Three days ago, supervisors from the Guizhou Branch of the Special Management Bureau received a request for help from the local police chief.
The content roughly said that someone reported that he found a wild man in the mountains. He also described that the wild man was faster than a dog when crawling in the mountains, and faster than a train when standing upright. Before he could take out his mobile phone to take a picture, the wild man disappeared.
The comrades who received the call at that time thought that the man was seeing things or was trying to make a joke, but since the man swore and even brought out his ancestors to guarantee it, they still sent people to the local area to investigate that same day.
If the person was not dazzled and really saw an unknown creature, then no matter whether it was a human or an animal, they would always try to find out what was playing tricks, so as to avoid spreading rumors and causing greater impact.
The results of the visit were not satisfactory.
Aside from the person who reported the incident, no one in the nearby village had ever seen anything like it. Before the police could say anything, the person who reported the incident was furious. To prove he hadn't made a false alarm, he immediately led his men up the mountain to the spot where he'd spotted the wild man.
At first, the police officers didn't take it seriously. It was not until they had walked in the mountains for over an hour and were almost at the place mentioned by the reporter that they witnessed a humanoid creature covered in brown and yellow hair running away from them at a speed that was difficult for ordinary people to achieve. Only then did they return to the police station in shock and request for support.
A large number of people searched the mountain for three days but couldn't find a single hair. If it weren't for the continuous eyewitnesses or sightings of human-shaped shadows on surveillance cameras, they would have thought it was a collective hallucination that day.
The problem could not be solved by human power. The director realized that the situation was unusual and remembered the special department that had just been established not long ago. He immediately came to ask for help with the information.
The branch reported the matter, and Yan Jue, currently the most advanced cultivator, naturally felt obligated to embark on the monster-hunting quest. While his Qi training level at the first level wasn't particularly useful, he possessed a cheat. Even without the Burning Wind, with his spiritual energy and the ability to use Tianchen Continent's merchandise, he was unbeatable.
It was already afternoon when Yan Jue and his bodyguards got off the plane. By the time they reached their destination after a series of twists and turns in the car, it was already pitch dark. Finding a demon in such a dark sky would be extremely difficult, so they took advantage of the situation and stayed overnight in a village before heading back up the mountain the next morning.
The accommodation was arranged by the local special management bureau early in the morning just in case. A group of people squeezed into a few rooms and could get by for the night.
Yan Jue took Ah Qing around the accommodation. It was the first time for both of them to stay in a stilt house, and they both had the same expression of discovering new knowledge on their faces.
When he reached the window, Yan Jue opened it and looked out.
The Miao Autonomous Region of Guizhou Province is located in a hilly area. The villages there are connected to the mountains and forests. During the day, the scenery is full of green, and at night, the trees turn black. However, when people are among them, the summer heat is still dispelled by them, leaving behind some coolness.
Ah Qing sat on Yan Jue's shoulder and looked at the dark night in the distance. He tilted his head slightly to look somewhere with a puzzled expression.
Before he could speak, footsteps were heard outside, getting closer and closer.
"Advisor Yan?"
Yan Jue responded and put Ah Qing in his backpack, leaving an opening for it to observe the situation outside. He opened the door and saw two strangers, a man and a woman, standing outside.
He came here to carry out a mission, so naturally he had to remember his partner on the way before he came. Otherwise, if he passed by someone without recognizing him, he would be the one who would be embarrassed if something went wrong.
"Hello."
The middle-aged man, surnamed Liu, was the head of a branch of the Special Management Bureau and a veteran criminal police officer. Standing next to him was a young woman dressed in Miao ethnic attire. Her appearance wasn't particularly striking, but her eyes were particularly beautiful, deep and bright, dark and unwavering. When she casually glanced at someone, it seemed as if she was looking into their soul.
"Hello, Consultant Yan." The woman nodded gently at Yan Jue. "I'm Qi Xue. I live in the village, and I'm your partner this time."
Since they were all members of the Special Management Bureau, Yan Jue didn't have too many concerns. After entering the room, he directly took Ah Qing out of his backpack and introduced him to them: "This is Ah Qing."
We agreed to bring Ah Qing to catch monsters, but how could we catch him if he was hiding in the backpack the whole time? Even if some things were beyond Ah Qing's understanding, listening in was a form of participation and it was necessary.
Ah Qing blinked curiously, with six shy slashes on his face: "Hello."
Old Liu and Qi Xue's eyes were filled with disbelief, and they tried hard not to stare wide-eyed. They caught the little man in front of them, who was made entirely of stone and could talk and think, and studied him.
They looked at Yan Jue, who had a smiling face and didn't intend to introduce him any further, and realized that a name was all they knew about him. They didn't ask any further questions, suppressed their curiosity, and replied with a smile, "Hello." After the three of them sat down to get to know each other briefly, they began to discuss the monster.
Old Liu quickly recounted the whole story, including some details. Qi Xue continued, "I've lived in the village since I was a child, and whether before or since the revival of spiritual energy, I've never heard of any strange monsters or spirits in the nearby mountains."
"They are all monsters transformed from some common animals, such as guardian spirits, foxes, ghosts, etc."
As she spoke, she raised her hand and touched a small black snake, about the thickness of a chopstick, wrapped around her wrist. She smiled slightly and said, "Little Black and my other pets have never noticed anything unusual around here. So, I don't have any valuable information on the species of the monster."
Yan Jue took a look at the little black snake that was spitting out its red tongue, tilting its head and rubbing Qi Xue's fingers affectionately as if it had wisdom, with the tip of its tail twisting back and forth, and he understood what was going on.
It turns out that Qi Xue is a Gu Master.
But in the Miao people's territory, playing with poisonous insects doesn't seem strange. Compared to her identity, Yan Jue, who doesn't like insects, is more interested in her process of joining the Special Management Bureau.
"Didn't the police station install cameras when they searched the mountain?" Yan Jue asked, "Didn't they capture any footage?"
Lao Liu pulled out his phone and pulled up a picture: "The monster was moving too fast, so I couldn't take a clear picture. I could only capture a yellow patch."
Yan Jue leaned over to take a look. There was only a yellow mosaic-like afterimage on the picture. Two leg-like objects could be barely seen, and no other features could be seen clearly. The only thing that could be inferred was that the monster was not short.
So this could be a humanoid monster?
"The monsters that have appeared so far are all recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Could this one also be related to the Classic of Mountains and Seas?" Old Liu frowned in thought, muttering to himself, "Does the Classic of Mountains and Seas describe monsters similar to wild men?"
I don’t know about that.
Before seeing the monster itself, it is hard to say what species it is, anything is possible.
Old Liu came back to his senses. "We've marked several spots where monsters have been spotted, and we've even staked out several nearby mountains for two days. We've discovered that the monsters seem to be confined to this mountain. Advisor Yan, where would you like to begin your investigation tomorrow?"
He took out a simple map marked with red dots from his pocket and handed it to Yan Jue.
"Just call me by my name." Yan Jue reminded him, then took the map and said, "I don't know the situation either, so I plan to try using spiritual energy tomorrow to see if I can find any traces of the monster. If that doesn't work, I'll follow the instructions on the map. Okay?"
"Of course. Yan, Yan Jue." Old Liu nodded without objection. "The General Administration has told us to fully cooperate with you. We will do whatever you say to investigate."
Yan Jue was a little surprised. He didn't know that Pan Wencheng had given such an order to the branch.
"What's so surprising about this?" Old Liu smiled heartily and patted Yan Jue on the shoulder. "You're a cultivator, and you're a professional at dealing with monsters. We ordinary people should listen to you and not grope around blindly."
Yan Jue felt a sense of responsibility rising spontaneously: "Then I must work hard. It would be so embarrassing if I couldn't catch the monster."
“Just do your best.”
After saying this, Old Liu glanced at Qi Xue, who was sitting quietly beside him. Seeing that she had nothing to say, he said goodbye. As the night got late, Yan Jue didn't want to keep the two of them, but got up and walked them out the door.
Qi Xue walked behind Lao Liu. When she reached the door, she suddenly turned around, looked at Yan Jue, and asked without thinking, "Zhang Zizhen didn't come?"
"No." Yan Jue was stunned: "He is about to break through and is practicing hard. You..." know him?
A piece of information flashed through his mind, but he couldn't catch it in time.
"According to seniority, he should call me 'little aunt'. It's thanks to him that I was able to join the Special Management Bureau."
Yan Jue was shocked. He didn't expect that these two people were actually related.
Qi Xue smiled softly: "That child has always been a bit jumpy, Consultant Yan, having an employee like that is really causing you trouble at work."
"We are all colleagues, there is no need to worry about it."
"That's good. If there's anything I can help you with tomorrow, just let me know."
After watching Qi Xue leave, Yan Jue slowly closed the door. After taking two steps, he paused, clasped his hands together, and said to himself in sudden realization, "Oh right, about that foreign sorcerer thing, didn't Zhang Zizhen's grandfather say he knew a Gu Master? Could it be Qi Xue?"
"It's a small world."
"Teacher, what's too small? Me?"
Because Ah Qing was so quiet, Yan Jue forgot for a moment that he had a child. He concealed his guilty conscience, walked over to Ah Qing as if nothing had happened, and said to her, "Yes, isn't Ah Qing a little kid?"
He covered Ah Qing with his hand, "Look, I can cover you with just one palm."
Ah Qing pushed Yan Jue's hand away and loudly retorted: "I'm super big in real life, and I will definitely be bigger than the teacher in the future!"
“That’s amazing.”
"Of course." Ah Qing puffed out her chest and said, "When I grow older than the teacher, I will let the teacher sit in my palm too."
Yan Jue chuckled: "Okay, then Ah Qing grows up quickly. I look forward to that day."
I envy Ah Qing. He can brag without risking a back injury. After all, he doesn’t have a waist at all.
After playing around for a while, Ah Qing remembered something and asked Yan Jue to take him to the window. After instructing him to open the window, he pointed to the left and said, "Teacher, I feel like something is wrong there."
When Yan Jue saw that Ah Qing was pointing to the mountain where the monster was found, his heart sank and he asked, "What's wrong?"
Ah Qing said distressedly, "That mountain over there, I feel like there's something very familiar there, a special smell wafting through it, but it's so far away, the feeling is vague, and I can't really pinpoint it. But it's also so annoying, like someone's constantly tickling me, and I can't scratch it even if I want to."
Ah Qing's description was wild and imaginative, and he used all kinds of metaphors, but to sum it up, there was a familiar smell there that was constantly emanating.
Smell? So far?
Yan Jue sniffed hard, and the smell of cool breeze from the mountains and forests came to him. Apart from that, there was no other strange smell.
"Teacher, can't you smell it?" Ah Qing's eyes widened, a little anxious: "I'm not lying, I really smell a very familiar smell."
"The teacher didn't doubt you."
Yan Jue comforted him: "Maybe it's because we are of different races, so I didn't smell it. It's okay, we are going to catch monsters on that mountain tomorrow. When we get there, Ah Qing, please tell me if you find anything new, okay?"
"Okay!" Ah Qing clenched his fist: "I will definitely remember it."
"good."
After sending Ah Qing back to kindergarten, Yan Jue looked at the black hill outside the window, frowned and sighed.
The monster has not been caught yet, and new problems have arisen.
At this moment, he thought of the elementary school student who was a god of death in a certain island country, and felt that he was not much different from him.
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