Countless strange birds surrounded us like sculptures, landing silently and standing without making a sound. Suddenly, I thought of the gargoyles from foreign horror movies, those creatures that are statues by day and turn into animals by night. Could these birds be their prototypes? Moreover, from the looks in these birds’ eyes, they seemed to possess intelligence. Was there some eerie purpose behind their encirclement of us?

My premonition soon came true. Suddenly, a bird swooped down from above us, dropping something that landed with a “thud” in front of us, splattering blood everywhere. To my shock, it was Ye Cheng, his neck had been bitten through, and he was coughing uncontrollably, but his eyes were already vacant—there was no saving him.

Then another corpse was thrown down. I couldn’t tell who it was, but the head was gone, and the body was covered in blood. After Chen Pi Ah Si parted ways with us, he had rushed directly into the royal tomb, clearly also attacked by these strange birds. Ye Cheng must have been captured by this giant bird at the center of the royal tomb. Without the guidance of Uncle Three’s signal, these people had met such a tragic end—something I never could have imagined.

I thought Chen Pi Ah Si would also be doomed, but the next few corpses that were thrown down were all from A Ning’s subordinates. Clearly, not everyone had escaped earlier. Fortunately, I didn’t see Uncle Three or Pan Zi’s bodies, which gave me a slight sense of relief.

At this moment, Fatty was genuinely scared and asked me, “What do these birds want from us?”

I replied, “It seems like they are trying to gather their prey. I’m no expert in this area, so I don’t know what they intend to do. Do you still have any explosives? We might have to learn from Dong Cunrui.”

Fatty shook his head, “All the explosives went to blow up the Ten Thousand Slave King. You didn’t say we should save some.”

I thought to myself, this is a real problem. No matter how much I calculated, I never expected that I, Wu Xie, would meet such an end. Surrounded by birds with no gaps to escape, not even a chance to run—was I really going to die here and become bird droppings?

Just as I was in a state of panic, Fatty suddenly pulled me back, saying, “Being attacked from both sides is too disadvantageous. There’s a rock crevice here; let’s hide in it. One of us can guard each side. We can’t let these dead birds take advantage of us so easily.”

I turned around and saw a gap between two massive rocks in the ravine, just wide enough for one person. It was open on both sides, and while moving inside might be inconvenient, it was an excellent place for defense.

Dying immediately or holding out for a bit longer—of course, the latter was more advantageous. We quickly took off the bullet belts from the corpses and squeezed into the crevice. The space inside was very small; I could still maneuver a bit, but Fatty was struggling. I estimated that if those birds tried to squeeze in, it would be quite a challenge.

Having experienced life-and-death situations multiple times, Fatty was much calmer than I was at this moment. Inside the crevice, he quickly piled up a few stones as cover and said to me, “They can only come in one at a time. As long as we kill a few, we can block the entrance and hold out a bit longer.”

I couldn’t help but smile bitterly. We didn’t have many bullets left, and there wasn’t even time to change them. If the magazine ran out, it would mean our end. However, it wasn’t quite time to die yet; there was still a glimmer of hope.

My mind was still wandering when I suddenly heard the flock of birds outside begin to screech. Through a gap, I saw the leading strange bird suddenly open its mouth disproportionately wide, revealing a mouthful of sharp fangs. Then, from its mouth, it unexpectedly spat out a creature resembling a macaque, which moved with incredible agility, swiftly landing on the ground. It cautiously looked around before running into a pile of corpses and starting to tear into them. Upon closer inspection, I realized that this monkey had no skin and was covered in blood, seemingly an organ of that strange bird.

Soon, other strange birds began to spit out these creatures as well. Countless “mouth monkeys” emerged from the flock, rushing towards the pile of corpses in the center. It seemed there was no class distinction among them; they all rushed in to feed, and in an instant, blood and scattered flesh were everywhere, with conflicts breaking out occasionally over the food.

Both the chubby guy and I frowned, nearly gagging at the sight, thinking about how we would end up like that if we didn’t escape. There were so many “mouth monkeys” that it didn’t take long for the corpses outside to be devoured completely. The stench of blood in the air reached an unbearable level. The chubby guy’s eyes turned bloodshot, realizing it would soon be our turn. He took a swig of white liquor and said, “Damn it, if you want to eat me, let’s see if you have the guts to take me on.”

I was trembling uncontrollably and took the bottle from him, gulping down a large portion, which immediately set my throat ablaze. Alcohol truly is a good thing; the feeling of a man with liquor is so different from one without.

Outside, the “mouth monkeys” were searching through the remains when suddenly one of them noticed us through the gap and let out a strange shriek. The other “monkeys” curiously gathered around, their faces peering in to examine us.

Only then did I see clearly that this “monkey” had no lips, which explained its exceptionally sharp and grotesque fangs. What puzzled me the most was that all the “mouth monkeys” had a bronze hexagonal bell hanging from their necks; some were intact while others were only half there. Yet, these bells made no sound at all as the monkeys moved.

I was terrified at the time and didn’t think much about what it meant, but later I realized that these bronze bells must have a significant connection to the entire mystery, even though they seemed to belong to different cultures.

At first, the “mouth monkeys” were quite cautious, lingering around the cave entrance for a long time. The chubby guy and I dared not make a sound, holding our guns and waiting for them to come in. After a while, a few could no longer contain themselves and suddenly dropped down from the top of the gap, leaping into the opening and tentatively lunging at the chubby guy.

Caught off guard, the chubby guy almost shot right next to the strange monkey’s head. As the bullet flew through, it also sent the corpse flying out, landing in the pile. Then his gun misfired, the bullets sweeping through, and the monkey group erupted into terrified screams, several monkeys instantly torn apart.

Suddenly, all the monkeys turned their attention to us in the gap, and the situation spiraled out of control. The leading “mouth monkey” let out a sharp cry, and all the monkeys began to squeeze into the gap. I swallowed hard, knowing my nightmare was about to begin.

Before I even had a chance to pray, two monkeys leaped into the gap like lightning, hanging from the top of the opening and opening their huge mouths wide at me. The Five-Seven was too long for me to use the stock to smash them, so I had no choice but to kick one out with a flying kick, then shot the other one dead with two bullets, and blood erupted everywhere, splattering all over my face. Just then, another one charged in without any warning. I wasn’t mentally prepared to shoot accurately, so I raised my gun and started to spray bullets.

In the next five or six minutes, I didn’t even know what I was doing; I just saw one fierce monkey after another rushing in, only to be swept away by my gunfire. Blood was splattering everywhere, and the monkeys were completely frenzied, showing no fear at all. Sometimes several of them would squeeze into the gap together, getting stuck, and I would kick them out with all my might. However, more monkeys came rushing in like a tide. Even if they were left with only half a body, as long as they could move, they would still dive into the gap, showing no mercy whatsoever.

Before long, my bullets ran out. I had originally thought I could hold out for at least an hour, but in reality, during the fight, the consumption of bullets was beyond my control. I still had plenty of bullets left, but as long as the monkeys kept charging, we had no chance to reload.

The fat guy’s M16 jammed first. He was already in a frenzy, cursing as he dropped his gun and pulled out his knife, wanting to engage in hand-to-hand combat. But the monkeys didn’t give him that chance; in an instant, five or six of them had jumped onto him, biting him fiercely. The fat guy screamed in pain, killing two of them with his hands, but four more immediately pounced on his face.

Next, my Five-Seven also ran out of bullets. I pulled the trigger, and it clicked “click, click” several times. My heart sank suddenly, and then several flashes of red light rushed toward me. Before I had time to draw my knife, I felt pain in my shoulder and the inner thigh of my leg. Instinctively, I tried to scare them off with my injured hand, but it was useless. In the midst of the struggle, one thought remained in my mind: Wu Xie and Wang Fatty, I’m afraid we will never walk out of the secret realm of Changbai Mountain again. No matter how tough we are, we all have a day when our lives come to an end.