Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 790 How did Gu Huaisheng survive?
It's unclear just how hard the outermost vine shell of this thing is; even when an automatic rifle bullet hits it at close range, it only barely manages to shatter the vine shell.

In such a bizarre place, the effectiveness of modern firearms is almost completely diminished by the creatures encountered.

Fortunately, the mercenaries had enough firepower. Under the barrage of bullets, within a few breaths, the tentacle was smashed to pieces before it even reached them, and it no longer posed any threat.

Just as the group breathed a sigh of relief, Hu Ming's expression suddenly turned playful. A moment later, the blind man's lips twitched, and he looked at the researcher surnamed Tu with the same expression one would give a poor loser.

next moment.

As the researcher surnamed Tu wiped away his cold sweat and gasped for breath, another tentacle suddenly and silently emerged from the grass beneath his feet!
This creature clearly possessed rudimentary intelligence, recognizing that this group was not simple. It knew to sacrifice one tentacle as bait, while the tentacle used for hunting remained silently hidden in the grass throughout.

Only when everyone breathed a sigh of relief and lowered their guard did they suddenly strike!
The researcher surnamed Tu was bound tightly with lightning speed, the force so great that one could almost hear the mournful sound of his bones.

His chest cavity was compressed, and the air in his lungs was forced out of his body immediately. The researcher surnamed Tu's mouth was wide open, and his face was filled with fear. He seemed to want to scream, but he couldn't make a sound.

His eyes were wide open, almost bulging out of their sockets like a goldfish's, the whites of his eyes were bloodshot, and his pupils were filled with despair and a desperate desire to live.

"Stop! Hold your fire!!"

Seeing the mercenaries instinctively point their guns at the researcher surnamed Tu, Okitajima's eyes narrowed and he screamed.

For Okitajima, obtaining the Buddha statue was only the first step. He needed to study the material of the statue and use its unique material to develop a life-saving medicine, which would save his life.

However, among the research institutes under the Okita family, the one with the highest research level in this field is this Chinese man surnamed Tu.

In other words, even if he obtained the Buddha statue, losing the research institute with the surname Tu would be unacceptable to Okitajima.

However, this delay allowed the tentacles to carry the Tu-surnamed researcher away at lightning speed, disappearing dozens of meters away in the blink of an eye.

The man surnamed Tu was dragged on the ground and slammed against the ground and stone walls, instantly becoming bruised and swollen. However, compared to the life-threatening situation, this injury was not so important.

Unfortunately, throughout the entire ordeal, the man surnamed Tu struggled to breathe, let alone let out a scream.

The mercenaries looked at each other, bewildered, and tightened their grip on their weapons, unsure of what to do.

Faced with these elusive and bizarre tentacles, only firearms could offer them a sliver of security. However, their employer, who forbade them from harming someone surnamed Tu, ordered them to rescue someone from the clutches of these strange tentacles.
That's really putting people in a very difficult position.

“Mr. Okita…”

Song arrived at Okita Island with a frown, seemingly wanting to say something.

For mercenaries who struggle on the brink of death to earn their wages, human life is the least valuable thing, especially the life of someone they don't know well.

When necessary, even close companions can be abandoned, let alone a stranger.

"Absolutely! Absolutely! Guarantee his safety!!!"

"Double the commission! Song! Bring your men and bring him back. I can't lose him!!!"

Okitajima tore away his refined demeanor and roared with a ferocious expression.

“Mr. Okita, this is impossible. We are already struggling to protect you from such a bizarre creature, let alone save you from the clutches of the demon claw.”

Song frowned almost imperceptibly, looked in the direction the tentacles had gone, and whispered a command.

"In fact, while you two were arguing, that thing had already disappeared with the man surnamed Tu."

Just as the two were arguing, Hu Ming suddenly spoke up.

Upon hearing this, Okitajima was taken aback. He turned around and, sure enough, the demon claw tentacles and the shadow of the man surnamed Tu were gone!
Okitajima's face darkened, veins throbbed on his forehead, and his fists clenched involuntarily, his nails almost digging into his skin.

He understood that with this delay, Tu was most likely doomed. Even if he were rescued alive in the face of such predators, he would probably be crippled, making further research impossible.

In other words, here at Okitajima, the Tu family has lost all value.

".….keep going!"

Okitajima took a deep breath, suppressed his anger, and gave the order in a deep voice.

Now is not the time for complaining and regret. Since we have lost the researcher, we must hurry to find another researcher after obtaining the Buddha statue.

Ultimately, the most important thing is the Buddha statue. Without the Buddha statue, everything is just empty talk; with the Buddha statue, there is hope.

Hu Ming and the blind man exchanged a glance, and there was nothing wrong with it.

……

……

The group continued forward and soon came to a puddle.

The water was about 30 centimeters deep, and the surface was murky, covered with greenish-yellow algae, making it almost impossible to see what was happening inside.

For safety's sake, Song twisted a few glow sticks and threw them in.

The movement of entering the water gradually subsided, and during this time, there was no further movement in the water.

The group breathed a sigh of relief.

As they traveled, the group had indeed become somewhat frightened.

Song took the lead, cautiously dipping his toes into the water, making tentative advances, stopping every short distance to observe the surrounding movement.

Hu Ming yawned listlessly.

There is indeed something in this shallow water—a giant python.

However, the moment they arrived, the aura of the Golden Eyes spread out, and all the giant pythons lay trembling at the bottom of the water, not daring to make the slightest movement.

However, Hu Ming knew that the giant python wasn't the biggest threat here; the troublesome one was...

"coming!"

A glint of light flashed in Hu Ming's eyes behind his sunglasses, and he and the blind man uttered a low shout almost simultaneously.

At the same time, the blind man scooped up Gu Ziqing around the waist and, in a few leaps, landed on the abandoned beam leaning against the center. He drew his black and gold short sword and looked warily toward the eight o'clock position.

Hu Ming shrugged, thought for a moment, and then decided to follow the blind man to the crossbeam.

To be fair, Hu Ming and the blind man were advisors, not bodyguards. From the very beginning, protecting the lives of people on Okita Island was not their job.

Song's team and Okitajima stared blankly at the two who suddenly seemed startled.

"Mr. Hu, what's going on here...?"

Seven or Eight asked in astonishment. But before he could finish speaking, it was as if a muffled thunderclap had exploded underwater, splashing water everywhere.

Countless silent, lurking claws emerged from the water, baring their fangs and claws as they entangled the group.

At this moment, Hu Ming's gaze was fixed on one of the unusual tentacles.

Unlike the withered yellow of the other tentacles, this one was pitch black, as delicate and exquisite as black jade, with a faint black mist swirling around it. Whether it was an illusion or not, Hu Ming and the blind man vaguely heard a miserable howl coming from the black tentacles.

Listen carefully, and you can hear human voices as well as the hissing of snakes.
Perhaps it was the two tests that made him realize that Hu Ming and the blind man were extraordinary. This time, what faced them directly was this unique tentacle!
Wow….

Hu Ming clicked his tongue lightly, and the treasured sword appeared in his hand.

This black tentacle is no ordinary thing!
When Hu Ming was still several meters away, he could smell a strong stench.

That's the stench of decay unique to the dead!
The black fog almost instantly filled the surrounding space, making it nearly impossible to see one's hand in front of one's face. Only faint light flickered in the darkness—the light from the searchlight in Hu Ming's blind hand.

Upon seeing this, the blind man laughed.

For a blind person, only an environment with a sliver of dim light can maximize their fighting ability and allow their eyes to see more clearly.

In this environment, his eyesight could almost be described as the best in the world.

At the same time, Hu Ming also smiled.

Since his five senses have become far beyond those of ordinary people, Hu Ming is no longer bothered by this kind of environment, let alone the even worse absolute darkness that only exists in theory.

Exhaling a breath of stale air, Hu Ming closed his eyes, amplified his hearing to the extreme, capturing every rustle of wind and analyzing the information in the subtle sounds. His brain worked at high speed, recompiling the information to construct a real-time three-dimensional image.

Swish!
The precious sword slashed out diagonally with the force of thunder, and a piercing hissing sound immediately rang out. The black mist was swirled and surged along the trajectory of the sword.

A flash of cold electricity, and the blade of the precious sword pointed directly at the dark tentacles.

On the other side, the blind man was not far behind, and Hu Ming followed suit, stepping forward and swinging his knife.

The two worked together seamlessly, without exchanging many words, each firmly believing that the other could keep up with their movements immediately, achieving perfect teamwork.

Two deadly swords, one long and one short, were swung one after the other towards different parts of the dark tentacles.

Suddenly, in Hu Ming and the blind man's "perspective," the end of the jet-black tentacle split into four petals, revealing a mouth as large as a flower, filled with countless layers of ferocious, sharp teeth.

It looks like this terrifying maw could easily tear any flesh and blood to shreds!
Phew~!!!
The moment the hideous maw split open, a shrill howl rang out, and the invisible sound waves almost materialized, spreading out in a ring shape under the influence of the black mist.

It's hard to describe this sound...

Although it sounded like just a voice, a strange thought arose in Hu Ming's mind—

This is a bizarre sound of countless humans and beasts roaring in unison at the same time!
Worse still, Hu Ming didn't have time to think about the intricacies of the situation. As the sound rang out, waves of dizziness and stinging pain rose from the depths of his brain.

"Damn it! There's something wrong with this thing's voice!"

Hu Ming's expression changed, and he stomped his foot to stop his forward momentum. At the same time, the trajectory of his treasured sword changed, and he cut off one of the four-lobed mouths from bottom to top at an incredible angle.

Large gushes of dark, unidentified liquid gushed from the wound, and the screams instantly became even more pitiful.

The black tentacles writhed wildly as if they were alive.

It is clear that over the long years, the black tentacles have been the uncrowned king of this land, at the top of the food chain, with any other creature merely food to supplement its nutrition.

The unprecedented injury made it difficult for this thing to accept for a while.

"However, this undoubtedly proves one thing: these strange black tentacles are its most important organs, aren't they?"

"So, what exactly did the ancestors here do back then? How did they manage to cultivate a nine-headed cypress into this mutated species?"

"A body and tentacles a mixture of flesh and plant matter, and a mental attack powerful enough to shock even the most resilient nerves like ours. Is this thing really a Hydra Cypress?"

Hu Ming brandished the knife, flicking away the foul-smelling, disgusting black blood from the blade, and muttered to himself.

Even though Hu Ming and the blind man were well-informed and had seen all sorts of strange things, they could only say that the ancient people really knew how to play with such bizarre life forms.

What is this, some kind of ancient biotechnology?
"Who knows... You know, this tentacle is definitely not the only one, and judging from the initial assessment, this thing is likely to have considerable intelligence. That's the most troublesome thing. Heaven knows how many more like this are waiting for me ahead!"

The blind man sighed. This trip was likely going to be troublesome, and...

The blind man glanced sideways at Okitajima and Song's mercenary group, then sighed wearily.

"I really am a cursed man. I guess I won't get the final payment for this commission."

While the black tentacles were attacking Hu Ming and the blind man, things weren't peaceful on the other side either.

Thirteen withered vine claws launched a surprise attack from underwater, and in a short period of time, the other side had already suffered heavy losses.

Gunshots, screams, and roars rang out one after another!
When the two looked over, they saw that three people had already been lost!
However, Hu Ming had no time to pay attention to that side at the moment, as the black tentacles had already gone berserk.

Perhaps realizing that the vision-obscuring tactic was useless against Hu Ming and the blind man, the black mist dissipated in an instant, and the hideous maw with bloodied black tentacles roared madly at the two of them.

Instead of the black mist, distorted phantoms emerged from the three-lobed, broken mouth.

Upon closer inspection, these illusory figures are clearly humanoid and various animal-like shapes!
"...Damn it, this thing can not only hunt and digest living organisms, but it can also restrain spirits as a means of attack. Is it some kind of 'evil spirit' from ancient supernatural tales, acting as an accomplice to evil?"

Upon seeing this, the blind man's face turned completely black. What made him even more horrified was that some of these distorted phantoms were actually rushing towards Okitajima and Gu Ziqing, who was hiding to the side!
On Okita Island, the blind man didn't care and was even prepared not to receive the final payment. However, he couldn't remain indifferent to Gu Ziqing, after all, she was his old friend's daughter.

"Go ahead. The reforged black blade is more effective at dealing fatal damage to evil spirits and demons. Leave this to me."

"To be honest, blind man, I'm very curious. How did Gu Huaisheng manage to survive such a ferocious creature?"

Hearing a heavy, rapidly approaching breath beside him, Hu Ming turned and swung his knife, tearing several twisted evil spirits to shreds. He then took a few steps back, deliberately accelerating his blood flow.

In an instant, faint sounds of dragon roars and phoenix cries emanated from around Hu Ming, and his thin clothes could barely conceal the faint fluorescent glow shimmering on his upper body.

The distorted phantoms froze in place as they attacked, their ferocious expressions quickly melting away into sheer terror.

From this flesh and blood body before them, they suddenly sensed an extreme danger—a tremendous danger capable of melting them all in an instant!!!
As if a deity from an ancient tale of the strange and supernatural had been resurrected from legend, faint phantom images of dragons and phoenixes rose around Hu Ming in the dim environment.

The distorted phantom didn't even have time to escape. The moment it rose, it was as if it had been doused with sour acid, and its form visibly began to melt.

For a moment, desperate screams filled the entire underground space.

In the blink of an eye, the environment around Hu Ming became quiet, all the phantoms were purified, the black mist dissipated, and even the color of the pitch-black tentacles dimmed a bit.

The black tentacles hovered silently in place, the three grotesque mouths opening and closing unconsciously, and no sound came from them, except for the dripping sound of black blood falling into the water.