Chapter 75: Ghosts Hiding People

Teetering on the line between life and death, my body reacted a split second faster than my mind. One hand high, one hand low, I gripped the wolf's fangs!

"Zhao Bin!"

The massive wolf pinned me to the ground. The beast had tremendous strength; no matter how desperately I struggled, I couldn't throw it off.

Its sharp claws dug into my flesh. The wound on my chest hadn't fully healed to begin with, and as the beast thrashed, fresh blood immediately began to flow.

Stimulated by the scent of blood, the massive wolf grew even more savage. Its fang-filled maw pressed toward my neck, foul saliva dripping into my wound.

"Bang!" A gunshot rang out. The bullet grazed the giant wolf's fur and slammed into a pine tree. Wood splinters flew through the air, carrying the faint scent of gunpowder.

The wolf's eyes darted shiftily. Knowing it couldn't kill me now, it abandoned the fight without hesitation, leaping high into the thick fog and vanishing from sight.

"Are you okay?" Zhao Bin rushed over, gripping his gun with both hands.

I lay on the ground, having narrowly escaped death. My clothes were soaked with blood, but the claws hadn't hit bone or tendon.

"I'm fine. Just flesh wounds." I leaned against the pine tree and stood up. My hands were numb and aching; looking down, I found two bloody holes in my palms.

"Let me get you down the mountain. Wild wolf saliva is full of bacteria—your wounds are going to get infected," Zhao Bin said worriedly.

I held my hands up to my face. I could still bend my fingers, and I hadn't lost sensation. "Stay calm. Old Wei was at the very back of the formation. If a wild wolf could pounce on me without a sound, he's probably already met with disaster."

Animals are savage. If they want to make a person disappear silently, they only use one method: crushing the victim's throat in an instant.

"Old Wei!" Zhao Bin finally shouted into the heavy fog, but the only response was his own echoing voice.

"We need to retrace our steps. We should find blood or Old Wei's body along the way."

"I just hope he's okay."

I shook my head and let out a cold laugh. "If we don't find Old Wei's body or any blood, I'm afraid that's the worst-case scenario."

Zhao Bin looked confused. He tightened his grip on the gun and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Making a grown man disappear without a sound and without leaving a single trace—do you really think a few mere wolves could pull that off?"

Zhao Bin continued to look at me in confusion. "Could Old Wei have fallen into Lu Xing's trap?"

I didn't answer directly. Instead, I stood up and looked toward Pine Forest Cemetery. "Have you ever heard the saying?"

"What saying?"

"Wolves in the woods give a wolf shoulder tap; ghosts in the mountains hide people away. The truth is, from the moment we stepped into these mountains, we've been walking in Lu Xing's trap."

We retraced our path, but there was no blood anywhere within a hundred meters. The only clue was a tattered, hand-drawn map lying on the ground.

"What do we do now?"

"We can't keep looking. If we do, we might end up throwing our own lives away. Let's meet up with Tie Ningxiang first. There's strength in numbers; even ghosts wouldn't dare get close."

Direction confirmed, Zhao Bin and I groped our way through the dense fog for another hour before finally finding Langtou Gully.

Surrounded by mountains on all sides, sunlight barely reached this place even at high noon.

The trees grew in bizarre, twisted shapes of varying heights.

Jagged rocks were densely scattered about, interlocking like a wolf's fangs.

Viewed from high above, the entire gully looked just like a wild wolf's open maw. That was exactly how Langtou Gully got its name.

"Is the signal back?"

"Not yet. But Captain Tie mentioned earlier that they were in the middle of Langtou Gully. A forest ranger built a small cabin there."

After that brief exchange, the two of us ventured into the ominous gully.

Bizarre rock formations blocked our line of sight, and with the pervasive fog, it would be all too easy to lose a teammate just by taking a wrong turn.

"Wait, don't go in yet." After walking a few dozen meters, I suddenly sensed something wrong and signaled for Zhao Bin to stop.

"Did you find something?"

"Listen closely. Is that a wolf howling inside?" Ever since I started practicing the Profound Truth Introductory Mental Method, my five senses had grown increasingly sharp. Standing in the wilderness now, I acted like a seasoned hunter.

Now treating me as his anchor, Zhao Bin stopped and listened closely. A faint, distant wolf howl echoed from deep within the gully.

"You could actually hear that?"

"Just have sharp ears." I casually picked up a rock and smashed it against another to create a sharp edge. "Save your remaining six bullets. Don't waste them."

"How do you know I only have six bullets left?" Zhao Bin asked. To me, his two-handed grip on the gun looked completely amateurish, leaving his entire body full of openings.

"The standard police-issue Type 64 pistol holds seven rounds. You fired one shot earlier. Do the math yourself."

I took the lead, clutching the jagged rock, while Zhao Bin followed closely with his gun drawn. "You're terrifyingly calm no matter what happens. I think Captain Tie was right—you were born to be a cop."

"Rather than being a cop, I'd much prefer marrying one."

"Holy shit, you aren't going after Captain Tie too, are you? She's your senior!"

Zhao Bin's train of logic left me speechless. With this rookie tagging along, I felt my situation was even more dangerous. "Shut up and watch our surroundings."

As we ventured deeper into Langtou Gully, the sound of howling wolves lingered in our ears, but neither of us was attacked.

After rounding two bends and climbing the only steep slope around, we finally spotted the cabin.

"Captain Tie! We're here for backup!" Zhao Bin shouted from a dozen meters away.

Someone inside flashed a high-beam flashlight a few times. Only after receiving that silent permission did Zhao Bin and I dare approach.

I pushed open the dilapidated wooden door. The faint scent of blood drifted into my nose. "Who's hurt?"

I hurriedly glanced over and saw a dark-skinned police officer. A large chunk of flesh had been torn out of his left shoulder.

"Gorilla!" Zhao Bin seemed close to the injured man; he rushed over without even holstering his gun.

"Little Zhao's here? Where are the others? Where's Captain Wu?" Gorilla's face was twisted in agony, but he was a tough guy and didn't let out a single groan.

"Wu Meng took three people up the mountain from the north. They aren't here yet, so they've probably run into trouble too." I crouched in front of Gorilla and examined his wound. "Wait, this doesn't look like a wolf bite. It looks more like..."

"His wound was caused by a human bite!" Tie Ningxiang walked over, holding her service pistol.

"A human bite?"

"Never mind that for now. Why did you follow Little Zhao into the mountains? Didn't I tell you to stay home and behave?"

Whenever Tie Ningxiang put on her police uniform, she became incredibly overbearing. Especially in front of her subordinates, she felt the need to maintain her authority as team leader.

I understood her approach, but that didn't mean I would tolerate her irresponsible actions.

"Why am I here? Lu Xing clearly wants to kill you; was I supposed to just watch you march to your death?" I pointed at the thick fog outside. "I told you ages ago that this was Lu Xing's trap, but you still charged headfirst into it. Did you ever consider that you could get a lot of people killed?"

"Watch your mouth, kid. Don't go bossing us around," snapped another officer standing near Tie Ningxiang. He was a man with a hooked nose, speaking up to defend her.

"Chen Feng, I'm the one at fault here. I admit it." Tie Ningxiang raised a hand toward the hooked-nose officer. "I underestimated Lu Xing's cunning and tenacity, which led to everyone being put in this dangerous situation. I apologize to all of you."

"You didn't just underestimate Lu Xing; you don't understand him at all. He's an extremely cruel and sinister man, and every time he kills, it's highly purposeful." Seeing Tie Ningxiang lower her head made me feel bad too, but with things escalating to this point, she truly bore an inescapable responsibility.

"Purposeful? Why is he committing all these crazy crimes?"

I stood among the officers. "I can't be sure right now, but he isn't killing for entertainment or to satisfy some twisted psychological need. It's likely some kind of ritual—killing specific people in a specific order."

I looked at Tie Ningxiang. "You're the sixth, and Xiaofeng is the seventh. If you die, Lu Xing will achieve his ultimate goal. Catching him after that will be incredibly difficult."

The group inside the cabin fell silent, and I was the one to break the ice. "What happened to Gorilla's shoulder? It looks like it might get infected and fester. Why haven't you sent him down the mountain immediately?"

"It's not that we don't want to; we simply can't leave," Tie Ningxiang sighed. "When we entered the mountains, we brought along a graveyard keeper from Pine Forest Cemetery. With him guiding the way, we quickly arrived at Qianlong Village, just like the tip-off letter mentioned."

"But not long after we entered that desolate village, the graveyard keeper disappeared. The officer who went with him was locked inside a dry well, and Gorilla was bitten when he went down to save him."

"Then the fog rolled in, and we were chased by a pack of wolves, forcing us to flee all the way to Langtou Gully."

I frowned as I listened to Tie Ningxiang's recount, then asked a question that had been bothering me ever since I was on the road: "What did that graveyard keeper look like?"