The location of the hot spring was at a lower elevation, and it was likely buried by the heavy snow. Eventually, I had to abandon that goal and decided to explore deeper into the forest. Although the deeper parts of the forest were also covered in thick snow, presenting a vast expanse of white, luck seemed to be on my side.

In a snowy field, I noticed a protruding large bundle, suspecting it might be the carcass of a buried animal. In this cold weather, animals freezing to death was common, so this could be an unexpected find. I uncovered the snow and indeed found three animal corpses. However, as I cleared these bodies, my mood began to shift to unease.

These three corpses were not ordinary animals; they were three gray wolves! What was even more unsettling was that they hadn't frozen to death but had been bitten to death by some unknown predator! This mysterious predator seemed quite selective, as each wolf had only consumed the most tender parts like thighs, hearts, and chests, leaving the rest untouched. Moreover, the force behind this predator was evidently much greater than that of the wolves. Each wolf had only one fatal wound – the neck.

The powerful bite force severed the necks of the gray wolves, a sight that was truly chilling. I couldn't fathom what kind of predator could effortlessly hunt down a group of wolves. A tiger or a lion, perhaps? Regardless, whether they would fiercely fight against a wolf pack upon encounter or remain an unknown factor was uncertain. More importantly, I had never heard of tigers or lions being so selective in their eating habits. The apparent pickiness of this predator's feeding behavior was intriguing.

In other words, an unknown and powerful predator had appeared in our forest, making me feel somewhat uneasy. The unknown is the most frightening. Wolves were already dangerous animals, but in the presence of this mysterious predator, they could only become prey. I was worried that we might become its target as well.

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"Let them be happy for a while," I thought to myself as I helped them handle the wolf meat. None of the girls seemed to think too much about it, except for Su Jie, who appeared to find something strange about the wolf carcasses. Soon, we made a pile of roasted wolf meat. The meat was slightly tough, but the taste was decent, resembling dog meat. Although the best parts of the wolves had been consumed, the remaining leg meat, organ meat, and other parts, when cleaned and cooked, were still delicious. Some friends might enjoy eating offal; this wolf offal made for a similar experience.

As we enjoyed our oily feast, chatting and laughing, the atmosphere was lively. After the girls were satiated with food and drink, I shared my concerns.

"Little Wei, don't worry too much. The forest is so vast; that thing might not even find us!"

"Yeah, Wei ge, let's be careful, and nothing will happen."

Everyone started comforting me. I smiled at them, "Maybe you're right, but we shouldn't neglect our protective measures. We still need to be cautious."

Since I found wolf meat today and returned early, I went out again and cut down a decently-sized pine tree. Stripping off the branches, I fashioned a few long logs, crossing them in front of our cave entrance to block it. If anything outside wanted to come in, it would have to break through these logs first.

With these long logs in place, the interior space of our cave became much smaller, and it felt a bit cramped. Additionally, it didn't look very appealing. The girls seemed to vaguely think I was making a fuss, but deep down, I still felt uneasy. I brought many thorny bushes to add another layer of defense to the cave entrance. I repeatedly warned the girls to be extremely careful. This continued until late at night before I finally lay down to sleep.