Chapter 347: The Fountain of Youth (4)
As time passed, the forest was rapidly revealing its dangerous side.
The lizard that had attacked the mercenaries was only the beginning. As Everly continued forward, she heard gunshots becoming increasingly frequent, occasionally accompanied by the dull boom of grenades exploding.
At the same time, fallen creatures gradually began to appear on both sides of the road.
Some were large insects, while others were dinosaurs and reptiles whose species she couldn’t identify. The most outrageous sight of all was a saber-toothed tiger, something Everly had only ever seen in scientific magazines.
Grant and the others had obviously engaged in a fierce battle with the enormous beast. A large area around it had been trampled flat, with muddy water splattered everywhere.
The saber-toothed tiger was riddled with bullet holes, and a knife was still lodged in one of its eye sockets. Its body lay motionless in the middle of the mud.
Not far from the tiger’s corpse lay two blood-covered mercenaries.
One had had his abdomen torn open by claws, his intestines and internal organs spilling out and attracting countless fist-sized insects that crawled over him and devoured him. He had long since died.
The other had suffered multiple fractures throughout his body, and his spine was probably broken as well. He lay on the ground like a limp sack of flesh, yet miraculously still had a breath left in him. As Everly passed by, she could still hear him weakly calling out, “Help me.”
Everly couldn’t save him.
She had only three drops of the Universal Panacea. There was no way she could give one of her life-saving treasures to a stranger. Even if she saved him, she might then have to worry about the mercenary turning around and attacking her.
Fresh flesh in the jungle was like a plate of fragrant pastries, irresistibly drawing in the surrounding beasts. Hearing strange rustling sounds gradually approaching through the trees, Everly didn’t dare linger. She quickened her pace and left the bloody battlefield behind.
The road ahead remained dangerous at every turn.
These dangers came not only from giant insects and ferocious carnivores, but also from seemingly inconspicuous plants.
About half an hour after arriving on the island, Everly passed through a low-lying area. The ground here was exceptionally muddy, with a thin layer of water pooled over the surface.
Perhaps because the water content was too high for most life to survive, only one type of plant grew across the damp ground. They stood roughly chest-high, entirely emerald green, resembling a collection of elegant, slanted umbrellas. Their delicate stems rose proudly from the filthy mud, each topped with a heart-shaped leaf larger than a washbasin. The tips of the leaves angled downward, with strings of crystal-clear droplets hanging from them.
Whenever the wind blew, the leaves swayed, sending the droplets cascading down like curtains of rain. The transparent beads of water reflected the sunlight, and against the lush greenery in the background, the scene was breathtakingly beautiful, almost like a fairyland.
However, anyone observant enough would notice that the low-lying area was unusually quiet. There were no birdsong, animal calls, or insect chirps, nor could she hear the sounds of animals running or crawling. It was as though every living creature with legs in the jungle had deliberately avoided this place.
Everly soon discovered why.
At the edge of the lowland’s entrance, she saw several mercenary corpses lying side by side.
Blood had flowed from their noses and mouths, and their faces were twisted in agony. Their clothes, shoes, and socks had all been removed, leaving their bodies soaked through. Several opened boxes of medical activated charcoal tablets had been discarded beside the corpses.
Removing contaminated clothing and washing the body is a common treatment when the skin has come into contact with a toxic substance. As for medical activated charcoal, when ingested, it can physically adsorb toxic substances and poisonous gases in the gastrointestinal tract, making it somewhat effective against ingested poisons, but it has limited effect on toxins absorbed through skin contact.
From this, Everly concluded that the mercenaries had encountered something poisonous and died from the resulting poisoning.
As for the source of the poison…
Everly’s eyes immediately locked onto the patch of heart-shaped plants in the lowland.
They were the only things here that hadn’t appeared before, and the unnatural silence within the grove of heart-shaped plants was enough to put anyone on guard.
Perhaps that was precisely why, when Grant and the others crossed this low-lying area, they had unusually resorted to machetes, forcibly hacking their way through the dense mass of heart-shaped plants to create a path. The road was lined with the severed plant stems, which kept their feet above the standing water below.
Everly didn’t want to get poisoned for no reason.
Her windbreaker and boots were waterproof, and she had gloves on her hands, but her wrists, neck, and head were still exposed.
Just to be safe, Everly spent thirty seconds pulling a disposable raincoat from her backpack and carefully putting it on. She tightened the drawstrings, then put on a gas mask, making sure there wasn’t a single part of her body exposed before cautiously stepping onto the path paved with plant stems.
The path was fairly wide, wide enough for three people to walk abreast, and the surface was laid out smoothly. As long as she stayed in the middle, the chances of coming into contact with the poison were very low.
But then an accident happened—
Halfway across, Everly suddenly heard the crack, crack of footsteps and low voices coming from not far ahead.
The man-made path wasn’t completely straight. Whenever it encountered particularly deep pools of water or areas where the plants grew too densely, it would veer slightly to one side. Everly was currently just behind one such bend.
Thinking that she had simply walked too quickly and caught up with Grant’s group, Everly immediately stopped where she was. Cautiously, she lifted her mask just enough to slip the chameleon skull into her mouth.
Normally, in a situation this urgent, unless they had taken a wrong turn, there was no reason for anyone to suddenly turn around and head back.
Yet after Everly stopped, the crack, crack of footsteps continued approaching.
There was more than one person, and they were moving quickly. In only a moment, they had reached the bend. They turned the corner and stepped onto the path where Everly stood.
Three mercenaries!
Cold sweat instantly broke out across Everly’s forehead.
The chameleon skull in her mouth had been a gift from Remia. It allowed its user to blend completely into the surrounding environment, making them virtually indistinguishable to the naked eye. However, the user had to remain perfectly still while using the skull. The moment they moved, they could easily be exposed.
Furthermore, the path beneath her feet was paved with plant stems. The insides of these stems were hollow, much like sponges, and stepping on them produced a distinct squishing sound. If Everly moved recklessly, the sound of her footsteps would give her away.
She forced herself to remain calm, her eyes fixed intently on the mercenaries before her.
The path was narrow, with poisonous plants covering both sides. The three mercenaries had deliberately formed a single-file line, walking down the center of the path. As a result, their formation stretched out quite a bit.
One after another, they emerged from the bend and headed toward the spot where Everly was concealed. In a corner where no one could see her, Everly instinctively held her breath, the muscles in her weapon-wielding hand tensing into sharp, rigid contours.
They were only a short distance away from running straight into her.
When that happened, if she didn’t want to be caught, she would have to strike first—shoving them into the vegetation on either side of the path, or shooting them dead…
She had to be fast. Better yet, she had to do it without making a sound. If she could make it look like they had accidentally lost their footing, that would be even better. That way, she could continue hiding.
In that brief instant, countless thoughts flashed through Everly’s mind.
Fortunately, things didn’t get that bad.
Just as the lead mercenary came within a palm’s length of Everly, he stopped.
“Here’ll do.”
“Sure.”
“You two go ahead. I’ll keep watch.”
The three exchanged a baffling series of remarks. Then the first two mercenaries turned toward one side of the path, removed their gloves, unzipped their pants, and began relieving themselves at the roots of the lush greenery.
Everly: “…”
She desperately turned her eyes away, refusing to look at anything that could scar her for life.
Fortunately, the mercenaries happened to start chatting at that moment. To distract herself, Everly pricked up her ears and listened carefully.
Like countless workers everywhere, they were gossiping about their employer behind his back.
The three first cursed Grant for bringing a young woman along on the expedition, their words practically dripping with envy and jealousy. Then the conversation suddenly shifted, and they began gossiping about Savannie and the Shaman behind their backs.
“Let me tell you, bringing women along on a job is nothing but trouble. We can’t even take a piss without having to find some secluded corner. I nearly pissed myself.”
“Shh! Keep your voice down. Don’t let that scary woman hear you. You were there when she and the Shaman went at each other a few days ago, weren’t you? Neither of those women is normal. We’d better not pick a fight with them.”
At that, the man standing guard lowered his voice and eagerly joined the conversation.
“Speaking of the Shaman, I couldn’t sleep last night, so I went up to the yacht deck to smoke. I saw her sneaking around and digging through the trash. She picked up a wad of tissue from the garbage that witch had thrown away, then stuffed it inside this creepy-looking wooden doll… What do you think? Has she still not given up and is planning to keep cursing Savannie?”
“If that’s really what she’s doing, it’d be pretty interesting. That witch puts on such an innocent, sweet act in front of Grant all day, but she’s got a terrible attitude in private. I’ve been sick of her for a while.”
“Don’t. If they’re going to fight, they should at least wait until we’ve safely gotten off this island… I don’t know what’s going on with this mission. It barely started, and several people are already dead…”
The mention of the dead immediately cast a heavy pall over the conversation.
“At least… at least the pay for this job is good. The boss will take good care of their families.”
Muttering among themselves, they hurriedly finished relieving themselves, shook themselves off, zipped up their pants, and formed a single-file line. Just as they had come, they turned around and quickly disappeared around the bend.
Everly quietly waited in place. Only after the sound of their footsteps had completely faded did she spit out the chameleon skull and furtively continue following them.
Although their close encounter had turned out to be nothing more than a false alarm, Everly’s distance from Grant’s group had indeed shortened. So during the latter half of the journey, Everly deliberately slowed her pace, giving them more time to clear a path ahead.
The heart-shaped plants in the low-lying area greatly slowed everyone’s progress, but they also inadvertently kept the dangerous animals outside from approaching.
Once Grant’s group left the lowland and returned to the jungle, the gunfire that had briefly fallen silent rang out again. The mercenaries once more began battling all kinds of strange creatures.
Thus, fighting as they advanced, they continued for another hour.
Then, all at once, the towering trees blocking out the sky came to an abrupt end, and a vast, deep lake appeared before them.
The lake was shaped like a gigantic doughnut, encircling the group’s destination—the mountain that looked remarkably like an upside-down pudding.
Whether by coincidence or not, there was a pitch-black cave clearly visible on the pudding-shaped mountainside directly opposite them. All they had to do was cross the nearly one-hundred-meter-wide deep lake in between to reach the entrance.
The task seemed simple enough.
However, the lake water was a murky, inky green, so deep that the bottom couldn’t be seen at a glance. Large quantities of algae floated across the surface, and fish could occasionally be seen swimming through the water. Some of them were several meters long, all of them terrifyingly huge.
Would crossing such a vast lake really be that simple?