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Book 2 Chapter 2: Hunt of the Barbarians (2)
“Feng, it’s done, do you still need anything?”
“It’s done, this is enough. You can return first. The people who were here orignally, climb into the trees.”
Cangyu instructed them for a while and the majority of the hunters left, however Cangyu did not. “I will also climb up the trees.” The old man was still worried.
The danger was considerably reduced by hiding on the tall trees. XinFeng nodded “Okay, everyone go up. Once a herd comes over, hug the trees tightly. If you drop down, it would be very fun for you.”
DaShan asked “Feng, what are you gonna do?” He did not know what XinFeng was planning to do, of course he didn’t– the furthest the hunters of Tiger Cliff Castle went was Yibai village. Not only did they not know much, but they also didn’t see much. Their tactics and attacks are all passed down generation to generation or are created by them. How could they compare to the knowledgeable XinFeng that came from another world?
XinFeng laughed. “Everyone, don’t come down the trees no matter what. Hoho, I’ll let you all see a fun sight.” He took his black bow from his back and hooked the bowstring onto it tightly. This time he brought 30 special arrows, enough for only him to use.
DaShan hesitated for a while, then turned and climbed up a giant tree. “Feng, you be careful.”
XinFeng brandished his bow and headed to the grasslands. At that instant everyone was shocked– no one dared to enter the grassland. But quickly they relaxed, because they could see that XinFeng did not really enter the grasslands, but instead stayed on the edge of it, hiding among the short trees.
At the top of the big trees, all of the hunters could clearly see the bulls moving slowly about.
Every herd had at least 50 bulls, and the bigger herds had a few hundred. The bulls lazily grazed, and some ate some of the leaves from the short trees. Every bull was gigantic– heartbeats of the hunters on the big trees sped up. One bull was enough to help a family pass the winter safely. Who wouldn’t wish to obtain a bull?
In the trees, they could clearly see both the bull herds and also XinFeng’s figure sneaking among the short trees.
Tightly clenching his fists, DaShan said, “What does Feng want to do?”
Nanshan smiled bitterly. “Who knows?”
Suddenly, a hunter’s small voice appeared. “Not good! Look!”
The positioning of these big trees was rather good, enabling them to see faraway places. About a few hundred meters away, a few human shadows appeared. Cangyu stared at them closely and, after a little while, said, with a small voice, “Barbarians! Barbarian hunters! Everyone be careful…shit, someone go inform Feng!”
“I’ll go!”
Someone had already quickly climbed down the tree and was heading toward where XinFeng was. This hunter, Shi, was skinny and energetic, a famous hunter of Tiger Cliff Castle. He was not famous for his hunting but instead for his scouting. He was very fast, only taking a few minutes to reach where XinFeng was. The hunters all saw it clearly and relaxed.
XinFeng and that hunter quickly returned. This was absolutely not the time to alarm the bull herds.
Climbing the big tree, XinFeng asked, “Why would barbarians be here?”
Cangyu was mad to the point of shaking. In their last hunt they encountered men from Lead Eagle’s, now they encounter the barbarians. Their luck was truly poor to the limit. “Mother f*cker…..we’re too unlucky, why would the barbarians come here? Their people don’t seem to be a small number either. Feng, look over there.”
The barbarians had big figures which made concealing themselves in the forest very hard.
XinFeng closely examined where Cangyu pointed and, after a while, replied, “At least ten barbarians.”
Everyone’s faces paled. If there are more than 10 barbarians, it absolutely is counted as a large scale hunting team. For a barbarian’s ability, one barbarian versus five to six normal hunters would be an easy task. They are the top tier hunters of the forest.
This was also XinFeng’s first time seeing the barbarian. In the past he had stayed in Tiger Cliff Castle and had no chance to go out, of course he wouldn’t have seen barbarians. But as for stories about the barbarians, he did not know how many he heard: stories about how they ate humans, about how mad they are. Barbarians are the strongest of all humans, so the hunters had natural fear of barbarians.
Cangyu said softly, “I hope they don’t find us…” He suddenly remembered something. “Someone go back, tell our people to hide well.”
A hunter headed back. Their people were mostly on the ground: if the barbarians found them, then they would become prey.
XinFeng stared at a faraway place with his brows furrowed. “They must be here for the bulls too. Aren’t they afraid of the bulls charging?”
Cangyu answered “Of course they are, but the barbarians have great strength and also have thick skin and tough bodies. If we are rammed by a bull, it basically means death. It isn’t the same for the barbarians. Their bodies are better than ours. Unless it’s a continuous ramming and stepping, they could still hope to live.”
Danui said softly, “Their regeneration is also very good, much better than ours. Once, about a dozen hunters and I surrounded a barbarians to kill him. That guy had bled all over us because of our beatings. I also didn’t know how many times we hacked at him, but at last he escaped. Barbarians are very hard to kill.”
Many hunters softly spoke about the prowess of the barbarians.
XinFeng mentally shook his head. These hunters’ mentalities! They basically cannot fight against barbarians, they had already lost hearts. These are even the more powerful hunters, so their words had also disheartened all of the other hunters. If they meet the barbarians, they would definitely lose.
“They moved! So many people!”
XinFeng’s eyes were better than anyone’s. Even before he started training, his eyesight was already very good. Now, after practicing Lei Lunli, he could see even further. After calculating for a while, he said, “At least twenty-one barbarians, as for those I haven’t seen yet…there should be more.”
Cangyu let out a cold breath. Twenty plus barbarians! Even though all of the hunters of Tiger Cliff Castle were out, it would still create great losses. They cannot meet with the barbarians, no matter what. Even if this hunt was a failure, there is always a next time, but if they did come into contact with the barbarians, the losses would be something he did not want to even think about.
One by one, barbarians jumped from the trees. There were four barbarians in front, with about a dozen behind and another group of barbarians still in the trees.
XinFeng continued to report. “Another six, another two……great, it’s over thirty now.”
Other than XinFeng, almost all of the hunter’s faces paled. The same was true for DaShan, his face white. “The barbarians also organize large scale hunting?”
Cangyu laughed bitterly, and said softly, “DaShan…you should be right.”
This winter was a hard one, and also this year’s summer had fewer prey. If not for that, Tiger Cliff Castle would not have to resort to such a large scale hunt. But they didn’t expect the barbarians to do the same. They usually did not visit the hunting areas of the humans, because if they were to go overboard, experts from Yibai Village would come. They too feared human experts.
The barbarians quickly reached the big trees. Only the four barbarians in front continued heading forward. Each had a big, rough steel spear. With XinFeng’s eyesight, he could guess the thickness of the spear. It was as thick as a small bowl and was about 3 meters long. It was like a sharpened steel column, a scary weapon.
Other than the thick steel spears, there were also gigantic axes. According to XinFeng’s calculations, the axe heads were as big as half of a door. Seeing the barbarians carry them as they were nothing, XinFeng couldn’t help but smack his mouth. This was too scary! No wonder they’re called barbarians.
Even though XinFeng was already a Thousand Lun Master, after seeing these barbarians, he was frightened. It wasn’t a matter of strength, but it was that their appearance was too scary.
In front of these barbarians was a herd of 70-80 bulls. It seemed that these barbarians had already decided on this group of bulls.
A barbarians suddenly ran forward with a vicious shout, a steel spear as thick as a steel column flying out from his hand, and then, without looking at the bulls again, all four barbarians turned and broke into a run.
Moo!
The steel spear viciously entered into the gigantic bull’s body, instantly piercing it’s organs, that bull trembled for a while and fell to the ground.
XinFeng’s nostrils flared. Now he knew why barbarians dared to hunt bulls. A bull’s skin is something a normal hunter cannot pierce, but with a barbarian’s spear, it was easy to do so. With that kind of power you can kill one in an instant. It shocked XinFeng. He calculated for a while: when his Lunli and this spear collided the Lunli probably would not block it, not that he would dare to try.
The four of them scattered and ran, and XinFeng instantly felt shocked again. At such a distance he could still hear the heavy footsteps, followed by multiple cries from bulls as the bull herd suddenly went mad and charged towards the four barbarians. The heavy sounds of their charge clearly resonated in XinFeng’s ears despite the distance.
The four barbarians separated and were each followed by part of the bull herd, but most of the bulls followed the barbarian that threw the spear.
XinFeng was even more shocked. “These hunters are very smart!”
“Barbarians were never dumb, especially in terms of hunting. In terms of hunting they are even smarter than us,” explained Cangyu.
The barbarians ran madly. They understood more than anyone that once they get hit by a bull, their chance of survival becomes very, very small.
The barbarian that killed the bull ran a few hundred meters and the bulls behind him were about 10 meters away. The barbarian actually grabbed onto a tree branch and pulled himself up, cleverly climbing the tree, leaving the bulls behind no time to stop in their tracks. Of course, they wouldn’t stop either, but instead continued to charge forward.
Hong! Hong! Hong!
The bulls hit the big trees. XinFeng, who watched from afar, could see the giant trees shaking. Even though the trees are big, the strength of a bull was terrifying and countless trees were rammed over, including those thicker ones. They couldn’t block the bull’s charge.
The sound of snapping resounded in the forest, other than the big trees, almost no other trees could block the bulls charge, but in return, the herd of bulls slowed down.
Only hearing a shout, the barbarians that hid in and behind the trees immediately attacked.
