With that, he marked his footprints, and a dark red dashed line appeared in the air.
This was also a unique ability of witchers; when tracking or searching for a target, they could make traces materialize.
This light red dashed line meandered through the air all the way into the depths of the Black Forest, and Dick proceeded along this dashed line to search for his target ahead.
Soon, he stopped in his tracks.
Because he was very familiar with the environment here, as it was precisely the place where he had slain the Broom Witch on that day.
Dick slowly squatted down beside the slightly stinking, headless corpse of the Broom Witch.
The old crone's head had long since vanished, and the robe on her corpse had turned into shreds, with most of the flesh missing from it, and even her legs and one arm were gone, presumably eaten by wild beasts.
Dick stood up, looking at the two gray wolf corpses nearby.
"These gray wolves must have been attracted by the corpse, but why did they die as well?"
"Could the old crone's remains be poisonous?"
"Yet if the old crone's remains were poisonous, the gray wolves wouldn't have fed on her body."
Soon, he made a new discovery.
There was a huge wound on both of these gray wolves, just like a giant awl had fiercely gouged them, with a fatal chunk of flesh missing from the neck area of each.
"It looks like these gray wolves should have been attacked by other wild beasts or monsters; things seem rather bad."
Dick looked hesitatingly at the lush jungle deep within the Black Forest.
A breeze blew, and a rustling sound arose; this jungle welcomed the witcher's arrival just like swaying ghosts.
Yet in the end, Dick still decided to push further in.
Because through his hyper-enhanced sense of smell, he caught the scent of another living creature-to be precise, the scent of a human.
Walking another hundred meters or so, he came to a dead tree, tapped it with the back of his hand, and said in a deep voice, "Come out."
Then the dead tree emitted a shudder from within, and a man's voice came across.
"No, I can't come out! What kind of monster are you? I'm not afraid of you at all; I am Banyan. I'm a legendary hero-Banyan and his blue ox Beibei fear nothing!"
"Sigh, you're too deep into your role. There is no blue ox, there are no monsters, and outside there are only two gray wolf corpses."
"No, you're lying! That monster comes back every so often to prevent me from escaping. Speak, who on earth are you?"
"I am a witcher named Dick. If I'm not mistaken, your son is called George, right?"
"He gave me a commission to come and find you, saying that you came out to chop wood yesterday afternoon and never returned."
"Oh, my goodness! It seems what you say is true, but has that monster left?"
"What monster?" Dick asked in puzzlement.
"You don't know, there really is a monster-there really is a monster!"
"You'd better come out first and talk. In any case, it's safe for the time being."
"All right..."
Rustling sounds arose, and a man crawled out from the hollow interior of the dead tree.
He was tall and thin, with a firewood axe tucked at his waist-it was none other than the woodcutter Banyan.
"Hehe, cat eyes-definitely a witcher. Oh, I don't mean any offense by that," Banyan said, waving his hand.
"Right, what did my little son say? I remember your line of work requires a commission fee."
"He said you would pay when the time comes."
"Actually, I don't have much money either," Banyan scratched his head, "but witcher, I will definitely not welch on your debt. 10 Kelang, how about 10 Kelang? I only have 10 Kelang right now."
"10 Kelang is too little; the commission fee should be around 30 Kelang."
Banyan was just about to haggle when Dick abruptly cut him off. "Hurry up and hide!"
"What's wrong?"
"The monster you mentioned seems to have returned."
Hearing this, the woodcutter nimbly turned around, leaped back into the tree trunk shell, squatted down, and hid himself all in one smooth motion.
As for Dick, he had already drawn the silver sword from his back, looking at the sky with extreme vigilance.
Crowing sounds rang out from the sky, and a monster was flapping its wings and flying toward the witcher.
Dick cast his gaze outward, seeing that this monster was huge in stature, possessed a chicken-like head, and was covered all over in feathers, with the tips of its wings looking as sharp as tightly arranged razor blades.
It also grew a long, scale-covered serpentine tail-it was precisely a Cockatrice.
Rumor had it that the Cockatrice was the product of a crossbreed between a chicken and a giant dragon, liked to attack people, and enjoyed feeding on carrion.
No wonder it hadn't immediately eaten those two wolves at the time, but instead killed them; it was waiting for the two gray wolves to rot before savoring the delicacy, and now was dining time.
Dick noticed that the Cockatrice's pair of chicken-like eyes were staring intently at him, clearly regarding him as a competitor for the gray wolf carcasses.
Yet at this moment, it was impossible to explain to the monster the reason he had come here.
As the monster in the sky drew closer and closer, Dick even felt the touch of the wind brushing his face, and subsequently this feeling grew increasingly intense, while the poultry-specific stench of manure also hit him full in the face.
At a certain moment, Dick sidestepped and rolled to the right, dodging the Cockatrice's pouncing claws.
Meanwhile, this monster used its talons-which were larger than an eagle's-to scratch six marks in the ground, halting its momentum, whereupon it let out a loud squawk and once again flapped its wings, charging rapidly toward the witcher.
Dick rolled once more, dodging the pounce, and then exerted force through his feet, spinning around just in time for his silver sword to slash onto one of the Cockatrice's chicken feet.
The monster let out a grunt of pain, likewise spinning around, and began to brandish its razor-wing-like pinions.
Unable to keep up and lacking the time to dodge, Dick could only raise his sword to block.
With a "clack" sound, he only felt a numbness run through his hands, and his sharp sword was almost shaken out of his grip by the immense force transmitting from the monster's wings before him.
And the next instant, the Cockatrice swung the wing on its other side once more.
This time, Dick was completely wide open, and a diagonal wound appeared running from his right flank to his left chest; fortunately, the leather armor he wore absorbed most of the damage, sparing him from the fate of being disemboweled.
Even so, fresh blood still gushed forth with a slosh, just like a pried-open underground water pipe.
Dick felt intense pain all over, sensing his strength gradually fading away along with his blood.
Yet he could not spare a thought for anything else, because the Cockatrice, merely a few meters away in front of him, was rapidly pecking forward with its long beak.
A "clack" sound rang out as an axe landed squarely on the Cockatrice's neck, splashing a spray of blood.
The monster angrily turned around, looking at the tall, trembling man who had crawled out from the tree trunk; its attention was instantly drawn away due to having been ambushed.
At this very moment, Dick managed to catch his breath, pulled out the hand crossbow at his waist, and fired a bolt without much aiming.
This time, because he was relatively close to the Cockatrice, it struck squarely in one of its chicken eyes.
The monster let out an agonized shriek, frantically flapping its wings from side to side.
Dick took two steps back, then formed a hand seal with his left hand and lashed forward with a Mind Shockwave; the airflow spewing from his palm struck the Cockatrice's lower jaw dead on, causing its form to halt abruptly.
Naturally, he would not let this opportunity slip, and fired another crossbow bolt, striking squarely in the Cockatrice's other eye.
(Tip: Banyang is a hero in Western folklore, and he has a pet blue ox named Beibei.)