Wang Meng looked up again to see Ding Shi grabbing a branch and pulling himself upward, while the saber-toothed tiger scrambled up the trunk in hot pursuit—man and beast locked in a furious chase.
Ding Shi shouted, "Run! I'll do whatever I can to hold it off, consider it paying you back for all those years!"
As Wang Meng hesitated, man and tiger vanished from sight among the leaves. Ding Shi's voice echoed down: "Get lost already! It's just a fucking game, don't talk to me about loyalty now!"
*Loyalty? A traitor like you wants to preach loyalty to me?* Wang Meng cursed under his breath, wasted no more time, and bolted away.
Up in the tree, Ding Shi stood on a bough as thick as a man's forearm, his raised hands gripping a branch the thickness of a woman's. The saber-toothed tiger was five meters away, half its body already hoisted onto the thicker bough.
Ding Shi glanced down. The ground was nowhere in sight; he estimated he was twenty meters in the air.
"Well, Brother Tiger," Ding Shi murmured, "are you going to pounce, or not?"
The moment the tiger lunged, Ding Shi would haul himself up. Once the beast missed, one of two things would happen: first, it would plummet twenty meters to the ground; second, it would latch onto the bough, but a branch of that thickness could never support a three-hundred-kilogram saber-toothed tiger, meaning it would still plunge twenty meters.
Ding Shi yelled downward, "Wang Meng, get out of—*aaargh!*" The scream cut off abruptly.
Judging by the sound, the tiger had seized Ding Shi by the throat and was carrying off his corpse down the tree. As for whether that would fool Wang Meng, Ding Shi wasn't overly concerned. Wang Meng was ruthless enough to shoot him in the back; how could he possibly pass up a chance to slip away?
So why put on the performance? Because there was one reason Wang Meng might linger: to confirm Ding Shi was actually dead.
This was Ding Shi, after all. Batch after batch of Wang Meng's subordinates had perished, yet Ding Shi alone had survived alongside him through six bloody years. How could Wang Meng easily believe Ding Shi would fall to a tiger?
In Ding Shi's calculations, Wang Meng was thoroughly pragmatic. He would quickly realize one thing: he was no match for a saber-toothed tiger. Thus, Wang Meng might hesitate at first, but once logic prevailed over impulse, he would choose the option that served him best—escape.
Man and tiger remained locked in a standoff. The beast tested the bough toward Ding Shi, but the moment its weight pressed down, the wood bowed under it. Still, the tiger didn't back off. Instead, it sank into a predatory crouch, preparing to pounce.
Ding Shi grew tense. "Use your head, will you? You really want to do this? It won't end well for either of us." He couldn't use a Metal Thunder Talisman; that required forming a hand seal, and the tiger's strike would take only a split second. Besides, he didn't even have time to reach for the talisman. Any sudden move would trigger the beast's attack.
The standoff dragged on. The tiger remained poised to leap, while Ding Shi's focus began to fray, causing him to miss its subtler twitches.
With a roar, the saber-toothed tiger sprang at Ding Shi. He pulled with all his might to heave himself up, but he had overlooked one detail: the woman's-arm-thick branch had spring to it. Because it flexed, he didn't clear the strike immediately, and the tiger's left claw raked across his left calf.
Missing its kill, the beast caught the lower bough with its paws and hung upside down, its eyes blank with shock. The next second, the branch snapped, sending wood and tiger plunging downward together.
Ignoring his injury, Ding Shi scrambled down the tree, only to find the saber-toothed tiger lying on its side, motionless, unsure if it was truly dead.
Ding Shi drew a willow-leaf throwing knife and drove it into the tiger's neck. The beast was clearly no match for the Bloodthirsty Eagle Zeus had reared; the blade sliced cleanly through its fur and hide. Ding Shi sawed side to side, sending tiger blood gushing forth until it was thoroughly dead.
Limping, Ding Shi made his way toward the walking tree grove. With every step, blood surged from his calf, pooling inside the system rubber shoe on his left foot.
Reaching the terrace, Ding Shi dropped to his knees and prostrated himself in full reverence.
A playing card glowing with golden light drifted slowly down from midair, hovering before Ding Shi. He reached out and took it. Unsurprisingly, all he could see on it was "??".
The puzzle was simple enough: a circle atop the character 八, meaning eight, represented a person—the circle for the head, the strokes for the legs. That was the most direct, basic way preschoolers drew stick figures. A male figure would have short hair added, and a female figure would have two braids. A circle over 儿 represented a person kneeling. A half-circle for a head over 儿 indicated prostrating in worship.
Ding Shi had no idea what he was prostrating to, but having performed the bow, he had obtained a playing card. The card came with a statement of truth. Unfortunately, he couldn't read a word of it, meaning he would have to wait until he left the instance to check it in his notepad.
Heading back to the saber-toothed tiger, Ding Shi was certain no other wild beasts were nearby, or they would have scavenged the carcass by now—which was also why he had moved quickly before.
Ding Shi inspected his wound. It was rather severe, though neither bone nor tendon had been severed. He cut off a patch of tiger pelt to wrap the wound, fastening the fur bandage with wooden thorns. He didn't know whether it would get infected, but he had to walk back to camp and couldn't afford to let blood keep pumping out with every step.
Ding Shi slit the tiger's belly and scooped out all the internal organs, tossing them aside. Without the head, blood, and guts, the carcass weighed under two hundred kilograms. Ding Shi bound the tiger's torso with vines and began dragging it toward camp.
*You hurt me, I eat you. Perfectly fair.*
...
Yu Yuan looked at the western sky. Only an hour remained before sunset. He ordered, "Su Su, Xiao Long, head west and search for them."
Before either could answer, Wang Meng emerged from the woods and walked toward the cave.
Yu Yuan waited until Wang Meng drew near and asked, "Where's Ding Shi?" He didn't ask where they had gone, asking after Ding Shi's whereabouts first.
"Ran into a saber-toothed tiger," Wang Meng replied.
"And then?" Yu Yuan asked.
"The tiger took a liking to him," Wang Meng answered.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Chief, let me ask you something. What do these symbols mean?"
Using a stick, Wang Meng drew three figures in the dirt.
Yu Yuan studied them for a moment and shook his head.
Xiao Feng came over to look, reached down, and drew the oval representing the head a bit rounder. "Like this?"
Wang Meng nodded repeatedly.
Xiao Feng said, "A human prostrating."
Wang Meng looked puzzled.
Xiao Feng explained, "A head over the character 八 is a person. A head over 儿 is kneeling. Half a head over 儿 is prostrating."
Wang Meng clenched his fist. Dammit, it was that simple? Thinking about it, it made sense: primitive people carving on stone, how complex could it be? But couldn't they have just written it out? Oh, right—primitive societies didn't have written language yet.
Seeing Wang Meng walk away, Su Su stepped up to Yu Yuan and said, "I'm going to take a look."
Yu Yuan shook his head. "No." If Su Su found Ding Shi, she would also find the saber-toothed tiger. Given the players' current class levels, none of them were a match for a beast like that. Even the burliest among them, Wang Meng, couldn't last two rounds against it.
Su Su said, "No, I'm telling you I'm going to look, not asking for your permission."
Choked for words, Yu Yuan stammered, "You..."
Shouldering her fowling piece, Su Su ran off, waving back at him. "Don't wait up for me!"
Yu Yuan knapped stones while keeping an eye on the forest and watching the sinking sun. Once darkness fell, everyone had to retreat inside the cave and seal the entrance with tree branches.
Minutes ticked by. Not only Yu Yuan, but even Herbalist Girl, who usually kept out of the commotion, set aside her work and kept glancing toward the western woods.
At last, amid the sun's fading afterglow, Su Su and Ding Shi appeared, dragging the carcass of a saber-toothed tiger.
Su Su yelled excitedly, "Someone come help! We've got meat!"
Xiao Long, Xiao Feng, and the others hurried over at once.
Yu Yuan smiled and said to Herbalist Girl beside him, "Your divination was right. His affinity suits this instance."
Standing at the cave entrance, Wang Meng murmured with regret, "I should have bet on him living."
Chapter 79