Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

"Quick, look, tire tracks!"

Bi Fang saw the indentations on the ground and couldn't help feeling the joy of finding a clue.

After a careful examination of the nearby environment, he finally found some car tracks by the bushes a few hundred meters away from the elephant carcass, which hadn't been completely destroyed by the rain.

The tracks were very faint, almost disappearing, but they were definitely tire tracks.

"It must be those poachers who killed the elephant," he surmised.

Under Bi Fang's direction, a drone quickly focused and magnified the image.

With the help of multiple location points, the viewers in front of the screen quickly spotted the tire tracks Bi Fang was talking about, and the commentary exploded with discussion.

[Did we find a clue?]

[Whoa, there actually are tire tracks]

[How can we be sure those were left by poachers? What if it's just a tourist vehicle passing by?]

[Agreed, it could even be the rangers of the conservation area]

Many viewers expressed skepticism about the sudden appearance of the tire tracks.

After all, not only poachers and rangers were present on the savannah, but there were also many tourist vehicles, and the tire impressions did not seem significantly different from those of regular vehicles.

[Let Jerry come out and sniff it, see if he can follow the scent (dog's head)]

[Good grief, using a mine detector as a hunting dog?]

[Doesn't seem useful, everyone has their specialty, plus making a rat chase would be exhausting]

[Good grief, are you here to make it more difficult?]

[If these guys are so professional, why would they still leave tire tracks?]

Bi Fang shook his head, dismissing some viewers' opinions in the commentary.

"Tourist vehicle routes are basically fixed because tourists are here to see the animals; naturally, they choose the optimal routes provided by the conservation center. Though it's not impossible for someone to tip the driver to take a less-traveled path, it wouldn't extend to the edge of the conservation area."

The delineation of the conservation area naturally focuses on the animals' range of activity; the border areas aren't good spots, and poachers really are numerous on the fringes, with no guarantee of safety.

To avoid exposure, using a few more bullets wouldn't be surprising.

On May 30th, Kenyan security personnel encountered five poachers at the national park boundary, two of them armed. A firefight broke out, resulting in three deaths and two escapes—a piece of news that wasn't easily forgotten.

As for this group showing high training and caution, why would they still leave tire tracks?

"The reason is simple, because it's impossible to hide tire tracks in the wild."

"Compared to fleeing directly, erasing tire tracks is a huge waste of time. With that effort, one could easily drive out of the conservation area and turn the game into money."

"Therefore, more common and less costly counter-tracking measures involve misdirection, that is, creating a wrong direction."

"For example, driving some distance forward then reversing back to the starting point, continuing in the opposite direction, or using patterns like N-shapes or X-shapes, and employing them multiple times—there are many methods."

[Learning this won't be a problem, right? (dog's head saving life)]

[Master Fang, you've been caught, come with us]

"No, that doesn't sound right. If they are indeed misled and return promptly, wouldn't the cost in time and effort be somewhat similar to that of making a misdirection error? Moreover, if they choose the right direction, won't the latecomers benefit?"

Someone in the bullet chat raised objections, believing this method to be unreasonable.

It wasn't so much a question; after all, Bi Fang's reputation was well known, and everyone understood it was best not to teach experts. However, there was still some confusion.

"This tests the level of the practitioner."

Bi Fang chuckled.

"There is no strongest spear, nor is there a so-called strongest shield. In a certain situation, at a certain moment, there may well be a clear distinction."

"For example, a highly skilled spy who has eluded capture by many for a long time might get careless during a mission and be discovered by a rookie counter-spy agent. Would you say that just because of one encounter, this rookie is better than the spy?"

"There are no foolproof anti-tracking techniques, nor are there any perfectly secretive tracking methods."

"For the practitioner, the learned knowledge is the same; an Acacia Tree is always called an Acacia Tree whose bark can be antibacterial and anti-inflammatory. The key is to see how flexibly it is used under specific circumstances and conditions."

"If you apply it better in this situation, then you can win in this encounter."

Bi Fang followed the tire tracks through the bushes, and Harley, who had previously been driven away by the smell of a dead elephant, automatically followed.

"The wilderness terrain is usually inconsistent; one section might be a muddy road left from rain yesterday, leaving clear traces, followed immediately by a hard gravel road where the car barely leaves a mark, and then by a bushy area, driving through which would leave a trail of broken twigs."

"This can easily lead to intermittent traces, making it hard for trackers to determine whether the disappearance of traces over a section is due to backtracking or environmental factors. It's an enormous tracking cost because, aside from satellite imagery, you have no way to differentiate."

"Take the common 'N' shape, for example; a clever evader would make you utterly unable to find the start of the middle slant, while trackers often run out of the turning point, heading in the wrong direction."

"Heighten one zhang and the devil heightens one chi!"

"See who can outsmart whom."

"It's a psychological game, right?"

"The difficulty of tracking, combined with misdirection, layered on top, is already enough."

Professional rangers are very scarce.

This is not a desirable job, given the harsh environment, meager pay, the constant risk of death, and almost complete isolation from the outside world.

Therefore, against poachers, there are scarce manpower and resources; large-scale troop deployments for carpet searching are not feasible.

It is merely a one-on-one, or at best, a two-on-one inefficient mode of operation without any division of forces.

In a real tracking battle, being slightly misled two or three times allows the other party to escape.

The tire tracks spread into the distance, under the slightly tense anticipation of the audience, Bi Fang with Harley moved forward toward the unknown enemy.

The elephant had been dead for two to three days, more likely three, but this did not mean that the trapping had been successful that long ago.

It might have been shorter in time, judging from the extent the tire tracks had faded, perhaps two days.

If the other party had captured their target and then carelessly left, Bi Fang would have no chance to catch up. However, the hunter's instinct told him—the other party was still on the savannah, and not too far away.

Perhaps there was fate in the unseen.

After relentless tracking, the next day at noon, after lunch, Bi Fang made an astonishing discovery in a sparse woodland.

It was a lion, its body half-pierced by arrows, barely clinging to life.