A savage gleam shone in Bei Feng's eyes as he scrunched his eyebrows resolutely. When humans were forced into a corner, there were only two instinctive reactions that would follow.
The first was to give up completely. The second... was a mad counterattack with everything on the line!
At the end of the day, humans were also an animal species. The only difference between humans and other animals was that our evolution was more successful. Although we had come to learn of culture and civilization after a long period of time, the most basic, savage animal instinct still existed deep in our nature.
It was just that the years of education and indoctrination had served as chains to restrain the terrifying beast in each person's heart.
Now that Bei Feng was faced with a situation of life and death, everything else was unimportant. The only thing he needed to know was to strive to continue living! For this single conviction, he could throw away everything else!
As the wolf galloped nearer and nearer, Bei Feng could clearly feel the hot breath of the wolf, as well as smell the stench from its mouth.
He forced himself to keep his eyes open despite the fear. Closing his eyes in such a situation was the same as committing suicide!
Bei Feng dropped the broken stick and thrust out both his arms to grab the wolf by the throat. The two collapsed to the ground together like a pair of wrestlers.
This wolf might not be very big, but its strength was not weak at all. Its sharp claws dug into Bei Feng's skin, ripping open numerous deep gashes!
Bei Feng endured the pain and continued to grapple with the wolf. A cut on his forehead bled freely, causing his eyes to be drenched with blood. The force pushing against his arms was also growing stronger and stronger!
'I can't hold on for much longer! At this rate, I'm going to die here!'
Bei Feng could hardly exert any strength at all. All movements at a high altitude were much harder to make. The crucial thing was that the air up here on the mountain was very thin, and physical activities required large amounts of oxygen to sustain!
Like a cornered rat, Bei Feng opened his mouth without thinking and chomped down on the wolf's neck!
"YIP!"
The wolf pinned under Bei Feng let out a pitiful yelp. Its heart was on the brink of a breakdown. It hadn't even bitten anybody, but someone already sank their teeth into it!
That bite only gave Bei Feng a mouthful of fur, but he refused to let go. Instead, he clenched his teeth even harder and even moved his mouth back and forth to try and tear into the flesh of the wolf!
A stinky, sour taste sank into his tongue, causing his stomach to clench violently as a strong impulse to vomit gripped his entire body.
Still, Bei Feng managed to endure and resist this feeling forcefully. Not only did he not release the wolf from his mouth, he bit down with all his might!
With its neck being chomped on so violently, the wolf was in a great deal of pain, causing it to struggle even harder! Its sharp claws left wound after wound on Bei Feng's body as it flailed. One man and one wolf thus began their life and death struggle on the snowy ground.
Ten minutes later, Bei Feng's face was completely covered with blood. At this point, it was no longer clear if the blood was his own or the wolf's. "Pui!" He let go of the wolf and spat out a mouthful of blood, flesh, and fur. Thereafter, he rolled flat on his back and gasped for breath with his chest heaving violently with exhaustion.
"The injury this time is really not light... luckily, I've managed to survive. By the way, do I need to get a rabies shot after getting scratched by a wolf?"
Bei Feng laughed bitterly as he looked at his tattered and bloody clothes. Fortunately,
he had the thick jacket which helped ablate much of the damage. Otherwise, his injuries would be a lot heavier.
Bei Feng's face and arms were filled with numerous wounds of varying severity. They were all a result of being scratched by the wolf.
His chest also had a few light wounds, and that was even after being softened by his jacket!
Bei Feng continued lying on the ground like a corpse until a portion of his strength returned. He crawled to his feet, picked up the backpack and dragged the wolf behind him as he proceeded on.
'This spot will do. The terrain can block the wind and rain.' Bei Feng nodded his head wearily as he came upon a corner around a cliff face.
Dragging his wounded body over, he proceeded to clear the snow away and dried a bunch of branches to make a fire.
He peeled off his clothes and propped them up with a stick near the fire to dry.
"Si!" Bei Feng drew in a breath of cold air as he dabbed some clean snow on his numerous wounds.
The bone-chilling snow sent a shiver down his spine, as well as a sharp pain as soon as it touched his raw wounds.
After a long time, Bei Feng finally finished cleaning his wounds. After that, he immediately grabbed the dried clothes and flapped them a bit to get rid of the dirt. As he did that, a layer of dried blood was also flung off.
Bei Feng pulled on the clothes and sat down beside the fire. In a short time, his frozen body began to regain some feeling.
"Gru, gru!"
A deep growl sounded from his stomach, sending waves of hunger through his body.
Bei Feng pulled the wolf over and started skinning it.
The wolf only had a single wound on its body, which was the area on its neck. After exhausting himself with a great deal of effort, he finally managed to skin the wolf.
Using a sharp rock, he cut a large chunk of flesh off the wolf's body and cleaned it with snow. After that, he pierced a stick through it and held it over the fire.
Ten minutes later, the blackened and charred wolf meat was taken off the fire. "So my cooking is actually this terrible... " Bei Feng took one bite and his face twisted dramatically into a weird expression. It was a miracle that he did not spit out the meat immediately.
The meat was completely black and burnt, but Bei Feng still forcefully swallowed bite after bite. There was no salt or any seasonings, so one could easily imagine the taste of this overcooked piece of wolf meat.
"What a grand sin... why didn't I think to bring some seasonings and a knife along in the spatial ring?"
Soon after the meat entered his stomach, Bei Feng's tummy stopped growling. Without stopping to rest, Bei Feng continued cutting the meat into strips and placed them beside the fire to roast.
This time, the meat was not burnt beyond recognition since he only used the heat radiating off the fire instead of putting the meat directly into the fire. When it was done, he wrapped all the meat up and placed it in his backpack. Then, he added more large branches into the fire and proceeded to clean the wolf pelt with snow. When that was done, the wolf pelt was left beside the fire to bake. Finally, he crawled into the tent and fell asleep.
The next day, Bei Feng awoke with an aching and dizzy head. His entire brain felt groggy and he felt extremely miserable. Bei Feng put a hand on his forehead, 'Oh no, I must have caught a cold after using the snow to clean the wound last night!'
Bei Feng felt an ominous feeling in his heart. Catching a fever in the wilderness was a huge trouble. This was especially so in a situation where there's no medicine on hand.
Bei Feng gritted his teeth resolutely. If he could persevere despite all these difficulties, there would be even greater benefits from this training!
At that moment, he did not continue to lie beside the warm fire. Instead, he walked out of the shelter and began to practice Minor Illumination Breathing Technique.
After that, he packed all his stuff into the backpack and set off again. By the way, 'stuff' referred to the wolf pelt, some barbecued meat, a tent, and a water bottle. That was all he had right now.
***
Ten more days passed, and Bei Feng's ears and limbs had all turned rigid. They were all suffering from deep frostbite.
His hair had grown long, and now flowed behind him in the wind. It was impossible to tell the color of his clothes now. With a stick in hand, Bei Feng was still moving forward slowly and with great difficulty as he trudged through the increasingly thick snow.
"Roar!"
"Bam, bam!"
A fierce roar sounded out, followed by a series of banging noises!
Bei Feng raised his guard and carefully climbed behind a small mound to observe the clearing below.
In this period of time, he had learned a great deal of things. He was no longer the same greenhorn that set out recklessly into the wilderness without sufficient skills.
Bei Feng focused his attention and looked down. A silver gray bear was ramming its body against a large tree crazily.
The bear was huge, and was at least over 2.5 meters tall. From his estimation, it had to weigh at least 400 kg! Its head was huge and its jaws were sharp, while two round ears sat atop its head. The bear's hip-to-shoulder length was longer than its foot-to-hip length. When standing upright, its shoulders would square out. Its behind was exceptionally rotund, and a short tail could be seen at the end of it. The bear's four limbs looked exceptionally rough and strong, and the fur around its neck was a ring of white.
The soles of the feet were bare with thick foot pads, but the forefoot pads were not as big as those of the more commonly seen black bears and were separated from the palms. There was a larger white crescent patch on the chest than the black bear's, which extended all the way back to the shoulders.
At this time, Bei Feng could see an incomparably huge beehive on the tree which the bear was ramming its body against. Numerous large black bees shot out of the hive as though they had received a shock. Compared to regular bees, these fellows were at least double their size!
'Strange, with the way it's snowing, although I can still grudgingly ignore the fact that the bear is not hibernating, but... even the bees have not migrated?'
Bei Feng stared with a stupefied expression. No matter how he looked at it, the situation did not make sense to him at all.