358: Chapter 357 Unexpected

In the deep woods in front and to the side of the platform, flames shot into the sky.

Yang Ningcong's neck stiffened, his mouth half-open, and all those dirty jokes from just now stuck in his throat.

"Th... That way..." Yang Ningcong pointed at the woods, his tongue tied in knots.

"Brother Fan." Zhou Kai lowered his voice to call out, "Where is the fire?"

Lin Fan walked over to stand beside Zhou Kai. When he looked over there, the fire was fiercely huge.

A sea of flames merged into one, devouring everything around it with the wind, and half the sky was lit up red.

He stared in that direction—that was the place where he had previously used Liu Feifei as bait to venture deep into the interior.

"Brother Fan... Do you think those people from the Island Center blew up their own lair while doing experiments?"

Lin Fan cocked his ear to listen to the movement in the wind. As the sea breeze blew over, there was only the crackling sound of burning trees.

"An explosion would have shockwaves and a loud noise." Lin Fan withdrew his gaze. "Did you hear any sound?"

Zhou Kai was stunned for a moment and honestly shook his head.

"Then it's arson." Lin Fan pointed at the location of the fire. "It could only flare up this fast if it was ignited simultaneously from multiple points. Someone is deliberately burning the mountain."

Zhou Kai slapped his thigh with a crisp, snapping sound.

"Ouch, f*ck!" His face was full of annoyance. "Why didn't I think of this trick! Since we can't find those monsters' base, we can just set the mountain on fire! Once everything is burned down, those bastards will all have to show themselves!"

Lin Fan turned his head to look at him. "Good idea."

Zhou Kai grinned.

"After the burning is done, the beasts on the Deserted Island will all die out, the fruit trees will turn to ash, and the water sources will be polluted."

"What are we going to eat next? Will you take the lead in gnawing on stones?"

Zhou Kai was choked up, his hand scratching his head paused in mid-air, and his mouth with the missing front tooth tightly closed.

Lin Fan turned around, his gaze falling on Su Qingxue, who had heard the commotion and walked out from the compartment.

Su Qingxue stood in the shadows, her hands protecting her swollen abdomen.

"A fire this big should be uncontrollable," Lin Fan looked at her, "If we don't want to starve to death in the future, we'll have to rely entirely on Qingxue to conjure supplies out of thin air."

"If it really burns down to ashes, my supplies won't be able to support this many people either," Su Qingxue cold-heartedly threw out, her gaze sweeping past Yang Ningcong in the corner.

The meaning was obvious: when the day of food shortage truly arrived, the first to starve to death would be this kind of useless trash.

Yang Ningcong shrank his neck, quickly crawled up, crept over to the edge of the cave entrance, and peeked outside.

"Brother Fan, do you think..." Yang Ningcong swallowed a mouthful of saliva, forcibly trying to find a sense of presence, "Could this fire have been set by those two female mercenaries?"

"The people down below have all their attention on us; they shouldn't have time to set a fire."

"No matter who set the fire," Lin Fan looked at the flames reflecting red across half the sky, "All those monsters and freaks in the Island Center are going to be burned out."

"We need to get ready."

Several people stood at the cave entrance, staring at the raging fire. The fire was extremely fierce with billowing smoke. Logically speaking, a forest fire like this could never be suppressed without a professional firefighting team and the blessing of the heavens.

Once the wind blew, the entire island would suffer, but the development of events completely defied common sense.

In less than half an hour, the flames died down.

Zhou Kai pressed his face close to the rock wall, his yellowish-green eyeballs almost popping out.

"Brother Fan, did you see that..." Zhou Kai's voice was a bit shaky.

Lin Fan narrowed his eyes. The fire did not slowly weaken; it was as if an iron pot had caught fire, and a hand was holding an iron pot lid, forcibly suffocating the entire fire zone and cutting off the oxygen without any warning.

The red light completely disappeared within a few seconds, and the night sky returned to a silent black once again.

Slowly, even the smoke was almost gone, leaving only the rustling sound of the sea breeze blowing through the treetops.

"What the f*ck..." Zhou Kai shivered and took a step back, his back pressing against the rock wall, "It burned fast, but it was extinguished even faster. What the hell is actually in this Island Center?"

Lin Fan didn't answer. This fire was too bizarre; thinking about it was useless.

He watched for a long time, then turned around and walked toward the campfire. "Take turns standing watch, everyone else go to sleep."

...

The next day, it was dawn.

The sea breeze carrying a salty and damp aura poured into the Karst Cave, and sunlight shone on the slope outside the Karst Cave.

Lin Fan stood at the edge of the platform, and there was also movement in Hall's camp.

The men in black didn't build a fire to roast meat as usual; instead, they all gathered around a reef near the edge of the woods.

The atmosphere was abnormal. Hall stood in the middle, holding something in his hand.

It wasn't until someone dispersed that Lin Fan saw clearly that Hall was holding several transparent tubes in his hand.

The tubes were filled with a viscous liquid, and Lin Fan's breathing paused for half a beat.

The shape, size, and texture of the liquid inside those tubes—he was far too familiar with them.

Zhou Kai squatted nearby and poked his head over.

"Brother Fan, what are you looking at?"

As Zhou Kai spoke, he looked toward the beach. When he saw the thing in Hall's hand, his mouth opened wide, exposing his gums with the missing front tooth completely.

"F*ck..." Zhou Kai rubbed his eyes and looked at it again.

"That is..." He turned his head to look at Lin Fan, his eyeballs almost flying out, "The kind of serum I swallowed?"

Lin Fan nodded.

"Where did they get it from?" Zhou Kai panicked. "We only managed to get one by luck, did they pick it up like seashells at the beach?"

Lin Fan didn't reply. Last night there was a bizarre fire, and this morning serums appeared in Hall's camp.

Coincidence?

The image of the fire being extinguished last night flashed through Lin Fan's mind.

"Could that fire have been set by that foreigner?" Zhou Kai looked at Lin Fan. "He attacked us to make a feint to the east and strike in the west."

Lin Fan didn't speak. To be honest, he wasn't sure either.

On the beach below.

Hall held up the tube of serum, placing it in front of his eyes to examine it. Zhao Qiming walked out and stood beside him, his expression uncertain.

"Zhao, have you ever seen this thing?" Hall pinched the tube with his fingers and shook it twice.

The viscous liquid clung to the tube wall under the sunlight. Zhao Qiming stared fixedly at the tube, deep in thought.

"Sir!" A man ran out from behind the tarp. "Last night, following your instructions, I took people to search the fire scene all night, and this thing was inside a metal box!"

Hall shifted his gaze away from the tube and looked at that man.

"There are other things." The lackey turned sideways and waved behind him. "Bring the people out!"

Two men in black pulled open the door curtain of a nearby tent.

Several women were pushed out.

They had barely any clothes on and were covered in mud. A few of them couldn't even stand steadily and collapsed onto the beach as soon as they came out of the tent.

Inside the Karst Cave.

Zhou Kai squatted at the edge of the cliff wall. "Brother Fan! Those women..."

"I recognize the one on the far left, she seems to be from our company."

Lin Fan didn't look at Zhou Kai. The people in the Island Center had gone to great lengths to snatch the women, and now, he still hadn't figured out why they snatched them.

These women and the mutant serums were thrown together into the fire scene.

Last night, that big fire burned suddenly and was extinguished bizarrely. Were these tubes of serums and these women discarded goods left behind when the stronghold evacuated hastily?

Or were they bait deliberately thrown out?

"Brother Fan, how about I transform and rush down to grab them all up?"

"Grab?" Lin Fan turned his head to look at him. "Are you sure what's packed inside those tubes is the same as what you ate?"

Zhou Kai was stunned.

"There is no free lunch in this world."

On the beach.

Hall walked around those women, reached out to pinch the chin of the woman in the red floral dress, and forced her head up.

The woman was trembling all over with fear, her tears mixing with the mud as they fell.

"Well done, Shafen." Hall let go of his hand, wiped the muddy water on his trouser legs, "You really know how to get things done."

"At your service, Sir!" Shafen puffed out his chest.

Hall turned around and handed the tube to Zhao Qiming. "Zhao, you've thought about it for so long. Now, can you tell me what on earth this is?"

Zhao Qiming's gaze followed the seal of the glass tube downward. "I don't know."

"It might be some kind of research serum."

"But look at the material of this tube; this is definitely a product of an extremely high standard in civilized society."

Zhao Qiming raised his head, meeting Hall's eyes.

"Hall, this shouldn't appear on a Deserted Island where even shipping routes can't be found."

"My guess is that this should be related to the secret behind this island, or even..."

Zhao Qiming paused for a moment, "This was simply thrown out on purpose by someone."

"Are you saying this is bait?" Hall laughed, his back teeth showing as he smiled.

He held the tube high up, facing the sun.

"Zhao, you guys are too cowardly. Didn't we go through all sorts of hardships to come here just for these things? Now this thing has appeared right before our eyes."

Hall spread his arms wide, "This is God's gift!"

Zhao Qiming took half a step back, looking at him as if he were a lunatic.

"Do you really think this is a gift?" Zhao Qiming sneered, "A safe box, test tubes, and a group of women originally captured by monsters appear on a Deserted Island. Use your brain and think about it: why did they go to such great lengths to capture them, yet you got them so easily?"

Hall's smile subsided a bit.

"Who cares why." He pulled out the pistol from his waist, the muzzle pressing directly against the head of the woman in the red floral dress, "We'll know after giving it a try."

Inside the Karst Cave.

"F*ck, this foreign devil is going to test the drug on a living person!" Zhou Kai cursed out loud from above.

Yang Ningcong cowered beside the campfire, poking his head out to peer outside.

"What's wrong with testing a drug on a living person?" Yang Ningcong curled his lips, his tone sour. "If that drug can really turn someone into a superhero, that woman is making a profit! Young Master me has never encountered such a piece of pie falling from the sky in my entire life."

Lin Fan leaned against the rock wall with his arms crossed.

Testing the drug? A good thing?

If she couldn't turn into a superhero, it would prove that this was deliberately thrown out by that group of people, a defective product.

But this still didn't make sense. Why wouldn't they capture people to test the drug on inside?

Below.

Hall walked forward, pinched the cheeks of the woman in the red floral dress, and forced her to open her mouth...

"Wait a minute, Hall..."