CHAPTER 65: 65: THE DESCENT OF THE GOD OF DEATH (PART 2)_1

The black bear was chasing Yixuan.

The situation was dire, but Yixuan remained calm.

Up ahead was an old tree. He sized it up in his mind and, finally, gathering the hem of his robes, began climbing the trunk with both hands and feet. However, it was quite evident that a gentle man like him was more suited to the sheltered life indoors. Activities such as climbing trees really did not suit him.

During the climb, there were several instances where he’d ascend a little only to slip back down again. His palms were worn raw, his fingers bleeding profusely. It wasn’t that it didn’t hurt; he was just enduring the pain with a tenacious will to survive.

At last, he lay gasping for air on a thick branch that stretched horizontally, "Am I really overestimating my abilities?"

Looking down, he saw the two-meter-tall black bear, furiously pounding its chest and baring its teeth in a fearsome display.

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

His luck was truly terrible.

Today, after entering the mountains, he had encountered this black bear. The bear, hungry after hibernating all winter, had pegged him as prey.

Yixuan knew immediately that he was no match for his brothers in physical strength or agility. Unable to confront the powerful black bear, his only option was to run!

But the bear was persistent, locking its eyes on him, chasing him. There were several close calls where he narrowly escaped death. If not for his exceptional cleverness and quick wits to dodge the lethal attacks, he might have already fallen victim to the bear’s claws.

The bear glared at Yixuan up in the tree, pounding its chest again before swiping at the trunk with its paw, causing the tree to shake violently, scaring Yixuan into clinging tightly to the branch.

The bear roared once more, then began to run with thunderous footsteps before slamming its shoulder into the tree trunk.

The tree shook even more violently.

Yixuan pressed his lips together firmly.

None of the Liang family were afraid of death! But death could be as heavy as a mountain or as light as a feather. He wasn’t afraid to die; he was just afraid of dying without meaning.

But the current situation was beyond his control.

With a ’crack,’ the tree tilted, the roots buried in the soil coming loose.

The bear continued to ram against it, and then, the thick, old tree leaned even more before finally crashing down with a thunderous noise.

"Yixuan—!!"

Amongst the rustling of the wind, as the tree fell, Yixuan thought he heard the voice of Third Brother, filled with urgent concern and panic. Or was it just his imagination?

...

Liang Shujun was an actor, a charming and graceful man with a thousand kinds of amorous gestures. He seemed carefree, but when it came to skills like tracking and hunting in the mountains, he was the undisputed number one in the Liang family.

Before the brothers came of age, they often frequented the mountains. Apart from the frail and sickly Second Brother Shu Yu and the youngest Sixth Brother Yixuan, the eldest brother, Third Brother, fourth brother, and Fifth Brother Liang Yuening would regularly venture into the wilderness. Without any formal instruction, they taught themselves hunting skills through the years and often caught pheasants and roe deer to improve their meals or sold them for silver to help with family expenses.

After reaching adulthood, although Shujun no longer lived at home and rented a small courtyard in town, embarking on an acting career partly due to some private reasons.

However, Fourth Brother Liang Haoming and Fifth Brother Liang Yuening still made trips into the mountains every so often, and by then, their appetites for ordinary game had grown. If luck was on their side, they preferred to hunt larger predators instead of small creatures like pheasants and roe deer!

For instance, lions, wolves, tigers, and leopards.

Wolf pelts, tiger skins, and leopard fur could fetch a good price. Of course, this also meant that the risks were higher, and the danger even more severe!