Chapter 1382: Chapter 1382
With Tang Zheng’s capabilities, even if he was badly injured, he wouldn’t lose track of the two natives whose ankles had been chopped. Gu Xueqi had initially wanted to share his concerns and take on more of the tracking mission, but she realized she was of no use and eventually stopped wasting her energy, obediently following him.
"Try to walk where I’ve stepped, and don’t touch anything else; be careful not to fall into a trap," Tang Zheng maintained a distance of nearly a hundred meters and, after an hour, approached the native tribe.
It was a cleared piece of woods where tree houses were built atop towering trees, where the indigenous people lived. It was safe and allowed them to monitor their surroundings, serving the purpose of watchtowers.
Tang Zheng saw a native soldier on guard with a spear and knew he had reached his destination. He ceased tracking the prey and with Gu Xueqi, found a spot to hide and observe the tribe’s terrain and defensive forces.
"We can wait a bit before attacking; I guess the natives will soon organize armed forces to hunt us!" Gu Xueqi wanted to show her worth to make up for previous mistakes of being captured, but she saw no trace of the desired approval in Tang Zheng’s eyes.
"Shh!" Tang Zheng placed his finger on his lips, making a silencing gesture; everything the school beauty said, he had already considered.
"Right, Tang Zheng is very clever, he definitely thought of that!" Gu Xueqi nodded, feeling incredibly frustrated internally — probably because Tang Zheng was so strong, she longed for his approval.
With the return of the two natives, the gathering area became noisy. Within less than three minutes, three fully armed hunting groups had gathered and set out to hunt Tang Zheng and Gu Xueqi.
"There are nearly fifty people; that should be about two-thirds of the tribe’s defensive power!" Tang Zheng made a straw hat from a tree trunk and placed it on Gu Xueqi’s head. He noticed only one native was left on the watchtower and clicked his tongue, "The natives really do take us seriously!"
"You’ve slaughtered more than twenty of their adult soldiers; how could they not seek revenge?" Gu Xueqi thought it was normal. The more primitive the tribe, the more seriously they took revenge. With their level of intelligence, they weren’t capable of weighing benefits and consequences.
"You wait here; I’ll make a round to check the surroundings!" Tang Zheng had just taken a step when Gu Xueqi grabbed his clothing.
"Don’t, besides the main entrance and exits, there’s a high chance of traps being laid." Gu Xueqi shook her head. "With our strength, we should be able to bulldoze through this camp."
"Being careful is never wrong, and anyway, we have plenty of time to deal with them." Tang Zheng spent ten minutes exploring the surroundings but couldn’t find the best direction for attack.
"Then let’s launch a direct attack!" Tang Zheng, with a backpack filled with javelins and two short knives in his waistband, advanced toward the tribe while keeping an eye on the native in the tree house.
The native on watch, hearing rustling sounds below and thinking it might be some wild beast, leaned out to check, hoping it might be an opportunity to hunt additional prey. Just then, a javelin shot out from the bushes, piercing the air and violently nailing into the native’s neck, causing blood to spurt.
Due to inertia, the native stumbled and fell from the tree house.
Tang Zheng sprang forward, grabbing the native before he hit the ground, then casually discarding him. After walking forward for a while, he finally had a chance to closely observe the tribal gathering area.
Three campfires burned in the center of the tribe, meant to scare off wild beasts and provide light. Nearby hung several wooden cages containing captured humans, who slumped together disheveled, suffering from hunger, injuries, and the added torment of heat and dehydration, with some on the verge of death.
Gu Xueqi’s complexion turned sour; she nudged Tang Zheng’s arm and pointed to the right.
A row of sharpened wood piles stood there, twelve in total, each with humans bound by vines, all dead. What was horrifying was that they were dismembered, with several completely skinned and reduced to skeletons, only their heads remained, but their eyes and tongues had also been gouged out by the natives.
Gu Xueqi felt nauseous when she saw one man’s lower abdomen cut off, chest ripped open, intestines dangling to the ground, and flies swarming all over, with maggots wriggling in the flesh wounds; it was disgustingly sickening.
"Cannibals?" Tang Zheng estimated that only the elderly and children remained in the tribe. He was somewhat reluctant to massacre these weaker individuals, but seeing the humans being eaten somewhat eased his mind.
"Look at their clothes; they seem to be members of another Trojan Squad!" Gu Xueqi observed a few men and women in torn, tight-fitting protective clothing in the cages.
"They appear to be of South American descent. Let’s move up, and we’ll deal with the remaining natives first!" Tang Zheng shifted positions, pulled out javelins, and shot the other three natives in the tree houses to death. This time he didn’t bother to catch the bodies, and the thumping sounds of them hitting the ground alerted the natives.
The tribe erupted like an anthill doused with boiling water. The remaining natives crawled out of the tree houses, howling and descending swiftly, clutching at vines.
Tang Zheng, twisting his waist and swinging his arms, acted like a human ballista. In less than five seconds, he had hurled all fifteen javelins from his backpack.
Amidst the whooshing of javelins and the mix of natives’ screams and thumping of falling bodies, not a single javelin missed its mark, all embedding into the bodies of the natives.
As Tang Zheng had anticipated, there were only about a dozen adult soldiers left, aside from women and children, with no elderly because once someone reached an age where they could no longer hunt, they were expelled from the tribe to conserve food.