly and pulled open the door of Mochizuki's pursuit. On the stone wall, there was a dark gray yin-yang eight trigrams pattern protruding. It seems that this cave is not as simple as we imagined.

  "Niu Jingang, what did you just do?" I bellowed at Jingang who was still standing by in a daze.

  Golden cannon opened a big mouth, shocked words would not say, stretched out his right hand and turned clockwise.

  I turned around and stretched out my right hand, grasped the stone-like yin-yang shaped protrusion, and rotated it counterclockwise a few times. To my surprise, it was light as a feather and didn't require any effort at all.

  "Lao Yu, just now when she spun around, her right hand was carrying purple energy." Jingang Cannon finally came back to his senses.

  "Open it!" I stepped forward and grabbed Murong Zhui Feng, saying sternly. I didn't care what her intentions were, but this cave was definitely not a clean place. The strange behavior of the White Wolf and the old tiger earlier was enough to prove that. To untie the bell, one needs the person who tied it, I couldn't release the purple energy, and the Vajra cannon was far from being usable. For now, the only option was to let Murong Zhui Feng take action.

  "What's going on?" Murong Zhui Feng looked bewildered.

  "Stop trying to fool me and open the stone gate, or I won't be polite!" I shouted loudly. At critical moments, you can't show any tender loving care!

  "I won't." Murong Zhui Feng was intimidated by my fierce gaze and started to tear up.

  I don't care about that set of things. I grabbed her right hand and turned the stone gate mechanism left and right several times, but there was no reaction at all.

  "Old Yu, old Yu..." Jin Gang saw me losing control of my emotions and grabbed my hand to pull me aside "She might have really forgotten, forcing her won't work, besides if she really gets angry, you can't even beat her."

  "Has she forgotten already? Is she a tomboy?" I flung away the metal knuckles in anger.

  "Do you think she's not fierce? Never mind, never mind, we still have a lot of dry rations and water, let's move forward and take a look." Jin Gang handed over a cigarette.

  "Old cow, I'm already regretful to have you follow me and take such a great risk. Obviously there's something dirty ahead, we can avoid it, why bother going straight into it?" I took a drag on my cigarette, calming down a bit.

  "You don't often say 'knowing there's a tiger in the mountain, do you still want to go and catch it?' Well, as it happens, there's also a tiger here. I heard that thing is full of treasures. Why don't we just trap it like a turtle in a jar?" Jin Gang Pao tried to persuade me.

  "Whatever, some people call that 'knowing there's a tiger on the mountain but still heading towards it', besides, in this situation, who knows who's the turtle yet..."