When I heard that, the corner of my eye twitched hard.
After thinking for a moment, I sighed and nodded.
"I was originally planning to check near the creek for it, but later I thought I'd go a bit deeper into the mountains to look. Who could've known that once I went in, I'd run into such a string of accidents and end up in this mess?"
Suo Tian didn't immediately respond.
Instead, he looked me up and down twice before turning his head back toward the tree below.
"You can only meddle in other people's business once you've secured your own safety."
Before I could reply, he seemed to notice something below.
He frowned, stared at it for a while, and then added,
"Chen Yang, you've already gotten yourself into situations like this many times because of this."
Hearing that, I froze, staring blankly at Suo Tian.
I didn't answer—just stared at his side profile.
His expression didn't look any different from usual, but I couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't too happy right now.
I let out a sigh and dropped my head in dejection.
"Sorry. I'll be more careful next time."
Suo Tian wasn't wrong.
Because of my carelessness and sudden bursts of compassion, I had already brought him—and myself—far too many unnecessary troubles.
When he heard me, Suo Tian withdrew his gaze from the trees below and turned back to me.
His pitch-black eyes were still calm and unfathomable.
"Your life is yours. What's the point of apologizing to me?"
Before I could answer, he suddenly moved.
In the blink of an eye, he leapt down, grabbing the branch we were sitting on with one hand while the other caught the rope.
"Stay put. Don't move," he called up as he slid swiftly downward.
The restless horde of walkers instantly went wild the moment they saw Suo Tian descend.
They thrashed, reaching out desperately with their arms, shrieking even louder.
Suo Tian only stopped about five or six meters from the ground.
For a moment, he tilted his head to glance up at me, as though remembering something, but then turned away without a word.
He stared down for about half a minute.
Then suddenly, he kicked hard off the trunk beside him, his body swinging violently back and forth on the rope.
Perched on the tree above, I was practically holding my breath, my eyes darting nervously between him, the walkers below, and the knot securing the rope.
Even though I'd already seen proof that this rope was strong enough not to snap, the sheer force of his swings made me uneasy.
Especially with more than a hundred ravenous, frenzied walkers right beneath us.
Just as my heart climbed into my throat with each of his swings, Suo Tian suddenly let go of the rope at the height of an arc.
His entire body shot forward, carried by massive momentum.
My heart skipped two beats, and I clamped a hand over my mouth, wide-eyed, as I watched him fly.
His body arced toward the outer edge of the horde.
Just before landing, he twisted into a roll.
He hit the ground, rolled smoothly, and sprang upright in one seamless motion.
When I realized he'd landed safely, I almost clapped and cheered—his landing was way too cool!
But then I saw the walkers below turn as one, surging toward him, and my heart, which had just slowed, started hammering again.
While I was still dazed, Suo Tian suddenly pulled a black, rolled-up bundle from his pocket.
He yanked one side and hooked it onto a clasp at his shoulder.
The roll instantly unfurled, revealing rows upon rows of gleaming silver throwing knives.
So that black bundle was actually a knife wrap.
That's when I remembered what the bearded guy at the shelter had said—that Suo Tian had killed the fatty Niu with throwing knives.
Down below, Suo Tian had already begun moving swiftly through the forest.
Just like me earlier, he tried to weave through the spots with more open space.
At the same time, he pulled several knives from the chest harness, gripping them between his fingers so that almost every finger held one.
When he reached a thick tree ahead, he suddenly spun around and hurled the knives at the horde.
My nerves tensed as I tracked the blades, barely able to follow them.
The next instant, a few walkers collapsed to the ground.
Those behind tripped over them, tumbling into a heap.
Seizing the chance, Suo Tian whipped out a dagger and charged straight into the horde.
With swift, lethal precision, he dispatched several of the leading walkers.
Watching his smooth, decisive kicks and strikes, I felt a sudden urge to jump in and help.
But one glance at how high up I still was made me swallow hard and cling tighter to the trunk instead.
The horde regrouped quickly.
Even without those dozen fallen comrades, their numbers were still overwhelming.
Suo Tian slid the dagger back into the sheath strapped to his leg and darted away again.
In one smooth motion, more knives appeared between his fingers.
As soon as the horde regained its order, he unleashed another volley.
Again, several walkers collapsed, and again chaos spread through their ranks.
This time, Suo Tian reacted even faster—dagger flashing, he dove back in and felled several more.
He repeated this again and again.
With each cycle, the horde's numbers dwindled at a speed visible to the naked eye.
From above, I could see him weaving in circles through the forest.
Corpses of walkers were strewn everywhere, piles here and there, the sight so brutal and clean that it was almost exhilarating to watch!
By the time the number of walkers had dwindled to just a little over twenty, Suo Tian's throwing knives were nearly all used up.
He immediately shifted tactics—no longer just sprinting ahead, but instead turning back to face the walkers head-on.
At this point, the trees in the forest finally came in handy.
Suo Tian's movements were razor sharp; after cutting down two walkers, he would use the nearby trees to dodge the ones lunging at him.
Again and again, like this, in about half an hour, the only figure left beneath the trees was Suo Tian himself.
Up in the tree, I sat watching, almost breathless with awe.
I had always known Suo Tian's skills were extraordinary, but never had I seen, from such a vantage point, such a thrilling, blood-pumping display right before my eyes.
Now, catching sight of Suo Tian sitting on the ground below, resting at some point I hadn't even noticed, my heart gave a little jolt.
As superhuman as he seemed, like he was running on some kind of cheat code, he was still flesh and blood.
He must be completely exhausted.
On a sudden impulse, courage I didn't know I had welled up.
Grabbing the trunk, I tried to swing myself down and slide along the rope.
But just then, I caught sight of a tall, straight tree trunk that reached all the way to the ground.
Swallowing hard, I shifted my body, tested with my arms, and realized I could just about wrap around it.
Without further hesitation, I swung myself over and began sliding slowly down.
As the saying goes: going up the mountain is easy, coming down is hard.
Right then, I realized the same held true for climbing trees—it was easy enough to get up, but really not so easy to get down.
When I was still about two or three meters from the ground, my arms gave out completely.
With a sudden thud, I dropped.
As luck would have it, two walker corpses were sprawled on the ground right beneath me, and I landed squarely on them.
I could feel one of their skulls crack and collapse beneath my weight.
A wave of nausea surged through me, making my whole body shiver.
I scrambled up without bothering to nurse my bruises, yanked off my jacket, and tossed it aside.
Sure enough, a sticky black mess of brain matter was smeared all over it.
Shuddering hard, I forced down the sickness and rushed toward Suo Tian.
But then I realized—he had been staring up at me the whole time.
My steps, urgent a moment ago, faltered under his gaze.
His words from earlier, up in the tree, left me unsure if he was still angry at me.
Faced with that look, I froze, rooted in place, not daring to go closer.
Suo Tian kept his eyes on me for a while.
Then, his tired face softened into a faint smile.
Slowly, he got to his feet and walked toward where I stood frozen.
"Your dismount was a little clumsy."
I blinked, stunned, then finally processed what he had said.
Heat rushed to my face—I didn't need him to point it out to know just how ridiculous my clumsy descent must have looked.
"No choice, I don't have your kind of agility—being able to get down safely at all is already good enough."
After saying that, I lifted my head and stared at Suo Tian for a couple of seconds.
Seeing that his expression hadn't changed, I hesitated for a moment before asking, "Actually, you didn't really need to come down just now. Couldn't we just wait for someone else to come rescue us? Surely you're not the only one who came into the mountains to look, right?"
After speaking, I glanced around, puzzled as to why all that commotion hadn't drawn anyone else over.
At my words, Suo Tian's smile faded, his face returning to its usual unreadable look.
He fixed his gaze on me for a couple of seconds before saying, "If you sit around waiting for someone else to save you, sooner or later that just turns into waiting to die."
After a pause, he turned his head, scanning the surroundings, and then added, "Only Shen Feng and I came into the mountains. Team C got assigned a mission—they won't bother with this kind of side matter."
I froze for a moment, then gave a forced laugh, not sure how to respond.
After a while I finally asked, "What about Shen Feng and the others?"
"Don't know. They entered the mountains a few hours before me."
The moment I heard that, the little relief I'd felt instantly tensed back up again.
They went in alone? And several hours earlier than Suo Tian?
Which meant… they could've entered the mountains as early as last night?
Glancing at the walker corpses lying scattered all around us, my chest tightened hard.
Could something have happened to them?
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