Chapter Seventy: A Thin Line Between Life and Death

  One sound for safety, two sounds for emergency. After sending a safe signal with the cannon, I began to size up the mountain peak in front of me.

  When viewing from a distant island in the lake, I feel that this mountain peak is not steep, but when I really get close to the front, I find that climbing the mountain peak in front of me is not as easy as I imagined.

  What's more, I'm so hungry that my stomach is sticking to my back. Nevertheless, I still don't dare to delay for a moment. Time is life, and for the first time in my life, I've come to understand the meaning of this phrase.

  Enduring the hunger in my belly, I leaned on a tree branch and trudged through the snow towards the mountain top.

  Before nightfall, I caught dinner, a cunning-looking vole.

  Looking at the prey in my hand, I couldn't help but laugh and cry. Just a few days ago, I was teasing Jin Gang Cannon for wanting to eat a field mouse, but it turns out he didn't eat one, I did.

  Simply set the field mouse on fire and roasted it until it was charred, gnawing at it as if savoring a culinary delight. Despite this delicacy having no seasonings and being half raw.

  "Hamsters and mice are different." I comforted myself, covering my ears like a thief, grabbed the half-eaten hamster and got up to eat while walking. Now I don't even dare to waste time eating because I'm so poor and have something to fill my stomach, but people like Jin Gang Pao on the island aren't as lucky as me.

  With food in my belly, I quickly regained a lot of strength and before nightfall, I had climbed nearly half the distance. This time I was completely unable to move.

  Found a sheltered corner to squat for a while, lit a cigarette and closed my eyes for a few minutes. When the cigarette burned down to my fingers, I stood up again and continued walking.

  At midnight, I finally climbed to the top of the mountain and leaned against a big tree. Just as I lit a cigarette, an unexpected situation occurred - the large tree behind me, which was two arms thick, suddenly transmitted a slight vibration.

  I hastily turned around, drew out the dry willow branch and prepared to defend myself. I pinched my fingers together in a gesture of observation and surprisingly discovered that amidst the aura of this large tree was mixed a strand of yellow spiritual energy. Although it wasn't very intense, there was no mistake that the tree concealed living creatures within.

  Since entering the desolate Kunlun Mountains, strange things have been happening frequently. By today, I'm no longer surprised by unexpected situations. Holding my sword close to a large tree, I kicked the trunk several times and found that the vibration of the trunk increased, and faintly heard the sound of an animal's breathing.

  "What's going on, come out!" In the dead of night, without any companions, I was alone facing an unknown situation. I chose to take the initiative and swung my saber at the big tree, chopping it down.

  Something unexpected happened again. Although Gan Jiang chopped down the big tree, I felt a huge backlash from the sword body. This big tree was much harder than other trees.

  The trunk of the felled tree was indeed hollowed out, and as it crashed to the ground, a black animal burst out from the base of the trunk, bellowing as it charged towards me.

  I took a closer look and it was actually a huge black bear, the fur on its head had been shaved off, blood gushing out, with an even more ferocious expression.

  To be honest, I never thought that such a situation would occur. If it were ghosts or monsters, I wouldn't be surprised, but the fact that a hibernating black bear was hiding in the tree trunk is something I didn't expect.

  As I watched the black bear pounce towards me, I instinctively fell to the ground and rolled over, barely avoiding the massive paw that came flying at me, scaring me out of my wits.

  Against a beast of this level, the power of Taoist spells is not great, and can only be compared to brute force and speed. But now I'm exhausted, what strength and speed do I have?

  The black bear pounced on me after a brief moment, and then stood up on its hind legs, charging towards me quickly.

  "Darkness and obscurity, yin and yang......" The situation was critical, my instincts made me think of my own Taoist skills, trying to use the "Observing Qi and Searching Soul" technique to directly extract its Yang soul. But I didn't have time to chant the incantation, as soon as I started, a slap came flying over, no choice but to roll around on the ground again trying to reuse old tricks.

  This time I was late, and before I could even lie down, the bear's paw arrived. The powerful force and sharp claws instantly tore a deep wound on my left arm, and fresh blood flowed out in an instant.

  I sprang up with a roll, quickly exercised my arms and found that I hadn't hurt any tendons or bones. I turned around and ran off immediately. Whatever Wind Movement Chant or Rain Movement Chant completely slipped my mind.

  I've seen people introduce the idea of playing dead to escape when encountering a bear, either in books or on TV. However, after joining the special forces, I learned that this is extremely wrong when it comes to black bears. If they're not hungry, then it's fine, but if they are, they won't even spare a corpse. Many people have tried playing dead when encountering a black bear and ended up really dying. As for why you never see people who played dead on TV, that's something you'd have to ask the TV stations about. It's like how we often see bad guys getting caught on TV after doing something wrong, and the host always ends with "the law is strict and will not tolerate any mistakes." But can they report on the ones that get away? Sorry, I got sidetracked again. Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

  The huge black bear in front of me not only startled my peaceful sleep but also had its scalp cut off by me. In a fit of rage, it chased after me relentlessly. I couldn't help but secretly lament that this guy's strides were so big, and it wouldn't take long to catch up with me. Helplessly, I could only circle around the few large trees at the top of the mountain, taking advantage of the opportunity to pull out the divine turtle cannon and start loading bullets.

  In the midst of panic, both hands were shaking, and only two bullets were pressed into the handful of bullets that were grabbed, while the rest were scattered on the snowy ground. I didn't have time to think much either, raised my hand and fired at the black bear behind me.

  After two loud bangs, I was completely stunned. Originally aiming at the brain, but ended up hitting the right shoulder. The black bear's skin was thick and tough, so it didn't cause much harm to it. After being shot, the black bear surprisingly sat down on the ground with a thud, its paws started scratching the wound, trying to pull out the steel needle that had entered its body.

  I muttered to myself, "So clever, really becoming a spirit." The little thief jumped up and leaped onto a large tree in front of me.

  Finally safe, I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead with my sleeve and looked at the black bear sitting under the tree. The black bear stopped scratching when it saw me jump onto the big tree, stood up and let out a loud roar, walked forward on its hind legs, wrapped its front paws around the big tree, trying to pull the tree up.

  The big tree I jumped up has a thickness of several hugs, it must be impossible to pull out. Thinking of this, I quickly opened my shirt and simply bandaged the wound on my arm. Take out the divine turtle gun and start loading bullets. Here's a friendly tip for everyone, when bandaging bleeding wounds, never use cotton or pure cotton clothing, that will make you lose blood faster.

  Not too much, not too little, but two more shots. The huge shock that came suddenly from under the tree made all the remaining bullets in my hand roll down to the ground. I looked down and saw that the injured black bear had changed its strategy and was now using its sturdy shoulders to ram into the trunk of the tree, trying to shake me off.

  I sneered and picked up the divine turtle cannon, aiming at the black bear under the tree, and decisively fired the last two bullets.

  Right on the black bear's head!

  The joy had not yet emanated from the bottom of my heart when it was replaced by chill and astonishment. The black bear with two bullets in its head did not fall, but instead climbed up the tree with a roar.

  "Grass, it seems the instructor didn't tell the whole truth either. Who said bears can't climb trees?" I cursed silently and put away the divine turtle cannon, drawing out the Gan Jiang instead. It seems that to deal with this giant with superhuman vitality, only the most primitive method would do.

  I held the dry firewood, waiting for the black bear to approach, so I could give it a good scare. But when the black bear climbed halfway and saw the dry firewood in my hand, it turned around and retreated with its butt facing downwards. It sat down under the tree and started a standoff with me.

  I lit a cigarette and took several puffs, I've saved my life, let's take a break for now.

  Who knew I couldn't sit still before finishing the cigarette, and in winter, the mountain wind was already strong. I even jumped onto a tree on the mountain top, and soon I was frozen to the point of trembling all over, with numb hands and feet.

  Looking down at the black bear under the tree, the situation is much better than mine. The thick-shouldered bullet was shot in, but there wasn't much bleeding. The two shots on its head didn't even shatter the bone, and the two steel needles had been pulled out and thrown aside. After all, the divine turtle cannon isn't a standard firearm, its power is too weak.

  I pulled out the shotgun, feeling around my pocket for the missing bullets. The black bear under the tree saw me pull out the shotgun and stood up, using its shoulder to bump into the tree. It seemed that it had seen me drop the bullets earlier and thought bumping into the tree was a way to deal with the shotgun in my hand.

  The bullets were all gone, and I listlessly tucked the shotgun into my waist. The black bear under the tree saw me put away the gun and sat back down under the tree, licking its wound.

  I sat on the tree, teasing the black bear with my gun, trying to exhaust its energy. However, after a few attempts, it discovered that my gun couldn't harm it at all. No matter how I struggled, it just wouldn't budge. Later, it simply walked to a nearby grass nest and went inside, only exposing its head to monitor me.

  I sat on the branch for half an hour, enduring the northwest wind, but I really couldn't take it anymore. I started to look around and search for a way to escape. As a result, after looking around, I discovered a strange phenomenon. After cutting down the big tree where the black bear was hiding, some faint green wood gas actually seeped out from the top of the mountain, although it was very light but indeed there was.

  I counted the number of unknown large trees on the mountain top, there were about twenty, and their distribution was quite chaotic, without any pattern. However, they all surrounded a green strange tree, which I called strange because in such cold weather, other trees had already lost their leaves, but it was lush with branches and leaves. The wide leaves rustled in the mountain wind. After careful observation, I finally discovered the strangeness of the tree - it didn't have any wood energy at all! Any tree would emit some wood energy, even dead trees would retain some residual wood energy, but this strange tree in front of me was lush with branches and leaves yet had no wood energy, which was abnormal in itself.

  I spotted a clue and withdrew my gaze to size up the black bear in the nearby grass nest, considering tactics against the enemy. It's not going to work out if I keep wasting time with this big guy.

  The roof leaks just in time for a continuous rainy night, and it has even started snowing.

  Before I was completely wrapped in snowflakes, I finally lost patience and grabbed a dry willow branch and jumped down.

  The black bear saw me jump down and suddenly opened its slightly closed eyes, stood up and rushed towards me with a roar. This time, I didn't dodge.

  When heroes meet on a narrow road, the brave one wins. Since we can't avoid it, let's just have a head-on collision!

  I clutched my sword tightly, staring at the black bear rushing towards me with wide eyes, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. If I couldn't kill it with one slash, its dying counterattack would surely be fatal. The situation before me could only be described as "either you die or I perish".

  Gan Jiang will live up to the reputation of a divine warrior, because I have Gan Jiang, so I didn't die.

  The upper body of the black bear has been split in two by me, and the hot bear blood splashed on my face. The fierce impact of the giant bear's corpse before its death also made me fall to the ground, and I couldn't catch my breath for a long time.

  With great difficulty, I stood up and didn't immediately go to cut down those big trees. Instead, I stumbled towards the grass nest where the black bear had been lying down before, and curled up in it, frozen stiff.

  As I walked into the grass hut, I found that it was directly connected to the roots of the big tree that I had cut down earlier. Since the big tree had already been cut down, the cold wind still blew from behind me. I quickly grabbed some dry leaves to block the cold wind and lay down in the dry grass that still retained the body heat of the black bear.

  What is right and wrong, what is true and false? As the saying goes, justice is not in people's hearts, but in strength. This winter hibernating black bear was so innocent, yet it ended up being dissected by me. Never mind, this is not a time for mercy, if I don't kill it, it will kill me...

  Finally fell asleep, the crisis was lifted, and the broken array had a clue. This time I didn't use cigarettes to set a timer, and I slept until noon the next day before waking up again.

  I exercised my sore muscles and checked the wound on my left shoulder. I picked up the dry wood that had been drilled out of the grass nest, held my sword in a concentrated stance, and cut down all the big trees at the top of the mountain. Finally, the aura of that strange tree changed. Thick green wood energy was emitted from the tree body.

  I pinched my hand to observe the aura method, mouth reciting the true words of condensing the spirit, and indeed found that the emerald green wood energy of the strange tree was emitted from the lonely island in the middle of the lake.

  "That's great, just behead you and the Five Elements Array will be broken", I suppressed my joy, grasping Dangjiang and walked over.