Volume 8 Chapter 12 Sneak Attack

“Flanking? These animals can do that?” Fat Man’s cold sweat came down. “Master Fat, I’ve finally learned something.”

Pan Zi said, “I told you these snakes were abnormal. These are definitely snake spirits, almost like spirits.”

Hearing the sound of movement in front of us, the snakes seemed to be gradually closing in, but the tree canopy was still as if it had solidified. The sound was like an invisible evil spirit pressing in on us. My hair stood on end. I asked Pan Zi, “Do you have any local remedies for snake spirits in your hometown?”

Pan Zi said, “Where can we deal with them? In the old days, these were all gods. My grandfather said that in ancient times, they had offered up children.”

The fat man said, “Is there anything reliable? Where can we find children and virgins at this time?”

Pan Zi said, “I’m talking about ancient times. Nowadays, where can you find this kind of thing in the city? I don’t think it’s possible to fight hard. You see, A Ning died in an instant. Let’s retreat. I’m a guerrilla fighter. I’m a descendant. I’ll play hide-and-seek with them and see who will outflank who.” He pointed in a direction and told us to follow him.

As I listened to Pan Zi’s words, suddenly something made me feel enlightened. I took two steps and thought of it. I grabbed him and said, “Wait, I don’t feel right.”

Pan Zi looked at me, and I said to them, “There’s something fishy about this. When Ning was attacked, she had almost no defense and died instantly. In fact, it would be too easy for these snakes to kill us. They don’t need to do so many tricks. They can just hide in some grass and bite us when we walk past. We would have been dead already. Why make it so complicated?”

“What do you mean? Explain it more clearly,” the fat man asked.

“They had countless opportunities to kill us outside the canyon, but we all survived unscathed. Snakes are different from humans. They don’t make elementary mistakes. These snakes didn’t use a sneak attack, but now they’re using this bluffing trick. Maybe their goal isn’t to kill us.”

Pan Zi shook his head. ”This doesn’t make sense. If they don’t want to kill us, why did they sting Ning to death? Maybe they’re afraid of something about us now.”

I said, “Think about what’s different between Aning and us?”

They looked at each other, and the fat guy said in surprise, “Is it because Aning is a girl?”

I nodded, “It’s very likely that this is the reason. These snakes are behaving too strangely. We can’t use the behavior of ordinary animals to speculate on their intentions. I don’t think this is a flanking attack at all. There are other more secretive purposes behind their behavior. If we act rashly, we may fall into an even more incomprehensible situation.”

The fat guy frowned and said, “You make sense. What should we do? Should we fight them?”

I shook my head and said, “I think we should not act rashly. We should first find out their intentions. Otherwise, we will be too passive.”

The fat guy said with a grin, “You are so innocent. We are not snakes. How can we understand their intentions?”

I said that we can analyze the intentions of people, let alone animals. People often underestimate the intelligence of the other side when they are defeated by animals. We should treat these snakes as people. If it were a group of people, when we came in, they killed the only woman among us, and then instead of killing us, they used this method to keep our nerves tense at all times. What do you think their purpose is?

The three of us fell silent. The fat man frowned and hesitated, saying, “According to what you said, are they all female snakes, coveting our beauty?”

I thought to myself, when did you have the time to joke, but I found that the fat man was actually thinking seriously about this problem.

At this time, Pan Zi suddenly sucked in a cold breath and said, “Oh, little master, this time you are so reasonable, I seem to know what is going on – have you heard of a forest where you can’t get out after entering?”

The fat man said, “Are you talking about the ‘ghost forest’ in the northeast?”

“I don’t know what it’s called, but in Vietnam they call it ‘akong’. The forest itself is a very easy place to get lost, but there is a kind of forest where the growth of the trees is affected by some kind of rule. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or a necessity, but it’s especially easy to get lost. And there is a strange saying about this kind of forest. You will be disturbed by all kinds of sounds in it, and the forest will trap you like a living thing.” Pan Zi was a little excited. He cut a vine and squeezed out some water to drink. He said, “Locals say that the forest has its own ideas.”

I know this saying. Some people say that this is an expression of evolution. All forests are complex and mysterious, and the more evolved they are, the more complex they are. This is because the forest wants to trap everything that enters it and provide it with nutrients. This is a kind of collective wisdom of the forest.

But I don’t believe it. This kind of statement is too mysterious. I believe in another kind of statement, that is, this phenomenon is that some animals are driving their prey into a circle.

Pan Zi also said, “The current situation may be similar. I feel that these snakes are really forcing us to go in one direction, and they are correcting our direction.”

Listening to this, I broke into a cold sweat, thinking it was too incredible.

We dared not go to the place where the sound came from, and it was impossible to turn back, so we would definitely choose to go around. So as long as we made a sound in the place where we were going, we would definitely arrive at a place after going around for a while. This reminds me of the invisible walls in the Devil’s City.

Pan Zi pointed to the direction from which the sound came: “I know that there is a kind of wolf that will do this to force a large prey to death. If the prey keeps avoiding the sound of the wolf, it will be driven to a desperate situation, such as on the edge of a cliff, and then forced by the wolf to fall. So once we start to detour, we will be caught.”

He said with a fierce look in his eyes, “Thanks to the suspiciousness of the little third master, otherwise we would really be in big trouble.”

I thought to myself, are you praising me or insulting me? The fat guy asked, “So what should we do now? Can we just go back the way we came?”

Pan Zi said, “I’m afraid there won’t even be a way back. Since they’re blocking the front, they’ll definitely block the back. This is called forcing us to go to the Liangshan Mountains. We can only meet them. Since they don’t want to kill us, then they must think we’re good for them. We’ll take a gamble and see if we can get past them.”

Originally, I thought we could avoid danger along the way and find Uncle San, but it seems that this is not possible at this time. Pan Zi proposed to take the initiative to attack. No matter what the opponent is, we cannot be lured into a trap. At that time, there may be something worse than death waiting for us.

The fat man said that he had already said that he would do it, but we still had to go around in circles, wasting time.

So they began to prepare, but in this environment, our weapons were almost useless for self-defense. Pan Zi’s gun couldn’t fire continuously, and if the first shot missed, it was no better than a dagger.

The three of them thought about it and made a few torches, two with short handles and one with a long handle. Most animals are afraid of fire, and even large beasts like bears would be afraid to approach if they saw three balls of fire.

As long as the flames can help us deter the enemy, Pan Zi will have time to shoot and reload, and he should be able to handle the danger. Of course, the real situation will only be known in time.

Pan Zi said that if the opponent is a human, he can completely sneak up without being noticed. His ability to sneak up in the woods in Vietnam is quite good, but if it is a snake, it is tantamount to suicide, not to mention the monster that no one knows what it is. I don’t know if it’s Ning, but since the sound came from this thing, it must also be in front of us. So we have to avoid a head-on confrontation as much as possible, and our main goal is to pass through. If that doesn’t work, then we’ll have to fight desperately.

We were ready, lit our torches, and slowly crept in the direction of the sound.

This is actually quite a contradictory thing. In the rainforest at midnight, holding a torch is undoubtedly the biggest target, more conspicuous than driving a tank, but all three of us are crouching there, as if we are going to sneak up on someone. It’s a bit like holding a sign that says “I’m a moron, I’m here to spy” and barging into the women’s bathroom.

The rustling sound was not far from us, probably only two or three hundred meters. All our attention was focused on the surroundings and the sound. We could hear the sound getting closer and closer, and it was getting clearer and clearer. The feeling of radio noise was becoming more and more obvious, and I couldn’t help but swallow my saliva. But even so, we still couldn’t hear what the sound was actually saying.

Soon, the sound was so close that it was almost above our heads. Pan Zi raised his hand to stop us, and we looked up to see the shadow of a ghostly tree overhead.

We couldn’t tell which tree it was. The trees here have almost merged into one canopy, and it’s impossible to tell which tree is which.