Chapter 22 Tiger
The story does not only happen in the small town of Fenghuai.
Move the time forward a little, back to the third day of August when the rain hit the city.
Then raise the angle of view, zoom out, and move it to the vast Xincang Mountains backed by Fenghuai.
Here there are steep cliffs, tall trees, deep valleys and long abyss. When you look up, you can only see a narrow sliver of sky.
The dark clouds are getting heavier, and a heavy rain is in the mouth of the God. The wind is gradually getting stronger, and the woods are swaying.
A figure was running staggeringly.
Mo Wuqiang swallowed a mouthful of blood that rushed to his throat, but the wound on his left arm opened again, and a few drops of blood inevitably fell to the ground.
He stopped, picked up the bloody soil, and swallowed it. He tore off a piece of trouser leg again and bandaged it hastily.
A heavy rain was coming, and if according to the experience of the past few decades, the rain would cover up the traces, wash away the smell of blood, and all the beast's means of finding traces would be ineffective, and he would no longer have to worry about covering up the traces.
But this time was different. Thinking of the beast's ghostly perception of blood, he really couldn't settle down.
When the rain washes away the wound, the blood will definitely spill out. This rainstorm may not be on his side.
But he had no choice. The bow and ax had been discarded, leaving only a small dagger at his waist. He could only run a little faster, a little faster.
They went too deep into the mountains this time.
When he first discovered traces of that thing, he had the intention of quitting. He has been hunting for a long time and has killed a few tigers and leopards, but he has never seen a cat with such a stride.
But the young people are full of blood, saying that Uncle Wu is getting older and less courageous. No matter how big the tiger is, a dozen of us can't defeat it?
There is also Gangzi in the team. His father is the soul of this beast. How can he be persuaded?
The most pitiful person was Yunsheng. Yunsheng was a smart boy. He saw that Yunsheng believed him, but he was unwilling to leave alone, so he went with his brothers in the end.
But hunting doesn't depend on being bold, and that thing is not prey.
A drop of raindrops fell on his dry lips. Mo Wu gasped and raised his head. The large raindrops visible to the naked eye fell vertically towards his eyes. Mo Wu closed his eyes to catch them, and his eyelids felt a slight pain.
The rain came hard.
Mo Wu stepped up his pace again. His only chance of survival was to pass the rope bridge before the beast came after him. As long as the bridge was cut off, no matter what it was, it would be impossible to jump over the deep gorge of more than 20 feet wide.
Staggering up a steep slope, a small stream suddenly appeared in front of him. Mo Wu looked up the stream and saw that its source was hidden among the dense trees on the high cliff. Mo Wu looked happy. This was the stream flowing from the Mouse Pond. Since the pond was right above him, it meant that he was lucky not to have lost his way, and he was not far from the cable bridge.
Mo Wu looked around and barely found a path that he could use to pass the stone. He stepped on the stone carefully, but just after taking two steps, his exhausted legs stepped on the slippery moss and slipped into the stream. middle.
As soon as half of his calf entered the water, Mo Wu froze. The first thing he felt was the biting coldness. The next moment, the real feeling came to him - why is this water hot? !
Mo Wu quickly pulled out his calves, crouched on the stone and gently caressed his legs and feet with his hands. After a short while, the part that entered the water had turned red. He looked up and found that the entire stream was slightly steaming. of water vapor.
Fortunately, the water was not boiling hot, and although the skin was painful, it was not hurt. The cool rain kept hitting it, and it soon became no longer a problem. Mo Wu glanced at the creek in bewilderment, but at this time he had no intention or ability to explore the reason, so he just stepped on the stones more carefully to cross.
The moment he stepped on the ground, his body, which had been holding on tight, suddenly relaxed. His trembling thighs could no longer support him, and he fell to the shore.
He panted and lowered his head, his embarrassed image distorted in the stream.
Dirty and torn single clothes, messy and unkempt hair, and a face in his fifties.
This face is dark, rough, familiar, unfamiliar, with red eyes. His nose felt sour and his vision blurred, and he slapped himself hard.
How did you survive?
In the early morning of today, in the darkness before sunrise, that thing rushed into the camp. When I woke up, the inexplicable strong wind was filled with a strong smell of fish and blood.
Amidst the roars and screams of the young people, the thing was very quiet, neither roaring nor screaming, like a ghost. If the blown torch hadn't vaguely reflected a huge and vicious shadow, he even suspected that it was really a ghost rising from the underworld. rise.
He picked up the bow, but did not dare to release the arrow in the darkness, so he gritted his teeth and took out the knife and rushed forward. At that moment, he really wanted to fight it desperately, but when the ghost-like head turned to look at him, the blood all over his body seemed to A basin of ice water was poured on him.
Under those golden, eye-catching and extremely calm vertical pupils, the courage he had gained from thirty years of mountain hunting, hunting leopards and shooting tigers was suddenly shattered.
Wolves and leopards do not have this kind of momentum. Although they are extremely dangerous, they will only make their minds tense, their energy and blood surge up, and they arouse bloody courage in their rapid heartbeats. But the tiger is different. When facing it head-on, its deep and majestic roar, its extremely oppressive body and eyes can easily make people lose the courage to fight against it. The king of the forest is nothing more than that.
And if the thing in front of him is a tiger, it must be the tiger among tigers. Just one glance will make him tremble with fear.
How can a person kill such a monster? He can't win... he can't win...
He wanted to call everyone to run, but the next moment the beast tore Gangzi's abdominal cavity in front of him. A complete man was like a thin piece of paper in front of the sharp claws, and blood spattered into his mouth. His voice suddenly became hoarse, and even his mind went blank for a moment.
But next to him, Yun Sheng roared deafeningly: "Uncle Five! Uncle Five, run!"
The already weakened legs and feet seemed to have received an order - they didn't want to tell whether it came from the master at all. He ran out with all his strength and passed by Yunsheng who was approaching.
After running far away in panic, he realized that he might be the only one who survived.
As the only elder, the backbone of the team, and the one who was entrusted with his son by more than a dozen pairs of parents before setting off, he left his children in the sea of blood behind him and fled for his life in a hurry.
You shouldn't live by yourself.
Gangzi should be alive. He is born with great strength and vitality. If he sells a few skins to collect enough money, he can go to the county martial arts school to become a teacher, and he may even be able to work as a policeman.
Yunsheng should also be alive. The teacher said that he is a good scholar. If he takes the county test next year, he might be able to become a scholar.
With only him, he has already had enough life with his old bones, and he has nothing to worry about, so why should he steal their chance to escape?
How could I have the face to return to the village alone?
Fear urged him to flee, but another feeling was filled with shame and expectation, hoping that the beast would catch up and kill him too, so that he would not have to go back and face the eyes of more than a dozen pairs of parents.
But the beast didn't catch up immediately. It wasn't until three or four hours later, when he looked back at the top of the mountain, that he saw the vague shadow again. Then he realized that it had slowly finished eating the corpses of more than a dozen people before Shi Shiran followed it.
So the sudden anger took over again, and he no longer wanted to die. Even if he was scolded in the spine by his fellow villagers for the rest of his life, even if he could not hold his head up when he was laughed at by the villagers, he would definitely return to the village, report to the county government, and invite reinforcements. Go back into the mountain, stab it with your own hands, and watch the beast be killed in pain with your own eyes!
So he began to cover up his traces, designed some simple traps, deliberately left his own blood stains on the cliff, and then quietly left in another direction... In order to survive, he made all the efforts he could make, no matter how big or small. out.
At this moment, staring at his reflection in the stream, it was the same belief that supported his exhausted body to stand up again, picked up a branch for support, and continued walking forward.
The raindrops are getting thicker, the wind is getting wilder, the trees are swaying, every branch and leaf is rustling, the whole forest seems to come alive, roaring in a language that no one can understand.
The blood kept being washed away, and Mo Wuxin lifted up little by little. However, after marching like this for more than half an hour, the beast never caught up.
Mo Wu finally felt a little relaxed. Maybe the beast's perception was not as unpredictable as he thought. Maybe the suspicion array he had used on his way to escape had played some role after all. Maybe the heavy rain and the stream had a greater effect than imagined. Maybe After the beast was full, it no longer had a strong desire to prey... In any case, he should have got rid of it temporarily.
Although his spirit was slightly relaxed, his pace did not slow down. Mo Wu still tried to climb through the forest and rocks as fast as possible. After about half an hour, Mo Wu finally saw the rope bridge.
When hunting on weekdays, when we reach this rope bridge, we are already deep into the mountain, but this time our group is so far beyond it.
Although it was quite a long distance from the village after crossing the bridge, at least after destroying the bridge, I no longer had to worry about being caught up by that beast.
You can take a long rest, pick some wild fruits, catch a small animal to satisfy your hunger, and then find a way to slowly return to the village.
The flame of revenge is burning again. When I return to the village, I will definitely...definitely...
Mo Wu stepped onto the rope bridge, but suddenly stood there.
An inexplicable uneasiness surged into my heart, coming from the intuition of an old hunter who had been hunting in the mountains for decades.
The last time he felt like this was when he carried back a large branch of sweet wild fruit after hunting. When the children in the village rushed up to him with joy, his heart suddenly dropped and he yelled to stop them. , and then sure enough, I found a colorful venomous snake attached to the leaf.
At this time, a terrible suspicion echoed in Mo Wu's mind. He stood frozen on the spot like a statue until his body trembled slightly.
He turned around suddenly, but behind him there was only the sound of the deep woods in the rain.
Mo Wu took a deep breath, took back his feet that had stepped on the rope bridge, turned around, and slowly and resolutely walked back to the depths of the forest step by step.
He carefully checked the traces of his journey, his sleepy brain became sensitive again under the strong stimulation, and his eyes searched every place on the ground like a hawk.
Normal, normal, normal...
Nothing was found, but Mo Wu continued to dig deeper without any expression on his face.
It's almost... it's almost... It's as if he has entered a certain state, and he is as confident in his own judgment as if he were in a daze.
Suddenly his eyes glanced at a depression. He quickly walked over and stood next to the depression, his body trembling.
A huge, light, fresh plum paw print.
It has always been behind him.
Perhaps since I saw it from the top of the mountain, it also saw itself. Along the way, when he was bandaging himself, when he was bleeding, when he was yelling, when he was climbing across the stream, when he was kneeling and sobbing, there was a pair of golden, cruel, quiet and magnificent vertical pupils behind his back.
It wants to follow itself until it finds the village!
The chill that penetrated the bones could not be suppressed, and Mo Wu felt joyful at the same time - beast! Finally you can't play with us like a cat plays with a mouse! I finally beat you once!
He laughed loudly, threw away his crutch, turned around and ran with all his strength, so fast, like flying, as if he had squeezed out the last energy of his life.
When he came to the bridge, he pulled out his dagger and cut the rope with a roar. The rope bridge fell with a crash, and the sound of scattered planks mixed with the heavy rain.
Then Mo Wu fell to the ground, took one last deep look at the other side, clenched the dagger, and turned around with a ferocious smile: "It's a donkey's fault! Come on!"
A blurry shadow was vaguely revealed at the edge of the dense forest in front of him, with a pair of cruel and translucent golden eyes embedded in it. It seemed that it had no intention of stopping Mo Wu's behavior from beginning to end, and just watched everything indifferently. At this time, it seemed to respond to Mo Wu's call. It licked its paws leisurely, and then slowly stepped out. For the first time, it was so clear Show your body.
Mo Wu's expression froze.
He felt like a joke.
There seemed to be a roar, but the rain fell on the mountains like smoke, and the noisy sounds of all things mixed together into a vast silence, eliminating all details.
…
…
Now, in the same forest house where the wind and rain are blowing.
After Pei Ye finished all this, the string in his head loosened. Finally, he could no longer support his body that had been squeezed to the extreme. He fell to the ground on his side and closed his eyes.
As soon as the eyes stop receiving information, the sensations from all over the body flood into the brain.
Apart from the constant burning heat, there was not much discomfort in my belly. Although the gourd looked tangible, it seemed to be pure energy. Not only did it cause no harm, it also seemed to be repairing and healing the body.
The old injuries of the past two years, the traces of the little dragon's heart being parasitized, and even the blood hole in his abdomen were repaired. In a warm ocean, Pei Ye's consciousness finally fell into a deep sleep.
I don’t know how long passed in the darkness.
Pei Ye felt the wind blowing in his ears. As his consciousness gradually regained consciousness, the sound became louder and louder until it turned into a roar.
Pei Ye opened his eyes, and the white field in front of him was clouds.
"You did very well."
Pei Ye lowered his head when he heard the words. The Chi was still carrying him. When he looked back, he saw that the bloody mouth was farther away.
"Thank you very much. [Quail Head] helped me a lot. How can I return it to you?"
"Smug."
Pei Ye said nothing.
"You don't have to think of ways to get rid of it, because you don't have the ability to carry it. Once the twelve hours are up, it will naturally disappear."
Hei Chi paused and then added: "However, you can borrow it from me at any time."
Pei Ye tensed up and said cautiously: "There may not be too much demand like this."
"..." Although he couldn't see its face, Pei Ye felt that its expression might not be very good.
"Do you think I live by collecting rent?" Hei Chi said calmly, "Every day I try to find ways to lend out my abilities, and then charge a price that will make you regret it for the rest of your life?"
Pei Ye remained silent.
"You are very wary of me." Hei Chi pointed out.