Chapter 124: Incredible

There were many bloodstains, but their shapes were peculiar, and blood streaks of that specific uniform kind were quite rare. Sanders extended a finger, gently brushed against some of the blood, and then brought it to his mouth.

Zhao Li frowned deeply as he watched, but he said nothing. Everyone had their own set of unique skills, and there was no need to make an issue of it.

"Spit!" After tasting it for a moment, Sanders spat out the trace of blood along with a mouthful of saliva. "It tastes very much like human blood, but with a very strange flavor."

Perhaps noticing Zhao Li's frown just moments earlier, Sanders immediately followed up after drawing his conclusion: "What, looking a little disgusted?"

Zhao Li grunted ambiguously, not giving a particularly clear reply, neither confirming nor denying it.

"On the battlefield, sometimes just this tiny bit of extra judgment can change the entire course of the battle." Having said only that, he said no more. Zhao Li had also undergone countless grueling training sessions and understood the logic; it was just a matter of whether his psychological tolerance could accept it.

"Interesting. Let's go, chase after it and see." For reasons unknown, Sanders suddenly threw caution to the wind, ignoring his main duties, and began tracking the source of the bloodstains.

Zhao Li didn't mind. As long as he stayed close behind without losing him, it was fine; Sanders was the one doing all the active scrambling.

It was evident that the owner of the bloodstains moved extremely fast and possessed a vast range of movement. Moreover, the bloodstains were quite obscure; often they could only find a tiny speck dozens of meters apart, sometimes even further. Fortunately, with someone as experienced as Sanders leading the way, Zhao Li would have undoubtedly lost the target had he been tracking alone.

After tracking for just a short while, Zhao Li also noticed the anomalies. The characteristics of moving at exceptionally high speeds and covering a massive range clearly matched those of the monster described by the security guard. Aside from that kind of monster, there were no other humanoid creatures living in this jungle.

Sanders's tracking was highly effective. After weaving through several large sections, he began using hand signals to notify Zhao Li not to act rashly. Zhao Li naturally understood the horror of the monster. Even injured, it remained a formidable adversary, so he obediently concealed himself.

Extending a finger, Sanders carefully pointed in a certain direction. From his hiding spot, Zhao Li expressionlessly gazed toward that direction. Soon, about a dozen meters away near a large tree, an abnormality caught his eye.

Squatting there was a figure wearing the same garments as the previous monster. It was motionless, and whether it was dead or alive was impossible to tell. From Zhao Li and Sanders's vantage point, only its back was visible. The clothing appeared slightly oversized, concealing the monster's original physique.

Before long, Zhao Li realized that the monster must still be alive and seemed highly vigilant, periodically scanning its surroundings to the left and right. The sudden absence of pursuers probably baffled it as well, yet it maintained its defensive posture. Its trembling shoulders indicated that the monster's breathing was extremely labored.

This monster might be different from the previous one; at least Zhao Li knew the former was covered in fur, wore bulletproof gear, and possessed skin tough enough to shrug off ordinary bullets. But this one was clearly injured and bleeding, for reasons unknown.

The monster occasionally circled the large tree to change its perspective and spot any movement around it. After a few turns, its front came directly into Zhao Li's field of vision.

Right ahead, the monster still failed to see Zhao Li and Sanders. The jungle camo smeared on their skin and faces had done its job; although slightly worn, combined with their carefully chosen concealment spots, it completely deceived the monster's sight.

The monster's face was covered by a mask, which was now tattered. Something had snagged and torn it, leaving one side hanging loosely. As it turned its face, one side of the mask completely detached. Reaching out, the monster ripped the entire mask off, revealing its true face completely to Zhao Li and Sanders.

Yet, the moment he saw the monster's face, Zhao Li felt as though his heart had suddenly plummeted from an altitude of thousands of meters. The exposed face was no monster at all; with skin like packed snow, lips that parted in a delicate smile, and eyes that rippled with charm, it was unmistakably an peerless beauty. However, the look of panic on her face could not escape Zhao Li's eyes for a moment. Her pitiful demeanor instantly evoked deep sympathy. Zhao Li longed to step out and comfort her frightened soul.

The psychological gap between expectation and reality left Zhao Li utterly unable to believe his eyes. This monster was actually a beauty, so what about the one he had killed not long ago?

Staring fixedly at the beauty, Zhao Li dared not miss a single movement, hardly daring to breathe for fear that the beauty would discover the anomaly on their side and bolt in fright. Judging from the bloodstains and the pursuit by those men, the target they were hunting possessed incredible speed and agility. If this beauty was indeed that target, once frightened, she would surely flee at lightning speed.

Soon, his intense observation revealed another anomaly. The young girl's ears were unlike those of a normal human being—they were pointed and very delicate, covered with a layer of fine, soft down. They looked as though a pair of ears belonging to some wild beast had grown naturally on a human head.

This bizarre combination endowed the young girl with an indescribable, unique charm. It seemed as though these tiny, exquisite ears possessed an allure even more captivating than Christine's soul-stealing gaze.

Zhao Li finally remembered where he had seen such a combination. In comic books he had read during his school days, there were illustrations like this, often called cat-ear girls or something similar, with cuteness as their sole trait. Moreover, in the comics, those cat-ear girls were usually young and adorable, typically serving as maids, leaving much to the imagination.

The beast-eared beauty before him differed from the comic characters in that she possessed a lethal allure that far surpassed them—one glance made a man yearn to pull her into his arms and ravage her mercilessly.

Even someone like Zhao Li, accustomed to Christine's soul-stealing tricks, could harbor such thoughts, which spoke volumes about the fatal temptation of the beast-eared beauty.

Fortunately, Zhao Li merely entertained the thought rather than taking physical action. While lamenting the lack of appreciation shown by the security guards who had dared to hunt her down with guns, he also pondered another question.

Were this beast-eared beauty and the previous monster part of the same group? Where did they actually come from? Why were they being hunted?

Aliens? Had someone discovered aliens and wished to keep it a secret, resorting to extremely confidential methods to eliminate anyone who had seen them or might leak the information? If so, their previous encounters suddenly had a logical explanation. It also explained why the perpetrators deployed private security forces instead of the military—evidently, they did not want these resources or extraterrestrial beings falling into the hands of the military and the government.

Yet, for some reason, two so-called monsters had escaped, prompting the deployment of a large workforce to recapture them. The first monster had fought ruthlessly, wiping out two entire squads. But the captors still wanted a live specimen, only to have Zhao Li and Sanders deal with the monster, which in turn triggered the silencing attempts.

The reason they hadn't continued sending pursuers afterward was likely because they discovered the trail of the beast-eared beauty, leading them to weigh their options, abandon the pursuit of the two men, and shift their focus entirely to hunting the beast-eared beauty.

Everything made sense. After witnessing the beast-eared beauty's astonishing allure, Zhao Li believed that if such a beauty could ever be turned into some commodity stripped of human rights, he could easily imagine what would follow.

You could buy such a beauty with money—a beauty highly likely to possess advanced intelligence. Anyone with purchasing power would not hesitate to wave their cash around. After all, that kind of temptation was lethal; even Zhao Li felt his heart flutter, let alone ordinary men.

The company or individual that discovered this scarce resource would instantly become one of the wealthiest entities and tycoons in the world. Furthermore, as the first to discover aliens and extraterrestrial civilization, they would reap immense honor and fame. Who could possibly refuse such a prospect? The prerequisite, of course, was that before rolling out this "commodity" and completing all preparatory work, not a single whisper could leak.

Of course, what kind of obstacles this method of disposal might encounter, or whether it would trigger a collision between civilizations and provoke a war between humanity and those aliens, was hard to say. Zhao Li was merely speculating and could not verify it. Perhaps there was another motive, but the first thought that flashed through his mind was strikingly wicked.

He had not ruled out the possibility of someone conducting taboo experiments—breeding other species by mixing human genes with those of other animals. However, the combat effectiveness of those security guards was simply too mediocre, making it hard to believe. How could anyone with such research capability, having already put it into practice, commit such low-level errors? At the very least, the guards they hired should unquestionably be retired special forces soldiers or powerful warriors they had cultivated themselves. Judging purely by combat strength and defense tightness, this security work was utterly unqualified.

These thoughts barely took a fraction of a second to flash through his mind before the beast-eared beauty, scanning her surroundings, made her next move. Perhaps believing that no one was tracking her anymore, she began tending to her own injuries.

Zhao Li and Sanders's tracking had been spot-on; those bloodstains had indeed been left by the beast-eared beauty. Her clothes were ill-fitting and torn in places, depriving her of the full protective armor effect. A bloody hole pierced her snow-white abdomen, from which fresh blood was still continuously welling up.

The beast-eared beauty pressed one hand against the wound on her abdomen while tightly gripping her loosening clothes, terrified they might suddenly fly open.

The wound was severe; relying solely on her hand to press against it without proper hemostasis would undoubtedly prove fatal. A considerable amount of blood had already dripped onto the ground, and an expression of agony surfaced on the beast-eared beauty's face, once again stirring a wave of heartache in Zhao Li.

Suddenly, after casting glances left and right several times, the beast-eared beauty swiftly set off in a specific direction. Zhao Li and Sanders exchanged hand signals and quietly followed. The beast-eared beauty moved very quickly, almost keeping pace with Zhao Li and Sanders's standard march. Fearful of being discovered, neither dared to trail too closely, but fortunately, the bloodstains served as the most obvious signposts, so they weren't afraid of losing her.

Along the way, the beast-eared beauty hardly changed direction. Aside from deliberately bypassing a few impassable bushes, she moved straight ahead toward that destination. This left Zhao Li and Sanders deeply puzzled; the beast-eared beauty was certainly not a native local, so how could she possess such an impeccable sense of direction and know exactly where to go?

Ahead lay another patch of bushes. As Zhao Li and Sanders rounded that bend, they abruptly realized that the beast-eared beauty was no longer anywhere in their field of vision.

Both were startled. Had they been discovered by the target? There was no sound of rapid running anywhere nearby; how could a living person vanish so silently after rounding a cluster of bushes?

Sanders's meticulousness saved the day. After searching the vicinity carefully, he finally spotted an abnormality in a dense clump of bushes. There was a trace of extremely faint blood there, along with signs that the brush had been pushed aside. The tracks of the beast-eared beauty's movement had vanished right here.

Zhao Li glanced at Sanders and saw Sanders looking back at him. His gaze telegraphed a silent question: "What now?" Seeing that inquiry, Sanders struggled for a moment before biting his bullet hard and jerking his head toward the patch of bushes: "In!"

Before entering, both men gripped their weapons. Zhao Li stayed behind, holding his gun in defense. Sanders held a military dagger and led the way in. As an eighth-tier expert, he could block whatever danger might appear first.

Parting a branch of the bushes with his gun, Sanders stepped in, then swept aside another branch with his dagger, immediately revealing bloodstains again—and much more obvious ones at that.

It was certain that the beast-eared beauty had passed through here. Following the bloodstains for about a dozen meters, they pushed aside a clump of brush, and a dark, pitch-black hole revealed itself on the ground.

Finding a hole in the ground of a forest was completely normal. This was a terraformed planet; who knows what kind of mine shaft was excavated here before the forest grew over it, or perhaps it was naturally formed.

The cave entrance was not very wide, just barely enough for one person to crawl through, though impossible while wearing a backpack. Carefully removing his pack, Sanders loaded several extra magazines onto his vest, held his military dagger in one hand and his pistol in the other, and squeezed in first.

Zhao Li adopted the same equipment setup. Their backpacks were carefully stowed away in the bushes and given a light camouflage overlay before he crouched at the cave entrance, pointing his gun inward and waiting for Sanders's signal.

The wait felt as agonizingly long as half a year. After enduring a slow, agonizing torment of tension, he finally heard Sanders's agreed-upon signal: "Entrance is safe, you can come in!"

Taking several rapid, sharp breaths, Zhao Li suppressed his racing heartbeat and dove headfirst into the darkness.