"The wolf pack was scared off by Bai Wan and Leopard. Bai Wan and Leopard are both police dogs, much stronger than ordinary Gray Wolves."
"WOOF!"
Bai Wan and Leopard puffed out their chests and gave a powerful bark.
Everyone instinctively looked over at them.
It was true. Bai Wan and Leopard were indeed extraordinarily impressive, a clear cut above other dogs to the naked eye.
Still...
An owl delivering a precise message, finding and rescuing an endangered animal in the dead of night, and finally, driving away a wolf pack...
When taken together, it was clear that "luck" and "professional knowledge" couldn’t fully explain it all.
But Yang Qi had made it clear he didn’t want to say more, so they didn’t feel it was right to press him further.
After this incident, Yang Qi’s image in the eyes of the expert team took on an aura of mystery.
An extraordinary man!
Since ancient times, China has never lacked for extraordinary individuals.
Those who could understand the language of ants, tame birds of prey, identify hundreds of herbs, or predict the whims of nature by observing the stars...
Unofficial histories and anecdotal records from every dynasty are filled with such accounts.
Even in modern times, an age of flourishing science, who among the leaders in their respective fields hadn’t heard a few rumors about "preternaturally gifted" colleagues?
Some old professor who could find mineral veins without any instruments.
Some researcher who could distinguish nearly a hundred types of soil by scent alone.
Some Ranger who could tell what kind of animal had passed by three days earlier just from the subtle differences in the fallen leaves...
Talent, or rather, a kind of innate "acuity," was a real phenomenon, just one that couldn’t be fully explained by existing theories.
Therefore, while the expert team was amazed by Yang Qi’s ability to "communicate" with an owl and rescue the endangered Lin She late at night, they didn’t react as Jiang Kai had feared they would—pestering Yang Qi relentlessly and demanding to get to the bottom of it.
They were all respectable people, with their own academic dignity and a sense of professional decorum.
Seeing that Yang Qi was reluctant to discuss it further, they tacitly agreed not to press for details.
Jiang Kai took all this in, and his tense nerves began to relax.
He let out a quiet breath, a pleasant feeling of shared pride welling up inside him.
Yang Qi was one of their own, someone he, Jiang Kai, had personally mentored—at least in name. He had made a good showing in front of so many experts from various provinces, bringing them all a measure of prestige.
’What leader wouldn’t be pleased to have such a capable person on their team?’
But that satisfaction didn’t last long.
Jiang Kai remembered something Huang Zhongmu had told him in private a few days ago, and he sighed.
...
The next day, the team set out once more.
By mid-afternoon, they had arrived near Ancient Goose Forest.
The vegetation along the path grew more and more dense, and the air grew thick with the rich, mixed scent of humus and fresh foliage.
Aside from the most basic environmental data loggers, which were still barely working, the rest of the experts’ instruments were going haywire. The data on the screens of the high-precision GPS, magnetometers, and gravimeters had long since become a chaotic mess, their needles jumping about frantically as if drunk.
The experts had gone from initial shock and confusion to numb acceptance.
"Oh well, we’ll just treat it as raw data collection."
With a wry smile, Senior Engineer Li stowed the erratically jumping magnetometer in his backpack, giving up on getting any meaningful readings from it.
"We’ll analyze it slowly once we’re out of here."
At that very moment—
"HUFF! HUFF!"
The bushes up ahead and to the side began to shake violently, accompanied by panicked, heavy panting and the frantic thudding of hooves.
"We’ve got a situation."
Uncle Cai, who was walking at the front, reacted the fastest. He immediately yanked Dahuang’s leash and stepped to the side.
A massive sow, its dark brown bristles standing on end, burst from the bushes like an out-of-control car, fleeing for its life.
Two half-grown boars followed close behind her.
The three boars had no intention of attacking; they didn’t even spare a glance for the approaching "Two-legged Beasts," concerned only with their frantic escape.
They scrambled frantically past the side of the group, nearly brushing against a few of the graduate students whose legs had turned to jelly.
"Big Black! Dahuang! Drive them off!"
Uncle Cai shouted, simultaneously releasing Dahuang’s leash.
Dahuang and Big Black shot off like arrows from a bow, using a classic hound tactic to flank the boars and guide their escape route.
"Leopard, Bai Wan, go help!"
Yang Qi ordered.
"WOOF WOOF!"
"A-WOOF!"
Bai Wan and Leopard shot forward at the same time, even faster than Dahuang and Big Black. In the blink of an eye, they had outflanked the boars, cutting them off. With low, menacing barks, they forced the sow to change direction and run toward a gentle slope leading away from the team and down into the creek valley.
With the four highly trained canines working in concert, it took less than a minute to herd the three panicked boars into the dense woods toward the valley. The noise they made quickly faded into the distance.
"All clear now."
Uncle Cai called Dahuang and Big Black back and wiped his forehead. "It was a sow with her young. I wonder what could have scared them that badly."
Still shaken, the group members found places to sit down or lean against trees to rest.
"Master Cai, besides wolves, what else in these mountains could scare a wild boar that badly?" one of the graduate students asked, his heart still pounding.
"Plenty of things."
Uncle Cai replied casually, "Black bears, tigers, leopards... they all prey on wild boar. A sow with piglets is especially terrified of predators that could threaten her young."
"Haha, tigers? Are there still South China Tigers here?"
Someone laughed and shook his head. "Now that would be a rare find. They’re even harder to spot than giant pandas."
"Exactly. If there really were South China Tigers here, this whole mountain would have been cordoned off long ago."
The technicians and graduate students chimed in one after another, treating the subject as a joke.
Listening to them, Yang Qi chimed in at the right moment, "It could also be a clouded leopard. Caiyun often preys on half-grown boars."