Chapter 951: Black Blind Seeks Death

Fortunately, although Da Hei's intelligence was high and he could understand human speech, dogs aren't the type to be repulsed by the smell of feces.

Otherwise, if Wang An asked him to smell shit, Da Hei would probably have given Wang An a piece of his mind.

So, upon hearing Wang An's words, Da Hei sniffed the black bear's droppings. Hearing Wang An as well, Xiao Hei also stepped forward to sniff.

It had to be said that because Xiao Hei learned everything by following Da Hei, he was becoming more and more like him.

However, after Da Hei and Xiao Hei finished smelling the pile of bear shit, they merely circled the area sniffing and then showed no further reaction.

Clearly, aside from this pile of droppings, the black bear had left no other scent; more accurately, the scent had already dissipated.

Looking at the bewildered Da Hei and Xiao Hei, Mu Xueli asked Wang An

"Brother-in-law, what do we do now? Even Da Hei can't smell anything. Could this man-bear have bolted deep into the mountains?"

Wang An looked at the lush shrubbery surrounding Shijiezi Mountain and the dense forests beyond the perimeter. He couldn't help but feel a headache coming on and said

"We search slowly. What else can we do? There's no better way."

To put it bluntly, in this kind of environment, forget about finding a man-bear—even trying to find a massive moose would be a damn struggle.

Then, Wang An gestured toward the group of dogs and said to Da Hei

"Let them all smell this pile of shit and remember the scent. Then tell them to look for the black bear that left this."

In truth, while the noses of the supporting dogs weren't as powerful as the lead dogs like Da Hei and Xiao Hei, the primary difference was merely the distance.

This distance referred specifically to the gap between where the prey left a trace and the prey itself.

For example, a lead dog could begin locating and tracking based on a scent from six li away from the prey.

A supporting dog, however, might need to get within two li of the prey before they could pick up the scent.

Of course, there were differences between lead dogs as well; the superior lead dogs could smell from further away, while the lesser ones could only smell from closer range.

In the jargon of mountain hunters, this was referred to as having a "long reach" or a "short reach."

Once Wang An finished speaking, Da Hei barked at the other dogs. Hearing Da Hei's command, the dogs crowded forward one after another to sniff the droppings.

Watching Da Hei's performance, Wang An couldn't help but give him a mental thumbs-up.

To be honest, among almost all hunting dogs, Da Hei could absolutely be described as the "Lu Bu among men, the Red Hare among horses."

After all the dogs had finished smelling the bear shit, Wang An looked around once more and said helplessly

"Let's go. We'll circle the immediate area first, then gradually expand the radius. I refuse to believe this man-bear has actually become a spirit and left us absolutely no trace."

The search method Wang An described was called "intercepting the trail" in hunter's jargon.

It involved using the pile of bear shit as the center, drawing circles around it, with each subsequent circle larger than the last.

Of course, this method worked better in winter when there was snow, as animals inevitably leave footprints in the snow.

In this current season, it was simply a method of last resort, as it was far too damn slow in terms of efficiency.

And so, the three of them rode their horses, followed by a pack of dogs, circling the area.

Fortunately, whether it was Da Hei, Xiao Hei, Mu Xueli's Da Qing, or Wang Li's Da Huang, they were all genuine lead dogs with exceptionally keen noses.

With the assistance of the supporting dogs, the search speed wasn't too slow.

However, after the three riders and the dogs had circled an unknown number of times and reached a distance of five or six li from Shijiezi Mountain, they were still empty-handed.

By this time, the dogs and the three horses were exhausted.

Though Wang An and the others were riding, they weren't exactly comfortable either.

In this manner, time unknowingly passed until noon.

Wang An checked his watch; it was already 12 o'clock. He called out to Wang Li and Mu Xueli nearby

"Old Fifth, Xueli, let's find a place with water to eat and rest for a bit."

Then, Wang An placed his left thumb and index finger in his mouth and let out a very loud whistle.

Hearing the whistle, the dogs converged toward Wang An.

An entire morning had passed without a single shred of progress, so the three of them were in low spirits and had lost the desire to converse.

Relying on memory, the three headed straight southeast, as there was a small stream in that direction.

When traveling in these great mountains, besides being able to distinguish north, south, east, and west, the most important thing was to remember the terrain—specifically, which ridge connected to which mountain and which slope had water.

Any place they passed had to be remembered generally; if they couldn't remember, they had to force it, memorizing it by heart.

Otherwise, if a situation like Madashan occurred, getting out of the mountains would be a nightmare.

As they walked, while the three and the dogs were passing through a grove of lime trees, Da Hei suddenly spoke up.

Based on experience, Da Hei had found prey.

Sure enough, Da Hei barked several more times and bolted forward, and the other dogs followed, barking frantically.

The three, previously low in spirits, were instantly elated. They glanced at each other and simultaneously spurred their horses to follow.

In the woods, horses weren't as fast as dogs, but they were much faster than humans.

Just as Wang An and the others discovered that the dogs had surrounded a very tall lime tree, they saw the dogs suddenly howl and scatter in fear.

Then, the three of them saw a black shadow fall from the lime tree the dogs had been surrounding. Immediately after, there was a muffled "thump" as the shadow hit the ground.

However, because of the thick undergrowth, they couldn't see clearly what the black shadow was.

At the same time, the Oroqen horses ridden by the three were startled by the sudden muffled sound.

Not only did the three horses stop abruptly, but Wang An and the others clearly felt their mounts shudder violently.

Fortunately, Oroqen horses were naturally stable and didn't usually panic, so there were no disastrous incidents of horses bolting and throwing their riders.

Mu Xueli exclaimed in shock

"Holy shit, what the hell just fell down?"

The sharp-eyed Wang Li also exclaimed immediately

"Did a black bear just commit suicide?"