Breaking Free of the Collar

After five rings of the iron bell, all the old paths began to close.

The gray-robed man stopped replacing the stakes and checking false seven. The guards at the north post, South Gully, the quarry, and outside Greystone Town converged on the Inner Mountain Entrance. With the route tube stolen, they assumed Helian Yuan already knew the real exit.

This time, there were no rules he could learn at his leisure.

There was only a door that was closing.

Helian Yuan found the Inner Mountain Entrance on the hide map. Beyond three landslides lay a natural stone passage, narrow enough at its tightest point to admit only one cart. The short black rods were not keys, but blasting rods for sealing the passage. Inserted into the slots prepared in the passage and lit by a fuse, they would bring down the loose rocks overhead and bury the old path completely.

If the gray-robed man set them off before he reached the exit, Helian Yuan would be trapped in the outer region even if he escaped the search.

There was another dotted line on the route map, passing deep through the Blue Rock Panther's territory and joining the old path beyond the stone passage. It was an alternate beast trail the recovery team had prepared for large live cages. Ordinary people could not pass that way, but a level-four demonic beast could cross the broken cliff there.

Helian Yuan studied it for a while, then changed his objective from "reach the Inner Mountain Entrance first" to "get the Blue Rock Panther there first."

The old collar was still around the panther's neck. It had been wounded twice by chain nets and would surely return to its deepest den to lick its wounds. As long as he could get it to charge down the alternate beast trail toward the stone passage, the people sealing the exit would not dare light the blasting rods immediately.

The problem was, the Blue Rock Panther would not listen to him.

Helian Yuan returned to the edge of its territory, where broken chains, bloodstains, and medicinal powder still littered the ground. The Wind Wolf was gone, leaving only a short section of collar bitten clean through. The panther's blood led east, into the steepest part of the rock face.

He did not follow the blood. Instead, he tapped the broken collar with the thin green plate he had removed. The metal gave off a faint vibration, and a low growl came immediately from the distant rock face.

The Blue Rock Panther remembered that sound.

Helian Yuan headed toward the alternate beast trail, tapping once every few dozen paces. He stayed away from the den, keeping the sound at the edge of the panther's territory. The first time, the panther did not pursue him. The second time, loose stones tumbled down the rock face. The third time, a dark shadow swept down from above and landed less than twenty zhang behind him.

Helian Yuan did not run in a straight line.

Using a hemp rope he had tied in advance, he swung over a sharp rock and tossed a packet of bifork medicinal powder to the other side. The Blue Rock Panther caught the medicinal scent, and its anger overcame its caution. It immediately pounced where the packet landed.

Helian Yuan took the chance to move deeper along the beast trail.

Man and panther chased through the rocks. Helian Yuan dared not let it get too close, but he could not get so far ahead that it lost sight of him. Whenever the Blue Rock Panther was about to stop, he struck the thin plate; whenever it closed in, he left behind the scent of the recovery team's hemp grass.

This was not beast taming.

He was merely directing its hatred of the recovery tools in the same direction for the time being.

As he neared the stone passage, voices came from ahead. The gray-robed man and the remaining guards were holding the exit, while the Black-Armored Retrieval Team installed blasting rods in the slots. Dry firewood was piled inside the passage to make the fuse burn faster.

From his high vantage point, Helian Yuan saw the gray-robed man look up as well.

The two locked eyes across the stone passage.

The gray-robed man did not order a pursuit. Instead, he waved a hand. "Light the fuse!"

A black-armored man raised a torch.

Helian Yuan struck the thin green plate.

A panther's roar erupted behind him.

The Blue Rock Panther charged out along the alternate beast trail, the old collar and half a net chain around its neck striking the rocks together. When the black-armored man saw it, his torch stopped for an instant. If they blew up the passage now, the level-four demonic beast would be trapped on their side; if they did not, Helian Yuan would have a chance to get through.

The gray-robed man snapped, "Seal him off first!"

The torch descended again.

Helian Yuan hurled his short spear. His right arm could not withstand Shadow Cover, so he drove the throw with a rotation of his whole body. Rather than striking the black-armored man, the spearhead pierced an oil jar beneath the firewood. The jar shattered, and the oil flowed in the opposite direction first. When the torch fell, flames spread sideways and failed to reach the fuse immediately.

The Blue Rock Panther pounced into the crowd.

The formation fell apart completely.

Helian Yuan slid down the high slope, heading not for the exit, but for the side of the Blue Rock Panther's neck. The panther was tearing at a black-armored man's net shield, and its movements exposed the old iron collar. A crack had been bitten into the clasp by the Throat-Locking Wind Wolf.

This was his only chance.

Helian Yuan grabbed the half-length of net chain with his left hand and used the force of the panther's head toss to swing around to its side. The Blue Rock Panther sensed someone approaching and swiped back with a forepaw. He blocked it with the shaft of his short spear, but the blow sent him crashing into the rock wall, his chest nearly splitting open.

But he did not let go of the net chain.

He braced his right foot against the rock, pulled the chain taut with his left hand, and drove the hunting knife in his right hand into the crack in the iron collar.

Tiger Shadow flashed along his right arm.

For only half a breath.

He pried outward with the hunting knife, and the iron clasp snapped sharply. The old collar did not break completely, but a gap large enough opened around the panther's neck. The Blue Rock Panther jerked its head, sending the entire iron collar and the half-length of net chain flying into a black-armored man who was lighting the fuse.

The torch fell to the ground.

For the first time, the Blue Rock Panther was free of its collar.

It did not immediately attack Helian Yuan. With the vibration against its bones gone, it froze for an instant, then charged at the gray-robed guard carrying the iron whistle. The man managed only half a blast before a swipe of its paw sent him flying.

Helian Yuan's right arm had lost all strength, and he had dropped his hunting knife. Unable to pick up his short spear, he could only grab the route tube with his left hand and rush toward the stone passage.

The gray-robed man blocked the exit.

His short sword was already drawn, and blood marked his left shoulder where the Blue Rock Panther had struck him, but he still stood steadily.

"You freed it," he said. "That doesn't mean it'll live for you."

"I didn't ask it to."

Helian Yuan gripped the black sealing rod in his left hand and threw it toward the fire beside the fuse.

For the first time, the gray-robed man's expression changed.

If the sealing rod exploded outside the slot, the stone passage would not collapse in the planned direction, and the people guarding the exit might be buried as well. He had no choice but to abandon his interception and turn toward the fire.

Helian Yuan seized that instant to pass through the stone passage.

A muffled explosion sounded behind him. It did not seal off the mountain completely; the black rod brought down only half the loose rock. The falling stones blocked half the exit and cut off the Blue Rock Panther's route of pursuit.

Helian Yuan ran to the other end of the stone passage and stopped against the wall. His right arm hung limp, his chest hurt with every breath, and the panther's claws had torn open his pack in the chaos.

He still had the route tube.

The old iron collar had fallen outside the stone passage, and he had not been able to take it.

It was not the Blue Rock Panther he had saved.

He had merely made a living creature, whose fear switch the organization had pressed again and again, stop retreating in the direction they prescribed at the most critical moment.

The Blue Rock Panther's roar came from the distant rock face.

There was no sharp clang of iron against stone.

Then came the soft twang of a crossbow from the west. Helian Yuan looked up and saw the hunter with the crossbow on his back standing on the ridge. He had already made his way out of Sunken Bone Slope and should not have come back. Now, he shot through a rope the pursuers were preparing to rig.

After firing, he slung the crossbow over his shoulder and turned west.

There was no meeting and no farewell.

That final act of interference in the outer region was a debt he had chosen to repay.

Helian Yuan leaned against the rock wall and smiled, then quickly stopped.

The hunting ground of the first volume lay behind him.

At the exit, the gray-robed man rose from the fallen rocks and looked at him across the half-blocked passage.

"The inner mountains aren't a place where you can survive."

Helian Yuan picked up his short spear with his left hand.

"The outer region isn't yours to stake out, either."

With that, he turned and walked along the mountain path, heading deeper in.