Chapter 211 Hunting Ground
After dividing the prey among themselves, the two stopped talking. They held their breath, tiptoed to find a good position, waiting for the moment when the cheetah would pounce on its prey.

No matter where or when, animals in the wild are always on alert. They are all sensitive and will run away at the slightest sign of trouble.

Especially when eating and drinking.

That means you are keeping your eyes and ears open in all directions.

Every time it licks the food with its tongue, it raises its head and looks around to prevent predators from approaching.

And the cheetah has even more patience.

Even though it had already hidden in the grass next to the elk and could pounce on the elk at any time, it was not in a hurry and continued to wait for the opportunity.

After lowering its head several times, the elk raised its head again. It seemed that it had drunk enough water. It no longer lowered its head to drink water. Instead, it aimed at the tender spring grass that had just sprouted by the puddle. It sniffed a few times with its nose, and after repeatedly making sure that there was no smell of natural enemies in the air, it lowered its head and began to eat.

The cheetah next to it still had no intention of moving, but instead began to lick its paws leisurely.

Finally, after a while, the elk finished eating the pile of grass in front of it and began to ruminate.

At this moment, the laziness on the cheetah's face disappeared, and its eyes were filled with coldness. It lowered its head, relying on the cover of the grass, and moved towards the elk.

After such a long period of repeated observation, the elk seemed to have determined that there were no carnivores around. It only glanced around perfunctorily and began to ruminate on the fresh grass it had just eaten.

The cheetah still moved forward silently with its head down.

After a while, the elk seemed to feel that it had stayed in this place for too long. Past experience told it that this place was no longer safe. It immediately shook its head vigorously, swaying the pair of nimble deer ears on its head, and began to prepare to stamp its hooves and leave.

At this time, the cheetah was only more than ten meters away from it.

The elk used its hooves to scrape the remaining scattered grass roots and was about to leave when it turned its head and caught a glimpse of the small puddle again. It paused for a moment, ready to take a last lick before leaving.

The surface of the puddle began to ripple again.

It happened so quickly that the cheetah quietly walked up to the elk. Making sure that if it went any further it would alarm the elk, it no longer hid and jumped out from the grass, rushing towards the elk who was still drinking water like lightning.

The elk were equally alert.

Although it had let down most of its guard, it reacted quickly the moment the cheetah's body rubbed against the grass and made a friction sound. Without even having time to look back, it stepped over the edge of the puddle and rushed forward.

Yang Wenyuan was no longer hiding at this time, but because the cheetah's hunting starting point was too close to the elk, he had to stand up and move to the side.

Then he began to draw the bow, and the bowstring was pulled like a full moon.

The same thing happened to Gu Tingye not far away.

He stood up from the forest and drew his bow and arrow.

Because the cheetah was too close to the elk, and had the first-mover advantage, even though the elk sped up, it was not as lucky as usual. In just a moment, the cheetah got close to it, and the fishy smell in the air was almost clearly audible.

The cheetah was moving at high speed with its eyes fixed on the elk's neck. The moment it was sure that the distance was close enough to pounce on the prey, it immediately pounced on the elk on the side, like a precise arrow finding its target.

The panicked elk had no protection.

It could almost taste the familiar taste of deer blood in its mouth.

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

Almost at the same time, the loud explosion caused by the violent vibration of the two bowstrings resounded throughout the jungle.

The next moment, just as the cheetah pounced on the elk's neck, before it could use its sharp claws and teeth to crush the blood vessels right in front of it, it suddenly felt its body suddenly suffered a severe injury, and a cold hard object suddenly penetrated its neck.

"Bang!" The cheetah's body fell to the ground unexpectedly.

It sensed a familiar smell of blood, but it was not from the elk in front of it, but from itself. It seemed to even hear the gurgling sound of bubbles as it breathed in and out.

While the leopard fell to the side, the elk was not far behind.

It had just been disturbed by its natural enemy, and the deer ran without stopping, but when it was about to be caught up and killed by the cheetah, it did not expect that it did not feel the cheetah's pounce, but the natural enemy flew away by itself. However, at the same time, it also felt a sudden chill in its chest.

However, its body did not fall in the air just now, so it did not fall down, but continued to run forward.

But gradually, it found that its breathing became more and more difficult and its steps were no longer as strong.

One step, two steps...

"bingo!"

Gu Tingye saw that he had shot the cheetah in the neck, nodded to Yang Wenyuan, and then went to the place where the leopard fell with an excited look on his face.

The elk's body was mostly hidden by the leopard that jumped up, so from the beginning, Yang Wenyuan had no intention of shooting the elk's neck. Instead, he ran to the side and shot an arrow at its lungs.

Yang Wenyuan immediately ran to the place where the elk was shot by an arrow and explored the bloodstains on the ground.

He wanted to make sure he had shot the deer in the lung.

If hit, the elk will not be able to run far, so it will be easy to hunt it by just following the blood trail.

If you miss, it will be difficult, and there is a high probability that you will not catch it.

With these thoughts in mind, Yang Wenyuan lowered his head and began to search the place where the elk had just escaped after being shot by an arrow. Finally, he saw a trace of fresh blood on a haystack.

Yang Wenyuan reached out his hand and rubbed it, and found that it was blood foam with some small bubbles, and his face immediately showed joy.

"I said that my skill of shooting an arrow through a hundred steps cannot fail!"

Yang Wenyuan cheered up and began to follow the blood foam left by the elk on the vegetation and land. Finally, he found the elk beside a thorn bush.

It was lying on the grass at this moment, with visible fatigue in its eyes as its eyelids opened and closed, its nostrils moving and its breathing rapid, but it didn't know that this would only accelerate its death.

As the saying goes, when a man is about to die, his words are kind; when a bird is about to die, its cry is sad. Although Yang Wenyuan could not hear the deer's cry at this moment, he could still see its desire for life from its violently heaving chest.

Yang Wenyuan was soft-hearted and couldn't bear to see such a scene, so he took out his dagger and put it to death cleanly.

'Help it end its suffering early, and I hope it will remember my kindness.'

When Yang Wenyuan dragged the elk's body back to the hunting platform, he found Gu Tingye already sitting there with the cheetah's body in front of him.

However, Yang Wenyuan discovered that the leopard was not only hit by an arrow in the neck, but also had several arrows stuck in other places, and even in the butt, where Gu Tingye had shot several arrows.

It seems that Gu Tingye has been bored for a long time, and he can even "tease" Leopard.

"came back!"

Seeing Yang Wenyuan dragging the deer's corpse back, Gu Tingye immediately stood up and came over to check. When he saw that the arrow Yang Wenyuan had just shot was accurately inserted into the deer's lung, he couldn't help but give Yang Wenyuan an expression of admiration.

With the cheetah's protection, Yang Wenyuan still hit the target with one arrow and didn't shoot a second arrow. His archery skills are really too strong.

At least among the people Gu Tingye had met, whether it was the personal guards trained by his family since childhood or his own father, none of them had such archery skills.

"Your archery skills don't look like you have acquired them in just a few years." Gu Tingye was secretly amazed.

Yang Wenyuan had never liked practicing martial arts since he was a child, but in just a few short years, he had mastered archery skills that were unrivaled in the world, which really made Gu Tingye envious.

"Fortunately, he is a friend and not an enemy." Gu Tingye secretly rejoiced.

Otherwise, if there was such a sharpshooter among the enemies, he would not dare to appear in public, and would be awakened from his sleep. Thinking of this, Gu Tingye did not feel the pain of paying Yang Wenyuan the bills for the fireworks workshop for several months.

"You're not bad either."

Yang Wenyuan knew that it was incredible that he had mastered this archery skill in such a short time without any damage to his body. He didn't want to talk about it anymore and wanted to change the subject. He quickly walked to the leopard hunted by Gu Tingye.

Yang Wenyuan saw that the fatal wound of the leopard was the arrow in its neck. He scratched it a few times and asked:
"How come you, a leopard, shoot so many arrows?"

Gu Tingye heard this and immediately laughed:
"Who made it so stubborn? It kept running even with an arrow in its neck. I saw it running for fun, so I shot it with an arrow every time it stopped, letting it run as much as it wanted."

"..."

You hunt people down, but you don't allow them to escape. They can only wait to die right where they are, right?
It's a bit perverted!

Yang Wenyuan could only politely decline Gu Tingye's bad taste.

At the same time, I also understood why a "flower" bloomed on the leopard's butt.

Yang Wenyuan shook his head helplessly and asked:
"I see there are a lot of animals here. Do you want to go hunt a few more?"

"of course!"

Gu Tingye had finally come out, so naturally he didn't want to go back so soon, but he still asked:
"Your mother-in-law's adopted brother is still at your stable. Did you tell him to wait for us at the stable after he has chosen the horses?"

"Do not worry."

Yang Wenyuan replied:
"I asked him to choose the horse and take it away himself without waiting for us."

Although he was optimistic about Wang Ye, Yang Wenyuan did not pay too much attention to him, such as being courteous to him or personally accompanying him to choose horses.

After all, the gap between their identities is too big, and they don't have a blood relationship as close as Liu Chenghan's. Being too close is not good, as it will make people feel flattered and have some bad thoughts in their hearts.

If it was cousin Liu Chenghan, it would be different. Yang Wenyuan would definitely accompany him personally and would not come to accompany Gu Tingye hunting. However, Wang Ye did not need to do that.

"That's OK!"

Gu Tingye nodded, and then asked his guards to search for traces of prey again - searching for traces of prey is much more troublesome than hunting with a bow. The purpose of hunting is to enjoy the fun of hunting and obtaining prey, not to search for a long time before finding a mouse.

Gu Tingye was well prepared for this trip, and the guards he brought with him were all professionals specializing in "wild survival" and "animal traceology" and were very experienced.

Soon, the guards sent back news again that they had found prey in two places respectively. Yang Wenyuan therefore separated from Gu Tingye. However, before leaving, Gu Tingye left two guards for Yang Wenyuan to help find prey.

Hunting is a rare and refreshing experience, and the morning passes quickly.

When Yang Wenyuan returned to the hunting platform at noon, he actually saw Gu Tingye barbecuing!
"You even brought the spices?" Yang Wenyuan was surprised.

Aren’t you too well prepared, kid?
Gu Tingye answered confidently:

"How can you go hunting without grilling the meat yourself? How can you grill meat without spices? So it follows that spices are necessary when hunting. You are making a fuss about nothing."

"..."

At this moment, Yang Wenyuan really wanted to ask, you can grill meat if you want, but why are you grilling the deer I hunted?

The fisherman can throw away his car keys and walk back with his catch. I want to do the same. But you roasted my deer. What should I take back with me?
But now that things have come to this, Yang Wenyuan could only accept the reality and took a big bite of the venison roasted by Gu Tingye.

"Hmm?" As soon as Yang Wenyuan took a bite of the barbecue, he was immediately surprised. Gu Tingye's cooking skills were quite good.

Gu Tingye said proudly:

"How is it? My cooking skills are pretty good, right? I'm not bragging, but in the wild, even the chefs at Fanlou can't compare to my cooking skills."

Yang Wenyuan silently withdrew his accusation.

"good."

After finishing their lunch quickly, they headed to the hunting ground again.

It was not until the sunset that the two of them reunited on the hunting platform.

"How is it, how much did you hunt?" Gu Tingye asked Yang Wenyuan when they met at the hunting platform.

"Not many. We encountered a leopard and a musk deer later." Yang Wenyuan replied.

“About the same as me.”

Gu Tingye said with regret:

"I also encountered a mountain tiger, but it was on the other side of the mountain, and there was a small river between us, so I didn't go over."

Yang Wenyuan also nodded:

"That's a shame."

If Yang Wenyuan was alone and unarmed in the wild facing a tiger, he would have hidden as far away as possible without hesitation. But now he had a bow and arrow in his hand and personal guards nearby, so the tiger was just a name high on the list of prey.

Yang Wenyuan glanced at the sky:

"Okay, it's getting dark, let's go back."

Gu Tingye also nodded.

The two men mounted their horses, followed by two wooden carts prepared by the guards, on which were their day's haul.

Out of the hunting ground.

The guards at the door were shocked to see what Yang Wenyuan and Gu Tingye had caught today. They didn't expect that these two noble young men could hunt so many prey.

However, after seeing the many guards following the two men, a relieved smile immediately appeared on his face.

Arrived at the door.

Yang Wenyuan and Gu Tingye dismounted one after another, took out a deer that had been prepared long ago from the prey on the wooden cart behind them, and handed it to the guard at the door.

This is an offering.

When hunting in the royal hunting grounds, you can take the prey back with you, but for a long time, there has been an unwritten rule in private, which is that you have to "offer" it to the emperor, and the prey must be the most ferocious animals among the hunted.

However, the current emperor is kind and tolerant, so the offerings are usually deer.

The guards were not surprised at all when they saw this. They had even prepared the animal skin bags to hold the prey in advance. They took the elk from the two men and put it in with quick and neat movements.

The two then set out back to Bianjing City.

Because there were so many prey on the wooden cart, the two men rode their horses slowly. Yang Wenyuan still had time to send someone to the stable to see if Wang Ye had left.

After a while, the guards came back to report.

"Prince Wang waited until noon, and when he saw that the Marquis had not returned, he rode back to the city on his own."

Yang Wenyuan nodded slightly, he was a smart guy.

(End of this chapter)