The original five hundred catties of Wild Boar meat, after three days of smoking, had lost all its moisture.
As a result, the weight of the Wild Boar meat was reduced to just over three hundred catties.
Even so, it filled three entire clay jars, and there was still more than a hundred catties of smoked meat with nowhere to store it, so it could only be hung temporarily in the kitchen.
After smoking the Wild Boar meat, Qin Tian and Ye Lin didn’t dismantle the smoking rack.
The main reason was to use it as a cover for the Trap; after all, if there was just a single bamboo stick standing in the middle of the grassy field, it would look far too conspicuous.
***
The Golden Eagle only moved around during the day, so tonight Qin Tian didn’t need to stay up.
However, since they would need to get up early tomorrow, the two of them went to bed early.
On the Deserted Island, there were no alarm clocks, but after being here for so long, both Qin Tian and Ye Lin had developed a Biological Clock.
As long as they decided on a wake-up time, the two would naturally wake up at that hour the next day.
Just like today.
At five o’clock in the morning, the Cave was silent, with not a single unusual sound, yet the two woke up at the exact same time.
“Getting up this early, don’t fall asleep in broad daylight.” Qin Tian stretched lazily.
“I won’t.” Ye Lin yawned.
At this time, there was still about an hour before sunrise. After washing up, the two got busy with their own tasks.
Ye Lin was responsible for making breakfast, while Qin Tian went to check and adjust the Trap.
Once everything was ready, they ate as they waited for the Golden Eagle to appear.
An hour was not long, and as they waited, the dim sky gradually brightened. At a certain moment, both Qin Tian and Ye Lin noticed a black dot at the edge of the sky.
Just as Qin Tian had predicted, the Golden Eagle had already treated the grassy field as its hunting ground.
If nothing unexpected happened, the Golden Eagle would likely come here every day.
“Qin Tian.” At this moment, Ye Lin couldn’t help but call out.
“Mm.” Qin Tian replied, his eyes fixed intently on the Golden Eagle.
***
The Golden Eagle was incredibly fast—one moment it was a hundred meters away, and the next, it was already near the grassy field.
It didn’t land immediately but circled in the sky for a few rounds before finally spotting the rabbit inside the Trap.
Folding its wings, the Golden Eagle plummeted rapidly. If it had landed directly, it might have ended up as a pile of meat, but when it was only two or three meters above the ground, its wings spread wide, stopping its body in midair. In the next instant, those sharp talons reached for the rabbit.
The moment its talons pressed the trigger board, the bamboo shot upright, and at the same time, the noose tightened around the Golden Eagle’s leg.
The sudden turn of events startled the Golden Eagle. Ignoring the rabbit under the trigger board, it beat its wings wildly, trying to escape.
But bound by the rope, how could it possibly get away?
“Qin Tian, why are you still sitting there!?” In the Cave, seeing the Golden Eagle caught, Ye Lin was so excited she couldn’t sit still, but Qin Tian still sat there as if nothing had happened, not making any move.
“If I don’t sit, what else am I supposed to do?” Qin Tian gestured for Ye Lin to stay calm. “Relax, it can’t get away.”
While Qin Tian said this, the Golden Eagle was still struggling, pulling the hemp rope taut as it cried out loudly, but no matter how hard it fought, the bamboo didn’t budge an inch.
Seeing this, Ye Lin understood Qin Tian’s intention. “You want to wait until the Golden Eagle exhausts itself before going out?”
Qin Tian nodded. “The Golden Eagle’s talons aren’t just sharp, its beak is also deadly. If we rush at it recklessly, we might get clawed, and if we’re unlucky, it could even blind us!”
The Golden Eagle’s endurance was astonishing. It struggled for nearly an hour before finally quieting down, but that didn’t mean it had given up.
During its struggles, it realized that if it could break the rope tied to its leg, it could get away. So instead of flapping around, it tried to use its beak to bite through the hemp rope—but how could Qin Tian let it succeed?
Watching closely, Qin Tian noticed the Golden Eagle making a move and immediately kicked the still-sleeping Han Pi awake, giving a command right after.
Han Pi woke up, lazily looked out of the Cave entrance, and when he saw the tied-up Golden Eagle, he followed Qin Tian’s instructions and let out a roar, “Roar—”
Showing great interest in the Golden Eagle, Han Pi charged toward it after roaring.
At this moment, the Golden Eagle was biting at the rope. Hearing Han Pi’s call startled it, and then it saw Han Pi rushing at it, followed by two two-legged creatures it had never seen before.
Already in a frightened state from being captured, the Golden Eagle panicked even more as Han Pi approached, retreating repeatedly until the rope pulled taut and it couldn’t move back any further.
But without Qin Tian’s command, Han Pi wouldn’t dare bite the Golden Eagle. He simply watched it curiously.
Han Pi moved on the ground while the Golden Eagle moved in the air. The two had no chance to interact—so for Han Pi, the Golden Eagle was a novelty.
“So this is the Golden Eagle?” Ye Lin walked out from behind Han Pi, sizing up their captive from head to toe. “It’s huge—almost up to my waist.”
“That’s because you’re short,” Qin Tian teased. “Or maybe your legs are just short.”
Ye Lin rolled her eyes at him. “The Golden Eagle reaches your waist too, you know.”
“I never said I was tall,” Qin Tian chuckled, then nodded. “It’s true, this Golden Eagle really is big.”
Most Golden Eagles were about a meter tall, but this one looked to be at least one point three meters, well above average.
Then Qin Tian thought of the previously caught yellow eel and Han Pi; both were much larger than usual as well.
Maybe the environment on this Deserted Island was just that good, making all the animals bigger? That was Qin Tian’s thought at the moment.
One case might be an exception, two could be a coincidence, but three pointed to a trend.
While Qin Tian was pondering this, Ye Lin focused all her attention on the Golden Eagle.
She never imagined a bird could grow this big. This Golden Eagle was even larger than the upright water dispensers commonly seen at her company, and those sharp talons were as long as a pinky finger. If you really got scratched, it could injure the bone.
On top of that, the Golden Eagle’s head looked truly majestic. Even as a woman, she could feel its power and dominance.
***
Suddenly, Ye Lin realized something. “But why is it called a Golden Eagle when its feathers are brown?”
“Well, Sand Sculpture Fish don’t necessarily have sand in their heads,” Qin Tian replied absentmindedly, then paused, repeating the words ‘Sand Sculpture’ to himself.
Seeing Qin Tian like this, Ye Lin sensed something bad was about to happen and quickly said, “Qin Tian, I think you should reconsider.”
“No need, this name is great.” With that, Qin Tian looked at the Golden Eagle. “It’s settled—your name from now on is Sand Sculpture!”
Ye Lin covered her face and sighed inwardly. She had nothing left to say about Qin Tian’s terrible taste in naming.
“Chirp—” Clearly, the Golden Eagle didn’t like its new name, crying out sharply in protest.
Pretending not to hear or see anything, Qin Tian focused his mind, and the Nu Beast Mark appeared on the back of his hand. Just as he was about to use it, the system immediately issued a warning: The Golden Eagle has not been tamed. Nu Beast Mark cannot be used.
“As expected, it won’t work,” Qin Tian muttered under his breath.
Qin Tian wasn’t ignorant of the prerequisites for using the Nu Beast Mark—he just wanted to see if he could skip the first step.
Since that wouldn’t work, he could only proceed step by step. Qin Tian gave Ye Lin a heads-up, and the two returned to the Cave.
Han Pi didn’t follow. Before leaving, Qin Tian gave him a command to keep a close watch on the Golden Eagle.
With Han Pi watching, the Golden Eagle didn’t dare move much, let alone bite at the rope.
Back in the Cave, Qin Tian and Ye Lin sat face to face on the bed. Ye Lin asked, “What’s up? You wanted to sit and talk?”
“My back hurts if I stand,” Qin Tian replied, not bothering to explain further. “Do you know about Taming Eagle?”
Ye Lin nodded and soon realized what he meant. “You want to use that method to tame the Golden Eagle?”
“Not just me—us,” Qin Tian corrected her.
***
The process of Taming Eagle took over a week. No one could manage it alone. An ordinary person would drop dead after three days and nights without sleep, let alone for that long.
“You can switch people during Taming Eagle?” That was something Ye Lin hadn’t known.
“What do you think?” Qin Tian continued, “The main purpose of Taming Eagle is to wear down the eagle’s wild nature. As long as that’s achieved, it doesn’t matter how many people take turns.”
“There are two of us, so we should tame the Golden Eagle as quickly as possible. Of course, doing this will also help the Golden Eagle get used to both of us…”
“Even though we have to exhaust ourselves and go hungry, during Taming Eagle we must never let the Golden Eagle starve to death. If you notice it’s about to give out, you can give it some water and meat to recover…”
Qin Tian explained a whole lot—all about Taming Eagle.
Only after half an hour did the two leave the Cave.
Qin Tian’s plan to tame the eagle would start today. Ye Lin took the day shift. Before that, she grabbed two sections of bamboo from the kitchen and then sat down in front of the Golden Eagle.
Meanwhile, Qin Tian emptied the big jar where they stored firewood, carried it outside, dug a pit beneath it, piled firewood underneath, and threw in all the bones from the four Wild Boars.
Not a bit of the four Wild Boars had gone to waste.
The pork lard had been rendered into two big jars of lard over the past few days; the animal tendons had been dried and saved as bowstring material; the Wild Boar tusks had been cut off to use as crafts.
As for the innards and intestines, Qin Tian and Ye Lin had eaten whatever they could over the past few days, and what they couldn’t finish was left to rot. When maggots appeared, they collected them as fish bait, while the remaining bones were reserved to be boiled down for gelatin.