Robert Clark burst out laughing, stepped forward to take down the wild rabbit. The rabbit was very plump, at least seven or eight jin. He weighed it in his hand and smiled at Samuel Bennett, saying, “We’re in luck today—looks like we’ll have a good lunch.”

He tossed the rabbit into Samuel Bennett’s basket, showed off with a flourish of his knife, and said proudly, “How about that? Not bad with the throwing knife, right! Want your senior brother to teach you a few tricks?”

Samuel Bennett remained unmoved. He glanced sideways at the rabbit and asked calmly, “Are you sure we don’t need to take this rabbit back, senior brother?”

Robert Clark raised an eyebrow. “In a bit, I’ll catch a weasel to take back and report in—let those old geezers choke on the smell.”

After speaking, he suddenly sensed something. He looked around, licked his lips, and said, “The wind is rustling the grass—this is a good sign. Maybe we’ll get a big catch today.”

He waved his hand. “We’re not going to the back mountain today. Let’s just look for food here.”

As the saying goes: live off the mountain if you’re near the mountain, live off the water if you’re near the water.

Since they lived on the lushly vegetated Kongtong Mountain, as long as they weren’t picky, there was plenty of edible wild food: all kinds of small animals, wild fruits, mushrooms and fungi, edible plant roots and stems, and various wild vegetables.

Of course, they also had to be careful. Nature was full of dangers—wild beasts, poisonous snakes, venomous insects, toxic mushrooms, and so on. A moment’s carelessness could lead to trouble.

Samuel Bennett dug up a thick fern root. Suddenly, a large, brightly colored red-headed centipede, over twenty centimeters long, crawled out of the soil and up his arm. Samuel Bennett was startled and flung the centipede a dozen feet away with a shake of his hand.

“Don’t step on it!”

Robert Clark rushed over like the wind, pulled a small bamboo tube from his chest, and with a flick of his knife, the centipede crawled into the tube. He plugged the opening and smiled, “This is a great medicinal ingredient—martial artists need it.”

His eyes suddenly widened as he stared at the thick fern root in Samuel Bennett’s hand, as thick as a baby’s arm, and exclaimed, “You really are a lucky star! I’ve dug fern roots for ten years and never seen one this big.”

He stomped around the area, muttering, “No way! No way! The ferns here must have grown for at least a dozen years. We’ve really hit the jackpot today!”

The two of them got to work, digging up over a hundred fern roots in the area. Even the thinnest was as thick as a thumb—the harvest was bountiful.

After drying and grinding, fern roots become an edible starch—the black stuff in their meals was fern root powder.

They had a good haul today. In just half a day, they’d filled over half a basket with fern roots, another basket with fiddlehead ferns, and dug up five or six wild yams.

Their game included one rabbit, two hedgehogs, and a grass snake.

Robert Clark was in a good mood. He took out the rabbit and gutted it, while Samuel Bennett gathered a pile of firewood. The two of them were getting ready to barbecue.

Suddenly, Robert Clark sensed something. He raised a finger to his lips—“Shh—”—his expression turning serious, and whispered to Samuel Bennett, “There’s something off about the smell in the air!”

Samuel Bennett sniffed, but aside from the bloody scent of the rabbit in Robert Clark’s hands, he didn’t notice anything.

Robert Clark’s face suddenly changed. He gently tugged Samuel Bennett and signaled with his eyes to move back. Samuel Bennett turned his head and was scared out of his wits—just a dozen steps behind him stood a black bear, over two meters tall when upright, powerfully built, its small eyes staring at him coldly.

“Run!”

Robert Clark hissed, then turned and hurled the rabbit at the bear before bolting away.

Samuel Bennett panicked. Wasn’t he supposed to lie down and play dead at a time like this? How could they possibly outrun a black bear? But he suddenly realized—his chubby senior brother didn’t need to outrun the bear, just outrun him, Samuel Bennett.

Samuel Bennett dashed after Robert Clark. The nearest big tree was at least a hundred and fifty steps away—Samuel Bennett was almost in despair.

At this moment, Samuel Bennett understood why his senior brother was running. Playing dead only worked on bears that were already full, but this black bear had just woken from hibernation and was starving. It didn’t care if they were dead or alive—the rabbit was now the key to their escape.

The hungry black bear had indeed been drawn by the scent of the rabbit’s blood. It wasn’t in a hurry to chase them, but picked up the rabbit, stuffed it into its mouth, and devoured it. But that was far from enough to satisfy its hunger, so it started chasing after them. By now, the two had already run a hundred steps away.

Even though Robert Clark ran like lightning, Samuel Bennett was still young and slowed them down a bit.

The black bear’s speed was astonishing—a hundred-meter sprint in just six seconds. In moments, it was closing in on them, the ground shaking with its thunderous steps, getting closer and closer.

They ran another dozen steps and saw a big tree ahead. Robert Clark suddenly grabbed Samuel Bennett by the collar and tossed him upward. “Grab the tree!”

Samuel Bennett felt himself lifted into the air. Without thinking, he hugged the trunk and scrambled upward with all his might. He knew that a bear just out of hibernation was at its most dangerous.

He climbed several zhang high in one breath, then looked down, still shaken.

But he didn’t see his senior brother Robert Clark, nor the black bear.

“I’m over here!”

Samuel Bennett heard a shout from ahead and finally spotted his senior brother—he had climbed another big tree. The black bear was right below him, rubbing its back against the trunk, making the leaves rustle noisily.