Demons Beside You (The Demons Beside Me)

Chen Zhao didn't like this kind of accident. What he wanted was a normal outing and a normal hunting.

The carcasses of these beasts are piled here, although they are not yet decomposed.

But the smell is very unpleasant, coupled with this warm environment.

The corpse of the beast already gave off a pungent smell.

"Let's go back." Chen Zhao said.

From this point of view, even Laurent, who likes to seek death, has no objection.

However, not long after everyone walked back, Heima suddenly ran back from the front.

"Master, there is a smell of people in the direction upwind, and there is a strong smell of blood."

Chen Zhao frowned, facing the wind, which is the direction they are heading back now?

"Stop for a moment," Chen Zhao said.

"What's wrong?"

"The poaching gang may be in the direction we are going back now." Chen Zhao said: "Heima smelled the smell, it is in that direction."

Everyone was a little hesitant, but they all knew that all the pets around Chen Zhao had become spirits.

"Then what do we do now?"

"Change the direction." Chen Zhao said.

…

"Huh? There are quite a few footprints. In that direction, there are five men and two women."

"That direction seems to be where we peel the skin." Mayfield Lyon frowned.

"Head, what should we do?"

"We are looking for ours. If we don't meet them, forget them. If we do, we will leave them behind." Mayfield Lyon said.

"Fake Squid, that guy is really hard to catch."

"If it was easy to catch, it wouldn't be worth five million dollars."

Poaching gangs are also generally good at tracking, especially in mountains and forests.

They track their prey through footprints, feces, and even scent.

But their prey this time was no ordinary prey.

It's an albino cougar, and on the black market, a wealthy man is offering a reward of five million dollars for the capture of this albino cougar.

Cougars have always been popular pets among the wealthy.

Cougars are large cats, but their size is very different from African lions.

Mountain lions don't grow that big, so they pose a much smaller threat than humans.

The size of pumas is much larger than that of ordinary pet cats.

Therefore, among the rich, raising cougars has become a symbol of identity and status.

The market price of an ordinary healthy puma ranges from thirty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars.

The United States is a rather strange country. It does not allow the sale of mountain lions, but it does allow breeding.

Coupled with market demand, the black market was born.

More than a thousand cougars are sold on the black market every year.

Most of these pumas come from poaching gangs.

As for this poaching gang, they skin animals purely to make extra money.

Ordinary deer hides can sell for a hundred dollars each. If they fail to catch the albino cougar this time, at least they can make back their money with these hides.

As for a poaching team, their hunting methods are much more efficient than ordinary hunters.

They will set up all kinds of traps, not to mention animals, even people are easily injured.

As for talking about ecological balance and the like, it has nothing to do with them.

"Head, look at this footprint."

Mayfield Lyon stepped forward to look at the footprints and couldn't help but take a breath.

"Do you recognize what this is?"

"Like a bear."

"Black bear? Or brown bear? It can't be that big, and judging from the depth of this footprint, it exceeds 1,200 kilograms." Mayfield Lyon guessed in surprise.

Being able to be the boss of a poaching gang naturally means he knows something about all kinds of wild animals.

Especially on some valuable animals, some research will be done.

On the black market, some special and rare wild animals are very valuable.

The most valuable ones are China's giant pandas, which cost upwards of US$5 million.

However, anyone who rushes to China to steal giant pandas will be shot to death without being able to leave the country.

That thing is more risky than smuggled drugs. To China, it is a national treasure.

If you dare to steal my national treasure, I will fight with your life.

So even though giant pandas are highly priced on the black market, basically no one dares to get them, and they can't get them.

There are also some mutant species that are also very expensive.

For example, the albino puma they tracked this time is a rare mutant species.

But now, they seem to have found a new target.

The price of an ordinary bear is estimated to be less than $50,000.

But if it is a mutated bear, the price will be at least ten times higher.

"Judging from the traces of its claws, it should be a brown bear, but its size is several times that of an ordinary brown bear."

"Get this brown bear." Mayfield Lyon licked his lips, this was an unexpected surprise.

As long as they catch this brown bear, it will definitely be much better than making extra money by skinning them all the way.

"The bear's footprints overlap with those of this group."

"Is it already domesticated?"

"No matter what, if I catch this bear, it doesn't matter if it was tamed. It belongs to me now." Mayfield Lyon said decisively.

The poaching team began to follow the footprints until late afternoon.

They still couldn't catch up with the owner of these footprints.

"Boss, they seem to have discovered us and have been avoiding us."

"It's getting deeper and deeper here. They're out of the forest again. Sooner or later they will be unable to move and we will catch up."

…

Just as the poaching gang guessed, Chen Zhao and his group did feel tired.

Except for Chen Zhao, several others were unable to walk.

When driving in the mountains, you cannot go too fast.

Because the humid air and warmth in the mountains will quickly take away moisture and physical energy.

Even a marathon runner would find it difficult to continue to advance at a high speed in such an environment.

Coupled with the rugged mountain roads and vegetation that occasionally blocked their direction, they were all factors that slowed them down and consumed their physical energy.

"I can't, I can't... I have to sit down and rest for a while." Laurent was too tired to walk and sat down in front of a haystack.

Suddenly, a white figure flashed from behind the haystack. Laurent was so frightened that he threw himself on the ground and held his head in his hands.

The white figure had no intention of attacking anyone. In a blink of an eye, it got into the dense forest and disappeared.

It was a big guy, and it was about the same size as Black Horse and White Horse.

"Did you see it?"

"What it is?"

"It looks like a puma, but are pumas white?" Laurent also calmed down and asked doubtfully.

"This thing looks valuable," Howard said.