Chapter 77: Bai Qi

Gripping the gun in both hands and aiming, I felt that familiar sensation for the first time in four years—heavy and cold.

The alpha wolf on the cliff spotted me as well. It stood up among the jagged rocks, its frame a full third larger than a normal wolf's.

"Trying to run?"

Even with the muzzle pointed right at it, the alpha wolf bounded through the rocks. My gaze, however, remained firmly locked on it.

Logically, human dynamic vision shouldn't be able to track objects moving at high speed through heavy fog. For me, though, it was effortless.

"Captain Tie, this fraud is just putting on a show. Do you really think he can shoot the alpha wolf in this fog?" Noticing Tie Ningxiang's clenched fists and the immense expectation she clearly held for me, Chen Feng felt a surge of resentment.

"Forget about shooting it, whether this kid can even find the alpha wolf is the real question. He analyzes everything perfectly, but it's all just talk." Chen Feng droned on for a while before realizing no one was listening. He let out a cold snort and casually stepped closer to Tie Ningxiang.

"Smells so good. This must be her natural scent." Taking a deep breath, he rubbed the spot where he had just been kicked and stared at Tie Ningxiang's back. "Even if I die with her today, it'll be worth it."

I remained completely oblivious to everything happening behind me. Pushing aside all distractions under the pressure of death, I focused entirely. 'There's only one bullet. If I miss, an alpha wolf this cunning will probably never expose itself in such an obvious spot again. I have to seize this opportunity.'

A dull ache throbbed between my brows, likely the result of using my Heavenly Eye for so long right after it broke through. My head spun, and stray thoughts constantly surged up.

'No time!' My eye, arm, and the gun's sights aligned into a straight line. Anticipating the alpha wolf's next move, in the instant it prepared to leap toward another rock, 'Fire!'

"Bang!"

The bullet tore into flesh. Almost simultaneously, an agonized wolf's howl echoed through Langtou Gully.

"I hit it!" I was shocked myself. That state I had just entered was extremely profound and completely impossible to replicate.

I let out a long breath, my head growing even heavier. I had just tried to speak when my legs gave out, and I nearly collapsed.

"Gao Jian!"

Someone grabbed me tightly from behind. I didn't dare turn my head, merely smelling that faint fragrance. "It's fine, I'm here."

Tie Ningxiang must have acted out of pure shock. I didn't overthink it, quietly pulling her hands away and handing the gun back to Zhao Bin.

"The alpha wolf is dead. We don't need to worry about the pack for now." Tie Ningxiang tried to support me, but I refused her. When handing back the gun, I had seen Chen Feng's dark expression; it looked as if someone had stuffed a sock into his mouth and forced him to swallow it.

That resentment couldn't be hidden at all. Afraid the man might do something stupid, I didn't provoke him any further.

With the alpha wolf dead, the pack's attacks were no longer as fierce. The few of us seized the time to run out of Langtou Gully.

"Surviving a great disaster brings subsequent fortune." Zhao Bin limped along, supporting Gorilla as they leaned on each other. These two were surprisingly optimistic.

Relying on the crude map in my hands, the police and I walked for over an hour and finally made it out of the mountains.

"Captain Tie!" A large crowd had already gathered at the foot of the mountain, including Wu Meng and the third batch of reinforcements.

I felt very surprised when I first saw the big guy. Going up the shady side of the mountain, they must have encountered even more danger than we did, but from the looks of it, not a single one of them was injured.

"Captain Wu, I trust you've been well?" That classic villain line slipped out of my mouth very smoothly.

"It was reckless of me not to listen to your advice earlier." Wu Meng, the deputy captain of the Municipal Sub-bureau Criminal Investigation Detachment, actually lowered his head to me. The probability of this happening was lower than walking out the door and finding fifty thousand bucks.

He lowered his head, somewhat ashamed. "Not long after we started up the mountain, we ran into some strange things. First, we encountered three different people in a row asking for directions. These guys were all in a frantic rush, and they all asked about the Pine Forest Cemetery. The few of us felt something was off at the time, but only later did we realize they were probably..."

"Cough, cough!" A coughing sound came from behind a police cruiser. Wu Meng quickly bent down and pulled the car door open. "Thanks to this Daoist master stepping in to save us, we didn't lose our minds and managed to escape safely."

"Old Liu?" The man in Daoist robes before me was none other than Blind Liu. His eyes were blindfolded with black cloth, he wore a coarse Daoist robe, and he gripped that ancestral Exorcism Carrying Pole in his hand.

"So he was the backup you called in. I'm sorry for the slight."

Blind Liu clearly didn't want to get involved with the police. He dragged me aside. "The police are out here hunting fugitives, what the hell are you doing getting involved? Are you swallowing arsenic because you think you've lived too long?"

"The fugitives they're hunting this time are the same gang that kidnapped Xiaofeng. I definitely had to come."

"They even dared to kidnap someone with a red phoenix fate grid who's haunted by a fierce ghost. It's better if you don't interfere." Blind Liu pointed at Tie Ningxiang. "I can tell your feelings for that female police officer are out of the ordinary. I cast a hexagram for you—she has her own natural blessings and will be fine. You don't need to worry blindly over her."

"You say that like your fortune-telling is actually accurate. A week ago you started rambling about how a great disaster was looming over my head and dark clouds were pressing down on me, and aren't I still perfectly alive and well?"

"Gao Jian, if you're going to talk like that, I really won't care whether you live or die from now on!" Blind Liu glared at me, blowing into his beard in anger. He gave me a feeling very similar to Half-immortal Liu from Qingcheng Mountain in the livestream.

"Say, Old Liu, do your ancestors have any connection to Mount Qingcheng?"

"I don't know, stop bothering me." Blind Liu turned and sat in the police cruiser. After a while, he popped his head back out. "That dog of yours has some problems, snapping at anyone he sees. You'd better go take a look yourself."

"Something happened to him?" Although Bai Qi hadn't been with me for long, I already considered him family. Without a second thought, I marched right over and dragged away Wu Meng, who was in the middle of talking to Tie Ningxiang.

"Where's the dog that came with Blind Liu? Is he hurt?!"

Wu Meng was startled by my interrogation. It took him a long moment to react, and the expression on his face was intriguing. "Don't panic, the dog isn't hurt. It's just..."

"Spit it out." Wu Meng was dawdling, completely unsuited to his rugged appearance.

"Forget it. You'd better just come see for yourself."

I followed Wu Meng back up the mountain. As we crossed a ridge, I suddenly smelled an incredibly thick stench of blood.

"Why is the smell of blood so heavy? Just how much blood was spilled?"

We broke out of the dense forest into an open stretch of barren ground. There, a solitary local hound crouched in the middle of the gravel.

He remained as motionless as a statue, naturally giving off an aura of loneliness and desolation.

Just looking at his exterior, he was the same as an ordinary local hound, his coat a mottled color. In this moment, however, no one would treat him as an ordinary hound, and even fewer dared to approach him.

A drop of warm, bright red blood flowed from the canine tooth at the corner of his mouth. It slid over his equally bright red body, dripping onto the ground and soaking the gravel beneath him.

Covered in blood, Bai Qi looked as though he were draped in a red battle robe—bloody, vicious, and tyrannical!

"That dog of yours is truly terrifying." Wu Meng said, "After Daoist Liu saved us, we ran into the wolf pack. The fog was thick and wolves were everywhere. Those cunning beasts waited until we ran out of bullets before launching their attack."

"Their numbers were four or five times ours. Unarmed, I thought I was undoubtedly dead. But then this dog of yours charged alone into the wolf pack!"

"I really don't know how he did it. Through the heavy fog, we only saw blooms of blood bursting into the air. Finally, we heard the alpha wolf let out a miserable shriek, and the rest of the pack retreated."

"By the time we found this dog, he was still clamped onto the alpha wolf's neck. He refused to let go until his entire body was covered in its warm blood."

Wu Meng drew in sharp breaths of cold air as he finished speaking.

"You were saved by him, and now you treat him like this?" Looking at Bai Qi left all alone on the other side of the mountain, an inexplicable anger welled up in my heart.

"He is a dog, after all..."

I didn't bother listening to the rest of Wu Meng's words, walking straight toward Bai Qi crouching in the middle of the gravel.

"Hey! Be careful! When animals go crazy, they'll bite anything!"

I didn't pause for a moment. Bai Qi, drenched in blood, saw me as well. Those pitch-black eyes of his were genuine—far more sincere, at least, than most people I had ever met.

"Bai Qi." Crouching down in front of him, I stroked his head and rubbed my cheek against his sharply upright ears. "Let's go. We're going home."

"Woof!"

"Alright, alright, stop licking. You made a great contribution today. When we get back, I'll treat you to two spoonfuls of Child Immortal Wine."

At the mention of Child Immortal Wine, the blood-drenched Bai Qi immediately scrambled up from the ground.

Wagging his tail, he followed behind me. He looked exactly like a pet dog trying to butter up its owner.