About twenty minutes later, Wang An and Wang Li arrived at the dugout.
Aside from farmers working the fields who would occasionally stop here to rest when it rained, this dugout remained vacant for most of the time.
Thus, upon arriving, the two didn't rush to the nearby crops to search for pests like wild boars or badgers; instead, they began tidying up the dugout.
After all, they had to stay here overnight, and it was simply uninhabitable without a bit of cleaning.
It wasn't until the fire was lit in the stove and the kang bed was heating up that Wang An spoke to Wang Li
"Let's go. Take a stroll around. If there's nothing nearby, we'll come back and sleep."
Wang Li added a few pieces of wooden kindling to the stove and kicked the firewood toward the sides of the stove opening before standing up from the small wooden stool.
He did this because wood often pops and crackles slightly while burning.
During these moments, burning embers can fly in all directions. If an ember flying out of the stove opening landed on the firewood in the hearth, it could easily trigger a fire.
After standing up, Wang Li said to Wang An with a grin
"I haven't heard of anyone's crops being ruined in this area. I reckon there's probably nothing around here, so going is redundant. Why don't we just stay in the dugout, Fourth Brother?"
It was clear that Wang Li had become overconfident.
Perhaps it was exactly as Wang Dazhu had said—Wang Li had learned bad habits from Wang An.
However, Wang Li hadn't picked up Wang An's virtues; he had only mastered the art of being slippery and lazy.
Hearing this, Wang An rolled his eyes at Wang Li and said casually
"Stay my ass. You come all the way here early in the morning just to stay put? We have to take a lap at least, just to see what's going on around here."
As Wang Li walked over, Wang An reached out and gave him a flick on the head, saying dissatisfiedly
"I've noticed you're getting damn lazier. Starting tomorrow, get up at 4 o'clock to practice gong with me, alright? Otherwise, I'll go to your house and drag your bare ass out of the blankets."
To his surprise, after Wang An finished speaking, Wang Li looked excited and said
"Practice gong? You mean the martial arts you used to beat up Da Hui last night? Hehehe... that's great! I'm telling you, Fourth Brother, that move you used to dislocate Da Hui's arm got my blood boiling. One 'crack,' and the arm just came down!"
As he spoke, Wang Li began gesturing with his hands.
Seeing Wang Li's excitement, Wang An shoved him out of the dugout and said irritably
"Alright, alright, stop showing off. Hurry up and take a lap, then come back and sleep."
Chatting away, the two young men walked outside together.
Once outside, they vaulted onto their horses and led a pack of dogs along the path toward the woods on the outskirts of the farmland.
Whether one liked it or not, their combined total of dogs and wolves came to eighteen. With such a large, bustling group, the scene was quite spectacular.
Upon entering the forest, Da Hei and the other dogs walked around the two for a while before Da Hei suddenly spoke up. Immediately after, Da Hei let out a few "wangs" and bolted forward.
Hearing Da Hei's call, the other dogs and wolves followed suit and ran off.
The two were momentarily stunned when Da Hei barked; based on Da Hei's behavior, it was obvious the dog had found prey.
Consequently, Wang An couldn't help but ask Wang Li
"Didn't you say there was nothing around here? Come on, explain this to me—what's with the dogs barking?"
Wang Li scratched his head awkwardly and said
"I don't know what's going on either, hehehe..."
Wang An smiled and pointed his horse whip at Wang Li, saying
"If you dare be lazy with me again in the future, see if I don't skin you."
Having said that, Wang An ignored Wang Li, squeezed the horse's belly with his legs, shouted "Giddy-up!", and rode after the disappearing dogs.
Seeing this, Wang Li immediately spurred his horse and ran after Wang An.
In this season, although the grass in the forest showed signs of withering, there were still many areas of deep vegetation. Once the dogs ran in, they vanished from sight instantly.
In other words, this time of year was actually unsuitable for "dog-circling" or "slip-circling" hunts.
However, since the dogs had already bolted, as their masters, they had to follow to see what was happening.
Guided by Da Hei's barks and the responses of the other dogs, the pack did not scatter.
In reality, as long as there weren't any stubborn dogs that ignored commands or any injured dogs, the chance of a dog pack scattering was extremely slim.
Dogs are very similar to pack animals in the deep mountains; besides calling to their companions with sound, they rely on scent.
Therefore, once a dog pack entered the mountains, no mountain hunter ever worried about a dog getting lost.
After the two had chased for about five or six li, nearly reaching the edge of the village's perimeter, they saw the pack, led by Da Hei, surrounding a behemoth.
The reason it could be called a behemoth was that from Wang An and Wang Li's perspective, only the creature's back was visible. At first glance, it looked larger than an ox.
Wang Li exclaimed in shock
"Holy shit, what the hell is that? Is it a Kanda-han?"
Wang An looked closely and shook his head
"No, it's a 'big bubble-egg.' A Kanda-han would be much larger than this."
Wang Li said in disbelief
"My god, there are bubble-eggs this big?"
To be honest, Wang An was also very surprised, because this "big bubble-egg" was much larger than the biggest one he and Li Biao had killed in the Wild Boar Forest.
This bubble-egg looked to be at least seven or eight hundred jin; the visual impact was significant.
He just wondered why such a massive wild boar had appeared here...
As they spoke, Wang An and Wang Li both raised their guns to their faces and aimed at the big bubble-egg.
As the bubble-egg moved, its full form soon became visible within their sights. However, with the dogs surrounding it, both were afraid of hitting a dog, so they hesitated to fire.
It was also evident that facing such a massive wild boar, the dogs felt a sense of helplessness, or rather, they had nowhere to bite, so they could only bark incessantly.
Occasionally, a dog would rush forward to bite, only to be seen retreating and running away immediately.
The bubble-egg would only chase a few steps as a show of force and then ignore them.
Mainly, a wild boar of this size was already covered in natural armor. Even its testicles were encased in a mixture of pine resin and soil; with a dog's bite force, they couldn't harm it in the slightest.
After a while, the dogs led the boar into a wooded area with fewer weeds. Wang An felt now was the perfect time to shoot, so he said to Wang Li
"Get ready to fire. I'll call the dogs over."
(End of Chapter)