BXBX NOVEL Chapter 63 - 62 A Blaze Reduced to Ashes
Being able to know about the wolf presence in advance was arguably a good thing for Bi Fang, after all, being prepared and being completely unaware are two different concepts.
[So, whether we save them or not, we’re going to run into them, right?] [Thinking about it that way, I can accept it…]
[Having more people is also a deterrent to the wolf pack, isn’t it?]
[Let’s just go with Master Fang’s idea, even if Master Fang is unwilling, we absolutely won’t impose moral coercion!]
[Right, it’s too dangerous, Master Fang, just do what you think is best! We all support you!]
Alright, stop hanging your heads, if you don’t want to freeze to death, then keep piling up snow and quickly build the camp, Tianfang, you come with me to handle the corpse.”
Bi Fang picked up a stick and then patted Zheng Tianfang’s shoulder to signal him to follow.
This young man was the only one with relatively stable emotions; Bi Fang planned to go with him to deal with the man’s corpse first.
Even though his group was set to depart early the next morning, they couldn’t just let the man’s body be exposed in the wilderness.
“Wait, how do you plan to handle it?” Hu Hao suddenly stopped Bi Fang, wanting to know how the other intended to deal with the corpse when they didn’t have any shovels to bury it.
And if it was buried, that would be fine, they could return later to find it and take the ashes back, but if…
“Burn it.”
Bi Fang could tell from Hu Hao’s expression what his calculations were, essentially wanting to give the family of the deceased some closure. He ’ understood but didn’t agree, because this was the wilderness.
Forgive my bluntness, if you don’t want your companion to be dug up and eaten by wolves or something else, then just burn the body. It’s fortunate that I checked, and there’s still plenty of fuel left in your tank, enough for our purposes.”
After hearing what Bi Fang said, Hu Hao fell silent and, after hesitating for a moment, silently went to pile up snow.
Seeing that the rest had no objections, Bi Fang found a few relatively thick sticks, took the blankets and some spare clothes from the car, and went to the back where the fuel tank was.
He planned to make several torches for protection first; wolves are very cunning animals and even understand the concepts of cover and feint attacks. “Many people think that wild animals are afraid of fire; actually, that’s not the case. The type of fire animals fear is the kind that has a large spreading range and rapidly intensifying flames, not small fires like torches.”
“If the animals are determined to attack you, a torch is useless. Sometimes it can even provoke the animal to take retaliatory actions. For example, walking at night with a torch makes it easy to be attacked by a venomous snake lurking in the underbrush.”
“But this doesn’t mean torches are useless, because wild animals are accustomed to using the cover of darkness for their hunting activities. The light exposes them, and without sufficient security, they are less likely to undertake hunting activities they are not sure about. This is the real reason wild animals won’t easily attack humans with torches!”
Zheng Tianfang listened quietly by the side, knowing the explanation was for both the audience and himself.
“Are you a zoologist?”
“No, but in Wilderness Survivalist, dealing with fierce animals is inevitable.” Bi Fang found a hose in the trunk.
[Last time it was a Bear, this time it’s wolves, I feel like every live stream of Master Fang is so popular.]
[Is this Tang Sanzang’s flesh? (joking)]
[Last time he was alone, at least now there’s a team]
(Last time it was one bear, so Master Fang went solo, now it’s a pack of wolves, thus he got teammates?]
(Toxic Sorcerer gifted the host 66 meatballs-fair competition this round, eh!] [Give it a rest, fair competition, they’re all old, sick, and weak, not dragging the team down is already good, didn’t you see the one with the injured leg just now? He nearly cried when he heard about the wolves.]
Because of the wolf presence, the group chat was much more active, and the popularity of the live stream began a new surge, which surprised and delighted Wang Yongbo. He was excited about the high number of viewers, close to Shark Lu Wentao’s eight hundred thousand, yet he worried whether Bi Fang could really be in danger.
Originally just monitoring the backend data, he was now utterly captivated by this unprecedented live stream.
Bi Fang also felt that his luck was exploding, thinking that maybe next time he might try buying a lottery ticket.
As time passed, the blizzard slowly diminished a lot, and perhaps it wouldn’t be much longer before the storm stopped.
He trudged through the snow, found a stone of suitable size, and then fixed the sticks upright.
“If conditions allow, we should choose materials that burn slowly to make torches, and we can dip them a bit in oil. Luckily, this car’s fuel tank isn’t leaking, so we can make use of it.”
“Hold the drone for me.”
Bi Fang had Zheng Tianfang hold the drone while he placed the hunting knife against one end of a wooden stick and struck the back of the knife with a found stone, splitting one end of the stick into four sections about 30 centimeters long. This allowed the torch head to fully interact with the air.
“A stick around the size of mine is just right, about 1.5 meters long and 6 centimeters in diameter. Actually, the best material for torches is bamboo. You split it into four equal parts up to the first node; you can pack a lot of combustible material inside, but obviously we can’t get that here.”
Watching Bi Fang skillfully making a torch, Zheng Tianfang couldn’t help feeling more confident. Although he didn’t know if the knowledge was correct, the other party clearly knew a lot, and was decisive in action.
“Remember, don’t use wood that’s too dry, so it won’t burn too quickly. Add some oil-rich pine nuts or oil, and that will make the torch burn slower.”
“Be sure not to use materials that easily drip combustibles, like plastic. It’s very unsafe, and don’t use materials that produce a lot of dense smoke, as they will generate too much carbon monoxide.”
Bi Fang opened the car’s fuel cap, inserted a hose, took a sip, then pulled it out, using the siphoning principle to extract the gasoline. He drenched pieces of cloth and clothing with it and then wrapped the flammable items tightly around the head of a stick.
They were going to leave tomorrow and didn’t want to waste gasoline, so they made more torches and wouldn’t be delayed on the road because of it.
When they lit the finished torches, the surroundings immediately brightened. Bi Fang and Zheng Tianfang wrapped the body in blankets and poured gasoline on it.
After making sure there was nothing around that could catch fire and that the flames wouldn’t spread, Bi Fang lit the fire pit.
The cremation of an adult typically requires around 21 liters of fuel and takes about an hour. To make it faster, Bi Fang poured the rest of the gasoline they couldn’t carry onto it.
The flames spread like serpents, thick black smoke billowed into the air, and then the wind scattered it in all directions. Bi Fang and Zheng Tianfang took two steps back, standing silently, like statues.
The smell of burning a body was unbearably foul, but no one moved. That life had just vanished before their eyes, and now it was going to embrace the vast open sky.
As they watched the billowing black smoke rise, the audience felt a sense of sorrow.
[Life is so fleeting.]
[This is the most fucking awesome live stream I’ve ever seen. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would have thought it was a movie.]
[I feel like with some good editing, this could totally be released in theaters.] [Lord Mu has sent a yacht to the streamer — Master Fang’s broadcasts are getting more and more impressive. Every time I watch, it’s a new experience.] [Nanana sending a yacht to the streamer *1 — I’m about to cry.]
“You have a lot of fans,” Zheng Tianfang said, a touch of envy in his voice as he watched the barrage of comments on the drone’s monitor. If he hadn’t been mistaken, at least a few spaceships had flown by while they were making the torches.
He was a young man who liked watching live streams and knew exactly how much a spaceship was worth. Even at a basic 50/50 profit split, he’d have a few thousand in hand.
“All earned with my life on the line. Nothing to be envious about. Do you know what I encountered during my last live stream?”
“What?”
“Abear, a 200-kilogram black bear!”
As the two of them walked together, Bi Fang shared with Zheng Tianfang his glorious feat from half a month ago. But as soon as they approached the fire, a series of low growls began to sound off in the darkness beyond.
Bi Fang’s expression changed. He quickly shouted to the three people stacking snow to come closer.
The relaxed atmosphere from the subsiding blizzard abruptly vanished, and the situation tensed up in an instant.
Hu Hao and the others, who were piling up snow, panicked and stumbled over to Bi Fang. Wu Mingtao, who was injured, even took a fall, grimacing from the pam of his wound. Yet, he still crawled and rolled over to join them.
In the distance, through the dark, there was a thick, inescapable scent of blood in the air, turning everyone’s complexion ghostly white.
It was a wolf pack!
A huge pack of wolves, numbering in the tens if not hundreds!
Even though they were modern people who had been exposed to the internet, familiar with data and videos on wild beasts, even the audience had never seen so many wolves gathered together.
Those green eyes shimmered in unison under the cover of night, eerily glowing, causing a chill to run down everyone’s spine.