When Chen Xiuyuan woke, a beast's jaws were closing on his neck.
He thrust the interview bag in his arms upward. Fangs pierced the canvas, grazing the back of his hand as they sank into the bag. Before he could pull his hand free, a powerful force dragged him half a step forward. The back of his head struck a rock, and his vision went black.
The camera in the bag shattered.
That sharp crack brought him to his senses. He released the bag and rolled toward a nearby gap in the rocks, leaving half a trouser leg beneath the beast's claws.
The gap was narrow. He squeezed in sideways, scraping his chest painfully, and a dull impact immediately sounded behind him.
Rock fragments rained over his head.
Less than a foot away, a grayish-white beast's head pressed against the opening. Two long, outward-curving fangs knocked against the rock, scraps of his interview bag caught between them.
Chen Xiuyuan held his breath and kept inching inward.
The thing resembled a wolf, but it was larger than any wolf he had ever seen. A layer of stiff fur covered its shoulders and back, and beneath its left eye lay a bloody scar stripped of skin. It tilted its head to one side, and a paw reached in from the other.
He was a little too slow pulling his leg back. Three bloody gashes immediately opened along the outside of his calf.
Pain shot straight to the top of his head.
Chen Xiuyuan grabbed a stone beside his foot and hurled it at the beast's nose. The gray wolf turned its head aside, and its paw briefly withdrew from the gap. Seizing the chance, he braced himself against the rock walls on either side and shifted half a foot higher.
There was still light above the gap.
He raised his head. A slanting fissure led upward, with several clumps of dry grass growing at its end. If he could climb through, he could at least get away from that paw.
But his bag strap was still caught on him.
The thing had pinned the discarded interview bag beneath its feet. The shoulder strap stretched taut into the gap, cinching tightly around his right arm. Whenever he climbed upward, the beast pulled its head back, the opposing forces wrenching his shoulder painfully.
He had to break the strap.
The strap's metal adjuster was caught against the outside of his right arm. The beast's fangs had struck it earlier, cracking one corner. He gripped the crack with his left hand and bent it twice, cutting his fingertips before he finally broke off a sharp piece.
The gray wolf slammed into the rocks again.
The impact sent Chen Xiuyuan sliding down, his right knee striking a rocky edge. He gritted his teeth, wedged his knee firmly in place, and used the metal shard to cut the shoulder strap.
One stroke, and it slipped away.
Another, and the metal flipped over, slicing across his palm.
Blood smeared the woven strap, only making it more slippery.
He paused for a moment, turned the metal shard around, and pressed the corner with the deeper fracture against the strap's edge. Pulling across it had done nothing. This time, he slowly cut downward along the frayed edge torn open by the beast's fangs.
One thread snapped.
It was so fine he could barely see it, but it showed him how to apply force.
He cut again, lengthening the slit downward.
On the third stroke, the sharp corner began to veer aside again. Remembering where the first two strokes had landed, he drew back his wrist and set it against the slit once more.
A line of faint text suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[No cultivation methods or martial arts learned.]
Before Chen Xiuyuan could read it a second time, the beast's head slammed into the gap again, shaking loose a shower of debris. He had no time to pay it any attention. Pressing against the strap's edge, he kept drawing downward at the angle he had just found. This time, he remembered exactly where to draw back his wrist, and the tip did not slip aside again.
Two woven threads snapped one after another.
The gray wolf's nose squeezed into the gap.
He had no time to think it through and kept cutting. The metal shard bit into the same narrow slit, until the taut shoulder strap finally split halfway through. He watched only the thinnest part of the strap. If he went off course once more, that thin piece of metal might snap.
The gray wolf suddenly jerked backward.
Snap!
The shoulder strap broke.
Chen Xiuyuan slammed bodily into the rock wall behind him, his right shoulder burning with pain. But he used the impact to wrench his arm free, grabbed a protruding rock overhead, and hauled himself up.
The beast's claws swept past, grazing the sole of his shoe.
He kicked several times and climbed to the upper edge of the fissure. Only when half his body lay in the grass did he dare open his mouth to gasp for breath.
Below, the gray wolf began circling the boulder.
A high rock wall rose behind the ledge. A fissure on the left kept the beast's claws away for now, but beyond it lay a slope. The thing was already searching for a way up. He did not have much time.
Chen Xiuyuan steadied his breathing and checked his hands first.
The metal shard was still pinched between his fingers.
The broken strap remained wound around his arm. He pressed its loose end against the rock's edge and trimmed away the frayed threads at the same angle as before. This time, the tip did not slip, and the threads snagging his sleeve broke one after another.
The line of text appeared again, still stating that he had learned no cultivation methods or martial arts.
He reached out to touch it but felt nothing. The words moved with his gaze, too clear to seem like the result of a blow to the head.
Cultivation methods? Martial arts?
Chen Xiuyuan looked down at his bloodied hand. The piece of metal had cut through the strap. Apart from that, there was nothing unusual at all.
The sound of breaking grass stems came from below.
He put away the metal shard and edged toward the other end, bracing himself against the rock wall.
Now wasn't the time to puzzle over this.
Qin Chuan's final shout of "Watch out!" suddenly surfaced in his memory. They had been conducting interviews in the mountains. Qin Chuan had been walking ahead with the spare equipment on his back, and had only just turned around when the path beneath their feet collapsed.
But the rock walls before him were utterly unfamiliar. Even the mountain they had been walking through was gone.
At the end of the ledge, a distant sea of forest stretched all the way to the horizon.
Farther away, something slowly swam beneath the clouds.
The shadow was too long to measure. As its spine swept past a mountaintop, the clouds parted to either side, revealing several dark blue-green scales.
Chen Xiuyuan tightened his grip on the rock.
He quickly drew his gaze back.
The gray wolf had already circled around to the foot of the slope.
It did not pounce immediately. Instead, it crouched behind a clump of shrubs, watching his leg. Blood from his calf ran down past the top of his sock, leaving a thin trail on the grayish-white rock.
Chen Xiuyuan tore off his ragged trouser cuff and wrapped it tightly around the wound. Just as he tied the strip of cloth, the gray wolf stood up.
A stretch of rocky slope lay between man and beast.
If he jumped, he could not see what lay below; if he went back the way he had come, he would still be trapped in the gap. He squeezed the metal shard in his hand. It was too small to protect even his fingers.
It could cut through a bag strap, but not that coat of stiff fur.
He backed to the outermost edge of the ledge and looked down for a foothold. Withered vines hung from the cracked rock, tangled into a bundle. Behind them, he could faintly make out an even narrower gully.
Perhaps he could climb down the vines.
He had only just turned when running footsteps sounded from below the slope.
Chen Xiuyuan seized the withered vines.
"Don't jump!"
The voice rose from the bottom of the gully, hoarse but perfectly clear.
He looked toward the voice. An old man carrying a herb basket stood in the shadow of the rock wall, looking up at him. His left hand rested on a thick wooden staff, his right leg was slightly bent, and a patched animal hide was draped over his shoulders.
"The outermost one's rotten. Put your foot back!"
Chen Xiuyuan checked his step. A stone suddenly flew past overhead.
It struck beside the gray wolf's forepaw, scattering chips of rock. The wolf stopped short and bared its teeth at the figure below. The old man braced his staff against the rock and took out another stone, his eyes never leaving the beast.
"It can still get up here," Chen Xiuyuan said.
"So stop standing there in a daze."
The old man hooked the short knife's sheath strap over the tip of his staff, lifted it overhead, and extended it to the edge of the ledge.
The sheath was worn shiny, and the cloth wrapped around the hilt was too old to make out its original color.
Chen Xiuyuan bent down and reached it.
"There's a whitish one in the middle of the bundle," the old man said. "Don't touch either side. You need to cut through the middle and uncover the stone steps underneath."
The gray wolf lowered its shoulders again.
Chen Xiuyuan drew the short knife, its blade flashing coldly before his eyes.
This time, he had a real knife.