This made him start to suspect that his bait had gone bad.
Just as he was about to examine the bait with suspicion, he suddenly saw a huge black shadow appear underwater!
If this were on land, he might not pay much attention to such a dark shadow, but since it's in the water, the moving dark shadow could very well be a big fish!
Duan Zhengcun immediately put down everything he was doing, held his breath, and stared wide-eyed at the dark shadow in the water.
Upon seeing this, he couldn't help but show a look of shock.
The dark shape underwater gradually became clearer; it turned out to be a giant salamander, at least a meter long, also known as a Chinese giant salamander.
This was the first time Duan Zhengcun had ever seen such a large giant salamander.
But he had no intention of fishing for it or catching it.
After all, wild giant salamanders are now listed as national protected animals. As a law-abiding citizen, he would naturally not do anything that violates the law.
Moreover, this giant salamander is so big that it must have lived for decades.
Ever since learning the fox demon's identity, Duan Zhengcun now feels awe towards any animal that has lived for a long time, thinking that perhaps soon they too can cultivate into human form like the fox demon.
At this moment, Duan Zhengcun was simply excited because it was the first time he had ever witnessed such a giant salamander.
He carefully put down his fishing rod, then took out his phone, intending to photograph this spectacle and show it to the fox demon when he got home.
I wonder if she has lived for hundreds of years and has ever seen a giant salamander bigger than this.
But when he took out his phone and pointed the camera at the giant salamander in the water, Duan Zhengcun suddenly realized from the phone that the giant salamander seemed to be looking at him.
Its gaze was focused through the camera, looking directly into Duan Zhengcun's eyes, as if it were staring back at him.
In that instant, Duan Zhengcun's hand trembled inexplicably, and a chill ran down his spine.
Humans inevitably feel fear when faced with creatures larger than themselves.
Especially after learning that animals in this world can cultivate themselves into demons, he often wondered whether the animals he encountered also possessed sentience.
So when he looked into the eyes of the salamander in the water, a thought couldn't help but pop into his head.
Could it be that the giant salamanders in the water have also gained sentience?
He was at a loss for what to do, so he put down his phone, mustered up his courage, and said to the salamander in the water, "Sorry to bother you, but I'm not a bad person and I won't do anything to it. I just want it not to be afraid."
Whether the giant salamander understood or not, Duan Zhengcun felt much more at ease.
Even after he finished speaking, the salamander in the water continued to stare at him, and a group of fish gathered around it, staring at him on the stone bridge from the same angle.
The fish's strange behavior further convinced Duan Zhengcun that the salamanders might have indeed developed sentience.
At the same time, he felt a strange sense of being stared at from behind.
It felt as if a gaze was watching him from behind.
Duan Zhengcun frowned and quickly turned around, only to find that there was nothing in the bamboo forest on both sides behind him.
There were no people, and no animals.
All that remains are bamboo leaves and branches swaying in the wind.
Looking into the distance, the dense green bamboo forest gradually turned dark green, the color getting deeper and deeper, until it even gave the illusion of being unseen.
At the same time, the sound of bamboo leaves swaying in the wind changed from a soft rustling sound to a rapid and sharp one.
All of this gave Duan Zhengcun a chill down his spine.
He had a vague feeling that something was wrong here, but he couldn't find anything.
But his intuition told him he had to leave.
So he no longer cared about taking pictures or fishing, immediately grabbed his things, jumped off the stone bridge, and ran out of the bamboo forest without looking back.
He only breathed a sigh of relief after he had completely escaped the bamboo forest and was back in his car.
But since it was not far from the stream and bamboo forest, he dared not relax completely. He could only take one last look at the bamboo forest and the stream before turning the car around and leaving.
He only truly relaxed when the car drove to an area where he could gradually see signs of human habitation.
Looking back on what happened in the bamboo forest, Duan Zhengcun felt that the sounds of the wind and the rustling of the bamboo leaves were actually quite normal.
It's likely that after seeing that giant salamander, he developed a psychological fear of it, which is why he's so paranoid and panicked at the slightest thing.
If there were any real danger in that bamboo forest, the stone bridge he was standing on was so far from the exit of the bamboo forest that he probably wouldn't have been able to escape.
After thinking about it this way, Duan Zhengcun felt even more that he had been too tense just now.
It seems I shouldn't go fishing alone in such desolate places anymore.
When he got home, the fox demon still hadn't returned.
Duan Zhengcun checked the time and realized it was time to make dinner, so he went straight to the kitchen to get busy.
He stopped dwelling on what happened in the bamboo forest.
He didn't feel any discomfort in his body until that evening.
It wasn't until the next morning, when I got up, that I felt a little dizzy and heavy-headed.
At first, he didn't take it seriously, thinking he just hadn't slept well.
But then the situation worsened, and he even developed a cough, so he knew he probably had a cold.
He thought about it for a long time but still couldn't figure out how he caught the cold.
He originally thought that his minor cold didn't require any medicine or treatment and that he could recover on his own with his own immune system.
But unexpectedly, instead of improving, it got worse and worse.
The fox spirit then took him to the hospital, and the examination results surprised them greatly.
After that, the fox demon went to the special department for help.
Why didn't you tell me about your encounter with the big fish?
The fox demon looked at Duan Zhengcun with some dissatisfaction.
After hearing Duan Zhengcun's words, even the fox demon realized that there might be something strange about the big fish and the bamboo forest.
Lin Xi and she shared similar thoughts.
Regardless of whether there's anything wrong with the giant salamanders in the bamboo forest and the stream, I have to go and check it out to put my mind at ease.
To be honest, while human intuition may not be as sharp as that of animals, it can sometimes help them avoid potential dangers.
Without further ado, the fox demon took Duan Zhengcun and Lin Xi and set off for the bamboo forest where Duan Zhengcun had been fishing that day.
Half an hour later, the three arrived at the entrance to the bamboo forest.
Even before entering the bamboo forest, Lin Xi could feel the intense vitality emanating from it.
Logically speaking, this place is a dense bamboo forest with a stream running through it.
Given that both of these are yin, the yin energy should be heavier here.
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