Lin Yinan grabbed the sword and rushed out.
Yun Shiyi, who was on night watch outside, jumped down from a large tree and formed an encirclement with all the guards.
The horse tied to the tree was still pawing the ground restlessly with its hooves.
Lin Yinan looked at them, who were staring intently at the direction of the mountain.
It was pitch black, and you couldn't see anything. Strangely, the cicadas and frogs had stopped chirping.
She asked quietly, "What's over there?"
The young guard beside him shook his head slightly. "I don't know. It seems that something that the horse is terrified of is approaching this way."
Lin Yinan listened intently in that direction. Apart from the occasional snorting of the horses and the breathing of the group, the area by the mountain was eerily quiet.
She pulled night-vision goggles from her sleeve and put them on her head; the guards on the way south had also seen her wearing this strange device.
At this moment, the Chika sisters came out with torches. Seeing that it was pitch black all around, they took out some firewood and lit a fire.
Lin Yinan looked towards the mountainside again and saw several pairs of glowing eyes moving in a dense forest.
Upon closer inspection, their ears are relatively short and their heads are round, making them seem unlike wolves. In the darkness, one can vaguely make out white stripes on their bodies.
She was puzzled, and it took her a while to realize that the South China tiger lived in the south and had not gone extinct in ancient times.
"It's a tiger!"
As soon as Lin Yinan finished speaking, the tiger lying in ambush in the woods moved and pounced in the direction where they were standing.
In the firelight, everyone could clearly see three tigers: two large and one small.
Before he could think, Lin Yinan suddenly had a submachine gun in his hand and fired a burst of bullets at the tiger running in the lead.
The first tiger blocked all the bullets, and it collapsed just before it reached the crowd.
The fallen tiger struggled violently to get up, letting out a series of powerful roars that echoed through the dense forest.
Yun Shiyi and his guards drew their swords and slashed at the two tigers that charged at them.
Lin Yinan put away his submachine gun, drew his sword, and plunged it into the tiger's throat. The tiger twitched twice and then became still.
I silently repeated to myself, "What a sin! What a sin!"
Before the zombie outbreak in the previous life, there were only a few South China tigers left, and they were on the verge of extinction.
Seeing the tiger die, the big tiger that was fighting with Yun Shiyi would occasionally let out a powerful and fierce roar, as would the cub next to it.
The guards kept a close watch on the two tigers' every move.
Hearing the response from the tiger on the ground, the two tigers roared angrily, opened their blood-red mouths, and pounced on the guards.
The guards, agile and nimble, dodged the tiger's attacks and, working together, seized the opportunity to thrust their swords at it, causing profuse bleeding. The tiger, writhing in pain, quickly collapsed to the ground and was swiftly killed by the guards.
Upon seeing this, the tiger that was confronting Yun Shiyi went berserk and pounced fiercely, but it was soon killed by the group working together.
After an unknown amount of time, the mountains and forests gradually returned to peace.
Upon counting, the three tigers killed were estimated to be a family of three, with the male tiger being the first to be shot. The adult tiger weighed approximately 400-500 pounds, and the cub weighed 100-200 pounds.
Two of the guards had tiger scratches on their arms, and the Chika sisters helped clean and treat the wounds.
"Madam, what should we do with these three tigers?"
While they were fighting the tiger, Lin Yinan had already dug out all the spent cartridges.
Tigers are valuable from head to toe, but these three tigers were covered in scratches and their once beautiful tiger skins were almost ruined.
"Tiger bones and tiger meat should not be wasted."
Three tiger paws weigh over a thousand pounds!
"But it's too hot to keep it, so I'll have someone send it back to the county town," Yun Shiyi asked tentatively, his brows furrowed.
It would take a whole day to get them back to the county town. After thinking for a moment, Lin Yinan asked, "Where is the nearest village?"
The guard opened a map and pointed to the nearest village, saying, "It's Baiwei Village, about thirty miles away."
"Okay, we'll take the tiger meat to sell to the villagers nearby."
After the guards finished bandaging their wounds, Yun Shiyi said after some deliberation, "The smell of blood here is too strong and may attract other monsters. We should not stay here for long and should set off as soon as possible."
Lin Yinan looked up at the sky, where a hint of dawn was breaking. She knew it would be daylight soon, and there was no point in staying any longer.
"Then let's set off."
So, the Chika sisters and the guards each gave up a horse to carry the dead tiger, and the group traveled in the dark to Baiwei Village.
Nearly an hour later, they stopped at the entrance of Baiwei Village.
By this time, it was already broad daylight, and wisps of smoke were rising from every household in the village.
Before long, when the villagers who went out to fetch water saw the group of people dressed in black at the village entrance through the wisps of smoke, they were so frightened that they threw their loads on the ground and ran to the village chief's house.
He ran while shouting, "Village chief! Something terrible has happened! A group of bandits are at the village entrance!"
Soon, the whole village was in an uproar!
The village chief led the way, striking a gong, followed by villagers carrying hoes and shovels, all rushing towards the village entrance.
Who goes there?
The village chief, panting, pointed at Lin Yinan and the others riding on horseback and shouted questions.
The villagers behind him were on high alert, pointing their farm tools at the man on horseback.
Lin Yinan raised an eyebrow slightly; the villagers in this village were quite vigilant.
Yun Shiyi looked down at the village chief from his high vantage point and took off the token from his waist.
"Does the village chief recognize this?"
The village chief took a few steps forward, squinted at the token, and upon closer inspection, he was greatly surprised and quickly bowed.
"So you are an esteemed person. Please forgive my ignorance in not recognizing your greatness."
"Can we enter the village now?" Yun Shiyi put away the token.
"Of course, no problem!"
As the villagers were still looking around, they saw the village chief jogging back and waving to them.
"Scatter quickly, it's an official from the county town."
Upon hearing that it was an official, the villagers immediately scattered, and the few people on horseback filed past.
When the village chief saw the three tiger carcasses on the horse's back, his legs went weak with fear.
"Look, is that a tiger being carried on the horse's back?"
"Good heavens! Could the official have gone into the mountains?"
"That's great! We're no longer afraid to go into the mountains to chop firewood. The officials in the city are truly our benefactors!"
The village chief followed behind, carrying a gong, and glared at the villagers. "Get out of here, what are you yelling about? Don't make the important people laugh at you."
The group arrived at the village's well.
Yun Shiyi dismounted and said to the village chief, "We killed three tigers in a dilapidated temple in the mountains, but we have official business to attend to and cannot take the tigers with us. We have come to ask if the villagers need to buy tiger meat."
He wasn't good with words, and his speech was not only overly formal but also particularly stiff.
The village chief broke out in a cold sweat. It turned out that the official had come to ask them if they wanted to buy tiger meat. If they didn't, would the official beat them?
"How much do you want for this tiger meat, sir?" the village chief asked tentatively.
He's lived to this age and has never actually eaten tiger meat.
The village chief's words stumped Yun Shiyi, as he had never sold meat before and didn't know how much it should cost.
He turned his gaze to Lin Yinan.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
