Chapter 30: Catching Rabbits

  "Whoosh..." An arrow shot into the air. Under the thunder of galloping horses, one by one, startled rabbits, foxes, and deer scurried out from their hiding places in a panic. Lü Bu led the charge on horseback, bow bent and arrow nocked. Whatever prey he saw fell to his arrows. His soldiers hastily ran over to pick up the game, shouting loudly: "The Marquis of Wen has hit a wild rabbit! The Marquis of Wen has hit a deer! The Marquis of Wen has hit a fox!..."

  Dong Zhuo burst out laughing: "My son is indeed a brave general, there's no one in the world who can surpass him!"

  "Yes, yes, yes! Duke Wen's martial arts are unmatched in the world, no one can rival him!" The crowd hastily echoed in agreement.

  A voice said faintly, "Is this what you call hunting?" Although the voice was not loud, the crowd in high spirits still heard it clearly. Wang Yun's heart suddenly rose to his throat, because he heard that the voice came from behind him. It must be Long Fei, no one else could be.

  Someone immediately shouted angrily: "You dare to be a madman, actually speaking nonsense here, come on, drag him down and chop him off!"

  Dong Zhuo's mood today might be better, hehe smiled and waved his hand to let the soldiers go down, turned his head to look at Wang Yun: "Who said that just now?"

  Wang Yun hastily got up and knelt down, saying: "Your subordinate's discipline is not strict, and his family member has offended the Grand Tutor. Your subordinate knows his fault, please Grand Tutor punish him!"

  "For a sentence to kill someone, is this my style?" Dong Zhuo looked at Long Fei and pointed at him with his hand: "Did you say that?"

  "Yes!" Long Fei stood up, not showing any fear, and looked at Dong Zhuo. Dong Zhuo looked him up and down for a long time, nodded slightly: "A true hero indeed! Why did you say this isn't a hunting game?"

  Long Fei said: "Hunting and fishing are the same, what's important is not the prey or fish, but the thrill of the hunt. If you just rush in and shoot as soon as you see an animal, that's not hunting, it's slaughter! With thousands of horses galloping, small animals running wildly without a care, and with these four walls surrounding us, even if they wanted to run, they couldn't escape. There's no joy in this kind of hunt at all!"

  "So, tell me, how do you hunt?" Dong Zhuo's interest was piqued: "I've been at war for many years, but this is the first time I've heard that hunting isn't about catching prey, but about the thrill of the hunt! Fishing isn't about catching fish, but about the act of fishing itself! How intriguing, how intriguing!"

  Everyone also nodded in agreement. Long Fei said: "Taishi has been fighting for many years, and should also know that battles often begin before the real swords are drawn. If you can guess your opponent's every move before taking action and make adjustments accordingly, even if outnumbered, there is still a chance of winning. Simply relying on brute force and charging forward is the behavior of an unskilled fighter. Hunting is the same way - one must track the animal's trail, investigate its movements, engage in a battle of wits with the animal, and finally capture it. In fact, hunting and war are similar, which is probably why men like to hunt."

  "Good!" Dong Zhuo nodded first: "A hunter says so many truths, you may also be the number one person in ancient and modern times! What's your name?"

  "The common people rise up!"

  "Dragon Flying!" Dong Zhuo remembered this name: "Then tell me, how will today's hunt be surrounded?"

  Long Fei said: "Taishi can designate a certain area, divide all people into arrays, do not allow riding horses, start from different directions, each time only release one rabbit, one fox, and one wild deer. Whichever group catches two of them will be the winning side. After several rounds, there will be a winner. Finally, the last two groups will use the entire Tiger Hill as the boundary, and only release one rabbit. Whoever catches it will win!"

  "Hahaha……" Dong Zhuo burst into loud laughter: "Good! A good hunter is a good general, listen to the wind and identify the location, track down the source, examine the situation and make decisions. Not bad, this proposal is not bad. Come on, summon everyone back, do it according to Long Fei's words!"

  Several blasts of the horn sounded, and the crowd that was killing with relish thought the hunt had ended. Lü Bu could be said to have returned with a full load, and he ran excitedly into the tent: "Foster father, I shot and killed the most prey, can you reward me with the Wind Chaser?"

  Dong Zhuo smiled: "My son, don't be impatient, I have a new and wonderful idea. After the trial is over, I will reward you with the Wind Chaser, it won't be late!"

  According to Long Fei's instructions, all participants in the hunt were divided into eighteen groups. Long Fei and Zhao Yun, under Dong Zhuo's special permission, formed the eighteenth group. In a separate area of Tiger Hill, everyone competed together. Long Fei and Zhao Yun easily won every match, advancing smoothly to the final round. Their opponent was Lü Bu. Lü Bu didn't even need to participate in the competition; others were fiercely competing, but as soon as they saw that the next match was against Lü Bu, they immediately announced their withdrawal and conceded defeat. They understood that Lü Bu was a favorite of Dong Zhuo's, and offending him would be equivalent to being half-dead.

  Dong Zhuo nodded: "This method is indeed interesting, it seems that my son is truly a great general! This Long Fei is not bad, he can actually break through the five passes, Wang Situ, where did you find these two generals?"

  Wang Yun was speechless for a moment. Long Fei hastily said: "Report back to the Grand Tutor, I am a humble subject from Chen Cang!"

  "Oh?" Dong Zhuo was even more surprised: "No wonder, no wonder. As a place of outstanding people and spiritual land in the west, only there can cultivate such a character, good!"

  The last round was the most difficult. The entire Tiger Hill area was about ten miles in circumference. There were only two of us, myself and Zhao Yun, while Lü Bu had eight men, including himself and his seven generals, which was four times our number. Zhao Yun was a bit worried: "Big brother, it's not easy to find a rabbit in this vast area! Do you have any plan?"

  Long Fei shook his head: "No, at this time it's just a matter of luck, whether or not it succeeds is just a gamble!"

  Lü Bu's side was also at a loss. They were all good at killing people, but few had experience catching rabbits. Hou Cheng complained: "I don't know what the Taishi is thinking, coming up with such an idea. How can eight of us catch rabbits within a ten-mile radius? Are you kidding me?"

  "It wasn't Lord Cao's idea!" Zhang Liao said: "It was that Dragon Fly who came up with the idea for Lord Cao!"

  "Dragon flies? What's it for?"

  "King Wang's family will!"

  "What? A family of words will let us find rabbits here, and also..."

  Lü Bu's eyes widened: "Less nonsense, hurry up and find it, I still want to ride the wind!"

  After wandering around for half a day, there was no sign of the rabbit. The Tiger Hill had been trampled by several rounds of competition and was in a mess, with broken branches and footprints everywhere. Even if there were rabbits, it would be impossible to distinguish between new and old tracks from these chaotic marks. Two hours passed in the blink of an eye, the sky gradually darkened, and the wind picked up, making people feel cold and unbearable. But Dong Zhuo showed no intention of leaving, and others didn't dare move either, they could only accompany him.

  Zhao Yun followed Long Fei through the forest, and at a sheltered spot, Zhao Yun said: "Big brother, it's getting dark, I think there's no hope, let's head back?"

  Long Fei shook his head: "You don't understand, rabbits are nocturnal animals and like to eat at night. After being chased by us for a whole day, they must be hungry now. They will definitely come out to find food, let's just wait here!"

  Fortunately, the moon was very bright, and the ground was a vast expanse of white, still visible within ten or so meters. Zhao Yun lightly tugged at Long Fei's sleeve, pointing to a distant clump of grass. A few blades of wild grass swayed gently back and forth, and two pointed ears slowly emerged. The two exchanged a smile, slowly rising from their hiding place, inching closer and closer to the rabbit. The rabbit seemed to sense something, suddenly standing up straight, its eyes darting wildly about in all directions.

  Long Fei and Zhao Yun remained still, perhaps the rabbit could only see moving objects in the dark of night. After a while, seeing no movement, it buried its head back into the grass. Long Fei drew out his dagger, Zhao Yun strung his bow, Long Fei's dagger flashed out, Zhao Yun's arrow shot forth. The bowstring vibrated, the rabbit seemed to sense danger and suddenly darted forward, narrowly avoiding Zhao Yun's arrow but was pierced by Long Fei's dagger and pinned to the mud.

  "It's you again!" Zhao Yun said with some discontent.

  Long Fei smiled: "Because you don't know what's called advance notice, alright, mission accomplished, after we get back I'll explain it to you slowly!"

  Long Fei was just about to reach out when, whoosh, an arrow shot straight and true onto the already dead rabbit. Hou Cheng shouted loudly: "Wen Hou hit it, Wen Hou hit it!" Song Xian and Wei Xu immediately rushed forward to seize the prey. Long Fei put his hand holding the rabbit behind him and looked at the two people running over.

  Song Xian said: "This is indeed shot by Wen Hou, hurry up and hand it over!"

  "It's mine in my hand! How can you say it was shot by Wen Hou!" Long Fei showed no weakness.

  "Wei Xudao said: 'You ignorant fool, bring it quickly, otherwise don't blame us for being impolite! Where did this wild kid come from? This is also a place where you show off? Bring it quickly and spare your lives!'"

  "What if I don't give it to you?"

  Wei Xu snarled and drew his own battle knife, the blade pointing at Long Fei: "You little brat, don't make Grandpa unhappy, I'll say it one last time, hand it over!"

  Long Fei didn't move. Wei Xu swung his sword and chopped, while Lü Bu just stood quietly by, not showing any intention of stopping him. Long Fei took a step forward, using his shoulder to block Wei Xu's sword, then turned around and pressed down on Wei Xu's arm, followed by a slap on Wei Xu's face. Wei Xu's nosebleed started immediately. As soon as Song Xian saw that Long Fei had made Wei Xu bleed with one move, he also drew out his own sword to help.

  Zhao Yun suddenly appeared in front of him. Song Xian swung his head and chopped, Zhao Yun lowered his head to dodge, using the boxing skills taught by Long Fei, his right fist heavily smashed into Song Xian's abdomen. Smashing made Song Xian feel short of breath, opening his mouth wide and vomiting out all the food he had eaten today. Lü Bu did not expect that his two generals would not be able to withstand even one move from these two men, and began to take Long Fei and Zhao Yun seriously, casting a glance at Zhang Liao. Zhang Liao brandished his long spear: "Who are you people? A small household general, how can you have such martial arts?"

  Long Fei said: "We are just the Wang family's house generals, it's not that our martial arts are good, but theirs are too poor!"

  "Alright! Let me experience it!" Zhang Liao's long spear shook, and a white snake-like spearhead shot towards Long Fei. Zhao Yun used his toes to lift up Song Xian's long spear, also shaking it, and received Zhang Liao's spear. The two of them immediately clashed. Lü Bu and Long Fei didn't move, the two people staring at each other. When Hou Cheng saw this, he turned around and quietly slipped out of everyone's line of sight, turning his head to run away.