Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 1378 - 48: Siege (Third Update)

Chapter 1378: Chapter 48: Siege (Third Update)

"How could I dare?" The sanitation worker’s face was full of unease, while other newbies didn’t care about them; everyone was anxious, hungry and thirsty, wondering how they could survive in the jungle.

Mu Nianqi sensed that the atmosphere had turned ominous. Once Tang Zheng had left, the team became somewhat unstable and lost their sense of security—it turned out, he was far more important to the team than the queen had anticipated.

"Uncle Weiguo, it seems like we can eat this insect!" Lu Fan, not needing anybody’s care, squatted under a tree and stabbed an insect with his folding knife, waving it at the old soldier like a treasure.

"Mm, it’s edible!" The old soldier, seasoned and experienced, wiped the sweat from his forehead while searching for water and food; the large team size was a heavy burden.

Lu Fan brought the insect close to his face, but just as he opened his mouth, he caught a whiff of a pungent, foul odor and pulled the folding knife away in disgust.

"Hehe, don’t push yourself!" Sha Ou laughed loudly.

"Uncle Sha Ou, you eat it!" Lu Fan’s eyes flickered between black and white as he passed the insect over, "You’re not frightened, are you? You need to set an example for us!"

"I’m not hungry, let her eat first!" Sha Ou grabbed the insect and handed it over to the private room princess beside him.

"No, I’m not hungry either!" The private room princess refused, finding the disgusting insect utterly repulsive; it made her skin crawl.

"Eat, it’s for your own good!" Seeing the woman refuse, Sha Ou firmly grasped her chin and shoved the insect into her mouth, "Swallow it."

Tears streamed down the woman’s face, and as Sha Ou released his grip, she crouched on the ground and vomited intensely.

"How can you possibly survive looking like this?" Sha Ou sighed; he was actually just messing with her.

Inside, the private room princess cursed Sha Ou, but her face showed nothing but gratitude.

"Hmph, boring." Lu Fan turned and left. After about an hour, he found a massive beehive and immediately cheered up, "Fei Fei, come quickly, electrify them!"

Ruan Feifei swung her hand, sending out electric currents; the dead bees crackled and fell, soon forming a thick layer on the ground, completely eradicated.

Without needing Lu Fan to act, Shen Qingshuang and Sha Ou had already volunteered and plucked the meter-tall beehive.

"Wow! Huge!" Sha Ou split open the beehive, dug out a piece of honey mixed with bee larvae with his hand, and stuffed it into his mouth, "Delicious."

"Mind your eating manners!" Lu Fan chided, cutting off half of the beehive; however, she did not eat it herself but rather approached Xin Lan to feed her.

Sha Ou felt somewhat embarrassed, realizing his selfishness.

After more than two hours of dry trekking, Tang Zheng and Gu Xueqi found a waterfall, with cool stream water flowing and moisture in the air.

"Let’s rest for a while!" Tang Zheng found a tree as thick as a fist, cut it down, stripped its branches and leaves at the top, made cross-shaped cuts, then inserted two tree branches in the middle, thus creating a fish fork with four prongs.

"To increase the hunting area?" Watching Tang Zheng step into the stream, Gu Xueqi, who was washing her face nearby, marveled at his skills.

"Mm!" Tang Zheng realized he was superfluous; with his current ability, even a wooden spear could skew any swimming small fish.

Gu Xueqi glanced at the pumpkin carriage ornament hanging on her waist, unable to activate it.

"Eat sashimi or grilled fish?" Listening to the birds chirping in the Tree Forest, Tang Zheng resisted the urge to summon the musketeer to shoot them down.

"Let’s have grilled fish. Eating raw might make us sick. I’ll gather some firewood!" Gu Xueqi moved swiftly; by the time Tang Zheng caught ten fish, she had returned with a bundle of branches and dry leaves.

"Look, a dry bird’s nest can be used for kindling!" Gu Xueqi discovered it under a tree and picked up a piece of wood, sharpened it.

"You’re not planning to make fire by friction, are you?" Tang Zheng stopped fishing, crouching by the stream, his wrist flicking—the folding knife created a blur, scraping off the scales.

"Yes, I’ve always wanted to try it." Gu Xueqi was a girl after all, her childlike spirit still intact.

Although Gu Xueqi was a genius, she clearly wasn’t a survival expert. Black smoke billowed up, sparks flew, but the fire just wouldn’t start.

"Damn, cough, why won’t it light?" Gu Xueqi, irritated and tearful from the smoke.

"Use this? Fire making by friction depends on the kindling and patience; don’t expect to get it right in under ten minutes." Tang Zheng took off his magnesium rod and tossed it over.

Gu Xueqi caught it expertly, not needing to ask how to use it.

After setting up the bird’s nest and padding it with dry leaves, Lu Fan started scraping off some magnesium powder and fiercely rubbed the magnesium rod with his folding knife. Sparks flew wildly, and within moments, the bird’s nest ignited.

Having had their fill, the two continued on their way, unaware that the smoke from their fire had attracted some unwelcome visitors.

"We’re too slow, let’s make a wooden raft!" The creek was flowing downward, slippery, and covered in moss, making it difficult to travel. Gu Xueqi slipped frequently, having already fallen several times, and even Tang Zheng did not escape unscathed.

"Alright!" Tang Zheng looked around and noticed that it was getting dark, not suitable for traveling. "You should be content, wearing protective clothing. I was in the second Trojan Horse Game I participated in last year, a jungle war, and it was much tougher than this!"

"Trojan wouldn’t fail to notify us, right? It’s been almost four hours!" After the initial caution, they even started speaking louder, recognizing that they couldn’t maintain high levels of concentration forever due to limited energy.

"I don’t know, you go chop some vines, and I’ll chop trees—don’t stray too far, stay within a distance where we can hear each other’s noise." Gu Xueqi, ever so diligent, truly was a great assistant.

Tang Zheng picked a tree and placed the blade of his folding knife at an angle on the bark, then took a rock with his other hand and smashed it into the wood. With his strength, the trunk snapped after just a few hits.

"The tree’s down!" Tang Zheng, mimicking the custom of lumberjacks, shouted as a reminder to Gu Xueqi because the silence of the rainforest could be suffocating and maddening if left undisturbed.

No response came back, but Tang Zheng didn’t mind; he crouched down to chop a second tree. Just as he grabbed the rock and struck once, a faint swishing sound came from behind, like the light flutter of a bee – a sound he wouldn’t have heard if he hadn’t activated his 2nd tier hero ability.

Instinctively, Tang Zheng ducked his head and forcefully rolled to the side, throwing the rock towards the potential source of the attack.

Pfft, pfft, pfft – three poison needles coated in black grazed Tang Zheng’s cheek and embedded themselves into the tree trunk.

The rock flown with a whizzing sound and hit something, indicated by a muffled grunt, clearly someone unfortunate had been hit.

"Careful, enemy attack!" Tang Zheng shouted, both to warn his companion and to unnerve the enemy, indicating they were not alone.

Whoosh, whoosh – two sharp javelins shot out from the dense forest. Tang Zheng dodged, and the javelins actually pierced through the tree trunk, manifesting the incredible strength of the attackers.

"Humans? Trojan Squad?" As Tang Zheng dodged, his mind raced. Owning such arm strength was no ordinary feat; thus, he concluded they must be Conquerors. As for monsters, they typically wouldn’t use props.

After the failed ambush, the enemy initiated a full-on assault accompanied by a fierce high-pitched war cry to boost morale. A dozen dark-skinned natives, clad only in skirts made of leafy vines, charged out.

They were hideous but strongly muscled, tall with long legs, each stride covering two meters, and they moved with striking agility, adorned with various bright feathers on their heads.

Carrying animal skin backpacks filled with javelins, they moved uniformly in groups of three, quickly pulling out and hurling them at Tang Zheng to limit his mobility.

"I guessed wrong, something must have happened to Gu Xueqi, I need to end this quickly!" Not hearing any response from Gu Xueqi, Tang Zheng panicked. Facing the incoming javelins, he suddenly grabbed one and, swinging his arm, hurled it back.

The force of Tang Zheng’s throw turned the javelin into a meteor; the targeted native couldn’t dodge in time. Blurred vision was followed by a chest pain as the javelin pierced through, and he staggered backward a few steps and fell dead.

The natives, fearless in battle, intensified their assault, their formation now a semi-circle, completely blocking Tang Zheng’s path.

"Damn it, the gap they left is toward Gu Xueqi’s side; they’re herding me there, probably more natives waiting—this is an encirclement." Although Tang Zheng knew danger awaited, he had no choice but to rescue Gu Xueqi.

Tang Zheng sprinted, tree branches painfully smacking his face. Twenty meters out, a native suddenly dropped from a tree trunk, one hand wielding a blow dart aimed at him and then dropped to grab a javelin aimed at his head.

"Damn, it’s an ambush!" The natives were even smarter than Tang Zheng had anticipated. They had predicted that the enemy would seek to regroup upon attack, setting up an ambush in advance. This was just the first layer; if their prey broke through, more encirclements awaited.

Tang Zheng sidestepped, dodging the dart brimming with venom, and then dashed full speed, charging at the native.

The native exhaled a battle cry, his ferocious face attacked Tang Zheng, his yellow teeth emitting a foul smell.

"Die!" Tang Zheng had already switched his folding knife to his right hand. He parried the javelin with his left hand and swung his right arm out, the blade sweeping like a venomous snake, slicing through the native’s neck.

Tang Zheng and the native passed each other, the latter convulsing before falling, blood spurting profusely from the neck.

Another native charged diagonally at close range with a blow dart aimed.

Tang Zheng ducked and charged. As he neared the native, he suddenly kicked up a mix of rotten leaves and soil, blinding his opponent while accelerating suddenly, his blade precisely slashing the native’s trachea.

Behind him, the sound of a dart approached. Tang Zheng grabbed the native’s corpse and threw it behind him as a meat shield.

"No signs of combat, it’s over, Gu Xueqi must have been flipped by a dart!" Seeing no sign of Flame Phoenix, Tang Zheng grew worried. If the enemy was using hostages to threaten him, that spelled trouble.

With a wave of his left hand, the Ozark Eagle shrieked out, crushing through obstacles like a tank, clearing many roadblocks.

Indeed, this action was rather mindless; not only would it reveal some of his strength, but it also made his route obvious, letting the enemy know how to intercept. But to speed things up, Tang Zheng had no other choice. (To be continued. If you enjoy this, please visit qidian.com to vote and support the author.)