That howl finally came. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late to dive into the water. I felt a sharp contraction in my chest, followed by a wave of dizziness that hit my head. I was just about to collapse into the hot spring when a piercing wolf howl rang out—"Woo—"
The sound of the howl instantly overpowered the black cat's cry of "Nyeh." I shuddered involuntarily and immediately regained my senses. But the shock left my body weak, and I ended up plopping down right into the hot spring. Fortunately, the water here was shallow, only reaching my chest, so I could still see what was happening.
Though the white wolf had suppressed the black cat's cry, it was still shaking its head and stumbling backward. The black cat seized the opportunity, spun around, and darted off down the path we had come from. It moved incredibly fast, nothing like when the white wolf had been toying with it earlier. Even with my sharp eyes, all I caught was a blur of darkness. Only then did I realize—the black cat hadn't even been showing its full strength before. Can this thing even still be called a beast? It's more cunning than most people.
The moment the black cat dashed away, the white wolf came to its senses. Ignoring the wounds on its face, it leapt in pursuit down the same path. In the blink of an eye, the two figures—one white, one black—vanished from sight. Everything had happened so quickly: from the moment I stood up and saw the white wolf toying with the black cat to now, it had been no more than thirty seconds. Thinking back, I almost doubted whether it had really happened at all.
It wasn't until then that I remembered the three people still underwater. I made my way to where Hao Wenming and Meng Qiqi were submerged and pulled them up, leaving Sun Fatty behind in the water to reflect on the correct counting order from one to three—which, surprisingly, neither Hao Wenming nor Meng Qiqi objected to.
In front of Meng Qiqi, I gave Director Hao a full account of what had just happened. I had just finished describing how both the cat and the "dog" had fled when I noticed a plump little ball of flesh floating up to the surface of the hot spring. It emerged from the water squeaking furiously in our direction.
It was the Fortune Rat. This little guy had stayed underwater for over a minute and still managed to float up on its own. I also recalled that the white tuft of fur it had held in its mouth earlier was the same color as the white wolf's pelt. How in the world had the rat managed to pluck a patch of fur off that white wolf?
Before I could think too deeply about it, the chubby rodent was already paddling toward me in a doggy-paddle style. It tilted its tiny head back and, astonishingly, bit down on the hem of my shirt, trying to drag me toward where Sun Fatty had gone underwater. Amused, I scooped up the Fortune Rat from the water and stuffed it into the pocket of my jacket, then went over to haul Sun Fatty out of the spring.
"I almost drowned!" Sun Fatty broke the surface gasping for breath, sprawled on the edge of the hot spring. The Fortune Rat leapt from my pocket, dove into the water, then climbed onto the shore and ran over to him, licking his face with its tiny tongue.
Even though it was Fatty getting licked by a rat, there was nothing disgusting about it. Honestly, I was a little jealous. Once we're back at the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation, I really ought to find someone who reads faces to take a look at him. With all this animal magnetism, Fatty must've been some kind of beast tamer in his previous life. The Fortune Rat was one thing, but even the legendary Nyeh seemed reluctant to part ways with him. If he'd gone off with the black cat earlier, who knows? Maybe his charm could've even sparked something with that wolf named Yin Bai.
Once he'd caught his breath, Sun Fatty got up and asked me, "Lazi, what's the situation now? Where's Nyeh and that mangy dog?" As he spoke, he sat on the ground, took off his soaked clothes, wrung them out, and put them back on. Then he tucked the Fortune Rat back into his pocket.
I recounted what had happened between the white wolf and the black cat. After hearing it all, Sun Fatty stared blankly in the direction they had run off to. Just then, from that very direction, came a thunderous boom.
That loud bang was unmistakable—the sound of an explosion. We all turned our heads in the direction of the blast. Sun Fatty was the first to react. He glanced at Meng Qiqi and said casually, "That must be Huang Ran, huh? Not gonna lie, that was loud enough."
After the explosion, the four of us strained our ears, but no second blast followed. If it were just Huang Ran and Zhang Zhiyan, that would be fine—whichever side got caught in the explosion, it'd be a win for us. But Po Jun was with them, and he couldn't afford to get hurt. Judging by Meng Qiqi's expression, she was thinking the same thing—though with the roles reversed, perhaps.
As time dragged on, Hao Wenming started getting restless. He glanced back at me and Sun Fatty and said in a low voice, "Let's go check it out." With that, he was the first to head down the only path ahead. Meng Qiqi followed close behind.
Before moving out, I picked up the assault rifle I'd discarded earlier. I knew full well it wouldn't do much against that white wolf, but after all these years, I couldn't feel at ease without some kind of noisemaker in my hands. After loading my last red magazine, Sun Fatty and I followed behind Hao Wenming and Meng Qiqi.
We hadn't run far before the air around us grew thick with dust, mixing into the already hazy mist. The farther we went, the heavier the dust became. Then, from up ahead, came the sudden howl of a wolf, followed by a barrage of gunfire—rapid and dense, definitely from an assault rifle, with a few shotgun blasts mixed in. Just as quickly as it started, the gunfire stopped—probably out of ammo. Silence fell once more.
We pushed forward, and before long, Hao Wenming came to an abrupt stop. Not far ahead lay a man facedown on the ground. A crater had been blasted into the earth nearby, with a few stalagmites shattered and scattered across the floor. Dust and debris from the blast had buried most of the man's body, so from where we stood, we couldn't see who it was.
The man wasn't short, but he definitely wasn't Po Jun, whose towering frame exceeded two meters. Nor did he have Huang Ran's hefty build. That left only one possibility… Meng Qiqi rushed over and dragged Zhang Zhiyan out from the dust. Seeing that the scene posed no immediate danger, Sun Fatty also sauntered over. After a glance at the motionless Zhang Zhiyan, he quipped, "The little stutterer's not dead, is he?"
Meng Qiqi had already checked his breath and pulse. His chest was rising and falling faintly—clearly still alive. She shot Sun Fatty a glare and said, "He'll outlive you. You're just begging for a beating." Sun Fatty pouted, but before he could retort, I'd already dragged him over to Hao Wenming.
Hao Wenming was crouched amid a thick cloud of dust, staring blankly at a large patch of blood on the ground. He had already circled the scene once. Besides the unconscious Zhang Zhiyan, the only clues left were that bloodstain and some fragments of explosive debris. He brushed away the dust around the blood, sifting through it carefully, and eventually found several tufts of white fur stained with blood. He pulled out the strand of white wolf fur that had once been in Fortune Rodent's mouth—the samples were an exact match.
Once Hao Wenming confirmed it was the white wolf's fur, his brow furrowed even deeper. He grabbed a handful of the surrounding dust, rubbed it between his fingers, then bit open his fingertip and let a few drops of blood fall into the dust. Something strange happened—the dust absorbed the blood like a sponge, leaving no trace behind.
"Buddha Ash…" Hao Wenming exhaled and turned to Meng Qiqi. "He really went all out. I wouldn't have guessed Huang Ran could afford this. To gather this much Ashes of the Guardian Buddha? That's gotta cost at least three to five hundred million yuan. He can't touch the Guardian Buddhas on the mainland. Japan and Korea have their own religious authorities—he wouldn't have access there either. And in South Asia, there's no such thing as a Guardian Buddha." Then his eyes widened. "Don't tell me… he ground up all of Taiwan's Guardian Buddhas into Buddha Ash?!"
After confirming Zhang Zhiyan was only unconscious and not in critical danger, Meng Qiqi dragged him out of the dusty area and replied, "I heard two years ago that Huang Ran had invited several statues from Taiwanese temples to 'worship' at home. Looks like he turned those Guardian Buddhas into Buddha Ash. He's insane. Destroying Buddha statues is a grave sin…" She sighed, then glanced at Zhang Zhiyan and fell silent.
I picked up a handful of the "dust" from the ground and examined it. Sun Fatty leaned in and asked, "Lazi, what's Buddha Ash? From what Hao said, this stuff's worth a few hundred million? That handful of yours alone must be worth over a hundred grand!" As he spoke, he squatted down—well, tried to squat, but his belly was too big—and used both hands to scoop up a whole pile. "Lazi, see if you've got a bottle or something. Let's pack this up."
"This is Buddha Ash. I'm not touching it," I said, tossing the dust back onto the ground. "Stuff like this can send you to the Beast Realm in your next life." I dusted off my hands and added, "It's made by smashing and grinding Guardian Buddhas—statues meant to suppress Arcanobeasts. You really don't want to be holding onto this, Da Sheng. Put it down, now."
Once he reluctantly scattered the ash from his hands, I continued, "This stuff is taboo. In Buddhism, desecrating Buddha statues is already a grave sin. Turning them into Buddha Ash is a sin upon a sin. The karmic retribution for that is to fall into the Eighteen Levels of Hell. Even hoarding Buddha Ash can alter the cycle of reincarnation—you might be reborn as a pig or a dog in the Beast Realm."
Sun Fatty finally got the message and quickly brushed the lingering Buddha Ash from his palms. "So Huang Ran used this stuff to deal with that Yin Bai? Not gonna lie, Lazi, it doesn't seem to be working that well." Then he frowned. "Wait a minute… with that much Buddha Ash, and only one backpack, how the hell did he carry it all in?"
His question sparked something in Meng Qiqi. She opened her own pack and pulled out two stainless steel canisters, each the size of a beer bottle. "Huang Ran gave me these. He said they were filled with high-pressure condensed red nitrate, supposed to be used in the Tomb of a Transcendent Beast to deter attacks. I brought two. Zhang Zhiyan had four. Huang Ran's backpack was full of them."
Hao Wenming took one of the canisters and turned it over in his hands, inspecting it thoroughly but learning nothing. Sun Fatty sidled up, took the canister from Hao Wenming, and stared at it himself—but he didn't get anything out of it either.
Something about the canister looked familiar to me. It resembled a type of Israeli-made bounding anti-personnel mine. I couldn't recall the exact model, but during my training as a special forces soldier, we'd learned about landmines, and this particular design had stood out because of its unusual shape—more cylindrical than the usual disk-shaped mines. That unique appearance had stuck with me. The canister Meng Qiqi held looked 70 to 80 percent identical.
I pointed to the remaining canister and said to Meng Qiqi, "Let me see that one."
"Sure, catch!" she said, lifting her arm to toss it over. I panicked and shouted, "Don't throw it! Seriously, don't! I'll come over—don't toss it!" Startled by my outburst, she thankfully pulled her arm back just in time.
I walked over and took the canister from her carefully. One glance confirmed my suspicion—it was indeed that mine I couldn't name. The usual landmine markings had been deliberately scrubbed off, but the safety pin was still secured at the top. These mines were waterproof and could be deployed in shallow water like streams and ponds, so even a dip in the hot springs wouldn't affect their function. That blast earlier must have come from one of these.
I began searching the ground and eventually found enough debris to piece together the remains of four or five such mines.
Gently setting the mine aside, I saw Sun Fatty walk over with another one in his arms. He must have realized the canisters' true identity too. Before he could say a word, I pointed at the mine and said, "Da Sheng, better hold that carefully. If it falls and goes off, we're both done for."
"What? Done how?" he asked, confused.
"That thing's a landmine. I can't recall the model, but I'm sure we're well within its kill radius—" Before I could finish, Sun Fatty shoved the mine into my hands. "Here, take it! My hands are sweaty—I might drop it!"
I set it down next to the first one. Hao Wenming came over and asked, "Lazi, are you saying this is a mine?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Learned about these in demining training. This exact type. But these have been modified. Judging by the remains, at least five went off. Their destructive power should've been greater. And the debris is oddly large, scattered in a tight radius—classic signs of underpowered explosions. Looks like they reduced the explosives and packed them with Buddha Ash instead."
Hao Wenming squinted and muttered, "Packing Buddha Ash into landmines... Huang Ran really thought this through."
Just as he finished, another round of gunfire echoed ahead—much closer this time. After a few shots, a deep explosion followed, accompanied by the anguished cry of some creature.