I work as a security guard at a cemetery, and I overhear the dead chatting about getting rich quick.

The next morning, reinforcements from the Seventh Division arrived.

Two mountain transport vehicles drove into the old forest farm, bringing ten field staff, three sets of containment equipment, and a heavy-duty drone.

The remains of Zhao Cheng and Meng Chuan were also sent out of Heihuailing at this time.

Jiang Yue stood beside the refrigerated truck, watching the door close before turning around to receive the equipment.

No one went to persuade him.

When someone has just died, too many words of comfort seem inadequate.

The leader of the reinforcement team was Zhou Xiao, who was in his thirties and was in charge of firepower and on-site control.

After reviewing the records of the previous operations, he only said one sentence:

"Let's find out about that bear first."

Last night, the roar of the bear was met with a reaction from the nearby wolf pack, wild boars, and macaques. That creature in Black Locust Ridge was clearly not an ordinary mutated beast.

The personnel going into the mountains have been readjusted.

The second group consists of five people: Jiang Yue, Zhou Xiao, and four reinforcement team members.

The others remained at the camp and the outer passageway.

Lin Ye's right arm has mostly recovered, and the Zhenling Nail has been returned to him, but Zhou Heng only approved its use once.

The protective spirit stone was replaced with a fully charged spare.

Before setting off, Cheng Fang glanced at him.

"Stand at the back today."

Lin Ye bent down to check his equipment.

"I've been standing at the back the whole time."

"Every time you stand at the back, you always manage to run to the front."

"They came here on their own."

Cheng Fang didn't argue with him.

"In short, don't rush around."

At nine o'clock in the morning, the team entered the forest from the east side.

Instead of following the footprints left by the Candle Shadow Society, they slowly moved deeper into Black Locust Ridge, following the animal activity routes identified by the drone.

After walking three kilometers, the surrounding trees became noticeably thicker.

The concentration of spiritual energy is also continuously increasing.

Lin Ye did not actively activate the Spirit Guiding Technique, but he could still feel a slight coolness entering his body with each breath.

Not many, but it never stopped.

Jiang Yue looked at the testing instrument.

"It's almost twice as high as the camp."

Zhou Xiao looked up and gazed ahead.

"It's still rising."

This indicates that the core area has not yet been reached.

The group continued forward.

Xu Mian quickly stopped beside a patch of mud.

There are footprints.

Several huge bear paw prints remained in the mud.

The forepaws are nearly 30 centimeters wide, with deep edges, yet only a shallow layer of claw marks remain.

Tang Zhi looked down and compared them.

"After that slap, I might have to start a new life."

Qin Zhao glanced at her.

"Do you still have a chance to start over?"

"If you can't speak properly, you should shut up."

There is more than one set of handprints.

Several paths repeatedly appeared around the nearby trees.

On the trunk of one of the trees, there are more than a dozen palm prints of almost the same height.

The shallowest step involves only removing a single layer of bark.

The deepest part has been drilled into the wood layer.

Cheng Fang walked to another tree next to him.

There are also handprints on it, ranging from shallow to deep, a total of seven times.

The final blow nearly cracked half of the tree trunk.

Zhou Xiao touched the broken edge.

"It's not for sharpening claws."

Jiang Yue looked around the ground.

There is a route under the tree that has been repeatedly trodden and compacted, with the starting and landing positions being roughly the same.

"It looks like it's training."

It's not just an occasional bout of madness.

Instead, they stand in the same position time and time again, repeating the same actions.

Further on, the group discovered a partially collapsed cave.

There were many animal bones piled up at the entrance of the cave.

Wild boar, deer, mountain goat, and two wolves that were noticeably larger than average in size.

The remains weren't neatly arranged, but they were dragged to a few fixed locations instead of being scattered everywhere.

Jiang Yue squatted next to a wild boar skeleton.

"His heart and liver are gone."

Zhou Xiao examined several more bodies.

"The parts with the strongest residual spiritual energy have basically been consumed."

Tang Zhi frowned.

"It even knows how to choose nutritious foods?"

"After eating it a few times, animals can remember what is good for them."

Cheng Fang looked towards the cave.

"Place the equipment first."

Heavy drones ascend to the vicinity of the tree canopy to monitor the surrounding area.

A crawling probe then entered the cave.

The cave is not deep.

Inside, there was dry grass, animal hides, and a lot of dark brown bear fur, with several broken animal bones in the deepest part.

On one of the bones, there were several very shallow lines engraved.

Lin Ye stared at the image being transmitted back.

"You have to get close to hear it."

Cheng Fang did not agree immediately.

Zhou Xiao glanced at the cave structure and then checked the surrounding surveillance footage again.

"There are people watching the front and both sides of the cave."

"UAVs are used to examine the tree canopy, and thermal imaging scans the back slope."

"Three people go in, come out within two minutes."

Finally, Cheng Fang, Lin Ye, and Jiang Yue entered the cave.

The cave smelled strongly of fish and odor.

The ground was covered with a thick layer of withered grass, which felt soft underfoot.

Lin Ye stopped two meters away from the beast bones and activated his spiritual hearing.

The first sound was heavy breathing.

One after another, like the wind squeezing through a narrow crevice in the rocks.

Then came the dull thud of the bear's paw hitting the ground.

boom.

boom.

Each time it was heavier than the last.

That familiar voice appeared soon after.

"Don't just use your shoulders."

"Let your energy settle down."

The bear let out an impatient growl.

The sound paused for a moment.

Shouting won't help.

"Let's start over."

The bear's breathing slowed down again.

Tighten your abdomen first.

Then comes the shoulders and back.

When the next palm strike landed, the entire stone wall trembled.

"This one is barely watchable."

Lin Ye opened his eyes.

"It's teaching the bear how to exert force."

Jiang Yue looked at the dents that had been repeatedly worn into the ground.

"How do you teach me how to channel spiritual energy?"

"teach."

Lin Ye whispered, "It's not just about teaching breathing. It teaches the bear to first calm its breath, and then send its power to its forelimbs."

Just as Cheng Fang was about to speak, Xu Mian's voice suddenly came through the communicator.

"There's movement on the back slope!"

"The rocks are blocking the thermal imaging; the distance is less than fifty meters!"

The next second, a loud bang rang out outside the cave.

The three of them immediately retreated.

As soon as I rushed out of the cave, I saw a heavy drone crash to the ground, its rotor blades broken in half.

A dozen meters away, a huge black bear charged down the slope.

To avoid the tree canopy, the drone hovered at a height of less than five meters.

When the black bear rolled down the back slope, it stood up and slapped the fuselage with its paw.

It landed on all fours, with its shoulders and back almost level with an adult's chest.

Several grayish-white old wounds were interspersed among the black hair, a small piece was missing from the left ear, and there was a long scar on the chest that ran diagonally from the shoulder to the abdomen.

It didn't pounce on the person immediately.

I took a look at the cave first.

Then I looked at the scanning device at the cave entrance, which was still beeping.

"Slowly retreat."

Zhou Xiao raised the tranquilizer gun.

A puff of white vapor came out of the black bear's nostrils.

The next second, it suddenly rushed towards the cave entrance.

"Fire!"

The tranquilizer dart struck the shoulder first.

The needle pierced through the thick hair, but only went in halfway before being squeezed out by the muscle.

The black bear rushed to the scanning device and slapped it down with its paw.

The metal casing dented instantly, the equipment rolled away, and the buzzer stopped.

Zhou Xiao was standing to the side of the equipment. Although he stepped back in time, he was still grazed in the chest by the bear's paw.

He flew sideways and his back slammed heavily into a tree trunk.

The two reinforcements immediately opened fire.

The bullet pierced the black bear's shoulder and back, splattering blood everywhere.

The black bear's body suddenly sank.

My breathing stopped for a moment.

His shoulder and back muscles bulged, and he turned and crashed into the location from which the gunshot had come.

It didn't take a detour, nor did it look for the most important target in the crowd.

They instinctively lunged at the person who had hurt them.

Cheng Fang pushed up from the side.

Iron bones covered his arms and upper body.

The man and the bear collided head-on.

Cheng Fang only held on for half a second before being pushed back several steps, his boots leaving two long marks in the mud.

Tang Zhi's silk threads simultaneously entangled the black bear's hind legs.

As soon as she wrapped the line around the tree trunk, the black bear suddenly lunged forward.

The thin thread tightened instantly.

The bark was pulled open, and Tang Zhi was also dragged forward two meters.

"Disconnected!"

Cheng shouted.

Tang Zhi immediately stopped and took the initiative to cut the connecting threads.

Xu Mian had already raised her gun.

The bullet went straight for the black bear's right eye.

Upon hearing the gunshot, the black bear tilted its head to the side.

The bullet grazed his brow bone, tearing open a piece of flesh.

Fresh blood flowed down the corner of his eye.

The black bear let out a low growl and slammed its forepaws heavily on the ground.

Dirt and gravel flew in all directions.

Qin Zhao's embers landed on its shoulder immediately afterward.

Just as the flames started to burn, the black bear crashed into a nearby mud pit, rolling over in the mud.

When he stood up again, the fire had been mostly extinguished.

This is not a very smart approach.

When a wild animal catches fire, it will naturally seek out water and mud.

But ordinary wild animals, after being shot, hit by tranquilizer darts, and burned, would have long since become chaotic.

There is no bear.

Its breathing quickly stabilized again.

The abdomen tightened, spiritual energy spread along the shoulders and back, and the muscles around the wound also tensed up.

The bleeding rate immediately slowed down.

Cheng Fang stood in the front.

"Take Zhou Xiao with you!"

Jiang Yue and two team members rushed to the tree and helped Zhou Xiao up.

Zhou Xiao's face was pale, and his breathing was shallow.

"His ribs are broken."

"He's still conscious, let's evacuate."

The crowd began to back away.

The black bear did not chase.

It stood in front of the cave again, looking down at everyone, until Qi Chu left the woods, then slowly retreated back to the cave entrance.

The team only stopped after retreating one kilometer.

Medical personnel cut open Zhou Xiao's protective suit and secured his chest.

Cheng Fang moved his numb right arm.

"That bear has been guarding the cave."

Jiang Yue asked, "What's in the cave?"

Lin Ye shook his head.

"This hole in front of us is probably just where it trains and rests."

"What it's really guarding is probably deeper inside the cave."

He had heard a faint echo when he entered the cave.

The sound of the bear's paw slapping the ground was half-hidden, so I didn't hear it clearly at the time.

Now that things have quieted down, those words slowly started to match up.

The voice spoke to the bear as follows:

"You can go out."

"Don't stay away for too long."