Volume 2: The Source of Life Chapter 21: Cliffside Mouse Hunt

  If there was a village history in Montreal, today would absolutely be the day to write it down. The two full-village gatherings are rarely seen in this simple and monotonous village with pure folk customs.

  The arrival of Kens and others undoubtedly made the whole village feel honored, but the result of their hard work was only met with cold faces from others.

  Kens and others changed the previous warmth and kindness I saw, facing the villagers, that kind of arrogant and inviolable appearance, was exactly like Lin Miao Xian.

  They declined the village head's proposal to eat together and asked for a small private room, closed the door, and did not allow anyone to disturb them.

  At this moment, I pulled the team and quietly left the small village of Montreux.

  Derby Cliff has a long history and is very famous among the Yishou tribe. It's said that there's a touching love story inside.

  The village of Montel is not far from Debir Cliff, about a three-hour drive away.

  But Debaiya Cliff is a super-long fault zone surrounding the entire Ma'anshan mountain range. At dusk, the convoy arrived at Debaiya Cliff.

  After dinner, I decided to take a rest for tonight and recharge my energy so that I can have the strength to do things tomorrow.

  This time, in addition to the ten ox carts, there were also about a dozen young and strong men. Everyone gathered around the bonfire, chatting idly about those trivial matters between men.

  "Cheng Ge, where are we going this time?"

  I sat far away in a corner, and Canoli walked over from his group of brothers, looking at me with a smiling face and said respectfully.

  "I'll let you know tomorrow." After saying that, he stood up and walked towards the depths of the forest. "Kanori, arrange for someone to keep watch, be careful tonight."

  Everyone saw me leave, but no one said much about it. In their eyes, I was a mysterious and powerful person.

  I deliberately slowed down to see if Kanori would secretly follow me. The result was fairly satisfactory, and there was no sign of Kanori or anyone else following me.

  I want Lin Nei to come and go freely, otherwise I will leave all kinds of clever marks on the ground, sometimes I often wander around the same place several times.

  If someone saw my actions, they would definitely think I'm crazy. After being busy for more than two hours, I reluctantly accepted a fact.

  "That guy didn't always hang out with me."

  Since rescuing Gute and others from Tangjia Village, the mysterious stranger who could approach me has never appeared again. As if his intention was really just to rescue the people of Montel Village.

  "It's unreasonable!" I thought to myself.

  This person is obviously a master of the residual soul, and his strength must be high. Coupled with those few short commands, it shows that he is not a good-tempered person.

  Everything has a purpose, this person let me rescue the villagers of Montel, definitely has his own purpose, but what is it?

  After thinking about it repeatedly, I couldn't get to the bottom of it, so I put this question aside for now. As long as there are no unexpected events that affect my current plans, everything will be fine.

  Deep in my mind, the heart of freedom is slowly turning, based on past experience, I know that the heart of freedom may undergo another mutation.

  The last mutation gave people eyes to see souls, what about the next one?

  To be honest, I was quite looking forward to it.

  But tonight, I don't plan on practicing, this forest is full of danger, heaven knows what kind of accident might happen.

  I found a clean place to sit cross-legged, adjusted my state, and entered the realm of Zhēn Xiǎo's breathing exercise. My senses became extremely sensitive, yet extremely chaotic at the same time.

  This is a very strange state, this state can make me get good rest, but if there is an unexpected sound, my consciousness can quickly wake up and enter the combat state.

  This is the skill practiced in the former special forces.

  I woke up to the sound of birds chirping in the morning, slowly opened my eyes, and stretched comfortably. I checked the marks I had deliberately left behind yesterday, and except for a few obvious places where small animals had rubbed against them, there were no signs of human presence.

  Back at the campsite, seeing no one around, I shouted loudly: "Kanori, get everyone up and ready to depart!"

  The team formed a square shape surrounding the camp in the middle. I walked through the edge of the cattle cart, shouting as I went. However, in an instant, I sensed something was amiss.

  The entire fleet was empty and deserted, without a single soul in sight.

  Every nerve in his body tensed up suddenly.

  "Who?" A faint rustling sound came from a clump of bushes at three o'clock in the front right direction, catching my attention.

  No one replied, and about ten seconds later, a head emerged from the haystack.

  "It's Kanori!"

  As soon as he saw me, Kano let out a loud whoop and shouted: "Brothers, all come out! Lord Fang Cheng is back!"

  In an instant, more than 20 people, including the cart driver, emerged from the haystack.

  "What's going on?" I asked in a low voice.

  "Last night... there was a ghost..." Kanori whispered eerily.

  "Ghost?"

  I've always been an atheist when it comes to ghosts and gods, but after coming into contact with a Soul Master, I have gained a deeper understanding of the soul.

  But just like in the movies, the ghosts and monsters that come and go without a sound, crossing mountains and ridges, I still don't believe it.

  "Speak clearly." I said coldly.

  After hearing Kanori's thrilling and terrifying account, I suddenly burst out laughing. Everyone looked at me with a puzzled gaze, wondering how I could laugh at such a frightening description.

  With a laugh, I said: "Let's all calm down and get ready to set off. It was just a prank by one of my friends last night, don't take it to heart."

  It turns out that the prank was real, but the friend was fake. Last night, Kano and others were sleeping soundly when suddenly a low, muffled voice came from beside their ears, telling them to get up quickly and leave the camp.

  At first everyone didn't allow reasoning, searching for half a day without finding anyone, they started shouting and scolding loudly, but before they could shout out the second sentence, the whole person suddenly flew up.

  After repeating this for several times, everyone was so scared that they all abandoned their tents and hid in a distant place for the night.

  And this person, without guessing I already knew, was the one who forced me to save Montel village. The purpose of this move, apart from telling me that he's here and not to look for him elsewhere, also contained a kind of mockery towards my efforts in searching for him everywhere.

  Half an hour later, the caravan was in order. After asking about the geographical situation of Debia Cliff, I decided to head southeast.

  After a hard journey of more than half a day, the team arrived at a mountainous area overgrown with weeds.

  I pinched some small animal droppings in my hand and observed the tiny footprints around the holes, then I smiled: "That's it."

  Upon hearing this, Kanori and the others all let out a sigh of relief. In the distance, the ox cart was unable to proceed any further.

  "I ordered: 'Unhitch the ox cart, bring over the prepared ropes, we're going down the cliff.'"

  A group of people bustled about for a good while, and eventually, all ten of the sturdy cattle unique to the Ma'anshan Mountains had ropes tied around their necks.

  The man who was driving the cart has now become a cowherd, and the other ten young men are following me to the cliff.

  Suddenly, a shout of surprise and delight rang out: "Ling Shu, ah, I've picked up a Ling Mouse!"

  Immediately afterwards, more people shouted out in unison.

  Seeing that the situation was affecting the team's progress, I had to stop and smile at Kanori and others: "How is it, just a few spirit mice, and you're all so happy?"

  "Houko-sama, where are we going this time?" Kanori noticed the determination in my eyes.

  I smiled and asked in return: "How many spirit rats did Tang Family Village capture this time?"

  "Maybe... um... about five hundred or so."

  I smiled slightly and said, "Wait a minute, we will have five thousand."

  When he finished speaking, Cano was stunned, and all the villagers of Montel were stunned.

  Five thousand? Five thousand indeed...

  Actually, I exaggerated a bit here. Based on the phenomenon I observed last time, judging from the running speed and duration of the field mice, the number of that batch of field mice was around 2,500 to 3,000.

  "Mr. Fang, Mr. Fang Cheng," Kanori stuttered a little: "Are there really five thousand?"

  I gave him a sideways glance and said lazily, "The specifics will be clear later."

  The team's advancing speed has undergone a qualitative improvement, and Kanori and others have almost reached the limit of human physical ability.

  From a purely technical point of view, they consumed too much energy on the road and may be physically exhausted when doing specific work later.

  I saw it in his eyes, I wanted to stop him, but didn't say a word.

  Before long we were beside the precipice of Derbiya, and the men who had been driving the cattle were left far behind.

  This cliff is over thirty meters high. From a distance, all you can see below is lush greenery, nothing else but the color green.

  "Alright, let's go down!" Kanori exclaimed excitedly. Behind him, the group of young men nodded in agreement, some still holding the Ling mice they had picked up along the way.

  Thirty isn't considered big in terms of numbers, but it's the height of over ten floors. With their completely inexperienced skills, going down thirty would leave at least five of them severely injured.

  "Never mind, let's find a lower place to go."

  I waved my hand, and sent two people to walk along the cliff in both directions. The others worked together to cut a tree branch as thick as a bowl, I let Kanori take off his white clothes, tied them to the end of the branch, and stretched it out far from the cliff as a sign.

  After finishing all this, those people who were driving cattle caught up, and the two men who had gone ahead to explore also returned.

  "How is it?" I asked the two of them.

  One of them replied, "Go right for about 300 meters, there is a relatively low position, probably around 20 meters high. Go forward another 500 meters, and there is a place with lower terrain, probably around 15 meters."

  Another person said: "The left side is no better than the right side."

  "Hmm, later when we get down the cliff, we'll have to run back and forth. Five hundred meters is too far, let's go from three hundred meters instead."

  Nowadays, no one will doubt my judgment anymore, and everyone nods in agreement.

  Upon arriving at that location, I looked down and observed that it was indeed as the person had said, this place is shorter than the previous one by about 21 to 23 meters.

  Apart from this, below are not only shrubs and bushes, but also several trees with a diameter of two people hugging together, with a height of 15-16 meters.

  I hesitated for a moment and said, "I'll go down first to clear the ground, after I give you instructions, you can come down with the rope, hurry up and drive the cattle, be careful not to let them run around. Otherwise, your brothers will get hurt."

  "Understood!" The crowd shouted in unison.

  Kanori tied the rope around the cow's head and then handed the other end to me, saying: "Cheng Ge, be careful when you go down!"

  I looked at him curiously and asked: "What are you doing?"

  Kanori was stunned and didn't know how to respond.

  I knew what he meant and smiled faintly, saying: "I don't need this."

  After that, I estimated the distance from the big tree to the top of the cliff, then retreated six meters, took a run-up, and quickly jumped down.

  "Ah!!!!!!"

  As I fell through the air, I clearly heard the cries of surprise from the crowd in my ears.

  Thud! A soft sound, I landed steadily on a branch of the big tree, the branch sank down and then shook up and down.

  In this shaking process, I cleverly dissipated the impact force. Then, after a few leaps, I fell to the bottom of the cliff.