Li Yuan glanced at "Advanced Beast Taming (1/40)" and the remaining "65 points," and continued to madly click the "+" sign.
In the blink of an eye, another 40 points were spent, leaving him with "25 points" remaining. The skill transformed from "Advanced Beast Taming (1/40)" to "Expert Level Beast Taming (1/80)."
New memories continued to surface in his mind.
These memories made him feel as if he had personally experienced them. Yet now, the rain had passed and the dust had settled, tears and sweat had finally yielded a harvest.
Long-term practice made him realize that practice alone was not enough. He needed real combat and more challenges.
So, he turned his gaze from ordinary animals to fierce wild beasts.
He began to venture into taming those wild carnivores filled with untamed nature.
He knew that taming them from a young age would make those carnivores more likely to obey his commands. But that was not the beast taming method he had in mind. His target was the beasts that had already roamed the jungle for a long time.
After repeatedly getting his head bloodied and teetering on the brink of death, he still failed.
The wild carnivores were extremely difficult to tame.
He was in extreme pain, locked himself away to ponder deeply, and finally had an enlightenment, leading to a change.
A peculiar affinity for wild beasts emerged from him. Even mad dogs couldn't bear to bite him, even tigers and leopards in the jungle subconsciously didn't see him as prey, even the dragon pigs near the water wouldn't drag him down...
Li Yuan sensed his own state.
Although he had gained many training memories, he still needed to try.
Thus, he left the base and set out in search of the runaway tiger.
With his "Grandmaster Level Tracking Skill," Li Yuan soon found the ferocious tiger hiding behind a boulder, eating roasted deer.
With the Earth Bow on his back, and holding the Firewood Blade in his right hand, he maintained a certain distance and slowly walked out from behind the boulder.
The tiger glanced at him, did not issue a threat, nor intended to drive him away.
Li Yuan knew that this was actually a form of acknowledgment.
The territorial sense of wild beasts is very strong. His approach was already considered an invasion in terms of the tiger, but the tiger did not drive him away, which meant it acknowledged him.
Li Yuan attempted to call out again, "Ao...Wu... (Is it tasty?)"
The tiger patted its face with a paw and lowly replied, "Roar. (Don't come over.)"
Li Yuan shouted, "Roar! (I'm not coming over.)"
The tiger lowered its head and continued eating.
Li Yuan shouted, "Roar! (I have more.)"
The tiger suddenly raised its head, staring at him intently.
Li Yuan said, "Roar! Roar! (I'm not coming over, won't give you food.)"
The tiger angrily roared, "Roar! (I want to eat.)"
Seeing Li Yuan unmoved, the tiger continued to roar, "Roar! (I'll bite you.)"
"Roar Roar! (Bite you to death.)"
The tiger's paw slightly pressed the ground, its back slightly arched, an expression of trying to exploit his weakness, eager to pounce if he showed weakness.
Li Yuan gave a cold snort, completely fearless, as his left hand lightning-fast grabbed the Earth Bow from his back, pulling the bowstring with a "kaka" sound. At the same time, his aura transformed, his eyes indifferent, exuding a fierce air while staring down the tiger.
The tiger's roar gradually diminished, and then fell silent, the pouncing sensation disappearing...
Li Yuan relentlessly said, "Roar! Roar! (Listen to me, I'll give it to you.)"
The tiger roared: "Roar! (I won't listen.)"
Li Yuan said even more fiercely in a louder voice, "Roar! (Don't listen, no food.)"
The tiger was quiet for a while: "Wu... (Can't beat you.)
Wu... (I'll listen to you.)
Roar! (Give me food.)"
Man and tiger were communicating.
It might have been due to the peculiar affinity Li Yuan had, coupled with his fierce strength, and the time spent with the tiger, creating an unexpected result.
...
By evening, the setting sun like blood dyed the Xiao Mo Mountain in late winter.
The youth and the tiger, walking together.
The cold wind swept through the long grass, lifting the whiskers and white fur on the sides of the ferocious tiger.
As Li Yuan's gaze swept around, he caught sight of a "3~6."
He immediately stopped.
The tiger, without needing his signal, also caught the scent of prey.
But this prey, it might not necessarily catch.
In the distance, there came a "dudu dudu" sound, it was a wild boar with tusks.
Those two tusks were like unsheathed blades, giving off a strong sense of danger.
The overall strength of a normal wild boar was merely "3~4", but this one was "3~6," showing its ferocity.
Yet the wild boar hadn't yet realized the approach of two "hunters", still gnawing on some unknown fruits in the mountains.
Li Yuan immediately nocked an arrow on his bow, his gaze locked onto the wild boar.
But the wild boar had bristle-like hair, akin to a general's armor, and the Earth Bow had limited power, a direct shot might not take it down in one go.
Li Yuan softly walked a few steps.
The tiger watched Li Yuan walk, occasionally glancing at the wild boar, but the boar wasn't disturbed at all.
Li Yuan did not approach the front of the wild boar.
When a boar sees a person, it will charge in a straight line, headlong.
Although he wasn't afraid, it wasn't necessary.
He circled to the back of the wild boar, gently drawing the bowstring fully.
At this moment, the wild boar reacted, abruptly stopping its rooting motion.
However, it was already too late.
BANG!!
A loud explosion, the arrow whistled, tearing through the air, and directly pierced the target's location ———— the rear end.
The wild boar let out a mad howl, turned, and ran.
But Li Yuan's arrow went straight in, leaving only a small part of the arrowtail outside.
The wild boar ran a few steps, staggering, leaving a large pool of blood below.
Li Yuan grabbed the Firewood Blade and ran up like an arrow. When he got close, he stamped hard on the ground, leaped high, and with a swing of his hand, aimed to slash at the boar's neck.
With one slash, the force directly severed the neck as if tearing cloth.
The boar's head rolled off, and the headless body fell to the side.
SWISH!!
At the same time, boar blood spurted out, splattering all over Li Yuan.
Li Yuan laughed heartily, feeling a bit of kinship with all this boar blood on him. He skillfully kicked over the wild boar, carefully opened it up, hung up the intestines, and dug out the boar's heart, tossing it directly to the tiger.
The tiger bit into it and lay down to eat.
As it ate, the tiger looked up at the intestines hanging from the tree and made a sound: "Roar? (Hanging?)"
Li Yuan said, "Roar! (There's poop inside)"
Tiger: "Roar? (What is poop?)"
Li Yuan swung a knife, slicing through half of the intestines, immediately spilling out yellow-ish, blackish, soft, hard, foul-smelling stuff.
"Roar! (That's it)"
"Roar? (Can't eat?)"
Li Yuan had a hard time explaining.
"Roar! (Don't eat)"
"Roar? (Why?)"
"Roar! (Hard to explain)"
"Roar! (Then think fast)"
"Roar! (Just don't eat it)"
The tiger lowered its head and continued eating the boar heart.
While Li Yuan cut off a few pieces of meat.
Today, he was showcasing his strength to his beast, familiarizing their relationship distance.
Now that the hunt was over, and having acted together, communication was relatively harmonious. He grabbed the meat and headed back.
It was time to wash up.
The tiger glanced at the wild boar's corpse, growling softly: "Roar? (Meat?)"
Li Yuan replied, "Roar! Roar! (Not fond of it, it's yours)"
The tiger was instantly delighted; such a large wild boar would take a lot of effort to hunt itself, and it might even get hurt. It immediately lay down next to the wild boar and began enjoying the delicious innards.
As the tiger ate, it kept glancing at Li Yuan.
Li Yuan suddenly called out, "Xiaohuang!"
Tiger: "Roar? (What?)"
Li Yuan: "Roar Roar! (That's calling you)"
The tiger pondered and continued eating meat.
Li Yuan called again, "Xiaohuang!"
Tiger: "Roar! (What is it?)"
Li Yuan nodded with satisfaction.
...
To show off his skills in front of his little buddy, Li Yuan had dyed a deer leather cloak red, but surprisingly, the clothes underneath weren't stained much with blood.
When the sky turned completely dark, Li Yuan finished washing himself and his clothes in the mountain spring, then shivered while running to the campfire to warm up and roast meat.
He was waiting.
After the moon had risen a bit, he needed to head back home.
Unlike usual, today Li Yuan appeared calm, but inside, he was filled with excitement.
He had tamed a man-eating tiger!
This felt just like a dream.
All he remembered was taking the hunting dog up the mountain to hunt, but from now on, he could take the tiger hunting.
Life was tough yet thrilling.
Tomorrow, he'd try if Xiaohuang would let him ride.
If it agreed, he'd ride Xiaohuang out to explore.
That way, the exploration range could be expanded.
...
In the evening, Li Yuan quietly returned home, enjoyed a moment with Lady Yan, then relaxedly lay on the bed, saying: "Sister Yan, did you know? Today I tamed a tiger, a man-eating tiger!"
Yan Yu tapped him gently, smiling, "Stop bragging, who can tame a man-eating tiger?"
Li Yuan, having experienced the martial arts last time, just smiled and didn't say more. He only reminded, "Don't tell anyone about this."
"I know, I know," Yan Yu said, "Your wife is smart."
The two snuggled, lost in thought for a while. Li Yuan looked at the furniture outlines in the dark room, asking: "Any new news outside?"
Yan Yu said, "How could it be so fast, the county soldiers only left the city a day ago."