Chapter 61: Snow Wolf Ascends

  Zhan Peng was alone for the first time, spending the night in the primitive forest. The surroundings were as quiet as death. Tonight was a cloudy night, and there wasn't even starlight. In the dense jungle, he couldn't see his fingers when he stretched out his hand. A gust of wind blew by, and Zhan Peng, who was already uneasy and looking around, shivered violently. The leaves beside him rustled in the wind, making a "hua la" sound, while some unknown creatures made low, anxious calls.

  He wanted to start a fire, but suddenly remembered Chen Jianfeng's words: "In a battlefield full of danger, the most important thing for a sniper is to maintain sharp vision, smell and hearing." Without mutual support from companions, lighting a fire would produce thick smoke that could be seen two miles away. If this were in a real combat environment, it would attract the enemy. According to jungle single-soldier special warfare rules, it was no different from seeking death! He immediately gave up the idea of starting a fire and put on his night vision goggles. Unconsciously, he had already begun to think with battlefield logic.

  He took out a machete and cut some branches, spending two hours making a bow and a dozen arrows. He only had a 2-tael compressed dry ration, so he had to find prey as soon as possible to maintain his physical strength.

  Zhan Peng held the compass and determined his direction on the map, then started his solo journey in the primeval forest. As he walked, he marked the map with a pencil and caught a few snakes along the way.

  Can't start a fire, snake meat can only be eaten raw. He found a source of water, peeled off the snake skin, and washed the snake body clean. This was still his first time eating raw meat, he endured the nausea and brought the snake meat to his mouth, looking at the muscles that were still slightly trembling, but couldn't put it in his mouth no matter what.

  Zhan Peng knew this pass was inevitable, he took a deep breath, held his breath, opened his mouth wide, threw the snake meat in and chewed it loudly, then closed his eyes, stretched his neck and swallowed hard.

  Enduring the churning feeling in my stomach, I tightly closed my mouth and waited for that unbearable feeling to slowly disappear. I held it in until tears almost came out, before the nausea finally passed.

  He wrapped up the remaining snake meat and put it in his backpack. If he couldn't find food ahead, what was left would help him hold out for twenty-four hours. He set off again, but the farther he walked, the more suffocating and panicked he felt. He gradually discovered that the map was wrong and didn't match the terrain.

  In the past long-distance training, he had encountered such a situation countless times. At that time, there were still brothers around him who could entrust their lives to each other. But this time, he was alone and had to rely on his own strength to overcome the current difficulties.

  He spent thirty hours finding the first supply point according to the map, only to discover that what was supposed to be flat land had turned into a precipice. He could only keep moving forward, correcting the mistakes on the map as he went.

  His entire body's senses and every inch of skin, in this completely unfamiliar environment, were instinctively adjusting to their optimal state, continuously sending various information to his brain.

  He spent three days and finally found the first supply point, where there was a piece of paper with the coordinates of the second supply point, a two-liang compressed dry ration, and a small bag of salt. There was nothing else.

  Zhan Peng gritted his teeth and stood up firmly, continuing to move forward towards the second supply point whose coordinates were unknown.

  When he found the fourth supply point, he had been walking in the primeval forest for twenty-one days. Each supply point only had a block of compressed dried food and a packet of salt.

  Zhan Peng can no longer remember how many snakes and frogs he has swallowed, how many mushrooms he has picked, or how many leaves he has pulled. The crisis of survival forced him to become a savage in the shortest possible time, using his hunting skills with traps more and more skillfully. Now he can set up a foolproof trap in less than five minutes.

  He sleeps less than four hours a day and always rests on branches higher above the ground.

  The coordinates of the fifth supply point were way off, Zhan Peng bit his pencil and crouched beside the map, slowly searching for the correct route centimeter by centimeter.

  Suddenly, the hairs on his back stood up, he involuntarily grasped the gun in his hand, turned around abruptly, raised the gun to search, and instantly broke out in a cold sweat.

  Less than 30 meters behind him, two green eyes were shining, a wolf!!

  "Damn it!" Zhan Peng silently cursed himself in his heart, he had actually let a wolf sneak up so close before realizing it. If he had discovered it any later, the wolf might have already pounced on him by now.

  Wolves are the most fearsome animals in the forest, with extremely strong endurance and high intelligence, keen sense of smell, good hearing, cruel and vigilant temperament, excellent running ability, and no living thing can escape the attack of a wolf pack.

  Cold sweat instantly soaked through Zhan Peng's underclothes, he slowly backed away to a large tree, his eyes scanning the surroundings with his peripheral vision, trying to figure out how many more wolves were lurking nearby. Fortunately, at least within a 500-meter radius, there was only this one wolf.

  He gripped the gun in his hand tightly, although there were only blank cartridges inside, but within a distance of five meters, even blank cartridges could be lethal. His mind kept recalling the knowledge about wolves that the instructor had explained during their wilderness survival training:

  "Wolves respect every opponent, wolves will understand their opponents before each attack and will not underestimate them, so wolves' attacks in their lifetime are rarely mistaken."

  "Keen observation, single-minded goal, curiosity, attention to detail and relentless patience enable wolves to achieve success."

  "In the life of a wolf, nothing can replace the indomitable spirit that allows it to survive through thick and thin. It is this very spirit that enables wolves to thrive in the face of change, making them one of the most resilient animals on Earth."

  Cold sweat had soaked through his military uniform, he silently sized up the wolf in front of him, waiting for its fatal pounce.

  The wolf was also coldly sizing him up. This wolf was very beautiful, nearly 2 meters in length, with a snowy white body and a pair of blue-gray eyes that were deep and almost impossible to see the bottom of, yet were as clear and simple as those of an infant. It was a snow wolf, a solitary snow wolf. Zhan Peng was very curious - how could a snow wolf living in the vast snowy plains of the north suddenly appear in the primeval forests of the south?

  A special forces soldier holding a sniper rifle without live ammunition, and a snow wolf known for being the most ferocious in its class, stared at each other motionlessly from about twenty meters apart. Neither of them knew what the other was thinking, and they both dared not make any sudden moves because they only knew themselves but not their enemy.

  Zhan Peng's heart was pounding like a drum, the sound of "thud, thud" echoing clearly in the quiet forest. "Stay calm!" he silently commanded himself, recalling what his instructor had taught him: once spotted by a wolf, never run or make sudden movements; if attacked from behind, don't turn around, instead use momentum to throw it off with a backflip and then counterattack with a combat knife. If you have meat on you, toss some to distract it and make your escape.

  Zhan Peng slowly turned his hand, took out a piece of snake meat from his backpack, and threw it in front of the snow wolf with the slowest movement. He even tried to show a friendly and harmless smile to the snow wolf.

  The snow wolf stared at him, motionless and unresponsive. After a long time, it relaxed its tense body, and the vigilant and guarded look in its eyes turned into confusion. Slowly, it actually took a step back.

  It's time to leave, Zhan Peng glanced at the surrounding woods, the sky was getting darker and darker, he had to get out of the snow wolf's sight as soon as possible. He used extremely gentle movements to slightly bend down and pick up the map on the ground, staring intently at the snow wolf's eyes, slowly straightening his waist, slowly taking a step back, the snow wolf didn't react, Zhan Peng took another step back, and then another...

  The snow wolf slowly crouched down on the ground, looking at him seriously.

  Zhan Peng didn't dare to run away, he threw three or four pieces of snake meat on the ground and retreated while throwing. The snow wolf looked at the meat blocks he threw with a disdainful expression, but only looked at him with a lonely and proud gaze.

  He stuffed the map into his backpack and turned around to venture into the woods. As he walked, he occasionally looked back over his shoulder, where the snow wolf's shadow appeared and disappeared, its narrow and sharp eyes gleaming with a faint green light, making his mood even more tense. The snake meat in his backpack was almost gone, and he had to find some prey as soon as possible, otherwise, if the snow wolf followed him, without meat to feed it, his own hundred or so pounds might be calculated by it.

  However, his luck seemed to be not so good. Until midnight, he only caught a snake and accidentally took the wrong path, almost falling into the mountain stream, and could only turn back and re-walk.

  Suddenly, a long and mournful howl came from behind, it was the wolf's cry! The sound echoed through the dense thicket, and everything around became deathly silent in an instant, leaving only this continuous howling. The sound stuck to my ears, drilled into the seams of my clothes, invaded my skin, and penetrated my bones, making me feel a chill run down my spine. Each note was like a sharp dagger, stabbing at Xing Peng's heart, which had shrunk in fear.

  Zhan Peng stopped and didn't leave. He chopped the snake he had just caught into several pieces on the ground, quietly staring at the dense forest behind him.

  The snow wolf slowly emerged from the dense forest, staring at Zhan Peng for a while. Its eyes seemed to carry endless sorrow. For some reason, Zhan Peng suddenly remembered an ancient legend: A wolf will only have one mate in its lifetime. If its mate leaves it, it will leave the pack and live a solitary life! Every midnight, it would howl at the moon to express its longing for its loved one until death, never changing its ways! Would this snow wolf also have a heart-wrenching past?

  The snow wolf had walked to a place about 20 meters away from him, its front paws pressed against the ground, stretching its body very long, extremely lazy and stretched out a lazy waist, and shook its beautiful snow-white fur again. It sniffed at the snake meat on the ground, then raised its cold eyes to measure the human in front of it.

  Zhan Peng slowly walked away, occasionally turning his head to look back at it. The snow wolf went to sniff the snake meat again, tilting its head as if hesitating about something. After a while, it finally swallowed the snake meat into its belly.

  Zhan Peng let out a sigh of relief, knowing he was temporarily safe. The wolf had eaten the food he provided, so before his carried food ran out, the wolf wouldn't eat him. At least that's what the instructor taught him.

  He quickly set up several traps, and the snow wolf sat far away with its head tilted, looking at him disapprovingly, even with a hint of disdain. By dawn, the traps had caught five rabbits. He threw three of them in front of the snow wolf, which sniffed the rabbits and looked at him with suspicious eyes. Xiang Peng ignored it, focusing on skinning the rabbits, occasionally glancing over to find its position.

  The snow wolf narrowed its eyes, as if reassessing the human in front of it. After a while, its gaze was no longer cold and ruthless, but became gentle, and it let out a low growl from its mouth, lowered its head to gnaw open the rabbit skin, and began to savor its breakfast.

  After eating three wild rabbits, it strolled around Zhan Peng as if nothing had happened, standing less than 10 meters away from him, watching him, and occasionally yawning and stretching its waist.

  Zhan Peng slowly gathered his backpack, dismantled the trap, and after running around for a whole night, he already felt exhausted, too tired to move. He looked around nearby and chose a sturdy tall tree, climbing onto a branch more than five meters above the ground to sleep. He didn't want to become food for snow wolves in his dreams.

  Before falling asleep, he glanced down at the ground and saw that Snow Wolf had lain down not far from the big tree, exposing its snow-white belly, with all four legs pointing towards the sky, and seemingly sleeping with a snoring sound.

  For the next two days, Zhan Peng was desperately searching for the fifth supply point, but it seemed to have vanished into thin air. No matter how he corrected the map, he couldn't find that location.

  The snow wolf followed him, its eyes becoming increasingly friendly and getting closer to him. Several times, it was even close enough for him to touch its fur with a stretch of his hand. Every midnight, the snow wolf would let out a long howl towards the sky, after which it would always look sorrowful and stunned for a while before continuing to follow Zhan Peng's back.

  On the twenty-fourth night of entering the original forest for a long-distance solo training, Zhan Peng was still looking for the fifth supply point with his backpack. The snow wolf behind him had temporarily disappeared, and there were some fresh wild boar hoof prints on the ground. Zhan Peng slowly squatted down to observe carefully, and behind him followed an unpredictable bomb - he didn't want to encounter a group of wild boars again.

  Don't mention their long fangs, which are like two sharp daggers that can easily lift a head of an adult male bear. Even if they swarm over and launch a savage charge, he won't be able to take it lying down.

  But his body suddenly stiffened, as twenty or so wild boars were approaching him from a distance with a rustling sound, and had already discovered his presence. The lead boar stopped in its tracks, its beady eyes fixed warily on him.

  Zhan Peng retreated to the left of the big tree, suddenly, a low growl came from his right rear side. He slowly turned his head to look, and saw that the snow wolf was staring at him with its eyes wide open, its mouth slightly open, revealing all its sharp teeth. Its sharp claws were lightly scratching the ground, as if it would pounce on him in the next second.

  The appearance of the snow wolf caused the wild boar group to let out a startled scream, and they immediately scattered in all directions, disappearing from view in an instant.