Chapter 17: Night hunting

I didn’t know anything about the old forest, and I found it all new, interesting, and full of some inexplicable awe. Lao Zhang’s actions made me full of questions, but Lao Zhang didn’t seem to want to answer me at the time. He just gestured for me to be quiet, and then bowed respectfully to the big bird.

I naturally couldn’t bow, after all I was a Taoist, even if that big bird had achieved a high level of cultivation, in my eyes it was at most a demon cultivator, there was no reason to bow, but that didn’t stop me from looking at it with a look of excitement and curiosity, because I had grown up and experienced things that were considered magical, but I had never seen what a demon looked like.

At first, I couldn’t recognize what kind of bird it was. Now, with the cool moonlight, I looked at the faint outline and could roughly see that it looked like an owl, but I wasn’t sure. First, in my impression, owls couldn’t be that big. Second, because its “eyebrows” were really like some cartoon characters, so long that it extends beyond the face, making it look extremely majestic. Moreover, its eyes are so bright that I can see them clearly even in the dark, when the outline is not very clear. How bright are they?

Next, something amazing happened. After Zhang bowed to the owl, the owl nodded at Zhang in a surprisingly human way. Zhang was awestruck and didn’t say a word. After receiving this little bit of recognition, he just lowered his head, as if it would be blasphemous to look at it any longer.

I didn’t care, and I still looked at the bird. It wasn’t annoyed, and it actually turned its head to look at me, also with a sense of appraisal, but its gaze was calm and it didn’t seem to have any ill intent. After looking at it for a while, it seemed to have a look of understanding in its eyes, and it stayed like that for ten seconds or so, then it flew away with a flap of its wings.

I don’t know how this big bird flew. A moment ago, I saw it flying towards the sky, and I could hear the sound of its wings flapping. The next moment, it was already gone. It’s a shame that such a big bird has such skills.

The bird flew away for about a minute before Mr. Zhang relaxed and said to me, “Go, it’s not malicious, as long as you don’t disrespect it.”

I was intrigued and asked Zhang repeatedly, “Zhang, what is a ‘stick’? Why is a bird a ‘stick’ here? Is there a legend behind it?”

Lao Zhang turned the flashlight on high and then took a stick and held it in his hand, looking at the tracks in the snow while answering me: “The so-called ‘stick’ means that it is the boss of this ridge. It has been said that it is the ‘stick’ since my grandfather’s generation. How old do you think the boss is? People who often come to this mountain say that it is almost a spirit! This body, this spirit, no one believes that it is not a spirit!”

Old Zhang said it very calmly, as if the people in the mountains were talking about it, just as ordinary as people in the city talking about which department store is the best.

But I was curious and couldn’t help but ask, “Is it powerful? Can it hurt people?”

“I don’t know if it’s powerful or not, but I only know that no animals or people in this area dare to harm it. The older generation says that this ‘stick’ in the ridge is the most peaceful. If you are polite to it, it will be polite to you. If you are too much, it will not bother you or argue with you, unless it is annoyed. But who in the mountains would annoy it? My grandfather once said that it is a blessing to have such a ‘stick’ in this area, because this ridge is closest to where people live, and with such a stick to protect it, there are no fierce creatures coming down to harm people. There is no reason not to respect it.” Old Zhang’s tone was still calm, but unusually serious.

I nodded, believing him, because I had just seen the owl nod to him. I was just wondering, didn’t owls cry like children? I didn’t hear that sound just now. Instead, it was cool and grand. Was this a sign of spiritual attainment?

In the meantime, Zhang and I had walked a few hundred meters. Zhang was observing the tracks in the snow more and more carefully. He followed the tracks to a certain place, then began to search around, and told me to stay still and not to speak.

In fact, I still had a lot of questions to ask Zhang, such as: Are there sticks on all the mountains? Are they all monsters? But I knew I shouldn’t disturb Zhang at this time.

Zhang was really amazing. Somehow, he found a place and then did something there. Then he walked ten meters away from the place and waited quietly, waving his hand at me to keep quiet.

After about ten minutes of silence, a few snow-white rabbits suddenly appeared from nowhere. They started to dash out, and amazingly, one of them rushed towards Lao Zhang. Lao Zhang clutched the big stick in his hand and suddenly knocked it down. I saw the rabbit that rushed towards Lao Zhang and was knocked to death in the snow.

What a shot! I thought it was amazing. It was not like hunting with my master. There was no skill involved. If you saw a rabbit in the mountains, you just shot at it. Whether you hit it or not depended on luck!

Compared to Zhang, my master and I are… Oh, forget it, I don’t want to compare. This comparison will make me cry.

Lao Zhang walked over to me with the rabbit in his hands. He smiled at my dumbfounded expression and said, “Scaring the rabbit out of its burrow is skill, but hitting it with one shot is experience. You’ve been hunting in the mountains for decades, so you should be able to do it too. You see, rabbits aren’t as fast as they look. They have habits, just like people. They know which way to run and how to turn. You can tell when it’s time to shoot by instinct.”

I don’t think I’ll ever learn to hunt. How much time will it take to hone my skills? At the same time, I was impressed that the saying “the best hunters are ordinary people” is not just empty talk.

Old Zhang didn’t seem to mind, saying, “I’ll go look for it. If I can find a snake, we can cook it for dinner tonight. The more poisonous the snake, the better the taste.”

Snake meat? I don’t mind, I used to eat a lot of it with my master in the bamboo forest hut, but I understand that some snakes are untouchable and must be respected, while others are harmless.

In this way, Lao Zhang and I wandered around in the forest for more than an hour, and we caught a rabbit and a really poisonous snake, a belly snake, and then we were ready to return to the temporary shack.

On the way, I also gained some insight into Zhang’s hunting skills and his methods of finding prey. He can find hibernating snakes, and I heard him say a lot about things like the “stick” and what a “snow cave” is.

It’s really amazing. After learning about these things, I have a deeper respect for the old forest. I also learned that in the mountains covered in snow, there are actually dangers everywhere. Take the snow cave as an example. When the snow covers it, you really don’t know that there is a mountain pass or a sunken mountain cave under the snow. This has to be judged by experience and skill.

For example, the ‘stick’ is not always an animal with spiritual energy. Sometimes it is a wild animal, and sometimes it is something you can’t predict. Old Zhang couldn’t say what it was, but he said, “There is only so much land in the mountains. I don’t say that every ridge has a ‘stick’, but it is true that one king reigns over one territory. There is a legend that the deeper you go, the fewer people there are, the more spiritual energy there is in the mountains, and the more powerful the ‘stick’ is. Some ‘sticks’ are not to be trifled with.”

When he said this, Lao Zhang looked at me with a hint of hesitation, but he didn’t say anything else. I understand that with his honest personality, he may feel that talking too much will make him seem to be shirking his responsibilities. Even if there is really danger, or even great danger, he will only go with me.

I felt a little sorry for Zhang, and the more eager I was to rush back to clarify some things. On the way, I kept quiet, because it was really hard to explain everything in a short time.

Lao Zhang is really familiar with this mountain range. When I came, I felt like I had been walking for a long time. When I went back, Lao Zhang took me to the small path. It didn’t take long before I saw the ‘hut’ with a warm yellow light from a distance.

Just as Lao Zhang said, in these mountains, having a shack is a thing that gives people great warmth and hope, and sometimes it can even save a life. You can’t really understand this kind of feeling, heartfelt joy and emotion, unless you experience it in the mountains.