"A clouded leopard?"
Professor Zhou’s attention was captured. "You mean the one that was poached and later recovered by the police?"
"Yes. Her name is Caiyun, and she has a cub named Ta Xue. Our Zoo has been tracking and observing them."
Yang Qi spoke calmly, selectively sharing what information he could about the mother and cub.
His words successfully diverted everyone’s attention.
After all, the clouded leopard was a bona fide Class I Protected Species, and this was a confirmed, trackable individual.
Compared to the vague speculation about a "South China Tiger," the mother and cub Yang Qi described were far more real and held more academic value.
Several zoology experts immediately gathered around him, asking about Caiyun’s range, habits, degree of contact with humans, and more.
Yang Qi answered their questions one by one, mixing truth with fiction. He satisfied the experts’ curiosity while subtly steering their speculation about an "unknown beast" toward the known, manageable clouded leopard.
No one noticed that on the other side of the mountain, opposite to where the wild boar had fled, an agile, orange figure was dragging a freshly killed wild boar weighing over two hundred pounds into the dense woods.
Nor did anyone notice the huge black shadow in the sky that, after a brief, low swoop, quickly changed course and flew swiftly in a specific direction.
Only Yang Qi, in the pauses between answering questions, received a report from Qi Zai.
’Master, that tiger just hunted a large boar on the other side of the mountain.’
His heart skipped a beat, but Yang Qi’s expression remained unchanged as he continued his conversation with the experts.
He quickly sent back a command with his mind.
’Qi Zai, follow the tiger. Make sure it doesn’t cross paths with us. Report immediately if anything happens!’
’Understood.’
Qi Zai responded.
The massive figure swiftly glided away in the direction the tigress had disappeared.
...
About half an hour later, the group reorganized and set off again.
After the small incident with the startled wild boar, everyone walked a bit more cautiously and spoke less.
Ahead, they could faintly make out the silhouette of an ancient, deep forest, perpetually shrouded in a light mist.
They were at Ancient Goose Forest.
After advancing a few dozen meters, Uncle Cai stopped, his voice unconsciously lowering. "This is Ancient Goose Forest. Any further and we’ll be in the core, most ’unnatural’ area of this mountain. It was dangerous before, but now it’s even stranger."
He didn’t need to explain. The looks on the experts’ faces as they stared at their instruments—which were either completely black, frozen, or spitting out endless error messages—said it all.
Senior Engineer Li was unwilling to give up.
He stared at the ancient forest ahead, which looked peaceful but exuded an invisible pressure, and gritted his teeth.
"Master Cai, we’ve come all this way; we’re just one step from the finish line. We won’t go deep, just... just a few dozen meters in. We want to see the environment with our own eyes, take a few pictures, and collect some surface soil and water samples. Is that okay?"
"That’s right, Master Cai. We came all this way. Let’s just take a look from the edge. We won’t go in too far," another expert chimed in.
"This..."
Uncle Cai looked troubled. He glanced at Jiang Kai, then at Yang Qi.
Just as Jiang Kai was about to speak up and dissuade them, Senior Engineer Li, along with two assistants, stubbornly started walking forward.
Uncle Cai hurried after them. "You really can’t go in! Your sense of direction gets all messed up in there. If you go in, you won’t be able to get out!"
"We’ll just go in twenty meters, not far."
Senior Engineer Li didn’t even look back. "Have the dogs wait at the edge. We’ll pull back the moment something feels wrong!"
As the few of them argued—
"AHHH~!"
A terrified scream suddenly erupted from the edge of the group.
Everyone instinctively turned to look.
They saw a young male graduate student, who had been standing at the very edge of the group taking pictures of the border of Ancient Goose Forest. His face was now deathly pale as he staggered backward and fell, landing hard on the ground.
"A snake... there’s a snake! I’ve been bitten by a snake!"