Chapter 1653: Chapter 1653

The monkeys saw those with fire-spouting weapons charging at them and turned to flee in fear. The big monkey wanted to fight, it just grabbed a large rock, ready to throw it, but then saw them raising their guns, preparing to shoot. The big monkey remembered it had been injured by that thing just now, so it let out a strange cry, dropped the rock in its hand, and turned to escape as well.

The ten-man team certainly didn’t want to let the big monkey go. They were in hot pursuit from behind, but in the woods, they couldn’t outrun the monkeys and were soon left behind.

The captain of this team was a very short Vietnamese man, probably not even 1.6 meters tall. He had a brand new American M14 slung around him, bought with the commission money. While following the main force into the jungle, they encountered many dangers, but he wasn’t afraid. He had been running around with the guerrillas since he was a teenager and had long developed courage. Even if he encountered creatures unseen outside, he wasn’t afraid because he had a gun in his hand.

The previous shot that hit the big monkey’s butt was fired by him. The foreigner said that capturing this big monkey would earn a reward of two million. Two million, which was more than what they were hired for, and moreover, by now, fewer than half of the people were left to share the money. Doesn’t that mean each person could get tens of thousands of US Dollars?

In Vietnam, that was a huge amount of money. With the local purchasing power, one could live quite comfortably for a lifetime.

So this mercenary named Hu Gong was very confident and motivated, shouting at his subordinates to catch up quickly. As long as they caught up, it would be a lot of money.

The subordinates became even more excited, each holding guns, screaming strangely, and crazily chasing that big monkey. As for the other small monkeys, they didn’t even look at them and automatically ignored them.

Hu Gong saw he was falling too far behind, so he hurriedly held his gun and strode forward but suddenly slipped, falling face-first into the ground.

"Damn, so unlucky!" Hu Gong cursed messily, feeling dazed from the fall. It wasn’t light, and Hu Gong felt like his neck was about to break since he landed face-first and his entire body weight pressed down on his spine.

Lying on the ground for a while, Hu Gong finally raised his hand to rub his face. His hand came away with bloody traces mixed with soil, and Hu Gong knew he might be disfigured, but it didn’t matter. With money, what kind of wife couldn’t he find?

The voices of his teammates were getting farther away. These guys ran even faster than monkeys. Speed was money; as long as they caught that big monkey, they would all get a large amount of money. So Hu Gong didn’t blame his subordinates but crawled up from the ground and patted the dust off his body.

"Huh? Where’s my gun?" Hu Gong walked a few steps and suddenly remembered he hadn’t taken his gun, turned around to find it but didn’t see the brand new American M14.

When he turned around again, Hu Gong was suddenly stunned because in front of him were two more people, a man and a woman, who looked much like himself. These two were wearing clothes made of leaves, which perhaps weren’t a great fit but were all the more frightening to Hu Gong.

Are these primitive people? Residents of this terrifying valley?

Thinking of this, Hu Gong’s teeth chattered. He took two steps back, looking at the two in horror, and asked, "Who are you?"

In his urgency, he spoke Vietnamese, so Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan couldn’t understand, but it didn’t bother them. Li Yifei just shook his hand, incidentally shaking the brand new M14 in his hand too, so Hu Gong immediately raised both his hands. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✶𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲✶𝗻𝗲𝘁

He had just fallen and lost his gun, now in the opponent’s hand, with the dark muzzle pointed at him. Even if he wanted to do something, he wouldn’t dare.

Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan walked over, their speed not fast, but Hu Gong’s heart was in his throat. He didn’t know what era these two were from, if they were the primitive people here, or outsiders, but holding a gun, Hu Gong didn’t want his body to be shot through in the next second, nor did he want, like those who died before, to have only compensation money left.

"Calm down." Li Yifei said in English.

Hearing English, Hu Gong’s eyes widened, nodding eagerly, and he asked back, "You... are you people from outside?"

"Kneel down!" Li Yifei said again.

Hu Gong’s knees went weak. The other’s tone wasn’t harsh, the voice was soft, but he was overwhelmed with fear. In the moment of kneeling down, Hu Gong suddenly realized the possible identities of this man and woman. Wasn’t this the pair who had cleared the passage?

Li Yifei handed the gun to Xu Shanshan, looked at Hu Gong, and asked, "Tell us what you know."

"I... don’t kill me, I can tell you everything, but please don’t kill me!" Hu Gong, lacking any backbone, blurted everything out like beans from a pod without Li Yifei needing to intimidate him.

Li Yifei also learned about these people’s origins and how they got here.

It turned out that after the two were transported from the formation method in the temple to the tunnel, the temple collapsed. Although it didn’t completely cave in, a large hole appeared on the ground. The giant pythons, unrestrained, rushed in, some began to spread out, and at this moment, the Samao organization arrived. They had already lost seven or eight people, victims of the giant fish that jumped onto the shore at the strange pond. Seeing the pythons, although Samao and his men were mentally prepared, their legs still turned to jelly. Only after the pythons attacked and killed several people did Samao shout for a counterattack.

This breed of giant pythons was incredibly lethal. If they charged into a crowd, they didn’t need to bite; simply swinging their massive bodies and using their weight was enough to crush people to death or inflict grave injuries.

The critical point was that these pythons had tough snake skins and thick flesh beneath. Bullets caused minimal harm unless the shooter, like Li Yifei, was astonishingly accurate, hitting sensitive spots like the eyes to inflict effective damage.

When the pythons entered the crowd, it was like wolves in a sheepfold, resulting in significant casualties. In the end, they had no choice but to use grenade launchers, blasting the mix of pythons and men into pieces. After killing five or six pythons, the rest finally fled in fear.

Of course, many of Samao’s people also perished, leaving about fifty of them; more than fifty had died around the temple, hunted by the pythons.

The pythons were particularly agitated, likely due to Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan previously injuring two of them.

As for these people’s objective, it was simple: exploration!

This forest has been a taboo area for many years, rumored to be full of countless treasures, elixirs for immortality, powerful creatures, and varied accounts. Each spoke differently about the forest. Samao heard the rumors and thought, why not explore it? With today’s advanced technology, how could one possibly lose one’s way in a rainforest? Just as someone mentioned that two people had entered before, differing from typical adventurers, it was just one man and one woman.

Samao quickly organized a group, wanting to stay ahead. The treasures in the forest belonged to him, Samao. So, he ordered his men to execute a blockade, instructing them to shoot upon encountering the man and woman without questioning their background.

The Samao organization included scientists, zoologists, and his good friends. Below them were mercenaries from Vietnam, active and former soldiers, guerrillas, all of whom were daredevils, seasoned in combat so they didn’t collapse after losing half their men.

Upon seeing large, soldier ants, monstrous fish, and giant monkeys, Samao thought the trip was worth it. Who had ever seen monkeys as tall as two or three meters?

These weren’t chimpanzees; they were genuine monkeys. If these were put on display in a zoo, it would attract countless visitors, highlighting much more than their mere monetary value.

Seeing the giant pigs and white pythons in the little valley, Samao felt he could almost see money flying towards him. Elephant-sized pigs and white pythons beyond human knowledge—this was just the beginning. Who knew what else lay inside?

Moreover, for these species to reproduce, it couldn’t be just one specimen but a whole group, otherwise, how could they have thrived until now?

Immense wealth and a lost world lay before him. Samao wouldn’t allow anyone to touch it, not even to learn its secrets.

Samao had watched Jurassic Park and even imagined creating a park for lost civilizations here. It would surely attract countless tourists, and he’d make a fortune from entrance fees.

However, it was not feasible yet; he had brought too few people this time. Though loyal, they were too few. Losing so many right at the entrance was sheer idiocy. These Vietnamese people were unreliable—short, scrawny, and dark. This expedition was just for scouting; next time, he’d hire real mercenaries whose combat skills far exceeded those of the Vietnamese.

Thinking this, Samao extinguished the remaining cigar, leisurely blew out the final puff of smoke, and flicked the butt toward the giant pig not far away. The pig glanced at the smoking butt, tilted its head, walked over, watched for a moment, then suddenly lifted a foot and stomped down hard.

After extinguishing the butt, the giant pig paused, revealing a pit dozens of centimeters deep in the ground. Not satisfied, the pig used its tusks to flick up a brick-sized stone and shoot it up. In an instant, it flew dozens of meters.

Samao’s pupils dilated; with a startled shout, he dove sideways. The stone hit one of his men beside him, crushing the person’s chest inwards.