Chapter 77 - 73: Boar Hunt

Qin Ziwen slowly raised the Long Spear in his hand, his eyes fixed on the wild boar.

The boar was caked in mud, its two large tusks jutting up like pillars.

It wasn’t the same boar he had seen the last two times, but it was still massive. Standing there, it looked like a black wall.

A quick glance told him it had to weigh at least three or four hundred pounds.

Zhao Pu said slowly, "There are a lot of us. The boar probably won’t dare to approach."

Qin Ziwen felt someone else’s grip on his Long Spear.

He glanced to his right. His younger brother, Qin Ziwu, had grabbed the spear shaft. "Brother, let me. You guys get away first."

"What bullshit are you talking?" Qin Ziwen pried his brother’s fingers away. Qin Ziwu’s fingers came loose without any resistance. He was stunned. ’When did my brother get so strong?’

Qin Ziwen held the Long Spear with both hands, its tip pointed forward.

The wild boar let out a long snort.

With a loud squeal, the boar charged down the slope straight at Qin Ziwen.

’I can’t take it head-on. With the high ground, this thing weighs several hundred pounds. A direct hit will send me flying.’

As it closed in, Qin Ziwen leaped to the right, dodging the boar’s charge.

Seeing the boar’s rear rush past him, Qin Ziwen thrust the Long Spear, stabbing it in the rump.

The impact was dull, like stabbing into old, tough leather.

It was followed by a feeling of tough resistance.

Agitated, the boar’s squeals grew fiercer.

Its four short, thick legs scrambled wildly as it twisted its body. Caught off guard, Qin Ziwen felt the Long Spear slip out of its rump.

Staring into the boar’s vicious eyes as it turned its head, Qin Ziwen’s courage flared. With a roar, he raised the Long Spear and stabbed hard at the boar’s face.

The boar, having just turned, had no time to dodge and took the hit square on.

The spear tip grazed past the corner of its eye and plunged into the socket. There was a moment of slight resistance, then a ’slippery’ sensation as the spear sank two inches deep.

The wild boar let out a piercing squeal, shaking its head frantically.

Giant Strength surged from the other end of the spear shaft. He gripped the shaft for dear life. Thankfully, the non-slip grooves he had carved and the cloth strips he had wrapped around it prevented him from losing his grip.

The boar pushed forward.

He braced himself against the spear shaft, leaning into it, but the boar still forced him back step by step. His feet scraped against the ground, digging a long gouge in the dirt.

In the process, the Long Spear drove deeper and deeper.

The boar’s strength began to wane. As ferocious as it was, it was still a carbon-based lifeform. With the spear tip lodged in its eye, every movement brought more pain and drove the point deeper. It couldn’t use even a third of its full strength.

The boar glared at Qin Ziwen with its one bloodshot eye.

But with the Long Spear between them, it could neither charge forward nor retreat.

For every step it took back, Qin Ziwen pressed forward with the Long Spear.

Catching it off guard, he tightened his grip on the Long Spear and shoved it viciously inward once more!

The boar’s feet slipped in the mud, and it crashed to the ground with a heavy thud, letting out a mournful cry.

"Die!"

Qin Ziwen roared, wanting only to vent his tension and violent energy. Fighting a beast like this, the slightest mistake could mean getting maimed or seriously injured.

He leaned on the Long Spear with both hands, pressing down hard. The boar’s four legs thrashed wildly. On the slippery mud, its body bucked, and one of its hooves nearly kicked him in the leg.

Qin Ziwu shouted, raising a rock and smashing it down near the boar’s ear.

The bowl-sized gray rock landed with a dull thud.

Deng Guang and Zhao Pu moved in. Seeing the desperately struggling boar and its flailing legs, neither dared to get close with their kitchen knives. One kick would likely put them out of commission for half a month.

Deng Guang beat the boar with a club, but it had little effect. The boar’s hide was thick and tough, and caked with a layer of mud besides. The blunt impacts barely registered. The only fatal threat was the Long Spear stuck in its head.

Zhao Pu raised his Long Spear and thrust it down, sinking it into the boar’s abdomen near its heart.

"I’m surprised that wooden stick of yours actually went in," Deng Guang said, a little shocked.

Zhao Pu held his Long Spear tightly. "I sharpened it and then hardened the tip in a fire. The carbonized point is harder than regular wood."

With the four of them working together, the boar continued to struggle, but its movements grew weaker and weaker.

Finally, it lay on the ground and stopped moving.

Qin Ziwen pulled out his Long Spear and stabbed it hard into the boar’s neck one more time.

It was clearly dead.

"It’s over." Qin Ziwen let out a long breath. Only then did he realize his back was soaked with sweat.

Those few short minutes had felt as long as an hour.

His arms ached. He looked down at his hands; his palms were red, marked with white impressions that wouldn’t fade.

"But now we have a problem," Deng Guang said, looking at the others. "How are we going to get this boar back?"

Qin Ziwen said, "Carrying it is probably impossible. Even with all four of us, we won’t get far. Dragging it would be easier, but the path isn’t flat. There are small gullies, so we’d have to go up and down slopes. Going around them would mean taking the long way."

Zhao Pu suggested, "Maybe we could make a net out of vines, put the boar on it, and take turns dragging it back."

Qin Ziwu frowned. "Why don’t we cut it up? If we break it down into smaller pieces, it’ll be easier to carry."

Zhao Pu said, "Then we’d have to butcher the carcass right here. The smell of blood is too strong; it might attract other predators."

The four of them shared their ideas.

But all their ideas had one thing in common: no one suggested abandoning the boar.

If they could bring back a boar this big, everyone could get a share. They probably wouldn’t have to worry about food for the next half a month.

Qin Ziwen said, "The smell of blood isn’t the main issue. The problem is that none of us knows how to butcher a pig, and we don’t have the right tools."

Deng Guang looked at the kitchen knife in his hand. It would probably be fine for cutting meat.

But if they used it to break down the boar, the blade would likely get dull or chipped very quickly.

The four of them stared at the boar, stumped.

Qin Ziwen let out a long breath. "Let’s butcher it. Brother Deng, Dr. Zhao, we’ll need to use your kitchen knives. When we get back, I’ll get you new ones. The sooner we get this pig taken apart, the sooner we can head back. Otherwise, it’ll get dark."

They got to work immediately. They weren’t far from a small stream, so the four of them worked together, laboriously dragging the boar to the water’s edge before starting to dismember it.

The kitchen knives weren’t proper boning knives. They frequently hit bone while dismembering the boar, and the blades quickly became dull.

They alternated between sharpening the knives on the gray stones by the stream and cutting up the meat.

Some low-value, inconvenient parts were discarded.

Aside from the heart, liver, and lungs, all the other organs were thrown away.

Then went the pig’s head and trotters.

These parts could be delicious if prepared properly, but they were bony, had little meat, and they lacked spices to cook them with. Most importantly, they were easy to remove.

In the end, only the eviscerated carcass remained.

Even so, it still weighed around two hundred pounds.

Zhao Pu found some logs nearby, as well as some vines by the stream. He cut down the vines and wove them into a grid, creating a simple drag net.

They used a knife to cut the boar’s carcass in half and placed one side of the pig on the drag net. That made things much easier.

They repeated the process to make a second drag net. By the time they finished, two hours had passed.

...

...