Red Bеаrd, limрing аlоng, reapреared with а group оf реорlе, and Li Hаozhang was still among them. Аftеr last night's fiеrcе bаttlе with thе Cаrnivоrоus Rаbbits, sоme оf them had likelу bеcоme food fоr the rabbits. Sеveral rеinfоrсеmеnts аrrivеd, having somеhоw manаgеd tо shakе off thе bеsieging rabbit hоrdе, and сontinued their рursuit of Baуunуе and thе others. Thеу sеemеd соnvinсеd thаt as lоng аs theу follоwed the Вeidоu Rеsсue Теаm, thеy would surelу find Brother Long.
Watсhing them pour intо the densе forеst in wаves, shоwing no camaraderie among themselves, Diao Zhuo suddenly thought they might be mercenaries.
"Congratulations on making it out," Diao Zhuo said.
"Just a few rabbits, nothing to be afraid of," retorted a survivor from the previous group of thugs. As if to prove his toughness, even with half his face gnawed off by rabbits, he stubbornly insisted, "You can climb trees, so can we."
Easier said than done—they probably climbed over their comrades' corpses. Even so, Diao Zhuo remained deeply suspicious of those Carnivorous Rabbits. Such a massive population couldn't possibly sustain itself through reproduction for long.
The thugs' guns allowed Diao Zhuo to recall his team members and the mountaineering association members to their original positions. This time, all their Swiss Army knives, daggers, and other sharp tools were confiscated by the thugs. Fortunately, Ge Mingliang and others voluntarily handed over their knives. Feigning fear, they avoided further searches, and their guns remained hidden.
Looking around at the people Red Beard had brought, they were quite different from the previous batch. It seemed the thugs they had fought earlier had already ended up in the rabbits' bellies.
Red Beard eyed them darkly, his thoughts unreadable. The wound on his leg was bandaged, making it difficult for him to walk. After a long pause, he suddenly said, "Search them again. They have guns."
Several thugs stepped forward, and Red Beard added in a calm tone, "Anyone found with a gun will be shot on the spot."
Everyone's hearts leaped into their throats. Only then did Bayunye realize how desperate Ge Mingliang and the others must have been to reveal their identities. She had been blaming him all along for not speaking up sooner. What to do... She lowered her head, racking her brains, growing angrier and more frustrated with each passing thought.
"Start with her," Red Beard said, nodding toward Bayunye, his eyes cold and sharp.
The thugs swarmed forward, causing an uproar among the Rescue Team and mountaineering association members. Everyone crowded together, pushing and shoving. "Why search a woman first? Have you no shame!" "This is harassment! Search us men first!"
"Bang!" Red Beard fired a warning shot into the air.
Everyone fell silent. The thugs proceeded as planned, searching Bayunye first, then Diao Zhuo, and then everyone else one by one. Not a single gun was found.
Bayunye glanced secretly at Ge Mingliang, who raised an eyebrow and looked toward one of the thugs. She sighed in relief—they must have taken advantage of the chaos to slip the guns into the thugs' bags. But how would they get them back?
Red Beard showed no urgency when no guns were found.
"Dare to run!" Li Haozhang, covered in wounds and likely seething with pent-up anger, stepped forward and began kicking anyone within reach. Anyone who glared at him found themselves staring down the barrel of his gun, acting just like the traitors who helped the Japanese harm the Chinese during the War of Resistance. His rage and excitement exceeded normal limits, and everyone sensed something off. But with him armed, they had no choice but to comply for now."Everyone kneel down for me!" he screamed hysterically, with a strong sense of humiliation. Whether it was the sight of his companion's gruesome death that had deeply traumatized him, he was desperate to find an outlet.
The members of Beidou Rescue and the mountaineering association were a group of iron-willed men after all. How could they possibly kneel before Li Haozhang? For a moment, everyone gritted their teeth, determined that even if shot dead, they would never beg for life on their knees.
"Why aren't you kneeling yet? Do you fucking not want to live?!" Li Haozhang waved his pistol, finger on the trigger, as if ready to make an example of someone at any moment.
Bayunye glanced at the way he held the gun and knew this guy had no real experience with firearms. If he were the only one armed, disarming him wouldn’t take her five seconds.
Li Haozhang pointed the gun at Diao Zhuo, arrogantly tilting his chin upward. "Kneel! Kneel and I’ll tell you how your father died~ Ah! You have no idea how tragic it was..."
Diao Zhuo’s eyes sharpened, veins bulging on the back of his hand as he struggled to restrain himself. Bayunye was furious and about to curse when a stone flicked by Ah Shui hit Diao Zhuo’s back. Diao Zhuo snapped back to reality, the blazing fire in his eyes seemingly extinguished by the stone. He nudged Bayunye with his elbow, signaling her to endure.
Bayunye clenched her molars tightly, her mind racing but without a clear plan. Suddenly, she shifted her gaze toward Red Beard. Should she gamble on capturing the leader first?
Just as she was about to move, Diao Zhuo suddenly grabbed her wrist to stop her. Looking at Red Beard, he said in English, "We found Brother Long’s bracelet."
"Where?" Red Beard asked with interest.
Diao Zhuo gestured backward with his thumb. "Among those edible mushrooms."
Edible mushrooms? The few who understood English couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly. Diao Zhuo’s translation skills were downright sinister.
Red Beard called over a man with a snake tattoo on his neck. "You, go check."
The tattooed man responded and quickly walked over. He hadn’t appeared before, with a fierce face, likely one of the reinforcements for the criminals. The corpse in the tree gave him a momentary pause, but soon he calmly retrieved a string of items from among the Grave Mound Mushrooms. As he passed Bayunye, she glanced at it—it was indeed the bracelet Brother Long always carried. The string was broken, many beads were missing, but the pendant remained. It was unclear why it had been dropped there.
"Give it to her," Red Beard said, pointing at Bayunye.
The tattooed man roughly shoved the bracelet into Bayunye’s hand. Perhaps catching a clear glimpse of her face, he was momentarily captivated by her beauty. He pressed the gun against her chin, forcing her to look up, licked the corner of his lips, looking as if he wanted to take her right then and there.
Diao Zhuo’s expression darkened so much that everyone thought he would act recklessly.
Bayunye, like a ruffian, stuffed her hands into her pants pockets. Uncharacteristically, she didn’t lose her temper. Instead, she smiled and met his gaze, reaching out to stroke his face, her thumb teasingly rubbing his lips. "Little brother, you’re hurting me~"
Her action, however, eased the tension in Diao Zhuo’s brow.
The tattooed man didn’t understand Chinese, but that didn’t stop the desire in his eyes from intensifying. Just as he was about to wrap his arm around her waist, Red Beard coughed heavily. Reluctantly, he lowered the gun and returned to the ranks of the criminals.
Red Beard turned and whispered something to the tattooed man, who visibly startled. When he looked back at Bayunye, the lust in his eyes faded, replaced by a hint of wariness.Bayunye paid no mind, turning Brother Long's bracelet over and over in her hand while constantly wondering why he had left it there—was it intentional, or had something happened to him?
Red Beard left two men to guard them and took a few others to the area dense with Grave Mound Mushrooms. Among the criminals, someone also noticed the enhanced signal there and excitedly informed him that the GPS could now load the outline of the regional map.
"Did you get through on the phone?" Diao Zhuo risked whispering to Xiang An.
Xiang An nodded confidently and said, "Yes, they said they'd send a helicopter immediately to rescue us."
Send a helicopter? Diao Zhuo grew suspicious once again.
"No talking!" A gun pointed at Diao Zhuo's head.
"Boom!" Not far away, a cloud of grayish-yellow dust rose into the air. Everyone turned to look and saw a skeleton fall from a tree, crashing to the ground and shattering into pieces.
Diao Zhuo had always harbored an ominous premonition, and this sense of foreboding had nothing to do with the gun pressed against his head.
Several of the criminals went over to investigate, pointing and gesturing at the trees laden with skeletons. Some even took out their phones to take commemorative photos, laughing recklessly. One of them spat on the shattered bones on the ground and kicked a skull far away. Perhaps the days trapped in the primeval jungle had left them feeling stifled, but they showed no fear, actually playing a "shooting" game with the skulls of the remains as if they were holding a soccer match.
Another skeleton fell from a tree. This time, Diao Zhuo saw clearly that the skeleton hadn't been struck by any external force—it had slowly slid down from the branch it was hanging on.
A storm was brewing.
"Be careful," he whispered to Bayunye, urging her to be ready for any sudden changes.
Before he could finish speaking, one of the criminals guarding them, the man with the snake tattoo, suddenly began convulsing violently, as if he had stepped on a live wire. Clutching his stomach, he screamed and writhed, resembling a woman in the throes of labor.
Everyone stared at the tattooed man with terrified eyes. Red Beard and the others, noticing something was wrong, hurried over. Suddenly, Li Haozhang felt a tight grip around his foot. Looking down, he realized he had stepped on a broken hand bone, and the brown finger bones were tightly clutching his foot. He stomped down hard and twisted his foot, causing the bone beneath to emit a crisp cracking sound as it easily shattered. Paying it no further mind, he continued walking briskly toward the tattooed man.
By the time the criminals had all gathered, the tattooed man was already convulsing on the ground, vomit gushing uncontrollably from his mouth.
"What happened to him?" Red Beard asked the two criminals left on guard, displeased.
They looked bewildered, shrugging their shoulders and insisting that no one had touched the tattooed man—he had simply turned into this state on his own.
"Was it a snake?" Li Haozhang asked.
A disheveled criminal pushed back his long bangs and retorted, "Where would a snake come from along the way we came?"
The criminals used branches to probe the surroundings, but indeed, no trace of a snake was found.
Bayunye glanced at the tattooed man and thought, Serves you right! That’s what you get for harassing me! As it turned out, the poisonous mushrooms she had secretly hidden in her pocket earlier had come into play. She had crushed them with her hands and deliberately rubbed them against the tattooed man’s lips, thinking that even a little toxin would be enough to take down one of them.
The toxicity of the Village Feast Mushroom was indeed potent. Now, the tattooed man was rolling back and forth on the ground in agony, as if he might die on the spot."Keep an eye on them." Red Beard pointed at Bayunye and the others, continuing to display his characteristic disregard for his companions as he limped away with the previous group to search for a signal among the Grave Mound Mushrooms.
After only a few steps, everyone noticed skeletons falling one after another from the trees in the distance.
"This place is dangerous. I think we should find a way around and leave as soon as possible," Diao Zhuo said.
"Shut up! the thug with the character "endurance" tattooed on the back of his hand shouted at him. "No talking! No sounds at all!"
Diao Zhuo pretended to comply, turning his back and squatting down. He tapped his knee, signaling to Bayunye: "Those remains up ahead are abnormal. Think of a way to deal with these guys so we can get out of here quickly."
"We need to get a gun first," Bayunye conveyed in sign language.
Diao Zhuo pointed at the man with the snake tattoo and said loudly, "He looks like he's about to die."
The three thugs all turned their attention to the snake-tattooed man at the same time. Seizing the opportunity, Diao Zhuo raised his thumb and index finger, gesturing to Ge Mingliang, who immediately understood.
Bayunye nodded, and together with Ge Mingliang, they counted to three. Then Ge Mingliang suddenly lunged at the nearest thug, who was standing sideways to them, and wrestled the gun away in a few moves. At the same time, Bayunye leaped forward, grabbing the wrist of the man tattooed with "Endurance", and followed up with a flying kick, sending the gun held by the disheveled-haired man flying far away.
Diao Zhuo rushed out to retrieve the gun, while Bayunye dealt with the "Endurance" tattooed man still holding a pistol. After a few exchanges, the thug was pinned firmly to the ground by the former special forces soldier, who had somehow disarmed him. The disheveled-haired man, who had lunged to retrieve his own gun, was dazed by a series of straight punches and hooks from Diao Zhuo, collapsing like a mop, his face covered in nosebleed. Everyone else rushed in, completely subduing the three thugs.
But the commotion had already caught the attention of Red Beard and the others. Just as they were about to rush over, they stumbled and fell to the ground one by one. Looking closer, they saw skeletal hands without flesh or skin emerging from the earth, as if growing from the Grave Mound Mushrooms. In the distance, intact skeletons continued to fall from the trees one after another, but those that fell later did not shatter. Instead, they piled up together, trembling slightly.
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