Logging Area

"Clatter, clatter, clatter..."

Shattered stones pelted the surroundings like bullets.

Xu Tong felt as if something had slammed into his arm, and it quickly went numb.

Old Bart fared no better; he was battered and bloodied, looking indescribably miserable.

After waiting a while, the two slowly raised their heads. The white shadow had vanished, and the eerie cries that had filled the mountain forest were completely gone.

In the pitch-black night, moonlight shone on the grass. As a cold breeze blew, Old Bart couldn't stop shivering. When he stood up and saw the horse crushed into a pulp by the boulder, his vision went black, and he nearly fainted on the spot.

This was a horse from the forestry station, after all.

Fortunately, Xu Tong pinched the old man's philtrum just in time, preventing him from collapsing entirely.

He walked over to the boulder and took a closer look. Good grief, this rock weighed at least two tons. If they hadn't dodged it, he would have been turned into dumpling filling by now.

Hmm... shepherd's purse flavor would be best.

At the thought, he couldn't help but smack his lips, and his stomach let out another involuntary growl.

"The Old Mountain God is angry! The Old Mountain God is angry!!"

Having regained his senses, Old Bart knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly in the direction he had pointed earlier, begging for mercy.

"Old comrade, get up quickly. What kind of god could there be? It's all fake, it's feudal superstition!"

Mimicking the tone of the couple on the train, he said with a solemn face: "We must believe in science and strike down all ghosts and monsters!"

Believe it or not, shouting this slogan actually felt quite righteous.

Old Bart, however, shook his head and refused to get up no matter what.

"Beep!!"

Just then, two bright headlights shone from the distance, and a large olive-drab truck rumbled toward them.

The vehicle came to a steady stop, and a group of men jumped out from the back.

"What's going on??"

Facing the headlights, the two couldn't see clearly. Only when the group drew closer did they notice they were wearing olive-colored police uniforms, with two yellow ribbons above the cuffs denoting their rank.

The police chief in the lead saw their injuries and hurriedly asked, "What happened?"

"It's the Old Mountain God. The Old Mountain God is angry and has come to claim our lives," Old Bart said, his eyes red.

A young officer was about to bark a reprimand, but the chief raised a hand to stop him, shaking his head to signal them to leave it be.

He then turned his gaze toward Xu Tong, noticing that Xu Tong was also scrutinizing them.

He couldn't help but raise his eyebrows: "Who are you? Take out your identification for me to see."

As he spoke, the two officers nearby moved quietly to stand on either side of him.

Seeing this, he hurriedly explained: "I'm here to work as a forest ranger at the station. I have an introduction letter."

As he spoke, he began to fumble through his clothes, his eyes still scanning the group.

He wasn't sure if there were other players among them, and he didn't want to expose himself before the situation was clear.

In this era, there were no ID cards, only a small square booklet containing one's ancestral home and address, stamped with a large red seal—that was the identification. It had no technical complexity at all.

Therefore, the introduction letter was more important; with it, everything could be verified.

The chief took it and glanced over it, his expression softening significantly. After all, the relocated personnel were mostly young intellectuals and bookish scholars; having suffered such a shock, no one expected him to answer much.

After offering a few words of comfort, the chief told them to get in the truck, intending to take them to the forestry station. As for the horse that had been crushed to death, it couldn't be wasted, so they gathered as much of the front half of the carcass as they could to take back.

As for the chief himself, he squatted by the rock, smoking a cigarette and inspecting it carefully. Later, he took some men up into the mountain forest to look for the source of the rockfall.

This back-and-forth took at least two hours.

It made him want to follow and take a look, but the officers sitting on either side wouldn't allow him to leave the truck.

Another hour passed before the chief returned with his men.

This time, he didn't sit in the cab but climbed into the truck bed to sit with Xu Tong and the others.

He put a cigarette to his lips and, looking at the babbling Old Bart, narrowed his eyes: "Something happened at your forestry station. Early this morning, your station called to say the station chief is dead."

Hearing this, Old Bart shuddered violently, his face turning even paler.

With trembling lips, he whispered: "It was the Old Mountain God claiming a life. It must be, yes, it must be!!"

"There is no Old Mountain God claiming lives. We found this up there!"

The chief had his men bring out the evidence: two lengths of rope.

"I suspect someone is trying to kill you. When you passed by, they deliberately pushed the rock down, hoping to crush you!"

The chief kept his eyes fixed on Old Bart, hoping to glean some useful information from his face.

But the result left him thoroughly disappointed.

"If someone wanted to kill us, how did they manage to make the horse stand still and not move?"

Xu Tong sat to one side and asked curiously.

Regarding this question, the sheriff offered no explanation, as he couldn't explain it clearly himself. Instead, the young officer beside him muttered in a low voice, "Isn't it said that there are 'raw' tribes nearby? Rumor has it they know how to cast curses, maybe..."

The words had barely left his mouth when the sheriff kicked him in the backside. "As if you've ever seen it yourself."

The officer lowered his head with an innocent look, not daring to bring up the subject again.

"What is this 'Old Mountain God' he keeps talking about? I'm a forest ranger; surely I'm allowed to know at least that much."

Xu Tong continued to ask.

The sheriff pulled his hat down to shade his eyes.

"An old cold case. What we know is that a small tribe in the mountains got into a fight with another. In the end, the small tribe's camp caught fire in the middle of the night, and the whole clan perished. Some say the Old Mountain God took revenge for them."

As he spoke, he didn't forget to point at Old Bart.

"He was a hunter back then. He's a direct witness to that incident; he knows more about the specifics than we do."

Hearing this, Xu Tong couldn't help but take another look at Old Bart. His curiosity grew; it seemed this script was far more mysterious and complex than he had imagined.

This only made him look forward to it even more.

Especially the mention of curses by that young officer earlier, which added an extra layer of mystery.

Although the carriage had been smashed and they were delayed for several hours, the Jiefang truck was surprisingly fast.

By the time Xu Tong had sat in the truck and taken a nap, the vehicle had already entered the forest farm's territory.

<strong>[Main Quest 1: Black Forest Hill]</strong> Quest complete.

Under the cold prompt, there was no notification for a second task.

Clearly, he would need to find the clues for the next quest himself. However, since the main quest had directed him here, it meant the clues for the next stage were definitely in this place.

He wasn't in a hurry. He settled his mind to act as an observer, intending to sort out his thoughts first.

As for the sheriff's words from last night, he didn't believe a single syllable—especially regarding those two ropes. The ends were brand new; they didn't look like they had been used at all.

Even if those ropes were found at the scene, what did that prove? A two-ton boulder pushed down by just two ropes? You'd at least need a lever to make that plausible.

After the truck drove into the forest farm, several old men were seen standing at the gate waiting. Upon seeing Old Bart, the group was stunned for a moment.

When they saw the horse, now reduced to only its hindquarters, the expressions of these old men turned even uglier.

Old Bart was helped off the truck by the others, looking shaken and unable to provide any explanation.

As for Xu Tong, he was assigned to a small room on the side of the farm.

After all, with the farm director having died suddenly, no one was available to make arrangements for him.

But then again, the food at the farm was better than he had expected: millet mixed with wild vegetable soup and two yellow flour buns. The texture was a bit coarse, but it tasted truly delicious.

Compared to his healthy appetite, the others in the canteen seemed to have no desire to eat.

The old men looked deeply worried.

As for the sheriff and his party, they looked even more confused.

Xu Tong couldn't be bothered to listen to them discuss the case, so he walked out after finishing his meal.

Not long after leaving the canteen, he saw a fast horse galloping into the farm from afar. A young girl in a fur coat, looking to be in her early twenties, dismounted and headed straight for Old Bart's room.

"Stop staring. That's Old Bart's daughter, and a forest ranger here too. Come to think of it, you seem to be taking her shift."

A strange voice came from behind him. Xu Tong didn't turn around, just watched the girl's retreating figure and asked, "How did you know it was me?"

"Heh heh, I'm called Mad Dog. If I didn't have a nose like a hound, would I be called Mad Dog?"

Mad Dog walked up beside him, hands tucked into his sleeves, wearing a sheepskin coat. His appearance had actually shifted into that of a man in his early forties.

He squatted down next to Xu Tong and said, "Let's cooperate. You must be a newcomer who just finished the novice quest. If we work together, our chances of survival will be higher."

Xu Tong didn't answer Mad Dog, instead asking, "What happened last night?"

"Don't know. It was evil!"

As Mad Dog spoke, he pulled up his sheepskin coat to show Xu Tong a gap. Underneath, a fresh wound stretched from his shoulder to his chest.

"Last night, that old guy went crazy. I was almost killed by him."

"But I heard the director was sixty!" Xu Tong looked at Mad Dog's wound, feeling quite surprised.

He didn't know the extent of Mad Dog's strength, but such a wound could never have been inflicted by a sixty-year-old man.

"That's why it's evil. Before that old man died, he was like a little superman. He had a golden dagger in his hand; he nearly gutted me."

Speaking of last night, Mad Dog looked depressed, still feeling a lingering fear.

"A golden dagger!!"

Xu Tong keenly caught the important information revealed in Mad Dog's words. Just as he was about to ask for more details, a group of young men walked toward them from not far away. Mad Dog glanced at them and sneered, "Your trouble has arrived!"