The pig-faced bats appeared in the air quickly and suddenly.

Amidst the falling dead rats, pig-faced bats swooped down from the sky, heading straight for our group.

In the firelight, I saw a bat rushing towards me. Feeling that the knife in my hand was a bit too short, I directly smashed the bat with the torch.

When the villagers and forest police told me about the bats in the mountains, I didn't take it seriously. I even doubted how bats could possibly drain a sheep of its blood.

I was not shocked until the bat swooped right in front of me.

This pig-faced bat's head was actually as big as a pig, and its wingspan was more than two meters long when its wings were spread out, making it look like a mountain eagle.

"Bang!"

The torch in my hand traced an arc and slammed violently into the pig-faced bat, sending it flying.

After my attack, before I could even regain my balance, I suddenly felt a tremendous force on my shoulder, and then my feet were lifted off the ground.

"Xiao Duan!"

When Song Laosan saw me being lifted up by a pig-faced bat, he grabbed my ankle.

Thump!

When the old bear saw me being attacked, he picked up his hunting rifle and pulled the trigger directly at the bat above my head.

The gunshot rang out, and I immediately felt hot blood splattering down on my head, and the claws on my shoulder loosened their grip.

After firing his shot, Old Xiong waved his torch to scare away the surrounding bats: "Don't stand in the open, all of you run into the woods on the left. These bats are big, and they won't be able to fly away once they're in the woods!"

I swung the torch and smashed it onto another bat, yelling, "Go!"

As soon as the words were spoken, everyone turned around and began running into the woods on one side, despite the bats' attack.

"ah!"

As I was running, I suddenly heard Sister Hua scream, and then she was lifted up by a bat.

Thump!

Old Bear fired another shot, the bullet hitting the bat's wing and creating a fist-sized, transparent hole. However, this did not harm the bat; it only caused the bat to tilt slightly and continue to rise.

I saw that Old Bear's double-barreled shotgun had run out of bullets, so he drew throwing knives from the holster at his waist and threw them one after another.

The bat that was holding Sister Hua was hit by four or five flying knives in succession. In pain, it finally let go of her claws, threw Sister Hua five meters into the air, and raised its body.

The attack by the pig-faced bats was like a gust of wind, coming and going quickly.

Having failed to hunt, they did not linger and disappeared into the night.

Although the bats had already fled, I was still worried they might come back, so I ran to Sister Hua and asked, "How are you? Are you alright?"

Sister Hua clutched her neck, blood seeping through her fingers: "My neck was bitten, my body is numb, I can't feel anything!"

"Oh no, those bats must be poisonous."

Seeing that Sister Hua was injured, I said to Xu Le, "Pig-faced bats hunt wild animals all year round, so they should have a lot of germs on them. We need to take Sister Hua out as soon as possible and send her to the nearest hospital for treatment."

"It seems that all the questions we had were answered by mistake."

Xu Le held up a dead rat he had picked up and gestured to me: "The teeth marks on this rat are almost identical to those on the goat's carcass. It seems the anomaly here is caused by bats, not zombies. Let's all go back to Chanan Village first, find a car to take Sister Hua out, and we can also discuss a plan."

"Can."

I waved to the two members of the Wei family: "Cut two tree branches, make a simple stretcher with rope, and carry the person out."

Old Xiong also took off the water bottle and handed it to me: "You have bat blood on you. The animals in this forest are quite sensitive to the smell of blood. Wash the blood off your body carefully to avoid attracting any unwanted creatures."

I took the water bottle from Old Xiong and washed off the sweat from my clothes. At the same time, I asked him, "We're less than ten kilometers from the village. There are pig-faced bats active in this area. Has no one in the village been attacked by them?"

“These bats must have appeared today! The last time I saw these things was deep in the mountains, and the bats I saw before were nowhere near as big as these today.”

Old Xiong also found this somewhat unbelievable: "Logically speaking, wild animals would stay away from areas where humans are active, not only because of the noise, but also because human production activities produce light that wild animals fear, as well as odors such as coal smoke. There must be a reason why these bats are here."

"Could it be because of the stiffness in my body?"

Hearing what Lao Xiong said, I turned my gaze to Xu Le: "The feng shui and spiritual energy we talk about are essentially a special kind of magnetic field that cannot be captured by current scientific methods. Animals are much more sensitive to some magnetic fields in nature than humans. Is it possible that the monster appeared in the habitat of these bats and made them feel threatened, so they came to this area?"

"I don't know much about zombies, and my elders have never said that zombies can affect animals. However, zombies are like the legendary vampires, so it makes sense that animals are afraid of them."

Xu Le thought for a moment: "Let's send Sister Hua back to the village first, and then we'll come back to Human Bone Gully and try to search deeper into the mountains to see if we can find anything."

While Xu Le and I were discussing the plan, two members of the Wei family prepared a stretcher and began carrying Sister Hua down the mountain.

I walked at the front to clear the way and asked Xu Le, who was beside me, "We've arrived in Arxan. Can you tell me now where the statue we're looking for is?"

Xu Le glanced at me sideways: "The matter isn't finished yet, isn't it a bit premature for you to ask this question now?"

"We've been through so much together, you're not worried I'm going to run away, are you?"

I smiled at Xu Le: "I just think what we're doing is too dangerous. If something happens to us, I can send someone else to continue searching for the statue. You know we're looking for it to save our lives."

"To be honest, I trust you personally, but I'm still sorry I can't tell you the location of the statue. Before I set off, my family elders instructed me that no matter whether this matter succeeds or fails, I must tell you the location of the statue, but I must not reveal anything before the matter is resolved."

Xu Le shrugged and said, "The Five Immortals' Succession Struggle is very important to our Hu family, but the elders of the family don't know you well. This rule is a kind of constraint on you."

When I heard Xu Le say that, I didn't want to make a fool of myself. I was about to talk about Sister Huang's situation when I suddenly saw a strange red light flash in the darkness ahead.