Killing Jungle (Part 1)

The crude camp from yesterday had already taken shape. A metal wall roughly five hundred meters long and wide enclosed a small square fortress. Inside stood several rows of simple metal prefab buildings, fuel tanks, a generator room, a kitchen, and other structures. They had even built a four-hundred-meter field runway, and two small attack planes were taking off from it.

Siren was inside one of the metal prefab buildings serving as a command room, chuckling as he read the data report in his hands.

The richness of this planet was simply beyond imagination. Its perfect natural environment, flawless ecosystem, and staggering mineral reserves made it a treasure planet gifted by heaven to the Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group. In just one night, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft had searched the surrounding five hundred kilometers and discovered five rare Zakla Energy Crystal mines. Their reserves were so abundant that even Siren, with his dark and ruthless mind, could not help laughing aloud. Not to mention the other two large gold mines, practically exposed on the surface in the form of natural gold nuggets.

To hell with the Federation's "Interstellar Development Act." This planet would become Sacred Unicorn's secret base. Give Siren ten years, and he would have the strength to challenge the Federation!

"There is no shortage of geniuses and heroes in this world. They merely lack a little luck." Siren suddenly clicked his tongue, tugged at the corner of his eye with a finger, and made a face. "Without a doubt, I am a hero blessed with good luck, and I have never lacked luck."

With a satisfied sigh, Siren pointed a finger, and a streak of silver light flashed before him. A young woman in a traditional maid's gown appeared from the silver light, her face delicate and her figure voluptuous. The moment she appeared, she respectfully dropped to her knees before Siren. "Great Master, your servant is willing to do anything for you."

Siren gave an evil smile. He cupped the young woman's face and was about to press her head toward his crotch when the command room door was violently shoved open.

With a crisp pop, the young woman turned into specks of silver light and vanished into the air. Siren glared angrily at the intruder.

The one who rushed into the command room was a tall, beautiful woman with fiery red hair and the agile grace of a leopard. She was also Siren's most trusted confidante and his adjutant.

"Uh, Aredia, could you knock before coming in next time?" Siren's gaze swept over the red-haired beauty's full breasts beneath her silver uniform like a fly's mouthparts.

"I don't have time for that, Siren!" Aredia slammed a document down in front of him. Two flames blazed fiercely in the depths of her eyes. "A team of nearly three hundred people sent to hunt Gu Xiechen was ambushed by him. Hyena, who led the team, was injured. And what were you doing? Playing with your puppets again?"

"No!" Siren looked at Aredia with an innocent gaze like that of a holy angel. "How could I possibly have improper thoughts about those pitiful energy constructs? Hmm, let me see the intelligence."

He hurriedly grabbed the document before him. After skimming through the information, Siren suddenly jumped to his feet.

"Praise all goddesses, this is good news! At least it proves that guy is less than a hundred kilometers from us. He's still nearby!"

"May every god who has blasphemed those goddesses go to hell! That bastard is a ruthless man who repays every slight! Deploy the Dawn Squad. Kill him at all costs. If possible, capture him alive!" Siren waved his hand sharply. "Killing him will only get us a batch of cheap weapons. If we capture him alive, I can extort the Gu Group at least three times!"

Aredia frowned. "The Dawn Squad? You only just managed to build them up. Are you really sending them out?"

Siren walked over to Aredia and cautiously reached out to touch her shoulder. "My dear little witch, their purpose is to serve me. Now is their chance to prove their worth. Why wouldn't I deploy them? Hmm, Gu Xiechen is still within our control. This really is good news!"

Siren was in an excellent mood, so he "accidentally" leaned his head close to Aredia's face, and his lips "happened" to brush over her red lips. Even after an Explosive Flame Bullet suddenly appeared and blasted him flying in a cloud of black smoke, Siren remained in an excellent mood.

That good mood lasted only three days.

Five mercenaries moved cautiously forward in a standard jungle search formation. Gu Xiechen slowly lowered himself from a tree branch like a giant python, his arms sliding bonelessly around the five mercenaries' necks. A sinister, resilient hidden force erupted, and the five mercenaries' necks twisted three hundred and sixty degrees with piercing cracks.

A squad of twenty mercenaries cautiously approached a pool. Three mercenaries remained thirty meters behind them on a dirt mound to stand watch, while the rest went to the water's edge to fill their canteens. As if he had foreseen it all, Gu Xiechen crawled out of a hole in the mound. Like a mad tiger, he slashed out three times and tore open the three sentries' chests, then grabbed a multi-barreled machine gun and sprayed the mercenaries by the pool with wild gunfire. By the time nearby search teams heard the shots and arrived, only corpses remained.

Two fighters from the Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group led more than four hundred mercenaries in a high-profile pursuit along the trail Gu Xiechen had left behind. The trunk of a great tree suddenly exploded. Gu Xiechen burst from a tree hollow in a gust of wind and appeared behind the two fighters. The Snow Soul Divine Claw struck the vital points at their backs with bone-piercing cold. The fighters coughed blood and collapsed forward. Gu Xiechen let out a dragon-like roar and charged in from the front of the formation. Braving the concentrated fire of hundreds, he slaughtered his way out through the rear and vanished into the vast jungle. More than two hundred mercenary corpses lay behind, while over a hundred more mercenaries with shattered tendons and broken bones groaned painfully on the ground.

Gradually, as more and more mercenaries were killed or wounded, the number of lethal weapons Gu Xiechen could use also increased.

Whenever the search teams rested in the jungle, five or six grenades would suddenly come flying from afar, blowing the mercenaries into chaotic disarray.

Several small attack planes sped past at low altitude. Three missiles with long flaming trails suddenly shot out from the treetops and blew two of the attack planes apart in midair.

By the third day, things had finally reached a level Siren could no longer tolerate. Early in the morning, Siren had just gotten up and was squatting outside the command room brushing his teeth when three shots rang out. Three sentries standing in front of the command room fell dead on the spot, each one shot through the forehead, their heads blown apart by distant sniper fire.

In three days, Sacred Unicorn's mercenaries had lost over thirteen hundred men, with more than two thousand seriously wounded. Not a single one had suffered only minor injuries. The first mercenary forces sent to capture Gu Xiechen had been almost entirely wiped out, and all nine Innate-level fighters had been wounded. Even the Dawn Squad Siren had sent out failed to catch so much as a glimpse of Gu Xiechen. They always arrived first at the sites of attacks, but by then Gu Xiechen had long since fled several kilometers away. Where could they find him in the boundless jungle?

Crouching atop the crown of a hundred-meter-tall giant tree and looking out at Sacred Unicorn's camp, Gu Xiechen, covered in moss and dust, looked like a savage. He slowly chewed on field rations taken from mercenaries, occasionally raising a small flask for a sip of wine. A field backpack hung from a branch beside him, stuffed with sausages, bacon, cheese, chocolate, canned wine, and other food. If not for the dark clouds filling the sky and threatening a heavy downpour, this would have been like a spring picnic.

Gu Xiechen carried another field backpack on his back, packed with grenades and plastic explosives. Every firearm had an embedded tracking chip. Gu Xiechen had no way to remove them, so every gun had to be discarded immediately after use. Only consumables such as grenades and explosives lacked tracking functions, so he dared carry them with him.

"I'll give you something nasty."

He dug a hole over a foot deep into the trunk with his fingers, stuffed the field ration packaging inside, then tightly sealed it with wood chips. Every trace was cleaned away completely.

"I'll definitely give you something nasty to taste."

An aged, trembling voice seemed to echo beside Gu Xiechen's ear. "If you want to live, you must repay tooth with tooth and blood with blood. When someone only wants to hurt you, the best way is to kill him and everyone connected to him before he can act."

"The old man was right!" Gu Xiechen bared his teeth. Sitting cross-legged on the branch, he stared at the camp and pondered. "I need to show you something nasty, but... this is a little troublesome."

The trouble had arrived.

Gu Xiechen watched several heavy mining trucks roll into the camp under the protection of a large force of mercenaries. Among those mercenaries were more than thirty tough men in fitted white uniforms. Gu Xiechen recognized those men in white. Several times, less than five minutes after he attacked the mercenaries, these men had arrived at the scene. Every one of them was extremely powerful, an Innate-level expert. Their Innate Qi was no less condensed than Gu Xiechen's, and any one of them had the strength to defeat him head-on.

The mining trucks stopped in the middle of the camp. Their beds slowly rose, dumping a huge pile of raw Zakra Crystal ore onto the ground.

After estimating from afar, Gu Xiechen concluded that the pile contained at least thirty cubic meters of raw Zakra Crystal ore. After refinement, it should yield twenty-five cubic meters of standard energy crystal blocks. Gu Xiechen's eyes instantly turned red. Twenty-five cubic meters of Zakra Crystal—how much could that increase his cultivation? Not to mention that with those energy crystals, he might truly be able to awaken his realm and possess the power a Realm Master should have.

Siren stepped out of the command room and stood in the center of the camp, slowly raising his right hand toward the sky. As if he knew Gu Xiechen was watching, Siren pointed his middle finger straight into the air. A long howl burst from his mouth, his abundant Qi carrying the sound waves far into the distance. Like a tiger's roar in the forest, it made the surrounding jungle sway with rustling shadows.

"Pfft!" Gu Xiechen dismissed Siren's provocation with contempt. He sat on the branch with one leg crossed over the other, quietly waiting for Siren's next move.

Silver light rose beneath Siren's feet, and he floated above the pile of raw Zakra Crystal ore. A beam of silver light shot from his eyes. It wrapped around the crystal ore as streams of brilliant light continuously flowed into Siren's body. The immense aura of energy could be sensed even by Gu Xiechen several kilometers away. Second by second, strands of silver light began spraying from Siren's body. Each strand transformed into a young woman in a silver uniform holding a long blade. The moment they appeared, the young women shouted, "Long live Master!" and marched in formation toward the jungle.

"Damn it!" Gu Xiechen froze.

Streak after streak of silver light continued to spray out, and one young woman after another—dainty, innocent, graceful, or stunningly beautiful—was born from the void.

A new week, a new beginning... comrades, hand over your recommendation votes and clicks...

Recommend, recommend, recommend... (To be continued)