I practice martial arts by adding skill points in modern city
Chapter 35: 【032】Save People

Chapter 35: 【032】Save People

Advancing along a mountain path that could barely be called a road, the silence of the deep mountain gave Zhou Juanjie and the other three an uneasy feeling after walking for so long.

Even Zhou Juanjie, who was walking at the front with his cellphone flashlight, felt somewhat anxious at this moment.

"I feel like deciding to come here tonight wasn’t the right decision. If something were to happen in this ghostly place, we’d be in big trouble," someone muttered.

"Don’t panic; we’re almost there. The thrilling moment is upon us," Zhou Juanjie said, pushing aside the person-high weeds blocking the path and stepping forward.

Suddenly, he stepped into a hole, lost his balance, and fell to the ground.

His companions quickly grabbed his shoulder, asking with concern, "What happened? Are you okay?"

"I’m fine. Damn it, there’s a small pit here, didn’t see it and stepped right in," Zhou Juanjie said, waving it off and standing up to continue.

But after just a few steps, he suddenly vanished from where he stood, leaving the three companions behind him stunned. It took several seconds for them to react and move forward.

"Zhou Juanjie! What are you doing?"

"You brat, stop scaring us; this joke isn’t funny."

The companions quickly called out, but there was no response from Zhou Juanjie, leaving an eerie chill at the scene.

A daring companion reached out to push aside the weeds in that spot, revealing a hole about half a meter wide on the ground.

The hole was almost level with the ground, easily overlooked even in daylight, let alone in the middle of the night.

Inside the hole, it was pitch black and unfathomably deep; even a cellphone flashlight at maximum brightness couldn’t see the bottom, nor find any trace of Zhou Juanjie.

The only clue was some fresh scrape marks down the slope inside the pit, indicating where Zhou Juanjie disappeared.

"Zhou Juanjie! Zhou Juanjie!"

A girl lay on the ground, shouting into the depths of the hole, but there was no response; Zhou Juanjie’s fate was unknown.

"What do we do? We should call the police immediately, or we might be too late," someone said urgently, taking out a cellphone to call for help, only to find inexplicably there was no signal.

"We need to go back and get help," another suggested, turning to head back.

...

"Woof woof! Woof woof!"

Wang Longhu slowly opened his eyes from sleep, gazing outside grudgingly. It was still dark, indicating it was nighttime, so why were these dogs barking wildly?

It wasn’t like it was his first day living here; the stray dogs were generally well-behaved and wouldn’t bark for no reason. Wang Longhu thought something must have happened to agitate them.

He quickly got dressed, grabbed his cellphone, and went downstairs to check what was going on outside.

Though there were weird folk tales passed down for generations in Chang Kengding, Wang Longhu was no longer as fearful as he used to be.

So what if snakes as tall as a person existed? He could deal with them.

Upon opening the door, he saw a large pack of dogs circling and barking in the yard. The noise was loud enough that in the city, it would count as a disturbance, but in this deserted mountain, there was no one to complain.

"Get away! Get away!"

A relatively young voice scolded from a corner of the yard.

Wang Longhu shone his cellphone flashlight over there and saw two men and a woman holding mops and brooms from his yard, cornered by the dogs.

"Thieves? Or dog thieves?"

Wang Longhu frowned; how could someone be up to no good at his grandma’s remote place at this hour?

"We didn’t see so many dogs here when we passed by the yard earlier; where did they all come from?" The curvy woman said in fear.

They had come from the back mountain, planning to return to the inn for help, but were blocked by a pack of stray dogs midway.

"What are you doing in my yard?" Wang Longhu asked.

"Be quiet, don’t bark," Wang Longhu stepped forward to calm them, and all the stray dogs fell silent as if they had seen their master, surrounding Wang Longhu while staring at the three uninvited guests in the corner.

"Sorry, we didn’t know anyone lived here. We mean no harm, really," a young man quickly explained.

"Is it you?" Instead, the woman recognized Wang Longhu instantly. Wasn’t he the oddball who walked upside down on the mountain trail last time?

"There are snakes and insects in these mountains, it’s unsafe to wander around at night. Best leave now; if the dogs bite you, I won’t cover medical fees," Wang Longhu said, recognizing their identity.

They were clearly the wealthy individuals who had rented the local inn, as the broadband installer had mentioned.

"Hey dude, does your phone have a signal? Can we use it to call the police? Our friend had an accident in the mountain," the leading male said urgently, holding a mop and showing no intention to leave.

"An accident? Alright, go ahead," Wang Longhu said, but his phone only had 1% battery left. The unexpected power outage didn’t give him a chance to charge it.

As they handed the phone over, it ran out of power and shut down automatically.

"Damn," cursed the young man.

"What happened exactly? Maybe I can help," sensing their anxiety; Wang Longhu couldn’t help but feel pity and asked kindly.

"Our friend just fell into a cave in the mountain; he didn’t respond when we called and might be injured. If we don’t get help quickly, I’m afraid things might get worse."

"Fell into a cave?" Wang Longhu was startled.

He had played at his grandma’s house often as a child, knowing there were many bottomless holes in the hills beyond the house. Some were half a meter long, others as large as a basketball.

The one thing they all had in common was no one knew how deep they were. His mom and grandma constantly warned him not to go into areas with a lot of grass, lest he fall into a hole unnoticed.

After all these years, Wang Longhu had never heard of anyone falling into a hole until tonight.

"Show me where it happened."

Aware of the danger, Wang Longhu ran back inside to fetch a rope his grandma once used to fence off chickens and said to the group.

With his current physique of 1.70, even firefighters might not match his strength. Since someone was in danger, rescuing them promptly was the priority.

"You sure you can do it?" the woman asked suspiciously, doubting Wang Longhu’s capability.

"One of you should head back to call the police, while the rest of you lead me to the cave. We’ll split up, so we don’t delay the rescue," Wang Longhu said before walking briskly to the backyard.

Seeing his confidence swayed the group. Indeed, as Wang Longhu had said, time was of the essence in a rescue.

"Yaoyao, you and Ah Yong go call the police; I’ll take him there," the leading young man said to his companions, then quickly followed Wang Longhu.

Watching them disappear, Yaoyao and Ah Yong could only leave the yard, running along the mountain path toward the inn.

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