Chapter 10: The Boundary of Life and Death, Dog Egg Opens His Eyes in Astonishment, Xiang Wang Snake Moves His Heart

  "Sister, it's time for Chinese New Year!"

  In a small mountain village on the edge of a vast and majestic mountain range, there is an atmosphere of joy and festivity, as Chinese New Year is approaching.

  This year is not like the previous years. Since Wang Tianlei returned, for more than half a year, the whole village has been energized by him. Not only have the number of hunted animals increased several times compared to previous years, but there have also been no casualties. With more prey, income has also increased, and life has naturally improved. Even the old swindler in the village, who was pulled by Wang Tianlei to teach people to recognize characters, can now eat a few meals of meat during the New Year. The young women in each household can also get a few pieces of colorful cloth to make one or two new padded jackets. Even Dog Danzi got a new set of clothes. With the improvement in living standards, and coinciding with the annual festive day, the whole village is naturally filled with a joyful atmosphere.

  Zhou Hua's belly has grown another circle compared to a month ago, and her face has also become rounder. Now she is the key protected object of the Wang Tianlei family. The two old people don't let her do any chores at all, every day is just eating and sleeping, waiting for the melon to ripen and give birth to a big fat baby boy.

  This will be the death of Zhou Hua'er.

  The little girl from the mountain village, since she was 4 or 5 years old and could run around, has been helping with household chores. After doing this for over a decade, suddenly stopping her is really making her feel somewhat unaccustomed.

  But what can you do, since the old couple thinks it's precious?

  So, these days, Zhou Hua can't do anything, and has nothing to do but sit at the foot of the wall in her home, stroking her big belly, closing her eyes, and basking in the sun. These past few days, the weather hasn't been good, with dark skies and strong north winds that seem like they're about to snow. Therefore, she's also sat inside, burning a fire in the stove, with thick cotton curtains hanging on the door, and bright red charcoal burning in the stove, making the room warm as spring, not one bit worse than Dog Egg's air conditioning in his past life.

  Gou Danzi also often came over to chat with her, but in fact, he was taking the opportunity to take a few more glances at the "Lihuo Heart Method", afraid that his memory had deviated and misread an acupoint, which would be a big trouble.

  Zhou Hua saw Dog Egg walking towards her with a bounce in his step and also couldn't help but laugh, "That's right, it's almost New Year's, you want your lucky money, huh? Don't worry, I won't forget yours!"

  "Haha, sister got married, today you're also going to pay up!" Dog Egg chuckled and said. In this mountain village, the lucky money given to children on their birthdays was just a few copper coins, merely a gesture. Dog Egg didn't take them seriously either.

  The sister and brother sat in the warm house, chatting occasionally. Wang Tianlei had not gone into the mountains yet, but was leading a group of young men to practice boxing on the empty land north of the village. For several days, they had not gone into the mountains to hunt, firstly because they had harvested a lot in the past few months, enough for everyone's food expenses, and secondly because the weather had turned cold, with the northern wind blowing, and it would soon snow. The wild beasts in the mountains were all very clever, and before the arrival of winter, they had already stored up enough food reserves, and now they might have already hidden in their own dens, waiting for the winter snow to arrive. Even if they went into the mountains, they probably wouldn't be able to hunt anything, so it was better to take advantage of this opportunity to practice boxing and battle formation coordination, with the hope of having a bigger harvest after the snow.

  Time, in this thick festive atmosphere, flowed as Dog Egg and Zhou Hua chatted for a while. He took out Wang Tianlei's "Lihuo Heart Method" again, glanced at it twice, and put it back with a satisfied expression on his face. Looking up at the sky, he found that it was getting late and decided to head back.

  "It's so late, what's the point of going back? Let's just eat here!" Zhou Hua detained.

  Gou Danzi hastily shook his head, "No way, if I go back any later, Mother will scold me again!"

  "Come on, you know Mother will scold us, so just let her save some energy and be more obedient from now on!"

  "Whatever!" Dog Egg waved his arm impatiently and ran out of the house.

  He ran very fast, as the sky had already darkened, and if he was late getting home again, he would be scolded. Just as he had just run to the woodshed ready to go out of the gate, a loud noise came from inside the yard, followed by a scream.

  "Sister?!" Dog Egg suddenly stopped in his tracks, his heart tightening up. This was Zhou Hua's scream. What had happened?!

  Without thinking much, Dog Egg picked up a hatchet from the ground and rushed back into the yard.

  Just rushing into the yard, I saw Zhou Hua already rushing out of the house with a terrified face, and at the same time, I heard Zhou Hua's scream. Wang Tianlei's father also rushed out of the side house.

  "What happened?!"

  Wang Tianlei's father was not very old, only about forty years old, and his body was also very strong. Seeing Zhou Hua rushing out with a look of horror on her face, he hurried to her side and steadied her stumbling figure.

  "Bears, bears, everywhere!"

  "Roar......!" A loud roar came from inside the house, and then the poor little house collapsed with its door and walls all falling down. A black bear over a zhang tall rushed out.

  "Bears?!"

  It's really a bear!

  The dog egg felt like his heart was about to jump out of his chest cavity.

  He knew that the worst had happened.

  Living on the edge of this vast mountain, others may not know, but in winter, the dog bear that goes down the mountain to forage knows.

  In order to store enough energy for the winter, bears are at their most ferocious during this time. In the past, there have been instances where bears that couldn't find enough food and couldn't withstand the hunger came down from the mountains in search of food, resulting in severe casualties in the village each time, with human lives lost to drive them away. However, such incidents don't happen often, occurring only once every few years, so everyone didn't take it seriously. Who would have thought that we'd encounter one today?

  "Ah——!"

  A mournful cry and two shrill cries came from the ear, and the mournful cry was Wang Tianlei's father. He saw a black bear rushing towards Zhou Huaer and rushed up without hesitation. It wasn't that he had deep feelings for Zhou Hua, but he was anxious about the child in Zhou Hua's belly. Unfortunately, although his body was also considered robust, in front of this tall and majestic black bear, he didn't have any advantage at all. Before he could even rush up completely, he was slapped on the shoulder by the black bear and flew out directly. When he wanted to get up again, he had no strength at all.

  The black bear had no interest in him, a pair of dark eyes staring straight at Zhou Hua and her belly. In his little head, this strange creature with a big belly seemed to be particularly attractive.

  The dog egg child took a deep breath, the hatchet in his hand was raised, he was afraid, afraid to death, his legs were trembling, his hands were also trembling, but when he saw Zhou Hua stumble and fall to the ground, the black bear suddenly pounced on her, a hot blood rushed to his head, and he didn't know where the courage came from, shouted loudly, raised the knife and rushed forward.

  Glancing at the small figure rushing over, the black bear didn't mind. Although it was a wild beast, as one of the strong ones on the edge of this vast mountain, it could easily distinguish its opponent's strength. This little guy wasn't even stronger than that skinny monkey from earlier, not worth mentioning at all.

  "Boom!"

  Without any suspense, just like Wang Tianlei's father earlier, Dog Egg was knocked flying far away by Hei Xiong with a single palm. Hei Xiong didn't show any mercy because he was just a child. His body was lighter than Wang Tianlei's father, so he flew even farther and crashed straight into the wall of the courtyard, making a dull thud.

  "Uh——ah——!"

  The dog egg child let out a loud cry, one mouthful of blood spurted out, and his body bounced twice on the ground.

  "Is it over? Is it finished?"

  The dog egg that fell to the ground did not lose consciousness, and he found it strange that with such a physique and injury, he didn't pass out, which was something he couldn't understand and also couldn't accept.

  He was never a self-sacrificing person, at least he thought so. When faced with such a situation, his first reaction should have been to run away immediately. Not even he himself expected that he would rush over impulsively and try to fight the black bear head-on. Now he regrets it, but even in this state of regret, his body still has an urge to get up again and charge forward.

  However, this was just an impulse. Although he had practiced martial arts, after being hit by the bear's palm and falling so heavily, his entire body felt like it had come apart at the seams. The only thing he could do was to slightly lift his eyelids.

  With great effort, he pried open his eyes and saw that the black bear had already opened its big mouth and was about to bite Zhou Hua. He didn't know where he got the strength from, but Dog Egg suddenly pushed himself up from the ground with both hands and stood up. However, just as he was about to rush forward, his body suddenly froze, and he felt like his head was going to explode. The pain was so intense that he couldn't bear it anymore, and he arched his back, holding his head in his hands, and let out a loud wail.

  "Ah——————!" Dog Egg let out a beast-like howl, startling the black bear that was about to bite Zhou Hua. The bear looked up in confusion, staring at Dog Egg who had stood up and was furiously bellowing, seemingly unable to understand why this little monkey was so resilient. In the mountains, a monkey of this size would usually be killed with just one slap, but it had never seen such a stubborn monkey before.

  At this time, Dog Egg has fallen into a strange state, headache is just the beginning, he can't figure out what's wrong with his body, all over his muscles start to twitch and convulse, in front of him, a piece of darkness, no, it should be a bloody color, he tries hard to open his eyes, but in front of him, only a vast expanse of blood red.

  "My eyes, why can't I see!" In the midst of intense pain, Dog Egg struggled to open his own eyes, but no matter how hard he tried, all he saw was a sea of blood.

  "Why is this happening, am I going blind?!" A wave of extreme panic swept over his mind, accompanied by intense pain that was beyond compare. He no longer had the energy to think about anything else, and at this moment, all he wanted was to quickly pass out or die directly, so that he would no longer have to suffer such torture. But contrary to his wishes, he remained awake, extremely awake, at least in his current state of mind, he felt more awake than ever before.

  "Uh...... Ah......!" Dog Egg cried out again, this time his cry was even louder than before, which made the black bear even more annoyed. The bear slowly moved away from Zhou Hua and walked towards Dog Egg, wanting to deal with this noisy monkey first before enjoying its prey.

  It didn't notice that at this time, the dog egg's eyes were flashing with a strange light, and no one else in danger noticed it except for one person!