Chapter 89: Chapter 089: Encounter with a Survivor in the Depths of the Forest

Because the people of Peng Village always followed old hunting rules and someone was leading the way, they were lucky to find traces of the missing villagers after about two hours of searching in the mountains.

Following the clues left behind, Group Captain Zhao hurriedly led his team deeper in, hoping to find them as soon as possible.

With a goal in mind, Su Shu’s spirits were lifted. She hitched up the pack on her back and quickened her pace to keep up, her heart filled with both worry and a bit of nervousness for Tang Zelin.

Half an hour later, near Between Cliffs Mountain, they finally found the disaster-struck villagers. The warriors approached swiftly, not even pausing to catch their breath, and together they lifted the fallen trees that had collapsed on top of the villagers.

Zhao Kang ordered the guards to quickly check the surroundings for who was and wasn’t there.

Su Shu checked each person one by one, and every time she saw someone seriously injured, her heart raced to her throat, fearing it would be Tang Zelin. Only when she confirmed it wasn’t him could she breathe a sigh of relief.

However, as she checked each person, her breath grew tighter and could not be eased anymore.

He wasn’t among any of them!

She grabbed a villager with minor injuries and asked, “Could you tell me if Tang Zelin came into the mountain with you? Where is he?”

The villager she had grabbed was clearly terrified by the sudden earthquake and kept shaking his head, trying to break away from her questions.

If one didn’t answer, she would ask another, no matter what it took. She needed to know if Tang Zelin was still in these mountains and whether he was still alive!

Zhao Kang, standing by and watching her pale face yet determined demeanor, grew worried and approached her, “Miss, your fiance, being a military man, will have the ability to protect himself. Don’t worry, we’ll take our time and we are sure to find him.”

Su Shu nodded, but it was clear she hadn’t really heard Zhao Kang’s words.

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She said, “You don’t understand, precisely because he is a military man, I’m even more worried about him now.”

Zhao Kang didn’t quite grasp her meaning at the moment.

Looking around at the injured villagers, Su Shu said lightly, “Because there are ordinary people here.”

A simple sentence, the meaning of which was unsaid yet understood, stirred Group Captain Zhao and the warriors beside him even more.

Indeed, if it had only been them lost in the mountains, perhaps their chances of survival would’ve been greater. But with ordinary civilians around, as military men, they might encounter any number of dangers while trying to protect the people, which nobody dared to contemplate.

Zhao Kang silently regarded Su Shu, the young woman who not only had the courage to venture into the mountains to search for someone but was also able to deduce her fiance’s precarious situation from her surroundings. She understood the stance of them as soldiers, yet managed to remain calm and actively looked for useful information to find people.

All the way up, he had never heard her complain of fatigue, nor had he seen her cry out of inability to endure, only seeing her determined gaze, not giving up any possibility of finding the missing.

Touched by her resilience, Group Captain Zhao ordered all the rescue warriors to gather as much information as possible from the locals about Tang Zelin, Yuan Xiao, and the other missing individuals.

Finally, after questioning everyone, someone provided a new lead.

To distract the snake swarm and save most of the villagers, Tang Zelin and Yuan Xiao, along with three others known for their swift legs, acted as bait to draw the snakes deeper into the forest, while the rest of them ran to safety non-stop.

Even so, there were those who reacted slowly and fell behind, met by the undistracted poisonous snakes, and died from their venom.

As the two groups fled in opposite directions, those on this side had just escaped the snake threat and thought they were out of danger. However, an unexpected earthquake struck, the mountains trembled, and many were crushed or injured by the falling trees because of the unrest at Between Cliffs Mountain.

Even they, who had sustained various degrees of injuries, didn’t dare to think about the status of the five who had chosen to distract the snake swarm to allow the majority to live, dead or alive.