茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

When Xiang Kun used to talk with people in the past, most of his attention was on himself, thinking about what he was going to say or do, how he should respond to the conversation, what he should say next. However, when it came to strangers, he always had a fear that anything he said would be awkward.

Now, due to a significant improvement in his sensory and information collection and processing capabilities, Xiang Kun’s understanding and approach towards communicating with strangers have completely changed.

He can easily gauge what others want to say or hear, and hence can easily get the information he wants based on this.

For instance, after learning about the location of the village where the lady sitting next to him has lived since childhood, Xiang Kun began to deliberately guide her to get more related information from her.

Many affairs, once circulated on the internet or other media, tend to be somewhat distorted and differ significantly from the actual situation.

Although the local “legends” or “rumours” often heard tend to deviate from the truth, they relatively provide more accurate information.

Speaking of legends, the old lady developed an interest. Originally, she wanted to have a nap with a blanket she had asked the flight attendant for, but now she was overwhelmed with excitement and started to chatter non-stop.

In a broad sense, the Qinling is a giant mountain range, extending about 1600 kilometers from west to east, and about 100-200 kilometers wide from north to south, also referred to as the Chinese Backbone, Chinese Dragon Vein, Father Mountain. This area is home to a large number of rare and precious wild animals and vast areas remain undeveloped and uninhabited.

Such a vast mountain range is rife with all sorts of legends and mysterious incidents, from ancient tombs, to monsters and demons, to immortals and monks, to wild men and beasts, even UFOs and extraterrestrial visitors. Therefore, it always attracts adventurers and investigators.

The older woman had certainly heard plenty of such legends when she was a child, mainly focusing on ancient tombs, spirits, and various beasts.

Xiang Kun used the video recorded by Host Xue of the wild boar, to have the older woman think about the “blood-sucking beast”.

However, she mentioned that she had never heard of such legends. And like most netizens, she believes that the wild boar was most likely killed by Host Xue and his team, creating a false impression of a monster to draw attention.

The old lady didn’t completely dismiss the possibility, remarking that anything could happen in the deep woods so ordinary people should avoid it.

After a while, Xiang Kun, noticing the woman’s fatigue, concluded the conversation so she could rest.

The information from the old woman didn’t prove very useful, as she moved to the county when she was a young teenager, and the mountain village where she lived was a long way from the area where Host Xue and his team had their incident. Moreover, all the villagers had moved several years ago as part of an ecological restoration project.

The information she knew mostly came from the older villagers and her elders.

But, the lack of useful information is also, in itself, a kind of information.

The flight was smooth and landed safely without any turbulence or any incidents that the old woman had worried about following the movie-like scenario.

Upon arrival, the older woman sitting next to him enthusiastically offered that her relatives would take Xiang Kun to his hotel. However, he politely declined.

He had no plans to stay overnight in this city. While it was still early, he took a direct bus to a county-level city a dozen kilometers away, and from there, he hired a private car to a small town, which was also where Host Xue stayed, rested and uploaded videos before he died.

Upon reaching the small town in the early hours of the morning, Xiang Kun was initially planning to go straight to the mountains, but after some consideration, he went to the only hotel in town.

It had been over half a month since the bodies of Host Xue and his crew were discovered. Normally, any official investigators or media personnel should have been long gone.

If there were any left, unlike Xiang Kun who was self-reliant and could move around in the mountain day and night, they would likely need to stay in the small town, similar to what Host Xue and his team did.

Upon reaching the hotel, Xiang Kun slowed down, went to the hotel lobby restroom, and started collecting sensory information.

Considering the hotel’s occupancy, there were not many guests, and none were discussing the Host Xue incident.

Xiang Kun didn’t waste any more time. After leaving the restroom, he walked out of the hotel, ready to go straight into the mountain. However, he paused again after hearing a conversation between two men leaving the hotel behind him.

“Do we really have to drive back overnight? Can’t we just leave tomorrow morning?” one of them complained.

“The flight booked by the company is at half-past eight in the morning. They are practically forcing us to drive all night. Do you think you can make it otherwise?” the other one retorted.

“Can’t we just buy our own tickets?”

“Go ahead, make the call. If they agree to change our flight times, I’ll pay for your ticket.”

“Damn, they’re just messing with us. Coming here for this thing is utterly meaningless. All they gave us was a pile of mud, a pile of dirt. What could we possibly find? And that dead pig, we put in so much effort, and it’s rotten to the point of uselessness. What can we possibly find? They think they are the CSI or something…”

“Stop rambling, you’ve signed the non-disclosure.”

“What’s to be scared about? No one heard us. Can you tell me what the company hopes to achieve by having us do all this?”

From their perspective, Xiang Kun, who had left the hotel before them, was already across the street. Even if they were to shout, he probably wouldn’t hear them.

“Why don’t you ask them?” The other one was clearly annoyed by his companion’s complaints.

With that, the two of them got into a white Prado and drove out of the hotel parking lot.

Hearing their conversation, Xiang Kun immediately realized that their purpose of coming here was potentially the same as his. But unlike him, who had a clear aim and knew why he was here and what he was looking for, they were most likely “staff” acting on someone’s orders.

As he saw the car leaving the hotel parking lot, Xiang Kun immediately started formulating various plans in his head.

Faking a hit-and-run accident to attract the police and identify them? Impossible. Not to mention the potential hospital visit, but simply exposing himself to these two people would create numerous risks. He still didn’t know their exact origins, and it would be too dangerous to act this way.

Try to attach a bead with “super sensory contact” to their vehicle and then track to their destination? Again, it was not feasible. Leaving aside the difficulty of making the bead “stick” on the car for the whole journey, from their conversation, they were leaving by plane tomorrow morning. Even if he followed them all night, it probably wouldn’t make much sense.

To be safe, Xiang Kun chose to do nothing but memorize the license plate number of the Prado.

Xiang Kun looked back at a hotel not far away. Perhaps he could find a way to enter the hotel and access their registration system to see what identities and affiliations the two who just left had registered under.

However, after considering several schemes, all of which could fetch him the information, they all unavoidably left “traces”, making others aware of him and remembering his face. If the others later notice something, they may conduct a reverse investigation, hence knowing about his existence here.

He remains hidden for now. It is too risky to show a trace out in the open. After all, in this information age, once a shadow is captured, the actual person is easily exposed.

At times like this, he was frustrated as to why he didn’t possess the ability to hypnotize with language directly from Guo Tianxiang.

Xiang Kun decided to put this matter aside for now, and go into the mountains to verify the potential existence of mutants.

So, with the large bow case on his back, Xiang Kun set off along the road into the mountain. Before a car approached, he would step aside to avoid being spotted.

Normally, no one would venture into the mountains alone at this time, let alone Xiang Kun who didn’t even catch a ride but started to walk from the town. Bear in mind, the place where Host Xue and his party entered the mountain was still more than two hours’ drive away.

But Xiang Kun had his reasons. He had researched the local topography on a map first, so he knew how to take shortcuts. Obstacles that seemed insurmountable to others were not too challenging for Kun.

After walking along the mountain road for more than two hours from the town, Xiang Kun took a small path in between the mountains. After covering a distance, he set down his heavy bow case, took out the compound bow gifted by Tang Baona under the night sky, assembled it, fitted the arrowheads, and carried both the compound bow and the quiver on his back.

Xiang Kun hid the bow case in a pit and left a bead with “super sensory contact” which could help him find the bow case when he returned, and it could also serve as a location marker.

With this bead as a reference, it made it easier for him to navigate deeper into the mountains.

He walked the subsequent distance on foot, with meticulous knowledge of the distance and terrain. During the sensing phase of the “super sensory contact” bead, he could create a clear route “map” in his brain.

If necessary, he would also drop several other items with “super sensory contact” to aid him in more detailed location finding and map construction.

The biggest problem with entering the mountains late at night was the lighting, which affected his sight. For Xiang Kun, though, having obtained the night vision mode from the Giant Owl, the faint light in the mountain was sufficient, allowing him to clearly see everything along the way.

The other issue was the complex mountain terrain, where single misstep could potentially cost someone their life. Contrarily, Xiang Kun chose steep, dangerous, lush and densely wooded paths specifically to take shortcuts.

Ordinary individuals traversing these paths, despite their experience and ample preparation, would have to climb cliffs slowly and carefully pave the way in the dense forest. They would need equipment, tools, and supplies, possibly slowing their speed even more than taking the longer route, and also risking injury.

Xiang Kun had practiced and trained in such environments in the past few days. Using his superior finger grip strength, core strength, and rapid reaction speed along with seemingly inexhaustible stamina, he made short-distance climbing look effortless.

However, due to his heavier weight, smaller rock formations would easily crumble. However, while climbing, he was prepared for various possible situations in his mind, with a backup plan for every action. Relying on his strength and reflexes to control his body, he had a high margin for error.

Of course, Xiang Kun was not a professional rock climber and he didn’t deliberately choose large cliffs for a “challenge”. Even when looking for shortcuts, he would choose easier routes without many difficult cliffs.

In the dense forest, he didn’t need to pave the way. In his usual mountain-ramming style, he directly bulldozed with his body, similar to a wild boar. He ran wildly, letting branches and thorns scratch and scar him, indifferent to it. Given his fast recovery rate, his wounds healed in less than ten minutes, and he regarded it as long-term low-intensity mountain ramming training.

Whenever necessary, he could also jump directly from high places, using tree branches to cushion his fall and save time.

Shortly after five in the morning, Xiang Kun stood on top of a low mountain, activated the infrared imaging vision mode, and observed the activities of various creatures in the distant forest.

He knew that if there indeed were mutants, with his infrared imaging mode coupled with the sense of smell, he would definitely discover them before they noticed him.

Soon after entering the mountain, Xiang Kun found that his phone had lost signal. This was within his expectations though. However, by identifying a few reference landscapes from a high vantage point, and relying on the few “super sensory contact” objects he left on the road, he calculated his distance and direction. He was also able to find his position on the paper map.

Before coming here, Xiang Kun had already inferred the general area of the uninhabited zone where Host Xue and his party had previously entered via various online sources.​

According to Xiang Kun’s original estimate, he should reach the nearby area of that region by the night of the second day.

But in reality, by noon the next day, Xiang Kun had already confirmed that his trip was not in vain―

He smelled that very distinct scent again.

Although the scent was faint and completely different from that of Giant Owl and Guo Tianxiang, Xiang Kun knew it was that subconscious alert feeling. It was the signature characteristic of the scent of the mutants.

Xiang Kun’s mind worked at high speed, his attention highly focused. His eyes, ears, and nose were all pushed to their limits, continuously collecting information, looking for traces of the mutant.

The compound bow was also in his hand, with the arrow in place, ready to shoot at any moment.

However, Xiang Kun found that the scent was coming from all directions. Some were in the trees, others on the ground, with no discernible pattern, not helping him pinpoint a specific direction.

In the infrared imaging mode, there were many small animals around and he could smell scents and footprints of some large predators, but he could not find any specific traces of the mutant’s presence. Even that smell seemed to appear out of nowhere.

This strange situation made Xiang Kun more cautious and vigilant.