Fishing Livestream
Chapter 817: 800: The Significance of a Bloody Coronation

Chapter 817: Chapter 800: The Significance of a Bloody Coronation

Unknowingly, Yue Feng has been in the wilderness for over twenty days.

As time goes by, the climate is also undergoing significant changes. The temperature difference between day and night is becoming larger, and at night, it has consistently dropped below zero. Especially in the latter half of the night, many times the sound of the wind can be heard. However, inside the reinforced cabin, the fireplace’s fire burns all night long, making it quite warm.

The next morning, well-rested Yue Feng got up before dawn as usual to train Xiaobai, but this time his attention was more focused on the roughly made pottery that had been baking all night.

There were seven pieces of pottery, two had cracks, and the remaining five had gradually changed color.

Yue Feng carefully placed them into the fire. He filled the furnace with flammable pine wood, and as expected, by the time he returned from hunting, these simply fired coarse pottery pieces should be ready to use!

In the following three days, Yue Feng got up early each day to train the falcon and then took Xiaobai hunting in the morning, returning to the cabin around noon to rest and fire the pottery in the meantime.

During these days of hunting, Yue Feng continued to target snow hares. As the daily nourishment for Xiaobai’s stamina increased, its performance improved significantly, resulting in larger hauls.

On the fourth day of hunting, in a matter of a morning, they caught eight snow hares, seven of which were killed on the spot, while one was captured alive by holding it by the head. Every encountered prey was swiftly taken down by Xiaobai with a few flaps of its wings, with no lucky ones managing to escape.

Yue Feng knew that Xiaobai had passed the first stage of Box Hunting!

Having achieved great success, Xiaobai, with its cropped head and chest adorned with the blood of hares, stood fiercely on the arm, looking like a solid, thick brick from the side. Once it locked onto something, even the oldest of hares couldn’t escape death!

Returning to camp, Yue Feng placed Xiaobai on the rack and turned to fetch a shallow basin for water from the cabin.

Yue Feng released Xiaobai from a distance of five feet and brought it to the basin, saying, “Brothers, after these days of hunting, Xiaobai has successfully captured a total of 20 snow hares. By my standards, Box Hunting has achieved excellence!

Today, let’s conduct a bloody coronation bath ceremony. All goes well, we’ll start the follow-up training tomorrow! My ultimate target is the small swans that have started their seasonal migration recently!”

“What the hell, I knew it, why else would such a beautiful falcon be smeared in blood? This is a coronation for the falcon!”

“With the blood-soaked Xiaobai even more fierce and majestic, it’s quite a sight! Deeply impressive!”

“The weather is starting to get cold; shouldn’t we stock up some more food, Feng? The foreigners from other channels are struggling to even catch fish from the lake, except for the Indian girl who chose the fishing net and fish harvest!”

“Watching those guys live-stream is pointless. They’re either starving or spacing out all day! Feng, you’re brilliant! We’re using plates and bowls while they still eat with their hands, we’re on a different level of civilization!”

“Oh, only Claude on channel eight is doing well. The guy almost managed to hunt a horned deer last time! If he was just a bit luckier, that deer would have been his!”

Yue Feng laughed, “Aren’t you guys interested in my upcoming prey and training plans? We’ve only eaten a small portion of the bear meat in the cellar, our fish reserves are plentiful, and with Xiaobai, we can still catch fresh rabbits. We should be comfortable until the end of the competition!”

“I’ve been watching Feng’s live-streams for so long that nothing surprising anymore. If you tell me you’re going to catch elephants with Xiaobai, I’d believe it!”

“Catch elephants, my ass!”

“Feng, Feng, I have a question. Lately, Xiaobai’s food intake has increased significantly, its stamina also improving. Aren’t you afraid it’ll regain peak stamina and run away?”

“Dude upstairs, that’s a good question, I want to know too!”

“Come on, share with us! I’m curious! It’s a bit magical!”

Yue Feng played with the water in the basin, purposely getting Xiaobai’s talons wet. Xiaobai, upon seeing the basin, seemed tempted but hesitated a bit.

In the next few seconds, Yue Feng repeated his previous actions, quickly enticing Xiaobai into the basin, where it happily began to bathe.

Seeing Xiaobai bathe nonchalantly, Yue Feng breathed a sigh of relief and replied a bit later, “The guy upstairs asked a deep question. Before answering, let me ask you all, why do you think I guide Xiaobai to bathe? Hint, think from an animal’s perspective, not a human’s!”

“Isn’t bathing for cleanliness?”

“Cleanliness is part of it, but probably not the main reason. It’s hard to figure out; this is the first time in over ten days that I’ve seen someone deliberately dirty Xiaobai for a bath!”

“Is it a test for affinity? I have a small sun conure at home, and it only bonds with my wife. In front of me, it never bathes!”

To be honest, there’s wisdom among the masses. One of you hit the nail on the head!

Yue Feng nodded, “Brother Lin Yuanxianyu got the correct answer! Bathing, besides being for cleanliness, is also a way to test affinity!

How to understand this?

Raptors aren’t waterfowl; their feathers are only moderately waterproof. Getting their feathers wet in the wild is very dangerous, as it significantly weakens their flight abilities temporarily! So, most of the time, raptors only bathe briefly in the wild without soaking all their feathers thoroughly!

If a raptor dares to bathe freely in front of a hunter, it implies that it doesn’t subconsciously perceive you as a threat! In other words, it indirectly acknowledges its affinity with you! In the ancient eagle training I studied, this is a prerequisite for falcons to be trained for sky-catching.

If today Xiaobai didn’t dare to soak its feathers in front of me, it would imply that our previous efforts were insufficient. Blindly starting to train for wide-ranging flights and capturing bird prey would carry a high risk of losing the falcon!”

“Now that I’ve explained this, let me answer the previous question from the viewer, aren’t you afraid of it running away after it regains its condition?

The answer is yes, I’m afraid! But it has to be done! Regardless of how high the affinity between a raptor and its handler, there’s always a tension that must be maintained, otherwise, we’d be left staring tearfully at the sky!

To catch flying prey requires much higher stamina than Box Hunting. Without good stamina, the falcon will definitely fail to capture, and slow speed would easily make it lose confidence in the chase!

On the other hand, the continued partnership between a hunter and a falcon builds up trust over time. When trust is sufficient and weight reaches a high enough state, the chance of losing the falcon significantly decreases. Only falcons that have undergone the entire set of hunting training and consistently perform well are considered truly domesticated. Currently, we’re progressing as if we’ve just graduated high school!”