Infinite Hunter

His expenses, however, could be clearly traced; they were all for personal consumption. Furthermore, Cheng Yijiu didn't hold a public office; he was a freelancer. Normally, the police wouldn't bother investigating someone with that kind of income—it wasn't the IRS in the United States, and the Chinese IRS wasn't nearly as powerful.

"Most likely they are not the police. Then it would be strange why they are following me? Is it for the Hunter's Lodge?" Cheng Yijiu felt that he had never seen other users of the Hunter's Lodge, but he was not sure that he was the only one in the world. Maybe there were other people using the Hunter's Lodge?

Cheng Yijiu gradually felt the hairs on his body stand up. This must be the other party's gaze on him. "Is there murderous intent?" He could sense the feeling of being stared at by a man-eating beast. Cheng Yijiu was not willing to take any risks. He would not go to the side alley to fight back. Instead, he walked on the busy main road and headed towards his residence.

The people following him were getting closer and closer, their malice growing more intense. Cheng Yijiu was just waiting in the dark. He couldn't attack yet, so he could only passively counterattack. He didn't want to be socially dead, so he preferred self-defense. He was already imagining how the other party would attack him. Although he had no weapons, he should be able to imitate the full armor fighting stance with his bare hands and fight back.

Cheng Yijiu's eyes were already paying attention to the objects around him, looking for props that he could use to attack. At this moment, the thorns behind him disappeared, and the other party gave up tracking. Cheng Yijiu did not look back, just pretending that he didn't know about it.

He returned home, steadily opened the door, walked in, closed it, and locked it with a click. Cheng Yijiu sat down at the long table, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the surface as he recalled. "What kind of abnormal feeling is this?" Cheng Yijiu closed his eyes and began to recall everything he had seen.

About five minutes later, he opened his eyes. The moment he opened them, his pupils seemed to turn orange, but they quickly returned to normal. "That woman, that woman, every time I scan her face, it's different!" Although they looked similar, there were subtle differences between them, and that sense of ordinariness was such that if Cheng Yijiu hadn't been recalling them very carefully and had a very deep memory of the images, he really wouldn't have been able to recall them.

"Interesting..." Cheng Yijiu stopped tapping his fingers. "Are they the ones following me? Yes, they should be." Then he had to think, "Why?" Cheng Yijiu couldn't understand, but it didn't matter. He could wait. Cheng Yijiu walked to the wall of the hall and took down the pistol there. It was an M1911A1 pistol. The .45 caliber might not be very suitable for shooting prey, but it was very good for shooting humans.

Nothing happened later that day; it seemed the hunting lodge was perfectly sealed. Should he bring a weapon with him for the next few days? Cheng Yijiu figured he could only bring a baton, but after careful consideration, he realized that carrying a baton in public was illegal. So, the most appropriate thing to bring was a cane—the kind Western gentlemen used to carry.

As a fan of full-armor combat, Cheng Yijiu had also practiced Patton techniques. With just a cane, he could easily knock down several people. Furthermore, with his current strength and reflexes, he wouldn't be afraid of those guys using knives, as long as they didn't use pistols. The next day, when Cheng Yijiu went out, he had a civilized cane in his hand. This cane was about one meter long, with a copper tiger head at the top. The cane body was made of strong and resilient plastic steel with a wood-like surface, and the end was made of a section of high-strength, wear-resistant rubber.

"It can strike, block, whip, and stab." He was quite satisfied with this self-defense tool that was absolutely legal. He didn't need to hold it with his hands; he just needed to hold the bottom of the stick and it could be used as an ornament like a watch. Cheng Yijiu continued shopping, but this time he didn't feel anyone was watching him.

He walked into the café again, this time in his suit, leaning his cane against the table as he drank his coffee as usual. "That feeling is coming back." He finished his coffee, took another moment, then picked up his cane and left. This time he took the shortcut—there were fewer people here.

As expected, the attack erupted as they turned the corner. It began with a lunge, hands clutching a dagger, poised to stab. Cheng Yijiu's dynamic vision was now excellent, and he reacted instantly. He couldn't retreat, as there was always the possibility of an outflanking attack from behind. So he charged forward, relying on the greater length of his walking stick.

The man lunged at him, his distance incredibly close. In the nick of time, Cheng Yijiu thrust his staff forward, the movement akin to a swift sword strike. He aimed directly at the opponent's midpoint, where many vital points are located. His powerful hand gave him exceptional stability, and with one strike, he pierced the opponent's thoracic vertebrae just below the throat. He was showing mercy; otherwise, a few centimeters higher would have been fatal.

Cheng Yijiu heard the sound of a broken bone, and the man's movements paused, but he seemed to ignore the pain and continued to push forward. Cheng Yijiu quickly took a step from the side and hit the man on the back of the head with a stick - "I'm afraid this thing is no longer human!" As a very good hunter, Cheng Yijiu immediately felt something was wrong.

As expected, someone was rapidly approaching from behind, a violent gust of wind echoing. Something hurled itself at him, and Cheng Yijiu, with a kick of his foot, leaped out like a giant cat and turned. "Two 'people'?" he said, standing straight, cane in hand. One of the two men before him was already bent over, seemingly unable to move. Cheng Yijiu's relentless strike must have broken his cervical vertebrae. The other, half-bent over, held a knife in his hand, ready to charge.

Volume: Werewolf

Chapter 1 Mission

Cheng Yijiu's Barton technique incorporated swift sword techniques, and he now had the advantage of weapon length. A cane sword was definitely out of the question, as it would be illegal. However, with Cheng Yijiu's current strength and speed, even a simple civilized staff could penetrate a person in one strike. The man rushing towards him, brandishing a knife, seemed to Cheng Yijiu to be full of flaws, so he countered, stabbing with his cane at the right distance.

The cane pierced the man's forehead straight, and Cheng Yijiu restrained his strength. The cane made a big bump on the man's forehead, and the man fell to the ground with a concussion. Cheng Yijiu took out his phone to call the police, but right under his nose, the two people twisted and turned into black water - this made Cheng Yijiu very surprised.

He even felt a little bit of fear. He was a hunter, a hunter who hunted man-eating beasts. But he had never seen such a situation before. He originally thought that the world he lived in was very rational and objective, but now it collapsed.

"What the hell is this world?" He even cursed out loud unconsciously, but Cheng Yijiu also knew that it was best to leave quickly, otherwise he would not be able to explain anything.

"What the hell is going on here?" Cheng Yijiu muttered to himself as he sat in the hall. "That's for the adventurers to find out." Suddenly, the computer made a sound. Cheng Yijiu just glanced at it—this computer was undoubtedly not simple. Since the computer said so, he could no longer think of finding any information from it.

He rested in the hall for a while, put his cane away, and then went to the study. There seemed to be several more bookshelves in the study, but the books on them were quite obscure, filled with legends and anecdotes, perfect for killing time. "So many absurdities," Cheng Yijiu commented, taking notes with a pen. Some of the things he saw seemed familiar.

New missions never appeared, and no police came to his door, let alone anyone following him. It was as if the two things he had seen before had completely disappeared. However, Cheng Yijiu knew they existed, and there was a high probability that the relevant authorities knew about them. Whether they knew about the hunter's cabin was hard to say. After all, this world might not be material. Cheng Yijiu quickly changed his mind.

Once he'd been exposed to these things, he'd always sense something amiss when he went out. Just because no one was following him didn't mean he couldn't spot anything. What exactly was that amiss? Cheng Yijiu couldn't put his finger on it. Perhaps after a few more missions, as he continued to grow, things would change.

This hunting of the man-eating lion may have brought him growth.

Cheng Yijiu crafted weapons, having already completed several cold weapons—this time, out of pure passion, he crafted a hand-and-a-half sword and a simple half-body armor. Thanks to superior metal materials, his weapons and armor performed exceptionally well. The hand-and-a-half sword was forged with a folding forge, and after pickling and polishing, it bore a beautiful "sky ladder" pattern. Heat-treated according to the forging manual, the sword remained incredibly sharp.

The armor was thin, but its protection was excellent—after all, he was dealing with wild beasts. While much stronger than humans, they lacked steel weapons. Therefore, plate armor was the best choice. Even a few millimeters thick was sufficient to resist claws and teeth. The surface-hardened armor was impenetrable even with a standard crossbow at close range. "Neither a tiger nor a crocodile would be able to bite through it."

Cheng Yijiu is currently crafting a vintage musket, and he's taken a creative approach—he's rifled it and used a single-piece round. The main gunpowder is wrapped in a relatively sturdy oil paper, and the firing mechanism uses a firing pin, but the spring mechanism uses a pistol-type compression mechanism. To fire, the rifle is lowered, and the paper-wrapped round is inserted. This action compresses the spring—just like an airgun.

When the rifle is closed, the needle inside automatically pierces the bottom of the bullet and a little gunpowder flows out into the chamber. When the trigger is pulled, the flint above the chamber hits the chamber at a very short distance, generating sparks that ignite the gunpowder. This thing is on the same level as Dreiser's striker gun, but it uses a handle that makes it easier to disguise it as a flintlock gun.

The next mission is about to appear. Cheng Yijiu has a feeling that this mission may be more dangerous than before, and he may even see a completely different scenery.

Sure enough, three days later, Cheng Yijiu saw the task of hunting down the man-eating monster of Revodan on his computer...

This was eighteenth-century France, so Cheng Yijiu had to dress up a bit, changing his clothes. His weapons were a hunting spear, a crossbow, and a newly-made striker rifle—which had been camouflaged to look more like an eighteenth-century flintlock. He also had to disguise his appearance, and bring a few silver coins—a purse filled with coins he'd quickly stamped out of industrial silver.

Cheng Yijiu put on his hat and opened the door.

Before him lay a pastoral landscape, a French wilderness. Cheng Yijiu was troubled by his inability to speak French, which made the task even more difficult. The probability of failure was high, and the thought of another punishment mission filled him with anxiety. He truly didn't want to be a man-eating beast—it wasn't a pleasant experience. He wandered aimlessly through the fields. Since this was a mission, he figured the monster couldn't be far away.

Cheng Yijiu recalled the historical records he had seen. This was a reddish-brown monster, believed to be a very large wolf. Of course, some said it was a hyena, but more legends said it was a werewolf. The original Revodan monster was probably just one or two old and weak wolves that could only attack humans, but here Cheng Yijiu thought that he might really be given a werewolf to see, "Increase the difficulty..."

The werewolves needed silver bullets, and Cheng Yijiu actually had some silver bullets on hand, which he had hastily crafted. He loaded a silver bullet—the downside of striker rifles is that once the bullet is ejected, the gunpowder leaks, rendering it essentially useless. Another problem is that moisture easily accumulates in the chamber if the gun isn't fired. Cheng Yijiu loaded a round, then, carrying his rifle, crossbow, and short spear, walked down the road and saw a farm...

Chapter 2: The Attack Appears

There were cows on the farm, but they were quite thin. There was also a village girl working, seemingly cleaning something for the cows. Cheng Yijiu walked over, and the village girl ran away when she saw him - outsiders were quite dangerous these days, and the security in the countryside was always bad.

The village girl didn't run far. She quickly called over the others, two peasants and two women. They approached Cheng Yijiu with great caution. They spoke French with a country accent. Cheng Yijiu didn't speak French to begin with, and now it was like listening to a foreign language. He tried to communicate with them in English—and considering the musket and short spear on his back, their attitude was quite good.

Cheng Yijiu only wanted to communicate with them about whether they could provide him with clean drinking water - fresh milk would be fine, and whether there was any food, which he could buy with silver coins. When he took out the silver coins, the communication finally became somewhat effective - after all, they were all in European languages, and they could still communicate with each other through gestures.

These French people did not show any abnormality in his appearance. It was probably because his dress did not have a typical Asian feel, and his facial features made it difficult to tell the difference between him and people from North Africa and the Middle East - Europeans were blind to Asians, at least in this era.

Black eyes and black hair are not uncommon. There are many people like this in Italy. This is what a truly noble Roman looks like. They took out smoked sausages, bread, and milk, and Cheng Yijiu took out silver coins to give them. By the way, he told these farmers and village girls about the situation nearby.

If he spoke more slowly, he could probably understand what the other party meant. Cheng Yijiu said that he was tracking a man-eating wolf, and at this time the farmers showed obvious fear, but judging from their actions, they did not seem to have encountered such a monster. After eating and drinking, Cheng Yijiu said goodbye to them and left. He thought that if he wandered around here, he would always hear news - he could not understand those notices, but it didn't matter. In this era, most French farmers were illiterate. Before leaving, Cheng Yijiu asked them where the nearby church was, and he thought it would be more appropriate to ask the priest for information.

French country churches are just so-so, but the priests can speak English. After Cheng Yijiu donated ten silver coins, his request to stay was approved. However, the church could only provide him with water and bread as food. "I am a wolf hunter, sir. Have you heard of man-eating wolves around here?"

The priest was a chubby, middle-aged man with a cheerful personality. After Cheng Yijiu put in another gold coin as a donation, he was happy to chat with Cheng Yijiu. "A man-eating wolf? We haven't had a wolf attack here in years. With God's protection, such a tragic thing won't happen again." He made the sign of the cross.

"Really? Sorry." Cheng Yijiu also made the sign of the cross. It wasn't hard to pretend to be a Catholic. The next day, someone ran to the church and cried for help. "A wolf is attacking!" Cheng Yijiu had seen this person the day before. Now, his face was pale and he was scared to death. He knelt in front of the statue and sobbed. He refused to leave the house no matter what he was asked to lead the way.

Father John, the priest who could speak English, felt quite embarrassed. He had just told Cheng Yijiu yesterday that there were no wolves attacking people here, but he didn't expect them to appear today. Cheng Yijiu didn't want to laugh at this. Wasn't he here to solve this problem?

"Sir, I'll go check it out." Cheng Yijiu checked his gun and confirmed that the gunpowder was not damp, then picked up his musket and spear and set off. This time he did not bring a crossbow. Father John also quickly caught up. He asked the others to look after the frightened guy and quickly followed Cheng Yijiu's footsteps.

"That guy was so scared that he couldn't even explain who the wolf attacked or what the outcome was," John said. "Oh, that's normal. Not everyone is that brave. But I saw him yesterday and I think I know where the attack might have taken place. Do you know it too, Mr. John?"

"The wolves in Gévaudan..." Cheng Yijiu muttered. "European wolves aren't big. They're smaller than the wolves in the North American Rockies and the Far East." He said. Father John found this quite amusing. "Oh, Louis. Have you seen those beasts?" Cheng Yijiu gave himself a pseudonym, Louis.

"Well, I've been to India. The tigers there are truly terrifying beasts," Cheng Yijiu said. They were already nearing their destination. Seeing the terrified villagers and women, Reverend John, a prominent figure in the area, first asked about the situation. "No one, no one, was killed by wolves. A wolf attacked her, and a cow chased it away." The men spoke incoherently, and John's words echoed the same thing.

Finally, Cheng Yijiu sorted out the situation. The village girl was milking a cow when a reddish-brown, smelly wolf, about the size of a calf or even larger, with a long snout and large teeth like a cow, and most notably, a very long tail, much longer than that of an average wolf, rushed out of the woods and tried to attack her. "So it didn't go after the cow, but chose her instead?" Cheng Yijiu asked John. John scratched his head and turned back to talk to the village girl.

"Indeed." John took out the Bible from his robe and began to exorcise the "devil" for the villagers. The villagers knelt on the ground and listened to the priest's prayers for them. Cheng Yijiu walked to the place where the village girl pointed out the attack and looked for the beast's footprints.

"Instead of attacking cattle, it attacks humans directly? This wolf is probably an old one that has lost its hunting ability. As for the size issue, I guess it's just frightened and exaggerating." Cheng Yijiu thought, werewolves are not within his scope of consideration for the time being. Deep down, Cheng Yijiu was reluctant to believe this.

The ground was quite soft, and Cheng Yijiu quickly found footprints. After removing the cow's hoof prints and human footprints, what remained were the footprints of the wolf. While Cheng Yijiu was searching, John had finished his prayers and walked over to him. This priest had an extraordinary interest in this kind of thing.

"Are these wolf footprints?" John asked. "I don't think so. If these are the footprints of the wolf that attacked people, then I think the girl is frightened and exaggerating. This wolf can't be bigger than a sheepdog, maybe even a little thinner." Cheng Yijiu made a judgment. "In fact, I think these are just dog footprints from the ranch."

Cheng Yijiu stood up straight and looked at the jungle in front of him. He bent down and looked at the ground sideways. "Hmm?" He said, "I feel something is wrong!"

Chapter 3 Tracking Failure

Hearing what he said, Pastor John squatted down and looked around. "Is there something wrong?" Even the farmers gathered around to watch, their heads huddled low. It's human nature to enjoy the excitement, regardless of time or place. Cheng Yijiu sighed and gestured for Pastor John to look from his perspective. The middle-aged man looked for a long time, then turned back to look at him with a silly look.

Cheng Yijiu stood up and walked to the edge of the woods from another direction. He then turned to face John and the others who were standing there. He half-crouched, "This 'wolf'—let's just say it's a wolf—came out from here. Look, here are its footprints. Here's the second one. Look at all of them. This isn't the running style of a quadruped. Look here... these aren't wolf paw prints."

Cheng Yijiu pointed out these marks, and John also saw them. The farmers screamed in fear and knelt on the ground, praying for God's salvation. John also made the sign of the cross repeatedly and did not dare to open his eyes to look more - because the footprints that Cheng Yijiu pointed out looked more like cows. Yes, these were cow hoof prints, originally mixed in with other cow hoof prints and inconspicuous. But Cheng Yijiu distinguished them - because if this was a cow, then it would be running on two legs...

Tracks left by four legs are completely different from those left by two. The former can overlap, especially in the case of cats, while the latter have completely different strides. Cheng Yijiu pointed out the hoof prints of a running cow, but what truly frightened everyone was the mark Cheng Yijiu had outlined with his hand—it was a bit blurry at first, but once he had outlined it, everyone could see it clearly.

It was a rather large paw print, somewhat resembling a human hand, but with stubby fingers and distinct claw marks. "Oh my God..." John kept making the sign of the cross, and even Cheng Yijiu, standing a little further away, could hear the farmers' voices. "Are they talking about Germans?" Cheng Yijiu was puzzled. "No, it's a werewolf," John replied with a wry smile. "I think it's more like a werewolf, too, but it's hard to say... maybe it's someone's prank," Cheng Yijiu consoled.

"Of course, it could also be a bear? Are there brown bears here?" Cheng Yijiu didn't hold much hope. If this was the Pyrenees, he would think that a brown bear was more likely.

"There haven't been any bears here in years," Priest John replied. "Well, I guess I have to track this 'werewolf', my friend. I hope my luck is good enough," Cheng Yijiu said to John. The priest made the sign of the cross in front of Cheng Yijiu, chanted a few words, and then took off a cross necklace from his neck. "I hope it can protect you, my friend."

Cheng Yijiu put on the necklace and said, "Thank you, Mr. John." At this time, John saw the three-claw necklace on Cheng Yijiu's neck. He was slightly stunned. Cheng Yijiu smiled and said, "It's a memorial to the hunting of man-eating lions in Africa. It's a lion's claw." John nodded and said, "May you always have the heart of a lion."

Cheng Yijiu began tracking the monster with his musket and short spear. As for the crossbow, if he didn't find it today, he would return to the monastery to get it. A local farmer prepared a horse for him, and Cheng Yijiu paid them with silver coins. Ascending the horse, Cheng Yijiu let the horse walk slowly, his sharp eyes watching for any traces. Although the village girl was terrified, she still remembered the direction the monster had fled.

"Great strength, great speed." Cheng Yijiu was already a highly accomplished hunter. Perhaps no one, save the future famous British hunter Jim Carbitt, had ever faced so many man-eating beasts. Consequently, he possessed immense courage, unfazed by the potential for a sudden attack from this monster. Cheng Yijiu reconstructed the traces of footprints and the branches snapped by the body's movement in his mind.

In his mind, the movement method and speed of this monster were gradually constructed. "It runs on two feet, but occasionally uses its forelimbs to assist on the ground when changing direction or accelerating. It really looks more and more like a werewolf." Cheng Yijiu inserted the musket into the bag beside the saddle, and held a short spear in his hand. He used the short spear to carefully pick up the ball of hair hanging on the branch, and Cheng Yijiu took the ball of hair from the tip of the spear.

The reddish-brown fur reminded Cheng Yijiu of a brown bear, but the European brown bear was more gray, and the hair was clumped together, unlike the more wiry fur of a bear. After crossing a stream, Cheng Yijiu lost sight of the trail. "Sly fellow," he said, looking at the stream before him. It wasn't wide, only about two meters wide and knee-deep, with pebbles at the bottom.

If he wasn't mistaken, the monster had stepped on the rocks in the stream, either downstream or upstream. Cheng Yijiu paused for a moment. He urged his horse downstream for several kilometers, but found no cow-hoof footprints. "Let's go back to the church first, and look for this monster tomorrow." It was already dark, and even Cheng Yijiu didn't want to hunt a "werewolf" at night.

If the legend was true, werewolves would be more powerful at night. At this time, Cheng Yijiu began to regret why he had not tamed a hound. If he had a mastiff that was fierce and sharp enough, he could try to chase the monster at night.

With regret, thinking about the possibility that the hunting lodge would allow him to tame a hound or a falcon, Cheng Yijiu rode his horse to the church. When Pastor John heard that Cheng Yijiu was coming, he immediately came out to greet him. Cheng Yijiu shook his head and said, "Sorry, I lost it. It's a cunning guy. It used the flowing water to cover its footprints. I will continue to track it tomorrow. If it is a werewolf, Mr. John, will it turn into a human?"

John signaled the servants to take the horses to the stables for feeding. He discussed the situation with Cheng Yijiu in the chapel. "I'm sorry, werewolves are just folklore. Legend has it they can transform into humans. But... perhaps prayer will give us strength." Cheng Yijiu looked at Jesus on the cross. "I hope so. This monster didn't succeed in his attack, so maybe he'll try again tonight. May God protect the people and keep them safe." Unfortunately, this wish was likely doomed to fail...

Chapter 4 Breaking into the House

Cheng Yijiu sat in the room, with water, bread, bacon, and a bowl of stew in front of him - to be honest, having this kind of dinner in France is really not in line with the French character, after all, it is French cuisine... But forget it, this place is not peaceful now.

After Cheng Yijiu finished eating and drinking, he washed himself and went to sleep. Even if something happened at night, it would probably not be his place to intervene. "They have to protect themselves first."

The farmers hid in their houses, unchaining their ferocious mastiffs and letting them roam free outside to defend against werewolves. They themselves barricaded the doors, nailed the windows shut, and even blocked the chimneys from below—even though a werewolf of considerable size couldn't possibly get in through the chimneys.

Some people ran to the church to ask for shelter because their houses were so dilapidated and the church was the safest place they could think of.

The barking of dogs was extremely loud. Perhaps all the dogs in the place were barking? In short, the flames shot up to the sky. Cheng Yijiu slept well. His room had high windows, a high ceiling, thick walls, and the bedding on his bed was clean. After waking up, Cheng Yijiu cleaned his mouth and face, and let him clean his beard.

He took his weapon and went out. Pastor John was already waiting on the side. "The werewolf attacked the family again." His face was full of regret and sadness. Cheng Yijiu took a look and said, "We have to go and take a look."

The priest and Cheng Yijiu rode to the place together. The villagers had already surrounded the house, and the body of the deceased had been carried out. According to legend, people bitten by werewolves will turn into werewolves, but no one who was killed by werewolves has ever been heard of being resurrected and turned into a werewolf.

Cheng Yijiu first examined the bodies. There were three people lying on the ground, and beside them, a wailing survivor—of course, he had checked their bodies and found no bite wounds. The two weeping were a woman and a young child. The three dead on the ground were two young men and a middle-aged man. Their bodies were mutilated, their faces etched with the deepest fear that could never be healed even after death.

Cheng Yijiu walked over, and the farmers quickly made way - these guys were afraid but also liked to watch the excitement. The French people, like people all over the world, were very enthusiastic about this kind of thing - before long they would flock to the square to watch the guillotine beheading people...

Cheng Yijiu and Pastor John both walked over to the bodies. Pastor John prayed for them while Cheng Yijiu squatted beside them to perform an autopsy. The stench of blood was overwhelming, and the odor from the three men's abdominal cavities being ripped open was even worse. "Parts of the bodies have been gnawed away..." Cheng Yijiu muttered to himself.

"How long did the attack last? We'll know this after we check the house." Cheng Yijiu pondered these questions as he began to examine the wounds on the bodies. He didn't know why, even though he had never studied forensic medicine, some insights naturally came to his mind when he examined the bodies.

This was probably knowledge gained as a man-eating beast. Like, how to kill someone with a bite most easily? Where to start eating quickly? Cheng Yijiu squatted over the body of a young man. "One arm is missing, but the direct cause of death was probably excessive blood loss from the carotid artery after the throat was completely ripped open. Look at the marks on the arm; it's all shrunken. It must have been torn off while the person was still alive. Then their stomach was ripped open, and their heart and liver are gone."

The second and third bodies were similar, all mutilated, with jaws and necks ripped apart. They'd all bled to death from repeated biting and tearing—this was pure torture. The killer must have enjoyed the killing, appreciating the victims' final agony. "After they died, did you take their hearts and livers?"

Recreating the murderer's attack process in his mind, Cheng Yijiu was still observing the claw marks and tooth marks on the corpse, "This monster is not small in size, basically about the same size as a brown bear. If it stands up, it is much taller than the French farmers at that time." French farmers of that era were generally about 1.6 meters tall, and judging from the marks left by the monster's attack, the claw marks that tore from top to bottom showed that it was at least 1.8 meters tall.

After viewing the bodies, Cheng Yijiu watched as Father John prayed for them as he walked toward the damaged house. "These two escaped by hiding in the cellar," the father quickly followed. He had just spoken with the farmer and the survivors, and now he was translating the situation to Cheng Yijiu.

The house was made of stone and wood, with a large, knocked-down hole on one side. The stone wall had been pushed open, indicating the creature's strength. "They should have repaired the house," Cheng Yijiu said. "The monster didn't even break in through the main door. A wooden door like this wouldn't have been much of a barrier for it."

The room was a scene of desolation, blood everywhere, and even a thick layer of blood on the ground. Cheng Yijiu watched for a moment before leaving, kicking away the pitchforks—it seemed the three men had resisted for a while with them, then failed. Who died first wasn't important anymore; what mattered was that Cheng Yijiu had confirmed the monster's size.

"Look." Cheng Yijiu pointed at the hoof prints in the blood. "A werewolf has cow hooves?" he asked. John shook his head. "Maybe it's the devil." The priest said, "You need a silver bullet."

"I'm ready," Cheng Yijiu said. At this moment, several more people arrived. "Local hunter, sir," someone—who appeared to be a country gentleman—spoke to Cheng Yijiu in rather stiff English. "Thank you. I hope everyone can work together to kill this man-eating monster—yes, it is a man-eating monster."

Pastor John took the initiative to talk to the hunters, but Cheng Yijiu had no intention of competing for dominance. Since these hunters were locals, they would definitely be more repulsive to him as an outsider. Moreover, these hunters brought dogs with them, which were wolf-hunting dogs. Cheng Yijiu saw that these dogs were almost all mastiffs, extremely ferocious mastiffs.

The mastiffs sniffed the area where they were attacked, and their behavior struck Cheng Yijiu as a bit odd. "Is this... fear? Or excitement?" Looking at the dogs' actions, he felt unsure—dogs' tails are usually cut short, but these dogs seemed to be trying hard to tuck their tails into their buttocks...

Fortunately, they were still able to track, and Cheng Yijiu signaled to the hunters that they could go ahead and he would just follow behind. "Please tell them that I won't compete with them for the bounty. Hunting man-eaters is purely my personal matter." Cheng Yijiu asked Pastor John to tell the hunters.

Chapter 5 Demon Hunter

At the command of their master, the mastiffs barked and rushed into the jungle in groups. The hunters hurried to catch up, but Cheng Yijiu was not in a hurry to catch up. He rode slowly behind them on his horse. It was not difficult for him to catch up with these hunters, even if they set out half an hour earlier. The hunters' attitude towards him was okay now because Cheng Yijiu gave them two silver coins each. "According to legend, silver bullets must be used to shoot werewolves."

Cheng Yi sat on his horse for a long time, controlling its direction. He had to be careful in the woods, making sure branches didn't knock him off. The rest was fine—the horse would choose its own path. He checked the musket and found the gunpowder was fine, but the short spear hadn't been silvered in time. It didn't matter, after all, it was the bullet that would deliver the fatal blow to the werewolf—if it really was a werewolf...

The howling of mastiffs was faint in the distance. The trees in the forest effectively absorbed a lot of the sound, but even this intermittent sound was enough for Cheng Yijiu to confirm the direction of the pursuit. The entire morning of tracking, Cheng Yijiu and the hunters ahead of him had passed through most of the forest, but the scent of the werewolf disappeared at a forest crossroads. The mastiffs circled here and barked wildly, but it was obvious that they had lost their target.

The hunters standing at the crossroads were also in a dilemma. They looked at Cheng Yijiu who was riding over. "If it's a werewolf, could it be here and transformed into a human?" Cheng Yijiu asked, and the hunters nodded. "Sir, but it's still hard for us to find him - there are so many people coming and going here, and the smell of ordinary people is no less." This is the road where the lumberjacks come and go. If a werewolf mixed in with them. "I want to ask the lumberjacks, maybe we can find some breakthrough."

Only one of the hunters could speak English, and he didn't speak it well, so Cheng Yijiu felt that he didn't need to go with them. He only needed to pay attention to the hunters' actions. Werewolves, if there really were werewolves that could transform into humans, then perhaps it would be a lumberjack? Wolves' IQ is just so-so, but if werewolves had human IQ... "I don't think it's likely. The werewolves in the stories are filled with the desire to kill, and they don't show any intelligence that is much higher than that of wolves."

Cheng Yijiu touched his rifle and thought, if they could control their bloodlust, how terrifying would a werewolf with human intelligence be? But should such a werewolf be called an Alpha Wolf? Judging by its attacks so far, this werewolf before him might just be an Omega Wolf... But it was hard to say whether there would be a hierarchy among werewolves, just like there was among wolves.

But there was no doubt that a werewolf who could completely control his bloodlust and regain his sanity and wisdom was the strongest werewolf. Cheng Yijiu had almost completely dispelled his common sense at this point—the evidence he had witnessed firsthand proved that theory must conform to reality. The reality was that this was a monster that moved mostly on two legs, but ran on all fours when accelerating, with completely different forelimbs and hindlimbs, and that it might even transform into a human...

The lumberjacks had no results. When Cheng Yijiu and the hunters gave up and prepared to return to the church, they saw a column of soldiers escorting a carriage passing by. A wolf's head was nailed to the top of each of the four pillars of the carriage. "People from the Vatican," the English-speaking hunter among them stammered to help Cheng Yijiu explain.

Upon arriving at the church, Cheng Yijiu was immediately restrained by several sword-wielding warriors. A middle-aged man approached him. "Stranger," the man said, speaking fluent English. "Are you a werewolf?" The man's words were quite rude, while two soldiers beside him had already raised their rifles. Cheng Yijiu raised his head, revealing the silver cross around his neck. "Are werewolves afraid of silver? And how can a werewolf enter the Lord's church?" he asked.

The middle-aged man let out a wolf-like laugh. Just then, Reverend John appeared, and the warriors sheathed their weapons. "This brother is indeed not a werewolf. I can guarantee that."

The middle-aged man stopped laughing, his face full of madness, but he soon regained his composure. "Yeah, it's just a werewolf," he said, "just a werewolf." Then he went out directly. John also quickly followed him out, looking like he wanted to restrain this guy. "A madman..." Cheng Yijiu thought. "With werewolves... Since there are werewolves, maybe there are also witches and vampires and other things. Those who deal with these things and kill them must have become madmen a long time ago."

Later, there was a man named Nietzsche who said, "If you fight a dragon too long, you become the dragon yourself; if you stare into the abyss too long, the abyss will stare back at you." Perhaps this is a reflection of this demon hunter. How close is he to falling into the abyss of darkness?

And what about Cheng Yijiu himself? Cheng Yijiu felt that he was still relatively normal, he was not crazy yet.

That night, the werewolf attacks continued, and not only did they not stop, they even expanded. On a forest path, werewolves attacked the lumberjack's house, killing five people. Later in the night, a nearby farmhouse was attacked, and three people lost their lives. Cheng Yijiu visited the scene of the attack. Just like yesterday, the victims had been torn open, their hearts and livers missing. And the witcher named Virgil was indeed mad - he had his warriors and soldiers bring the villagers in and began beating them with silver whips in the church.