The End

Because the raft needed to carry nine people, the workload was enormous. Jack and the others helped at first, but they had spent years working in offices, and before long, they were too exhausted to continue. After more than half the work was done, Meng Zu told them to rest while he, Bill, and Achuan finished the final steps.

While washing his face, Jack noticed a Blood Orchid relief carved on one of the Lopa Tribe's water jars. He told Sam, Gale, and Gordon about it, guessing that the Blood Orchids had to be nearby. He once again suggested searching for them, but to his surprise, all three opposed the idea. Jack's expression turned ugly.

After night fell, it began raining again. Meng Zu and the other two rushed to finish the raft by eight o'clock. Achuan let out a long breath and said, "That does it. Call them over so we can leave."

Meng Zu and the other two found Sam and the rest inside a house, but Jack and Gordon were nowhere to be seen. He asked, "Where are those two?"

Sam said, "Jack and Gordon are sorting through the luggage in another house. I'll go get them."

Kerr had no desire to stay here any longer. He said directly, "Let's go over there. Once we grab the luggage, we'll leave on the raft."

The group headed over together. The moment they entered, they saw Gordon leaning against a pillar without moving. Sam walked toward his backpack and said, "Gordon, we need to go. Where's Jack?"

But Gordon only swayed slightly and let out faint groans. Everyone immediately realized something was wrong and hurried over to check. Achuan saw a small blister on Gordon's arm with two tiny puncture marks on it. "He was bitten by a Stone Spider."

"What?! Where's Jack? Could he have done this?" Since Jack still had not appeared, Gale immediately thought of one possibility.

Sam suspected Jack too, but she still found it hard to believe. They had to ask him directly. "Let's find Jack and ask whether he did it."

At that moment, Meng Zu suddenly felt Danger Sense react. "Wait! A Giant Python is coming. Get your guns!"

Kerr rummaged through the long gun bag. After lifting several backpacks, he found six double-barreled hunting rifles underneath. He cursed furiously, "Damn it! That bastard Jack took the bullets!"

Meng Zu came over to look and found that his Remington M870 was missing. He cursed in irritation, "Fuck! That guy took my Remington."

Meng Zu picked up a double-barreled hunting rifle and opened it. There was a bullet inside, but only one. "Each gun has only one bullet. Hold on to your weapons. Don't panic and fire when the Giant Python comes. If I miss, then you shoot."

Knowing a Giant Python was coming, Sam and the others' hearts raced. Gordon was sprawled there, and they could only stay in the house and wait for the Giant Python to arrive.

Meng Zu heard movement on the roof. Looking up, he saw the body of a Giant Python sliding through a gap overhead. He did not warn the others, because Sam and the rest were not like Bill and Achuan. They could easily fire wildly in panic.

Meng Zu nudged Bill with his elbow and gestured toward the roof. Bill immediately understood. When he looked up and saw the Giant Python's body, he instinctively tightened his grip on the gun.

Meng Zu watched the Giant Python's movements. Finally, when it poked its head through a hole in the eaves, Meng Zu decisively raised his gun and fired. Bang! A large hole appeared in the Giant Python's head, and it rolled off the roof and crashed onto the ground.

The Giant Python's sudden fall startled Kerr and the others into raising their guns. Meng Zu quickly stopped them. "It's already dead. Those are just reflexes. It'll stop soon."

After about three minutes, the Giant Python's thrashing grew weaker and weaker until it finally lay completely still.

Looking at the Giant Python's massive corpse, Gale said, "Let's get out of here. Forget Jack. He can go wherever he wants."

Meng Zu threw away the gun in his hand. Without bullets, it was no different from a fire poker. He took the hunting rifle from Achuan and had him carry Gordon as they all headed toward the raft.

But when they arrived, they saw only scratch marks on the ground. The raft had vanished. It was obvious that Jack had secretly taken it away.

Doctor Ben immediately cursed, "That damned bastard!"

"What do we do now? Can we build another boat?"

Bill shook his head. "We may not have enough materials, and it would take too much time. If another Giant Python attacks, we'll be in danger."

"We still have a way!"

Sam drew a map on the ground. "Jack's target is the Blood Orchids. The river bends, so we can take a straight route and get to the Blood Orchids ahead of him. Then we can take the raft back."

Looking at Gordon on Achuan's back, Gale asked, "What about Gordon?"

Ben suggested, "Why don't two people stay here to take care of Gordon? The rest of us can find the raft, then come back for him."

"No. It's too dangerous here. We can't split up." Meng Zu immediately rejected the suggestion. Unless he stayed behind to care for Gordon himself, whoever remained would definitely die if they encountered a Giant Python.

Meng Zu thought for a moment and said, "How about this? We'll make a simple stretcher and carry Gordon over together."

Gordon was a big man, and carrying him on someone's back the whole way would drain too much strength. With a stretcher, it would at least be much easier.

Bill and the others agreed with Meng Zu's plan. They quickly made a simple stretcher and placed Gordon on it. Ben, Kerr, Achuan, and Gale each lifted a corner and set off.

Sam and Bill led the way while Meng Zu stayed at the rear, responsible for keeping watch behind them. Following Sam and Bill, they entered a cave. There was water inside, and it was pitch-black. Even with flashlights, visibility remained poor.

Inside the cave, they encountered a Giant Python. Fortunately, Bill was skilled enough to blow its head apart with a single shot. Not long after they emerged from the cave, two Giant Pythons appeared from the trees. Meng Zu shot one in the head, while Bill and Sam shot the other in the body, sending it crashing down. Meng Zu pulled the machete from his waist, dashed forward, and chopped off its head.

After dealing with the two Giant Pythons, the group continued under Sam's guidance. At last, they spotted the Blood Orchids from afar in a clearing—and Jack as well. Though the Blood Orchids were within reach, Sam and the others only wanted to leave this place. They ignored Jack and quietly went to look for the raft.

Meng Zu was in no hurry to take the Blood Orchids. He had already memorized the location. Once he got Sam and the others out, he could come back for them.

They found the raft and first placed Gordon on it. As Sam searched through Jack's backpack, she found a Stone Spider inside a bottle. She picked up the bottle and asked Achuan, "Achuan, this is a Stone Spider, right?"

Achuan took a careful look and nodded. "Yeah, that's it. When did he catch it?"

Gale said, "Forget that for now. Let's get out of here!"

At that moment, Jack actually returned in secret, holding Meng Zu's Remington M870 Shotgun. Seeing that Meng Zu had a gun, he quietly approached Sam. When Meng Zu noticed movement, Jack suddenly burst out of the grass, pressed the gun to Sam's head, and threatened Meng Zu to throw away his gun or he would blow Sam's head apart.

Meng Zu was not only unconcerned by the threat, he almost found it funny. Even if he threw away his gun, he could take a pistol out of Storage Space at any time. He could blow Jack's head apart before Jack had time to react. But wanting to see what the man intended to do, Meng Zu followed Jack's demand and threw the hunting rifle into the river.

Once Jack saw that no one could threaten him with a gun, he moved the muzzle away from Sam's head and pointed it at the group, ordering everyone to pick the Blood Orchids.

Hearing that, Meng Zu abandoned the thought of taking Jack's gun and acted as though he too were being threatened. He followed the others toward the Blood Orchids.

They soon reached the place where they had seen the Blood Orchids earlier. However, there was a deep pit beneath them. The pit was filled with mating balls of Giant Pythons, while the Blood Orchids grew on the wall across from them. Only a fallen log stretched between the two sides. Its surface was covered in moss, making it easy to slip. Below lay the Giant Pythons; falling would mean certain death.

Jack pointed his gun at Meng Zu and threw a backpack to him. "Evan, you're the most agile. Go over there and pick the flowers."

Meng Zu's eyes lit up at those words, but he still pretended to obey only because he was being threatened at gunpoint. Carrying the backpack, he slowly crawled across the log and reached the Blood Orchids. He picked one flower and pretended to place it in the backpack, but actually stored it in Storage Space. After collecting more than twenty flowers, he finally turned around and slowly crawled back.

As he was about to make it back, Meng Zu noticed that one of the Giant Pythons below had detected the movement above. It was slowly climbing up the rock wall. Meng Zu immediately stopped moving.

Seeing Meng Zu stop, Jack stepped forward, pointed his gun at him, and shouted, "Throw me the backpack!"

When Meng Zu neither spoke nor threw over the backpack, Jack angrily fired a shot at the log behind him. "Give it to me now, or I'll shoot you dead!"

The shot blasted away a large section of the already rotten log. It swayed downward, and at that moment, the Giant Python climbed up and poked its head over the edge.

The Giant Python stared straight at Jack standing by the pit. Jack was also frightened by its sudden appearance and hurriedly swung the gun toward it. But the moment he moved, the Giant Python struck with lightning speed and bit down on him.

In agony, Jack fired wildly at the Giant Python. Wounded by the shotgun blasts, it writhed in pain and fell into the pit with Jack still in its jaws. At the same time, its body slammed into the log. Meng Zu released the backpack, braced himself with both hands on the log, and leaped onto the edge of the pit just before it fell.

Bill and Achuan hurried forward and pulled Meng Zu up. Bill saw another Giant Python below being stirred awake and quickly said, "Damn it, a Giant Python is climbing up! We don't have any guns left."

Meng Zu thought of the barrel of gasoline on the raft and immediately came up with an idea. "We still have gasoline and a flare gun. We can use them to blow up these Giant Pythons, or we won't be able to escape."

"Okay, let's do it." Everyone agreed.

Fortunately, the raft was not far away. Before the Giant Python could climb up, Achuan and Ben hurriedly brought over the gasoline. Meng Zu took it, opened the barrel, and poured some gasoline onto the Giant Python that was climbing up. At the same time, he secretly took out his only one-kilogram TNT charge from Storage Space and placed it beneath the gasoline barrel. He threw both the barrel and the explosives down, then fired a flare into the Giant Python that had just poked its head up.

The gasoline on the Giant Python immediately burst into flames. Twisting in agony, it fell back down. Just as Meng Zu and the others turned and ran two or three meters away, a deafening explosion erupted behind them. The ground shook violently as landslides appeared along both walls of the pit. The tremors lasted four or five seconds before everything finally settled, allowing everyone to climb back up.

When they turned around, they discovered that nearly a meter-wide section of the pit's rock walls had collapsed. The pit was more than half-filled with dirt and stones, and the Blood Orchids had vanished as well.

Seeing this, Gale said blankly, "The Blood Orchids were destroyed!"

Then a rumbling sound came from the distant rainforest. Bill and Achuan's faces changed instantly as they shouted, "Run! The explosion caused a mudslide!"

Everyone rushed back onto the raft and paddled with all their strength. At last, they escaped the area before the mudslide arrived.