Chapter 975: The Stone Cave in the Mountain Hollow

An hour later, those Southeast Asian crew members suddenly acted as if their camp had exploded, shouting at the top of their lungs, their voices filled with wild ecstasy.

Look! It's an M Country naval patrol boat! They've come to save us!

Long live M Country! Only you can protect these waters!

Many thanks to the M Country navy! You are our most reliable backers!

He Yuzhu pricked up his ears to listen for a few moments; that sycophantic, fawning tone rushed straight to his head, and he nearly vomited on the spot.

Bureau Chief Zhang also spat fiercely and cursed: "Small-minded people, they're at death's door and still licking boots!"

Before the words had even faded, two crisp gunshots pierced the night sky, followed immediately by a chorus of wailing that sounded like ghosts howling and wolves crying.

"We're on your side! Don't shoot! We have important information to report!" the small leader named Ramón cried out, his voice shrill and trembling.

"Son of a bitch, who's on your side! Get down, all of you! If anyone moves again, I'll kill them!" a gruff voice roared in fluent English, the tone so fierce it sounded like he wanted to bite someone.

"Officer! I know who you're looking for! I know! I know where they went! I'll tell you everything!" Ramón's voice was laced with tears, hurried and panicked.

"How do you know who I'm looking for?" the loud voice softened slightly, but the language was full of distrust.

A cold glint flashed in He Yuzhu's eyes, a ruthless smile swept across his lips, and he cursed in a low voice: "You spineless wretches, just go on your way with your M Country daddy!"

Over there, Ramón had only just begun: "They killed people from the Yamaguchi-gumi and left in a patrol boat just like yours, not far from here..."

He Yuzhu pressed his finger down lightly, cleanly and decisively dialing the detonator for the Timed Bomb.

Boom—!

With an earth-shattering roar, the communicator was instantly plunged into dead silence.

No need to ask; not even ash remained of those two boats.

Captain Sun slapped his thigh hard, his eyes reddening, his voice unable to suppress his satisfaction: "So satisfying! This time, these people have truly reaped what they sowed, heading down the Yellow Springs road with their M Country daddy! Working with Factory Director He is truly damn satisfying! I used to get bullied in M Country all the time, stifled for half my life, and today I've finally let it all out!"

But there wasn't a hint of a smile on He Yuzhu's face.

He was staring blankly at the weather map on the computer screen, his brows knotted into a lump—a storm was coming.

Captain Sun glanced at the nautical chart, his expression darkening as he asked in a low voice: "Factory Director He, we're still over a hundred nautical miles from that island, I'm afraid we can't dodge this storm. Can our boat... hold up?"

He Yuzhu shook his head, his tone calm yet heavy: "I don't know. But everything that needs to be prepared must be. Everyone get into the cabin; if there isn't enough space, clear out the dining room and the small room on the gun deck to pack people in. Move all food and water to the lifeboat at the rear. Everyone must put on life jackets and wear life rings..."

Captain Sun and Bureau Chief Zhang exchanged a look, and without another word, they turned and went their separate ways to organize.

The wind and waves arrived as soon as they were mentioned, as if the sky had been poked through with a hole.

The storm smashed down head-on, wave after wave, pitch-black and towering, one after another, rushing down to cover the sky and earth, as if countless giant hands were trying to tear this small boat to shreds.

He Yuzhu hurriedly pulled back the throttle, dropping the boat's speed to the minimum, while shouting at the top of his lungs for everyone to tie themselves securely to fixed objects.

He himself wasn't particularly panicked—if anyone were to be thrown overboard, he would secretly use his Space Ability to catch them and, once the storm passed, release them without a sound, though he would try his best to prevent such a thing from happening.

The patrol boat was lifted onto the crest of a wave, the gunwale nearly vertical, then violently slammed into the trough.

Everyone's internal organs felt as if they had been turned upside down; sounds of vomiting and screaming rose one after another, and not a single person was comfortable.

He Yuzhu gritted his teeth and held the helm, fortunate that he had long since modified the boat, integrating the control system that originally required seven or eight people to operate into one that he could handle alone.

Not to mention he had the system on him, so he didn't need navigation at all; even though the wind and rain obscured the heavens and the earth, he never lost his way.

Captain Sun and Deputy Captain Li finally proved their worth this time.

He sat in the cockpit, staring fixedly at the boat's angle of inclination, while Deputy Captain Li guarded the engine room console; the two coordinated tacitly, regulating the Water Pump in the ballast tanks to keep pumping water to stabilize the hull.

When He Yuzhu couldn't attend to everything, they filled the gaps, pulling this boat back from the edge of the gates of hell.

A full hour later, the wind and waves finally began to subside.

Under the desperate persistence of He Yuzhu, Captain Sun, and Deputy Captain Li, not a single person on the boat was thrown into the sea. But many were injured, and most were so exhausted that they were limp, lacking the strength to even lift a finger.

Captain Sun and Deputy Captain Li were indeed pilots by trade; they didn't even change color in such heavy seas and could still chat and laugh with He Yuzhu.

Director Li, however, couldn't manage; he lay weakly on the bed, still dry-heaving incessantly.

The patrol boat pushed through the wind and rain for another hour, and just as everyone was about to reach their limit, the outline of the small island finally emerged from the night.

It was night, and the island was pitch black, without a single glimmer of light, as desolate as a corner forgotten by the world.

He Yuzhu dropped the anchor and used a thick cable to tie the boat firmly to a large rock, fearing it would be swept away by the tide.

He untied the emergency boat being towed behind and ferried the people ashore, trip by trip.

The members of the delegation stumbled onto the beach one by one, their legs giving way as they collapsed onto the wet ground, looking as if they had fallen apart.

Deputy Director Long clutched his forehead and said groggily: "Why do I... feel like the sky is still spinning..."

Bureau Chief Zhang hurriedly called out: "Deputy Director Long, you'll need a while to recover from this condition; I'll have Xiao Li help you..."

Director Li was completely incapacitated, and He Yuzhu hurriedly had two security personnel take turns watching over him.

About half an hour passed before everyone could barely manage to stand up.

The rain was still drizzling, and the sea breeze, carrying a damp chill, burrowed into their bones, making everyone shiver uncontrollably.

Bureau Chief Zhang rubbed his arms and said: "Factory Director He, we need to find a place to shelter from the rain quickly, or we'll all fall ill."

He Yuzhu activated the Scanning System and scanned the area—two hundred meters away was a small mountain hollow, surrounded by dense coconut groves.

He called out to everyone: "I'll go scout the path first; you all wait here."

Bureau Chief Zhang said: "I'll go with you."

He Yuzhu nodded, pulled a Military Dagger made in the US from his bulging large military backpack, the blade reflecting a chilling cold light in the dim moonlight, and handed it to Bureau Chief Zhang: "Bureau Chief Zhang, take this knife. It looks like there are pythons on this island; don't go soft if you run into one."

Bureau Chief Zhang grinned, revealing two rows of white teeth: "I'm from Hainan; I've been darting through the forests there since I was a kid. I've seen plenty of snakes; I'm not afraid."

He Yuzhu also smiled and said nothing more, pulling a Japanese short sword from the side pocket of his backpack—that was a trophy he had taken from the Yamaguchi-gumi.

He looked down on the Japanese from the bottom of his heart, but he had to admit that the knives they made were indeed sharp and sturdy. In this kind of tropical jungle, whether it was hacking through vines or dealing with whatever strange things crawled out, it was exceptionally handy.

The two of them ducked into the forest one after the other; there was absolutely no path underfoot, only a thick layer of rotting fallen leaves and densely tangled aerial roots. Stepping on them felt soft and mushy, like walking on a swamp.

The rain never stopped, and the ground was slippery as hell.

They could only rely on the tools in their hands to hack and wade through, stepping with extreme caution at every step.

After walking about two hundred meters, He Yuzhu stopped in front of a small mountain hollow—it was called a hollow, but it was actually just a slight depression in the ground, yet the surrounding vegetation was exceptionally dark and dense, with branches and leaves hanging down like curtains, blocking the light completely.

What made one's back even colder was that several pitch-black cave entrances were scattered here, so dark they were bottomless, looking just like eye sockets opened by the earth. If one were slightly careless and slipped, it was possible to fall directly into a ten-thousand-foot abyss.

Bureau Chief Zhang poked his head out to peer into one of the cave entrances, then turned his head and said: Factory Director He, I don't think we can really set up camp here; if any comrade were to accidentally fall in, it would be all over.

He Yuzhu nodded with a dark expression: I fear this kind of terrain is everywhere on this island. We can only have everyone be extra careful; if it really comes to it, we will tie the Rope around everyone's waist and walk forward connected in a line.

Bureau Chief Zhang replied repeatedly: What you say makes sense.

But before his voice had even faded, He Yuzhu had just taken a step forward when his foot suddenly stepped onto a patch of slippery moss; his whole body instantly lost balance as if he had stepped on an icy surface, and he slid straight down along the cave entrance...