Chapter 122 Savage
The cavern was spacious, and even the slightest sound could cause an echo, so for a time Suming couldn't determine the exact direction of the noise. He could only guess at a general area, which seemed to be on a piece of the mountain wall to his front right.
There were more than a dozen openings of various sizes on the mountain wall. It wasn't long before a shadow flitted across the largest cavern mouth, and He emerged, clinging to the stone wall as he jumped to the ground, followed closely by the burly Da Xiong coming out from the same hole.
"Damn it!" Da Xiong cursed, rubbing his head, a faint trace of blood still visible on his forehead.
The caves inside the cavern varied in height; Da Xiong was tall and burly, which made crawling through the holes quite inconvenient. He probably had hit his head just now. He ignored him, taking a whistle to his lips and gave it a blow.
It seemed that this group was searching for something inside the cavern.
Immediately, an answering echo came from within the mountain. It wasn't long before Mr. Qian led another poacher to poke their heads out of another hole.
The hole was over two meters high and over a meter wide, probably the largest one in the cavern. It was only thirty or forty centimeters above the ground. Mr. Qian stepped onto the ground, pointed toward the hole behind him, and said, "He, come and take a look at this. It seems like someone's been living here!"
"What? Someone living here?" He was slightly startled. This damn place was dark and damp, and even in the height of summer, it was deathly cold. At night, it could freeze a person to death. Who would live here? It was tantamount to a long-lived person hanging themselves because they were tired of living.
Despite his surprise, He still proceeded into the large cave with Da Xiong.
Suming had no idea what Mr. Qian had discovered in the cave to think someone lived there. He too was eager to check out the large cave, but showing himself now was tantamount to suicide. The entrance to this cavern was so well-hidden it was ridiculous. If it hadn't been for the incident with the silurus, even if someone stood outside the waterfall, they wouldn't suspect there was a large cavern behind it. If he died here, even when his bones turned white, no one would find them.
Therefore he could only suppress his curiosity, patiently waiting. He thought to himself that He and his group would leave at some point, and now that he knew the location, he could come back to explore later.
It was only a shame he hadn't found more poison, otherwise, he could have let some venomous snakes lie in ambush at the entrance and have them bite He and his men as they left the cave. All of those men would die here.
Having already taken action, Suming wasn't planning on showing any mercy.
These people had small flamethrowers, which weren't easy to deal with. Suming calculated that after they left the cave, he would have Er Gouzi bring a group of hornets at night to ambush them. If He could order two sentries to kill someone, it meant that this group wasn't made up of good people. If they died, so be it; the big cave would serve as a perfect grave.
It wasn't long before He and his group came out of the largest hole. As they walked, He was saying, "Maybe what the buyer wants is that thing in the cave. Since it's nesting here, that thing will definitely come back. Let's go out first and lie in ambush around the pool. Everyone stay alert!"
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"Thing? What thing?" He hadn't needed to say anything. By mentioning it, he made Suming's insides itch with curiosity. What kind of animal lived in that large cave that was so valuable?
We're talking millions of US Dollars here. Even if a giant panda's ancestor showed up, it might not fetch that price!
Luckily, it seemed that He and his men weren't planning to linger in the cavern for much longer. After briefly discussing, they started to head back toward the entrance the way they came.
The poachers' procession passed perilously close to Suming's hiding spot behind a stalagmite. At the closest point, they were less than a meter away from Suming. They filed out one by one, crawling through the opening towards the outside. Suming hid behind the large stalagmite, holding his breath and daring not to move a muscle.
Only after all those people had crawled into the exit tunnel did Suming tiptoe over, like a big cat, stealthily running towards the entrance of the large cave.
A putrid smell of rotting flesh wafted out from the cave; Suming turned on the flashlight attached to the other end of his stun baton and shone it inside.
He saw that the large cave was only about four to five meters deep, with animal bones stained with flesh scattered on the ground.
At the end of the cave, there was a pile of dry grass and firewood, looking like a sleeping nest, and by the side of the grass pile was an assortment of rocks with different shapes—some flat, some long and thick like clubs, and some the size of watermelons; their purpose was unclear.
"Uh-oh, not good!"
Suming was observing the cave when he suddenly remembered He and his men saying they would guard the cave entrance. How could he get out then!
Besides, Ming Shao's corpse was still outside. If He and his men saw their companion's dead body, they would definitely become cautious!
"Damn, I've overstepped, and now I'm in trouble!"
Thinking this, Suming wasted no time pondering over any strange creature inside the cave, hurrying back the way he came, hoping to escape behind the waterfall while He and his men were shocked by their comrade's death.
As long as he could flee into the woods, the mountains were his domain. Unless He obliterated the mountain with a nuclear bomb, even if they had ten times the firepower, they couldn't do anything to him. On the contrary, he had numerous ways to deal with them.
Following the tunnel leading to the exit, he barely reached the entrance and was about to pass through the waterfall when he heard several fierce roars and gunshots outside on the bank.
"What now!" Full of courage, Suming peered out from behind the water curtain.
On the bank by the camp, there stood a stark-naked hulk of a man, possibly two meters tall, with bronzed skin, a full beard, and hair reaching his waist.
"A wild man!?" Suming was startled. Man, although he is scruffy, could this wild man's physique be any more dashing? Generally, wild men are raised by animals; they walk on all fours with hunched backs, and their behavior resembles animals more than humans, but this long-haired, bearded 'man' had no excessive animalistic features. Instead, he was tall and straight, with a muscular build that reminded Suming of the War God from Greek mythology.
Suming was sure if someone shaved this creature's long hair and beard and dressed him in human clothes, he would probably look no different from a normal person.
At that moment, out of the four poachers, three were aiming guns at the strong man, who was holding the bodybuilder-like Da Xiong by the neck with one hand, suspending him mid-air as if he were a pitiful rag doll.
"Roar! Roar!"
Using Da Xiong as a human shield in front of him, the wild man issued fierce roars towards the other three poachers. He had a huge wound on his right shoulder, the skin and flesh turned inside out, oozing blood profusely.