In a life-or-death moment, a burst of hidden potential surged through Zhao Jun, allowing him to escape disaster.

He hurriedly rounded a tree, temporarily shaking off the Black Bear.

Even in the dead of winter, a layer of cold sweat soaked him beneath his thick, padded jacket.

Zhao Jun ran for his life, but as that burst of potential gradually faded, his spirit was slowly crushed by exhaustion.

Zhao Jun was afraid.

Since his rebirth, he had always been confident. He was sure his twenty years of hunting experience from a past life meant he could escape any danger unscathed.

But at this moment, an overwhelming fear of death filled Zhao Jun’s heart.

The Black Bear was getting closer and closer.

Zhao Jun gritted his teeth. With every step the Black Bear gained on him, the specter of death drew closer.

’No one can save me!’

Zhao Jun kept running, but his race against the Black Bear was quickly draining his stamina.

A turn was coming up. Zhao Jun mustered the last of his strength and veered left.

Once he rounded the bend, he stopped abruptly. He sucked in a sharp breath, spun around, and swung the Large Axe behind him with both hands.

The Black Bear rounded the tree just in time to see an axe smashing toward its face.

A moment later, a heavy blow struck its head! 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The Black Bear stopped dead in its tracks, then began to sway on the spot!

Zhao Jun was ecstatic!

’A Black Bear’s life force is incredibly tenacious!’

The Large Axe was incredibly sharp, but killing a Black Bear with it required a direct blow to the face.

But in his current state, it was impossible for Zhao Jun to aim for the bear’s face.

His spinning swing had been a desperate, last-ditch effort—a defiant struggle against his fate.

That gamble hadn’t cut the Black Bear. Instead, the flat of the axe had slammed into its head, stunning it senseless!

The blow hadn’t even scratched the Black Bear, but it had robbed the beast of its ability to move, if only for a moment.

Seizing the opportunity, Zhao Jun raised his axe and chopped, this time striking right between the Black Bear’s eyes.

The Black Bear’s body shuddered, its eyes flashing with a vicious light.

In that same instant, Zhao Jun struck again!

The Black Bear’s throat moved, but it never managed to let out a final, defiant roar. Its eyes rolled back, and it collapsed, breathing its last.

Zhao Jun took two steps forward and swung the Large Axe down hard. With a second chop, the bear’s head tilted forward and separated from its neck as a fountain of blood sprayed out.

It spattered across the white snow like blossoming plum flowers.

Using his last ounce of strength, Zhao Jun flung the Large Axe onto the Black Bear’s corpse. Then, as if every bit of energy had been sucked out of him, he collapsed onto the ground, panting for air.

After a good while, Zhao Jun started to feel the cold and finally climbed up from the snow, patting the flakes off his cotton-padded pants and jacket.

He unbuttoned his padded jacket. Mountain folk were poor back then; he only wore an undershirt underneath.

Zhao Jun tore a large piece of cloth from the front of his undershirt, then picked up the Large Axe and split open the Black Bear’s chest. He removed the Bear Gall, wrapped it in the piece of undershirt, and tucked it inside his jacket.

After stowing the Bear Gall, Zhao Jun scanned the surroundings and found his Invasion Blade. After unscrewing the wooden staff, he tucked the Invasion Blade into the back of his waistband.

Then, he picked up Li Erchen’s Large Axe as well. Holding a Large Axe in each hand, he slowly started walking up the slope.

In truth, only twenty-some minutes had passed since Zhao Jun had stepped in to save Li Erchen.

Meanwhile, on the ridge of the slope, the Li Brothers, Minister Li and Li Erchen, leaned against a tree and smoked.

They were smoking, but neither brother was paying attention to his cigarette. They just pinched them between their fingers, staring intently into the distance.

"Big Brother," Li Erchen said. "Are we really not going to save Zhao Jun?"

Minister Li didn’t answer. He just closed his eyes, and after a long moment, said, "We can’t save him!"

Li Erchen opened his mouth, thought for a long while, and then said, "Then... then how are we going to explain this to the Zhao Family when we go back?"

"Sigh!" Minister Li heaved a heavy sigh. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly froze on the spot.

"Big Brother?" Li Erchen gave Minister Li a suspicious look, then followed his brother’s gaze.

"Ah!" Li Erchen cried out in alarm, staring fixedly ahead.

They saw a figure carrying two Large Axes, the front of his padded jacket covered in bloodstains, walking up the snowy path toward them.

"Zhao... Zhao..." Li Erchen was so scared he started to stutter, unable to speak.

"Zhao Jun!" Minister Li’s gaze dropped, and only after seeing the line of footprints Zhao Jun left in the snow did he finally relax.

Minister Li threw down his cigarette butt and hurried to meet Zhao Jun.

"Zhao Jun!"

Zhao Jun reached out and pushed Minister Li aside. He walked straight up to Li Erchen and said coolly, "The Black Bear is down there. It’s yours."

After saying this, he walked away without looking back.

Watching Zhao Jun’s departing figure, the Li Brothers stood there, speechless for a long time.

Carrying the two Large Axes, Zhao Jun walked all the way out of the hunting grounds. Just before leaving the mountain, he grabbed two handfuls of snow from the ground and scrubbed the blood from his face.

It was the Black Bear’s blood, which had splattered onto his face when he was chopping it with the Large Axe. He was afraid of going home with a bloody face and scaring Wang Meilan.

Zhao Jun walked into the village. When the villagers saw him carrying two Large Axes with blood all over his padded jacket, people kept asking him questions.

But to everyone, Zhao Jun just gave non-committal grunts and didn’t say what he had been doing.

As soon as he walked through the door, he saw Jin Xiaomei and her son, Li Baoyu, sitting on the kang-bed talking with Wang Meilan.

The moment she saw Zhao Jun return, Wang Meilan shot up from the kang-bed. Seeing that his padded jacket was covered in blood, her tears immediately started to fall.

"Oh, for heaven’s sake, Mom!" Zhao Jun rushed forward to hug Wang Meilan, comforting his mother with a smile. "What are you crying for? Your son is perfectly fine!"

At this, Jin Xiaomei and Li Baoyu also gathered around. Jin Xiaomei looked at the blood on Zhao Jun’s padded jacket and frowned. "Zhao Jun, you got your hands dirty too?"

"Yeah," Zhao Jun replied. He helped Wang Meilan sit down on the edge of the kang-bed, then unbuttoned his padded jacket and took the Bear Gall from inside, placing it on the table.

He smiled at Wang Meilan and said, "Look what your son brought back for you."

Wang Meilan: ...

The three of them were stunned. Hadn’t he just gone to help someone with a Black Bear’s Den?

How did he end up bringing a Bear Gall back?

Even if he helped, he shouldn’t be taking the lion’s share, right?

"Son," Wang Meilan didn’t reach for the Bear Gall. She asked Zhao Jun first, "Baoyu said you went to help the Li Brothers with a Black Bear’s Den. Is this Bear Gall from that den?"

"That’s right!"

"Then why did you bring the Bear Gall back with you?" Wang Meilan asked urgently.

Money was indeed a good thing, but in Wang Meilan’s heart, rules were rules, and integrity was integrity.

Zhao Jun smiled. "The two brothers did half the work and then ran off. I just picked up what they left behind."

Wang Meilan was about to ask more when Zhao Youcai, who was just getting off work, returned from outside. As soon as he entered the room, he asked, "Where did those two axes on the floor of the outer room come from?"

"Huh?" Wang Meilan was taken aback.

Zhao Jun stood up and replied, "I brought them back."

"Where’d you get them?" Zhao Youcai had just asked the question when he suddenly saw the Bear Gall on the table. He looked at Zhao Jun, then at Li Baoyu, and shouted, "Did you two steal the gun again?"

"No, no."

"Then where did this Bear Gall come from?"

Zhao Jun recounted the day’s events, but he omitted the part where the Li Brothers fled.

When he reached that part of the story, he told his father the same thing he’d told his mother: that the Li Brothers had done half the work, and he’d just gotten lucky and finished it.

But after Zhao Youcai finished listening, he turned and walked outside, cursing as he went, "Those bastards! I’m going to find them!"