I need to find the location where that team is hiding, which is in a undulating mountain range.

These small, bun-shaped hills are located in the low-lying areas of the entire mountain range, surrounded by lush greenery.

Using his handheld satellite navigation, Xue Dong quickly located the ambush position of the sentries and led us into a thicket of bushes.

The young man in charge of keeping watch here handed me the binoculars and pointed to the mountain pass ahead, saying, "These people came all the way here and entered the valley directly in front of us. However, they left four people to keep watch, two went to the left and right slopes, and two guarded the mountain pass behind that big rock."

I took the binoculars and looked inside. Sure enough, there were two people squatting behind a sheltered rock at the mountain pass, smoking.

Xue Dong raised his binoculars and looked around. He then said to me, "The lookouts are scattered. Should I lead my men to take them out directly, or should we capture one of them and interrogate him?"

I put down my binoculars: "Let's do it simultaneously. Take down all their lookouts. If there's anything wrong with them, we'll just rush in."

Under the cover of the greenery, Xue Dong quickly sent out several skilled men. By the time we got close, the two young men from the mountain pass had already been pinned to the ground and were struggling violently.

"Bang!"

Xue Dong kicked one of them in the chest: "What are you doing here?"

The young man winced as he was kicked, but he just stared at us with wide eyes, without uttering a sound.

The person next to him raised their hand and slapped him again: "Speak up! Are you mute?!"

The young man's head lolled to the side from the slap, but he remained silent.

Jiang Man frowned when she saw that the man was silent: "What's going on? Are they all deaf and mute?"

The bodyguard holding the young man also looked bewildered: "When we made our move, these two resisted, but they didn't make a sound or shout at all. It was very strange. They didn't even notice us until we got close. I suspect they really are deaf and mute."

"How is that possible? Who would hire a deaf-mute backpacker?"

After listening to the bodyguard's words, I looked completely bewildered and said, "This mountain range we're in is a no-man's land, teeming with wild animals. A group of deaf-mute people going into the mountains, where they can't even hear the roars of wild animals, isn't that just suicide?"

Seeing that the people on the ground were still staring at us, Xue Dong grabbed one of their hands, plunged the dagger directly into the young man's fingernails, and slowly peeled it off.

"Well……!"

Faced with Xue Dong's actions, the young man opened his mouth in pain, but only managed to utter a very faint sound from his throat.

Jiang Man shone her flashlight on the young man's face, pinched his cheek, and examined him: "His tongue has been cut off! And the structure inside his throat is also a bit strange!"

I turned on my flashlight and shone it into the other young man's ear: "We guessed right, they really are deaf and mute, but they weren't born deaf and mute; it was caused by human intervention."

Xue Dong searched the two men and pulled out their signal pistols: "There can't be only two deaf-mute people in the enemy team, otherwise they wouldn't have put them together on sentry duty."

"If nothing unexpected happens, they are all deaf-mute. In feudal society, many high-ranking officials kept such deaf-mute servants in their homes. Most of them were children sold by poor families. After being bought, they were made deaf-mute by extremely cruel means and trained from a young age to serve as their personal servants in order to prevent them from hearing any secrets they should not hear."

I looked at the two young men glaring at us and said expressionlessly, "In today's society, no one enslaves others in this way anymore, unless... it's a lawless village called Ping'an."

"You mean, they're all from Ping'an Village?"

Jiang Man looked at me with some skepticism: "But we went to Ping'an Village before, and they didn't have this custom!"

I shook my head: "What we saw was only one branch of Ping'an Village, not the whole picture. They will not reveal all their secrets to us."

My words were like a bucket of cold water poured over Jiang Man's head. She looked at the two deaf-mute people who were being controlled and sighed, "If the people in the valley are really from Ping'an Village, then there's no point in them catching monkeys. Doesn't this mean we've come up empty-handed again?"

"Ping An Village's goal is to protect the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace. The fact that they sent these deaf-mute people to transport supplies means that they must be covering something up. And their biggest secret is to protect the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace."

I scratched my nose: "This place is at least ten kilometers away from the mountain range where we dug up the green clay. The entrance to the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace is definitely not here, but this mountain must be connected to the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace. Since we're here, let's go in and take a look."

We came to this valley specifically to make the arrest; Xue Dong had already made arrangements on the way here.

After we decided to go into the mountains, the Jiang family's bodyguards quickly split into several groups and headed into the valley.

As the sun rises, its rays stream into the valley, and early birds perch on branches, chirping and twittering.

I think we hadn't gone far into the valley when we saw several large tents set up inside, and the Jiang family members had already surrounded the tents from behind.

Within a minute, Jiang Man's walkie-talkie crackled to life: "The guards here are all deaf and mute, and they've been brought under control!"

Upon hearing the report, Jiang Man picked up the walkie-talkie and asked, "How many people are inside?"

Xue Dong's voice then came through: "Young Miss, we've found the survey team! They're all being held here!"

"Let's go take a look!"

Upon hearing Xue Dong's response, I quickened my pace toward the tent, my eyes filled with curiosity.

I couldn't figure it out no matter how hard I tried. How could Monkey and the others have been captured by Ping'an Village?

Based on the traces I saw in the valley last night, the hole dug out of the blue clay must have been dug by monkeys. But why did the people of Ping'an Village force them to dig the hole?

With this question in mind, I quickly ran to the front of the tents and saw that the deaf and mute people inside were all restrained. I hurried into one of the tents and found that the survey team members were all tied up with ropes. I asked Xue Dong, who was untying them, "Where's the monkey? Have you seen where the monkey is?"

Upon hearing my words, one of the survey team members said, "Mr. Hou is not with us; he was taken away by the kidnappers alone!"

"Are the kidnappers you're talking about from the Ping An House?"

After I finished speaking, I realized that the survey team didn't know anyone from Ping'an Village, so I pressed them for details: "Who were the people who kidnapped you? Where was the monkey taken?"