After listening to my analysis, Song Laosan nodded thoughtfully: "Your analysis is not without reason. The Qu family's ability to see into the earth is comparable to your ability to see over mountains. You didn't even use a compass, yet you saw that this place has excellent feng shui. Such a thing naturally cannot be hidden from Qu Ruilin."
I pointed to the distant main peak and asked, "Zhou Peng, ask Sasha if he knows what that mountain range is!"
Zhou Peng exchanged a few words with Sasha and nodded: "Sasha said he has never been to this place before and doesn't know anything about it."
Old Song San also pressed on, "How long would it take to walk there?"
Sasha stood on the mountaintop and surveyed the terrain: "The terrain ahead is relatively flat, about forty or fifty kilometers in length. At our current pace, it will take at least two days."
I took a deep breath: "Let's set up camp here, get a good rest tonight, and set off early tomorrow morning."
After several days of wilderness survival, we became more and more experienced. We found an open space on the mountaintop and quickly built several small tents with tree branches. Then we stuck the sharpened branches in the opposite direction to create traps to prevent wild animals from getting close.
As the sun sets, darkness quietly creeps in.
Song Laosan and I lay in a tent, looking at the campfire outside: "Xiao Duan, do you have a feeling now that we've fallen far behind Wei Shengnan and the others?"
When asked about my biggest worry, I still tried to sound strong and said, "Perhaps we fell behind from the day they kidnapped Yevgeny. The Wei family has been operating for many years, with businesses spanning both domestic and international markets, giving them a natural advantage. The fact that we can keep up is already the best outcome."
With a straw stalk dangling from his mouth, Song Laosan tentatively asked, "If... I mean, if Wei Shengnan and the others really did find Duan Jinyan before us and killed him, what would you do?"
I was slightly taken aback: "Why would you ask that?"
Song Laosan smiled and said, "The two sides have different goals, and one side will eventually succeed. Since I'm on your side, I naturally want to know your thoughts."
I raised my gaze to the starry sky and said, "I never thought about failure."
Song Laosan turned to look at me: "You really haven't thought about it?"
I replied casually, "Since someone has to succeed, why can't it be me?"
"Aww!!"
We were chatting when a chilling roar suddenly reached my ears.
"flap!"
Song Laosan and I sat up at the same time and looked at each other.
That's the roar of a tiger.
Although the sound seemed to be some distance away from us, the domineering presence of the king of beasts in the roar was still enough to give us a strong sense of awe.
Not only us, but everyone else was also startled by the tiger's roar and crawled out of their tents, cautiously looking at their surroundings.
"Awooo!"
The tiger's roar continued to echo. The sound of this wild beast was clearly deep and muffled, yet it seemed to originate from the depths of people's hearts, giving me goosebumps.
Sasha listened intently for a while, her expression serious yet revealing a hint of curiosity: "Strange, the tiger's roar sounds like it's been frightened, it's a defiant roar! But what other animal in this jungle could pose a threat to a tiger? Could it be a brown bear?"
"Da da da!"
A series of gunshots quickly provided him with an answer.
"rifle!"
"Someone's there!"
Song Laosan and I spoke at the same time, both of us seeing disbelief in each other's eyes.
The gunfire from down the mountain continued unabated, carrying far through the quiet environment.
Listening to the gunshots and the tiger's roar, I asked Song Laosan, "Could it be that Wei Shengnan and the others also arrived here and were attacked by the tiger?"
“No matter who was attacked, with our equipment and distance, we are unable to carry out a rescue.” Song Laosan’s eyes hardened. “This is already the heart of the mountains. There shouldn’t be anyone else in this forest. If it really is them, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. At least it shows that they didn’t use modern transportation, but were also walking through the forest.”
"What if this is their destination?"
The monkey pointed to the hilltop next to us: "This is the highest peak in the vicinity. What if their purpose in coming here is also to climb to the top and get a wider view?"
"The dangers of the forest are obvious to everyone. No one would choose to wander in this jungle at night, so they must have been attacked while setting up camp."
At this point, I waved my hands repeatedly: "Everyone, get moving and put out the campfire first to avoid revealing our position. This mountain is steep, and it's impossible for the others to choose to climb it at night. We will continue our original assignment of taking turns on night watch, but we will set off two hours earlier to avoid encountering them."
The intense gunfire from the foot of the mountain didn't last long, only about a minute, before the jungle returned to calm.
I looked in the darkness towards the direction from which the gunshots came: "Who do you think won?"
"Although tigers are known as the king of beasts, humans can sometimes be more ferocious than wild animals! The gunshot just now was clearly from an AK rifle, the most powerful rifle in the world. Under continuous fire, let alone a tiger, even an elephant probably couldn't withstand it!"
Song Laosan remained calm: "At least three rifles fired simultaneously just now. Although we don't know how much Wei Shengnan and the others paid, they are definitely the victors! Tigers have a strong sense of territory and must be the most powerful carnivore in this area. Now that it's been taken down, both the people down the mountain and us can at least get a good night's sleep!"
My thoughts are the same as Song Laosan's; we also believe that the gunshots coming from down the mountain were from Qu Ruilin and his group.
When Sasha led us into the mountains, the search started from the downstream area. However, Qu Ruilin and his team, who had advanced equipment, were searching much faster than us. It's very likely that they didn't find any clues in the upstream area before coming to the downstream area, which could explain why they appeared in the same area as us.
At that moment, I was filled with mixed feelings of surprise and joy.
To everyone's surprise, Qu Ruilin also came to this mountain. With his geomantic skills, he could find the location of Hu Shahu's tomb just by standing here and taking a look.
The good news is that although they are getting closer and closer to the clues, they have not surpassed us and are still on the same starting line as us.
Moreover, the gunshots just now have exposed their identities. Now they are in the open while I am in the dark. As long as I muster all my strength and get to Hu Shahu's tomb before them, I can prevent the tragedy from happening.
Of course, there is an even more important point: Duan Jinyan came to the Far East to search for Hu Shahu's tomb, and I don't know how many clues he has.
If he knew the exact location of the tomb from the very beginning and searched for the burial site with a clear objective, then all our current efforts would have been in vain.
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