"An unusual occurrence?"
Qin Jianghe thought for a moment and mentioned a few rather unusual things, but none of them provided any useful clues.
Zhou Chen, who had been playing the role of an inconspicuous follower, suddenly chimed in:
"Constable, I ran into something unusual last night."
Though he had no wish to stand out, he wanted to leverage Zhang Long's power to deal with whatever had been knocking on his door the night before.
"What was it?"
Zhang Long, Qin Jianghe, and the others all turned to look at Zhou Chen.
With a look of lingering fear and feigned panic, Zhou Chen said:
"In the middle of the night, the missing Old Man Qin suddenly came knocking, found me and Qin Hongyu, and demanded we open the door!"
"I felt something was amiss, and since Old Man Qin and I are not on good terms, I was on my guard and didn't open the door right away!"
"Besides, I've hunted since I was a child and have sharp hearing. I hadn't gone to sleep yet, and I can swear there was no sound of footsteps outside at all."
"So I told Old Man Qin to talk about whatever he wanted during the day, and flat out refused to open up. After shouting outside for a while, he stopped and made no more noise!"
"I didn't dare to open the door and go out until dawn today, and I didn't find a single trace."
"Still, Qin Hongyu and I went to Old Man Qin's house anyway, only to discover he was missing. Then we found out he wasn't the only one who had vanished!"
A jolt went through Qin Jianghe's heart. He certainly didn't believe the person knocking on the door last night was Old Man Qin himself—which meant malevolent spirits and demons were very likely appearing in Dahe Village!
Zhang Long narrowed his eyes, stared at Zhou Chen, and mused:
"Did Old Man Qin bang on the door or try to force his way in last night?"
"No, he just shouted outside for Qin Hongyu and me to open up."
"Any other abnormalities?"
"No!"
Zhang Long gave a slight nod, feeling somewhat relieved. He glanced at Qin Jianghe and the other constables, whose faces were grave, and said calmly:
"There's no need to be nervous. It probably isn't anything formidable!"
"If it were a formidable entity, would he still be alive?"
"Besides, the ones who went missing are all living alone, which just goes to show that the other party isn't much to speak of!"
"Brilliant deduction, sir!"
The constables, along with Qin Jianghe and Zhou Chen, showered him with flattery.
What Zhang Long said did make sense.
The hearts they had in their mouths settled back down a little.
The group returned to Dahe Village, and Zhang Long questioned the villagers one by one for information.
"Judging by the mold on the food in Widow Chen's house, she's been missing for definitely more than two days, at least four days or more. Yet someone saw Widow Chen and Zhang Dagen having a midnight rendezvous the night before last!"
"Based on the situation at Zhang Dagen's house, he likely went missing just the day before yesterday!"
"Old Man Qin had also been seeing Widow Chen before he vanished..."
Zhang Long collated the gathered information. On the surface, it seemed intimately tied to Widow Chen—it looked very much as if she had murdered the others and then fled in fear of punishment.
Yet judging by the leftover food and supplies in Widow Chen's house, it didn't look like a flight from justice. Furthermore, Zhou Chen encountering 'Old Man Qin' demanding entry last night didn't seem like the work of a living person...
Suddenly.
Zhang Long thought of something and abruptly looked at Zhou Chen: "Didn't I just hear that your master was eaten by a fierce tiger not long ago?"
"That's right!"
Zhou Chen nodded.
"Then did you hear any tiger roars last night?"
"I did."
A thought stirred in Zhou Chen's mind:
"Could it have something to do with the tiger? Serving as a tiger's minion after death!?"
It was said that tigers turned the souls of the people they ate into their puppet minions, and the Old Man Qin who knocked on the door last night might well have been one of those minions.
And that Widow Chen had probably turned into a minion long ago, then lured lonely old bachelors like Old Man Qin and Zhang Dagen into the tiger's jaws, ultimately turning them into minions as well.
A piercing light flashed in Zhang Long's eyes; he had clearly figured something out.
He looked at Zhou Chen, thought for a moment, and said:
"What you encountered last night was likely a tiger minion, and the culprit behind it is most likely the fierce tiger that ate your master!"
"Once a fierce tiger eats people, it easily gains sentience and begins transforming into a demonic beast. The more people it eats, the faster that transformation happens!"
"You've hunted since childhood. If that fierce tiger has been roaming about, can you track it?"
"I should be able to!"
Zhou Chen nodded, then adopted a look of bitter resentment and said:
"I will definitely track down that fierce tiger and avenge my master!"
"Good, you'll come with me into the mountains to track that vicious tiger!"
Decisive and swift to act, Zhang Long immediately rallied his constables.
Zhou Chen grabbed his bow and arrows and followed along with his equipment.
"Sir, since that vicious tiger likes to eat people, it will most likely come again tonight. Why don't we set an ambush and wait for it to walk right into a trap?"
Zhou Chen asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Tigers that have gained sentience are very intelligent, and they have minions to scout out information. It won't enter the village at all. Even if it comes tonight, it will only stay near the mountain forests, and the moment it senses danger, it will flee!"
Zhang Long replied casually.
What he didn't say, of course, was that nights were dangerous and he might well run into other eerie phenomena, so he would much rather hunt in the deep mountains by day than operate in the wilderness by night.
"I see. Thank you for clearing that up, sir!"
Zhou Chen put on a look of sudden enlightenment, deeply instructed by the lesson.
The group moved quickly, and in less than half an hour they reached the back mountains. Zhou Chen's mastery-level Tracking Technique instantly picked up traces of the tiger's activity.
"There were no signs of this when I hunted before—it looks like it only appeared in the last few days. If I ran into it alone, I wonder if I could handle it?"
Zhou Chen's heart grew heavy:
"I must find it and use Zhang Long's hands to get rid of it. Otherwise, the stronger it gets, the greater the threat it poses to me. With it around, hunting here will become extremely dangerous!"
Following the tracks, Zhou Chen led Zhang Long and his men in pursuit.
As they tracked, Zhou Chen noticed that this path basically overlapped with the one Old Man Cao had taken him on when the old man was eaten by the fierce tiger.
"It looks nine-tenths likely to be the exact tiger that ate Old Man Cao!"
They pressed on for about another half-hour.
Zhou Chen arrived at the spot where Old Man Cao had been attacked.
Suddenly.
He caught a familiar scent.
Old Man Cao's scent.
He hurried forward and found a pair of worn-out cloth shoes hidden in the bushes.
"It's my master's shoes!"
Zhou Chen picked them up, a look of sorrow on his face.
Yet the moment he touched the shoes, his heart gave a violent jolt.
There was a hidden layer inside the sole. Because the fierce tiger had torn it open, a portion was exposed, and Zhou Chen faintly made out three large characters:
[Yi Archery]
"Old Man Cao actually hid a martial arts manual?"
Shocked and delighted, Zhou Chen had no time to dwell on it. Keeping his hands steady so as not to reveal the gap showing the manual, he clutched the shoes to his chest and put on an expression of utter heartbreak, as if mourning Old Man Cao.
Zhang Long paid no attention to a pair of old shoes. He knew Old Man Cao had been eaten by the fierce tiger, so finding shoes here was completely normal.
Besides, he had told Zhou Chen to track the vicious tiger not because he trusted Zhou Chen's tracking skills, but because he guessed the tiger's lair was likely in the vicinity of where Old Man Cao had met his end.
If Zhou Chen failed to track down the tiger, he intended to make the boy lead him straight here to search.
"Everyone be careful, that vicious tiger might be nearby!"
Zhang Long gripped the treasured blade at his waist, warned the constables, and then looked at Zhou Chen, who was clutching the shoes in grief:
"Can you find the vicious tiger?"
"Shouldn't be a problem!"
Zhou Chen tucked the shoes into his tunic and continued scanning the surrounding terrain.
Soon, he confirmed the direction and led Zhang Long and the others chasing toward the two o'clock position ahead.
"Help! Sob, sob..."
A woman's cry for help, filled with pain and helplessness, drifted over from the distance.
Zhang Long instantly drew his treasured blade, took the lead, and charged forward.
Zhou Chen frowned and retreated behind the constables.
Ahead of them, half-lying in the shadow of a large tree, was a voluptuous married woman with disheveled clothes and a flash of alluring skin.
Her delicate brows were tightly knit, looking utterly pitiful and making one yearn to pull her into their arms and pamper her fiercely.
Who else could it be but the missing Widow Chen?
Clang!
A crisp blade-resonance rang out. Zhou Chen saw only a flash of blood-red blade-light, accompanied by a single scream, and Widow Chen vanished into nothingness!
"Is this what a martial artist can do? The crimson color coating the blade is vital energy?"
Zhou Chen stared intently at Zhang Long, filled with curiosity.
"Vile beast, come out and meet your death!"
Having killed Widow Chen, Zhang Long didn't pause for a breath. He strode forward, his voice like a booming bell.
"Roar!"
The mountain forest shuddered as a massive fierce tiger—white-browed and with glaring eyes—suddenly lunged out from behind the brush, its blood-furrowed jaws gaping wide to reveal terrifying fangs, sending a foul wind laden with a dreadful murderous aura rolling toward them.
"Hiss! It's gotten so much bigger than before!"
Zhou Chen's eyes widened. An Amur tiger didn't even exceed three meters in length, but this vicious tiger was at least five meters long, with a shoulder height of probably one meter seventy or eighty. What a majestic and formidable beast!
"Zhang Long should be able to handle it, right?"
Having guessed it was a fierce tiger, Zhang Long remained full of confidence without a shred of fear; he even seemed rather eager, clearly not taking the beast seriously at all.
Moreover, killing this fierce tiger would certainly bring Zhang Long great benefits.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be so keen to run out into these mountains to deal with it.
Keep in mind: the yamen doors face south; if you have a case but no money, don't bother coming in.
The yamen around here were just as dark-hearted.
"Breaking Army!"
Just as Zhou Chen expected Zhang Long and the fierce tiger to engage in an epic struggle, he saw Zhang Long's blade flash, slashing out a three-inch blood-red blade aura.
With a single sliding sweep, Zhang Long sliced open the belly of the majestic, lunging beast, killing it with one blow.
"Hiss!"
...