Closing the Net First

The old hunter was tied to a wooden frame outside the northern outpost.

He was not hanging, nor did he have any obvious wounds. He sat on the ground, his hands bound behind the frame, with his old bow and empty quiver at his feet. The gray-robed man had even left him a bowl of water, as though he had merely asked someone familiar with Blackwater Ravine to wait for news.

A new sign had been planted in front of the frame.

"Guide wanted. Reward: ten gold."

Helian Yuan watched from the slope for a long time.

The old hunter had once helped him take on an escort mission in Blackwater Ravine, given him a map, and accepted silver coins from him. The two were not particularly close, but the gray-robed man had clearly uncovered the connection. He had not seized the buyer, because the buyer had a storefront and witnesses in town; the old hunter had spent years traveling alone, and no one would ask questions if he disappeared for a few days.

This was not an interrogation.

It was bait.

There appeared to be only three guards around the northern outpost, but behind the crossbow wall were two additional, freshly drawn strings. The treetops above also dipped slightly from time to time; at least one more person was hidden up there. Farther away stood a covered cart with light wheels. It might have held a net.

Helian Yuan had originally planned to approach the recovery team that night and seize the records of the routes used to capture Blue Rock Panthers. The old hunter's appearance forced him to change all his preparations.

If he stuck to the original plan, he might obtain more valuable evidence; if he rescued the man first, the gray-robed man would learn that whoever stole the blank tokens had a connection to the old routes through Blackwater Ravine.

Helian Yuan did not try to find himself a third option without a price.

He retreated downwind, put the thin blue-green piece back inside the iron whistle, and tied three copper bells to separate branches. The first was near the northern outpost, the second behind the covered cart, and the third farther away, near the edge of the Blue Rock Panther's territory.

When the old hunter looked up, he caught a glint of light off pine needles in the woods on the slope. He made no sound, only leaned back against the wooden frame, quietly covering the knot.

The movement was not a plea for help.

It told Helian Yuan that the knot was behind him, on the right.

Once the sky had gone completely dark, Helian Yuan pulled the farthest copper bell first.

The ringing came from the direction of the panther's territory. Two guards immediately turned their heads, but did not leave their posts. The second bell rang immediately afterward, and the person beside the covered cart lifted the cloth, revealing a folded chain net.

They were waiting for someone to approach the cart from behind.

Helian Yuan did not appear.

The third time, he blew the iron whistle.

With the thin piece back inside, the shrill note burst out near the northern outpost. The person hidden in the treetop reacted first, firing a crossbow bolt toward the sound. At the same time, a muffled beast's roar came from inside the covered cart.

The cart did not hold an empty net.

The collared level-three throat-locking Wind Wolf was also caged inside.

When the Wind Wolf heard the iron whistle, it slammed into the cart wall, forcing the guard beside the cart to turn back and hold down the cage. The three men at the front of the northern outpost were still guarding the old hunter, but a gap had been torn in their formation.

Helian Yuan crawled out of the drainage ditch beneath the wooden frame.

He did not cut the rope first. His short spear swept along the ground, breaking the leg on the left side of the frame. The frame tilted, and the old hunter rolled with it into the ditch. The guards thought Helian Yuan would stop to untie him, and two blades swept in at once to block the back of the frame.

Instead, Helian Yuan used the falling frame to block the blades and vaulted over from the other side. His hunting knife flashed, cutting the rope behind the old hunter's wrists.

"Can you walk?"

"My legs aren't tied."

The old hunter grabbed his old bow, left the empty quiver behind, and turned to crawl deeper into the drainage ditch.

The crossbowman above had already gotten a clear look at Helian Yuan. A bolt shot down from the treetop. Helian Yuan kicked the wooden sign into its path, but the bolt pierced straight through and still grazed the left side of his waist and abdomen. The wound was shallow, but blood immediately soaked his clothes.

The guards at the front gave chase.

Helian Yuan did not blow the iron whistle a second time. If he did, the Wind Wolf might break the cart's lock, or the Blue Rock Panther might be drawn over. If the chaos got out of control, the gray-robed man would not necessarily be the first to die.

He grabbed the water bowl from the ground and flung its contents onto the campfire. The fire did not go out; it only threw up a cloud of steam and ash. In the moment that it obscured their vision, Helian Yuan and the old hunter split up, each taking a different ditch.

"North!" one guard shouted.

Another, however, pursued Helian Yuan.

The gray-robed man's voice came from behind the crossbow wall. "Pursue the young one. The old one will return to town on his own."

He finally appeared, standing in the shadow of the guard shelter, without taking action himself.

Hearing the order, Helian Yuan knew the price of his choice had come due. The gray-robed man no longer needed to catch the old hunter. He only had to see for whose sake Helian Yuan had changed his plans to know that the lead from the old mission was worth pursuing.

There were two pursuers, a level-two warrior and a level-three guard. Helian Yuan ran along the bottom of the ditch, blood constantly seeping from the wound at his waist. He did not summon Tiger Shadow, scattering horseradish powder at the first fork instead. The level-two warrior charged ahead and coughed violently after inhaling the powder, but the level-three guard covered his nose and went around it, drawing even closer.

Ahead was a stretch of mud wall hollowed out by rain.

Helian Yuan first jumped onto a section of deadwood, deliberately putting his full weight on it. When the level-three guard caught up, he stepped on the same spot, and the wood immediately broke. Part of the mud wall collapsed with it, leaving several yards between them.

Helian Yuan seized the chance to slip into a crevice between the rocks.

He kept going until after midnight, when he found the old hunter in an abandoned beast den. The old hunter had already cut away the remaining ends of the rope himself and was biting down on a strip of cloth to stop the bleeding from his wrists.

"You shouldn't have come," the old hunter said first.

"I know."

"They were only asking who had taken a map of Blackwater Ravine. Now they'll ask why you were willing to come back."

"I know that too."

The old hunter stared at the blood on his side. "Then what are you after?"

Helian Yuan sat down to tend his wound. He did not mention a debt of gratitude, nor did he say he could not stand by and let someone die.

"You gave me the map. You were tied up because of it, so that debt is mine."

The old hunter fell silent for a moment, then gave a cold laugh. "You young people always like to count lives as debts."

"Debts can be settled. Lives can't."

"Then don't expect me to follow you."

"No one's asking you to."

The beast den fell quiet.

The old hunter picked up his old bow and checked that its body had not cracked, then tossed his waterskin to Helian Yuan. It was not thanks; it was only because Helian Yuan had just used his water bowl to splash the fire.

Search whistles sounded in the distance.

The gray-robed man had not caught his man tonight, but he had not lost much either. Using just one old hunter, he had made Helian Yuan give up the route records he might otherwise have seized and confirmed two connections.

This time, the gray-robed man had regained the initiative.

Helian Yuan made that clear to himself. Successfully rescuing someone did not mean winning the whole game. He had lost his window to obtain the recovery team's routes that night and had also let the other side know that the old hunter could influence his choices. Next time, the gray-robed man might not tie up one person, but instead create two false appearances of people needing rescue at once, forcing him to expend his efforts on the wrong targets.

Acknowledging that was more useful than finding a nice-sounding justification for himself in the beast den. The gray-robed man's ability to exploit relationships did not mean Helian Yuan had to sever all of his; what he really needed to change was how he rescued people and where he drew the boundaries around information, rather than go back to living as the only person in the mountains.

Helian Yuan took a sip of water and did not deny it.

But the old hunter was sitting here alive.

In some games, even if he lost information, he could not make up for it with a person.