Everyone looked at the Loess Ridge, where there was no road at all and very few plants, with mixed feelings.
What does it mean to be so far away yet so close at hand? This is it. Zhou Taotao and the other employees of the Special Management Bureau who were originally in charge of this place were filled with mixed emotions. Did they have toiled in Xitu Village for so long, constantly under the feet of the mastermind behind the scenes, going back and forth countless times?
No matter how complicated it is, the work must continue.
Going up there rashly would be suicidal, so they assembled a drone and planned to fly around first to see if they could capture a frontal shot of the monster. As for disturbing the monster, that wasn't a concern. If they could scare it enough to move, ideally to come down to the ground, that would be even better.
Only when they were on the ground, could Zhang Zizhen, the only one in their group with unscientific combat power, and their hot weapons hit the enemy.
Everyone tacitly agreed not to ask Zhuo Feng to destroy the monster.
The drone was launched, and a group of people gathered, intently watching the screen. To capture a clear image of the monster, the drone flew very close to the earthen ridge, even making out the few blades of grass growing on it. After circling halfway, as it reached the back of the ridge, a cave in the earthen slope was visible in the distance, and the operator immediately flew over.
"owl?"
Someone raised an uncertain voice, and someone else chimed in, "That seems to be the case. Aren't owls supposed to live in trees? Why are some nesting in burrows?"
"What kind of owl is this? Why are there two tufts of hair next to its ears? They look like human ears."
"It's grass, right? How is that possible... Holy shit!"
Maybe the drone's noise was too loud, startling the bird in the hole. The bird, which had its back to the hole, suddenly turned its head, causing everyone staring at the screen to exclaim "Oh shit" in unison.
That's not even an owl. Whose owl has a human face, four eyes, and two human-like ears?
"Monster, monster!"
A person pointed at the screen and stuttered so much that he could barely speak clearly.
The monster that looked like an owl turned its body around and stared at the drone curiously. A puzzled expression could be clearly seen on its human-like face.
“So ugly!”
Yan Jue looked down and saw Noel, who might have been woken up by their exclamations. He was rubbing his eyes and looking at the screen and expressing his feelings.
It turns out that this monster is also ugly in Noel's eyes. A thought flashed through his mind, and Yan Jue suppressed his distracting thoughts and said to Zhuo Feng, "Zhuo Feng, can you please catch the monster?"
The monster has wings and can run away at any time, and it is very likely that it will not come to the ground at all. In order to avoid complications, Yan Jue did not bother to let his people practice. Asking for help from Zhuo Feng for a quick victory is the best option.
Zhuo Feng didn't say much, just nodded and floated away.
Noel was awake and quickly realized that this was a critical moment in catching the monster. He did not speak to Yan Jue but instead leaned on the rim of his teacup and nervously looked in the direction where Zhuo Feng left.
Within seconds, Zhuofeng appeared within the camera's range. The monster, perhaps noticing it, became visibly agitated, sprinting towards the cave entrance with its paws outstretched, attempting to escape. However, Zhuofeng was more alert than it. Just as the owl reached the cave entrance and prepared to spread its wings, Zhuofeng didn't make any major movements. With a simple flick of his tail, the owl collapsed, wings still spread.
The drone quickly followed, trying to take a clear picture of where the owl landed so it could pick it up. The next second, the owl stopped rolling and floated in the air, following Zhuo Feng back.
Yan Jue felt relieved and looked up to find Zhuo Feng's location to pick him up. However, Zhou Taotao, realizing something was wrong, exclaimed, "Hurry up and pack up! The villagers seem to have woken up. You guys pack up and leave. Xiao Chen and the others will stay."
The group of people packed up their things and ran out in a panic without even having time to be happy. Yan Jue stretched out his hand and gestured to Zhuo Feng from a distance. When he saw that Zhuo Feng had caught up, he also started to slip out.
He ran out of the village in one breath. Before Yan Jue could react, an experienced man wearing gloves tied up the monster that Zhuo Feng had caught and put it into a sack.
Zhang Zizhen patted his chest and said, "It's really exciting."
The man put the monster into the trunk and said, "Advisor Yan, let's go first. Taotao and the others have been here for a long time, and the villagers are familiar with them. They will definitely have to stay and come up with an explanation that the villagers can accept. It will probably take a long time. Let's go back to town and wait for them."
Yan Jue nodded and followed the man into the car.
Nuoer was eager to try and run to the back of the car to see the monster, but Yan Jue held the fish in his hand to prevent him from running away. He turned around and asked Zhuo Feng, "How is it? Did you consume a lot of spiritual energy?"
"That monster is very weak to me." Zhuo Feng boasted modestly.
"That's great, Burning Wind is awesome!"
Yan Jue touched Zhuo Feng's head. Seeing that he couldn't dispel Nuoer's desire to see the monster, he rolled his eyes and stuffed Xiaoyu next to Nuoer: "The solution to this matter depends entirely on Zhuo Feng. The teacher doesn't know much about the details, and doesn't even know how big the monster is."
The implication is that only Zhuo Feng, who caught the monster, knows best what the monster looks like.
As expected, Nuoer pestered Zhuofeng to listen to his story. Zhuofeng looked at Yan Jue helplessly, and after receiving his apologetic and somewhat flattering smile, he had no choice but to take on the task.
Zhang Zizhen looked at the interaction between Yan Jue and the other two with envy, came over and asked in a low voice: "Brother Yan, where did you meet these two monsters?" I also wanted to try my luck.
He also respectfully calls Brother Yan "Teacher". He is truly worthy of being a consultant of the Special Management Bureau. His methods are so extraordinary.
"I met her by accident." Yan Jue couldn't reveal anything, so he could only laugh and change the subject: "Do you know what kind of monster that is?"
"I don't know. My knowledge of monsters is limited to common species in reality. If it didn't have a human face, I might have identified it as an owl monster."
"But don't worry." Zhang Zizhen took out his phone: "If you meet someone you don't know, just Baidu it."
Yan Jue: "...Are you serious?"
Although everyone was a new generation of youth in the past few decades, there is no need to be so technological now.
"Of course. A new species of monster can't appear out of thin air, right? What if this thing is an ancient monster that has awakened with the resurgence of spiritual energy? We should trust the experience of our predecessors."
As Zhang Zizhen spoke, he skillfully entered the keywords on Baidu and clicked confirm.
"What the hell?"
"Really?" Yan Jue curiously poked his head out and was also shocked: "Holy crap, the Classic of Mountains and Seas?"
This book is very familiar to young people. It has a place in various occult accounts and unsolved mysteries. Unexpectedly, it is also true and not just a random story.
"How do you pronounce this word, yong?" Zhang Zizhen repeated his search: "There's a bird in the mountains that looks like... When it appears, there's a severe drought."
Yan Jue and Zhang Zizhen looked at each other in surprise.
Thinking about the various anomalies in Xitu Village, Yan Jue swallowed his saliva and said, "It matches...except for the ability to deceive people, everything else is correct."
Think about all the strange beasts in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. If they were to appear one after another... Zhang Zizhen couldn't help but feel his scalp tingling.
"It's not about demagoguery, it's its instinct."
"Scorching Wind?"
Yan Jue was startled. He came back to his senses and looked at Zhuo Feng and Nuo Er, who had been listening for who knows how long. He asked curiously, "Anything to say?"
"I just heard him say that if Yong appeared, there would be a severe drought. If the records are correct and it really does have this ability, then everything it did in the village was just instinct, similar to the innate magical power I mentioned."
Zhuo Feng explained, "The spiritual energy here has just revived. It's naturally impossible for it to reach its peak strength upon awakening. It's even very likely to be in a weak state. In order to replenish its energy, it can only absorb the spiritual energy of the weather and ask for it from the nearest humans."
"Anyone who can cause a severe drought should be an evil demon, right? It's not surprising that they would harm humans."
After saying this, Zhuo Feng became even more curious about the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" that his teacher had mentioned. He had seen many monsters that appeared with ice, fire, or charm, but this was the first time he had seen one with the magical attribute of causing a global drought.
He looked at Yan Jue and asked frankly: "Teacher, can you give me a copy of the Classic of Mountains and Seas?"
In the teacher's world, he couldn't understand the books, so the teacher had to send them to him through kindergarten.
Yan Jue understood this and agreed without asking any questions: "Sure, I'll send it to you right away. Is Noel interested?"
Noel nodded: "I want to see it too!"
"Okay, give Noel one too."
"It's a pity that I don't have a book like the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Otherwise, I could give the teacher a copy, and then he could choose whatever gift he wants from it!" Noel said happily, "Then I won't have to worry about what to give as a gift anymore."
Yan Jue rubbed his head helplessly: "Little lazy fish."
After returning to the rented courtyard, the people accompanying him put Yong into an empty room. They did not dare to move and instead went to ask Zhuo Feng for help first.
Zhuo Feng, upon hearing the other party's question, said somewhat embarrassedly, "I'm not very skilled in attacking, and I hit it a little too hard. Now it only has one breath left."
After more than 40 years of captivity, he had very little practical experience.
Yan Jue, who knew Zhuo Feng's past, understood why. Afraid of being blamed, he took the initiative to apologize: "Did I ruin your plan? Zhuo Feng didn't mean to do that."
"No, no, no." The man waved his hand. "Due to the catastrophic nature of this thing, we didn't intend to let it live. We simply couldn't tell whether Yong was dead or alive, so we came to ask. Now that it's still breathing, we'll have to trouble Zhuo Feng to kill it once and for all."
Yan Jue suddenly realized that after taking Zhuo Feng to finish his work, he would not disturb others from doing their research. Instead, he took a little tail named Zhang Zizhen with him and played games in the room.
It was not until the afternoon that Zhou Taotao rushed back from Xitu Village.
Seeing that he came back so late, Yan Jue was worried that he had encountered something, so he asked him to check on him. "Brother Zhou, is everything going well? Do you need help? There is a potion in the mall that can hypnotize people."
"No, the matter has been resolved."
"Oh? What excuse did you give?"
"We've been around the village several times. After the villagers regained consciousness, some still remembered us, so we told them we were from the Public Security Bureau investigating a cult." Zhou Taotao said with a familiar expression, "Their memories were still there, so we said there was a group of cult members skilled in hypnosis who, after hypnotizing them, wanted to use sacrifices to create gods for themselves and make money."
"He also said that luckily they had only made it to the first step when we arrived and hadn't had time to ask everyone to hand over their belongings. We've already apprehended them, and he hopes everyone will be more vigilant in the future. He then comforted the villagers and helped them clean up the threshing ground before returning."
Yan Jue gave Zhou Taotao a thumbs-up and said, "Great! I can tell you've truly entered the realm of science."
"Come on, this will happen a lot in the future, and you can't escape." Zhou Taotao slapped his hand away, glanced at his shoulder, and asked, "Where are those two cubs you never leave your side?"
"They were very interested in the Classic of Mountains and Seas and went back to read the book in the game."
"Classic of Mountains and Seas?" He had just returned and had not had time to understand what happened after his people withdrew in the morning.
"Well, monsters are recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Brother Zhou, you'll know if you take a look."
Zhou Taotao became interested and hurriedly explained that he would go find someone to find out the situation after returning on the evening flight.
Yan Jue returned to his room and went straight to the game.
There is plenty of time, so it is a good opportunity to strike while the iron is hot and find Zhuo Feng to trade for things they can use.
The author has something to say:
①Translation from Baidu Encyclopedia: There is a kind of bird in the mountains, shaped like an owl, but with a human face, four eyes and ears. Its name is "颙". The sound it makes is the pronunciation of its own name. When it appears, there will be a severe drought in the world.
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