The setting sun shone on the hill outside the small village, making it look harmonious and beautiful in the distance. The decrepit thatched hut on the hill looked particularly lonely under the dim light of dusk.

After returning home, Yue Fan put down the packages of goods he brought back from the city, filled with joy. He looked up at the sky outside the window and muttered, "My father should be up on the mountain collecting herbs. It looks like he won't be back for a while, I'll go and get everything ready." With that, he walked towards the inner room.

The inner room looked very simple, even sparse, with just a large kang bed and two torn cotton quilts, and some hunting tools.

Sitting on the kang bed, Yue Fan was cutting arrow shafts when he suddenly heard a familiar sound of footsteps outside the house. He put down his tools, got up, and went to greet his father.

"Father -"

"Oh, Xiao Fan is back. You're back earlier today."

As soon as he finished speaking, a thin, haggard-looking middle-aged man appeared outside the door. After putting down the herbs he had collected, he limped over to Yue Fan and patted his shoulder. "You're going hunting tonight, let me go and get something to eat. You can keep getting ready..."

This man was Yue Fan's father, Li Tan. He wore tattered clothes, had calloused hands from years of hard work, had a slightly sickly complexion, and his eyes were cloudy but sharp. He used to be the best hunter in the area, but now he couldn't hunt anymore and even had to suffer from the effects of a residual poison that he had to constantly use herbs to suppress.

"Yes, I'm almost ready," Yue Fan said after a pause, then walked over to the table. "Father, these are things I sold firewood for in the city. They should last us for a while. And the owner of that teahouse asked me to deliver firewood to him every three days. I think our lives will be stable for now." He handed a bag of grain to his father.

Li Tan took the grain and smiled with satisfaction. "Son, you've worked hard all these years, and you never let me down. I think your mother would be proud of you from heaven." He looked out at the setting sun and was silent for a moment. There was an unspeakable silence in the room.

Yue Fan saw his father's expression and said with a smile, "Mother knows, I will keep working hard too."

Li Tan came back to reality and said with a self-mocking tone, "Haha, I didn't expect to be so sentimental at my age. It's really...come on, I'll go and get something to eat." With that, he patted Yue Fan on the shoulder and walked out of the house.

Looking at his father's back, Yue Fan felt uncomfortable. In fact, he understood his father's feelings, but the living still lived...

After standing for a while, Yue Fan went back into the inner room to continue getting ready for his hunting trip.

After dinner, it was already evening, the hot sky had gone out, and the moon had shown its face.

Yue Fan took the bow and arrows and rope that he had prepared, and headed west towards the red leaf forest. In a few moments, he was out of sight, moving with the speed of a swift leopard through the forest.

There are many venomous snakes and ferocious beasts in the red leaf forest, so people nearby generally dare not enter or leave it casually. Only a small number of hunters will be active in the surrounding area.

Due to the extremely dry weather, the red leaf forest is also very hot and stuffy.

When they arrived in the forest, Yue Fan began to skillfully set traps using various methods and tools.

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In less than a quarter of an hour, more than 20 different kinds of traps, including "pitfall", "foot traps", "noose", "hidden sting" and many "chain traps", were set up in the forest, which was full of danger. These were all things that Yue Fan had prepared for several days. Today, he was going to hunt the most ferocious beast in this forest, the black bear with iron back.

The black bear with iron back is very tall, not only with great strength and destructive power, but also with fast running speed. It is the most ferocious of all bears. Li Tan had hunted such a black bear before, and the situation was very dangerous. He almost became the black bear's food. Although he finally won, he paid a heavy price. He was seriously injured all over his body, but fortunately, his wife took good care of him. He only recovered after lying in bed for more than half a month.

Hunting for the iron-backed bear is a sign of being an excellent hunter. Yue Fan set his hunting goal when he was eleven years old, but Li Tan didn't agree with him at that time, thinking that he wasn't mature enough and still lacked in various aspects. After some discussions, Li Tan finally decided to let Yue Fan pass his test before hunting for the black bear.

Perhaps Yue Fan is a born hunter. Now Yue Fan's hunting skills have surpassed Li Tan's when he was in his prime. Especially in his understanding and application of traps, he is already perfect. Therefore, his father agreed to this action. Although Li Tan has experience hunting black bears, he is not ready to tell Yue Fan, because he believes that this is also a kind of exercise.

Although it was the first time to challenge such a strong beast, Yue Fan was well prepared, so he was not nervous at all, but excited to challenge the difficulties.

After everything was ready, Yue Fan first sprinkled the flesh and blood of the red fox around the trap, as the flesh and blood of the red fox had a strong attraction to the black bear.

Squatting on a tree trunk far away from the trap, covering his body with leaves, his eyes began to watch the situation below...

Sure enough, after a while, the black bear smelled the aroma of red fox flesh and walked over. After taking a look around and finding no danger, it sniffed the air and noticed no human scent nearby. It then walked confidently to the food and began to eat heartily...

Seeing that the black bear had relaxed its vigilance, Yue Fan focused his gaze and prepared to act. Suddenly, his muscles tensed, and he lifted the large bow in his hand, expertly placed two wooden arrows, pulled them to full extension, and suddenly released them without aiming.

Under the moonlight, two dark shadows flew out in a hurry and shot towards the black bear that was eating.

The black bear was happily enjoying its meal when it suddenly became alert and instinctively tried to step backwards, but it was too late to move. The two wooden arrows had already been deeply embedded in its eyes. The speed, strength, skilled movements, and precise calculations all happened in an instant. Even if a martial arts master were here, they would be amazed at that arrow.

"Roar - Roar -"

Several beast roars startled a flock of forest birds, making the dark forest seem even more terrifying.

The intense pain caused the black bear to destroy things without hesitation. Giant bear paws broke down tree after tree. This triggered Yue Fan...

The several linked traps he had set made it hurt even more and caused more damage.

In order to keep the fur intact as much as possible, Yue Fan didn't use sharp weapons to set the traps, so it took nearly two hours for the black bear to finally collapse and lie down exhausted.

Looking at the mess of branches and destroyed traps on the ground, Yue Fan couldn't help but marveled at the power and tenacity of the black bear.

Although he felt some admiration in his heart, Yue Fan still quickly slid down from the tree and cautiously approached the exhausted black bear with his hunting gear...

Just as Yue Fan was about to get close to the black bear, it suddenly stood up and lunged towards him with all its strength. Its body was not even close to the same size as Yue Fan. The giant creature was twice the height of him and completely overshadowed him.

This was the black bear's last counterattack before it died. Li Tan had also been severely injured because of this.

This sudden change made Yue Fan's heart skip a beat, but he didn't panic. As a successful hunter, a calm response was the key to survival in danger.

Yue Fan made a split-second decision to not back off but to rush forward, crouching down and charging towards the bear's paw on its right side, narrowly avoiding the attack.

But it wasn't over yet. In the moment he avoided the black bear's attack, Yue Fan used his right foot to push off the ground, spun his body around, and came back in front of the black bear. By this time, the black bear's forward momentum had already been used up and it couldn't attack anymore. Yue Fan focused all his strength into his right fist and punched it accurately and powerfully at the bear's throat.

"Crunch!" A crisp snap echoed loudly in the silent night.

Under the moonlight, the tall and short figures merged together and then slowly separated. The tall figure collapsed heavily on the ground.

"Clang!" A splash of dust flew up as the black bear lay still. The forest returned to its usual silence.