The Recovery Team

The Blue Rock Panther had not killed the Throat-Locking Wind Wolf.

After the iron ring and chain net dragged the Wind Wolf down, the gray-robed man immediately cut the thick chain on one side and had two guards pull it out from under the panther's claws. The price was the loss of the entire chain net inside the territory, and three medicine canisters were crushed. Wounded, the Blue Rock Panther retreated to the rock wall, the old ring still beneath its neck.

The recovery team had lost its first net, but it did not withdraw.

That night, two more carts arrived at the quarry. The new net was narrower, its anchor chains thicker. The people accompanying it no longer wore ordinary guards' leather armor, but short black armor, with thin blue-green pieces hanging from their waists. Helian Yuan saw their positions from a distance and knew they were the ones truly responsible for recovery.

The guards before them had checked roads, driven stakes, and coaxed information out of people.

The black-armored men were responsible only for putting live creatures in cages.

There were clear boundaries between them, too. When an ordinary guard tried to approach the new net, the black-armored leader barked, "Don't touch it if you're not trained," and sent him away. The gray-robed man could deploy the people on the perimeter, but he could not freely inspect the papers in the route tube. From this, Helian Yuan confirmed that the gray-robed man was not at the top of this system. He controlled the searches and transactions, while the actual recovery techniques came from another group.

This gap in authority could also be exploited. If something happened to the route tube, the ordinary guards would not dare open it on their own, while the black-armored men would have to leave their net positions to deal with it. The recovery formation would lose a pair of hands on its own.

Before entering, they dragged the wounded Throat-Locking Wind Wolf into a clearing. Its neck ring was removed and replaced with a thinner one. Then a black-armored man took out a copper tube and blew it once beside the wolf's ear.

The Wind Wolf did not pause as it had before.

Its whole body suddenly went rigid, its four limbs crouched against the ground, and uncontrollable whimpers came from its throat.

The black-armored man cut a shallow gash in its back with a knife and smeared the blood along the edge of the new net.

This was bait, and a demonstration.

The recovery team was not training demonic beasts. They used pain, scent, and iron rings to wear one living beast down into a tool for driving another. If the Wind Wolf died, they would simply replace it.

Helian Yuan watched as it was led back toward the Blue Rock Panther's territory, his fingers pressing against the short whistle at his waist.

He could blow the thin piece to disrupt the Wind Wolf, or continue using the Blue Rock Panther to cause chaos. But the gray-robed man already knew he understood the tools, and any repeated countermeasure would be anticipated.

This time, he had to change targets.

The second cart the recovery team had brought had no cage. It carried only a copper route tube. Every time the black-armored men changed the net's position, someone drew the new position on paper and put it back in the tube. It recorded more than just today's route for capturing the panther; it very likely also contained the Inner Mountain Entrance and the next recovery point.

Helian Yuan decided to take the tube.

Not steal it after the fighting ended, but force them to choose between the route and the live beast when the net was being drawn tightest.

His right arm still could not grip a spear at full strength, so he could only bind the shaft to his palm with a strip of cloth. He could not use Shadow Cover again for the time being. Charging the black-armored men head-on would be no different from courting death, so he buried three copper bells beside different chain anchors and smeared stolen white powder on the inside of the second cart's wheel.

The white powder was not meant to leave a trail for him to follow.

When the wheel turned, the powder would fall onto the tracks, marking where the route tube would go if it was moved.

The second attempt to draw in the net began that afternoon.

The black-armored men no longer left the Blue Rock Panther an obvious opening. Using the Wind Wolf as the center, they crossed two narrow nets into the shape of a pair of scissors. Whichever side the Blue Rock Panther attacked the Wind Wolf from, the other net would trap its hind legs.

The gray-robed man stood beside the route cart without blowing a whistle. He left command to the black-armored leader and watched only the perimeter himself.

He was waiting for Helian Yuan.

When the first net fell, Helian Yuan did not move.

The second net scraped the panther's hind leg, and still he did not move.

Only when the black-armored leader personally left the route cart and led his men to pin down the old ring beneath the Blue Rock Panther's neck did Helian Yuan pull the first copper bell.

The bell rang from the eastern anchor.

A guard immediately looked that way but did not leave his post. The second bell rang to the north, and still no one moved. The gray-robed man raised a hand, signaling everyone to hold formation. He had clearly expected false sounds.

The third copper bell did not ring.

What Helian Yuan had cut was not the bell cord, but a thin hemp cord buried beneath it. A small leather pouch filled with horseradish powder was tied to the other end. The pouch fell from a tree, landing squarely between two mountain civets drawn by the Wind Wolf's blood.

Startled, the mountain civets bolted wildly. One darted under the net, while the other charged toward the route cart.

The guard watching the cart instinctively kicked the civet away. The wheel was knocked forward half a turn, leaving a clear arc of white powder from its inner side. Helian Yuan saw it from the slope and confirmed that the route tube was not tied down, but held to the cart frame by a leather fastening.

He appeared on the western side.

Sure enough, the gray-robed man immediately turned toward him. "Guard the cart!"

Two guards moved toward the route cart, leaving two fewer people holding down the net. The Blue Rock Panther suddenly rolled over, dragging the second net toward the rock wall. The black-armored leader had no choice but to step in himself.

Helian Yuan did not charge the cart. Instead, he blew a low, hoarse iron whistle with its thin piece removed.

The sound had no effect on demonic beasts, but it closely resembled the iron whistle from before. When the Wind Wolf heard it, its body instinctively flinched. Its retreat opened a gap at the center of the scissor-shaped net formation. The Blue Rock Panther seized the opening and bit down on the Wind Wolf's neck ring, and the two demonic beasts pulled the entire net in opposite directions.

The black-armored men's attention was fixed entirely on the net and chains.

Only then did Helian Yuan turn toward the route cart.

The guards watching the cart closed in from either side. Unable to meet force with force using his right arm, he first hurled the short spear bound to his hand toward the left. As the guard blocked it, Helian Yuan slid low across the ground beneath the spear and cut the leather fastening with his hunting knife.

The copper tube fell into his arms.

The other guard slammed a fist into his back. Helian Yuan crashed bodily into the cartwheel, the breath knocked out of his chest, and nearly lost his grip on the tube. Without turning around, he used his momentum to push the route cart, sending its wheel over the blue-green spikes scattered on the ground.

The axle twisted, and the cart tipped onto its side in the ditch.

The guard was forced to jump clear.

"The tube's in his hands!"

The gray-robed man finally left his position and gave chase.

Helian Yuan ran south, dragging his numb right arm. The route tube was heavier than expected; it contained more than paper, with some kind of metal hidden inside as well. When he passed the first white powder tracks, he deliberately took a few steps east, then turned west across bare rock. When the pursuers saw the powder marks, they would first send some of their men down the wrong path.

A howl of pain suddenly rang out behind him.

It was not a person, but the Throat-Locking Wind Wolf.

The Blue Rock Panther had bitten through its neck ring. The broken ring sprang away, and the scissor-shaped net lost its central pull. The Blue Rock Panther neither pursued Helian Yuan nor continued killing people. Trailing part of the net and chain, it leaped onto the rock wall.

As it jumped, the old ring beneath its neck clattered sharply.

The recovery team had still failed to capture it.

Helian Yuan knew, however, that they would not have the patience for a third attempt. The route tube had been taken, the Blue Rock Panther was wounded, and the identity of the person who had stolen the token was becoming clear. Next, they would seal off the Inner Mountain Entrance and devote all their strength to capturing him first.

He ran several miles before opening the copper tube.

Inside were a rolled-up animal-hide map and a short black rod. The southern edge of the map showed the three cave-ins the old hunter had drawn, and beyond them was an old road leading to deeper hunting grounds.

Two characters were engraved on one end of the black rod: seal the entrance.

Helian Yuan had just read them when five consecutive rings of an iron bell sounded from the east.

It was not a call to assemble.

It was the signal to seal the mountain after a failed recovery operation.