Chapter 43: Venturing into the Woods Alone

The moment that sound reached my ears, I, who had been drinking soup, abruptly raised my head.

After a brief moment of thought, Old Master Chen set his bowl directly on the table and said to me, "Sanqi, stay in the room! The injury on your foot hasn't healed yet! I'll go take a look!"

With that, Old Master Chen wrapped a wolf pelt around himself, slung his hunting rifle over his shoulder, put on his dog-fur hat (a hat taken from those dead hunters!), opened the cabin door, and quickly closed it behind him. His figure soon vanished into the dense forest...

With Old Master Chen's departure, the world felt agonizingly quiet—a silence so profound it made my heart hammer in my chest.

Especially the endless darkness outside, which sometimes transformed into the gaping maw of a monster in my eyes; at other times, it made me feel as though a ghost was standing beneath a pine tree in the dark, staring straight at me.

My fear began to swell uncontrollably, but soon, I tried to comfort myself inwardly: judging by that scream just now, it sounded like a woman, and she shouldn't be too far from us. Old Master Chen would probably be back very soon.

Feeling a wave of relief, I picked up the ladle from the pot, scooped myself another bowl of chicken soup, and after finishing it, I took a large, heavy gulp of corn liquor straight from the bottle.

The moment it went down, a dry, scorching heat flooded my whole body. As the saying goes, alcohol gives courage to the cowardly!

There was truly some truth to that.

Once the liquor settled, the fear was quickly swept away.

Instead, a peerless sense of bravado welled up from the depths of my soul.

Damn it! So what if it's a ghost?

Even if a real ghost showed up, I could use the hunting rifle in my hands to teach it a lesson about being human. If it was a male ghost, I'd even dare to wrestle him; if it were a female ghost... well, then she could wash my feet!

Just as my thoughts were drifting away in a drunken haze, out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly noticed...

The door Old Master Chen had just closed was now... slowly and silently drifting open.

This directly revealed the small stream situated right in front of the twin cabins.

The breeze blowing in from outside, carrying the scents of the forest and damp earth, felt exceptionally refreshing.

I let out a long breath.

Reaching out, I grabbed the hunting rifle resting beside me, loaded the gunpowder, and clutching the gun, I walked slowly toward the doorway...

In truth, it was precisely at this moment that I fell in love with alcohol; this enchanting substance has the power to change a person.

Grasping the rifle tightly, I looked around to the left and right. There was nothing there.

Just as I was about to close the door and step back inside, I suddenly raised my head to look up at the roof, a thought flashing sharply in my mind.

Namely...

The roof.

Clutching the rifle with a death grip, I bolted outside, threw my waist and core into a swift pivot, and instantly swung the muzzle of the rifle up to aim at the roof...

There was nothing there. It was completely empty.

Did I overthink it?

I turned my head once more to scan the surroundings, confirming with absolute certainty that there wasn't a single shadow in sight. I pulled the door shut again.

Perhaps it really was just the wind blowing the door open.

Finding myself bored, I sat back down on the bed to smoke, drink, and eat meat.

Yet...

After I had smoked over a dozen cigarettes, feeling drowsy and dizzy from the liquor, I looked up to survey my surroundings and realized that Old Master Chen still hadn't returned.

At first, I merely assumed he had run into some trivial matter that required his attention.

However, as time dragged on, the sense of unease in my heart steadily intensified.

Even if he had run into something, it shouldn't take this long, should it?

Could something have happened to Old Master Chen?

After pondering this, I lit another cigarette and thought to myself: if Old Master Chen hasn't returned by the time this cigarette burns down... I'm going out to look for him.

Ten seconds.

Thirty seconds.

One minute.

When the cigarette in my hand finally burned down to the filter, I let out a long sigh, hesitated no longer, and directly snatched up my hunting rifle, slung my bow and arrows over my shoulder, pulled on my boots, donned my dog-fur hat, threw the wolf pelt over my shoulders, and stepped out of the cabin. My gaze locked thoughtfully onto the forest looming not far away...

My attire at this moment was, in truth, the standard outfit of a veteran hunter. During my training in the hunting grounds, I had imagined countless times when I might finally look like this.

But now.

When I had truly become a hunter, possessing a hunting rifle of my own, I discovered that standing alone before the pitch-black old-growth forest, facing the wild beasts of the deep woods, and confronting the eerie, inexplicable phenomena of the mountains—this was truly not something an ordinary person could endure.

Without capability, without courage, without wisdom, living in the old forest... one might not even survive a single day.

Swallowing hard, I pulled my dog-fur hat down a fraction further, and then strode with heavy steps into the ancient forest.

...

Although it was still raining, the canopy of the old forest was so dense that very little of the moisture actually reached the ground.

As soon as I stepped inside, I spotted the traces left behind by Old Master Chen.

With a firm grip on my hunting rifle, I followed those tracks, slowly moving forward step by step. Deep in the night forest, one had to remain constantly vigilant, keeping eyes on all six directions and ears tuned to all eight sides.

Because if you let your guard down for even a second, a pit viper might drop straight from a tree branch onto your neck or arm and deliver a fatal bite.

The forest was dead silent, save for the patter of raindrops and the occasional, unidentifiable cry of some nocturnal bird.

Abruptly.

A sharp falcon's cry pierced the night sky.

My heart skipped a beat.

Dahan, you're back?

Earlier, when we located those hunters, because Dahan had been cooped up in the cabin for too long, I had given it a day off!

Hearing Dahan's cry now, it was clear the bird had returned.

Without hesitation, I blew the eagle whistle in my hand, signaling Dahan to help me search for Old Master Chen as well.

Shortly after.

A short, sharp falcon cry echoed from the sky; my heart gave a start as Dahan replied to let me know it understood.

A wave of emotion washed over me, proving my father hadn't lied to me.

When my father first taught me falconry, he had told me:

A good falcon can do many things for its master: hunting, scouting, tracking people, finding paths, and more! It was precisely for this reason that the price of eagles and falcons remained perpetually exorbitant.

...

On a whim, I sat down beneath a pine tree.

As I smoked a cigarette while waiting for news from Dahan, I suddenly felt something—whatever it might be—nudging persistently against the back of my neck, making it tickle uncomfortably.

It drove me half-mad, and I swatted at it repeatedly with my hand, but it was completely useless.

In the end.

I stood up in annoyance, spun around, and tried to see what on earth was bothering me.

What I saw instead was... a shoe.

A sneaker, dangling at a height of about forty centimeters off the ground... swaying gently. The very thing that had been poking the back of my neck was none other than the toe of that shoe.

I froze instantly, my gaze involuntarily drifting upward.

There, hanging in plain sight, was a person.

The man's neck was tightly caught in the crook of a pine branch, his tongue protruding grotesquely from his mouth, dangling all the way down to his chest.

His eyes were blown wide open, staring straight down at me.