Five minutes later.

A hook-nosed man, a tattooed guy, and a young man with slicked-back hair.

The three of them lay on the ground like dead dogs, all their limbs broken, eyes filled with fear, but also with undisguised resentment.

After waiting for a long time without any new movement, Guo Kai couldn't help but shout, "Who's helping us?"

The voice echoed far away, yet no response came for a long while.

Just when Guo Kai thought there would be no response, something flew out from the bushes.

"Get down!" Guo Kai shouted instinctively, evidently mistaking the flying object for a grenade or some explosive.

The hook-nosed trio, unable to move on the ground, felt their blood run cold at the sound of "get down." Dying in such an inexplicable way was truly suffocating!

However, half a minute passed, and the expected deafening explosion and the force that would have flipped everything around did not occur.

Guo Kai poked his head out and saw a paper ball on the ground. He cautiously approached it, picked it up, and unwrapped it to find a pebble inside.

It was obvious that the other party wanted to convey something more than just a pebble, so the answer should be on the paper.

Sure enough, once the paper was laid flat, a line of extremely neat handwriting came into view: There are no others hiding; all thirteen people are in your hands, no thanks necessary.

"Damn it!" Guo Kai punched the ground. Although the crisis seemed to have been resolved for now, neither he nor anyone else felt particularly happy.

At that moment, sirens blared, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps.

Reinforcements had arrived but were of no use.

Handing over the hook-nosed trio and the five hiding in the tents, they watched as the body of a fallen comrade was carried onto a stretcher. Everyone felt as if a heavy stone weighed on their chests, making it hard to breathe.

Just half an hour ago, the fallen comrade was still sighing about how beautiful non-training days were.

Now, he would never have to train again, but this was an outcome no one wanted to see.

"Now, does anyone still think we're on vacation here?"

Seeing this, Guo Kai turned to ask.

Everyone looked down, silent.

Everyone couldn't help but wonder if, from the start, they had approached this incident with the attitude of facing a tough battle...

If they could have made the hook-nosed man come to them instead of sending someone out to him...

Could this sacrifice have been avoided?

"Put away your joking attitude and get serious, I don't want to see anyone else carried away, understood?" Guo Kai shouted hoarsely.

"Understood!" Everyone raised their heads and replied loudly in unison.

Guo Kai took a deep breath: "Divide into three groups to assist in checking the surrounding buildings and potential hiding places, see if we can find the person who just helped us."

After giving instructions, Guo Kai took out a still-burning log and threw it into the dry grass.

This setback was partly due to the grass; naturally, they couldn't fall for the same thing twice.

...

In the underground cave dominated by darkness.

Xiao Feng and his team dispersed into various corners, conducting a dragnet search to uncover anything unusual in this vast space.

The little girl was carried by Lin Zhiyan, unwilling to let her precious disciple leave her sight.

After all, given their encounters along the way, it was hard to say if there might be poisonous creatures like snakes or insects; the little girl was already unconscious, and if anything else happened, it would truly be adding insult to injury.

"Click click click!"

The giant spider, having seemingly rested enough, began to move.

At the same time, Lu Yao also moved.

She intended to leverage her advantage in body technique to distract the giant spider, thus buying time for Xiao Feng and the others.

"Boom!"

Lu Yao struck the drum tied to her waist.

Xiao Feng and his team's coordinated movements paused, like a smoothly playing movie that suddenly stutters, then continued searching the ground and surroundings for clues.

Everyone had heard the drum sound before, so occasionally hearing it wasn't a big problem, as long as the sound wasn't constant.

Once the drum sounded, the giant spider's attention was successfully drawn to Lu Yao, and it charged at her with full force.

Lu Yao's eyes sharpened as she focused, readying herself to counter the giant spider's assault.

"Clang!"

A shrill metallic clang rang out, like a hammer hitting a chisel, and cracks appeared on the ground where Lu Yao had originally stood. A leg of the giant spider stabbed into the ground, the sheer force of this attack was downright terrifying!

At this moment, Lu Yao understood why Xiao Feng hadn't let her join in — facing the spider head-on was a suicide mission.

Having failed its attack, the giant spider seemed enraged, immediately turning to continue its charge on Lu Yao.

Having witnessed the giant spider's ferocious attack power, Lu Yao dared not be careless and quickly widened the distance.

Of course, she couldn't go too far; otherwise, the giant spider might feel it couldn't catch her and switch targets to someone else.

For a while, it was like a race, with the giant spider relentlessly pursuing Lu Yao.

Meanwhile, Lu Yao continued to run frantically, always keeping a certain distance from the giant spider.

They chased and fled, entering a stalemate.

"Xiao, over here!" Zhao Guo'an suddenly shouted as if he had discovered a new world, pointing to his feet.

Xiao Feng quickly ran towards him, seeing a bullet casing on the uneven ground that one wouldn't notice without a careful look.

Xiao Feng picked up the casing, examined it, and said, "This type of bullet is probably used for a pistol-style submachine gun, to be precise, most likely a Scorpion submachine gun.

This gun is well-suited for close-range combat, with a fast rate of fire and the option for single or burst fire, but honestly, such a light weapon is not that effective in actual combat."

"Knowing what gun this bullet casing came from, what does that prove?" Zhao Guo'an asked, puzzled.

Xiao Feng chuckled, casually tossing the casing aside, replying, "It shows I'm very knowledgeable, and I gave you some firearm knowledge."

"..." Zhao Guo'an.

So you said all that just to show off?

After a while of frustration, Zhao Guo'an asked, "Do we keep looking?"

"Of course, we keep looking." Xiao Feng nodded, "We found the casing, but what about the gun? And the person who used it? Do you believe that over ten people just vanished into thin air?"

"Since when do you like solving cases?" Zhao Guo'an asked, confused.

Xiao Feng chuckled lightly, "You don't think I've grown a sudden sense of goodwill, do you? I don't care whether those people are dead or alive, but for now, finding those missing people is at least a breakthrough."

Zhao Guo'an hesitated for a moment, then said, "Have you considered another possibility?"

"What?" Xiao Feng furrowed his brows.

"Maybe we're on the wrong path?" Zhao Guo'an suggested uncertainly.

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