If you were made a mascot, you would become a legend in the police force.

In the depths of the Qinling Mountains at night, the cold wind felt like a knife cutting into your face. The leaves rustled in the wind, sounding like someone grinding their teeth in the shadows.

Li Tuantuan, carrying titanium alloy nunchucks, moved swiftly through the jungle. He was now a man with night vision—no, a bear with night vision. What was pitch black to others was as bright as an incandescent light to him.

Jin Dou ran ahead very fast. The little thing was so small that it darted in and out of the bushes without making a sound. As it ran, it kept twitching its little nose, trying to catch any remaining scents in the air.

Li Tuantuan followed behind, calculating the cost in her mind.

He just spent 300 merit points to save the coal briquette. Adding that to the loan he owed the system, he's now over 3,000 merit points in debt.

"I can't live like this anymore. Everyone else who transmigrates ends up with women on their left and right, luxury cars and villas. I transmigrated into a national treasure and still have to work every day to pay off debts. This damn system must be a capitalist reincarnated, specially designed to exploit honest cowards like me."

Li Tuantuan cursed under her breath as she ran.

Despite his criticism, he was still very satisfied with Jin Dou's performance.

This SSR-level treasure-hunting rat is no joke. That mutated lynx was so fast that it didn't even leave a footprint in its wake, but Jin Dou was able to pinpoint its escape route with pinpoint accuracy.

Jin Dou, who was running happily ahead, suddenly stopped.

It crouched under a big tree, its two front paws tightly covering its nose, its golden fur standing on end, and it made extremely uneasy squeaking noises.

Li Tuantuan quickly stopped and squatted down next to Jin Dou.

He looked in the direction Jin Dou was pointing and saw that the vegetation in front of him had undergone a strange change.

The once normal green leaves have all turned dark red here. The vines on the ground are thicker than a baby's arm, their surfaces covered with vein-like patterns, and they are even wriggling slightly, as if they were alive.

The air was thick with the pungent smell of blood, mixed with a cloyingly sweet chemical odor that made one dizzy.

This smell is a thousand times stronger than the smell of a coal ball wound.

Li Tuantuan frowned and stretched out her claws to push aside the dense, blood-red vines in front of her.

The sight before him caused the usually carefree sixth panda, who only knew how to eat and drink, to have its pupils shrink to the extreme.

What appeared before him was not a den of wild beasts at all.

This is a hidden, circular valley. The valley is very large, as wide as two football fields.

But this place is really too eerie.

The valley floor was covered with bones, both human and animal. Stepping on them produced a crunching sound.

In the center of the valley stands an enormous, towering ancient tree.

The tree had no leaves; its bare trunk was an eerie, charred black. Yet, the inside of the trunk emitted a bewitching, blood-red glow, as if magma were flowing within it.

The most frightening part is the base of this tree.

Those thick tree roots weren't embedded in the soil at all; instead, they rolled and twisted on the ground like giant pythons.

Li Tuantuan swallowed.

In his past life, he was a materialistic office worker. Although he had a system in this life, he only felt that the world had mutated. But this tree in front of him looked exactly like an evil monster from a fantasy novel.

"What the hell is this place? I came here to take the police exam, not to rob graves and fight zombies."

Li Tuantuan had some doubts in his heart, but he did not back down.

Because he used night vision to see clearly what was around the ancient tree.

There were rows of specially made gabions made of high-quality steel, hanging densely on the branches of the ancient trees.

The gabions were filled with living creatures.

Li Tuantuan saw the missing calf from Chenjia Village and the lost dog from the town. What angered him even more was that there were many rare wild animal cubs unique to the Qinling Mountains among them: golden monkeys, takins, and even two clouded leopard cubs that hadn't been weaned yet.

These cubs were all embedded in their bodies by thin but tough red vines. The other end of the vines was connected to an ancient tree.

They were like living blood bags hanging on the tree, their life force being continuously drained by this evil tree.

The cubs no longer had the strength to cry out; they could only let out weak moans.

Li Tuantuan clenched her fist instantly, her knuckles cracking.

Although he was usually lazy, gluttonous, and lecherous, and would even whine and plead with the bureau chief for a little money for food, deep down he still retained a basic human decency, the basic decency of a policeman.

This cruel method of using live cubs as nourishment completely crossed his red line.

"I don't care what kind of demon or monster you are, today I'm going to uproot you and burn you for firewood."

Li Tuantuan's gaze swept across the valley, searching for the two-tailed lynx.

Soon, he spotted his target under the ancient tree.

The once arrogant and lightning-fast A+ grade mutated lynx was now obediently lying at the base of the ancient tree, just like a docile house cat.

Its gray fur became even duller, and its two tails dragged limply on the ground.

Next to the lynx stood a human.

To be precise, it was a person wearing a black cloak and holding a pale white bone staff.

The man's face was half-hidden by the shadow of his cloak, the lower half of which was covered in eerie black tattoos. He was raising a bone staff, chanting incantations, performing some kind of evil ritual on the ancient tree.

Li Tuantuan's gaze suddenly sharpened.

He saw a tattered blue garment hanging on the altar at the feet of the man in black robes.

The clothes were covered in dried bloodstains, but the police rank insignia on the shoulders were still clearly visible.

That's the police uniform of Lao Wang, the director of Taiping Town Police Station.

Li Tuantuan's breathing instantly became heavy.

Old Wang is a good man. Although he is usually stingy, when Li Tuantuan first came down from the mountain, he was so hungry that he was rolling around in front of the police station. It was Old Wang who secretly took two big meat buns from the canteen and stuffed them into his mouth.

Li Tuantuan always remembered this kindness.

Old Wang's police uniform is hanging here now, but he's nowhere to be seen. Even a fool would know he's probably dead.

"Old Wang, don't worry. If I don't beat this bastard to a pulp today, I'm not Li Tuantuan."

Li Tuantuan reached for the titanium alloy nunchucks on her lower back, preparing to rush out and take down the black-robed man who was pretending to be a shaman.

Just then, the man in black robes suddenly stopped chanting the incantation.

He suddenly turned his head, his bloodshot eyes staring straight at the direction where Li Tuantuan was hiding.

"Oh? Wild giant pandas actually came to our doorstep?"

The black-robed man's voice was as unpleasant as sandpaper, carrying a chilling fanaticism.

"A national treasure of China, a mutated ancient iron-eating beast... an extremely rare bloodline. This is a once-in-a-millennium offering. If the divine tree absorbs your blood, it will definitely complete its final evolution."

The man in the black robe grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

Li Tuantuan's heart skipped a beat.

How did this bastard manage to detect me? I had concealed my presence to the extreme.

Now that he'd been discovered, Li Tuantuan decided to stop hiding. He pushed aside the blood-red vines in front of him and swaggered out.

His 300-pound, round body appeared extremely imposing under the moonlight.

He stood up straight, put his two front paws on his hips, and rolled his eyes at the man in black robes.

"Want to suck my blood? Take a good look at yourself in the mirror. I'm a government employee, and you're just some unlicensed lawbreaker engaging in feudal superstition. I'm arresting you today on behalf of the city bureau."