Chapter 1550: Rest in Peace

Zhang Zian was pressed down like a snail by the heavy hiking bag that had been lightened several times along the way. He couldn’t run fast and slowly, and watched the elves swarming ahead. Chad kept yelling "Take a ride" over his head...

Seeing that the elves seemed to have discovered something in front of him, he didn't have the time to deal with the bastard for the time being. He stepped on the fallen leaves with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and walked for about ten minutes within the visible distance.

"What's wrong?"

He didn't come close, but leaned against the nearest tree, put his backpack against the tree, and let his legs rest by using the friction force. Just take off the backpack, once you take it off, you don't want to leave again.

The elves parted left and right silently, allowing his sight to touch a small animal lying on its side among the thorns in front of him.

It was a dead cat.

After seeing clearly, he immediately reminded: "Don't get too close, be careful of infectious diseases."

"It wasn't an infectious disease, it was bitten to death." Fina said expressionlessly.

Zhang Zian sighed helplessly. It seemed that he could only put down his backpack and walk over to observe carefully. He couldn't even squat down with his backpack on, and would fall backwards.

With a movement of his shoulders, the backpack slid down the trunk and leaned against the tree. The spotted owl flew noiselessly to rest on a nearby branch, while Richard flapped his wings and stood on his shoulders instead.

The elves also considered the issue of infectious diseases, so they didn't get too close to the dead cat. After all, he said that the prion protein could be infected even if they stepped on the urine of an infected animal, although they didn't smell the urine The smell was nothing but blood.

He moved his sore shoulders a few times, bent down to pick up a branch, walked up to the dead cat, and used the branch to push aside the grass leaves that half covered the corpse.

The blades of grass were stained with dried blood, but not much, only a few drops.

This is an adult male cat with a large body, long hair, white hair on the chest and abdomen, and other parts are flaxen with brown and black markings. It should be a mixed cat with Maine Coon blood.

Even people who don't understand cats, seeing the long tail of this dead cat, should know that this is not a wild bobtail cat in the forest.

There is a wound on its shoulder, which is its fatal wound, and it will hurt the carotid artery a little further up, if that is the case, it is impossible for it to drag its injured body all the way here before dying.

The blood from the wound soaked its long hair into a ball,

The exact shape of the wound cannot be seen clearly.

Zhang Zian smoothed the hair around the wound with a branch, revealing a pair of wounds that were obviously bitten by the fangs of some kind of beast. The inside of the wound was tapered and deep.

He tilted the corpse at an angle with a branch, and looked at the other side of the corpse with a flashlight. There was no wound on that side.

Obviously, it escaped all the way after being injured, ran here and couldn't run anymore, and finally lost blood to death.

The redwood forest had a cool climate. The cat had been dead for an unknown amount of time, but it hadn't emitted any obvious rancid smell. At least Zhang Zian didn't smell it. The elves should have smelled it.

When the elves came, there were some small scavengers or arthropods watching nearby, but the elves ran away as soon as they approached.

"Can you see what animal bit you?" Old Cha asked.

Zhang Zian shook his head.

If Mike, a veteran who has lived in the forest for a long time, might be able to tell, but Zhang Zian is not an experienced hunter, and it is impossible to tell what kind of beast was bitten by just a single wound.

Since the cat escaped here after being injured, this is not the scene of the crime, and no footprints of the perpetrator can be seen.

"Needless to say, it must be coyotes! Most likely it's the group from last night!" Vladimir said angrily, "Black bears use their claws. What other animal can there be besides coyotes?"

"Coyotes are very likely, but the problem is that the cat managed to escape after being bitten."

He felt a little puzzled about this question, if he was caught by the claws and could struggle to escape, it would be fine, but after being bitten by the hook-like fangs of a carnivorous beast, he could still break free and escape? If anything, it might indeed be the coyote with a weaker bite.

What's even more strange, after the beast bit the cat, it didn't chase after it? Isn't this letting the prey run away?

The elves didn't think too much, and Vladimir regretted letting go of the coyotes last night. Maybe it was the coyotes who ran away and met the cat.

Zhang Zian was a little worried that Fina's emotions were too agitated, but he turned his head to look at it, and it was calmer than Vladimir, just staring at the cat's corpse thoughtfully.

"Fina, what do you think?" He asked proactively.

Fina glanced at him, and said lightly: "Anyway, this cat was killed in battle, and it didn't embarrass the cat clan, that's enough."

Speaking of death in battle, Zhang Zian was suddenly inspired, and hurriedly pulled the cat's two front paws with a branch, and sure enough, he saw a few strands of hair that didn't seem to belong to the cat in front of the paws.

Seeing that, as Fina said, this cat was killed in battle. Even though the opponent was far stronger than herself, at least she tried to resist, but only scratched off a handful of the opponent's fur.

These few strands of hair were dark in color, but unfortunately Zhang Zian could only tell that it wasn't the hair of a black bear, and it probably wasn't the hair of a puma either. He couldn't tell what kind of beast it was.

"Zian, I can't bear it to be exposed to the wilderness like this, can you please let it rest in the ground?" Old Cha pleaded.

In the traditional Chinese concept, it is true that it is safe to burrow into the ground. Leaving corpses in the wild will only make the corpse a delicious meal for various scavengers. After death, there is not even a complete body left. This will affect the reincarnation in the next life, so Even eunuchs will keep their lifeblood for life.

"Okay." Zhang Zian nodded in agreement.

Although this is a waste of energy and unnecessary work for him, since it is Lao Cha's request, he is unwilling to refuse, and considering it from the standpoint of a cat, he really can't bear to leave the corpses of the same kind alone. Common sense.

He took out a folded engineer shovel from his hiking bag. Usually, he used this shovel to chop off overlong dead branches into several pieces, or cut some dry cores from dead trees to start a fire.

With a shovel, he quickly dug a small hole under the tree, just enough to hold the cat's carcass, and deliberately dug it deep so that they would not be dug out by scavengers after they left.

After the hole was dug, he took a breath, pushed the dead cat into the small hole with a branch, shoveled the soil to bury it, and then compacted it, and finally covered it with dead branches and grass leaves, so nothing could be seen from the surface.

After burying it, he packed up the engineering shovel and called the elves to continue on the road.