Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 548 - 123: Pear Blossom Mountain
North of the PFDA testing site, Pear Blossom Mountain.
Pear Blossom Mountain, as the name suggests, was originally populated with many pear trees. In spring, pear blossoms covered the mountain, turning it into a snowy white expanse.
The villagers at the foot of the mountain relied on planting pear trees to escape poverty and achieve a prosperous life.
However, all of this disappeared with the arrival of Eternal Night.
The villagers at the foot of Pear Blossom Mountain have all been relocated to resettlement camps on the outskirts of Celestial City. The abandoned villages have become like the set of a rural horror movie, with occasional gusts of wind passing through empty alleys, causing the straw and wood piled in yards to rustle like the whispers of mysterious creatures.
The pear trees on the mountain also withered within half a month after Eternal Night descended. Without sunlight, nutrients, or care from the villagers, the sudden drop in temperature combined to deliver a devastating blow to the agriculture of Pear Blossom Mountain.
The pear trees have been reduced to dry branches standing on the mountain, resembling grotesque skeletons from a distance—the twisted branches like limbs struggling in pain before death, shocking to behold.
Yao Yu traversed through the dead pear trees, gasping for air.
There was a cement road leading from the village at the base to the pear orchard on the mountain, and he could have driven up directly... But Yao Yu knew that a car would be too obvious. Drones from high above could easily pinpoint his location.
Forced to abandon his car and the cement road, he climbed a difficult mountain path.
Yao Yu was not lacking in physical fitness. Despite his busy work schedule, he was a frequent visitor to the gym. His seemingly slender frame contained well-defined muscles when stripped of clothes... He even participated in Chunming City’s amateur triathlon competition, winning third place in the amateur division.
But now, Yao Yu felt as if he was dying.
Inhaling air at minus dozens of degrees, his lungs felt a scorching pain as if someone was scraping them with a red-hot blade... Many times, Yao Yu wanted to end it all with a bullet, but a mysterious willpower kept him pushing up to the mountainside.
He sat beneath a relatively sturdy pear tree, curling his body as much as possible to avoid being detected by drones passing overhead.
"I can’t die... I can’t die..."
Yao Yu reached into his pocket and tightly gripped the gun inside.
...
...
Meanwhile, on the other side.
The third special operations team from the Celestial City Mysterious Creature Research Institute’s Field Operations Department had completely sealed off the mountain base. Over thirty fully armed field operatives lined up, spaced ten meters apart, starting a thorough search of the southern slope of Pear Blossom Mountain from bottom to top.
More than twenty drones took to the sky, and a helicopter bearing the institute’s insignia closely followed behind them, heading toward the mountain.
"Quite the spectacle," Sun Hang said, looking up from the mountain base. "Anyone who isn’t aware might think we’re after the dead direct leader, fleeing like a Hunter."
"This is a significant matter, and we must be cautious," the third special operations team’s leader said helplessly. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖
This was a man in his thirties, with blonde hair and blue eyes but with Xiazhou’s facial features, clearly a mixed-race person like Song Yarong.
He wore a nylon tactical helmet, his night vision goggles flipped upward, carrying a non-standard assault rifle on one arm, while the other hand held a communication terminal, watching his subordinates advancing toward the mountainside with a serious face.
"Have you seen this guy named Yao Yu?" Sun Hang asked.
"Once, when he and the Hunter Wen Ya arrived in Celestial City, I was in charge of airport security at the time." the leader replied.
"What kind of person do you think he is?"
"What kind of person... from my impression, serious, calm, courteous, well-mannered, something like that," the leader recalled. "Unlike those geniuses with odd quirks, he felt more like a perfectly programmed robot... while his partner came across as arrogant, conceited, and aloof, forming a stark contrast to him."
"Don’t you find it strange?" Sun Hang suddenly asked.
"What’s strange?"
"Why would someone like him join a Cult Organization?"
"Uh... I don’t know how to answer that," the leader said with difficulty. "Perhaps the Cult Organization offered conditions he couldn’t refuse, or perhaps they held some leverage over him that could be threatening... Of course, these are just my speculations."
Sun Hang wanted to discuss further, but the communication terminal in the leader’s hand suddenly beeped.
"Report! Footprints found in area 12, size 44, pattern of Type 17 low-top combat boots... basically confirmed to be left by the target!"
"Have more footprints been found?" the leader immediately asked over the communication channel.
"Yes! Although the target tried to cover some of the tracks, there are still many omissions... The target must have been quite anxious during the escape, and time didn’t allow him to erase all traces! Should we concentrate our efforts to continue searching along the footprints in area 12?"
