Still, there were no signs of the other hunter.
Wang Kui walked around but found no trace of human activity such as footprints, bonfires, or any sort of shelter. As for hiding in the tree husk, it would have fit the wolfdog, but it would be really tight squeeze for a human.
"Judging from how I managed to draw the wolfdog with a fawn's cry, it must be hungry. Minus the time needed to heal, it would only have left recently and will not come back so soon. We need to get ready before that!"
After a few exchanges with the audience, he decided to set up another trap!
This timing was the best for laying out preparations.
Still, after the failure last time around, how and where he should set the trap was now the main worry.
"Putting it near the tree husk is definitely impossible since it is too clear and wide, so anything buried there would easily be noticed. Animals might be unintelligent, but that does not mean that they are idiots—they tend to be very familiar with every spot in their dwellings, and they would naturally be alert if they spot something clearly added to their environment."
"Moreover, the wolfdog was trained professionally and is much warier, which makes any effort of that sort futile. That is why we need to find a place it would pass by but is quite well-concealed…"
After some mutterings, a perfect place suddenly came to Wang Kui's mind!
"This place would be good!"
He hurried back to the path between the bushes where he had spotted many sets of pawprints before. "There are many tracks here, which means that there is a huge chance that the wolfdog passes by this path every day. In technical terms, this is a game trail, and traps placed here have a high success rate. Of course, it would not matter if the wolfdog does not take this route when it returns, since we can attack it directly and drive it along this direction on purpose!"
"Animals would not think when they face sudden threats. They would rely on instincts and memories to take familiar paths out of cumulative experience from surviving so long as well as their muscle memory. That is why the trap would work when the time comes!"
The wolfdog's reaction from before had left Wang Kui with a strong impression.
A dog trained by a professional hunter must not be judged like your average animal.
After searching for a long while, Wang Kui pulled along a huge tree branch that was two meters long and three fingers thick. "We will not be using a snare this time since the wolfdog would not take the bait. A single snare has less chance of success while multiple snares would take too much rope as well as needing a longer level branch, plus it takes a longer time for the tree to bounce. So, we'll be changing our trap this time."
A whip trap!
It was basically the same as the snare, though the snare uses a vertical trigger, and the whip trap was horizontal.
Wang Kui split his 550 cords into shorter ropes with his flint blade, one of which he tied tightly to the narrower tip of the elastic branch onto a tree root beside the bushes. It was slightly lower than the wolfdog's shoulders at around half a meter and fastened with a dead knot.
At the spot where the whip branch was pressed down tightly, a branch was stabbed on both ends of the game trail, one being a short level stick tied tightly at the top, keeping the balance of the whip branch alongside the anchor branch and the corresponding ropes.
A tripwire extending out from another long stake was looped around the level branch and the anchor branch, thereby forming the trigger of the trap. When wolfdog triggered the tripwire, the loop would detach, and the tree branch would slam heavily on the target thanks to its elasticity.
"Even if the wolfdog won't be broken by such a force, it would at least slam the dog to the ground!"
Wang Kui's audience was definitely impressed by his exquisite crafting of the trap mechanism.
It also proved that Wang Kui was indeed a professional hunter with the knowledge to back it up!
To capture the full sight of the wolfdog hunt, he had also placed his camera on top of the large tree, adjusting its angle so that the super-wide lens would capture both the trap, Wang Kui, and the wolfdog's den.
"The last time we trapped the wolfdog, it resisted the smell of bait while detecting me, which was something I neglected. Dogs' sense of smell is 1200 times stronger than humans, and a hunting dog's sense of smell would most likely be at peak performance. That is why we need to cover ourselves with a lot of resin."
"Another thing to note is the direction of the wind. We can use leaves to judge the direction of air currents and breezes so our scent would be blown further when we are upwind, whereas hiding downwind would conceal us a lot better!"
To ensure that this hunt went flawlessly, Wang Kui took note of more details this time.
He now understood that the one-star difficulty for this hunt was not in offensive ability. No matter how strong a dog was, it would at best be in the same category as a wolf.
The difficulty lay in the fact that this wolfdog was professionally trained by a hunter and was much smarter than a lone wolf!
After finding a downwind spot and climbing into a bush, Wang Kui dropped to a crouch, flint spear in hand, as he turned on the voice function of his smartwatch. With that done, he waited for the wolfdog's return as he spoke to his audience.
At the same time, the sun was slowly dipping toward the west, and the skies were turning silver-gray with only some afterglow in the distance.
It all seemed ever so quiet.
Aside from the rustling of leaves gusted by breezes, only his breathing could be heard.
[Old Kui, what if the wolfdog doesn't come back?]
[It's already been more than an hour and there's no movement. Could it have spotted you?]
[Wolfdog: Still stalking me? I'm running~]
[If our streamer had a hunting rifle, the wolfdog would have been dead long ago!]
***
Looking through the comments, Wang Kui mused to himself for a while before shaking his head. "I'm too prepared for it to notice me from such a distance. If it really was that good, it should stop being a dog and be sent to S.H.I.E.L.D. Let's not interfere with the kid saving the world!"
"Furthermore, both the wolfdog and I are outsiders this deep in the mountains. The territories of many animals would intersect and overlap, so it could hardly capture a new territory in mere hours. We'll wait a little longer, and if it fails, we'll make sounds to attract it again. After all, the best timing to call out to carnivores is one hour before sunrise or sunset."
"According to the experience of veteran hunters and substantial compiled data, most carnivores were lured into traps during these two periods. The reason for this is that the sunlight at those hours is just bright enough to see, but also dark enough for the predators to conceal themselves, offering a sense of security. With this mindset, they would be more willing to go on reckless hunts and exploration!"
However…
[The wolfdog has already been fooled once before. Would it be baited by another fawn in such a short time?]
Wang Kui glanced at that comment. "That's reasonable."
Smiling cunningly, he added, "That is why I plan to make a change and use a wolf's howl to draw it in!"
A wolf's howl?!
[Old Kui, would it dare to come back after you've mimicked a wolf's howl?]
[Don't wolves overwhelm dogs in terms of bloodline?]
[Bloodline?! Did you think that this is a Xuanhuan novel?]