The walkie-talkie volume was turned down to the lowest setting, but it was still jarring in the silent valley.
Black pressed the call button, but didn't speak; he simply tapped the microphone twice.
This is the agreed-upon signal for silence.
"Listen, wherever you are, stop immediately." Charlie's voice, though low, betrayed his anxiety. "The location of that gunshot has been confirmed; it's on a gentle slope in the woods about 400 meters ahead of you. That's where the deer herd was spotted earlier."
Su Wei lay prone in the snowdrift, his gaze behind his goggles piercing through the gaps in the branches, fixed intently on what lay ahead.
It was an open area.
"Our infrared scan is being jammed; that madman might be in a blind spot," Charlie said rapidly. "I've already sent the first and second teams to flank him; don't be the ones to stick your noses out."
"If we let him get away, no one will dare to enter this forest again," Black replied coldly.
"I'm watching from above! As long as he dares to show his face..."
"What are you staring at?"
Black cut off the communications.
He turned around and looked at where Su Wei was.
Without any gestures, the old hunter simply picked up his gun and disappeared back into the snowstorm.
Su Wei propped himself up, brushed the snow off the scope, and followed.
One hundred meters.
Two hundred meters.
The rusty, bloody smell in the air grew stronger.
Su Wei stopped in his tracks.
Beside a huge rock ahead, a dark, limp mass lay sprawled on the snow.
It's a Roosevelt deer.
A young male deer that has not yet reached adulthood.
Its head drooped limply in the snow, and a large patch of glaring dark red seeped from beneath it, still steaming.
There was a faint trail of footprints nearby, but the trail quickly disappeared.
The other side isn't stupid; they know the blizzard has stopped.
Footprints are the easiest traces to reveal.
Su Wei slowly moved closer.
This deer hasn't even grown proper antlers yet; it only has two bare, short antler stumps.
The fatal wound was to the neck.
The shot was fired carelessly; the bullet tore through the trachea and artery, causing it to struggle painfully for a long time from suffocation and blood loss before finally dying.
This is not a hunt.
Hunting is for food, for survival, and even for spoils, people will strive to kill with a single blow.
This is torture and murder.
Su Wei looked into those deer eyes that hadn't completely lost their luster, and something burned in his chest.
This is one of the Roosevelt deer he once discovered.
Now it's just a pile of rotten flesh in the snow.
Black stood beside the body and poked at the spent cartridge cases on the ground with the barrel of his gun.
"No matter where that bastard is hiding, he's nearby." The old hunter's voice was like a howling wind. "The surroundings are too chaotic to pinpoint his location."
He raised his wrist and glanced at his watch.
"Wait for Charlie's men. This terrain is complex; rushing in will be fatal."
"No need to wait."
Su Wei suddenly spoke.
Black turned his head and stared at his apprentice.
Su Wei offered no explanation.
He gave that command in his mind.
[ Hunting Module LV1 is activated]
[Target locked: Unknown marksman]
[Fresh traces detected...]
The Hunting Module's Tracking Assistance is not limited to animals.
Rather, it is the prey.
Humans are too.
The world has changed in my field of vision.
Extending from that series of obscure footprints, a golden line gradually formed, albeit intermittently.
The line cut straight through the swirling snowflakes, bypassed the three spruce trees blocking the way, and finally disappeared into a high ground to the left.
That was the only high point in this U-Shaped Valley.
This was also the best spot Su Wei used to observe the entire deer herd when he last came here to scout.
There was a large pile of boulders there, with a sheer cliff behind it, offering an extremely wide view and making it easy to defend and difficult to attack.
He's up there.
Su Wei raised his hand, pointing straight in that direction with his index finger.
Black looked in the direction he was pointing, but could see nothing but dark shadows of trees and scattered rocks.
How did you determine that?
"Observation and Intuition."
Su Wei could not explain the golden streaks in his eyes.
Holding his Browning, he stopped looking at the corpse on the ground and turned to cut into the woodland on his left.
That's a blind spot.
If you don't take a straight path, but instead go around the spruce forest, you can approach from the side or rear.
Black stood there, watching Su Wei's resolute back.
Those were the apprentices he chose.
A young man with an exceptional talent for tracking and investigation.
Without any hesitation, the old hunter followed.
High in the sky.
Charlie sat in the passenger seat, clutching the thermal imaging camera's display screen, his eyes practically bulging out of their sockets.
On the screen, two clear red dots are moving rapidly.
Instead of remaining in place as instructed, they pierced straight into the shadowy area of the high ground, like two sharp knives, where no heat source was reacting.
"Damn it! That old stubborn Black!"
Charlie pounded on the bulkhead. "Pull up! That's a blind spot!"
"We're losing cover!" the driver shouted.
"Those two lunatics are rushing in there! If there are actually people there, they'll be sitting ducks!"
Charlie grabbed the walkie-talkie and switched it to full frequency.
"Listen up, all groups! This is Charlie!"
"Abandon the original encirclement route! Repeat, abandon the encirclement!"
"Full speed ahead to Hill 2! Black and Su Wei are approaching that damned high ground!"
The helicopter tilted sharply to the side, its massive rotors cutting through the airflow as it roared towards the dark highlands.
Su Wei heard a roar coming from above.
But he didn't have time to pay attention.
The trajectory became clearer and clearer, and you could even see the blurry shadow at the end point.
That was a person.
But there was something strange about that figure.
The thermal imager showed no heat at that location, but the system's markings indicated that something was indeed hidden there.