Chapter 1064: The Viper's Attack

He Yuzhu pulled a Dagger from his backpack and looked up to spot two teak saplings as thick as an arm.

Dajinya stepped forward to examine them for a moment and said, "This is teak. If we could ship this back to our country, it would be worth quite a lot."

Hu Bayi said, "I just saw several trees over a hundred years old. If we really chopped those down and shipped them back, that would be a fortune."

Dajinya frowned: "I've heard that those thick, straight, large teak trees are often guarded by people from the army."

These words gave He Yuzhu an idea; if he encountered high-quality timber later, he could simply store it directly into his System Space.

The thought of getting rich flashed through his mind, but his hands didn't stop moving. He quickly trimmed the branches clean, then pulled a large bundle of vines from an old tree and tied them firmly to the two teak poles; a simple stretcher was made just like that.

He clapped the dust off his hands, turned his head, and shouted behind him: "Damao, get on. Pangzi and I will carry you first. Hu, you take the lead as the scout."

Hu Bayi hurriedly waved his hands and grinned: "No, no, no, Master He, you should take the lead! Your danger perception is worth several of us combined."

He Yuzhu didn't stand on ceremony; he nodded, grabbed his bayonet, and darted to the very front, hacking away at the bushes with his blade to force open a small path.

Xu Damao lay sprawled on the stretcher, bumping along as if he were sitting in a sedan chair; he felt wonderful, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl upward.

But Hu Bayi and Wang Pangzi, who were carrying the stretcher, had faces as dark as the bottom of a pot; they marched in silence, not wanting to say a single extra word.

It was already a steep slope up the mountain, and carrying a person on top of that left them gasping for air.

They both knew perfectly well that the sprained ankle Xu Damao had wasn't nearly as serious as he made it out to be.

Behind them, Dajinya was chatting away with Xu Damao, one sentence after another.

Xu Damao whined and complained: "If you ask me, climbing this mountain is just asking for trouble. We hit the Government Army so hard, they've definitely guessed we're heading to Shan State. What's the point of wasting effort making these fake tracks? Twenty-some miles back and forth, tossing and turning all day—is it worth it?"

Hu Bayi felt his temper flare at the sound of this, and without turning his head, he retorted: "We just follow the plan Master He set! If you're so capable, you go take down five or six hundred Burmese Army soldiers by yourself, and then we'll listen to everything you say."

Xu Damao's lips moved, but the words that reached his mouth were swallowed back down.

Dajinya smacked his lips: "To be honest, I also think making these tracks is a waste of effort."

He Yuzhu was clearing the path ahead when he suddenly sneezed, and a thick, fishy stench drifted into his nostrils.

He looked up abruptly, and on a giant rock to the side, a large python suddenly lunged down; a fishy, foul wind rushed toward his face!

The snake's mouth opened, revealing hooked fangs, clearly intending to bite him in one go, then coil and constrict to swallow him whole.

He Yuzhu had long since sensed the beast's approach; he had intended to leave it alone, as he couldn't be bothered to provoke it.

But this thing didn't know when to quit and insisted on lunging at him.

He Yuzhu's eyes sharpened, and his body dodged violently to the side.

The python missed its strike, its massive tongue flicking out as it swept past him.

He flipped his wrist, and a Japanese Samurai Sword appeared out of thin air in his hand.

A flash of cold light, a single slash, and the python's head fell to the ground, rolling into the grass.

It was getting late, and he had originally wanted to skin the python to stew a pot of snake meat, but then he shook his head and muttered to himself: "Forget it, there's plenty of good food in the space; it's not worth eating snake meat." With that, he continued on his way.

Ten minutes later, Hu Bayi and his group passed by while carrying Xu Damao, looking at the bowl-thick python carcass on the ground.

"Master He is truly amazing; he cut off the snake's head in one strike. His speed is incredible," Hu Bayi remarked sincerely.

Wang Pangzi looked at the snake head with its wide-open eyes on the side and joked: "Hu, if Master He had been born in the Han Dynasty, there wouldn't have been any room for Liu Bang."

Hu Bayi shook his head: "The story of the snake-slaying at Mangdang Mountain was just a story made up by later generations anyway."

Dajinya stared at the snake body still writhing on the ground, feeling his hair stand on end: "Hu, could this snake have become a spirit? How is it still moving without a head?"

"That's just a post-mortem reflex," Hu Bayi explained.

Dajinya asked again: "Is that python a solitary creature or does it live in groups? Will another one come to take revenge on us?"

Hu Bayi said: "Usually no, they only come together during mating season."

Just then, Xu Damao suddenly screamed: "Hu! Behind you!"

Hu Bayi turned around violently to see a king cobra nearly three meters long, with most of its body coiled around a tree trunk and its upper half hanging in the air, its neck flared into a flat hood, a pair of cold eyes locked onto Hu Bayi below.

Hu Bayi stood still, also staring intently at the venomous snake.

At this moment, Hu Bayi and Dajinya were carrying the stretcher, and Wang Pangzi was at the end of the line, already gripping his Combat Shovel.

The king cobra lunged forward, striking straight at Hu Bayi's neck!

"Whack!!"

A dull, loud sound exploded.

The steel blade of the Combat Shovel landed solidly on the king cobra's head.

The snake's head was smashed into a bloody pulp on the spot, its skull shattered, and its long body twitched violently, its tail thrashing wildly against the tree trunk.

Everyone present froze in place. The king cobra's body fell to the ground, still rolling and convulsing; the residual nerve reflexes looked exceptionally terrifying.

A layer of cold sweat broke out on Hu Bayi's back. Looking at the writhing venomous snake on the ground, he set the stretcher down, found a piece of dead wood, and beat the king cobra's carcass repeatedly until the body was a bloody mess before stopping.

"Pangzi, don't keep this Combat Shovel; it's tainted with snake venom and isn't safe," Hu Bayi said.

The group didn't dare delay and continued forward, everyone becoming a bit more vigilant.

Hu Bayi took a long wooden stick and tapped the grass in front of him every step of the way.

Xu Damao lay on the stretcher, sweating profusely, and complained bitterly: "This forest is impossible to stay in; there's danger everywhere."

He Yuzhu, who was clearing the path ahead, activated the System Scanning; any harmful creature that could cause injury would be automatically collected by the system.

After walking another six miles of mountain road, He Yuzhu decided to turn back.

He took three Honda Motorcycles from the System Space that looked worn on the outside but had intact engines; he had collected them from Milai earlier.

He stopped moving forward and waited by the side of the mountain road, eating canned food while drinking cola.

Not long after, Hu Bayi and his group arrived and saw He Yuzhu's leisurely appearance.

Xu Damao almost cried, full of grievances: "Zhuzi! We almost lost our lives in the forest just now!"

He Yuzhu frowned and asked: "What happened?"

Xu Damao hurriedly said: "Right in the area where you killed the python, a king cobra suddenly lunged out from above and almost bit Hu's neck!"

He Yuzhu looked at Hu Bayi's face and asked quickly: "Are you hurt? If you get hit by something later, tell me immediately; I have medicine that treats snake venom."

Hu Bayi waved his hand, his face indifferent: "Back in my days of Doudao, what kind of danger haven't I seen? How could I be injured by a snake?"

Wang Pangzi nodded along, patting his chest as he boasted: "Don't look at all the meat on me, Pangzi's movements are not slow! Just as that king cobra was about to bite, I smashed its head with a single strike of my shovel."

"It's good that you're fine, it's all in the past," He Yuzhu said, "I just took care of a small squad of the Burmese Army on the road and captured three motorcycles; we'll ride them back."

Upon hearing this, Xu Damao's eyes instantly lit up: "That's great! I never want to stay in this ghost forest again; venomous snakes keep ambushing us from the trees, it's too terrifying."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a "buzzing" roar came from the direction of the mountaintop; it was the sound of a helicopter approaching from afar.