The eagle couldn't immediately determine what it was, but one thing was certain—it was coming toward them from the direction of the footprints.

The beam of the flashlight scanned the surroundings carefully, but besides the footprints, not a single hair was seen.

He slowly retreated back to the camp and informed An Zai of what he had discovered.

"Stay vigilant in the latter half of the night. That thing is large, and we can't be sure if there's only one."

This unknown creature clearly harbored some intention toward them. Whether out of curiosity, wariness, or hostility, it all suggested potential danger.

An Zai also didn't dare to be careless and nodded to show his understanding.

In the latter half of the night, the snowstorm seemed to have lessened, but the cold did not dissipate.

An Zai and the eagle perked up and took turns keeping watch, but nothing unusual was found again.

At dawn, everyone gradually woke up.

The eagle found Qi Yun and reported what had happened the previous night to him.

Upon hearing this, Qi Yun frowned, then called Qin Sizhi and the others to come and check the footprints from last night.

In the latter half of the night, the snowstorm had lessened a bit, and some footprints still vaguely retained their outline. Qin Sizhi crouched next to the footprints, his brows furrowed deeply.

After looking for a while, he stood up and pondered, "From the outline, it looks a bit like a leopard, but..."

"If these really are leopard prints, then this leopard is clearly beyond the normal size. When I was young, I saw the largest leopard in Qinling, and its footprints weren't this big."

"This thing... is even bigger than a bear."

"A leopard bigger than a bear..." An Zai beside him drew a cold breath, "Master Qin, are you serious?"

"It resembles, but I can't be sure." Qin Sizhi shook his head, "In the depths of Qinling, there are some things that are hard to explain..."

His disciple Jin Bao muttered softly, "When I was little, I heard people say that someone saw a white-haired yeti on Taibai Mountain..."

"Don't talk about such baseless things!" Qin Sizhi gave him a glare.

Jin Bao shrank his neck and dared not say more.

"No more pondering, pack up and let's move on." Qi Yun made the decision.

No matter what it is, they had plenty of firepower on their side, so there was nothing to fear, just be cautious.

After a simple breakfast, the team set off again.

The snowstorm had abated a bit, but the mountain road was still difficult to traverse. A layer of thin ice covered the exposed rocks, making them slippery underfoot.

Fortunately, they were now on a descending path, and the temperature was gradually warming up.

Qin Sizhi walked at the front, continuously observing the surrounding terrain. They were now at the mountainside on the backside of Taibai Mountain.

Suddenly, a white figure darted out from the nearby woods, blocking the path some ten meters ahead of them.

The creature was huge, standing nearly two meters tall at the shoulder, its body covered with light yellow long hair, with a pair of curved horns on its head. It was an oversized takin.

In other words, what Da Pao called the Qinling Killer!

At this moment, it was staring intently at them, snorting warily.

"It's a takin!" Qin Sizhi said softly, "Don't provoke it. This thing has a bad temper and can be troublesome when enraged."

No one doubted the power of its charge.

Qi Yun raised a hand to signal, and the team slowly moved toward a side-and-back position, preparing to give the beast some space and bypass it from the side.

But the takin didn't seem inclined to leave. After a few seconds of standoff, it pawed the ground with its front hooves and raised its horns, adopting an attacking posture.

"It's coming at us!" Qin Sizhi exclaimed.

Just as the takin was about to charge, a low growl suddenly came from the woods on the side.

The sound was unique, somewhat similar to a tiger's roar, yet not entirely like it—a bit difficult to describe.

The sound had an incredibly strong penetrating force, making the leaves rustle.

The takin that was about to charge instantly halted its actions, its ears perked up, and its eyes showed clear fear.

It frantically twisted its head, looking in the direction of the sound, its four hooves stepping anxiously and its nose snorting heavily.

Soon after, a 'crack' was heard from the dense forest on the left, as a small tree as thick as a bowl was snapped in two by some enormous force!

A massive gray-white figure flashed between the shadows of the trees, moving so quickly that it only left a blurry afterimage!

The forest was too dense, impacting visibility; coupled with the speed of the creature, none of them could clearly see what it was.

The takin appeared greatly frightened and no longer dared to be reckless, turning to flee, leaving Qi Yun and the others behind!

It was evident that it was truly scared, completely disregarding direction, forcibly snapping any blocking bamboos, and amidst a clatter, it dashed down the slope and vanished without a trace.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

Brother Quan and others had already aimed their guns at the forest, holding their breaths, with fingers on the trigger guard, cautiously scanning for any movement.

However, with the takin gone, it seemed as though everything had returned to calmness.

After waiting for two minutes and still nothing stirring,

"Did you see it?" Qi Yun asked in a deep voice.

Qin Sizhi looked pale and shook his head, "Didn't see... It was too fast, but being able to scare a takin like that..."

He didn't finish his sentence.

Jin Bao quietly said, "Could it be that thing from last night?"

Compared to rumors of zombies or ghosts, those in their line of work were more fearful of encountering unknown beasts, like the twenty-meter-long snake from last time.

Qin Sizhi glared at him, but couldn't hide the look of surprise and doubt in his own eyes.

Brother Quan signaled ahead, indicating to Qi Yun that he wanted to go and check it out, and the latter nodded slightly.

"Old Niu, cover me while I go take a look; the rest keep watch."

As the order was given, Niu Da and Brother Quan, with guns in readiness, slowly approached the snapped tree from both sides.

Each step they took was extremely cautious, with their gun barrels constantly scanning the surroundings.

Soon, the two reached the small tree.

The snapped section of this fir tree was jagged, clearly broken by brute force, and several strands of gray-white long hair were caught on the trunk.

Brother Quan grasped those strands of hair in his hand and glanced at the ground.

There was no snow at that altitude, only fallen leaves and droplets, where he could see several muddy footprints. Judging from their outline, they were almost identical in size to those found in the snow the previous night.

The footprints extended into the depths of the dense woods, disappearing behind a thicket of bamboo.

Brother Quan glanced in that direction but chose not to pursue further, returning to the team to report his findings.

"It's that creature, and it seems to have immense strength."

Qi Yun focused on the strands of long hair in his palm, each more than ten centimeters long and quite rigid.

Old Yao and Qin Sizhi scrutinized it for a long while, but couldn't discern which creature it belonged to.

Since they couldn't figure it out temporarily, they decided not to waste time here. After all, from what they could tell, the creature didn't seem malevolent.

So Qi Yun waved a hand, "Forget about it for now, let's move on."

Nonetheless, they couldn't be too cautious. This time, Niu Da and An Zai led the way, guns in hand, while the others took positions on the flanks and rear, maintaining a vigilant formation and advancing slowly.

The forest was incredibly quiet; aside from the rustling of their footsteps on the leaves, only occasional bird calls could be heard.

Everyone was on edge, feeling a chill on their backs as if eyes were watching them from the shadows.

After nearly two hours of trekking, the terrain grew progressively lower, and they could faintly hear the sound of water ahead.

After passing through a patch of woods, they saw a small waterfall cascading down a gray-black rock face, beneath which lay a stream and sandbank.

Qin Sizhi halted his steps, pointing toward the waterfall's opposite side, "We've arrived. This is the Black Cloud Valley."

Qi Yun followed his direction and indeed saw what Qin Sizhi had mentioned before—a severe landslide had occurred here.

The originally steep rock face was now covered by a huge slope of countless rocks and soil, nearly filling a large part of the gorge, and tall trees had already grown on it.

"The old entrance is definitely inaccessible now, but I suspect there might be another one nearby..."