My weight was still a bit over the limit. The eagle demon’s sharp beak opened, its chest muscles heaving violently. She glanced at the tunnel, likely deeming the situation critical. She abandoned all pretense of modesty and transformed into a human – only as a human could she speak intelligibly. Her squawks were meaningless to me. She said to me, “Chengfeng, there are no cars, we can’t outrun them. I’ll hide you first, then go get help!”
“Alright, I’ll listen to you.” I could only comply. My previous decision had been a mistake, and now the tide needed to be turned by them.
Ya Nan took a deep breath, expanding her already ample chest muscles. She transformed back into an eagle, grabbed me, and ascended rapidly. She flew back up towards the small hill above the tunnel, dropped me in the dense forest, and then flew back.
The eagle demon was undoubtedly trying to be helpful, fearing I might get hurt. She had deliberately thrown me into a tree to cushion my fall. But she probably hadn’t looked closely – this was a pine forest!
The needles pierced me! Fortunately, the branches were rather brittle and broke under my weight, allowing me to fall to the ground. I quickly scrambled out of the pile of pine needles, rolled to a clear spot nearby, and shed my hedgehog-like outer layer. This time, it didn't hurt. I pushed aside the bushes and looked down the mountain. I saw the eagle demon land in the middle of the road. As the demon hunter’s convoy’s headlights illuminated her, the eagle demon flew backward, leading the convoy forward, presumably to lure the demon hunters away.
However, the demon hunters were not ordinary adversaries. Seeing that I wasn't bound to the eagle demon, they stopped their convoy after chasing for over a hundred meters. Everyone dismounted and launched ranged attacks at the eagle demon in the air. The eagle demon evaded them and circled at a high altitude.
The man shouted to his companions, “That old eagle can’t fly far with the kid! We won’t fall for this ‘luring the tiger away from its mountain’ trick. He must have hidden the kid nearby! Spread out and search!”
Seeing her plan discovered, the eagle demon immediately flew towards the direction of Qipanshan.
I slowly crouched, then sat, then lay down, deciding to stay put. Apart from the road, everything nearby was mountainous. They would likely search for quite a while.
To my surprise, these demon hunters, who used cold weapons, also possessed high-tech gear. Five minutes later, I heard a buzzing sound from the air. Peering through the branches, I saw a drone flying this way. Ignoring the prickling pine needles, I swiped left and right, covering myself with the thick layer of pine needles under the tree, becoming a living camouflage. Only then did I evade the drone’s reconnaissance.
I continued to lie there. Several times, I heard human voices approaching, then moving away. They likely hadn’t expected the eagle demon to lift me to such a height in such a short time, so they focused their main efforts on the mountainside.
After about ten minutes, I heard an eagle’s cry from the air, and the annoying drone stopped buzzing. I didn’t see it, but I guessed the eagle demon had taken care of it.
“Heh, you dare come back, truly fearless of death! Brothers! Shoot it down for me!” The man’s voice from below the mountain.
Whoosh, whoosh, the sounds of various long-range weapons being fired. Although none hit, I heard the eagle demon’s voice indicating she was retreating higher and higher, suggesting the demon hunters’ weapons had a considerable range.
About ten minutes later, I suddenly heard a tiger’s roar from the forest at the foot of the mountain on the other side. I was startled and instinctively wanted to run towards the demon hunters, as a fellow creature of the same kind. But I quickly realized it was the tiger demon Xuanxuan!
The tiger roared through the forest, and the demon hunters were clearly shaken. I heard them whispering amongst themselves, likely debating whether to retreat. An eagle was not much of a threat, but a tiger was a different story!
However, they seemed too greedy. I didn’t hear any car engines starting, indicating they intended to stay and take a chance.
Before long, rustling sounds came from the forest, and a magnificent tiger with striking stripes appeared in my field of vision. It shook its tiger head at me. On its back, two small creatures were riding: a sable and a weasel.
I pushed aside the pine needles and sat up. This was my first time up close with Xuanxuan in her tiger form. She was likely a top-tier Siberian tiger. Her head was level with my chest, and her body was over three meters long, not including her tail. Her claws were as large as griddle cakes. I found it even harder to believe that Wu Song, armed with half a stick, could have defeated such a creature back then…