Chapter 217: Eyes Beyond the Mountain, Tragic

Within the mountain.

Wearing blue pants, the mutant who refused to eat the meat was shoved aside; the mutant leader, nearly two meters tall and covered in thick fat, peered through the hole and saw Louis approaching.

His face immediately twisted into a cruel grin.

Another portion of food.

Time for a snack.

“Get ready.”

A hoarse, slightly stuttering voice rang out, utterly devoid of mercy; several mutants hurled the leg aside, grabbed axes and the guns left behind by the soldiers, and slithered down through the holes.

That’s right.

They can use guns.

Being mutated and deformed doesn’t mean they can’t use guns—in fact, firearms were designed for efficiency and convenience, even considering use by children.

Otherwise, how did child soldiers come to be?

So using them is actually very simple—anyone with the intelligence of a child can operate them.

These holes, meanwhile, were dug over years by them to improve hunting and concealment; with these passages, they could appear and vanish at will, making them impossible to guard against.

Many travelers were killed this way.

Before the mountain, Louis halted.

The feeling of being watched changed—it had doubled!

One was still behind him; the other came from a spot on the mountain.

He slightly narrowed his eyes and released a vast torrent of Primordial Spirit energy, tracing the direction of the surveillance.

Before the Primordial Spirit’s perception, walls and solid matter were as if nonexistent.

This was the advantage of the Primordial Spirit.

Quickly, under the Primordial Spirit’s sensing, Louis located the sources of the two watching presences.

Behind him was a surveillance camera!

In front of him was a deformed mutant, eyes skewed, mouth stuffed with strands of meat.

Desert, surveillance, mutants…

So, it’s “Eyes Beyond the Mountain”!

Understanding flashed in Louis’s eyes.

This was a bloody horror film as famous as “Wrong Turn,” but unlike “Wrong Turn,” it only had two installments before vanishing.

Its plot roughly involved the United States conducting nuclear tests in desert wastelands, but a village existed there—perhaps due to unsatisfactory compensation, or perhaps no compensation at all, a forced eviction; either way, the villagers refused to leave and became holdouts.

The U.S. military was ruthless enough to simply ignore them and detonate the nuclear test.

Thus, the villagers mutated under nuclear contamination, and their descendants mutated even further; the film depicted these mutants hunting passing travelers.

But in the second film, a group of new recruits arrived to carry out a mission, various accidents occurred, and most of them died—though that wasn’t the point.

The point was the ending: another surveillance camera, connected to a military base.

The experiment was still ongoing.

The villagers were live test subjects.

A standard American bloody horror film, but the final twist added a deeper, more unsettling terror.

Louis’s gaze flickered—if so, the camera behind him must belong to the military; good thing he’d been cautious and altered his appearance.

Otherwise, exposure would’ve been a serious problem.

Realizing this was “Eyes Beyond the Mountain,” Louis had no intention of leaving.

The nuclear toxins here hadn’t been cleaned up yet.

As for the mutants?

These mutants weren’t as terrifying as the deformed ones in “Wrong Turn”—or rather, they were more realistic; their only advantages were terrain and numbers.

But these meant nothing against Louis!

Louis swiftly climbed the mountain and soon found a hole behind a thicket on the cliffside.

At that moment.

From a protruding part behind him, a figure wielding an axe rose up, its head emerging; in the sunlight, its shadow engulfed Louis.

The mutant grinned excitedly.

Fresh meat again.

How many days will this meat last?

One, two, three…

Forget counting—it’ll definitely last many days; finally, no more of those weird, scarce meals!

“Gah-gah-gah-gah!!”

Letting out a shrill, unnatural laugh, the axe swung down with precision and force toward Louis’s skull.

CLANG!!

Metal met metal.

The axe struck one inch from the back of Louis’s skull.

It didn’t move an inch.

“Aow! Aow?!”

The mutant shrieked like a monkey in shock; as he prepared to swing again, the axe inexplicably flipped, slicing straight into his own neck.

SPLAT!

His head tumbled to the ground, rolling down the cliffside, leaving a vivid red streak on the yellow rock.

Louis still didn’t turn around—he was measuring distance with his eyes.

“Hmm, this spot’s perfect—out of range of those cameras.”

He turned his head, looking at the unlucky fool who had been killed by the recoil of his own Wan Huan Yi.

“Tsk. Indeed, their physical strength isn’t nearly as terrifying as those in ‘Wrong Turn.’”

Louis’s mind shifted.

The headless corpse was placed over the hole; blood dripped through it, flowing downward.

Ordinary people use fishing rods to catch fish; those who aren’t ordinary have far more tricks—like now, using a corpse as bait.

“Sss, never fished before—I almost forgot. Fishing guys always say you need to chum the water.”

Louis’s fingers traced a faint line in the air.

PUFF!

The mutant’s two arms instantly tore apart.

They fell into the hole; soon, the sound of them striking the rock faded away.

Given how fast those bastards hunted travelers, they’d find those arms soon enough—no rush.

Louis sat calmly on a rock like a seasoned angler, quietly absorbing the nuclear toxins.

His earlier feeling was correct—this place held the most nuclear toxins, and beyond the mountain, there seemed to be more.

After draining this spot, I’ll go check that direction.

As he channeled the Poison Body Technique, vast amounts of nuclear toxins were drawn in, gradually dispersing and integrating within his body.

Hammering every muscle, every fiber.

Infusing them into every corner of his flesh.

Louis’s body had already been cleansed by two types of toxins: the icy poison of Crystal Lake and the deathly miasma of the graveyard.

It had strengthened his body and granted him some resistance to cold and darkness attributes.

This nuclear toxin, however, felt to Louis like… a supreme tonic!

The speed of his body’s strengthening had increased.

His physical condition had already improved by about one-tenth—don’t underestimate that tenth; after all, there’s still plenty of nuclear toxin here.

Excellent stuff. Excellent stuff.

Looks like I must go to Nihon.

As Louis channeled the Poison Body Technique, he thought this.

Soon.

The nuclear toxins had thoroughly swept through his entire body; now, even without any protection, he was immune to ordinary radiation. He believed that once he absorbed enough, he’d become completely immune.

The threat of nuclear bombs was now partially lifted for him.

Louis rubbed his chin.

Good. One step closer to becoming someone who doesn’t eat beef.

He pulled his scattered thoughts back and glanced at the human fishing rod. “Strange—so long and no bite. Don’t those fishermen get bored?”

The moment he spoke.

Louis’s brow twitched. “Here they come.”

Beneath the hole.

The fat mutant stared at the two severed arms, his face contorting in rage.

Then, the five mutants behind him moved.

Each one slithered into the hole.

Climb-climb-climb—

Above.

Louis’s lips curled slightly upward.

Tap-tap-tap—

A burst of bullets sprayed from behind the shrubs on the steep slope.

Louis shook his head. “Not even coming up through this Kong Dong? These fish are truly dishonest.”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

All the bullets turned around and were returned in kind!

Dozens of bullets struck the mutated beings, reducing them instantly to puddles.

Then.

Gunfire erupted violently.

The assault rifles fired with exceptional power, and in such concentrated volleys—anyone else would have been beaten to death by these creatures.

Too bad, Louis was no ordinary man.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

All the bullets were returned in kind.

“Aaaahhh!!”

Amid screams and gurgles, the mutated beings were about to meet their end.

Louis stood up, and with a thought, his powerful Yin Shen power severed their necks, granting these unwilling flesh-eating monsters a swift death.

At that moment.

Whoosh—

A hand suddenly burst out from the “fishing rod” Kong Dong before Louis, and a burly man emerged, swinging a heavy cleaver with brutal speed toward Louis.

Clang!!

Louis extended one finger and blocked the powerful strike.

He shook his head.

The cleaver bounced back instantly.

It neatly separated his upper body from his lower body.

Splat!

Looking at the upper half of the mutated being writhing and struggling at his feet, trying to crawl over and bite him, Louis raised an eyebrow and tilted his ear.

What was this thing saying?

“It’s all your fault… all your fault…”

“You turned us into this…”

“Bang… bang… bang…”

“No food… no water…”

“My skin hurts… I’m vomiting blood… Mom’s dead…”

“Everyone is in so much pain…”

“You turned us like this—so we’re going to eat you, aaaaah!!”

He thrust both hands forward, his eyes blazing crimson with boundless hatred.

Splat!

He crushed its skull underfoot.

Louis watched coldly the pitiful yet hateful creature.

“Nuclear testing, huh~”

This was probably the American government’s filth.

In their refusal to be human, they were consistently, unchangingly inhuman.

Louis calmed his mind and continued absorbing the surrounding nuclear poison. After draining this area, he entered through the Kong Dong to absorb the remaining nuclear poison.

Along the way, he saw the scattered limbs and spare “food.”

Among them were two or three soldiers still alive, struggling to break free.

They shouted for help when they saw Louis.

“Help! Help!”

“…”

Louis ignored them, silently absorbing the poison. Once all the poison was drained, he exited through the Kong Dong.

Gazing at the endless desert, Louis walked toward the desert ahead of the mountain.

There, a scattered abandoned village remained, still holding traces of poison.

(End of Chapter)