Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 798 The law of the jungle: survival of the fittest!

However, there weren't many good options left, Hu Ming sighed resignedly.

He took out the grappling hook he hadn't used in a long time from the system space, tied one end to the platform and secured it, then resignedly jumped up.

...Fortunately

Standing safely on the pontoon bridge, without breaking apart as he had feared, Hu Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Gripping the rope of the grappling hook tightly, Hu Ming cautiously paced forward.

Having safely reached the end of the pontoon bridge, and seeing the hole still about ten meters away, Hu Ming took a deep breath.

A ten-meter leap through the air...

If it were the triple jump, let alone someone as superhuman as Hu Ming, even with a sufficient running distance, only a handful of the best athletes could achieve this feat, or even set a world record. The triple jump is over eighteen meters.

but…

With a running start, Hu Ming was genuinely unsure about the quality of this pontoon bridge…

"So the only option is the standing long jump?"

"I remember, what was the world record for the standing long jump again?"

"More than three meters but less than four meters? If someone were to witness it, I'm afraid I would break the world record."

Hu Ming took a deep breath, stood still, swung his arms, gathered his strength, bent his legs, and jumped!
boom!!
The moment Hu Ming's feet exerted a reaction force on the pontoon bridge and his feet left the ground, the bridge collapsed...

"I knew it."

In mid-air, Hu Ming still had the leisure to look back, and spread his hands in a helpless expression.

It was incredibly wise of me not to gamble on the quality of the bridge.

Hu Ming had to give himself a thumbs up for his wisdom.

Nice, bro.

Turning his head, Hu Ming's body was about to fly into the opposite cave.

The worst part was that Hu Ming realized that, judging from his current trajectory, he would only be about 30 centimeters away from the entrance of the opposite cave when he would just miss it, crash into the rock wall, and then fall all the way down, turning into dumpling filling.

"If only I knew the legendary Wudang Cloud Ladder Leap, stepping on my right foot with my left, then my left, and soaring upwards..."

A strange thought flashed through Hu Ming's mind, but he just grinned and remained calm.

After all, there are ways to overcome this distance.

Golden eyes appeared, and white mist surged beneath him.

The sound of snakes chirping was heard.

A python as thick as a water bucket materialized, taking shape as Hu Ming propelled forward. Of course, the moment the python materialized, it was already falling due to gravity.

But... that's enough.

In the instant the giant python materialized, Hu Ming had already adjusted his posture, bent his knees, and placed his feet on the python's back.

At the same time, the giant python seemed to understand the meaning of "God" and tensed its muscles. Just as Hu Ming exerted force to jump for the second time, it arched its back, giving Hu Ming a perfect assist.

Hu Ming's descent slowed, and he took off again, tracing an almost "M" shape in mid-air before landing safely at the entrance of the opposite cave.

The giant python vanished into black mist mid-air as it fell.

This combination of techniques is something that ordinary people would find difficult to execute.

With his feet firmly on the ground, Hu Ming breathed a sigh of relief. What a damned floating bridge, what a damned monk! He really couldn't place too much hope on architecture from a thousand years ago outside of China.

Although the monks who were in charge of building this place back then were probably from China.

However, before Hu Ming could catch his breath, a sudden change occurred.

The moment Hu Ming landed, he keenly noticed that there were many signs of corrosion and obvious signs of damage at the entrance of Rongdong.

The mark is still very fresh.

In the instant he drew his sword to defend himself, several ghostly claw vines shot out from the surrounding rock walls, surging towards Hu Ming. At the same time, a painful and frenzied howl echoed from the depths of the cave—

“Hu Ming…”

It has the timbre of Okitajima.

Hu Ming laughed, sheathed his precious sword, retrieved it into his personal space, relaxed his body, and even stretched out his limbs, letting the ghost claw vines bind and drag him away.

Through that agonizing, frantic howl, and the faint senses emanating from it, Hu Ming was able to roughly confirm one thing.

The mutated cypress was probably tormented by the mother stone, and at this point, it should be on the verge of death.

A simple guess is that for intelligent beings, survival is always the primary concern.

Especially with these non-human beings, you can't exactly talk to them about principles and integrity, can you?
It doesn't understand either!
Moreover, what appeared here was not pitch-black tentacles, but these ordinary ghost claw vines, clearly indicating that it was in a hurry.

The vine pulled Hu Ming forward at breakneck speed, his vision almost blurred into lines.

After speeding along for a full three minutes, just as Hu Ming was getting a little tired of this rare experience, they finally arrived at their destination.

As you descend, you enter a vast and expansive underground cavern.

All around was pitch black, and from the perspective of the night vision, countless ferocious, claw-like vines almost occupied the entire space.

Among them, several jet-black tentacles, like generals leading an army, stood at the forefront, close to Hu Ming, frantically unleashing black weapons. Countless phantoms lingered around him, and noisy screams filled the air, making this place almost indistinguishable from the hell in mythology.

To be honest, anyone would despair and wait to die in this situation, but Hu Ming smiled.

With a wicked grin spreading across his face, Hu Ming was having a great time.

"It must be very painful, right, Snake Cypress? Your life force is being drained endlessly by the mother stone, and you can clearly feel yourself slowly approaching the abyss of death. This feeling must be very desperate and painful, right?"

"Especially when you've tried every possible method and exhausted all means, yet still can't alleviate the problem in the slightest, and in fact, the Mother Stone's power to drain your life force has become even stronger..."

Hu Ming opened his environmental protection sign and shouted provocatively.

Silence, dead silence.

Even the vines and tendrils that were protesting all around remained still.

A few moments.

"Hu Ming!!!"

The roar came from the center.

"I love the way you can't stand me but can't do anything about it, yet you have to bow down to me because you need my help."

"Hu Ming!!!"

The thousand-year-old cypress clearly lacked vocabulary. Even though it obtained human language from Okitajima, it sadly discovered that its existing vocabulary database was simply insufficient to support its attempts to swear, leaving it only able to roar in frustration.

In short, it felt really tragic.

"How did you manage to implant that damn fragment into my body? As far as I can remember, you've never had any close contact with me."

While venting is important, the problem still needs to be solved, but before that, Shebai felt it was necessary to clarify his confusion.

"Your body... Okitajima's soul is crying... Never mind, there's no point in talking about it now."

"...It's Researcher Tu."

"From the very first meeting, I sensed an aura of supernatural power emanating from Okitajima. Just to be on the safe side, I persuaded Researcher Tu... well, my personal charm still..."

"As we approached the ruins, passing the remnants of the village that had been destroyed by the Japanese soldiers, at my request, he hid the fragments of the mother stone I provided in the medicinal liquid and buried them into the flesh and blood of Okita Island."

"Therefore, when Okitajima shattered the medicine jar beneath his flesh and blood, and absorbed the medicine into his own body, when you took over Okitajima's body, your fate was already sealed."

Hu Ming explained softly.

"It was him? How could it be? In my memory, he was a pathetic Chinese man who coveted money and fame. I could give him everything he wanted, how could he dare to betray me?"

"How could you, a lowly tomb raider, possibly have the resources to bribe him?"

The cypress didn't believe it and roared in anger. It had fully accepted Okitajima's memories, and his personality as well...

In short, his way of thinking and logic was inevitably influenced by Okitajima.

Hu Ming was well aware of this.

"Pathetic Chinese? Lowlife scoundrels with no luck?"

"You don't think that way, does Okitajima think that way? How should I put it? Although I had expected it, he was probably influenced by his father, but I was still furious when I heard it!"

"Although, tomb raiding is indeed a lowly profession."

The phrase "pathetic Chinese" made Hu Ming's temples throb with anger, and he could barely contain himself. He drew his sword again and held it close to his hand.

Although Hu Ming wasn't a radical youth, he still couldn't help but get angry when someone said that to him.

However, to be fair, this is now the domain of the snake cypress. As far as the naked eye can see, the vast space is completely occupied by ghost claw vines and pitch-black tentacles.

This kind of human wave tactic.
No matter who comes, it's useless; they all have to kneel! Even a supreme deity would have to kneel!
However, Hu Ming dared to venture deep into this place alone, naturally because he had the right reasons.

With his golden eyes unfolding, a thick white mist emanated from Hu Ming's body, accompanied by the hissing of countless snakes.

Of course, even Golden Eyes was somewhat strained by the snake cypress that had been entrenched here for thousands of years, but that was alright, as this was not Hu Ming's last resort.

hum~~~
Continuing with some mysterious connection, a nearly inaudible buzzing sound shook the atmosphere.

"This"

A terrible premonition suddenly rose from the depths of Snake Cypress's heart, and his voice trembled slightly.

It had a premonition that what was about to happen would be absolutely terrible!
Hu Ming grinned, offering no explanation. While constantly dodging the tentacles that surged forth in the wrath of the Serpent Cypress, he unleashed the power of the Mother Stone to its maximum extent through some unseen connection.

The next moment, as if blown by the legendary death wind from hell, all the vines and tendrils were suspended in mid-air, and then a gray-white color quickly filled the entire field of vision.

That was the breath of death, the wind of death that drained all life force in an instant!
When Hu Ming arrived, the mother stone had already established itself inside the cypress tree, completing the initial stage of parasitism…

Yes, what caused the cypress so much pain and terror was merely the side effects of the mother stone merging into its body.

But now, the true horror of the mother stone is revealed!
The cypress was so terrified that it lost its voice.

In that brief moment, the cypress tree made a simple estimate and found that nearly a third of its life force had been drained!
In other words, if that force were applied twice more, it would die.

"No!! No!! Absolutely not!"

The cypress tree is roaring.

Countless vines, covered in a grayish-white hue and carried by the air currents, completely decayed into ash, accumulating into a thick layer on the ground.

With his vision clearing, Hu Ming finally saw the true form of the cypress tree a hundred meters away. Its brown trunk, hundreds of meters tall, was completely bare, with no leaves or anything else besides its branches.

That makes sense, as cypress trees live deep underground in extremely shady places, and photosynthesis is not essential for them.

Its source of nutrition has never been sunlight or the earth, but rather the flesh and blood of living beings.

The cypress tree in front of us has undergone some kind of terrible mutation.

The massive tree trunk was beginning to resemble a blurry human figure, and the tangled branches trembled slightly, showing signs of converging on both sides. Upon closer inspection, these branches almost formed the outline of two arms.

"Are you trying to become a spirit? Don't you know that spirits aren't allowed after the founding of the People's Republic of China?"

"Oh, this isn't China, then it's alright."

Hu Ming was also seeing such a magnificent creature for the first time, and he sighed softly.

At the base of the cypress tree—that is, in the soil beneath its roots—numerous white bones were piled up all around. Judging from the shape of the bones, most of them were the remains of snakes and humans, and the rest were the remains of various creatures unique to the tropical rainforest.

Clearly, over the course of a thousand years, the snake cypress has devoured countless living beings.

However, none of that is the main point. The main point is that Hu Ming keenly sensed a familiar scent.

That's the smell of pagodas and Buddha statues.

Ignoring the groans of the snake cypress, Hu Ming narrowed his golden eyes, and several giant pythons appeared out of thin air, approaching the snake cypress under Hu Ming's command.

It stopped about twenty meters away from the cypress, its massive body creating a mess around it.

The topsoil was pushed aside, revealing the secret beneath the ground...
The golden light illuminated the vast space almost instantly.

gold.

Beneath the soil layer, it was all gold!
Gold, the same material used to cast pagodas and Buddha statues!
"Is this stuff really that widespread?"

Hu Ming murmured softly.

"When my consciousness was still hazy, the humans living on this land discovered my existence."

“They worshipped me as a god, offering sacrifices every day and worshipping me every night. All the giant pythons that once lived on this land were sacrificed to me.”

"To my surprise, these giant pythons contained some mysterious energy that could accelerate the development of my consciousness. After devouring more than half of the giant pythons on this land, I discovered in despair that it wasn't enough; this mysterious energy was far from sufficient!"

"Under my will, these foolish humans paid a heavy price, destroying the giant python's lair and finally discovering the reason for the mysterious energy within the python!"

"Yes, that's right, it's this gold, the gold right in front of you!"

"In fact, this very space before you was originally a gathering place for giant pythons. It was I who slaughtered them all and took all this gold for myself!"

"It was because of this gold that the speed at which my consciousness developed greatly accelerated; similarly, I felt a slight sense of dissatisfaction..."

"Why are those foolish humans so weak, yet they can roam freely on this earth, while I, so strong, am trapped in one place? This is not fair!"

The cypress tree is roaring.

Driven by pain and facing the threat of death, the cypress roars madly.

"Therefore, I conceived a bold idea: I will devour all these foolish and weak humans!"

"Perhaps, after I devour them all, I will have a body as free as theirs?"

"Yes, with the help of this magical gold, I will definitely be able to regain my freedom!"

"But I never expected that after I had devoured all those foolish humans, a damned monk would come here."

"This monk used a mysterious power called 'Feng Shui Formation' to trap me here. A mysterious force, a mysterious power that relies on this land, is actually suppressing me!"

"He deserves to die!!! But he actually discovered the secret of the gold, and even more surprisingly, he can wield this power that belongs only to me!"

"He actually used the power that originally belonged to me to further suppress me, erode me, and try to obliterate me!!!"

"Damn it! All humans deserve to die!"

"He's dead. I wore him down to death, but before he died, he actually used his life as a price, employing the power of gold to trap me here."

"A thousand years, Hu Ming, do you know how I've survived these past thousand years?!"

Feeling the suction sensation within its body once again, the cypress went berserk, shaking its trunk wildly.

A crack appeared in the very center of the tree trunk, revealing "Okitajima," a creature entangled in countless blood-red threads, its face contorted in a ferocious rage, roaring wildly.

It was unwilling to accept this!
It took a full thousand years to erase most of the power left behind by the monks, and finally, for the first time, they regained their free bodies.
It was unwilling to accept its fate; it didn't want to die like this. It wanted to go to the society of foolish humans and become their king!
"A clubhouse model, or someone addicted to playing Blue Moon?"

Hu Ming was silent for a moment, then asked tentatively.

As "Okitajima" struggled desperately, a faint golden light shimmered around the main trunk, trapping it in a corner.

Clearly, this was a contingency plan left behind by the monks to prevent the cypress tree from leaving this place and causing havoc in other areas.

Unfortunately, time is the greatest force in the world, capable of erasing all power. It is evident that, a thousand years later, that power has been worn down to its limit.

If Hu Ming hadn't happened to come here, in another twenty or thirty years at most, the snake cypress would have been able to completely obliterate these remaining forces.

You are really unlucky.

Hu Ming clicked his tongue and sighed softly.

However, things had come to this point, and it would be too much to say anything that sounded like sympathy. Hu Ming just sighed and ignored the grief-stricken snake cypress, quietly drawing his sword.

The Mother Stone's ability to extract life force is exceptionally terrifying, especially now that Hu Ming has fully activated it, making it even more frightening.

"Damn it, damn it, all humans deserve to die! They're just mere food, yet they dare to offend me and hurt me! All humans deserve to die!!!"

The cypress had gone mad, completely abandoning its negligible suppression of the mother stone within its body. In its final moments, it needed to vent its anger; it needed to devour the bastard food that had dragged it into this trap!
All the tentacles had turned into ashes. The cypress tree squeezed out the last bit of its life force and mysterious power, forcibly generating more than thirty special black tentacles, which rushed madly toward Hu Ming.

This was Shebai's last stand; even in death, he wanted to drag Hu Ming down to hell with him.

"The truth of this world, to put it simply, is just four words: the survival of the fittest. A thousand years ago, you treated the giant pythons and humans living here as food because you were stronger."

"A thousand years ago, the monks tried their best but could only trap you once more, because the monks were not strong enough."

"A thousand years later, I will manipulate you at will and plunder your life at will, simply because I am stronger than you."

Hu Ming murmured softly, and as he made the incision, a splash of crimson appeared on the tip of the knife.

"Perhaps you think I used tricks and schemes to force you to this point, but wisdom is a kind of power."

"For tens of thousands of years, humankind has been able to stand out among countless other creatures and become the owners of this blue planet, and intelligence has always been the biggest factor."

"So...go in peace, Serpent Cypress. Between us, there's no justice involved. It's simply that I need your life force, and I happen to be stronger than you. Isn't this your favorite kind of survival of the fittest, the law of the jungle?"

Hu Ming's figure moved as swiftly as wisps of smoke, his trajectory impossible for the naked eye to follow. In the blink of an eye, he had covered a distance of dozens of meters.

He stepped back with his right foot, turned to the side, and bent over to dodge several oncoming black tentacles, then swung his knife.

The piercing light of the blade cut through the air with an ease that was even more effortless than a hot knife through butter. The precious sword, stained with precious blood, effortlessly severed several jet-black tentacles.

A series of sighs, both human and serpentine, echoed in relief.

From Hu Ming's perspective, the moment the black tentacles disappeared, countless shadowy figures drifted out, turning into specks of light and vanishing.

Those were spirits that the cypress had collected and imprisoned, spirits that had once been devoured by it.

Buddhism emphasizes salvation and merit. If the monks of that year were still alive, the merit they accumulated in saving these spirits would likely be enough for them to attain Buddhahood.

Amidst the roar of the cypress, Hu Ming moved erratically, dodging and slashing his knife from impossible angles multiple times, easily cleaving the black tentacles in two.

Within fifteen minutes, Hu Ming had approached the main body of the snake cypress.

At this moment, Hu Ming's clothes were already tattered. When the black tentacles broke, a large amount of corrosive black viscous liquid sprayed out. The density was so great that even Hu Ming could not dodge it all.

He ripped off his tattered shirt, revealing his muscular upper body. Dragons and phoenixes circled around Hu Ming's upper body, shimmering with a faint light, as if they were alive. One could even faintly hear the roars of dragons and the cries of phoenixes.

With the precious blood pushed to its limit, Hu Ming is immune to the corrosiveness of these black liquids.

At this moment, Hu Ming only looked rather disheveled; in reality, his energy and spirit had been raised to their peak, making this his strongest moment in combat.

"Your turn, Cypress."

Without turning his head, Hu Ming swung his knife and severed the tentacles that were lurking underground, taking the opportunity to hunt. He then looked indifferently at the snake cypress.

There was nothing more to say now that things had come to this, and Hu Ming brandished his knife once more.

"Hu Ming!!!"

The cypress tree went completely mad, roaring wildly. Okitajima's body twisted erratically within the trunk, trying to break free and join Hu Ming in their battle.

Unfortunately, with the mother stone extracted, the cypress can only barely catch its breath under the protection of its trunk.

If separated from the canopy, Okitajima's body would most likely be shriveled into a dried-up corpse and reduced to ashes in an instant.

However, even so, the faint light flickering on the tree trunk had already dimmed to an extreme degree.

Judging from the rate at which the dim light fades, it's estimated that in about half an hour, the cypress will be completely gone.

Driven by a last shred of reason, the desire to live suppressed the resentment, anger, and despair in the snake cypress's heart, forcibly calming his emotions and leaving his face ashen.

"Hu Ming... spare me. I'm willing to pay any price for it. You also possess extraordinary power. So, as the price for sparing my life, I will reveal the secret of the power here to you."

“I can even be your slave, serve you wholeheartedly, and worship you as a god until the end of your life.”

"Don't deny it. I can see that you are different from monks. You are not the kind of person who is compassionate and willing to sacrifice for the world. You are just like me, an extremely selfish person."

The snake cypress, its intelligence kicking in, looked at the blade that was almost cleaving its brow and said in a deep voice.

As expected, Hu Ming's blade paused, stopping precisely at the serpent cypress's brow, as if he was tempted.

"I must say, a thousand years has not been wasted. You truly possess extraordinary wisdom, understanding the meaning of luring someone with benefits and attacking their weaknesses..."

"Unfortunately, you miscalculated two points."

"First, compared to this kind of mysterious power that is neither useful nor worth discarding, your boundless vitality is more appealing to me. After all, in the current situation, it is too difficult to find an existence with such boundless vitality as you again."

"Secondly... you've probably misunderstood something. I'm not like monks; I've already achieved immortality, and my lifespan is sufficient!"

Hu Ming grinned, flipped his wrist, and with a swift movement, slashed the blade horizontally without hesitation!
A fine head flew up.

"No!!"

Only a roar of resentment rang out.

Before the blood could even splatter, it was transformed into the purest life force of the cow and completely extracted by the mother stone.

From the center of the fallen head, the mother stone slowly flew out and drifted to the trunk of the cypress tree. Using the connection between the body and the cypress, it slowly sank into it.

The cypress tree was finished; its trunk was quickly covered with a grayish-white color.