The Natives of This World Are Fierce

Mo Shaoge didn’t know how many stitches this kind of wound required, but he put in at least a dozen before pulling the thread tight and tying a dead knot.

He sprayed the wound several times with alcohol to disinfect it, then sprinkled on some Yunnan Baiyao.

"Gauze!"

The Count quickly pulled a new piece from his bag and handed it over. Mo Shaoge gently pressed it onto the wound.

Cui Ying pillowed the Monkey King’s head on her thigh, then carefully began wrapping the bandage from both sides, leaving its Adam’s apple exposed and making sure it wasn’t tight enough to choke it.

By the time they finished, they were all drenched in sweat.

The Monkey King’s breathing seemed to have stabilized, but another difficult problem lay before them.

"What do we do about the captain?"

When the Count asked this, no one answered.

Little Sister carefully crouched down to look at Lü Bing’s neck, aiming her phone at it to take a picture.

Then she showed the photo to everyone.

The faint black line on Lü Bing’s neck was probably similar to the Monkey King’s, but they couldn’t see if there was a deep gash.

They didn’t even dare to get too close.

"I think we should leave him be until we have a foolproof plan. Even if there’s no next victim, if that kind of bleeding happens to the captain, he might not be able to take it!"

This reasoning seemed plausible, and the five of them used it to give themselves a psychological out.

The monkey troop was still not making any loud noises, and the remaining five people were too tired to talk. The scene grew quiet.

"Hsss... My whole body is so itchy..."

Mo Shaoge suddenly felt something was wrong. As he spoke, the tingling itch became uncontrollable.

He frantically scratched at his exposed arms, neck, and chest.

Cui Ying felt her hands getting tingly and itchy as well.

Looking at Mo Shaoge and then at herself, she had a sudden realization.

"It’s the blood! There’s something wrong with the Monkey King’s blood! Quick, get to the creek and wash it off!"

This was no time for hesitation. The two of them sprinted toward the nearby creek and leaped right into the ankle-deep stream.

The SPLASH of the water washed over their bodies.

They continuously scrubbed the dirty blood off their bodies. The tingling itch lessened, but it never went away.

"Little Sister, bring the soap over here!"

Hearing the shout, Little Sister frantically rummaged through her backpack. In the end, it was Mo Qingxue who found a bar of earth-yellow soap in the bag her brother had tossed aside. She rushed to the creek, cut the soap in half with a Short Sword, and gave a piece to Cui Ying and Mo Shaoge each.

They scrubbed with the soap over and over again, washing and rinsing more times than they could count. Most of the dirty blood was washed away, but their skin was left beet-red, covered in marks that looked like welts.

By the time the two of them emerged from the cool creek, a residual, tingling itch remained that they couldn’t seem to eradicate.

Cui Ying only had it on her hands, but Mo Shaoge had to take off his blood-stained T-shirt and throw it aside.

"This blood must be poisonous. You guys didn’t get any on you, did you?"

Mo Qingxue, the Count, and Little Sister looked themselves over. Aside from a few small bloodstains on their clothes, they were fine.

The only ones who had really been in contact with the Monkey King were Cui Ying and Mo Shaoge, and the unluckiest one, Lü Bing.

"Man, you need to go back the way we came! Find a place with a signal and get someone to rescue us!"

Mo Shaoge endured the itch and took some crackers, chocolate, and a few empty bottles out of one of the bags. He then gave the bag, with the remaining two bottles of water and a pack of crackers, to the Count.

"We need my sister to protect us here, and Du Juan’er to keep watch. Whether we get rescued is all up to you!"

In just that short amount of time, Mo Shaoge could already feel his energy draining away. He didn’t know if it was from the exertion or the bizarre, poisonous blood.

Cui Ying wasn’t faring much better; she was just staring blankly at Lü Bing.

Following her gaze, everyone saw that Lü Bing’s face had turned a bluish-purple. His constitution was clearly no match for the Monkey King’s.

"Go, go, go! We’re counting on you, man!"

Mo Shaoge grew frantic.

"Right! I’m going now!"

The Count didn’t dare delay. He shouldered his backpack and immediately sprinted back the way they came. There were only a few hours until dark, and if night fell, there was no telling if he would be able to make it out!

Lives were on the line!

As the Count splashed across to the other side of the creek and was about to enter the forest, Cui Ying seemed to jolt awake from a dream. She turned and roared at him.

"Make that call! Call the Special Security Team—!"

Anyone from the Ying’s Desire Editing Society knew exactly who would have the fastest response time. Every one of them had the number saved in their phones, and people like the Count and Cui Ying had even memorized it.

The Count waved to show he understood.

And of the seven or eight monkeys that had first led them there, three leaped from the creekside into the forest. A moment later, they were clambering up branches, swinging ahead and calling out.

Seeing this, the four conscious people by the creek breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

Covered in scratches and with his clothes in tatters, the Count looked like he had just rolled down a cliff when the people at the temporary camp saw him. There wasn’t a single palm-sized patch of unbroken, exposed skin to be found on him.

The trip there had taken over three hours, but the return took less than two. The Count had truly given it his all.

He’d barely made it back to the temporary camp before night fell, which happened much earlier in the mountains.

He finally had a weak phone signal here. The instant the Count dialed the number, a thought bizarrely popped into his head: ’I have to write an article to drill it into people’s heads: Always bring a satellite phone on outdoor trips.’

...

Helicopters. And military helicopters, at that.

A few were even fully-armed gunships.

By the time a total of eight helicopters arrived over the temporary camp, the sky in the mountains had already grown dark.

They had brought not only medical personnel carrying the necessary tools and equipment, but also many fully-armed professional soldiers. Judging by their gear, this was no ordinary unit.

The other hikers in the camp stared, stunned, at the eight aircraft in the sky with their searchlights blazing, then turned to look at the bedraggled Count.

’This guy has that much pull?’

The idea that he was a young master from a powerful family traveling incognito began to take root in their minds, and a couple of the women started staring fixedly at the Count.

More than twenty soldiers rappelled down from two of the helicopters.

"Who is Zhong Bolun? Who is Zhong Bolun?!"

"I am! I’m him! I’m here! Quick, follow me!"

Ignoring the difficulty of traveling at night, the Count took the soldiers and charged back into the dense forest.

And the three monkeys were loyal to a fault; they were clearly terrified when the helicopters arrived, but they hadn’t run away.

Only when the Count returned did they continue to lead him deeper into the woods.

As the soldiers and the Count advanced below, six helicopters followed from the air.

The other two helicopters circled over the campsite, and a few soldiers descended to hoist the remaining hikers up into the aircraft with rope ladders and traction cables.

In the dense forest, the soldiers’ movements were far more methodical than the Count’s frantic crashing; they were always able to find an easier path.

"Are those the weird macaques? You getting this on video?"

"It’s been recording the whole time!"

"Good. We’ll use a projection net to catch a couple on our way out."

After a brief exchange, the officers below fell silent. The Count had his objections to their words but knew better than to voice them.

...

As the roar of helicopter rotors neared the clearing by the creek, the monkey troop that had been surrounding the lean-to panicked and fled in all directions.

Mo Shaoge groggily lifted his head. Seeing the lights in the sky, he finally relaxed. ’At least I’m going to be saved!’

The soldiers and the Count charged out of the forest, and medics began descending from the helicopters above.

"Be careful with Lü Bing’s neck! There’s some kind of poisonous creature on it! Whatever you do, don’t move his neck!"

Mo Qingxue hurriedly shouted to the soldiers, pointing out that Lü Bing, on the ground, was the one who needed immediate attention.

Aside from a few who went to check on Mo Shaoge and Cui Ying, the other medics, as soldiers assigned to a special mission, disregarded everything else and cautiously approached to examine Lü Bing’s condition, avoiding any large movements.

They lifted his eyelids, took his pulse, measured his blood pressure, and examined his body, avoiding the neck area.

"Pupils are dilated..."

"Blood pressure is low... Huh, why is his heart rate so fast?"

"Must be poison. Give him an injection, quick!"

"Alright, be careful now. Get him on a backboard, immobilize his neck, and winch him up to the chopper!"

...

Elsewhere, the monkeys in the forest were screeching and chattering wildly. A few soldiers were securing the unconscious Monkey King to a backboard, also preparing to hoist it onto a helicopter.

At the edge of the woods—FWUMP! FWUMP! FWUMP!

With those few sounds, several monkeys were enveloped by large, projected nets and fell from the trees. Soldiers climbed up to retrieve the ones who got snagged on branches, net and all.

Branches and fruit came flying, but after a few warning shots—RAT-TAT-TAT...—the monkeys all fled in panic.

"Inject these little guys with a sedative!"

The soldiers moved with swift efficiency.

A message came over the radio from the team at the lean-to.

"Guinea Pig One, return immediately. We’re done here!"

"Understood! Returning with the targets."

...

Tonight, the monkeys of Baiyun Mountain were destined for a restless night, for the monsters from the sky had taken their king.