Stars fall and locust trees grow

After flying for about half a day, Li Chi and his companions finally arrived at the foot of the West Mountain in Taiping Town.

The four of them first visited old lady Zhao and found out the exact location where she had collected herbs that day, and then carefully examined the wounds on the hunting dog.

The wounds were located on the hound's back, with a total of five wounds of varying lengths. Because they had been treated by the people stationed at Mingyuejian that day, all that could be seen now were the shocking blood scabs after they had healed.

Wei Li tilted his head and leaned close to Li Chi's ear and whispered, "Looking at this, those two wild boars are probably in great danger."

Li Chi hummed softly, but because he was afraid that the old woman would have wild thoughts, he waited until the others came out of the house before he said, "We're going to see the pig alive or the corpse dead this time."

"In addition, if it was really caused by a wild beast, we need to contact the sect to set up a barrier to prevent it from coming down the mountain to harm people."

Ruan Nanzhi is the only talisman practitioner in the team, so the task of finding the pigs mainly depends on her.

She had always felt guilty about not being able to wield a sword, but now she finally regained the youthful vigor and vitality that a young person should have.

"You can leave the tracking to me without any worries."

Ruan Nanzhi took out five different colored paper balls from his Qiankun bag and placed them on the ground. "This is the animal tracking talisman I folded before I went out. Although it looks a bit ugly, the effect is still very good. You can pick one!"

"Ah ha?!" Li Chi looked at the five paper balls on the ground in disbelief, frowning, "You said these unrecognizable paper balls are... small animals?!"

"Yes!" Ruan Nanzhi patiently introduced them one by one. "The white one is a rabbit, the yellow one is a puppy, the brown one is a squirrel, the black one is a kitten, and the green one is a frog."

This is really, I can't tell at all...

Li Chi squatted down and picked and chose, and finally chose the green paper ball that vaguely looked like a frog.

"That's it!"

Ruan Nanzhi collected the other four paper balls, then quickly made a hand gesture and injected spiritual energy into the paper balls. The paper balls jumped around in the yard, croaked twice, and then flew directly out of the yard.

"Let's go!" Ruan Nanzhi followed first.

Wei Li looked at the green and round paper frog that easily crossed the courtyard wall and couldn't help but sigh, "Although it looks a bit ugly, its body is quite flexible!"

"At least, more flexible than me."

The paper frog made two "quack" sounds every time it jumped, so Li Chi gave it a nice name, "Quack Frog".

With the help of the "Gugua Frog" which was good at tracking, the few of them quickly found the place where Old Lady Zhao had collected herbs that day. Looking down, they could still vaguely see bloodstains left by hunting dogs on the nearby grass.

"Gugua Frog" jumped twice on the largest bloodstain, and continued to lead the four people towards the dense forest not far away.

"The bloodstains we saw along the way should all be from the hunting dog." Li Chi pointed to the majestic, vast, rolling forest in front of him, "And the two wild boars are most likely in this dense forest."

When they reached the edge of the dense forest, they saw a large patch of dried blood and obvious dragging marks on the ground.

"Gugua Frog" also jumped twice at the bloodstain, and then led Li Chi and the other three into the dense forest.

The vegetation in the dense forest is extremely lush, with the lower areas covered with messy shrubs and the upper areas dominated by tall and sturdy pines and cypresses.

The dense branches blocked the sunlight completely, leaving only a bunch of large and small mottled light spots on the ground.

From the moment we entered the dense forest, the air gradually became oppressive and gloomy.

The surroundings were quiet and peaceful, with the occasional chirping of unknown insects and birds, the occasional croaking of "croaking frogs", and the sound of four people's footsteps on dead branches and leaves.

I don’t know how long we walked like this, but the “quack frog” in the front suddenly started calling “quack! quack!” non-stop.

Li Chi and his companions followed the sound and moved forward, and saw a bloody pig's hoof lying on the ground.

"It was torn off by force, not bitten." Wei Li pointed at the broken part of the pig's hoof. "There are no signs of gnawing on the bones, joints or skin, so it should be a large beast with a strong body."

“Also, maybe a bit of a picky eater.”

"Then should we put this hoof away?!" Ye Jingxi said, "Didn't they say that if someone dies, we should see the body?"

Wei Li: "Of course I will collect it. If I can get a complete corpse, that would be even better!"

Ye Jingxi suppressed his nausea and collected the pig's trotters in his Qiankun bag, and the few of them continued to move forward into the depths of the dense forest.

As they walked, Li Chi felt something was wrong, so he immediately stopped them. "Don't you think it's a little too quiet around here?!"

"When we first came in, there were still insects and birds chirping in the dense forest, but now, we can only hear our own voices."

"Moreover, we have been walking for half a day and haven't seen any animals like rats, raccoons, snakes, or roe deer."

The other three heard this and realized something was wrong, so they immediately shut up and looked around carefully. As expected, they heard no other sounds, nor did they see any living creatures other than the four of them.

Li Chi signaled them to keep quiet, then calmed his mind and slowly extended his spiritual sense.

The situation in the dense forest was unclear, so he naturally did not dare to act rashly. Therefore, he could only carefully feel the surrounding environment.

The spiritual consciousness moved quietly towards the distance, and wherever it reached, there was deathly silence, and there was nothing unusual.

"Am I too sensitive?!" Li Chi was a little surprised.

But just when he was about to withdraw his spiritual consciousness, he suddenly felt an unusual fluctuation of spiritual energy somewhere in the dead silence.

For safety reasons, he did not continue to explore, but slowly withdrew his spiritual sense, looked at the three people beside him, and whispered: "It seems that there are...someone ahead..."

"Someone?!" Ye Jingxi screamed in a low voice, "How could there be someone in this deep mountain?!"

"Maybe it's the thief who stole the wild boar!" Thinking of the spiritual energy he just felt, Li Chi touched his chin, "How about this, I'll go over and take a look first, and you three stay here and wait for me."

"Once I'm sure it's safe, I'll signal you."

"No!" Wei Li refused without a second thought, "I have to go with you! I'm worried about you being alone!"

Ruan Nanzhi and Ye Jingxi also felt that they could not let him take the risk alone, so the four of them discussed it and finally decided to go together to the location where Li Chi discovered the spiritual energy.