Counterattack

Bang!

A bullet struck the tree trunk, grazed Lan Mu's tail, and took several tufts of white fur with it.

"They've got their sights on me!"

"They're beyond the range of my charm, and I'm too slow. Damn it!"

Lan Mu darted left and right, taking cover behind a tree.

Before long, the sound of a helicopter came from above again, still far away.

He would have to climb to the top of the canopy to charm the pilot.

But after having his head blown off earlier, he did not dare take another risk. He could not be sure he would get a second chance to cheat death.

"Footsteps!"

Lan Mu pricked up his ears and listened. Even through the deafening roar of the rotors, he could make out a large group approaching, and they were very close!

"How far are they? Damn it, having no sensory ability is awful."

Suddenly, a beam of light shone on him. Almost at the same instant, Lan Mu shot out like a white arrow. Before long, bullets could be heard striking the trees behind him.

"They really aren't holding back..."

The White Nine-tailed Fox swiftly weaved through the jungle while countless police officers pursued and surrounded him with flashlights.

The trees around him grew thicker and thicker. He had no idea how deep into the jungle he had run. The ancient forest, with its massive trees and deep roots, made travel even more difficult, and the pursuers were clearly slowing down.

"There's no path here at all. They can't catch me..."

Once he realized the police were gradually falling behind, Lan Mu let out a sigh of relief and found a tree hollow to crawl into.

There was a nest of rabbits inside. After Lan Mu charmed them, they stayed quietly in place.

"About ten minutes left? I don't remember. I'll just wait."

The hollow was spacious. Lan Mu drew in his tails and wrapped them around himself, hiding peacefully in the darkness.

About ten minutes later, a group of police officers arrived nearby and hurried onward.

Lan Mu listened quietly. Suddenly, one of the officers started chattering away. Lan Mu could not understand the local language, nor did he know whether they had discovered him.

Suddenly, a flashlight shone into the tree hollow. Lan Mu shuddered, then saw a police officer poke his head inside and spot him.

Lan Mu instinctively activated his charm, but he did not want the man to become obsessed with him. By some strange twist, he activated an entirely different illusion.

The officer looked at the Nine-tailed Fox wrapped in its tails with a calm expression, then looked at the obedient rabbits. He chattered a few words to the people outside before leaving, as though he had never seen the Nine-tailed Fox.

"What I used just now wasn't charm, was it? It was Visual Deception?"

Whenever Lan Mu used charm, he instinctively made people see whatever they most desired and were most fascinated by. Yet just now, he had made himself appear as a rabbit in that man's eyes—a completely ordinary rabbit.

The man had looked at him as if he were used to the sight, then calmly left. He had simply been deceived by the illusion.

After hearing that group of police officers leave, Lan Mu remained in the tree hollow and picked up a stone to test it.

His second tail swayed, and the stone turned into gold in Lan Mu's eyes.

"It seems to be only Visual Deception. The gold is fake, so it probably can't fool instruments. It can only make people think, 'This is gold.'"

Lan Mu turned the stone into gold, then bread, then a diamond, and even banknotes.

"But it's still only visual deception. It doesn't conceal the feel at all. It still feels as rough as a stone."

Feeling the hundred-dollar bill, hard and rough like a stone, Lan Mu laughed helplessly.

"What? You couldn't find it? You lost it?"

"The brothers went deep into the jungle, but we completely lost the fox's trail."

"Useless! We mobilized the entire city's police force and got nothing. How am I supposed to explain this to the public tomorrow? No matter what, we have to catch the culprit today. Otherwise, you can submit your resignation along with me!"

"Minister, why don't we just grab someone to take the blame? Then we can investigate properly afterward."

"Hm? What about the fox? The media and that Professor Rabbin are focused on the fox now. Damn Rabbin, he keeps spreading talk about the Fox Demon, putting us in a very difficult position. Are the citizens idiots too? Do they really believe there's a Nine-tailed Fox?"

"But the sniper told me that fox had nine tails. He saw it get shot in the head with his own eyes, and then its head healed..."

"Heh, a miss is a miss. Your subordinate is far too dishonest!"

Hearing the minister say this, the officer hurriedly said, "No... he... Forget it. The minister is right."

The officer also realized that it sounded too unbelievable, so he did not dare question the minister.

The minister said with satisfaction, "It's settled, then... Go buy a fox! Since the public wants to see a fox, we'll show them a fox! And the culprit! We can't really use a fox as the scapegoat. The judge won't believe that."

"Yes!"

The police conducted a massive search, expending huge amounts of manpower, but found nothing.

Not only did they fail to find the nonexistent criminal, they did not even capture the fox.

In order to give the media and the public an explanation, they sent people to Kuala Lumpur to find someone to take the blame.

While searching for people with criminal records, a police officer suddenly found someone highly suitable as a scapegoat.

"Sir, look! This man lives in the suburbs. He's a Malay Chinese, lives alone, works for a Chinese Circus Troupe, has a simple background, and has a record of fighting."

"Most importantly, he keeps a fox at the circus!"

After hearing his subordinate's report, the officer was overjoyed. After carefully reviewing the information on a man named Li Wei, he made his decision on the spot.

"It's him! Arrest him on suspicion of murder! Bring that fox in too! Bring them both back!"

More than a hundred police officers had found nothing. Soon afterward, they received orders to withdraw and had no choice but to head back.

As they left, no one noticed a ferocious beast lurking atop a tree.

Its scarlet eyes glared at the crowd, searching for those carrying sniper rifles.

"Found you..."

The beast was the White-haired Lion. As soon as Lan Mu's forced transformation period as the Nine-tailed Fox ended, he transformed into a Hunter and came after them invisibly.

He caught up with the retreating police force and finally found the snipers.

There were six snipers in total, forming a special squad. They walked together, chatting and laughing.

"I swear, I absolutely hit that fox! Straight through the head. I saw it with my own eyes. At a hundred meters, there's no way I could have been wrong!"

"Of course I believe you. We found its blood at the scene, along with brain matter. But it still escaped just fine. This is too bizarre."

"Do you think monsters really exist in this world?"

"Even if demons and ghosts exist, they can only tremble beneath the might of Allah."

"Yes, Allah is almighty."

Lan Mu could not understand the snipers' conversation. He locked onto the six people carrying sniper rifles, though he did not know which one had shot him in the head.

But during the earlier hunt, all six of those snipers had definitely taken part.

"If I hadn't been a Nine-tailed Fox, if the Nine-tailed Fox hadn't had one chance to cheat death, I would already be dead."

The thought still filled Lan Mu with lingering fear. Dying so miserably in a foreign land was simply intolerable.

"Since you wanted to kill me."

"Then don't blame me..."

"The hunt begins!"

The sniper squad followed the main police force to the edge of the jungle. Suddenly, the last sniper in line had his chest pierced through, a claw ripping straight through his heart.

The culprit vanished in the blink of an eye. By the time his companions turned back toward him, he was already lying in a pool of blood. He convulsed briefly before dying.

"Ah!"

Seeing one of their companions suddenly die such a gruesome death, they immediately screamed.

The nearby police officers turned at the sound, their faces drained of color.

"What happened?"

"Who ambushed us?"

"These are claw marks. There's a beast!"

As they panicked, a white shadow appeared behind one of the snipers. Its claws pierced straight through his chest from behind.

The white shadow flashed away and quickly disappeared.

"A monster!"

"There's a monster!"

Many police officers saw the scene. The white shadow resembled a beast, appearing and vanishing without warning. Everyone was seized by terror.

Lan Mu killed two people in succession. After every ambush, he swiftly turned invisible. He came and went like a ghost, killing in an instant without leaving a trace.

Splat!

The Hunter leaped out again and instantly killed two more, one on the left and one on the right. Every attack was an ambush, every strike fatal!

"Ghost!"

All the police officers were terrified. The enemy could turn invisible. No one knew when or from where it would suddenly emerge to kill.

Most of the police officers fled in panic, desperate to leave the jungle as quickly as possible. This place was simply too dangerous.

Lan Mu had taken out four people, leaving two snipers. However, they had learned their lesson and fled within the crowd, seemingly using the other police officers as shields.

"I almost died at your hands... Heh..."

"Run."

"Tonight, we hunt together!"