Cunning Sabertooth

As time passed, the footsteps drew closer, and soon, a human shadow appeared. It did not appear to be a single person.

Bai Ming squinted his eyes to look closer, trying to count the figures.

"One…two…three…"

In a moment, their figures slowly became clear along with chuckle.

"Heh, what a surprise. To think you all are still alive"

Chi Huo's expression became one of shock and then became one of wariness.

What was this guy doing here?

The rest were not an exception to this. They had seen this person before.

In the forest, Zi Yan had left them saying that he would return to the village and inform the rest of the hunters of their situation. Most of the people in Bai Ming's group clearly remembered this, but they had doubts as to whether this man who had disregarded them and even tried to sow discord among them would truly relay this news to the other hunters.

Now, looking at their appearance here, those doubts surfaced in their minds again, but Zi Yan's current appearance made them shocked, wondering what he had encountered in the forest.

What appeared before them was a one eyes Zi Yan.

At this moment, Zi Yan had a slight smile on his face, but that was not how he truly felt. In terms of appearance, Bai Ming's group looked better. This was not what he had expected. He tried to suppress the irritation he felt. He felt ashamed as someone who was considered an expert hunter that he would feel inferior to a group of newbies.

Bai Ming's group wondered if Zi Yan's group had taken a different route than they had. Otherwise, how could they appear like this. There seemed to be no other way to explain it. In their eyes, they had cleared the path they took of any danger hidden in it. Looking at him, Zi Yan's left eye seemed to have been scratched by something.

The wound on his face proceeded down to his cheeks. It appeared to have dug into his eyeball, rendering it useless. Among his two other members, one had a few minor injuries and bruises. The other was in a state worse than Zi Yan, his clothing ripped apart, and a terrible deep wound which extended from his upper chest to his lower abdomen. Although the wound seemed to have stopped bleeding, this member's face was pale and seemed to be weakened, but he had dragged his body all the way here.

His right leg was also in a bad state. They could not see how badly the wound was since the snow on the ground covered to half their lower legs, but looking at the bloody trail this person had left in the snow they passed they knew it was nothing to scoff at. At the very least, it was comparable to the wound on his chest.

When Cui Rong took a look at the wound on this person's chest, her small mouth opened slightly and closed. It seemed she now understood what they had met in the forest. Looking over her bandaged shoulder as though she could see through it, in her mind, a wound with the same pattern as the wound on this person's chest appeared. It was just that her wound was just smaller and not very deep.

The culprit responsible for Zi Yan's current state was the same sabertoothed jaguar they had come across in the forest.

In fact, Zi Yan had originally planned to have them pave a clear and safe passage for them to follow through the forest so he had let his guard down a bit. But this could not have been the reason for this, so could he not have seen it coming.

The path they passed had sparse trees so the moonlight could easily illuminate everything to the ground, but as they moved further, the trees became tightly packed together, and there were odd bushes and vines everywhere. The forest had taken on a dark and sinister setting. Even he could not remain relaxed in such an environment, so he had only assigned his minions to walk in front abreast as if they were meat shields.

Even though the other members were displeased by this, they did not retort and could only proceed forward. But who would have thought that a shadow would leap out of the dark, not targeting any of the members in the front but Zi Yan, who was following behind them all.

Zi Yan had been caught unprepared. He had expected to be safe behind his members.

Still thinking back to this, Zi Yan felt irritated. It was then that Chi Huo's words reached his ears.

"Zi Yan, I did not expect to see you so soon here all places"

Bai Ming wondered why Chi Huo's voice sounded so close to him. He clearly remembered that he had been standing up ahead of everyone towards the castle. It was unknown at what point in time he had come to stand beside him.

Zi Yan heard this. He knew he had to explain. Everyone here knew that he could not have gotten back to the main camp and caught up to them so fast it was just not humanly possible.

"Could it have been that, along the way, he had a change of heart?" Bai Ming thought, but he quickly corrected himself.

It was quite unlikely for Zi Yan to do such a thankless task.

However, Zi Yan had already expected such a scenario and did not want to explain himself, so he had already prepared a half truth.

"It is as you have expected we did not get to the main camp, but we encountered another group which was heading back. We informed them of your situation and they said they said they would relay this to the groups in the main camp."

With that, Zi Yan became silent as if he was saying to them, "Now use your brains to understand what's else happened"

Chi Huo's mouth twitched a bit. He was not unfamiliar with Zi Yan's way of doing things. He usually gave such half-hearted answers, so Chi Huo did not find anything out of the ordinary, so instead, he asked the question that everyone else in their group had been wondering.

"So, what did you encounter that took out your eye?"

Hearing this, Zi Yan's remained eye blazed as he gave Chi Huo a piercing gaze.