[Fengyue Point +1]
[Fengyue Point +1]
The moonlight was like water, the night air chill and desolate. From deep within the mountains behind Dahe Village, the faint sound of a tiger’s roar, sharp enough to pierce clouds and shatter stone, echoed through the night.
Zhou Chen held Qin Hongyu’s soft, warm body close, their forms pressed tightly together, yet his entire focus remained fixed on what lay outside.
Qin Hongyu bit her lips so hard they turned white, not daring to make the slightest sound, though her breathing grew shallow and ragged. Outside, the voice of Old Man Qin had gradually faded away.
After a long while, there was still no movement outside. Qin Hongyu could not help but whisper, "Is... is it gone?"
Zhou Chen shook his head. His Master-level Tracking Technique had sharpened his senses to an acute degree; he could still feel the cold, baleful presence outside lurking nearby.
Qin Hongyu’s body trembled, her frame tensing. Terror filled her eyes, but she dared not stir.
Time ticked by, drop by agonizing drop.
Zhou Chen’s brows suddenly lifted. He sensed the cold aura outside gradually receding, yet he heard not a single footfall.
"It’s gone!"
Zhou Chen made his judgment, but he did not go out, nor did he intend to.
One only has one life. Caution and prudence are rarely mistakes. To lie low—that is the path to longevity.
Of course, lying low is not cowardice, nor is it weakness, nor is it doing so for the sake of it. When the situation permits, one must strike with overwhelming force when the time is right.
Take his past self, for instance: he was timid and weak. After Old Man Cao died, others bullied him, consuming his food stores under the pretense of covering the funeral costs. Even Old Man Qin had tried to shirk his debts.
If you act too weak in such moments, others will only bully you more. Even if you went into the mountains to hunt a skinny pheasant, others would snatch it away. Because you were easy to push around. Exploiting the weak and fearing the strong is simply the nature of people—or rather, of all living things.
Naturally, if the enemy is beyond one's ability to cope, one must know when to retreat, waiting until one is strong enough to uproot the danger and sweep it away completely.
Night ended, and dawn broke; the night quietly slipped away.
A fiery red sun slowly rose from the horizon, tearing through the curtain of darkness, sweeping away the monsters and demons, clearing the heavens and the earth.
Qin Hongyu, having suffered through the night, had eyes red and rimmed with dried tears; her lips were slightly swollen. Feeling the warmth of the sunlight pouring through the window, she felt a sliver of relief and asked in a trembling voice, "Brother Chen, that thing is gone, isn't it?"
"It’s definitely gone!"
Zhou Chen smiled, his composure and confidence settling Qin Hongyu’s anxious heart.
"Brother Chen, why do you think that monster pretended to be my father? Could something have happened to him?" Qin Hongyu asked, clearly worried. Although Old Man Qin hadn't been very kind to her, he was, after all, her father.
"We’ll go check on your father in a moment and find out," Zhou Chen replied. He was curious as well, wanting to know exactly what that thing was. Furthermore, he doubted it had only appeared at his house. Others in the village might have encountered it too.
"Mm." Qin Hongyu nodded vigorously. She struggled to stand, her legs still trembling from the sleepless night, yet she rose to help Zhou Chen dress and wash.
After Qin Hongyu went to the kitchen to cook, Zhou Chen looked at the little fox and pulled it into his arms to stroke.
[Fengyue Point +1]
Zhou Chen checked his personal interface.
[Fengyue Mirror]
[Host: Zhou Chen]
[Cultivation Method: None]
[Realm: None]
[Supernatural Power: Thunder Light Ruyi Hand]
[Skills: Archery (Minor Mastery 0/80), Tracking (Mastery 15/180), Traps (Proficient 2/20), Throwing (Proficient 18/20), Fishing (Elementary 6/10)...]
[Fengyue Points: 25]
"For now, Archery doesn't offer much of a boost; Minor Mastery is enough. Adding to Tracking is more effective, allowing me to spot danger earlier..."
Zhou Chen invested the twenty-five Fengyue Points into Tracking. The skill improved slightly, though the change wasn't drastic.
"Only 140 more points to reach Perfection in Tracking. That’s about five days..."
Gathering his thoughts, Zhou Chen set the little fox down and carefully went outside to investigate. With his level of tracking, he found no signs of strangers. A feathered arrow was still embedded in the tree by the gate—the one he had fired last night. There was no blood on it.
After a thorough search, Zhou Chen found no valuable clues. He wasn't surprised; the opponent was no ordinary entity. This only made his desire for martial arts or immortal techniques all the more urgent.
"Staying home helps me farm Fengyue Points, but I can't make money. Without money, I can't do anything, let alone practice martial arts or cultivate immortality!"
Zhou Chen decided to go hunting today. It was his only way to make money for now. With his tracking and archery, plus the Thunder Light Ruyi Hand as his trump card, he was confident he could take down wild boars or black bears.
"Brother Chen, time to eat!"
"Coming!"
Zhou Chen put the little fox down—he had managed to farm another point in that time.
After eating and feeding the fox, Zhou Chen and Qin Hongyu went to Old Man Qin’s house. They found no one home; it appeared he hadn't lived there for at least a few days.
"Could something have happened to my father?" Qin Hongyu’s eyes welled up with tears, her worry deepening.
"Let’s go check Widow Chen’s place!"
When they arrived, they found that her house had also been empty for days. The leftovers on the table had already gone moldy and foul.
"Did my father and Widow Chen elope?" Qin Hongyu wondered aloud, clutching at straws.
Zhou Chen knew that, in all likelihood, something had happened to both of them. Widow Chen was poor—barely able to get by—and she never would have left food to go to waste if she hadn't met with misfortune. Those leftovers were clearly meant for a second meal; she simply hadn't lived to eat them.
Zhou Chen and Qin Hongyu began asking around the village.
Sister Hong said, "I saw Widow Chen and Zhang Dagen acting suspiciously two nights ago. Could this be related to Zhang Dagen?"
They went to Zhang Dagen's house, only to find he was missing too.
"Could Zhang Dagen and Widow Chen have harmed my father and run away?" Sister Hong speculated.
"That doesn't seem right," Zhou Chen countered. "Zhang Dagen still has rice and food in his house. If they were running away, they would have certainly taken the food with them." In these times, food was life. Even if they were fleeing a crime, they would have taken their meager supplies.
Soon, the rest of the village discovered that not only were Old Man Qin, Widow Chen, and Zhang Dagen missing, but several other elderly bachelors living alone had disappeared as well.
The village was in an uproar. Six or seven people gone in one fell swoop—it was a catastrophe, even in these times. No one could be sure if they would be next.
Zhou Chen didn't mention the incident with Old Man Qin knocking on his door; he probed cautiously, but it seemed no one else had encountered anything like it. It was possible that everyone who *had* encountered it was already dead, leaving only those who hadn't.
Village Chief Qin Jianghe took Zhou Chen to the county office to report the case. Old Man Qin was his father-in-law, after all. Zhou Chen had no choice; hunting was out of the question for today.
The county office stood solemn and imposing, guarded by two majestic stone lions. Zhou Chen kept a low profile, acting like a mere follower behind Qin Jianghe. They did not meet the magistrate; instead, they were received by the county clerk, and the case was assigned to the county lieutenant, Zhang Long.
Zhang Long was powerfully built with eyes like lightning. His hands were exceptionally large, as if they possessed boundless strength.
With his Master-level tracking, the moment Zhou Chen saw Zhang Long, he felt an intense, lethal aura, as if he were staring at a prehistoric beast.
"He is definitely a martial artist. I wonder what his realm is?" Zhou Chen thought to himself.
Zhou Chen was already at the pinnacle among ordinary people; even someone with natural-born strength could rarely give him this kind of dangerous sensation. Zhang Long was clearly no ordinary man.
Without delay, Zhang Long took three sturdy constables, swords at their waists, and accompanied Zhou Chen and Qin Jianghe back to Dahe Village.
On the road, Zhang Long turned to Qin Jianghe and asked, "Have there been any other unusual occurrences in your village lately?"