It was a distance of less than 200 meters, yet it took Wang An a full six or seven minutes to walk there.
The scene before him, however, was not at all unexpected.
He saw that the massive head of the bear had been shattered by three bullets. To be precise, the bear's skull had been torn away by the bullets; this bear was certainly as dead as could be.
What did catch Wang An by surprise, however, was the bear's weight. Previously, from Wang An's perspective, the bear had looked to be around five or six hundred jin, but seeing it up close, he discovered that it must weigh at least 800 jin—it was plump and round as can be.
From this, it was evident that for the bear to have grown this fat, the corn planted by the vagrants must have been very nutritious; the vagrants certainly deserved credit for that.
However, Wang An also noticed that this bear had lived for quite a few years, as much of the brown fur on its back had turned white.
This explained why it wasn't afraid of the sound of banging pots and gongs, sounds that normally terrified wild boars and Asiatic black bears.
Throughout its lifetime, it had likely heard the sound of banging pots and gongs countless times and had long since become immune to such noises.
Once he confirmed the bear was dead, Wang An felt relieved and put away his gun.
Only after stowing the gun did Wang An shift his gaze to Yang Dachuan.
Because the bear had been sitting on Yang Dachuan before it died, it was now sprawled directly on top of him.
As a result, Wang An could only see Yang Dachuan's two legs sticking out; as for his upper body and head, they were completely covered by the bear.
After walking in a circle around the bear and Yang Dachuan, Wang An shook his head helplessly.
He simply had no way to handle it—no way at all. Facing a behemoth of over 800 jin, Wang An didn't even bother reaching out to try and move it, as he didn't believe he could budge such a heavy object.
Consequently, Wang An sat on the great bear's body, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it.
Just as he finished the cigarette, Pang Yongxiang, Huang Baoguo, and the others, who had heard the gunshots, returned after scouting the area.
Seeing the five of them approach, Wang An didn't get up from the bear. He handed out cigarettes to the five men and asked irritably
"What the hell happened here? This big bear was eating just fine; how did it suddenly start chasing people?"
This was the part that puzzled Wang An the most, so he asked without hesitation.
The five men looked at each other, and then Pang Yongxiang spoke with a face full of anger
"It's all the fault of that bastard Yang Dachuan. We were standing there watching you run that way, and then, who knows what he was thinking, he grabbed the gong and headed toward the bear. Before he even reached the bear, he started going 'clang clang clang'."
Huang Baoguo also said with a bitter face
"Exactly. Once the gong sounded, we were all bewildered. We saw the big bear run a few steps toward you first, then it turned around and started chasing him. He turned and ran toward us, and we were scared, so we all ran for our lives."
Er Gangzi continued
"Before he ran toward us, I heard him begging us to save him. I wanted to save him, but how the hell was I supposed to do that?"
Hearing their account, Wang An immediately understood why the gong had suddenly sounded and why the bear, which had been eating peacefully, suddenly went berserk.
Yang Dachuan's original intention had actually been to use the gong to scare the bear away and drive it toward Wang An.
It didn't take much thought to imagine the consequences if the bear had chased Wang An.
To put it bluntly, Yang Dachuan wanted to use the bear as a tool to kill Wang An, or at least leave them both severely wounded.
Who knew that "heaven would not grant his wish"—or more accurately, "he reaped what he sowed." Because this bear wasn't afraid of the gong, the noise instead enraged it. It viewed Yang Dachuan as an enemy and chased him instead.
Once he figured this out, Wang An's expression immediately darkened.
They had no real grudge, just a few arguments, yet Yang Dachuan was so vicious that he actually tried to have Wang An killed.
It was clear that Yang Dachuan was no saint; he was undoubtedly a ruthless individual.
With a cold face, Wang An asked Huang Baoguo and the others
"What the hell was that old geezer trying to do? Did none of you realize?"
Under Wang An's menacing gaze, Huang Baoguo quickly replied
"How could we not realize? Young Master An, Yang Dachuan is usually very calculating. He has two sons who know a bit of martial arts; in our village, his family is the local bully. No one dares to provoke them."
Pang Yongxiang also said with indignation
"We usually listen to him, but we didn't think he was so petty that he'd try to kill you over such a small matter."
Er Gangzi added angrily
"Exactly. If he hadn't offended those people in the mountains, how could we have gone hungry every meal for the past two years?"
After Er Gangzi finished, the remaining two also began listing Yang Dachuan's faults.
However, Wang An didn't listen to what those two said; he only noted that Yang Dachuan had two sons and that his family were the bullies of Weizigou.
After a while, Wang An felt that if he didn't extract the bear gall soon, it might dissolve. He set aside his emotions for the moment and said to Huang Baoguo and the others
"Alright, let's leave it at that for now. Help me flip this big bear over. I need to get the gall out first, otherwise, it'll dissolve."
"Aye, aye, alright."
"Yeah, business first."
With that, the six of them worked together, struggling with great effort to flip the big bear over. Yang Dachuan's corpse was finally exposed from beneath the bear.
To be honest, this 800-plus jin bear was damn heavy; even with the strength of six people, it was a struggle.
Mainly because the bear was old and incredibly fat; when it lay flat on the ground, it was just a mass of meat.
By now, Yang Dachuan had been mangled beyond recognition by the bear. His entire face was a bloody mess from the bear's claws, making it impossible to distinguish his features.
Furthermore, a patch of scalp had been torn off by the claws, and his chest cavity had been crushed flat by the bear's weight. A smell of excrement, urine, and the distinct scent of internal organs from a carcass wafted toward them.
Whether Yang Dachuan's waste and intestines had been squeezed out remained to be seen.
Just the sight of this made Huang Baoguo and the other four grimace in disgust.
Of course, while Wang An didn't find it pleasant, his facial expression remained largely unchanged. Compared to the living hell of the Forbidden Zone, the scene before him was clearly child's play.
Without a word, Wang An pulled the hunting knife from Huang Baoguo's homemade gun.
He had no choice; he hadn't brought a hunting knife with him this time.