Volume 1, Chapter 382 – Xiong Hu

From outside the cave came a string of dull thuds, mixed with soft whimpers.

Shi Lan spat out the wooden stick from her mouth, gritted her teeth, drew back the bowstring, and loaded a bolt.

She did not rise. She only stared fixedly at the cave entrance, the crossbow bolt poised to fire. The firelight shone across her face, adding a touch of color to it.

Whoosh—

A black shadow flew sideways into the cave and slammed heavily into the rock wall, spraying blood everywhere.

Shi Lan focused her eyes and looked. It was a dhole nearly a meter long, its body entirely reddish, with a brownish-black tail.

A large section of its abdomen had visibly caved in. After hitting the ground, it could no longer get up. It struggled twice, then died.

A figure slowly walked into the cave from the darkness, its features impossible to make out.

The unease rising in her heart made Shi Lan pull the trigger almost on instinct, and the bolt shot free at once.

The instant the bolt left the string, Shi Lan lowered the crossbow slightly, shifting the sight off target a little so that the shot went toward the newcomer’s thigh.

Screech—

A harsh grinding sound that set teeth on edge rang out. The bolt was caught halfway by a broad, callus-covered hand gripping it tightly.

Shi Lan sucked in a sharp breath. At a distance of less than five meters, catching a crossbow bolt with bare hands was beyond human ability.

The figure took another two steps forward, entering the firelight and revealing his appearance.

“7532?!”

After seeing the newcomer’s face clearly, Shi Lan froze for a moment and blurted out the number.

The man was wearing a prison uniform and had a crew cut. His eyes were narrow, his forehead broad, and his whole body was steeped in ferocity. Hearing Shi Lan’s words, he split his lips in a grin that felt cold to the bone.

Shi Lan frowned and slowly edged back toward the rock wall.

The man seemed to realize something. He put away the strange smile on his face, sat cross-legged beside the fire, set the bolt aside, placed both hands on his knees, and said seriously,

“My name is Xiong Hu.”

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“?”

Shi Lan waited quietly for a long while. When nothing more came, several question marks could not help but pop up in her head.

“I came to find you.”

As he said that, Xiong Hu bared his teeth in another grin, but when he saw Shi Lan frown again, the smile slowly faded.

Clearly, he had realized that his smile did not seem to be very likable.

“You came to find me? Why?”

Shi Lan grew even more puzzled. She did not think she had ever had any dealings with the man in front of her.

“Because I was afraid you’d be unhappy. Or suddenly die.”

“Hm?”

The look in Shi Lan’s eyes as she stared at Xiong Hu gradually turned strange. There was probably something seriously wrong with this man; he was nothing like an ordinary person.

Although she felt she herself was also strange, always doing things that even she found frightening, she still believed that she was at least a normal person.

“You can’t die. And you shouldn’t get angry either.”

Xiong Hu added another sentence, his expression extremely solemn.

“Why?”

Shi Lan suddenly found the whole thing absurd.

“I can’t say.”

Xiong Hu fell silent for a moment, then shook his head.

For a while, Shi Lan did not know what to say. After the two of them stared at each other for quite some time, she was the first to give up and look away.

“How did you get out?”

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“I was there only because I wanted to stay there. It wasn’t the prison that trapped me.”

Xiong Hu’s expression returned to calm, making him look profound and unfathomable.

But in Shi Lan’s mind, she had already firmly labeled him as mentally ill.

After glancing at the crossbow bolt beside Xiong Hu, Shi Lan decided not to provoke him. She tossed the compound crossbow to one side and leaned back against the rock wall.

Once her taut nerves relaxed, the severe pain in her left arm became all the more obvious. Her stamina had long since reached its limit.

Xiong Hu glanced at Shi Lan’s arm, silently stood up, and walked out of the cave.

Shi Lan lifted her head to look at him but said nothing. Xiong Hu’s presence made her feel deeply unsafe. No one could truly relax with a terrifying killer at their side who looked mentally unstable.

Grrr…

The hunger in her belly pulled her back to herself.

To save her own life, she had already thrown away most of the heavy food she had been carrying on the road.

After a moment of silence, Shi Lan reached out and poked at the fire, then stood and went over to feel the dhole’s body.

It was still warm…

…

Whoosh—

A gust of cold wind blew into the cave, startling the drowsy Shi Lan fully awake. Her limbs felt weak. She raised a hand to touch her forehead and found it burning hot.

The way she had treated her wound had still been too crude. Although she had stopped the bleeding, her body could not quite bear it.

The fire not far in front of her was still burning fiercely. Xiong Hu had returned at some point and was sitting beside it.

The prison uniform on his body had disappeared. He had changed into a coarse cloth long shirt, and that overbearing murderous aura around him had faded somewhat.

“A lot of people are looking for you.”

Seeing that Shi Lan had woken up, Xiong Hu raised his head and spoke blandly.

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“I know.”

Shi Lan rubbed her forehead. This was exactly what she had expected.

“They’re all dead already.”

Xiong Hu’s words made Shi Lan’s hand pause slightly.

“Your clothes…”

“I stripped them off a corpse. Prison uniforms are ugly.”

Xiong Hu adjusted the hem of his long shirt. The corners of his mouth had just begun to lift before settling back down again.

“How many people did you kill?”

Shi Lan let out a long breath and asked casually.

“I didn’t count, but more than ten times the number of dholes that died last night.”

Xiong Hu shook his head, unconcerned. In his eyes, human lives were no different from wolves, tigers, leopards, or bears. All living things were equal.

Dholes usually moved in packs of three to five. That meant no fewer than several dozen people had probably died at Xiong Hu’s hands.

“With your ability, how did you end up in prison?”

Having reached a rough estimate in her mind, Shi Lan struggled to her feet. In her current state, it was not suitable for her to stay here any longer. She needed medical treatment quickly, or her left arm would be left with permanent damage.

“Because I had nowhere else to go.”

Xiong Hu answered with great seriousness. Shi Lan could not sense the slightest perfunctoriness from him. He was entirely sincere.

Just because he had nowhere else to go. That was all.

“Then why did you run from Yanjing to Yunhai?”

“I came here to kill someone.”

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“Who?”

“A person who deserves to die. I haven’t found him yet.”

At that point, Xiong Hu’s eyes filled with a terrifying killing intent.

“Your enemy?”

Seeing Xiong Hu’s expression change, Shi Lan felt a bit curious.

“No. People like that appear often enough. I’m already used to it.”

Xiong Hu’s face returned to calm, and he rose to his feet as well. He did not go over to support Shi Lan, only stood at a distance.

Shi Lan supported herself against the rock wall and walked out of the cave. When she saw the scene outside clearly, she froze slightly.

In the valley outside the cave, dhole corpses were scattered everywhere in tangled heaps. At a glance, there were no fewer than twenty of them.

Remembering what Xiong Hu had just said, Shi Lan’s face went blank.

“You killed more than two hundred people last night?”

“Maybe. I don’t remember very clearly.”

Xiong Hu replied flatly. Those people had not mattered. He was already close to forgetting them.

No matter how many drug traffickers were hidden in this mountain range, there could not possibly have been more than two hundred of them. A large proportion of the dead were probably villagers.

In a certain sense, those people had died because of her.

Shi Lan’s gaze grew complicated. She did not know whether there had been any truly decent people among those villagers, but at least some of them had not deserved death.

“You’re troubled. Why?”

Xiong Hu sensed that Shi Lan’s mood was off and seemed very puzzled.

“They were going to die anyway. I only brought that result forward.”