Thirty-Three Manifestations

  Ye Ren and Huang Jun-chi, Zhang Guan-lin came down the mountain, entered the forest, and headed in the direction of the beach.

  It's hard to walk in the woods, with dense foliage overhead and little sunlight filtering through. The view is poor. Plus, it rained last night, making the ground slippery and the soil soft.

  The boots of three people sank into the mud without moving.

  Ye Ren took a step forward and "splat" went half his leg into the mud, which reached up to his knee.

  Huang Jun-chi and Zhang Guan-lin quickly grabbed Ye Ren.

  Ye Ren was fine and reacted quickly, with one foot still stepping on the hard ground.

  With the help of Huang Junji and Zhang Guanlin, Ye Ren pulled his foot out. But to pull one's foot out of such a muddy pit still requires a lot of effort.

  "Mark it down."

  Ye Ren took out his compass and the paper he had drawn on earlier, measured the data of this large mud pit, and marked it on the map.

  The three of them continued on their way after bypassing the muddy pit.

  After walking for about twenty minutes, everyone finally arrived at the seaside.

  At this distance, it was already possible to see clearly that there were three orange lifeboats stranded on the beach.

  Three people surrounded him and checked the situation around them.

  "This is like a new one." Huang Junji said.

  Judging from its appearance, this lifeboat should be a new one, rather than having been exposed to the wind and sun for a long time.

  "Come and take a look here." Ye Ren beckoned to the two people with his hand.

  Huang Junqi and Zhang Guanlin walked over, Ye Ren was inspecting the propeller of the lifeboat.

  There were some seaweeds twining around the propeller.

  The surface of the seaweed has been dried by the sun and its edges have turned yellow and curled up.

  But Ye Ren lifted up the seaweed and touched its back, finding it was still wet.

  "It's fresh." Zhang Guanlin said.

  "It seems there are other people on this island," Ye Ren said.

  Zhang Guanlin and Huang Junji suddenly felt a chill run down their spines and subconsciously looked around.

  "What kind of person is it?" Huang Junji asked.

  "Whether it's good luck or bad luck, bad luck can't be avoided. Let me check." Ye Ren said as he climbed onto the lifeboat and opened the hatch to crawl inside.

  Huang Junji and Zhang Guanlin then walked around the lifeboat to take a look.

  The cabin is not messy, and the life jackets are still in their original place.

  Ye Ren looked at the tidy cabin and felt a growing sense of unease. It was strange that the people who had escaped on the lifeboat hadn't used the emergency equipment on board.

  "Yeran! Come and see this!" Zhang Guanlin shouted from outside.

  Ye Ren crawled out of the cabin and jumped into the lifeboat, walking to the side of Zhang Guanlin and Huang Junji.

  A footprint on the beach.

  Ye Ren looked ahead at the footprints and saw a forest.

  A single footprint stands out very prominently.

  "Why is there only one?" Huang Junzhi stretched out his hand to measure the size of the footprint.

  "It's just an explanation," said Zhang Guanlin.

  "This is a woman, with shoe prints of size 36, and height within 1.65 meters." Huang Junji said.

  "How can a woman drive a boat?" Zhang Guanlin said disapprovingly of Huang Junqi's words.

  "Look at this footprint, the back here is very deep, and the front palm position also has a relatively heavy force, and the entire foot is very narrow, indicating that it is wearing high-heeled shoes. Do you wear high heels?"

  "How can a big man like me wear high heels?" Zhang Guanlin said.

  "It's all right." Huang Junji said.

  "That...that...that's not right either!" Zhang Guanlin still felt that something was off.

  "It's impossible. Even if a woman can sail, she can't possibly sail three boats by herself. And there's no need to sail three boats." Ye Ren said after squatting down to examine the footprints.

  Zhang Guanlin and Huang Junji furrowed their brows, Ye Ren's words had already made it very clear that at least the number of people with unknown identities on the island was not small.

  "The tide has washed away most of the footprints, but fortunately left this one for us." Ye Ren said.

  This footprint led Ye Ren and others to find these people of unknown identity.

  ……

  The cruise ship and pirate ship being towed towards the port were re-boarded and inspected by special forces.

  Special forces used two tugboats to coordinate and flip over the pirate ship before boarding it for inspection.

  Although the pirate ship was everywhere with signs of being soaked in seawater, there was still a lot of information to be collected on this ship in front of the experienced special forces.

  "It seems the pirates left in a hurry." Wang Chaoyang stood at the head of the bed, kicking off a clump of seaweed that had stuck to his foot in the cabin into the sea.

  On the pirate ship, things were very messy, possibly caused by capsizing. However, after a careful search and estimation, the special forces could see through it, only to say that the pirates on the pirate ship left or "disappeared" in a hurry. Some daily necessities in the cabin were still in their original position, and even a large number of weapons and ammunition had not been taken away.

  It's understandable that food and water were not taken away, but it's unusual that the life-saving weapons and ammunition were not taken away.

  "Could it be aliens?" Wang Wei Long said with a furrowed brow.

  It's easy to link cruise ships and pirate ships together, apparently the killings on the cruise ship are closely related to these pirates.

  As for the pirate's motive, isn't it just for revenge?

  However, the problem is that after counting the number of deaths on the cruise ship and comparing it with the actual number of people on board, more than 30 women, children and elderly people were missing, which means that the pirates also took away more than 30 hostages.

  So where have the pirates and hostages gone now?

  "Get out of my sight!" Lin Pengpeng kicked Wang Weilong, "The brothers who inspected the cruise ship over there said that there were three lifeboats missing from the ship."

  "It's normal, such a small pirate ship can't hold many hostages, three lifeboats are just right, look at these three ropes." Wang Chaoyang walked to the stern of the boat and picked up three mooring ropes from the side of the boat.

  There were neat cuts on all three ropes.

  "This is a scar left by a sharp blade. The pirates locked the hostages in a lifeboat and towed them away, where they encountered..."

  "Alien!" Wang Weilong interrupted.

  "Come on! Throw him down to feed the sharks!"

  Wang Chaoyang got angry!

  "Just kidding, it's obviously the fault of the storm. After the storm came, the pirate ship couldn't withstand it, and all the pirates got on the lifeboat and cut off the rope."

  Wang Weilong hastily spoke in a serious tone.

  "This is still going on." Wang Chaoyang gave Wang Weilong a white eye, "Withdraw!"

  The lifeboats used on cruise ships have a fully enclosed structure, and the bottom of the boat has ballast, so even in strong winds and waves, they can ensure that water does not enter and can recover after capsizing.

  So, it was a wise decision for the pirates to abandon their pirate ship which was difficult to support in the turbulent waves and move to the lifeboat.

  ……

  "Footprints!" Zhang Guanlin said.

  Zhang Guanlin said and pulled Ye Ren and Huang Junqi along with him.

  Ye Ren and Huang Junji took a closer look, and on the muddy road were footprints everywhere.

  There were roughly fifty footprints visible.

  "Be careful." Ye Ren drew out his own dagger and held it in a reverse grip.

  Huang Junji and Zhang Guanlin also drew their daggers.

  Three people tread softly, crouching down, and proceed forward in the seclusion of the forest.

  Not long after they left, faint voices of people talking could be heard from up ahead.

  Ye Ren, Huang Junqi and Zhang Guanlin quickly changed their route and approached stealthily.

  In the woods, more than thirty people wearing colorful casual clothes were sitting on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs. Six or seven people holding submachine guns and wearing bulletproof vests were guarding them.

  Three people suddenly tensed up when they saw the gun.

  "We have guests." Ye Ren said.

  "What can we do? We don't have guns." Zhang Guanlin said.

  "Your legs are fast, go back and inform everyone immediately. I'll scout ahead with Huang Junji." Ye Ren said after looking around and thinking for a moment.

  "Alright, I'll go now." Zhang Guanlin responded with a single word and turned around to run towards the mountain cave.

  After Zhang Guanlin left, Huang Junji asked Ye Ren: "What should we do?"

  "Take a look."

  Two people crouched in the woods, carefully observing the movements within the woods.

  "It seems like pirates." Ye Ren said.

  In the woods, apart from the six or seven pirates guarding the hostages, there were four or five pirates who set up a stronghold, using a waterproof cloth to create a shed between several trees.

  In the far distance, several pirates cutting down trees can be vaguely seen.

  ……

  "Something's gone terribly wrong!" Zhang Guanlin rushed to Ren Liang's side.

  "What's the hurry, where are they?"

  Ren Liang was eating wild fruits brought back by his comrades, when he saw Zhang Guanlin rushing back alone, shouting "Something is wrong", and hurried to meet him.

  "We have discovered pirates, and they are both under surveillance."

  Ren Liang was stunned as soon as he heard this.

  "Pirates have taken hostages, what should we do?" Zhang Guanlin asked.

  "Where did the pirates come from?" Ren Guang asked.

  "I don't know, maybe they hijacked a hostage and encountered a storm on their way to the island to take shelter from the wind."

  "Report and request support." Ren Liang said, biting his lip.

  Zhang Guanlin immediately crawled into the cave and asked his brother who was watching the radio to contact the command center.

  "Assembly!" Ren Liang shouted loudly.

  The new recruits immediately gathered over.

  "Brothers, on this island we've discovered pirates with hostages in their hands. We're going over to take a look and try to rescue the hostages. If not, we'll at least gather enough intel for the reinforcements." Ren Liang said to everyone.

  "Understood!" The new recruits said.

  "This time we don't have guns, only knives, and the pirates have guns, so we can't fight head-on, we need to act quietly." Ren Guang said, "The radio follows us, Li Jiaye takes care of the wounded, you few stay here to receive reinforcements and guard supplies. The rest of us will take action together."

  ……

  "The new recruits have discovered pirates! They are on an island." The aide-de-camp reported the situation back to the brigade commander over the wireless.

  The travelers, commissars and chiefs of staff who were originally sitting in their chairs all stood up at once.

  Wang Chaoyang, who had been gazing at the sea chart, also turned around.

  "Let the women's reconnaissance team act and support the new soldier team!" The brigade commander gave a decisive combat order.

  "King Wei Long! Get ready for action!" Wang Chaoyang grabbed the helmet on the table and shouted to King Wei Long.

  "Yes!" Wang Wei Long immediately grabbed the walkie-talkie on the table, "Dream Reaper! Kill Day! Hurry up and board, stand by on the helicopter!"

  The special forces soldiers quickly boarded the Mi-8 helicopter on the helipad.

  Wang Chaoyang and Wang Weilong rushed over from a nearby command post.

  The female soldiers had just finished boarding at this time.