The next morning, I was awakened by a commotion. When I was still in a daze, strange shouts entered my ears.
"What's wrong?"
I yawned and asked, looking at the sky outside. The clouds were slightly red, as if the sun had just risen.
"Someone's dead."
Ling Qian's voice suddenly came from the door, startling me. As I hadn't heard clearly, I asked, "Someone's dead? Who died?"
Ling Qian didn't answer and walked out. I looked outside and saw a crowd of people gathered in the empty space outside the door. In the crowd, a woman seemed to be kneeling on the ground, crying, while the village elder and people around were trying to console her. A body covered with a white cloth lay on the ground.
I quickly got up from the ground, kicked the still-sleeping fat man awake, and hurried outside.
When the village elder saw us, he quickly said, "It's the brother of a hunter who went missing before. He seemed to have drunk too much last night and went into the mountains carrying a gun to find his brother. Never did he return all night, and this morning, a few people cutting trees on the mountain found him. He had already passed away by the time they brought him back."
I nodded, crouching next to the body. Ling Qian gently lifted the white cloth and revealed a face that was completely disfigured. The entire nose had been chopped off, the left side of the face was completely shattered, and bones could be seen piercing above the eye. The flowing blood had already solidified, forming blood clots. To be honest, it was very disgusting, and I almost threw up. The people around also avoided looking, except for the village elder and the deceased's wife who remained nearby.
I kept silent, but Ling Qian remained calm, even reaching out to open the deceased's eyes. The left eyeball was missing, but there were clear marks around the eye socket, as if someone had gouged out the eyeball. She continued to examine the body and found nothing other than some minor abrasions, indicating that he died from a severe head injury.
"There are no other injuries on the body. These wounds should have been caused by falling from the mountain. The head was obviously struck with great force, but it wasn't done by a tiger..."
Ling Qian's words were not unfounded, and I had noticed it too. Although the deceased looked miserable, there were no obvious bite marks on the head, and there were no bite marks even where the bones had pierced. Also, if attacked by a tiger, the predator wouldn't only attack the head and leave the body untouched. Moreover, the deceased had been drinking, and according to Ling Qian, tigers don't usually attack intoxicated people.
"What about the gun?"
I suddenly thought of something and shouted. The village elder hurriedly had someone bring the gun over. When I took a glance, I was shocked!
Generally, a hunting gun was used in the forest, but it wasn't very powerful and was usually made of iron, with a thick barrel. In close combat, the gun could also be used as a weapon. Of course, these were all secretly kept by the villagers, and the authorities didn't pay much attention, after all, it was for the villagers to earn a living.
However, the gun I saw now had its entire body smashed into a "C" shape by great force. I took the gun and tried to hold it, but even using all my strength, I couldn't bend it back.
"What could be this strong? Neither a vengeful spirit nor a tiger could do this."
I muttered quietly, and Ling Qian furrowed her brow even tighter, standing up and saying, "You first take care of the deceased, remember not to place them in a place where the moonlight is visible, be careful to avoid water and black soil."
After giving instructions, the village chief instructed the men to carry the body away. Ling Qian pulled me aside, and at that moment, Fatty walked out of the house, and the three of us huddled together.
"I think, perhaps what I said yesterday has come true."
These words from Ling Qian made my heart suddenly jump, but Fatty muttered, "What did you say?"
"Perhaps around here, there may not only be tigers and evil spirits. There might be something more powerful watching over the village."
However, just discussing it, it was impossible to reach a conclusion. In the morning, the old man arranged for five or six hunters to lead the way, and also brought three dogs, and together we went into the mountains to observe on site.
The road in the mountains was difficult to traverse, the hunters walked quickly, and Fatty and I were often left behind. Only when we truly entered the woods did we realize that it was not the dense forest we had imagined. The spacing between the trees was relatively large, the ground was relatively level, and various birds that I couldn't name frequently flew overhead.
"We're almost there."
The leading hunter waved at us, and the three of us hurried over. This was where the body had been found in the morning. The three of us divided to observe, while the hunters took the dogs to guard nearby.
I walked towards the right side of the woods with my backpack, and from time to time, I could see some bloodstains on the ground. Looking up, it was not difficult to see that this was the route the deceased had taken when fleeing.
Biting my lip, images of imagination flashed through my mind. It wasn't yet light, and the drunken hunter entered the woods with his gun. In a daze, he walked further and further, suddenly attacked in the dark, and he surely fired his gun, but it was useless. The other party hit him in the head, maybe its claws gouged out his eyeballs, blood flowed everywhere, he covered his eyes and ran back. He ran all the way to the rock not far behind me, and unable to run any further, he collapsed on the ground, and the pursuer viciously pierced his head!
I followed the blood trail forward, deeper into the woods, unintentionally creating some distance from the person behind me. When I finally realized it, the white mist had already drifted up in the surrounding woods, and the mist became thicker, soon obscuring the trees around me and the path back.
At the same time as the mist drifted up, it started getting cold, and I could see my breath.
The situation seemed off, and I immediately became vigilant, pulling out my beast bone dagger to look around. Within the mist, it seemed like something was hovering, but silent, I couldn't see clearly. But the feeling was intense, so intense that it seemed like that thing was already behind me.
"Fatty, can you hear me?"
I shouted loudly, my voice forming an echo between the trees, but after several seconds, I didn't hear Fatty's response.
I probably hadn't walked more than a few dozen meters, so when did the mist rise? Why couldn't Fatty hear my voice?
Just then, came a sudden sound from behind me!
"Click!"
I turned around suddenly, and when I looked closely, at a distance of about ten meters, shrouded by dense mist, a huge black figure slowly emerged. This figure was at least two meters tall, compared to my one meter seventy-seven height, it was like a giant.
The black figure didn't come closer to me, but it exuded a powerful aura. I tightly gripped my beast bone dagger, desperately adjusting my breathing. After experiencing the dangers of Xuanming Temple several times, my courage had grown considerably, and with more experience, naturally, I was calmer than before.
It took a few steps to the left, but there were no footsteps, no low growls like a wild animal. I looked very carefully, it couldn't possibly be an illusion caused by the mist!
It then took a few steps to the right and stopped again. I didn't dare to make a sound to disturb it, but tried to back away. If that huge black figure was some kind of monster, I'd be in a dead-end fight with it alone! The only thing to do for now was to quickly leave the mist and meet up with Fatty and the others.
But just as I took a step back, the black figure also moved. Inside the mist, it slowly extended a hand. At this point, I had already lowered my breathing to the limit. I widened my eyes and saw that the hand extending from the mist was not a human hand, and was not even the same as the claws I had seen before. It was a pair of stone arms! Made of pitch-black stones with distinct angular edges forming a huge hand!
It suddenly grabbed a tree trunk next to it, almost as thick as half my body, and I only heard the creaking sound as the tree trunk was slowly bent and broken by the stone arm, a tree of this size would take many chops from me, and yet the monster in front of me had easily accomplished it, it was as effortless as snapping a chopstick!
The broken big tree was propped up by its strange force, and I already felt that the situation was not right. Suddenly turning around and running, at this moment there came a muffled and terrifying low roar from behind, the strong wind blew from behind, and my back stood up with sweat, indicating a huge danger approaching. At this moment, I threw caution to the wind! Taking a risk, I suddenly stopped and threw myself forward. Just as my body hit the ground, the huge trunk flew over my head!
It was a close call, just one second slower and I might have been hit by the tree! The outcome could be easily imagined!