Translator: Legge
In everyone’s opinion, if the wild animals in the Sacred Mountains were like the fox in front of them that had become larger, more cunning, and stronger, there would actually be nothing to worry about for this expedition into the Sacred Mountains.
What they were most afraid of were the strange and the unknown. As such, there would be a tinge of fear if they did not know who or what the enemy was.
But when the mysterious unknown got revealed, that fear would gradually dissipate.
In fact, after the two groups merged, and with quite a few supernatural beings among them, it would be very easy to deal with wild animals like that as long as they were careful not to get ambushed.
But who could have killed this fox?
Surely it could not be someone who happened to pass by that did them a favor, right?
“Could the wild animals in the mountains have started killing one another?” someone asked.
“No, this must be done by a person.” Cheng Yu analyzed, “If it were the wild animals fighting among themselves, there should be some teeth marks or other hints on this fox’s carcass. But as you can see, it looks like someone suddenly caught it and broke its spine. The animals in the wilderness definitely don’t kill their enemies like this. Let’s do a headcount of everyone first.”
Cheng Yu had asked to do a headcount to see if anyone had broken away from the group. While they were marching earlier, everyone was scattered and did not move together as a group. Perhaps, this was the doing of an expert hiding in the group.
In the end, Cheng Yu and Song Qiao’s assistants quickly counted the number of people and realized two people were missing!
“Does anyone know those two?” Cheng Yu asked, “Anyone know where they went?”
Wang Yun replied, “I don’t know them, but I think I remember they’re both men. One of them is a middle-aged man in his forties, and the other is a young man around the age of 25.” Wang Yun turned his head to a young woman. “Oh, it’s that young man who sent up camp next to your tent last night.”
The young woman was stunned. Then she looked around. “It really is him.”
At this moment, everyone looked at Wang Yun. They were surprised by this fellow’s memory as he actually remembered everyone so clearly. Not only did he know who had left the group at just a glance, he even knew where they set up camp the previous night.
This was not something the average person could manage.
Of course, if Wang Yun were just a normal person, he would not have become the director of the Kong Consortium’s 2nd Military Information Division.
Back then, when the intelligence agency was recruiting talents while he was serving in the military, the chief recruitment officer in charge immediately took a liking to him. At that time, every candidate had to be put through an interview. The moment Wang Yun entered the interview room, the chief recruitment officer’s first question was, “How many people did you meet on the way to this interview room just now?”
Wang Yun said, “Seven.”
“What color were their clothes?”
“Two were wearing blue; five were in black.”
“How many moles were there on the face of the third person you encountered?”
“Six.”
As such, Wang Yun quickly became the center of attention after joining the intelligence agency.
Wang Yun had been keeping a low profile at the start of this expedition into the Sacred Mountains. After making sure there was no one else following their group other than his subordinates, Wang Yun felt very confident that he could start revealing a little bit of his ability now.
Cheng Yu looked at Wang Yun and said, “Since you have such a good memory, you should remember where they went, yeah? Were they the ones who killed this fox just now?”
“I don’t think so.” Wang Yun shook his head and said, “They’d fallen far behind at the back of the group, and they’re not close with each other either, so it doesn’t look like they’re partners.”
Cheng Yu frowned. He suddenly said, “Let’s go back and look for them!”
After that, Cheng Yu immediately headed back the way they came. But after walking a few hundred meters, he saw the middle-aged man Wang Yun was talking about lying in a pool of blood with a mangled wound on his neck.
After walking a dozen meters more, they also discovered the corpse of that young man with a wound in the same position.
Everyone in the group fell silent as a strange, oppressive atmosphere spread through the crowd.
When they saw the carcass of the fox, everyone thought they had found the real culprit. But they immediately went on alert again after having just breathed a sigh of relief.
“But we clearly found human organs in the fox’s stomach.” Cheng Yu’s assistant wondered, “Could it have companions as well?”
Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu, but Ren Xiaosu surreptitously shook his head and denied Cheng Yu’s assistant’s explanation.
Then Wang Yun said to Ren Xiaosu with a smile, “I noticed you shaking your head. Can you tell me why?”
Ren Xiaosu glanced at him and was about to answer when the voice from the palace rang out in his mind. Ren Xiaosu let out a sigh in his head.
Everyone was looking at Ren Xiaosu because of Wang Yun’s question. Then they saw Ren Xiaosu take out a rope from his pocket and started skipping with it.
Ren Xiaosu said while jumping rope, “Because the neck wounds on those two were not caused by a fox’s bite…. Ignore me, I’ll be done skipping in a moment.”
Wang Yun was confused, as was Cheng Yu.
Wang Yun had wanted to ask about something else as well. But due to Ren Xiaosu’s bizarre behavior, he did not know how to react! ‘You could have just answered my question normally. Why did you have to suddenly start jumping rope?!‘
It was not only Wang Yun; almost everyone’s mind turned blank when they saw this strange sight of Ren Xiaosu jumping rope.
Everyone did not even care about how these two people had died. They were more concerned about why this young man had to jump rope while answering the question!
Having gotten Yang Xiaojin’s understanding, Ren Xiaosu no longer felt any embarrassment when he was required to perform his quests. As long as the person he cared about could understand why he was doing this, it was good enough for him. So why would he care what others thought about him?
Ren Xiaosu was examining the wound on one of the corpses while jumping rope. The wound did not have any teeth marks and was more like someone had grabbed to the main artery of the neck with their hand, causing the victim to fall unconscious before tearing the flesh off.
This was such a violent way of killing someone that Ren Xiaosu could not be sure if his judgment was correct or not.
As Ren Xiaosu continued jumping rope, he even mumbled something that made Cheng Yu ask, “What are you mumbling?”
Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. “278, 279, 280…”
When he counted to 300, he finally stopped jumping. He said to the palace in his mind, “What’s the completion level for the quest this time?”
“Perfect.”
“Great.”
Ren Xiaosu looked around and realized everyone was wearing a complicated expression on their face.
But this was to be expected. Having been put through a series of strange incidents that involved a crisis being resolved and immediately plunging into another, and seeing Ren Xiaosu jumping rope throughout all of it, everyone needed a while to digest what they had just experienced.
After Ren Xiaosu finished jumping rope, Luo Lan said, “As everyone can see, we’ve already encountered several dangers even before entering the boundary of the Sacred Mountains. So we have to tighten our formation even further as we move on. Even if you plan on going to relieve yourself, you are to proceed in a group of at least five people. There’s only four ladies in our group, but that’s fine; I can reluctantly accompany you all.”
