Chapter 67: Traitor?

  "Do you still remember that we saw many passages leading to the depths of the ground in the tunnel? It might be the dotted line represented on this sheepskin map. The solid and dotted lines represent how deep or shallow the tunnel is from the ground." I said.

  The statue is exactly at the intersection of the dotted lines, which means that there are many deep tunnels under the feet of the statue.

  "But just from this flat map, we can't see the real depth, and there's another problem." Balza analyzed calmly: "You see, this is a dotted line, from east to west, both ends are connected by solid lines. The question is, if you enter the dotted line from the two solid lines, you may be entering two completely different channels."

  I immediately reacted and couldn't help but exclaim: "The two tunnels overlap with each other, one above the other!"

  "Not bad, and it's even possible that there are more than two, as long as the excavators are crazy enough, 180 lines wouldn't be a problem." Barza nodded, staring at the plan view of the centipede pattern and continued: "If I'm not mistaken, this is just an overhead view, there should also be left views, front views, etc., or it's a drawing of a stereogram with clear markings."

  I understand what Barza means. If someone really spent incredible effort to survey the tunnel's route, he wouldn't be stupid enough to waste his efforts with a map that only reflects thirty percent of the information.

  Barza said curiously: "I wonder why the tunnel has to be dug out in a centipede pattern, does the designer have some kind of weird hobby?"

  I calmly said: "Maybe this is their totem belief, just like the dragon of the Han nationality."

  I finished speaking, and Balza shook his head: "I've never heard of any ethnic minority worshipping centipedes. Even the mysterious remnants of the Jiuli tribe don't seem to believe in this."

  "Who told you this was done by a known civilization? It could be an ancient nation from a very distant era, and now this civilization has disappeared in the long river of history." I said with profound meaning, just short of loudly telling him that it might be the product of an underground civilization.

  "Impossible!" I didn't expect Balza to reject my statement so resolutely.

  I stared in shock: "What does it mean?"

  "The era is not right. You haven't been in the army, so you naturally haven't seen trench works. Over time, they will be buried by rain and sand. This is a deep mountain forest, although there is no wind and sand, but there is a lot of rain, plus the growth of shrubs, it's easy to collapse and be occupied by plants and animals. And this tunnel looks still passable, so I say that the excavation time of these tunnels can't possibly be in ancient times, it's already good if it can be traced back to the Qing Dynasty." Barza nodded his head in agreement with the analysis.

  I listened quietly and was stunned.

  What Ba Erjia said actually makes sense!

  "Was it me who jumped to conclusions, seeing the similar centipede pattern and reflexively thinking that both the underground web and the underground golden pyramid were created by an underground civilization?" I breathed faster, if it wasn't an underground civilization... then who?

  My gaze at the sheepskin map was more serious and solemn than before.

  "There's not enough information, let's just put the drawings away for now. Hehe, Tian Wenliang wants us to collect all the secrets here, and now we've made some gains." Balza stuffed the sheepskin paper into his pocket.

  We stood before the corpse in military uniform, bowed our heads again, and then dragged the body to the ground. We quickly dug a hole and buried him hastily. Although we didn't know his name, since we were all working for the same country and party, no one liked the idea of not being able to rest in peace after death.

  However, the identity of this person is a bit interesting. Is it our predecessor from the Secret Bureau who was deceived by the superior and came here to execute the mission like us? Or is it secretly digging into the power of this vast underground network?

  In doubt, we continued on our way.

  The red signal smoke continued to burn.

  To make up for the lost time, we quickened our pace on purpose. To be honest, it was no easy task to navigate through this broken forest full of natural pitfalls. I almost fell into a mud pit and sank past my knees; if not for Barza's incredible strength pulling me up, I would have been done for.

  I'm covered in mud, shivering with cold. I can feel the mud and sludge inside my pants and pant legs, and some earthworms or something are squirming around, making me nauseous to death. Now I'd give anything for a pool of water to wash myself clean.

  Racing against time, after half an hour, the distance from the signal smoke was less than 100 meters.

  "Hurry up, just one more breath," Balza said with joy.

  But be that as it may, we exchanged a look and with practiced ease loaded our guns, on high alert more than before. The signal smoke meant an SOS, in other words... there was some kind of danger here that ordinary people couldn't handle alone.

  As usual, we were on the lookout for each other, one in front and one behind, covering each other's backs. After a period of adaptation, we had already established a preliminary tacit understanding.

  Fifty meters, thirty meters, ten meters, four meters, one meter...

  I heard Balza rustling through the leaves, and suddenly he felt a chill on his back, quickly retreating several steps towards me. I was shocked and hastily asked: "What's wrong?"

  I made a swift and neat turn, gun at the ready before I even got there, shouting: "Who?"

  As I looked clearly at the signal smoke, a familiar figure was standing on the edge of the station. Without saying another word, I also retreated several steps, exchanging a bitter smile with Balza with an odd expression.

  "What are you doing, why are you looking at me like I'm a ghost!" Xu Erniang hummed in dissatisfaction with our reaction.

  "It's probably just a monster..." I muttered to myself in a voice that was barely audible.

  Barza reacted a bit better, after all, he was a man who had been with Xu Erniang in his dreams. Seeing Xu Erniang unscathed, he couldn't help but ask: "What danger did you encounter that made you send out a distress signal?"

  Xu Erniang looked bewildered: "Didn't you send it? I just arrived a minute ago, and there's not a single companion in sight."

  We were all stunned and couldn't understand what was going on. Looking around, it was an extremely ordinary forest, with no signs of fighting, no bloodstains, and no scattered backpacks or supplies. The only thing that existed was a solitary signal smoke bomb on the ground, emitting red smoke. Tian Wenliang's specially increased smoke volume could be released for a long time.

  Who put this here?

  "Tian Wenliang's signal smoke bomb seems to have a number on it..." I said, and immediately, everyone's eyes were fixed on the smoke bomb without exception.

  Just as Ba Er was bending down to pick it up, three or four wooden stick-like things suddenly fell from the top of his head, still emitting a faint wisp of smoke.

  I just took a glance and was so frightened that my face changed color suddenly.

  "Grenade!"

  Things happened too quickly, we didn't have time to react, and instinctively ran for our lives, this time it was really a matter of life and death.

  "Quickly lie down!" Less than ten meters away, Barza shouted loudly.

  Rumble...

  A deafening explosion pierced the eardrum, buzzing in my head. Shrapnel hit the thick backpack, blocked by the equipment inside, covered with a layer of mud, and for a moment, the air was filled with a strong smell of gunpowder.

  Luckily, no shrapnel hit my legs. The huge shockwave made me extremely uncomfortable, especially the vibrations from the ground that made my internal organs ache.

  I was originally at the back of the three, so I escaped the fastest. When I turned my head to look at Balza and Xu Erniang, the former stood up with a pat on his buttocks, with fresh blood oozing from the corner of his mouth, apparently suffering from internal injuries. Xu Erniang was much more miserable, covered in blood, struggling desperately to get up.

  My face fell, if it weren't for the lush trees here blocking most of the splashing bullets, we would be in a precarious situation, not like this now.

  "Quickly!" Xu Erniang pushed away the Baerzha who wanted to come forward and carry her, shouting: "Can't you see that we've fallen into someone else's trap?"

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  A hail of bullets swept over, instantly piercing Xu Erniang's heart. Xu Erniang stared with wide eyes, her beautiful face contorted in a different expression. She couldn't believe she would actually die in such a place. Fresh blood flowed from the corner of her mouth, and with a reluctant sigh, she swallowed her last breath of fragrance.

  She died with her eyes open.

  "No!" Barza burst into tears for the first time in his life.

  I hastily pulled him who was stunned.

  Bang!

  Luckily, one shot went awry and hit Balza's arm instead.

  If we don't leave now, we'll all be dead!

  "Xu Erniang, get the old man to run!" I gritted my teeth in hatred. The old man was about to die and save himself. One punch landed on Balza's freshly wounded bullet hole, splashing blood everywhere. Balza's body shook violently, and he immediately woke up, looked at Xu Erniang's corpse lying in the pool of blood, clenched his teeth, turned around and ran away.

  "Get out of here, get out of here! I'm not done with you yet!" Balza yelled at the top of his lungs as he ran, the burly man having gone mad.

  I was even calmer, although we also had guns in our hands, but the number of opponents was unclear, and they were hiding somewhere unknown, with the enemy being clear and us being in the dark, a head-on collision would have no chance of winning.

  I took Barza into the thicket and made irregular runs, firing cold guns in the direction of the gunshot while walking, delaying the opponent's pursuit time, best to kill him directly with a burst of gunfire.

  "Wooo... traitor, it must be that traitor among us who did this!" Balza shouted in a state of panic, running with a broken tooth and a mouthful of blood.

  "Traitor? You also received that call!" I was shocked and lost color.

  Could it be... that mysterious person didn't just call me, but also called someone else!

  "Hoo, hoo, hoo, cough, cough. Tian Wenliang said that to each of us after playing the tape. He just didn't say it to you, so at first I thought you were the traitor... Hoo, brother, sorry for misunderstanding you..." Balza replied breathlessly, originally his physical condition wasn't this bad, but he was too excited just now and now he's severely overexerted.

  I was stunned and almost stopped in my tracks.

  "Tian Wenliang? How did he know...?" A few seconds later, I slapped my forehead and suddenly realized: "In the foreign building... Tian Wenliang eavesdropped on my phone call!"

  This son of a bitch, I've been played by him again.

  The two of us ran wildly all the way, probably sprinting out a straight-line distance of three or four hundred meters, and the gunfire could no longer be heard.

  Balza began deliberately smearing the fresh blood from his wound onto branches as he passed them, doing so at regular intervals.

  Another hundred meters later, we suddenly changed direction and dispersed to hide behind a large tree.

  The offense and defense have switched, now it's our turn to counterattack!

  We were very much in sync with each other and neither of us said a word.

  Suddenly, Balza threw his backpack out ten meters as bait and immediately hid back in the original position.

  I hold my breath and remain still, waiting for the other party to follow the trail of blood and fall into the trap.

  Judging from the gunfire just now, the number of people on the other side is not many, and it is even possible that there is only one person. This is also the main reason why we dare to counter-ambush.

  I didn't expect this mission to go awry, losing a comrade in less than a day. Although I had no connection with Xu Erniang, her death was still pitiful. A woman like her coming to this desolate mountain wilderness to carry out an inhuman task must have been a woman with a story. Unfortunately, we'll never know about her past now; sometimes people are really fragile.

  Shaking his head, this is not the time to be sentimental.

  "I must be ruthless, this is the capital to survive in a chaotic world." I kept reminding myself, while reciting the one hundred rules of military unification survival method non-stop, hardening my heart.

  I took a glance at Balza's hiding spot, he was different from me. Although he was an assassin, he was a man of great passion. After all, he had followed the King of Assassins, Wang Ya Qiao, and had a strong sense of patriotism.

  An hour passed in silence.

  The thicket was eerily still, even the distant howling of wolves had ceased, as if the night had passed too quietly.

  I'm getting a bit impatient, it's been so long and the other party probably doesn't intend to pursue us. However, I see that Balza is still quietly hiding there, I sighed, ah, he's determined to take revenge for Xu Erniang, as long as there's even a slight possibility of the other party chasing after us, he won't stop.

  It suddenly flashed through my mind that this might be the case: "What if the traitor never intended to kill us from the start, but instead waited by Xu Erniang's corpse, waiting for the explosion just now to attract other companions, wouldn't it be..."

  Thinking of this, I shuddered all over and hesitated whether to go back... No way, it's too dangerous!

  Just as I was fighting with the heavenly soldier, a black shadow flashed quickly towards us from behind the trees.

  I swallowed hard and my finger tightened on the trigger.