Returning from the Immortal World - Chapter 629

Chapter 629: Savage Beast's Attack

The researchers at his research institute were akin to hot potatoes to Yuan Zhengxuan. He was conflicted between abandoning his conscience and not to abandon them, but he had little use for them in the future. It was precisely amid such a dilemma that Tang Xiu's proposal came, and it made him very satisfied. He didn't quote the price but put forward a condition instead.

"Please do say, Uncle Yuan!"

With cautiousness in mind, Tang Xiu observed him. He knew that the world did not provide free lunch. Yuan Zhengxuan was unwilling to sell and transfer the team of researchers to him, thus it could mean that the condition he put forward would be not easy to complete.

As expected, Yuan Zhengxuan smiled and said, "Tang Xiu, you have a Hand of Midas with vision and ability that are beyond that of an ordinary person's. I need projects. I hope that I can cooperate with you in certain areas. As long as you can let me invest my money, I can give you my research institute for free along with the researchers."

Tang Xiu slightly frowned. If he had a good project, he would have invested his money already. Why would he still wait until now? Yuan Zhengxuan's request was therefore quite difficult for him, and for a while, he did not know how he should deal with it.

Seeing that Tang Xiu looked awkward, Yuan Zhengxuan lightly smiled, "I'm aware that asking you to give me some projects at present is unrealistic. I can hand over the laboratory and the researchers to you, and I only need your promise now."

After contemplating a bit, Tang Xiu said, "I don't dare to guarantee 100%. But if I have a business plan and come across some good projects that require me to cooperate with others later I will call you first, Uncle Yuan."

Clapping his hands, Yuan Zhengxuan smiled with satisfaction. "It's a deal. This way, the researchers who are now going home to celebrate the New Year will return to work at the research institute afterward. Let's set a date and I'll take you there myself by then."

"Alright." Tang Xiu smiled and nodded.

As a matter of fact, he also lacked the confidence in researching the Magnetic Levitation Flying Disk. After all, the subject of science and technology research was something out of his expertise. The reason why he wanted to start the research was that he had already seen the object. He knew how huge the sensation it would create and how wondrous the profits it would make once the object was fully researched and developed.

Ring ring ring…

The ringtone of Tang Xiu's mobile phone suddenly buzzed.

After picking it up and looking at the number displayed on the screen, Tang Xiu immediately connected it and spoke, "Have you returned to Star City, Sis Xiaowan?"

"Yeah, I'm already here." Chen Xiaowan's voice came replying. "Where are you now? Are you free and have some time to go out and meet me?"

"I still have things to tend to right now. I'll treat you to lunch at noon," said Tang Xiu with a smile.

"Okay!" Chen Xiaowan readily agreed.

After ending the call, Tang Xiu looked at Yuan Zhengxuan and spoke, "Uncle Yuan, please don't forget to call me after the researchers come to work again after the New Year. I'll still be in Star City before the 15th of January."

"Got it. No problem," said Yuan Zhengxuan with a smile.

Shortly after, Tang Xiu got up and bade farewell. Though Yuan Zhengxuan and Zhao Jing wanted him to stay for lunch, Tang Xiu refused since he already had an appointment with Chen Xiaowan. Yuan Chuling didn't go with him as he had just returned from Shanghai and had planned to stay at home with his parents. He was obviously more mature than before after having gone through many things, much to his parents' happiness and satisfaction.

However, on the way to see Chen Xiaowan, Tang Xiu received a call from Su Ben and learned that a big incident had happened, so he immediately contacted Chen Xiaowan and told her that he had to go to his hometown as there was a very urgent matter. After concluding the call, he directly turned the steering wheel and rushed to his hometown.

Su Ben told him on the phone that several murder cases happened in the Su Family Village as well as in the neighboring villages in the recent days. According to the investigation of the local public security bureau, it was found that the murderers were not humans but very horrible beasts.

Such a situation made Tang Xiu remember what Su Ben told him, that in the back hill of the Su Family Village there was a leopard larger than a bull. At that time, Tang Xiu's conjecture was that the beast should be a savage, fierce beast, and he did not deal with it since he did not encounter it before.

****

Su Family Village, Songlou Town.

It was nearly the New Year and at this time, the whole village portrayed a jubilant scene. Children dressed in clean clothes were running around, setting off firecrackers, sticking and pasting couplets, and playing games, whereas the adults were preparing for the New Year's products or gathered together in groups of three to five to chat.

When Tang Xiu drove the car to the village, however, only a few men came back from the outside holding iron shovels and harpoons in their hands, with solemn and vigilant expressions on their faces.

Creak…

As the car stopped in front of them, Tang Xiu then faced them and asked, "How is the current situation? How many people have been killed in the Su Family Village?"

One of the men was among the ones that was helped by Tang Xiu in the previous beating incidents and was sent to the Star City Chinese Medical Hospital, Su Xiangjian. Upon hearing Tang Xiu's inquiry, he squeezed out a sad smile and said, "Two died, Zhangwen and Gangzi. The day when that beast killed them, hundreds of people from several villages joined us to scour the mountain, but we couldn't find its shadow at all. We really want to kill it." [1]

"How many villagers from other villages became victims?" Asked Tang Xiu quickly.

"Two people from our village. A total of four added up with the ones from other villages. The number now became six victims, with several others injured. Wang Haiyang from the Little Village of Wang is gravely injured and maybe won't be able to make through this year."

"Which places the beast attacked them?" Asked Tang Xiu once again.

While pointing to the north, Su Xiangjian bitterly said, "Some from our village were attacked in the orchard at the foot of the hill. They were pruning apple trees back then and were attacked by that damned beast. The victims from other villages were also attacked near the mountain at the back. The man who survived said that it was a leopard the size of a bull."

Tang Xiu nodded in response. He took out cigarettes from his pocket and gave it to them. Then he talked to them for a while before driving to his grandmother's house.

"Tang Xiu!"

Su Ben and Su Quan were long waiting and rushed up to welcome him at this time.

After Tang Xiu got off the car, he said, "I met the uncles when I just entered the village and learned the situation from them. Brother Ben, Su Quan, wait for me here. I'm going in and say hi to grandma, and then you all will go with me to the back of the mountain.

"We can't go there, Tang Xiu," said Su Ben quickly.

Tang Xiu shot him a deep gaze and said with a serious expression, "Brother Ben, there's something that you don't know. I've been practicing martial arts with some experts in the recent years, and I can tell you that my foundation is very deep; tens of men are not my opponents. Besides, with you all following me, we can kill that leopard as long as we can find it."

"Listen to me, Tang Xiu. That leopard is no way an ordinary wild beast." Su Ben shook his head and replied. "And now many people even say that this leopard is something akin to a demon spawn. Let alone three of us, even 30 people going there without weapons will probably not come back alive."

Tang Xiu was silent for a moment before speaking, "Just wait for me here first, I'll tell you something later."

Having said that, he stepped into the courtyard's entrance and then saw Su Xiangfei, who was currently whetting a javelin in the yard. Tang Xiu was slightly dazed upon seeing it and immediately asked, "When did you come back?"

Squeezing a smiling face, Su Xiangfei said, "Been back here for more than a week."

Tang Xiu nodded and asked, "Is Grandma inside?"

"She's inside, having a nap after lunch." Su Xiangfei said. "Grandma has been great recently, though she's kinda sad due to the death of the villagers. She's in a bad mood these days."

Tang Xiu then nodded, "Since she's sleeping, then I'm going out to deal with something."

"I'm coming with you," said Su Xiangfei quickly. "I just heard your conversation outside."

"With me, Brother Ben, and Su Quan, the three of us are enough." Tang Xiu shook his head. "Don't worry, it will be fine."

"Another one will add more strength, Tang Xiu." Su Xiangfei shook his head. "I must go with you all."

Tang Xiu hesitated. After looking at his determined expression, he then nodded and said, "Alright, let's go!"

As he came outside, Tang Xiu took out a pistol from his pocket, showed it under the light toward them and then quickly stuffed it back, speaking in a low voice, "This gun is usually for my self-defense. When we get to the back of the mountain, once we find the leopard and are unable to kill it by our own force, then I'll shoot it."

"Tang Xiu, you… how come you have a gun?" Asked Su Quan immediately, astounded.

The pistol was actually obtained by Tang Xiu after he killed the members of the Yao Family. There were quite a number of guns inside his interspatial ring, and even some submachine guns and sniper rifles. Certainly, he couldn't mention it to them about it, and therefore made up some reasons, "I'm a billion-yuan Big Boss. It would be quite dangerous if I didn't have the means to defend myself whenever some evil people want to strike me for money. Anyhow, rest assured, I won't do anything illegal with this gun. It's just to defend myself."

Both Su Ben and Su Quan immediately understood since both of them were employees of the Magnificent Tang Corporation. Su Ben was now a deputy captain of the security guards in the company's winery and naturally knew that the security team of the company was now armed with guns legally licensed by the government. Su Xiangfei, however, did not know about this. But after realizing Tang Xiu's present status, he also expressed his understanding.

Ten minutes later, after Tang Xiu drove the car and parked it in the back hill with the three people, they hurriedly got up and trekked the mountain pathway leading to the mountain with vigilance. Except for Tang Xiu who brought a gun, Su Ben and Su Quan brought a harpoon and an iron shovel, whereas Su Xiangfei was armed with his javelin.

The moment they entered the Jin Mountain, Tang Xiu had already released his spiritual sense. Though his present level of cultivation was very high, he did not find the level of strength of that leopard. Furthermore, he had three people with him around, so he needed to guarantee their safety as well.

"Give me some directions. I often came here when we're children, but my memory is kinda blurred about the many places," said Tang Xiu to them. It was actually his real purpose of bringing them.

"Let's scour the surroundings first." Su Ben said. "We'll venture deeper if we can't find it. Many places are fraught with dangers over this mountain, especially in the valley. I'm quite familiar with those places, just follow me."

Chapter 630: Venturing Deeper into the Mountain to Hunt

The mountainous area to the North of the Su Family Village was one of the mountain range branches of the Yuzhou Ridge. It was only several kilometers wide but comprised of quite a lot of large and small hills. The place turned luxuriantly lush and green during the summer with its towering old trees, yet it looked desolate in the cold winter.

When Tang Xiu was a child, he followed the adults to venture to the back of the mountain, but only a few times had he ventured deeper into the mountain range. Many old hunters who made a living from hunting may have ventured deeper inside. Su Ben's grandfather was one among those old hunters, but after Su Ben's father generation, they did not fullly make a living from hunting anymore.

The tapered towering rocks were queer and were arduously precipitous.

The four men searched for a few hours on the periphery and did not find the trail of the leopard, so they trekked over the mountain and entered a very long valley on the back side. Here Tang Xiu narrowed the range of his spiritual sense to a radius of 50 meters to save his energy.

"Tang Xiu, we will have to jump over that mountain creek later. Remember to do your very best to jump over, or else you'll fall." The four men's trek came to a stop halfway up the mountainside, as Su Ben pointed to the gap of the mountain creek about seven-plus meters away from them.

"Don't worry!" Replied Tang Xiu.

The gap in the mountain creek was two-plus meters wide and the four jumped over with extra care, and then took a rest for a dozen minutes before continuing with the trekking toward the inside. They climbed over and headed toward the lower terrain. And due to the area located at the back of the mountain, some of the places still had snow that had yet to melt. Walking on the mountain pathway here was arduously difficult.

Su Ben took a glance at the time on his mobile phone. It was 4:30 PM. He stopped and said with all seriousness, "We can only trek up this point today as it will turn dark in about an hour. I'm afraid that we'll encounter some dangers if we go back too late."

Tang Xiu took his mobile out, too, and found that there was no signal, and then said, "Let's spend the night here. Let's venture deeper to find a hidden place to rest. Night is the time for wild animals and beasts to wander around, so the chance of us spotting that leopard is also bigger if we stay here."

"This…" Su Ben and Su Quan exchanged dismayed looks and similarly had hesitant looks.

"Even if we are to rush back now, we won't be able to get to the foot of the mountain until the sky completely turns dark, brothers," said Su Xiangfei calmly. "Let's just stay here!"

"Yup, don't worry!" Tang Xiu glanced at him with satisfaction. "How will I dare to go to the peak of the mountain without two or three more people? I can guarantee your safety since I'm the one who brought you here. That leopard is loathsome. I'm afraid those villagers from the several villages won't be in the mood to celebrate the New Year if we don't exterminate it. Besides, I don't know how many people will have to die when it appears again some other day."

"Alright, then!" Su Ben and Su Quan finally nodded.

After half an hour, the quartet rushed and arrived at the most bottom of the valley. While looking at the shimmering small lake in front, Su Ben pointed to a stone riprap at the foot of the hill and said, "There's a cave behind that pile of stones. I used to stay in there when I went hunting with grandpa in the past. Let's stay here tonight."

"Yeah, I once came here with your gramps, too." Su Quan smilingly said. "The old gramps gave us roasted chicken and liquor back then. It was my first time… having a drink! Unfortunately, we came here way too hurried, else I'd have brought some wine had I know we would spend the night here."

A glint flashed in Tang Xiu's eyes and a smiling expression climbed up his face. He stuffed his hand into his pocket to conceal taking a half-pound of white wine from his interspatial ring, and then smilingly said, "Well, I came prepared."

"You really have some liquor in your pocket?" Su Quan was astounded. "Tell me, Tang Xiu, you had already decided to spend the night here before? No, something's not right. Your clothes won't be that big, no? It can't hide a bottle of wine underneath, right?"

"A half-pound of liquor isn't too big and can be stuffed underneath my clothes' pocket," said Tang Xiu with a smile. "Anyhow, go to the cave behind that stone riprap first. I'll comb the surrounding and get you all some game."

"I'm going with you, Tang Xiu," said Su Ben.

"No, don't worry, Brother Ben!" Tang Xiu shook his head and smilingly said. "I have confidence in my strength. I'm afraid that I must pay attention to take care of you too if you come with me."

Su Ben did not know Tang Xiu's strength, yet he realized one thing. After trekking the mountain at noon today, Tang Xiu did not look fatigued at all until now, not even dropping a sweat. One must know that he had been doing a lot of physical exercises every day since he started working in the security team of the Magnificent Tang Corporation for the past six months. He thought that his physical fitness was very good already. But after secretly comparing himself with Tang Xiu, he finally discovered that his metabolism was not as good as his.

"I know that you've been smart and cautious since we're small, but still, you must pay attention to your safety," said Su Ben in a low voice.

Patting his shoulder, Tang Xiu picked a direction at random and walked toward the dead grove. He picked his speed up immediately after leaving their sight and smoothly traversed the wooded mountain. He released his spiritual sense and spread it out in a wide scope. In just 10 minutes, he had scoured the radius of seven-plus kilometers, and yet he didn't find any trace of the leopard except for some wild animals.

Two pheasants and one hare. It should be enough for the four of us to eat, no?

Tang Xiu took the precious herbs and stuffed them into his interspatial ring, and then sat with the random prey caught in the rock pile not far from the lakeside.

"Oh?"

Suddenly, Tang Xiu, who was taking the long route to return, had a surprised expression on his face. He suddenly sensed that the concentration of the world energy in the surrounding got richer the more he paced forward. Even the concentration of the world's spiritual qi became two or three times richer than of other places after passing nearly a kilometer.

"Something's unusual here!"

Tang Xiu quickly stuffed the pheasants and hare into his interspatial ring. He took out the Bloodguzzler dagger and backhandedly wielded it, as he then carefully observed the surroundings as well as estimated the concentration of the world's spiritual qi, and then headed toward the place with higher concentration. He realized that he was slowly deviating from the direction he must return since the direction was heading toward another mountain on the other side of the valley.

Ten minutes later, he stopped in front of a seven-plus meters high stone forest. Though there were also many trees growing here, his visibility was much further since the deadwood was already scarce. Under the combing of his spiritual sense, however, he found some particularities in this stone forest.

"This is an array of stones formed by nature. I really did not expect there would be a natural stone array here. It has no attacking power, however, so this one ought to be a type of Phantasmagoric Array."

Having observed it for two minutes, Tang Xiu resolutely stepped into the stone forest. After the estimation and judgment, he easily reached its center. And at this time, the concentration of Heaven and Earth spiritual qi here was already ten times that of other places.

"My luck is not bad, a pity that…"

Looking at the 'gurgling' white mist of the spring in front of him, there was a forced smile on Tang Xiu's face. It was a Spirit Spring, formed by a spiritual vein which contained a huge amount of spiritual energy. If cultivators were to cultivate here, they would definitely get twice the results with half the effort. Their cultivation speed would definitely be a hundred times faster than their usual cultivation if they were to soak themselves inside this Spirit Spring.

He felt that it was a pity since this Spirit Spring wouldn't be much of a help to him since the energy he absorbed was star force, whereas the spiritual force of the earth had only an auxiliary effect on him.

Suddenly, an idea sprung up inside his head when he remembered Su Ben and Su Quan. He immediately decided to teach these two fellas a cultivation technique. He had decided to groom talents, and they were close to him, his family, thus he knew well their characters and dispositions. These two would be able to help him more in the future if he trained them well.

But something made Tang Xiu hesitant—Su Xiangfei was also with them at the moment. Though he had already changed his disposition, steadier and more mature, after having experienced the drastic change in his family and even had recognized and approved him as family, but they were, after all…

After contemplating for several minutes, Tang Xiu then decided to teach Su Xiangfei a cultivation technique as well. Even though the grievance between them was quite deep in the past, he believed that Su Xiangfei was someone who could change. Not to mention that he had made him lose a lot more. He only needed to show him that he was formidable enough and believed that the cousin would not birth any evil thoughts again toward him.

With that in mind, Tang Xiu immediately withdrew from the stone forest and quickly returned to the cave where the trio was covertly staying. As he arrived there, he saw the trio standing at the entrance to the cave, waiting and observing the surroundings.

"Fill your stomach first. I'm going to present you all with a big opportunity." Tang Xiu threw two pheasants and hare in front of the trio and smilingly spoke.

When the trio saw the pheasants and hare, surprised looks immediately appeared on their faces. Little did they think that Tang Xiu could actually hunt game in the middle of the night. The trio, however, was confused upon hearing his remark, as Su Quan then asked, "What exactly is the opportunity you want to gift us, Tang Xiu?"

"Eat first," said Tang Xiu.

After replying, he took out the salt and spices from his pocket. These things were all inside his interspatial ring, but he already stuffed them in small bottles on the way back, so it didn't look strange.

Collecting dry wood branches to lit up a bonfire.

Su Ben swiftly killed the pheasants and the hare with the knife he brought and had them cleaned at the lakeside. After which he had them roasted on the bonfire. They were offspring who lived close to the mountain and had roasted game whenever they had gatherings. Soon after, the two yellowish roasted pheasant and hare had been roasted.

"What a fragrance! Pity that there's not enough liquor, though."

With half a pound of liquor and four men, nobody was able to drink more than one or two sips. But with the roasted pheasants and hare, the four still wolfed it down, making them feel warm and nice.

After they finished eating, Su Quan asked again, "You won't keep us guessing anymore, will you, Tang Xiu? Come on, spit it out. What kind of big opportunity you want to give us, exactly?"

While shooting the trio a deep gaze, Tang Xiu asked, "Before I tell you that, I want to ask you something. Are you all willing to give your lives to me?"

"I make a living from you, eating and drinking with you. So I'll naturally work to my best effort for you," said Su Ben without thinking.

Su Quan, however, hesitated for a short while before replying, "We grew up and played together until we turned into adults. We're tied by blood and kinship as well, so naturally, we're willing to work hard for you, Tang Xiu. As a matter of fact, my feeling is similar to Brother Ben's. We are all relatives and brothers. You only need to speak as long as you need something from us."

Tang Xiu nodded without a word, as he then looked at Su Xiangfei.