Chapter 58: Mud Bombs, Animal Skin Pipes, and the Tiger on Its Last Breath

Wang Wei covered his ears, feeling as though the entire world had been reduced to a deafening roar. They had no idea whether the sound of the explosion would reach the ears of the villagers, nor whether it would travel far enough to alert the local authorities.

Initially, Chu Feng's plan had been to deal with the tiger on the third peak using homemade gunpowder bombs. That location was sufficiently remote; even with the explosive blast, no one would discover them. But now, they no longer had the luxury of worrying about being discovered.

A flurry of flying snow and dirt drifted into the nostrils of the three men, mingling with the stench of gunpowder and fresh blood left in the wake of the explosion. The combination formed a nearly unbearable, pungent odor.

The three waited in place for a long time. Once the smoke finally cleared, they peered together toward the base of the tree.

There was nothing. Not even a single strand of tiger fur was in sight.

"Where's the tiger?" Wang Wei asked in surprise.

Chu Feng had already anticipated this. A tiger's formidable combat capability stemmed largely from its exceptionally tough physical constitution. To be honest, the primitive explosives he crafted lacked the devastating power of modern bombs; they certainly could not compare to the armaments of later eras. The real question now was whether this explosion had been enough to finish the beast off.

"Let's go down and find the tiger."

"Huh?" Wang Wei froze.

Sun Can's legs were trembling slightly as he stammered, "Are you serious, Brother Feng?"

"Dead serious!"

With that, Chu Feng was the first to scramble down the tree. He quickly located the axe he had dropped earlier. The ground beneath the tree had been churned completely upside down by the blast, exposing the dark soil underneath along with flattened green ferns. Bloodstains were visible not far away, and they were strikingly distinct.

wielding the axe, Chu Feng followed the trail of blood. Wang Wei and Sun Can exchanged glances and had no choice but to follow closely behind him.

Moments later, they spotted a robust, yellowish figure.

It was the tiger!

Its body was stained with blood, which dripped steadily onto the ground below. Having initially bolted out of their line of sight, the beast could no longer run. It walked with heavy, labored breaths, pausing intermittently.

When it turned its head and caught sight of the three men, it actually began to flee out of sheer instinct.

Indeed, no matter how ferocious a wild beast might be, as long as one possessed sufficient firepower, fear became entirely unnecessary.

"Should we throw a couple more?" Wang Wei asked, excitement lacing his voice. Even the two of them could tell that the tiger was now at the end of its rope. If they tossed another couple of explosives at it, they might just finish it off on the spot.

However, Chu Feng shook his head. "That was just a lucky opening. Even if I gave you the chance now, you wouldn't be able to hit it."

The tiger kept moving forward. Though its pace appeared slow, it was still faster than three men could chase on foot. Moreover, throwing the explosive tubes required precision, and the tiger was currently thirty or forty meters away. Even if tossed, the beast could easily evade it.

Finally, Chu Feng retrieved his black backpack, revealing the firelock hidden inside.

This was a measure he had taken after much careful deliberation. At least for now, Wang Wei and Sun Can proved themselves trustworthy enough in Chu Feng's eyes to warrant revealing it.

Yet he had not anticipated that neither Wang Wei nor Sun Can had ever laid eyes on a firelock before. Seeing Chu Feng stop, they watched as he took out a flint and steel, ignited a fuse, and leveled the weapon at the fleeing tiger ahead.

The tiger remained blissfully unaware that the Grim Reaper had set its sights upon it.

As the fuse burned down, a deafening crack split the air!

The firelock fired in his hand.

Chu Feng knew immediately that it was a hit. At a distance of barely fifty steps, with a target as massive as a tiger, coupled with Chu Feng's absolute confidence in his aim, the outcome was inevitable.

True to expectation, the tiger's body tilted sideways and it collapsed directly onto the ground.

Both Wang Wei and Sun Can stared dumbfoundedly at the firelock. They had no idea what manner of sorcery this was, though they had heard rumors of such devices. Neither of them had expected Chu Feng to actually possess one.

Yet neither man harbored any ulterior motives, not even the desire to possess the weapon for themselves. Even if Chu Feng handed it to them, they wouldn't even know how to fire it.

"It really hit! Brother Feng is a legend!" Wang Wei cheered as he saw the tiger collapse onto the ground.

To their utter astonishment, however, the fallen tiger stirred and rose to its feet once more. Instead of fleeing, it turned around to face the three of them.

At that sight, Chu Feng and his companions halted their pursuit, swapping the firelock for bows and arrows.

The tiger's mobility was growing increasingly sluggish. A massive, gaping wound marred its head, dripping with blood and exposing the bare skull beneath. One of its eyes had been obliterated by the explosion, while the other was a furious, bloodshot crimson, obscuring the eyeball entirely.

This only deepened Chu Feng's astonishment. Dramas and fictional works often exaggerated the resilience of beasts, portraying them as unstoppable monsters that could shrug off multiple gunshots. In reality, people vastly overestimated the defense of wild beasts. With any firearm, even the smallest .45 caliber bullet, the largest grizzly bear on earth would buckle under a few well-placed rounds. A hit to a vital organ meant instantaneous death.

Moreover, the primitive explosive Chu Feng had crafted possessed far greater destructive force than a .45 round, having detonated directly against the tiger's head. Yet, despite this, the beast stubbornly clung to life, a testament to its tenacity.

Still, it was all coming to an end.

To ensure absolute safety, Chu Feng nocked an arrow and took aim at the tiger ahead.

*Whoosh.*

The arrow drove straight into the tiger's neck.

"Roar!"

Like an unyielding warrior, the tiger refused to turn and run. Instead, it scrambled atop a massive boulder. Though its battered frame could barely manage the exertion of climbing, it hauled itself up onto the rock and roared frantically at the three men before launching itself off the ledge in a fierce leap.

Knowing defeat was certain, yet refusing to retreat an inch!

It charged furiously toward Chu Feng. As it ran, the tiger limped heavily, gasping for air. Within its blood-red sockets, devoid of visible pupils, there was not a trace of fear.

Sun Can and Wang Wei were paralyzed by the sheer terror of the beast's momentum, rooted to the spot like statues.

Chu Feng merely let out a quiet sigh. His hands never faltered on the bow.

A second arrow, then a third, were loosed in rapid succession. With Chu Feng's exceptional marksmanship, missing was impossible. Every arrow buried itself deep into the tiger's flesh, plunging deep enough to touch bone.

Strangely enough, the tiger did not stop, nor did it let out a single cry of pain. Those empty, bloodied eye sockets simply locked onto Chu Feng with single-minded devotion, shutting out everything else in the world.

Chu Feng intentionally avoided the back and belly; tiger pelts commanded a high price.

When one of the arrows finally pierced the beast's remaining eye socket, the tiger was only three meters away from them.

Had it been in peak condition, a single bound from a tiger of this size could have ended their lives in an instant.

Alas.

In this game of hunt, the roles of hunter and prey had shifted back and forth, but in the end, victory belonged to Chu Feng.

Chu Feng pressed his palms together in a silent prayer of respect toward the fallen beast. He honored such an adversary.

Yet reality remained reality. Chu Feng needed a large sum of money to secure a better life for his wife, daughter, and unborn child.

"Come on, stop standing there. Let's get to work."

Packing away his gear, Chu Feng drew his woodcutting knife.

"How much do you think this tiger weighs?" Wang Wei asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

Sun Can estimated from the side, "I reckon at least three to four hundred catties, easily as heavy as that blind bear."

"Yet its frame is much larger than that bear's."

Having previously helped butcher a brown bear, the two men already possessed some experience in dismantling large predators, making the task far more familiar this time around. To avoid unnecessary suspicion and jealousy from the villagers, the three men butchered the carcass right there in the wilderness.

Once finished, they shouldered their loads and hurried back toward home. Aside from the blood, every single part of the tiger was brought back with them.

"Remember, don't let anyone else find out we caught a tiger. Tomorrow we head straight to town, just the three of us, as early as possible," Chu Feng instructed.

Both men nodded, hoisting the butchered remains of the tiger, and vanished into the gathering darkness of the village alleys.