Chapter 1: The Haunted Forest of Demons (Part 1)

  Ding Lingxiu painfully rubbed his fingers, fortunately, Xiao Nang didn't really get angry, otherwise his hand would have been gone.

  "I'm telling you, Miss Guo, your family's way of showing gratitude is too rough," Ding Lingxiu complained.

  "Shut up, who let you be so despicable and shameless." Guo Mohan patted the dust off his windbreaker and became cold and indifferent once again.

  "Hmph... Despicable... Pfft..." The little creature crawled back into Guo Mohan's bag, sticking out its tongue at Ding Lingyu.

  Ding Lingxiu couldn't help but pout:

  "Alas! The world is getting worse, good intentions are not rewarded, and good firewood burns a bad stove."

  "Alright, stop wasting words, we still need to catch those two monsters quickly." Guo Mohan ignored him, raised his flashlight by himself, with a solemn and icy demeanor.

  Ding Lingxiu returned to the top of the slope, flipped over and jumped onto the platform where the pangolin was standing earlier, then reached out and pulled Guo Mohan up. The two stood on the platform, looking for a way to continue forward.

  "This pangolin has lost so much blood, it must have been attacked by some fierce beast." Ding Lingxiu shone his flashlight around, feeling that he would find some clues.

  But all around was dark and gloomy, with several deep and mysterious holes like big mouths on the wall, hiding unpredictable dangers.

  "What ferocious beasts can be in such a cave, at most it's just venomous snakes and bats, these things will definitely not dare to approach when they see you." Guo Mohan replied faintly.

  "What you said is not wrong, but there must be a problem here. The pangolin, when it encounters danger, will definitely curl up into a ball, just like before. And its hard shell, you also saw it, let alone snakes and bats, even ordinary lions and tigers can't bite it." Ding Lingxiu furrowed his brow, took out the military knife from his backpack, tied it to his waist, and continued:

  "But just now I found that its shell was torn open by something, and it bled so much. Obviously, it was attacked by an enemy even more ferocious than a lion or tiger, and then escaped to this place under our feet with injuries."

  Guo Mohan looked at the bloodstains on the ground, and indeed they formed a continuous line from somewhere. Her ink-colored eyes froze for a moment, then suddenly lit up with inspiration, and a trademark smile of satisfaction appeared at the corner of her mouth:

  "Then let's follow this trail of blood."

  "Huh?" Ding Lingyu was taken aback and didn't react for a moment.

  Guo Mo's slender and delicate hand supported her fragrant cheek, and she said with a pleased smile:

  "These two monsters are exceptionally cunning, although I don't know what kind of monsters they are. Judging from their clever tricks, at least they are of the 'yao jue' level. Monsters of the 'yao jue' level usually keep some ferocious beasts or summon small demons to guard their lair. So if we follow the blood trail, we'll definitely find those watchdogs. The rest will be easy."

  Ding Lingxiu nodded, even the person-faced tree, a demon that likes to live alone, would occasionally gather tree spirits as bodyguards for itself. These two demons must have done the same. Moreover, since this is the winter den of the pangolin, the environment inside the cave will be extremely complex. Compared to searching aimlessly, this method is indeed simple and efficient.

  At the same time, Ding Lingxiu couldn't help but feel a little lost in his heart. He had never thought about what to do when the Xunyao Luopan didn't work, and Ding Lin wouldn't have been able to think of everything for him before he passed away. At this moment, he felt an unprecedented sense of crisis for the first time.

  "Alright, let's follow this trail of blood then." Ding Lingyu said, shining his flashlight forward.

  The two of them walked into the cave in the direction where the bloodstains extended, and the road inside the cave was relatively flat with a gentle slope. After walking for not too long, a shallow muddy pool formed by accumulated water appeared in the middle of the road.

  Ding Lingxiu shone his flashlight into the muddy pit and found that there were many overlapping footprints mixed in the mud, with some places having very deep footprints. Ding Lingxiu squatted down and carefully examined them under the strong beam of his flashlight, discovering that several particularly deep footprints seemed to be cow hoof prints, but these cow hoof prints were really too large, and besides these cow hoof prints, many equally deep large shoe prints were also clearly visible.

  "Are you looking at footprints?" Guo Mo asked in a cold voice.

  "That's right, it seems you guessed correctly, they indeed live in this cave." Ding Lingyu stood up.

  The two of them quickened their pace, following the trail of blood into the depths of the cave. After about thirty minutes of walking, the cave suddenly opened up, and what was even more exciting was that a light appeared in front of them. This faint light in the dark cave seemed particularly dazzling, making the suppressed emotions of the two people somewhat excited.

  And the bloodstain also suddenly disappeared in this gradually widening passage.

  As the bloodstains disappeared, Ding Lingxu became vigilant. Faintly heard from the front of the vast expanse came a dull humming sound, this voice was like a mournful sigh, as if it were surging waves, wave after wave growing heavier, suddenly shrill and shocking, then stopping abruptly.

  He stopped and whispered to Guo Mohan:

  "Let's turn off our flashlights, it seems like there's something ahead."

  Guo Mohan nodded and turned off his flashlight, following behind Ding Lingxiu.

  Ding Lingxiu lit another cigarette, causing Guo Mohan to cover his nose.

  "Are you so addicted? Can't you hold on for a little while?"

  "Whisper—the last one."

  Two people moved stealthily forward towards a broad expanse ahead, guided by a faint light in the distance.

  Within twenty meters, the two walked cautiously for three minutes, and at this time the huge humming sound was already close at hand. Ding Lingxiu supported the wall and lifted his head to find that the humming sound was coming from above his head, and the light also came from there.

  Ding Lingxiu pressed the cigarette butt against the wall, calling out to Guo Mohan to come and take a look. But at this moment, he suddenly felt that the texture of the wall didn't feel quite right. The wall he was leaning against seemed to be fuzzy to the touch, and when he pressed the cigarette butt against it, it emitted a burnt smell. He hastily turned on his flashlight, and in an instant, he was stunned. It turned out that this wasn't a wall at all, but rather the body of some kind of animal.

  He looked at Guo Mohan, and Guo Mohan also turned on his flashlight. The expression on his face was very strange, seeming to be smiling but not quite.

  Ding Lingxiu turned back in surprise, somewhat at a loss.

  In the blink of an eye, the piece of fur holding the cigarette had already caught fire, and the humming noise above their heads was gone. What followed was a thunderous roar that split clouds and shattered rocks, causing Ding Ling's eardrums to ache violently, and his body began to sway.

  The entire spacious area was shaken violently, and gravel fell from the rock wall with a rustling sound, crashing to the ground. However, the light here suddenly became brighter with this roar, and the dim blue moonlight outside poured in, illuminating the surroundings.

  Ding Lingxiu only then saw clearly, originally the wall in front of them was a gigantic black bear, and it was lying near a windy area. Because its massive body had blocked the wind, that's why this place only let through a little bit of light.

  It seems that the pangolin also accidentally provoked this sleeping giant bear, just like Ding Lingxiu, and was caught with a broken shell and bleeding. And Ding Lingxiu's troubles are even greater now, as he actually gave this irascible giant beast a cigarette burn.

  The giant bear couldn't take the insult, and in a rage, it glared around. Ding Lingyu wanted to run away, but it was too late. The giant bear had spotted him, its dark shadow looming over his head, and its massive paws came crashing down.

  Luckily, Ding Ling was agile and nimble, flipping and rolling to dodge the attack. However, he didn't expect the giant bear to lightly slap its palm down, creating a massive crater over half a meter in diameter at his previous location. The deafening crash startled countless bats hiding within the cave, causing them to fly out and create a loud whooshing sound similar to heavy rain.

  At this time, the furious giant bear was unstoppable, seeing one blow fall empty, and actually pounced over directly. The huge head revealed angry fangs, and the black body crushed down on Ding Lingxiu like Mount Tai.

  Ding Lingxiu looked around and found that at such a fast speed, there was no way to escape, and the giant bear was about to crush him.

  A violent tremor occurred again around, dust rose, creating an illusion of the sky falling and the earth cracking. Guo Mohan quickly shrunk to the wall root, tightly hugging Jiao Nang, tensely staring in Ding Lingxiu's direction.

  It seems... Ding Lingxiu has been crushed by this heavy pressure, and has become a meat paste.

  The giant bear let out a satisfied roar and slowly got up from its lying position.

  Guo Mohan had already turned off the flashlight and could only rely on the weak moonlight to search for Ding Lingxiu, but she didn't find him under the giant bear. Similarly, the giant bear, which was originally eager to devour its prey, also froze, shaking its ancient bell-like head to scan its surroundings.

  How can a person disappear out of thin air? Was he crushed flat? That wouldn't make him so flat, would it? Guo Mohan was puzzled and couldn't understand.

  At this time, Guo Mohan was surprised to find that in the deep pit where the giant bear had slapped out with its giant claws before, a person climbed out and started sprinting wildly towards the back of the giant bear.

  It turned out that Ding Lingxiu had actually dodged into that deep pit at the critical moment.

  Ding Lingyu made a desperate attempt to escape the giant bear's attack range, but he never expected that this giant bear's hearing was so acute, and it immediately discovered him, turned its head and chased after him, catching up with Ding Lingyu in just a few steps.

  Guo Mohan, although unmatched in her ability to subdue evil spirits with Feng Shui, had limited experience dealing with ferocious beasts. At this moment, she naively believed the textbook and shouted at Ding Lingxiu:

  "Get down quickly and pretend to be dead."

  Ding Lingxiu's life was hanging by a thread, but when he heard Guo Mohan's shout, he actually let out a cold laugh and thought to himself that bears loved to knock people dead before eating them, not to mention corpses, they would even eat those that hadn't rotted completely.

  At this time, the giant bear was already close at hand, and Ding Ling was hesitating whether or not to use the Hundred Ghosts Diagram.

  Guo Mohan suddenly shouted again:

  "Get down quickly and pretend to be dead."

  With a loud crash, the giant bear fell to the ground and played dead.

  Ding Lingxiu and Guo Mohan were dumbfounded.