316: Chapter 316 Could those people not be dead at all?

Lin Fan stared at him. "This place is our drinking water source. If a corpse rots here and bacteria get into the stream, will you drink from it in the future?"

Yang Ningcong opened his mouth.

He understood the logic, but understanding was one thing; making him carry a corpse with its neck pierced by a crossbow bolt...

"Brother Fan, can you have Qingxue do it? She doesn't need to use physical strength, and she won't get her body dirty."

"Her space is already full."

"Then you do it. Didn't you get tripled reinforcement..."

Before Yang Ningcong finished speaking, Lin Fan shot him a look, and Yang Ningcong immediately lost his nerve. "Brother Fan, I'll carry it."

His hands trembled as he reached out toward Yang Xiaoli's shoulders.

"Amitabha... Every grievance has its master, every debt has its debtor. Please don't come looking for me tonight..."

Yang Ningcong muttered incoherently, slipped his hands under her armpits, and hoisted her onto his shoulders.

That emaciated body didn't have much weight, but the crossbow bolt stuck in her neck was still there, its shaft poking into Yang Ningcong's shoulder and making him bare his teeth in pain.

What was even more fatal was that the wound on her neck was still oozing liquid.

The sticky substance flowed down Yang Ningcong's back, and the warm-turning-cold sensation made his scalp tingle.

"Brother Fan, this blood is all flowing onto me..."

"Shut up, move."

Yang Ningcong shut his mouth.

He carried the corpse and followed behind the team, feeling like a ghost was following him with every step he took, fearing it might be the wronged spirit of Yang Xiaoli.

The team walked back along the path they had come from.

After walking for about five or six minutes, Lin Fan stopped in front of a steep slope.

He looked back at Yang Ningcong.

"Put it here."

Yang Ningcong unloaded his cargo on the spot.

The corpse slid off his shoulder and hit the ground with a thump.

Yang Ningcong jumped two steps to the side and frantically rubbed his hands on his pants.

"Brother Fan, is my back covered in blood? Help me check..."

No one paid attention to him, and the team hurried on toward the Karst Cave.

Su Qingxue walked in the team and didn't speak much along the way.

Several times, her gaze fell toward the direction behind them, only to be pulled back.

Yang Xiaoli, a backbone of the Legal Department with an annual salary of one million, was famous in the corporation for her sharp tongue and unyielding stance.

That woman had once helped her win three intellectual property lawsuits, turning the tables every single time in situations where opponents thought they had a guaranteed win.

Now she died on an island without even a name; when all was said and done, it was she who had failed them.

The reason they were trapped on this island was because they boarded that cruise ship, and boarding that cruise ship was because of the team-building event Su Qingxue had organized.

She chartered the ship and set the route.

Although she couldn't control the tsunami, the deaths of these people were truly related to her.

Xu Zhixia walked beside her, her peripheral vision catching Su Qingxue's profile.

That face was taut, and the curve of her jawline was a bit harder than usual.

This iceberg-like female CEO had changed a lot because of this island.

Xu Zhixia didn't speak to comfort her; some words shouldn't be said at this time.

The team passed through the final stretch of dense forest, and the slope appeared in their field of view.

Lin Fan quickened his pace, taking two or three steps at a time to reach the platform. Fortunately, everything was fine.

Zhou Kai's figure appeared at the cave entrance, clutching a stick in his hand. "Brother Fan, why are you back so early? What happened?"

His gaze swept over the people following behind and then fixed on Yang Ningcong.

Yang Ningcong's entire back was a dark red, his clothes clinging tightly to his skin. "F*ck, Young Master Yang, what happened to you? Are you injured?"

"It's not my blood!" Yang Ningcong roared, rushed into the Karst Cave, headed straight for the bamboo tube storing water, picked it up, and poured it directly onto his back. "Dead people's blood! Dead people's! Damn it, it's so disgusting..."

Zhou Kai looked at Lin Fan with a face full of question marks.

Lin Fan walked into the Karst Cave and placed his firewood chopper against the stone wall. "We encountered an attack near the stream."

He briefly recounted what had happened.

The appearance of Yang Xiaoli, the silencer crossbow bolt, and the things found on the corpse.

Mentioning Yang Xiaoli shocked Zhou Kai for a moment. "What, Yang Xiaoli is still alive?"

Lin Fan nodded.

After speaking, he pulled the transparent soft tube from his pocket and placed it on the flat stone next to the campfire.

Zhou Kai leaned in to take a look and wrinkled his nose. "What is this? It looks like expired..."

"Yang Xiaoli risked her life to bring it out."

"Those people would rather expose themselves than fail to chase her out and silence her, all to prevent this thing from falling into our hands."

"So this thing is very important?" Zhou Kai asked.

"At least it's very important to them."

The Karst Cave fell silent for a few seconds.

"Wait, Brother Fan, I have a question." Zhou Kai's voice suddenly deepened.

Lin Fan looked at him, signaling him to speak. "That ship of ours... when it set sail, there were a few hundred people in total, right?"

"Mhm."

"And after waking up?"

Zhou Kai's gaze swept across the people present. "We searched the whole beach, and all the living people added together were only a few dozen."

"Then where are the remaining hundreds of people?"

"Did they really die in the sea?"

No one answered in the Karst Cave.

"I mean..." Zhou Kai's Adam's apple bobbed. "Could those people not be dead at all?"

"While we were still unconscious, were they... dragged away by those beasts on the island, and Yang Xiaoli was one of them?"

"The tsunami capsized the cruise ship, and everyone fell into the water. Hundreds of people were washed by the waves onto this beach."

"At that time, everyone passed out completely, no different from a pile of mud."

"Then those beasts took advantage of the fact that no one was awake and took people away just like Chen Jian."

"When we woke up later and found that people were missing, what was our first reaction?"

Zhou Kai raised his head and swept across everyone's faces.

"We thought they were scattered by the seawater and drowned. Their corpses sank to the bottom of the sea."

"No one would think they were directly carried away from the beach by people."

The Karst Cave fell quiet for a moment.

This deduction was too reasonable.

So reasonable that everyone present had no way to refute it.

"Perhaps the few dozen of us left," Zhou Kai's voice carried a belated chill, "were because they didn't manage to catch all of us in time."

"Or the place where they lock people up is full."

"It's also possible..." He paused. "That they were left behind on purpose."

"Just like humans grazing cattle and sheep."

"Letting us run outside, forage outside, and move around outside."

"That way, for those monsters... the taste is fresher."

"After all, that snake later came out to eat people."

Lin Fan leaned against the stone wall. This chain of reasoning was almost entirely logical.

That giant snake, that group of mutant monkeys, the Strange Bird.

The size and aggressiveness of these beasts far exceeded normal animals; the muscle mass of a single mutant monkey could equal three normal adult monkeys.

What was needed to maintain this kind of physique?

Protein, a massive amount of protein.

Adding up all the hares, birds, and wild boars on this island, feeding one giant snake would already be a stretch.

But there wasn't just one snake on the island; there were also monkey troops, Strange Birds, and even other monsters.

With all these things added together, the island's ecosystem simply couldn't support it.

Unless there was an additional food source.

Zhou Kai had also thought of this level. "Brother Fan, I have another question."

"With so many monsters on the island, we can still hunt prey..." He swallowed his saliva. "Could it be that what those monsters fill their bellies with aren't these wild boars and hares?"

"Do you think it could be that after they drain human blood, humans become useless, and then meat and bones alike are thrown into the mouths of those beasts?"

Song Ya let out a frightened "Ah" and covered her mouth with both hands.

Yang Ningcong was also startled, but after thinking carefully, he felt what Zhou Kai said wasn't entirely right.

"Brother Fan, this isn't right either."

Lin Fan looked at him.

"If it really is as you guys said, those people made their move while everyone was unconscious..."

"Then what about our second batch?"

"As for the people on my ship, there were over a dozen female waitresses alone, plus the women and young matrons I brought in from various countries—at the very least there were over a hundred people!"

"The day we were washed here, you guys were watching right here."

"Logically speaking, you should have been able to see those monsters catching people."

"But I haven't heard you mention it, which means they didn't catch people from our second batch."

"If they didn't catch them, then where did those people go?"

Lin Fan had also thought about this question.

When the first batch of people were captured, the tsunami had just passed, and everyone had fallen into a deep coma. That was a perfect opportunity to catch people.

But when Yang Ningcong's group arrived, Lin Fan was already familiar with the island's situation. The day the waves washed the second batch of people ashore, he went to the beach immediately.

He saw no gray figures and no abnormal footprints.

The mysteries on this island were growing more and more...

Just as everyone fell into silence, Xu Zhixia's voice chimed in from the side.

"Perhaps they already have enough... raw materials."

"They don't need to take risks to catch more for now. There were hundreds of people on Qingxue's ship, and they haven't used them all up yet."

Raw materials.

For these three words to come out of a doctor's mouth was more terrifying than anyone else saying them.

Hundreds of living, breathing people were simplified into three words.

Yang Ningcong slid down the stone wall to sit on the ground, holding his head with both hands. "We're done for... Completely done for..."

"I should have listened to my parents back then and not gone out to sea..."

"Shut up." Lin Fan glanced at him.

Yang Ningcong's mouth shut immediately, but his entire body was still trembling.

Lin Fan looked at that unknown liquid. Yang Xiaoli proved one thing: at least some people didn't die immediately. They were locked up, bled out, and treated as some kind of culture dish.

What about Chen Jian?

Chen Jian wasn't bled out; he was modified.

His brain was human, and his body was stitched together.

The same batch of raw materials, different processing methods.

Some people had their blood squeezed dry to feed mutant beasts, while others were directly transformed into stitched monsters.

Then... was there a third kind?

People with special abilities, just like him and Su Qingxue.

Perhaps that group of people with special abilities were the masterminds behind the scenes.

Saying it out loud now would only make everyone panic more and wouldn't produce any practical effect.

No one was speaking in the Karst Cave when suddenly a howl came from outside.

Lin Fan recognized it.

Last time, Chen Jian's howl was also this kind of neither-human-nor-beast sound.

Kaizi, you can't handle him. I'll go.

Lin Fan took out his dagger and walked toward the entrance of the Karst Cave.

The howling outside continued, and Lin Fan walked to the edge of the platform.

He swept his gaze downward. On the beach, Chen Jian was standing there.

He raised his head, facing Lin Fan directly. "Lin... Fan... Let's talk..."