SES Chapter 216 Part 1

Chapter 216

Luo Ren shone his flashlight over to where the other tent had been and studied the spot for a long time. He noticed that the ground around the holes where the stakes had been pulled out was smeared with mud.

In the end, he concluded: those three had run off on their own.

“Three people crammed into one tent, panicking, probably with no plan at all. They couldn’t agree on what to do, so they just bolted.”

Which, as it turned out, was exactly what had happened.

When Luo Ren and Mu Dai worked together, things were actually easy to manage. Mu Dai always listened to him. As long as he stayed steady and had a plan, it was as good as both of them staying steady.

But Cao Yanhua and the others were different. None of them really trusted the others. Three people, three flustered would-be strategists, while outside the pheasants flapped and shrieked in chaos, and inside the tent, they were shouting over one another.

“Hold it down! Hold it down! The birds are getting in!”

“Don’t pull! My stake’s coming loose!”

“Ow—!”
(that one had just gotten pecked)

Honestly, if all three of them had just stayed flat on the ground, they probably would have been fine. Instead, they panicked and fell into complete disorder. On top of that, it happened to be when the pheasant flock was at its most aggressive. The thought of running became the only thing on their minds.

They even shouted for Luo Ren and Mu Dai at the time: “Brother Luo, run!”

Unfortunately, their hoarse voices were no match for the deafening racket of the pheasant flock. Luo Ren and Mu Dai didn’t hear a thing.

Luo Ren and Mu Dai searched the surrounding area, and sure enough, about half a mile from the campsite, they found the abandoned tent.

“Looks like they ran while dragging the tent along with them.”

Luo Ren was a little worried, but when he said it out loud, he couldn’t help but laugh.

He could just picture the scene—

Three people, six legs sticking out from under the hem of a tent, staggering along with the whole thing lopsided over their heads. A flock of birds is chasing after them. Their steps were out of sync, stumbling in the dark where they couldn’t see the path clearly. Finally, in a moment of desperation, they ditched the tent and sprinted for their lives.

In the darkness, panic-breeding chaos, they might not even have been running in the same direction anymore.

Mu Dai stood up and swept the flashlight beam across the wilderness. “Do you think something could happen to them?”

“They’re just pheasants, not wolves or wild boars,” Luo Ren said. “They’re not that vicious. Usually, they’re satisfied once they drive intruders out of their territory. But since they insisted on running, who knows how far they went.”

“Should we go look for them?”

Luo Ren thought for a moment. “This terrain is complicated. It’s too easy to get lost, especially at night. Even if we go out to search, we might not be able to find our way back.”

He took Mu Dai back to the campsite first. They reset the tent and secured it firmly. Using his knife, he sharpened thick branches and planted them in a circle around the camp, then looped two layers of rope around them as a makeshift fence.

In the center of the camp, they built a large bonfire and set up a tall wooden frame. Every high-powered flashlight and headlamp they had was turned on, beams pointed straight up. Even though the light scattered partway, the sources were strong enough to punch faintly into the night sky.

Light. Warmth. The crackling sound of burning wood. Feathers were scattered all over the ground. In the dead of night, the mountain forest suddenly didn’t feel quite so sinister.

Luo Ren told Mu Dai not to worry too much. “Instead of going out to look for them, it’s better to call them back. As long as we fix our position clearly and give them a landmark, they’ll naturally find their way here in the dark.”

That made sense. Yan Hongsand had real martial skills, and as for Yiwansan and Cao Yanhua, each had his own tricks. Under normal circumstances, they could handle themselves.

Wrapped in a blanket, Mu Dai sat beside Luo Ren and waited with him. The firelight flickered, bright then dim, and even the popping of the firewood came at steady intervals, almost lulling.

She leaned her head against Luo Ren’s shoulder and gradually drifted off.

She dreamed she was in the forests of Fengzi Ridge. Dense trees loomed all around, mist curling through them. A huge flock of pheasants flew overhead, casting dark, oppressive shadows on the ground.

She was looking for people, calling out again and again, “Cao Fatty,” “Yiwansan,” “Hongsand.”

Soft rustling sounds came to her ears. Several long, oddly proportioned shadows flickered in and out behind the trees, accompanied by low whispers.

—Here, right here…
—She’s about to find it…
—No, no, she won’t think of it…

Her heart pounded. Holding her breath, she slowly walked deeper into the forest toward a brightly lit spot. Branches crunched underfoot. She saw tents, a blazing bonfire, beams of light shooting straight into the sky…

Was she dreaming, or was this the reflection of something she was half-seeing, half-awake?

Just then, she heard Luo Ren chuckle softly. “Cao Fatty’s back.”

Really? Mu Dai opened her eyes in a daze and looked. Sure enough, outside the fence, a familiar, stocky figure was trudging toward them, stumbling with every step.

Up close, it was indeed Cao Yanhua. He had one hand clamped over his head and looked like he was on the verge of tears as he called out, “Brother Luo, Master Mu.”

He looked so miserable it was almost funny. Mu Dai held it in and turned to grab the medical kit.

Cao Yanhua had been pecked on the head by a pheasant. Fortunately, the wound wasn’t deep, but there were streaks of blood on his forehead, and his hands and neck were scraped raw. In his own words, “I don’t even know how many times I fell.”

Mu Dai dabbed alcohol on a cotton ball and carefully treated his wounds. He hissed in pain the whole time, while also dutifully answering every question Luo Ren asked.

No wonder Cao Jiefang had seemed possessed, drinking alcohol and even swallowing talismans. Luo Ren teased him, “Even if he’s not your real son, you can’t abuse him like that.”

Mu Dai burst out laughing. Cao Yanhua pulled a long face. “Brother Luo, what do you think I was trying to do? I just wanted to find that Phoenix Luan Clasp as soon as possible.”

Then he added, “Brother Luo, did you try that tree? Jiefang pecked at it for ages.”

Luo Ren stood up, activated the bounty hunter device, and scanned the tree Cao Jiefang had pecked—from roots to branches.

Cao Yanhua finally gave up hope.

“What about Hongsand and Yiwansan?”

Cao Yanhua drooped. “They ran off. Hand in hand.”

According to him, they’d panicked and run without thinking. Dragging the tent was awkward. Someone slipped, and all three went tumbling together. They threw off the tent just as the pheasant flock was about to catch up. Yiwansan shouted, “Fatty! Run!”

Then he grabbed Yan Hongsand’s hand and took off.

Cao Yanhua sounded heartbroken. “When he yelled, ‘Fatty, run,’ I thought he was coming to pull me up, so I didn’t rush to get up. Hongsand got up fast. The two of them grabbed hands and ran like the wind. In a blink, they were gone.”

Mu Dai tore off a strip of tape and stuck the cotton ball in place on his head. “Serves you right! In a situation like that, of course, you move as fast as possible. And you were waiting for someone to pull you up? What kind of pampered lord do you think you are?”

As for where Yan Hongsand and Yiwansan had run to, Cao Yanhua couldn’t say. He said getting pecked by the pheasants hurt like hell. Screaming, he ran for his life, shook them off somehow, and didn’t know how far he’d gone. Then he stumbled and rolled down a slope, lay there dazed for a long while, and eventually noticed bright beams of light cutting into the night sky in the distance.

So he limped back, following the light.

They hadn’t even accomplished anything yet and had already been sent into chaos by a flock of wild mountain pheasants. Even Luo Ren found it a bit ridiculous. Still, he felt more at ease. If Yan Hongsand and Yiwansan were together, the two complemented each other well—one skilled in combat, the other sharp-minded. Even if they ran into danger, they could handle it. They would find their way back sooner or later.

Yan Hongsand and Yiwansan really had “grabbed hands and run fast,” but not quite in the way Cao Yanhua described as “vanishing in an instant.”

When they heard Cao Yanhua’s agonized screams from being pecked, they stopped. After exchanging a look, they steeled themselves, each grabbed a stick from the ground, and rushed back.

But by the time they did, Cao Yanhua had already run off. Some of the pheasants, which had been about to give up the chase, suddenly had new targets.

So they had to run again, occasionally picking up stones and throwing them behind them. Yan Hongsand had trained before; her aim was good, and she hit two or three birds. She didn’t use much force, though, because Yiwansan urgently warned her, “Just scare them. If you accidentally kill the pheasant king or something, the whole Fengzi Ridge flock will come after us, and we’ll never get out.”