"Go and take a look!" Lin Yinan quickly rushed forward.
Lin Yiheng didn't bother to look at what had just fallen to the ground; he hurriedly followed, holding a torch.
When he caught up, in the firelight, he saw Pan Qingfeng lying on the ground, covered in blood, his life hanging in the balance. Liang Wen and Lin Shuo were also covered in blood, their hands tightly gripping their machetes and hoes.
Lin Yinan was already locked in combat with a large leopard.
Perhaps due to its size, this leopard was noticeably slower than the previous one, and the strong smell of blood from its prey drove it into a frenzy as it pounced on Lin Yinan.
The leopard was fast, but Lin Yinan was no slower. She leaned back at a 45-degree angle, knelt on the ground, and slid forward, holding the sword to her chest. As she met the leopard, the tip of the sword sliced directly from the leopard's throat to its groin, and blood splattered all over Lin Yinan's face.
Before it even hit the ground, everything inside the leopard's abdomen fell out.
The leopard twitched a few times after landing and then died.
Ignoring the injury to her knee and the leopard's carcass, Lin Yinan hurriedly got up from the ground and went to check on Pan Qingfeng, who was lying on the ground, his life hanging in the balance.
"How is he?"
Liang Wen held up a torch while Lin Yiheng examined Pan Qingfeng's wounds.
"Anan, come quick! Qingfeng is badly injured."
Seeing his partner, whom he saw every day, injured like this, Lin Yiheng's voice choked with emotion.
Lin Yinan squatted down and saw that Pan Qingfeng had a large, deep scratch on his back, and a deep bite wound on his arm, from which blood was gushing out.
"You support him, I'll stop the bleeding."
Knowing what she was going to do, Lin Yiheng nodded, and while helping the person up, he intentionally or unintentionally blocked Liang Wen's view.
When Lin Yinan took off the water pouch from her waist, she replaced the water bottle with a water pouch filled with saline solution, just like the one in her space. She then used it to clean Pan Qingfeng's wound and took a small porcelain bottle of Yunnan Baiyao from her sleeve and sprinkled it on the wound.
The bleeding stopped quickly after the medicine was applied. I lifted his clothes, tore off a corner from his undergarment, and tied it to the wound.
After treating Pan Qingfeng, Lin Yinan bandaged the wounds of Liang Wen, Lin Shuo, and Su Kaifa.
Leopards possess excellent night vision, enabling them to spot prey quickly and patiently wait for the right opportunity to strike. Their explosive power is immense; they can pounce on their prey from concealed positions and subdue them swiftly.
Pan Qingfeng and his group lacked Lin Yinan's keen intuition and were caught off guard, allowing the leopard to launch a successful sneak attack.
Judging from the wound on Pan Qingfeng's hand, it was fortunate that he was carrying a load and, in his panic, used the grass on the load to knock the leopard away. Otherwise, the leopard would have bitten his carotid artery. Even after he avoided it, the leopard still scratched his back, leaving bloody marks.
"The stench of blood here is too strong; it might attract other wild animals. We shouldn't stay any longer. Let's go back quickly," Lin Yinan said gravely.
Lin Yiheng said, "Second Uncle, you take the torch, and I'll carry Qingfeng on my back."
"You guys go first, I'll cover you from behind."
At this moment, Lin Shuo no longer cared about the two bundles of grass on the ground. He picked up the tools from the ground with a bamboo basket on his back, and led the way with a torch in hand.
Lin Yinan returned to the place where she killed the first leopard in the dark. Her sudden appearance was met by a pair of glowing green eyes that shot towards her from where the leopard's carcass had fallen.
Before she could swing her sword down, the green eye fled in panic, leaving behind a foul stench.
Ouch, it stinks! Damn! It's a weasel!
Lin Yinan cursed inwardly.
Lin Yinan, who had just heard the weasel fart, quickly took out a mask and put it on. He then gently touched the leopard's carcass, and the carcass vanished into thin air.
After leaving, she took off her mask and went to the second leopard that had been killed. She shone a powerful flashlight on it and was immediately stunned.
The animal she had gutted turned out to be a female leopard. Looking at the entrails scattered on the ground, and a clump of leopard cubs wrapped in the amniotic sac, Lin Yinan used her sword to cut open the amniotic sac and counted them. She found that there were five leopard cubs with smoky gray fur inside.
She had initially found it strange that two leopards would appear in the same place, since leopards are usually known as solitary hunters. It turned out that it was because of the female leopard.
Leopards only gather in groups in specific areas during the breeding season.
In such a short time, the pregnant leopard managed to scratch and bite several people. If the leopard hadn't been pregnant, Lin Yinan didn't dare to imagine whether they would have survived. The thought only made things worse.
Hearing the rustling sounds coming from the dark depths of the forest, Lin Yinan reached out and put the leopard carcass and embryo on the ground into her spatial storage.
He turned off the high-powered flashlight, pushed off with both feet, and like a dark ghost, he sped off in the direction Lin Yiheng and the others were heading.
Hearing the noise behind him, Su Kaifa, who was on edge, was startled. But when he saw Lin Yinan following behind with a tree branch that she had somehow gotten her hands on, he immediately felt relieved.
Just as he was hesitating to tell Lin Yiheng ahead of him that she wasn't following behind him, Lin Yinan appeared like a ghost.
After another half hour of walking, the sound of horses' hooves suddenly came from the dense forest ahead.
As they rounded the bend, they saw a troop of cavalry carrying torches.
The newcomers were none other than the secret guards led by Yun Shiyi.
Yun Shiyi, who was riding on horseback, also saw Lin Yinan and the others walking down the mountain.
"Madam, is that you?" Yun Shiyi was overjoyed and called out loudly.
Lin Yinan: "Eleventh, it's us!"
Upon hearing Lin Yinan's voice, Yun Shiyi quickly rode forward, and the two groups finally met.
Yun Shiyi dismounted and bowed to Lin Yinan, "Your subordinate greets Madam!"
“You’ve come at the right time, Liang Wen. Quickly put Qingfeng on the horse; you must be exhausted,” Lin Yinan said.
When Yun Shiyi saw Liang Wen carrying the unconscious Pan Qingfeng, he smelled a strong stench of blood. Without asking any questions, he led the horse over and made it kneel down. Together with Lin Yiheng, he helped Liang Wen support Pan Qingfeng as he lay on the horse's back.
Seeing that Lin Shuo and the others were injured, the other guards quickly gave up their horses.
In order to save time and get on the road, none of them made excuses.
Lin Yinan rode on horseback, with Yun Shiyi holding the reins for her, and the two chatted as they rode.
"Eleven, what brings you here?"
"It's getting dark. When I returned from the mountain, Chief Lin and Master Wu found me and said that you had led people into the mountain and had not yet returned. So I led people to search for you along the new path you had opened up the mountain. Madam, has something happened?"
"When two leopards attacked, my second uncle and Pan Qingfeng were caught off guard and were bitten by the leopards."
Where is Yun Mo?
Lin Yinan was a little confused. Wasn't he training with Yun Shiyi in the military camp on the mountain?
"Young Master Yunyu's men have returned to report that a fight broke out in the village below over water usage, and the master has led his men to deal with it."
Lin Yinan's heart skipped a beat, and various guesses involuntarily surfaced in her mind.
"Has anyone heard how the village is faring in terms of water shortage?"
"No, not at all." Yun Shiyi shook his head; the servant who came to report hadn't mentioned it.
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