Chapter 44: Looting Black Blind's Stash (Please keep reading and subscribing)

Seeing his uncle say this, Wang An couldn't help but ask

"Then, Uncle, why are you taking me?"

"Because you're a novice. The person who told me the location is a bit of a loner; he doesn't want other hunters to know about this place, so he said I could bring a helper! But it can't be someone from our village."

Wang An nodded. In this era, there were still many people who valued their reputation.

Although there were troublemakers, brawlers, robbers, and murderers, people still placed a high value on keeping their word.

This was especially true for mountain foragers, who believed that breaking one's word would bring retribution from the mountains—though there were certainly rare exceptions!

Therefore, that person dared to tell Feng Chengmin about the Black Bear Cache without worrying that Feng Chengmin would leak the secret!

However, this kind of thing was a one-off deal.

Once this cache was emptied, the location could be told to anyone.

If a black bear were to squat in this cache again in the future, there would be no need to bother the person who provided the location!

In truth, whether or not to tell anyone didn't matter much, because it might be many years before a black bear entered this cache again!

They traveled without stopping.

After passing through Wild Boar Forest and traveling another ten miles or so, Feng Chengmin finally called a halt to his large horse, tethered it to a tree, and fed it fodder!

Feng Chengmin scanned his surroundings and fixed his gaze on a linden tree large enough to require two or three people to embrace.

Stepping forward, he discovered a knife mark on the tree—very subtle. Two cuts formed a corner, and following that corner, he moved to the next tree.

He continued searching for corners in this manner until he found a triangular formation, at which point Feng Chengmin stopped!

Looking around, he spotted a massive red pine about 200 meters away that would take five or six people to encircle.

Feng Chengmin led the way with Wang An following behind. Both men held their guns in their left hands, ready to bring them to their shoulders at a moment's notice!

Upon reaching the large red pine, they saw a large hollow in the tree about 2.5 meters up. Thick white frost covered the top of the opening!

Below the hollow, there were obvious deep gouges from an axe. If a flattened piece of wood were wedged in, someone could stand on it.

This was an old cache, an old one from many years ago. One could only wonder how many black bears had been hollowed out here!

Neither Feng Chengmin nor Wang An spoke after inspecting it. Feng Chengmin simply pulled Wang An and left.

Once they were far enough away, Feng Chengmin spoke seriously: "That man said there are two black bears in this hole. I've never cleared a cache with two bears before!"

After a moment's thought, he added, "But whether it's one bear or two, it's the same thing. Are you afraid? If you are, we'll go back. Whoever wants to clear this cache can do it. To be honest, even I'm not certain!"

Wang An was stunned. They had already come this far, and now he was telling him this?

If you didn't want to do it, why did you come all this way?

The key was that he hadn't cleared a single one himself!

In both his past and present lives, he had never even seen a live black bear!

Was he kidding?

But since they were already here, they might as well do it! To hell with it! They'd just fire the gun and be done with it!

Thinking this, Wang An nodded and said, "It's bound to happen sooner or later. Let's do it."

Hearing Wang An's agreement, Feng Chengmin smiled happily.

He said, "I knew it! If even a country bumpkin dares to do it himself, a black bear is nothing!"

He added, "If I hadn't seen you kill that wild boar and seen your decent marksmanship, I really wouldn't have dared to bring you."

Having said that, he led Wang An to chop some tree trunks about the thickness of a wrist; it seemed Feng Chengmin had come prepared.

He actually had a broadaxe in a sack, similar to the one used by Li Kui in *Water Margin*, though much smaller!

Before long, four ash tree trunks, each about 2.5 meters long, were chopped ready!

Feng Chengmin said these were to prop up the entrance to create some obstacles for the bear!

He then chopped two longer ones, about three meters long.

These were thinner, only about half a wrist thick.

Feng Chengmin said these were for "calling" the cache!

He also chopped two flat wooden blocks about 20 centimeters long to be wedged into the opening below the hollow to serve as a step!

Feng Chengmin then led Wang An to gather branches and chop dry, thick firewood, making two large piles!

They carried everything to a spot about three meters away from the tree cache.

Feng Chengmin explained that these would be lit later; if the shot missed and the bear came rushing down, they would need to run around the fire to increase their chances of escape!

Then, Feng Chengmin led Wang An to stomp out three small paths starting from the woodpile, leading in different directions.

Feng Chengmin said these were all for escaping, otherwise, it would be hard to run fast through the deep snow!

Finally, Feng Chengmin instructed Wang An to stand about 30 meters from the cache, bring his gun to his shoulder, and aim at a spot about one meter below the opening.

He said this was the optimal aiming point.

If they fired too early and the bear didn't come out, or if they killed the bear but it fell back into the hollow, they would be in big trouble. It was impossible to pull a black bear's carcass out of a hole using human strength alone!

Chopping the tree would be even more ridiculous; no tree housing a sky-cache was ever thin—they were all much thicker than a black bear!

If they waited until the bear had completely landed on the ground before firing, the danger would increase immensely.

Because although black bears are massive, they are exceptionally agile.

They are also quite fast! If a hunter panicked slightly and missed, there would be no telling what the consequences would be.

Feng Chengmin warned repeatedly, "When the black bear roars, do not panic. If you panic, I'm finished!"

This was because Feng Chengmin was responsible for "calling" the cache, which was far more dangerous than aiming and shooting. It involved close contact with the bear, and there were too many unpredictable variables!

Having finished his instructions, Feng Chengmin went to light the fire. Once the fire was burning,

Feng Chengmin turned to look at Wang An. Seeing him look his way, Wang An knew he was asking if he was ready.

Wang An nodded immediately.

Seeing the nod, Feng Chengmin wedged one of the flat wooden blocks into the opening and pressed it down with his hand.

Then, with great caution, he inserted the four tree trunks into the hollow one by one.

To Wang An, it didn't seem to do much; it felt like mere psychological comfort.

However, Feng Chengmin surely had his reasons for doing this.

After inserting them, the irregular opening was partially blocked by several wooden poles!

Feng Chengmin glanced back at Wang An again, and seeing another nod,

He performed a simple and violent action, thrusting one of the half-wrist-thick poles directly into the hole.

He began to poke it violently. After a few thrusts, a loud "ROAR!" erupted. The hibernating black bear had been rudely poked awake!

Even from a distance, the roar made Wang An's hair stand on end and his bones feel weak!

A sense of primal fear spread from the depths of his heart!

Fortunately, Wang An had experienced much in his past life and had good psychological composure; he recovered after two or three seconds!

At this time, Feng Chengmin was still using the pole to poke forcefully.

Feng Chengmin had said earlier that this was to make the bear furious, which would increase the chances of its gallbladder turning into a "copper gallbladder"!

Though Wang An didn't know if it was true, since Feng Chengmin said so, there must be a reason.

Suddenly, Feng Chengmin let go of the pole and jumped down from the tree!

Without a moment's hesitation, the descending Feng Chengmin turned and sprinted down one of the pre-stomped paths!