"Nothing happening outside, right?"
"Same as usual."
"Well, this time it's a monster... Hehe, if the higher-ups didn't want to exchange the chip from Yamada, I wouldn't bother coming here. Monster... Are we in a fairy tale?"
The badge with the burning book pages printed on it was turned over and over between the man's fingers. He looked at the light on the table with a stern look from under his thick eyebrows. Moths fluttered on the light and hit it back and forth with a "puff" sound. The man blinked his eyes and stopped flipping the badge in his hand and held it in his palm.
"Whether there is a demon beast or not, and whether the information given by Yamada Jiu is correct or not, as usual, we will do the job well, hand the things over to him in exchange for the chip, and complete our mission."
With a "whoosh" sound, his windbreaker rustled, he stood up and walked straight past the men opposite, opened the tent and went out. The campfire was swaying in the wind, and the crackling sparks floated past him. The figures around who were checking the equipment looked up. The Eastern European woman who came out earlier pulled the trigger on her gun, turned it around in her hand, inserted the holster on the side of her thigh, and nodded to the man.
"It seems you are well prepared."
The man looked down at the watch on his wrist and put the badge in his hand against his chest. "It's almost time, everyone. We should go out and see if the intelligence sent by the islanders is correct. Of course, you also know that these dwarfs like to lie."
Around them, more than a dozen men laughed, then packed up various devices and machinery, took up their weapons to extinguish the campfire, formed a long line, wielded their swords to cut off the vines and weeds that blocked the way, used the moonlight to determine the direction, and moved towards the huge shadow standing in the darkness in the distance.
In the desolate mountains and wilderness, the night wind blows across the foothills. Under the cold moonlight, the forest rises and falls, creating ripples. The rustling sound drifts to the huge mountains behind. In the woods, night foxes howl, occasionally treading on the rustling sound of fallen leaves, dragging their fluffy tails and running past a cave in front, then diving in.
The wind was whimpering inside.
In the darkness, a pair of bright green eyes suddenly lit up, blinked in the dark, and a little fox ran past. Then it closed its eyes silently and put its head under the pillow. A fluffy shadow like an umbrella cover whizzed past, and a strong wind blew towards the cave entrance, throwing the little fox rolling and crawling. It ran out of the cave in panic, kneeling on the ground like a human, with its front limbs clasped together and bowing inside continuously.
After a long while, the little fox turned around fearfully and went back down the mountain. After he went a little further, he mustered up his courage again, jumping back and forth on his front and back limbs to chase the firefly. Suddenly, his long ears shook twice, and he watched the grass in front of him rustling. He arched his body alertly, making a gesture of baring his teeth, as if he was about to pounce and bite. In an instant, a big foot kicked out from the grass, kicked it away, and it fell to the ground in front of it, rolling a few times before stopping. The baring teeth and biting posture just now disappeared immediately. With a whimper, it quickly dived into the nearby grass with its tail between its legs.
The man who came here was dressed in combat uniform. He was the group of people at the foot of the mountain. He came here at this time, looked at the night fox running away, tilted his head to his shoulder, and lowered his voice into the communicator tied to him: "It's just a cute little fox, don't be nervous."
After saying this with a smile, he raised his weapon and waved behind him, signaling his hiding companions to come out. Immediately, he pulled out a device similar to a surveillance radar from the side of his backpack, looked at the scanning lines on it, and curled his lips.
"There is no energy response. It seems that good luck is not falling on us."
As he was talking, he took a step forward and just as he passed a big tree, the thick soles of his boots stepped on a layer of fallen leaves on the ground, making a crisp "crunching" sound, just like the sound of human meridians, which quickly extended and spread along the ground veins.
On the top of the mountain, in the dark cave, the bright green light lit up again. Looking outside from a high position in the darkness, a cluster of shadows appeared with crackling sounds, and some electric arcs bounced off, causing the faint cry of a fox to be heard in the cave.
After a moment, a little fox rushed in from the cave entrance in a panic. It rushed inside, then stopped abruptly with all four limbs. It quickly crawled on the ground, and whispered to the pair of raised green eyes over there. It moved its body and pointed its butt downward, indicating a shoe print there.
"Humans with bad intentions?"
A hoarse and low female voice echoed in the cave. The little fox tucked in its tail, sat up straight, and nodded repeatedly, as if crying. It raised its front paws and pointed outside, then put them on its own neck and pulled them. It made a whining sound, stuck out its tongue, and fell to the ground, twitching twice.
Then, he sat up again, looking quietly and obediently at the shadow in the darkness ahead.
"You little fox, you are as cute as my Mingyue."
Huh~~Huh~~Huh~~
The wind in the cave became stronger, and the whimpering sound was like the cry of a ghost. Suddenly, a faint blue light gradually bloomed in the dark surroundings. The little fox turned his head curiously and saw that it was a bunch of ghost fires wandering in front of the cave wall.
The fox's ears trembled, as if it heard some sound, and turned its head. Under the faint blue light, a scarlet fox paw fell on the cold rock, and the pads of its flesh stepped silently on the ground. The huge figure walked over like a lady, with its limbs gracefully crossed. Faintly, there were nine dark shadows swaying softly behind it.
After a moment, several blue-white arcs of electricity flashed across her body, causing her huge body to tremble, but she still grinned and kissed him, trying her best to make an expression that resembled a smile.
"Look how scared you are, little thing. This is an injury from the thunderbolt. It hasn't healed yet. There's not much I can do to help you, but I can still drive this guy away."
This cave actually originally belonged to this little beast. A few years ago, she was injured in a thunder disaster, and the thunder in her body raged, damaging her demon pill. If it weren't for her cultivation over the years, she would have been reduced to ashes in this fifth thunder disaster.
Practicing Buddhism is not easy. She has not seen her son yet and is even more unwilling to die. After breaking free from the thunder tribulation, she moved to another place with her injuries, waiting for the thunder in her body to pass, and began to prepare for the sixth tribulation again.
… A catastrophe occurs once every hundred years. If you can survive it, you can see the bright moon. But… I don’t know if I can survive it.
She walked to the cave entrance and looked at the night sky outside. Thinking of the bright moon, she stretched her neck and cried loudly.
Woo—
The fox's cry echoed in the cold moonlight. Among the trees on the hillside, figures flashed by and stopped. Hearing the loud fox cry, someone looked down at the energy detector in his hand, an excited smile suddenly appeared on his face, and he tilted his head to look at the communicator on his shoulder.
"Captain, there is an energy reaction. It is an unknown energy coming from the top of the mountain. I will..."
Before the report was finished, the tall branches of the tree next to the people with flashlights suddenly dropped silently in the eerie moonlight, revealing the figure who was speaking, and four men with Western faces beside him...
On the other side of the mountain, a tall and burly man was listening to the voice coming from the communicator, "Captain... is coming from the top of the mountain, I'll be there right away..." The voice suddenly changed, and what came out of the communicator was a series of sharp screams from several people and the sound of gunfire. After a moment, the sound from the other end suddenly stopped.
"The second group?"
The man called out, his thick eyebrows furrowed. Someone nearby wanted to go over to check, but he raised his hand to stop him, "The priority is to complete the mission. If they encounter an accident, it will attract their attention."
"You guys follow behind." After saying the last sentence, he threw the communicator on his shoulder to the female companion beside him, grabbed the protruding rock wall in front of him with both hands, and with his agile body, he rushed to the dense forest above, stepping on the fallen leaves, running wildly with the rustling sound.