Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
—
The Mailong Private Military Group decided to leave the mountains that night. They were moving even quicker this time, trying to leave the Tianshan Demon Tiger’s territory and shake it off.
The group finally stopped in the afternoon of the next day. Bright sunlight shone upon the irregular mountains, delivering warmth to the Rift Valley.
“It has been a while since we were last under the sun. I’m already missing the Middle East,” a mercenary with a hat spoke up.
“I believe you miss the warm embrace of your new girlfriend’s bust instead?” another mercenary grinned.
“HAHA, you’re right on the money! To be honest, she doesn’t treat me seriously. I’ll dump her after having a blast once I earn a fortune from this mission. I’ll look for someone with a beautiful face too!” the mercenary with a hat said.
A cold shadow suddenly loomed over the mercenary as they were talking. Its menacing eyes were glaring at them like they were mere food to it.
“We’re under attack!” the mercenary yelled.
The shadow that was blocking the sunlight suddenly disappeared with a whoosh. The man immediately searched for the figure among the rocks, yet he only saw some leaves spiraling.
“Where’s the enemy?”
“I saw it just then, right over there,” the man said.
Someone tossed a Brilliant Light in the direction that the man was pointing into. It immediately lit up the area.
The light would expose every living creature, especially those that were moving.
“Are you messing with us? The group didn’t get to sleep well for the past few days. Don’t you know your false alarm is going to waste a lot of our precious energy?” an old mercenary rebuked.
“I…I’m sorry. Eiro, didn’t you see something too? I’m pretty sure… Eiro?” The mercenary turned around and realized the man named Eiro he was having a conversation with had already disappeared!
He quickly looked around, but did not see Eiro anywhere. The two of them were standing close together. How did he disappear all of a sudden?
The old mercenary belatedly realized something had shown up, and quickly gathered the others.
—
“It’s the third victim today,” Tommy said.
“Yeah, and one of them was killed when someone was right beside him. Speaking of which, the creature could have killed both of them. Why did it only kill one and leave?” Aubern said.
“It seems like the creature only eats three humans every day,” Kuma said.
The others were spooked.
It made a lot of sense, as the creature had killed three mercenaries for three consecutive days. It did not kill more than three even when it could.
“Damn it, is it herding us?” Aubern spat.
“I heard the Tianshan Demon Tigers prefer eating their prey alive. They won’t even bother sniffing a dead body,” Tommy said softly.
“Which means, that son of a b**ch is treating us like a moving canteen!” Aubern said angrily.
“It does seem like it.”
A moving canteen serving fresh food. Mo Fan could not help but agree with the metaphor.
The cunning Tianshan Demon Tiger had its eyes on them from the very beginning. It had picked on the mercenaries who were further away from the group, dragging them away one by one. Its only mistake so far was attacking someone close to Mu Ningxue.
However, even Mu Ningxue had failed to stop the creature, let alone the rest of the mercenaries. They could not even react when someone nearby had fallen victim.
“It’s just a timid son of a b**ch that keeps picking on those who aren’t with the group. Since it had enough for the day, we’ll rest up tonight and lure it out tomorrow to kill it so we can cook a pot of Tianshan Demon Tiger stew for everyone,” Lu Xiu, the captain of the first team declared.
“We shouldn’t lower our guard.”
“Yeah, what if the creature decides to eat again at night? Eiro was so skinny. He was just a little bite for the creature.”
—
The group set up a campfire. The Rift Valley was extremely quiet at night.
“That creature is smart. It seems to be aware of our strength. It never picks on us,” Mo Fan said.
“At this rate, only a few mercenaries of the Mailong Private Military Group will still be alive in a few days. The kill rate on Tianshan Mountain is insane. This so-called strongest military group in Asia has already lost half of its members when we haven’t even reached the Valley of Glaciers,” Jiang Yu said.
“I don’t get it, how did the creature find us?” Guan Yu said.
“Hasn’t it been following us?” Jiang Shaoxu said.
“It wasn’t following us, but no matter how far we went, it can somehow track us down on the next day. The Alpine is a huge place with many crossroads. We should be a few kilometers away from its territory by now. How did it know where we are?” Guan Yu was confused.
“Guan Yu, are you sure it wasn’t following us?” Mo Fan asked.
“I’m very sure about it. I even suspect the creature returns to its den to sleep after it is done feasting on us. It looks for us again on the next day,” Guan Yu said.
“…does this Tianshan Demon Tiger have eyes like a satellite?” Zhao Manyan wondered.
“If we can figure out how it was tracking us and shake it off completely, the group should be safe,” Guan Yu said.
“Or perhaps we can take it out when it hunts again,” Mo Fan said.
“I don’t think so. If it was that easy, Mu Ningxue would have done it before,” Guan Yu said.
“You stick to your plan, and I’ll stick to mine,” Mo Fan said.
—
The Mailong Private Military Group went on alert when the sun rose the next day. The group had slowed down significantly now.
They still needed someone to patrol and scout the path ahead, but if the scouts went too far ahead, the Tianshan Demon Tiger could easily drag them away.
There was plenty of sunlight during the day, but the mercenaries who were on their toes did not see a single trace of the Tianshan Demon Tiger. It did not show up even when the night fell.
“Did it know we were trying to lure it out?” Aubern wondered.
“It must be starving then!” Lu Xiu smiled fearlessly.
Mo Fan was left speechless too. He had purposely spread his Dark Material around and waited for the creature to show up. He wasted a lot of his energy doing so, yet the creature was more cautious than he had thought.