Chapter 883

If there were people from environmental organizations here at this moment, they would certainly be heartbroken by the actions of Director Qi Yuan and the others.

Large amounts of black smoke were not only gushing into the cave entrance under the force of blowers but were also drifting toward the sky.

Before Director Qi Yuan and the others arrived, the air in this secret realm was almost at a zero-pollution level of cleanliness.

As for now, it couldn't be said to be very serious yet, since they had only just started releasing the smoke.

However, it was indeed a pity that such clean air was being ruined like this.

The smoking of the cave continued for ten minutes or so, and everyone was waiting nervously.

It was unclear whether the cave was too big or the monster inside was too resilient; it hadn't come out after so long, and the arms of the team members holding the guns were already starting to ache.

Miss Luo Quan, however, was relatively calm, because this time she was not a main attacker but part of the reserve team.

After the monster came out, others would go up to hold it off, and only if it truly couldn't be handled would she be sent into battle.

In fact, the strength of the group Director Qi Yuan brought was quite high; in one-on-one fights, they might not be her match, but their mutual coordination was tacit, and they could definitely exert an effect where 1+1 is greater than 2.

As for her, rather than saying she was a reserve team, it was better to say she was the trump card to deter Wilkins.

Just now, after Director Qi Yuan finished discussing the battle plan with Xie Ergai and Wilkins, he specifically called over a group of True Martial Realm experts to remind them emphatically to be careful of Wilkins's people playing dirty.

One should not have the intention to harm others, but one must have the intention to guard against them.

The secret realm was almost completely isolated from the outside world; if any situation occurred, it would take a long time for rescue to arrive.

If Wilkins really had malicious intentions and their side was completely unprepared, anything could happen.

Therefore, Miss Luo Quan was not particularly concerned about the situation inside the cave, but was instead watching the group of people led by Wilkins.

The team Director Qi Yuan brought this time was nearly two hundred people, with a quarter belonging to civilian forces.

And Wilkins's side had about three hundred people, and their clothing was completely identical, looking as if they had come from the same unit.

It was just that the weapons and equipment each person carried were different; some were holding rifles, while others had swords at their waists.

As for Wilkins, he was holding a walkie-talkie, and other than that, he had no other equipment.

However, Miss Luo Quan felt that Wilkins was the strongest among this group, because she only felt a threat from this person, and it wasn't low either.

A few more minutes passed, and there was finally movement inside the cave entrance; everyone's spirits were instantly lifted.

Amidst a howl that could pierce the eardrums, a group of beasts with sizes several times larger than normal animals rushed out of the cave.

Their eyes were blood-red and streaming with tears; the first thing they did after rushing out wasn't to attack the surrounding humans, but to open their pitch-black maws and breathe desperately.

The vitality of these beasts was indeed tenacious; if it had been humans, they would probably have been smoked to death long ago, yet they were still able to run out alive after enduring for so long.

But besides the thick smoke, the humans waiting for them outside the cave were actually the most dangerous.

Upon seeing the beasts, Director Qi Yuan gave the order to fire, and his subordinates pulled the triggers.

Large-caliber rifle bullets instantly tore bowl-sized wounds into these beasts, and blood immediately gushed out from the wounds like a faucet.

If ordinary people saw this scene, they would definitely understand how ridiculous the hero tropes in war movies are.

The protagonist in a movie can be shot multiple times and even continue fighting after being hit by an explosion.

However, the reality is that a single rifle bullet can make a person completely lose their combat effectiveness.

As long as it doesn't hit the extremities, the powerful kinetic energy of the bullet will blast a crater larger than a fist into a person's body.

Such a large wound is extremely fatal for any animal in the natural world, even if it doesn't hit a vital organ.

However, the physique of these beasts in front of them was indeed ridiculous; because their volume was large enough, the lethality of the bullets wasn't that instantaneous.

And compared to ordinary animals, their muscles and bones were undoubtedly much tougher; they were still able to charge forward after being swept by gunfire.

Fortunately, Director Qi Yuan had been prepared; he had dug traps outside the cave entrance in advance and covered them with branches, so these beasts charging blindly almost all fell into the pits.

However, because their volume was truly too large, except for the few at the very bottom, the other beasts relied on their powerful jumping ability to jump back out.

At this moment, the shooting from the human side had just entered a reloading window.

The beasts thought they had seized the opportunity and charged over again, their massive bodies making the ground beneath everyone's feet tremble.

Among the herd, a massive leopard charged the fastest, almost reaching them.

At this moment, a two-meter-tall burly man rushed out from behind Xie Ergai and swung the giant axe in his hand to hack at it.

This leopard, which was over four meters in size, had just opened its bloody maw when its head flew into the sky the next second.

The body that bullets couldn't fully penetrate was directly severed by this burly man; both his strength and technique could be called terrifying.

And Director Qi Yuan and Wilkins's sides also had people taking action one after another, responsible for dealing with these beasts that broke through the barrage.

Under this coordination of long-range and close-range firepower, the beasts had massive bodies in vain, but they were not much different from lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

The slaughter lasted for five minutes; when the last beast fell, it was already a river of blood outside the cave.

Except for Miss Luo Quan, probably no one felt pity for them.

If these beasts hadn't gathered in the cave, their fate afterward might not have been much better.

Either they would be sent to the operating table to be sliced up for research, or they would be locked in a zoo for rare and exotic animals as prisoners for life.

Although Miss Luo Quan felt that killing all these animals was indeed a bit cruel, she couldn't do anything because she wasn't the decision-maker.

And these beasts were blocking the road and couldn't be communicated with; other than killing them, there was no better way.

After killing all the beasts, everyone changed equipment and prepared to enter the cave.

However, just as they put down their guns, a sound of footsteps came from inside the cave again.

The next second, a monster with a wolf's head and a human body rushed out.

Everyone looked in surprise at this monster that only existed in legends, even forgetting to raise their guns to shoot.

And this monster seemed to have sensed that this group of humans in front of it was not to be trifled with; it didn't launch an attack after rushing out, but turned and leaped, fleeing toward the deeper forest.

"Was that just now... a werewolf?" Xie Ergai looked at Director Qi Yuan and Wilkins.

Although the three of them were knowledgeable and experienced, they had never seen such a thing before.

In Western legends, the ancestors of humans once turned into two types of monsters due to a plague: one was a werewolf, and the other was a vampire.

But this was only a legend; modern society had never discovered a living specimen.

Later, according to research, so-called werewolves were actually highly likely to be patients with hypertrichosis, and vampires were likely patients with porphyria.

But the one just now was a genuine wolf-headed, human-bodied creature.

This sudden turn of events truly shocked the three of them, to the point that they almost forgot to command their subordinates to carry out the next task.

After the three of them came to their senses, they all silently asked if the recording equipment was on, and the answer they received was that it had been working the whole time.

This made them feel a bit more at ease; with the recording, at least they wouldn't be treated as lunatics when they went back to report their work.

As for this cave, because they were worried there might still be werewolf monsters inside that hadn't come out, they didn't immediately send people in.

Just like before, drones and robots went in first to scout the path.

The thick smoke in the cave was extremely fatal to living organisms, but if it were machinery, it wouldn't matter.

Soon, under the operation of the technical personnel, the drone turned on its searchlight and entered the cave to begin searching.

The cave was very large and had many bends; for the sake of safety, the technical personnel didn't dare to let the drone fly too fast, lest it crash into the cave walls.

After exploring a path even more complex than a mountain road with eighteen bends, the drone finally entered a spacious space.

This was a space similar to a hall, with an area of over a hundred square meters and a height of over ten meters; it looked as if the entire hillside had been hollowed out.

And the most eye-catching thing was undoubtedly a chair made of stone in the center of the hall, with a tiger skin spread over it, looking exactly like the one belonging to the bandit Zuoshandiao.

Seeing this scene, Miss Luo Quan inexplicably thought of the demon king's cave in Journey to the West.

If all these demon kings sat on chairs, this would likely be the style.

And the appearance of the chair also made Director Qi Yuan and the others realize that the werewolf monster just now possessed intelligence, and not low intelligence at that.

After flying around the chair three times, the drone began to explore deeper.

Behind the chair was a small room, and when the drone entered, the things inside made everyone's breathing become rapid.

Antiques, all kinds of antiques, and several unopened treasure chests.

Under the illumination of the flashlight, they radiated a strange brilliance.

"Turn off the camera first and let the drone come back."

Wilkins said to the technical personnel, then he looked at Director Qi Yuan and Xie Ergai: "Two gentlemen, now we can discuss the distribution of the spoils."

"What's there to discuss? Just one-third for each person," Xie Ergai said without even thinking.

Director Qi Yuan also said in a deep voice: "Wilkins, there should be more similar caves in the secret realm. This time we combined the strength of three parties, so it was relatively easy to solve.

If we start infighting now because of some petty gains, wouldn't that be a lose-lose situation?"

Wilkins frowned; always being strong-willed, he had never tried splitting the spoils with others.

However, what Director Qi Yuan said was indeed very reasonable, and in the end, he nodded: "Then let's split it equally; we'll talk about it after we encounter such caves again later."

After the agreement was reached, Director Qi Yuan immediately arranged for people to put on oxygen masks and enter the cave to take out all the spoils.

The process of moving them lasted for half an hour; during this time, Miss Luo Quan kept walking around nearby with her hands behind her back, making Wilkins's people think she was planning to secretly swipe a few pieces when no one was looking.

However, Miss Luo Quan simply wanted to see up close what these spoils were, and let the system evaluate their value so she could strike first later.

"My evaluation is that they are all trash," the system said after scanning these antiques. "These weapons do indeed possess a certain amount of spiritual energy, but the spiritual energy is not much, and they haven't developed spiritual intelligence, so their value is relatively limited.

However, the pills in the box are quite useful; eating one is worth several months of hard cultivation."

"This is a good thing!" Miss Luo Quan's eyes brightened as she looked at the treasure chest; if eating one was worth several months, then wouldn't she be invincible if she ate ten or a hundred?

"What are you thinking?" The system immediately denied her unrealistic fantasy. "Any medicine has drug resistance; if you eat too much, it will stop being effective, and pills are no exception. Like these low-quality first-turn pills, at most, after eating ten or twenty, they will no longer increase your cultivation."

"That's truly a pity." Miss Luo Quan sighed softly; sure enough, there are no bugs to exploit in the real world.

As all the spoils were moved out of the cave, Director Qi Yuan, Xie Ergai, and Wilkins stood side by side and first began to distribute the antiques.

There were twenty-three pieces in total; because Director Qi Yuan's side arrived relatively late, the beasts they encountered on the road were what remained after the first two teams had cleared them, saving them a lot of effort, so they suffered a bit of a loss and received one less piece.

Director Qi Yuan didn't particularly care about the slight loss; compared to that, he was more concerned about the things in the treasure chest.

After opening it, inside were all porcelain bottles sealed with wooden stoppers.

Opening one of the bottles, what was poured out was a pill filled with the fragrance of medicinal herbs.

After smelling the pill fragrance, the Daoist priest from Mount Longhu's eyes lit up: "Captain Qi, this pill is a good thing! It can only be refined by an alchemist with at least a dozen years of cultivation, and this craft has already been lost!"

Xie Ergai and Wilkins didn't understand Chinese, but looking at the Daoist priest's excited expression, they could guess the value of these pills.

There were six treasure chests in total; Wilkins waved his hand, dragged two of them away directly, and then said: "We will continue moving forward first; we'll cooperate again if there's a chance!"

Xie Ergai followed suit, letting his men drag away the other two boxes, and then also chose to say goodbye, though he went in a completely different direction from Wilkins.

The remaining two treasure chests were closed by Director Qi Yuan and then sealed with tape.

As for the one pill that had already been poured out, Director Qi Yuan prepared to catch a beast later to test its efficacy.

Miss Luo Quan twitched her lips, but in the end, she didn't tell him what this thing was used for.

Even the professional from Mount Longhu didn't know what this thing was used for; where would a young girl like you know from?

Not to mention whether others would believe her if she told them the use, just the source of this information would easily make people suspicious.

Therefore, at this moment, Miss Luo Quan decided to play dumb.

After being busy for so long, the sun in the secret realm was finally about to set.

Because the camp had already been set up, everyone returned directly to their tents to start eating instant-heat rations.

These rations were the same principle as instant noodles: add water, heat, and then open the bag to eat immediately; it was very convenient.

As for the taste, it could only be said to be average; in the wild environment, filling one's stomach was the first priority.

After finishing their meal, everyone returned to their tents to prepare to rest and recharge for the next day's journey.

And here for Miss Luo Quan, an emergency situation occurred.