Vol 11: Chapter 7-2.
Everyone slept peacefully until the next morning, except for Zheng. However, he looked energized. A whole night of practicing qi recovered more energy than sleeping. The exhaustion and injury from using Explosion was gone. He stood up after everyone else got up.
They washed themselves in the stream. Zheng handed out solidified water and compressed food to the others. They swallowed the pills with curiosity and the hunger immediately disappeared.
“This is good stuff. If you sell these to the London ladies on diet and tell them it’s to lose weight, you can probably make a fortunate.” Jonathan said with excitement.
Zheng sigh. “I have to admit you are a genius. Your grasp on commercial opportunities is strong. That can also explain why you are so sensitive to money.”
While they packed their bags, Zheng jumped up to the top of a tree to observing the surroundings. A layer of morning mist filled the forest. Ardeth was excited to see the mist and took several breaths of them. Such a large forest in the desert was a strange occurrence after all. However, the viscosity of the mist was troubling to Zheng. He couldn’t see past a thousand meters. Then he jumped back down.
“We just have to keep going. Damn it. We forgot to bring a compass. God knows how we are going to cross this forest.”
Jonathan took out a compass from his pocket with a weird look. “I don’t mind trading a compass for one bar of gold.”
Zheng seized it at once and laughed. “That’s great. No problem. But where did you get this compass? I don’t remember you ever buying something similar.”
O’Connell said. “Why does this compass look familiar? I seemed to see Izzy walking around with it on the dirigible.”
Jonathan laughed loudly. “Nope, nope. You must have got it wrong. Haha.” Then he walked into the trees.
Everyone knew what happened and shook their heads. They followed Jonathan’s direction for almost a hundred meters. Jonathan suddenly ran back at full speed while screaming. A spotted cheetah was chasing after him.
O’Connell sighed. He took out a gun and yelled. “Don’t you know how to use a gun? It’s just a little cheetah.”
Jonathan yelled back. “Run! Lots… lots of monkeys!” He ran past everyone. For a moment, they forgot to attack the cheetah because it sounded so bewildering. The cheetah also ran past them like a dog that had lost a fight.
They turned toward where he came from and saw several boars running out from behind the trees. Then short monkeys followed holding, uh. The monkeys were holding onto rifles and shooting at the boars. More and more monkeys came out, at least a hundred of them.
They turned around in sync and began running because they even saw several monkeys with machine guns.
Zheng was grinding his teeth. “Freaking God. When did you ever heard about monkeys with guns? Their numbers alone should have been enough. Are you just so happy to get me killed?”
Zheng had an urge to vomit blood. He took out a grenade as he ran and the submachine gun with the other hand. He pulled the ring and threw it behind without turning his head. A bullet his back at the same time then he got everyone down to the ground. The explosion shockwave blew them away. By the time they landed, there was no more trees standing for a hundred meters behind them.
“Killed 264 Oasis guardians. Obtained 264 points.”
The sudden notification from God at this crucial moment took Zheng by surprise. Then he felt a sharp pain on his shoulder. The stray bullet that hit his back shoulder wasn’t too powerful but it pierced into his muscles. Any movement would bring a tearing pain. His shoulder was full of blood and sweat.
The others got up from the ground, still seemed shocked from the monkeys and gun fire. The army of Anubis, or moving statues, or huge scorpions were understandable. There were too many mysteries in the world. But when they saw monkeys hunting boars and humans with guns, it felt bizarre.
O’Connell was the first to noticed the wound on Zheng’s back. He took out a knife and said. “Don’t move.”
He pierced the knife into the wound carefully then picked the shell out. Zheng handed him the hemostasis spray and bandage. After treating the wound he laugh. “You are a lucky guy. You had to get yourself wounded every time. But can you explain why are monkeys carrying guns? Don’t tell me the Scorpion King’s treasure was an ancient firearm manufacturer.”
Zheng forced a laugh. “I thought there were just pygmies here. Didn’t expect them to be using guns. I wouldn’t have come with just us if I knew beforehand. I would definitely gather a few groups of mercenaries.”
That was not the only thing he didn’t expect. The forest leading to the pyramid wasn’t big in the original movie, at least not big enough for people to get lost. This was probably the difficulty adjustment by God, and also the armed pygmies.
Zheng took a deep breath then took out the Sky Stick. “Wait here. I will go up and take a look at the terrain. See if there’s a shortcut to the pyramid that goes around the monkeys.” He flied up on the Sky Stick.
The sun had rose and the mist dissipated a lot. Zheng looked out the distance and saw a huge, magnificent golden pyramid. On the top of it was a large diamond, the one that Jonathan carried away at the end of the movie.
Maybe it was glare, he suddenly felt the diamond reflected sunlight. Then a beam of light shot from the diamond and penetrated through his left chest before he could react. Luckily, he was wavering a bit to maintain balance on the Sky Stick and the beam missed his heart. It pierced a hole on his left lung. The next moment, he lost balance and fell.
The others on the ground were shocked. They saw a beam of light shot down Zheng and the hoverboard. He had reached twenty meters high. Thankfully, he fell through a thick layer of branches and leaves. His body was full of scratches after he landed on the ground. They could almost see the beating heart through the hole on Zheng’s chest. No one moved for a moment until Zheng spit out a mouthful of blood. Ardeth and O’Connell went over to lie him flat on the ground. Then stopped the bleeding and bandaged him up in a panic. Evelyn was also helping on the side.
The vampire Count bloodline allowed his body to recover automatically as long as his brain and heart were intact. The muscles around the hole on his chest were wriggling ever so slightly. Zheng knew his life was safe. He just had to wait it out.
Jonathan who ran away far off came running back. He wasn’t panicking so there was no danger.
Jonathan yelled as he was approaching. “There’s a big canyon over that way. I almost fell. It looks like an enlarge version of the hole we made at the temple. Why are you looking at me like this?”
Then they all turned to Zheng. He could talk with difficulty now. “If we can lure a large number of monkeys over, I have enough explosives to blow up ten thousand.”