Every trade has its rules, every trade has its jargon.
These days, even bandits and robbers have their own codes and secret language. Hunting is no different.
Take what just happened, for example. The two hounds chased the wild boar over mountains and ridges, crossing two entire peaks.
They fought constantly along the way, a cycle of stopping and starting. Never mind the running; whenever the hounds could force the boar to a halt, in the language of hunting, this was called "setting the den."
If they set the den but the boar escaped, that was called a "false den."
But if the hounds could force the boar to set a den and hold its ground, that was called a "death den"!
In a hunt, once a boar was in a death den, it was time for the Hunter to make his entrance.
In truth, Zhao Jun hadn't needed Li Baoyu to shout. The moment the boar had bolted toward the fallen log, he was already on the move.
He circled around behind the boar, one hand holding his blade, the other helping him climb. With a push of his feet, he vaulted onto the log.
By now, the boar was terrified of Hua Gou's gutting attacks. It pressed its rear firmly against the log, letting the two hounds lunge, leap, and charge from all sides in front of it.
The boar just kept shaking its head left and right, forcing Er Gou back, but its hindquarters never moved an inch from the log.
Zhao Jun crouched on the log, and the wild boar sat directly in front of him. Its posture was just like a sitting dog's, with its two hind legs on the ground and its two forelegs propping it up.
The boar's hearing wasn't poor; it had heard Zhao Jun climbing onto the log.
But the boar wasn't the only one that heard the noise.
The two dogs from Zhao Jun's family and Li Baoyu's family—Hua Gou, a hound of almost five years, and Yellow Dog, a hound of three years—were both veterans.
These two dogs had worked with Hunters for years. Although they couldn't speak, they understood the situation perfectly.
They knew that the moment the Hunter advanced, it was time for the final showdown. So, the two hounds rallied their remaining strength and launched a more ferocious wave of attacks against the boar.
This left the boar struggling to fend off Er Gou, with no attention to spare for Zhao Jun behind it.
Seeing his chance, Zhao Jun steadied himself, rising slightly. He bent his back and hunched his waist, twisting the Fraxinus mandschurica Stick in his palm so the Invasion Blade faced forward, its edge pointing down.
A flash of light from the blade, and it sank into flesh.
The strike was so fast that it made no sound as it pierced the meat.
The blade struck the same spot Yellow Dog had been tearing at earlier: just behind the boar's left front elbow, the equivalent of the soft flesh where a human's armpit meets the ribcage.
As he stabbed, Zhao Jun leaned forward.
The blade sank into the boar's body. Without a moment's pause, he pulled back and straightened up. By the time he withdrew the Invasion Blade, Zhao Jun was standing fully upright on the log.
PSHHH...
A jet of blood followed the blade out.
As the blood sprayed, the boar shrieked in agony, feeling its strength drain away.
Zhao Jun leaned forward again and struck a second time.
He aimed for the same spot, but this time, Zhao Jun didn't pull the blade out.
Instead, he threw his weight forward. With only his feet planted firmly on the log, the rest of his body was suspended in the air. His full strength, combined with the reactive force from his feet pushing against the log, was channeled through the stick and blade, forcing the boar to lurch forward.
Seeing Zhao Jun strike, the two hounds became even more frenzied. They pounced from the left and right. Yellow Dog bit the boar's left ear, and Hua Gou bit its right. The two dogs dug their eight legs into the ground and yanked the boar forward.
"AWOOOO..." The boar let out a wailing cry, shaking its head and struggling. But with its ears clamped tightly by the two dogs and Zhao Jun's entire weight pressing down on it, it was pinned firmly in front of the log.
"Don't worry, brother, Baoyu is here!"
Suddenly, a voice drifted over from the side as Li Baoyu came running up.
Who knows where he'd found it, but he had retrieved Zhao Jun's handaxe. He rushed up to the boar and swung the axe at its neck.
The boar's front half was now pinned securely before the log. Its back half thrashed violently from the waist down, but it couldn't break free.
The sound of the axe splitting bone and flesh rang out with a series of CRACKS.
Completely defenseless, the boar's agonized cries grew weaker until it collapsed to the ground, twitching.
Leaning on his blade, Zhao Jun slowly moved his feet off the log. He had just found his footing on the ground when a wild laugh erupted beside him.
Li Baoyu, his face splattered with pig's blood from hacking at its head, reeked of the kill as he laughed heartily. "Hahaha... That was great! So satisfying!"
Zhao Jun wasn't the least bit surprised by his strange outburst. In fact, he found it strangely familiar and endearing.
Suddenly, Zhao Jun felt a daze come over him. He couldn't quite believe he had truly been reborn. 'Is this all a dream?' he wondered.
An autumn breeze swept by, swirling the scattered yellow leaves on the ridge. A single withered leaf drifted before Zhao Jun's eyes, its veins clearly visible. Vague scenes from his past life flickered before him.
A thousand thoughts raced through Zhao Jun's mind, yet his head grew ever clearer.
He looked at Li Baoyu beside him, his best brother in this life and the last. Then he looked at Hua Gou and Yellow Dog, who were still frantically tearing at the dead boar's corpse.
Zhao Jun smiled faintly, held the blade out to the side, and simply said, "Gut it!"
Li Baoyu froze for a second, then answered loudly, "You got it!"
As he spoke, Li Baoyu took the blade from Zhao Jun's hand. He gripped the Invasion Blade with one hand and the half-length Fraxinus mandschurica Stick with the other. With a counter-twist of his hands, the blade detached from the stick.
Li Baoyu tossed the stick aside, then went to shoo away Hua Gou and Yellow Dog. He stuck the Invasion Blade into the ground nearby, grabbed the boar's right foreleg with one hand and its right hind leg with the other, and with a great heave, flipped the beast from its side onto its back, all four hooves pointing to the sky.
Then, without bleeding the carcass first, Li Baoyu began to gut it. He plunged the Invasion Blade in below the boar's neck and sliced downward. As the blade passed over the belly, he was extremely careful, afraid of piercing the intestines.
After opening the cavity, Li Baoyu turned his head to look at Zhao Jun, who was standing to the side.
Meeting Li Baoyu's gaze, Zhao Jun said, "Give me the intestines."
After taking the entire length of the pig's intestines from Li Baoyu, Zhao Jun hung them on a large nearby tree. Seeing this, Li Baoyu quickly stood up straight as a sign of respect.
This was the Hunter's offering to the Mountain God.
After hanging the intestines, Zhao Jun bent down, grabbed a handful of dry yellow leaves, and wiped the grease from his hands. He said "Feed the dogs" to Li Baoyu, then walked over to the fallen log and sat on one end.
While Li Baoyu had been gutting the boar, Hua Gou and Yellow Dog had been waiting anxiously to the side, their tails wagging nonstop, yet they never dared to cross the line.
Now, when Zhao Jun told Li Baoyu to feed them, the two dogs seemed to understand. Hua Gou shook its head and tail in excitement, while Yellow Dog grew so impatient it started nudging Li Baoyu's calf with its snout.
Li Baoyu removed the pig's heart and, with a swipe of the Invasion Blade, cut it in two.
Li Baoyu first picked up the larger half. Ignoring Yellow Dog right beside him, he offered it to the more distant Hua Gou.
This was the lead dog's privilege!
Hua Gou happily got to its feet, but it didn't snatch at the meat. Instead, it carefully tilted its head, bared its teeth, and gently took the heart from Li Baoyu's hand before turning to run off to the side and tear into it with big bites.
After feeding Hua Gou, Li Baoyu gave the remaining smaller half of the heart to Yellow Dog. Yellow Dog didn't go far, simply lying down at Li Baoyu's feet to eat.
Watching Yellow Dog wolf down its food, Li Baoyu stroked its neck up and down.
Not only was Yellow Dog not protective of its food, it actually seemed to be enjoying itself, savoring both the delicious pig's heart and the affection from its young master.