"I wonder if that bastard had ti to send out the intel he discovered." Luo Zheng gave the walkie-talkie a glance, noticed it was turned off, and heaved a sigh of relief. He shouted into the headset, "Mountain Eagle, caught a big fish, co over quick, and be careful of your surroundings."
Before long, Mountain Eagle and Lang Sen ran over. Mountain Eagle, looking at the ninja who was thoroughly dead, turned to Luo Zheng with disbelief. Just as he was about to say sothing, Lang Sen, seemingly driven mad, pounced on the body on the ground. His eyes were bloodshot as he started hitting the body ferociously. His massive fists smashed down on the deceased's head; after several blows, the corpse was completely disfigured.
"Uh?" Luo Zheng watched Lang Sen, feeling as though Lang Sen and this ninja had deep-seated enmity. He pulled at Mountain Eagle, who was about to intervene, shook his head, and they both stepped back several paces, staying alert to their surroundings while communicating with Lan Xue. They asked everyone to hurry over. Without Hook translating, there was no way to know why Lang Sen was acting so crazed.
"Ow—" Lang Sen howled as he unleashed all the rage in his heart, tears streaming down his fierce tiger eyes. He gasped for air, and perhaps having vented enough, stared fixedly ahead into the forest with a mournful expression, muttering sothing incomprehensibly. Luo Zheng couldn't understand a word and glanced at the mangled body on the ground, feeling a twinge of sympathy—so can't find peace even in death.
It wasn't long before Lang Sen ca to his senses. He respectfully bowed to Luo Zheng, and perhaps knowing he wouldn't be understood, said nothing and stepped aside. Then, Lan Xue, leading the others, charged over and, seeing the ninja's mangled remains, asked in astonishnt, "What happened here?"
"This guy was lurking up in a tree, and I accidentally knocked him down. He's dead," Luo Zheng explained.
"A ninja? A Japanese sword? Mine." Snow Leopard exclaid excitedly, snatching the sword from Luo Zheng's hand, pulling it out to take a look, and smiled in satisfaction. He clutched it tightly in his arms as if afraid soone would snatch it away, then stepped back, saying, "Ghost, brother, this is mine. Guys, don't even think about taking it."
"All this fuss over a broken sword?" Ghost Hand said discontentedly.
"Hook, what's with him?" Luo Zheng asked, looking towards Hook.
Hook spoke with Lang Sen briefly, then his expression turned grave as he explained to Luo Zheng, "Ten years ago, soone like this broke into his ho and killed his entire family. He was stabbed as well, but fortunately, it wasn't fatal, and he was saved. See the scar on his abdon? It's a through-and-through wound."
Luo Zheng glanced at the scar on Lang Sen's abdon and, realizing the depth of his vendetta, smiled knowingly and said, "Tell everyone that I'm not sure how many others like this one are among the enemy. These people are very good at hiding, searching, and assassinating, lurking in this forest. I suspect our earlier activities were exposed because soone like this called in the helicopter. Everyone, stay sharp."
"I've heard of them, they seem to be called ninjas. Here we call them devils," Hook replied, then turned to explain to the others.
The body left on the ground would be dealt with by the beasts. Man eats animal, and animal eats man—it's the law of nature in this forest and a premise for maintaining ecological balance. Nobody cared about the ninja's corpse. Luo Zheng handed his pistol to Hook as a backup. Hook was imnsely grateful, and the team continued to advance.
Luo Zheng, with Mountain Eagle and Lang Sen, continued to scout ahead. Perhaps because he had let off steam, Lang Sen seed much better ntally, looking at Luo Zheng with eyes full of respect. Everyone proceeded cautiously, and unwittingly, they reached a mountaintop. Standing atop the summit, Luo Zheng coldly surveyed the valley below: the Japanese's research base.
The base was on higher alert than ever; nurous people were patrolling, and there was no sign of the transport plane. After observing for a mont, Luo Zheng noted that there were at least nearly a hundred people patrolling the periter, and another hundred inside the walls. The whereabouts of others were unknown. Machine gun emplacents were stationed in all four directions, with sandbags as cover, and each machine gun post had about a squad of people.
In such a defense, a strong attack would be a suicide mission. Luo Zheng had no intention of launching a strong attack. He looked towards Hook and said, "Let's get everyone moving, we don't have much ti." With those words, he looked out to the forest ahead: thick with shrubs as tall as a man, dense and impenetrable, indeed an excellent place to hide.
Setting traps was a task for the tribal natives. After a brief discussion with Hook, everyone sprang into action. Luo Zheng wasn't worried about the team's ability to lay traps. Surviving in the prival forest wasn't possible without certain skills. Luo Zheng was careful as he and the team headed towards the valley.
About half an hour later, they took up positions on a hillside. They were only about a thousand ters from the valley. Luo Zheng was already quite pleased to have reached this far. Observing the research base on high alert, a chilling intent to kill appeared on Luo Zheng's determined face, as he quickly set up his sniper rifle.
"I didn't expect the enemy to retreat to the base, abandoning the outer defense lines, which played right into our hands," said Snow Leopard, who was without a sniper rifle and lying next to Luo Zheng to observe, while he expressed his thoughts.
"Huh? What do you an?" Luo Zheng keenly sensed there was a problem with Snow Leopard's words and couldn't help but ask.
"Oh, nothing much," Snow Leopard explained as he looked at Luo Zheng, "The enemy has plenty of troops; they have no reason to shrink back to their base to fight a defensive battle. That's too passive. Could it be because the ard helicopter was blown up? Without air superiority, they don't dare to fight us anymore? It just feels a bit strange, that's all."
"Xue Er, what's your take?" Luo Zheng had a nagging feeling that sothing was amiss and asked through the earpiece.
"The enemy has nearly a thousand troops in total; even if we've killed about a hundred of them these past days, that leaves nine hundred. Only two hundred patrol on the outer security; where did the other seven hundred go? It doesn't make sense for them to huddle in the basent with the big battle approaching. Indeed, sothing's not quite right," Lan Xue said, her tone laced with concern.
"Captain, now that you ntion it, it does seem like that. Could they have positioned their forces where we can't see them?" Snow Leopard exclaid in surprise, looking around cautiously for any sign of the enemy.
"We can be certain of one thing: the enemy has anticipated our arrival, but they're not sure where we're coming from. The forest is everywhere; it's not easy to spot us. Moreover, we've made it this far already, and if the enemy knew, they would've surely pounced on us by now," Ghost Hand added seriously.
"Not good," Luo Zheng suddenly realized sothing and exclaid.
"What's wrong?" Lan Xue's beautiful eyes narrowed as she voiced everyone's curiosity.
"Rember the Ninja we killed?" Luo Zheng's face turned cold as he spoke with an added touch of worry in his steadfast gaze, "I suspect the enemy has sent quite a few Ninjas to scout and lie in ambush. If they fail to report back after a long ti, it's bound to arouse suspicion. It's been an hour since the Ninja was killed; look at the valley, they are reinforcing the machine-gun positions. They must be alerted by now."
"These bastards have pretty sharp noses. It seems we've been exposed. What do we do?" Mountain Eagle asked.
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