Ever since he started cultivating, Su Fan no longer needed sleep.
With the werewolf bloodline of Jacob, he was full of energy, and staying up all night was no problem at all.
So what was originally supposed to be a camping trip in the wilderness turned into martial arts instruction.
Soon, the first light of dawn pierced through the forest mist and fell in front of the tent.
“I can’t express my gratitude enough, Master Su Fan.”
Jacob was glowing with energy, not a trace of drowsiness on him.
“I really don’t know how to repay you.”
Forget about repaying me—just don’t cause any trouble in the future and don’t mention… cough cough.
“It was just guidance. Whether you can use these fist techniques freely still depends on you.”
Su Fan replied flatly.
“It’s morning now. Rest for a while. I’m going to take a walk outside.”
“But me sleeping alone, isn’t that a bit…”
“When we head down the mountain at noon, you’ll still have to carry the luggage.”
“Understood.”
After the guidance and training, Jacob had completely come to regard Su Fan as his own teacher, and immediately lay down to catch up on sleep.
He’s quite obedient, actually.
Su Fan withdrew his gaze and walked out of the tent.
In the neighboring tent, Megan was still asleep, with no sign of getting up.
The campfire not far from here had long gone out, and the gathered production crew members were nowhere to be found.
They probably packed up in a hurry and went down the mountain.
Thinking about it carefully, it made perfect sense. After experiencing a monstrous brown bear attacking humans, and then witnessing an existence with strange powers that could effortlessly kill the brown bear—
Ordinary people couldn’t possibly be bold enough to stay on the mountain.
It was just that the female director’s corpse on the ground had been taken away, which was unexpected.
Perhaps out of pity, worried that her body would be gnawed beyond recognition by unknown wild beasts in the forest.
But wild animals are very keen at sensing danger.
They wouldn’t approach this area that carried a terrifying atmosphere and still bore traces of lightning strikes.
Su Fan strolled through the morning forest, aimless.
His mind kept drifting back to the bat demon he had dealt with before.
The conditions for a demon to take form weren’t exactly harsh, but don’t forget—this is North America.
He didn’t believe that thing could have cultivated to that level all on its own.
Perhaps there was a possibility of innate talent, but Su Fan’s heart leaned more toward other factors.
Maybe there was someone behind the scenes pulling the strings all along, even cultivating that thing.
Breeding demons?
Su Fan followed the sound of water and arrived at a clear mountain stream, his thoughts churning ceaselessly.
If this were before, he would have reflected on whether his imagination was a bit too overactive.
But ever since discovering that ancient text at the Armitage household, Su Fan had increasingly felt the value of the saying “caution is the parent of safety.”
If someone really was breeding that bat demon, they would definitely investigate its cause of death.
The other party must have some means—otherwise they couldn’t have suppressed the spread of information and kept the authorities from getting involved.
But that also meant it would be easy to trace things back to Su Fan and find out his background.
It was just unknown how powerful they were.
In a head-on confrontation, Su Fan feared no one—his only worry was that the enemy might be the same type as Malthus.
“I need to speed up my study of feng shui formations.”
Su Fan made up his mind and took a deep breath of the fresh forest air.
Perhaps because the vicious bear was gone, the dense forest here had shaken off its previous deathly stillness and gloom.
The resident birds that hadn’t migrated due to the cold, gloomy weather flew and sang among the trees.
Together with the babbling stream in front of him, it had quite a poetic charm.
Su Fan sat down and put his hand into the flowing stream, feeling the coolness slip through his fingers.
When people get used to one way of living, they always want to try another.
Someone once said that traveling is just going from a place you’re tired of to another place someone else is tired of.
When you’re tired of fine cuisine, you want junk food; when you’ve had too much junk food, you want to try the refined habit of mindful tea drinking.
Having gotten used to the warm, dry, bustling Los Angeles, this cold, damp, sparsely populated dense forest had a flavor all its own.
It was like after getting used to carbonated drinks, finally tasting fresh, crisp spring water again after a long time.
Who knows how much time passed—Su Fan heard rustling sounds coming from the tent behind him.
It seemed a certain young actress had finished her sleep and was starting to move about.
“Good morning, Su.”
Megan stretched, still bleary-eyed.
“After what happened last night, you could still sleep?”
“Ever since that incident, I’ve treasured sleep more than anything.”
Megan took coffee out of her tent. Black coffee helps reduce puffiness and wake you up—though it was instant.
“The director’s gone, and the show’s been suspended. You should head back too.”
“Going back now would just mean having nothing to do. I might as well wander around this little town. What a coincidence—this town actually shares my surname…”
Fox.
Su Fan glanced at her again upon hearing this.
Megan Fox?
The one from Transformers?
Only after the keyword was triggered did Su Fan really take a look at her appearance.
Young Megan, still without makeup.
Although her beauty was beginning to take shape, she was far from the seductive, smoldering sexiness of the posters and films from his past life.
She probably hadn’t yet figured out her own positioning and style.
“Is there something on my face?”
Megan seemed very sensitive to being looked at, immediately fumbling for the small mirror she carried.
But then, as if realizing something terrible, her face went pale.
“Don’t tell me my forehead’s gone dark?”
After going back, she had done plenty of research on Eastern exorcists, especially becoming obsessed with fortune-telling.
She’d heard that a dark forehead meant a deathly look.
How terrifying.
“Your forehead’s not dark, but your career might have some rough patches ahead.”
“Please, Master, do tell.”
Su Fan glanced at this beauty still in the making, then spoke.
“Your body and skin are gifts from your parents. Don’t keep obsessing over changing your face. Put more thought into your acting, and be more flexible in how you deal with people. It’s that simple.”
When Transformers first came out, Megan Fox became a globally recognized sex symbol.
But later she fell out with Michael Bay and was rumored to be at odds with Spielberg, leading to her being replaced.
Add to that her appearance anxiety—she insisted on constantly going under the knife.
In the end, she ended up looking like a low-budget Kardashian, and her career plummeted.
“Just… just that simple?”
Megan was a bit surprised.
Su Fan didn’t answer, just smiled casually.
Everyone can listen to advice and repeat advice—doing it is what’s hard.
A person’s fate is mostly determined by their character and habits.
He didn’t think a single sentence from him could pull back this woman who was wasting her prime youth.
He’d only mentioned it casually because he was in a good mood.
Whether she took it to heart was her own business.
Just as he was speaking, the phone in his pocket rang.
It was Charlie.
“Su, are you still on the mountain? Still with Jacob? Didn’t run into anything strange, did you?”
The town sheriff asked, his voice seeming somewhat grave.
“A group of people just rushed into the station saying they were attacked by a brown bear on the mountain, and one of them has died. You two be careful up there and keep in touch.”
On the other end of the line came the sound of a door opening and closing—Charlie seemed to have walked from indoors to outdoors.
“New victims have been found in the missing persons cases, but we no longer have the authority to continue investigating.
“The case has fallen to another group that was sent in from above.
“But they’re very slack about the task.
“I’m starting to suspect someone higher up is deliberately suppressing this matter.
“There’s something very terrifying and strange on that mountain. You and Jacob should hurry back before anything happens.”
“You can go sightseeing elsewhere during the day—there’s no need to keep spending the night there.”
Su Fan agreed and then hung up.
Charlie really lived up to being a cop—sharp intuition.
One possibility he’d thought of also struck Su Fan as quite interesting.
Did the local government really know nothing about the existence of vampires and werewolf tribes?
Or was there some unspeakable connection between them?
