355: Chapter 355 I know exactly what you're planning.

Lin Fan walked over to Zhou Kai and reached out to pat Zhou Kai on the arm.

Zhou Kai let go of his hand, and Yang Ningcong slid down the stone wall to the ground before letting out a sigh of relief.

Lin Fan squatted down and looked squarely at Yang Ningcong. "Looking at Su Qingxue's stomach?"

It seems that the bones thrown out by those people at the Island Center not only attracted the attention of outsiders, but even the mice at home have set their sights on them.

The firelight shone on Lin Fan's face, and thinking of his thoughts just now, Yang Ningcong couldn't help but shudder.

"Yang Ningcong." Lin Fan spoke, and Yang Ningcong stopped coughing, his body freezing.

"Clear all those improper thoughts out of your head completely."

"I know exactly what you are planning."

Yang Ningcong's eyes widened, and the cold sweat on his forehead dripped down the tip of his nose. "Brother Fan... I really didn't... I was just..."

"Whether you did or not, you know it yourself."

Lin Fan interrupted him, tapping his fingers twice on Yang Ningcong's chest with a force that made Yang Ningcong feel like his sternum was about to crack. "I'm keeping you because you still have value as a mine detector. If you feel your life is too long and want to use yourself as an experiment, I won't stop you."

Yang Ningcong buried his head deeper, his knees propped against his chin, remaining completely silent.

Lin Fan stood up and turned to look at Zhou Kai.

"Kaizi, there is something I need you to do."

Zhou Kai patted the dust off his hands. "Brother Fan, go ahead."

"On the side of the Karst Cave platform, follow the path that Xiao Qian and the others climbed up just now, go up towards the cliff top, and make the traces along the way more obvious."

Zhou Kai was stunned for a moment, not understanding what Lin Fan meant. "Make it obvious?"

"Right, destroy all the camouflage we made before, and crush the bushes at the cliff top into a trail left by someone walking."

"Let the people down below see at a glance that there is a path here leading up."

Zhou Kai's yellow-green vertical pupils narrowed, and his toothless mouth slowly parted into a grin.

"Brother Fan, do you want those foreigners to think we ran away?"

Lin Fan didn't answer, but Zhou Kai already understood. He turned around and headed toward the cave entrance.

"Wait." Xu Zhixia blocked Zhou Kai's path.

She looked at Lin Fan, her brows knitted together. "Lin Fan, have you thought this through? Once that path is exposed, the people below will send someone up."

"The cliff top leads to the dense forest behind. If we really can't win the fight, we still have a way out."

"But if we are exposed now and those foreigners down there send people up, we truly won't have a way out."

Lin Fan didn't explain, turning his head to look at Zhou Kai. "Go, finish it quickly."

"Understood."

Zhou Kai vaulted out of the cave entrance, his figure merging into the night.

...

After the commotion caused by Xiao Qian and the others, dawn broke very quickly.

On the beach, Hall emerged from his tent.

He hadn't slept well; to be precise, he hadn't slept much at all.

His mind was filled with the image of that man dodging bullets yesterday. With that kind of speed and that kind of reaction, if he could acquire it, he would be the global ruler.

Hall stood up, stretched his neck a couple of times, and walked toward the nearest sentry post.

"Kaman."

The burly man crawled out from under the tarp shed, his eyes still bloodshot. "Sir."

"Any movement last night?"

"No, Sir. It was quiet all night, and there was not a single sound from the mountain."

Hall nodded, felt for the binoculars at his waist, raised them to his eyes, and looked toward the Karst Cave halfway up the mountain.

The cave entrance was pitch black, with no figures in sight.

He shifted the lens to the side, toward the flank of the Karst Cave platform, and the binoculars stopped.

Hall's fingers tightened. The image inside the lens was crystal clear; there was no steep cliff there, but rather a slope that led directly to the cliff top.

Furthermore, there were traces of the soil being trampled on, and the tread patterns of the shoe soles were clearly visible.

His gaze moved further up. On the scree slope, there was a drag mark extending from bottom to top, a patch of bushes had been crushed down, and the branches and leaves were broken in the same direction, all pointing toward the cliff top.

That was a path—a path leading directly from the side of the Karst Cave to the cliff top.

Hall's temples twitched twice. He lowered his binoculars. "Kaman!"

He roared out, and the entire camp heard it. The lackeys in black who were gnawing on dry rations all raised their heads.

Kaman ran over. "Sir?"

Hall grabbed him by the collar, dragged him close, and shoved the binoculars right into his face.

"Look!"

Kaman took the binoculars and looked up. After three seconds, the color drained from half of his face.

"Sir... yesterday... when I led the men to charge up yesterday, there was no path there..."

"No path?" Hall let go of his collar and took a step back, his chest heaving more intensely. "Then what is that now? Tell me what that is!"

"I..."

"They ran." Hall turned around, staring at the dense tree canopy at the cliff top, his teeth grinding audibly. "That man took people and ran from above, running into the forest. Once he entered the woods, where are we going to find him?"

Kaman stood in place, his lips trembling as he wanted to explain something, but he couldn't put a single word together.

Zhao Qiming walked over from behind the reef. He had just heard Hall's roar.

Glancing at Kaman's expression and then at Hall's flushed face, Zhao Qiming roughly made a judgment in his mind.

He took the binoculars from Kaman's hand and raised them to look in the direction of the cliff top.

There were indeed traces—very fresh, very obvious.

Too obvious.

Zhao Qiming lowered the binoculars and was just about to speak when Hall had already turned around.

"Zhao, you saw it." Hall lowered his voice. "They ran away in the middle of the night, this bunch of idiots."

Zhao Qiming glanced at the lackeys in black around them. A dozen or so people were leaning haphazardly against the reefs and tree trunks; some were still dozing off, while others had just been roared awake and were rubbing their eyes.

He looked at this bunch of people and twitched the corner of his mouth. To be a lackey to this extent was also quite a talent.

The whole crew was completely checked out. Let alone someone running down the mountain, even if someone stepped right over their heads, this bunch would probably act as if they didn't see anything.

Hall drew the pistol from his waist.

The muzzle was pressed against Kaman's forehead. Kaman's legs instantly went soft, his knees slamming into the sand, and his hands raised above his head.

"Sir... Sir please..."

Hall pulled back the safety, his index finger resting on the trigger, his mouth turning down at the corners.

"Idiot."

Seeing the sweat beads on Kaman's forehead trickle down the bridge of his nose, Zhao Qiming took a step forward. "Hall..."