Chapter 404: Chapter 202: A Clever Plan to Drive Off Bison, Ingenious Solutions to Transport Challenges [First Update!]

After the rain, Pacini sliced the venison and hung it up in the smoking room to cure.

However, he still needed to revisit the spot where he hunted the black-tailed deer yesterday.

This black-tailed deer wasn’t large, around 100 kilograms, but even so, carrying the whole deer back in one go was no easy feat.

He brought back about two-thirds yesterday, but the actually edible part was only over 30 kilograms, and he estimated there was about 20 kilograms of deer meat left to process.

When he reached the spot where he temporarily stored the venison, he couldn’t help but exclaim, "Oh, my God!"

It turned out that the branches used to cover the venison were removed.

He hurriedly ran over to check and, as expected, more than half of the venison had been gnawed away.

He picked up the action camera to record the scene and said helplessly, "Well, it’s obvious a predator did this, probably a black bear. Luckily, there’s about 10 kilograms of meat still edible. In this environment, not a bit of meat should be wasted. Next, we’ll trim the edible venison and take it all away!"

As he began processing the venison, something even more troubling happened—because it wasn’t dealt with in time, some meat at the bottom had already started to smell bad.

He let out a long sigh and smiled bitterly.

This made him realize the importance of bleeding out the prey immediately after a hunt.

If the prey is left to cool slowly, the body temperature won’t drop quickly, especially the parts touching the ground, which can easily spoil.

After cutting away the spoiled meat, he was left with only about seven or eight kilograms of edible meat.

But as they say, in the wilderness, even a few ounces of meat is precious.

To prevent that black bear from returning, Pacini quickly packed up the meat and left.

But fearing what might come true—just as he packed up to leave, he saw a bear approaching from afar.

Witnessing this, Pacini was almost scared out of his wits and took off running.

He didn’t have the courage to confront a black bear; not everyone could be like that legend who made gloves from bear hides.

Fortunately, the bear didn’t mean to pursue him, and he managed to escape without harm.

Upon returning to the shelter, Pacini tallied up and found he had brought back about 40 kilograms of venison in total between yesterday and today.

If rationed carefully, along with the remaining leg of lamb, it would last him at least a month.

Next, he began the non-stop task of cutting the meat into strips for smoking.

...

Transporting prey is undoubtedly a very challenging task.

Especially with such large wild buffalo, Li Younan estimated conservatively that a wild buffalo weighs at least over 300 kilograms, with larger ones reaching four to five hundred kilograms or more!

Currently, the night temperatures were still tolerable, around a few degrees, but during the day, with the sun out, it could reach twenty-five to twenty-six degrees.

The shelter was over two hours away even without bearing weight; if the hunt was successful, two trips wouldn’t be enough to transport the meat before it spoiled.

Even if it didn’t spoil, many predators in this area would steal and consume the meat.

If he could only take back a few dozen kilograms of buffalo meat after hunting one, it would be too much of a loss.

Li Younan looked at his backpack, which was reasonably sized, with about a 50-liter capacity, but certainly couldn’t hold the meat from an entire buffalo.

Just a buffalo head alone would take up most of the backpack space.

So how to transport the buffalo back was something he had to consider carefully before hunting.

Li Younan contemplated several plans, only to dismiss them one by one.

He even considered whether he could use the nearby stream to transport it by water.

But this idea was nipped in the bud with a wry smile as soon as it surfaced.

After pondering for a long time, his eyes suddenly gleamed with amusement... perhaps the approach was wrong from the start.

"A buffalo," he thought, "doesn’t it have legs?"

...

North American bison are fierce and highly territorial wild animals.

These large herbivores avoid most predatory animals.

Li Younan was confident in his archery and physical prowess, and from the start, he set his sights on this top source of outdoor protein.

Anyone else would hesitate to face this beast more formidable than a buffalo.

But making a buffalo leave its habitat according to one’s will was far more challenging than hunting it.

Approximately half an hour later, Li Younan appeared on the hillside at the back of the bison herd.

For someone with top-notch climbing skills like him, it was easy to achieve.

Now he crouched high, overlooking the herd below—from this direction, he could drive the bison toward his shelter area.

But before that, he needed to select an appropriate bison and create the conditions for it to be isolated.

Li Younan observed for a long time before finalizing his target.

He took out his action camera to film, then seriously said, "Folks, what happens next might be a bit brutal."

He slowly drew his bow, positioning himself about 30 meters from the wild buffalo below.

Due to the angle, the buffalo couldn’t detect Li Younan above.

Li Younan held his breath; this shot was crucial.

He whispered to the camera’s microphone, "Guys, we need to shoot this arrow with extreme precision. Do you know where to aim? Look closely—the buffalo’s eye!"

Just as he uttered the word "eye," his right hand unexpectedly released the arrow.

The arrow shot through the air, and if played back in slow motion, you would see the arrow shaft quivering slightly.

But in normal vision, it was just a fleeting moment, and the buffalo below suddenly let out a painful howl, causing the entire herd to scatter in panic.

They didn’t know what kind of animal initiated the assault; the instinctive fear was triggered simply by the cries of their fellow creature, quickly spreading throughout the herd.

Li Younan did not rush; his eyes remained fixed on the buffalo that had been shot.

Indeed, the arrow had not missed—this was the highly challenging "eye shot" technique, but Li Younan felt no ripples in his heart upon hitting it.

He knew this was only the first step; whether things would proceed as planned remained uncertain.

The buffalo that was shot ran around frantically because its eye had been hit, directly affecting its vision and judgment.

Soon, as the herd distanced itself, this buffalo became isolated.

The entire process lasted about 20 minutes, and seeing the herd had put some distance between itself and the injured buffalo, Li Younan slowly descended the slope unhurriedly.

It must be said, the biggest difference between wild animals and humans is that after being injured, they seem to have a stronger tolerance for pain, or perhaps wailing neither alleviates pain nor prompts their companions to help; instead, it might further expose their location to more attacks.

In any case, after the buffalo initially struggled and howled in pain for a while, it unexpectedly calmed down, standing there in a daze.

An arrow was lodged in its eye, but it seemed unbothered, even appearing very calm. This scene looked quite eerie.

Those who often hunt buffalo should be familiar with such scenes.

But Li Younan wouldn’t let it stand there like that.

He casually picked up a stone and, from a distance of about a dozen meters, hurled it at the blind buffalo.

The buffalo, hit on the head, became agitated and panicked once more—human tactics were beyond the comprehension of buffalo.

By now, the buffalo had lost half its vision and was completely unable to discern directions, only able to run wildly in the opposite direction of the stone.

Witnessing this scene, Li Younan was pleased, as this was precisely the effect he wanted—the buffalo’s escape direction was toward his shelter.

Li Younan picked up two more stones and followed the buffalo to track it.

This step required a lot of time and effort, demanding great patience.

The buffalo didn’t always move according to Li Younan’s wishes; sometimes it fled further or in the opposite direction.

At such times, Li Younan didn’t hurry; he’d catch up slowly and use stones to readjust the buffalo’s path.

Originally, this journey took more than two hours, but due to Li Younan’s maneuvering, he and the buffalo engaged in a pursuit that lasted more than four hours.

By now, it was about two or three in the afternoon, with around half an hour left to reach the shelter.

However, likely due to the injury or perhaps Li Younan’s persistent chasing, the buffalo was exhausted, its fleeing distance shortening, and it had to stop to rest for long periods after running for a short while.

Li Younan took a sip of water and rested briefly; however, he had no intention of letting the buffalo rest any longer.

While drinking water, he picked up a stone and threw it again.

...

An hour later, through Li Younan’s relentless efforts, this buffalo was miraculously driven close to the shelter from a highland a two-hour journey away.

To be honest, reaching this point, even Li Younan found it somewhat unbelievable.

Initially, he just wanted to experiment with this method, but upon realizing it was effective, he persisted until now.

At this moment, his taut nerves relaxed a bit; victory was near.

About 100 meters ahead was the slope leading to the shelter, and he could already see its rooftop.

Li Younan was also very tired, but his mood was excellent.

With this buffalo, he wouldn’t have to worry about food for a long time to come.

Moreover, every part of the buffalo could be used—the buffalo’s hair could be made into a mat, and the hide, needless to say, had various uses.

Just as Li Younan was contemplating how to take advantage of this gift from nature, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, his face changed, and his pupils constricted.

Because he saw, in the direction he was heading to the shelter, several paw prints.

He realized at once that these were bear paw prints!

Not good! The lambs!

Li Younan didn’t even have time to continue driving the buffalo toward the shelter.

Fortunately, the buffalo had no strength left at this point and collapsed where it was, seemingly unable to move any further.

Li Younan sprinted toward the shelter, as his bow and the hunting knife and axe at his waist gleamed coldly.