Chapter 53: Siege

Countless strange birds with human faces surrounded us like sculptures. They landed silently and stood there without making any sound. I suddenly thought of the gargoyles in foreign horror movies, the kind of monsters that are stone statues during the day and turn into animals at night. Could they be based on this kind of bird? And judging from the look in these birds' eyes, they seemed to be intelligent. Was there any strange purpose for them surrounding us like this?

My premonition soon came true. Suddenly a bird flew over us and dropped something, which landed in front of us with a thud. Blood splattered everywhere. I looked and saw that it was Ye Cheng. His neck had been bitten off and he was coughing non-stop, but his eyes were blurry. There was no hope.

Then another body was thrown down. No one knew who it was, but the head was gone and the body was covered in blood.

After Chenpi Ah Si broke up with us, he rushed directly into the imperial mausoleum. Apparently, they were also attacked by this strange bird. Ye Cheng should have been captured by this giant bird in the center of the imperial mausoleum. Without the guidance of Uncle San's secret code, I could never have imagined that these people would end up in such a miserable end.

I thought Chenpi A Si would not be spared, but the next few bodies thrown away were all from Aning's men. Obviously not all of them escaped. Fortunately, I did not see the bodies of Uncle San and Pan Zi, which finally made me feel a little relieved.

Fatty was really a little scared at this point, and asked me, "What do these birds want to do with us?"

I said to him, "It seems that they are gathering their prey. I am not an expert in this area, so I don't know what they want to do. Do you have any explosives? We may have to learn some tricks."

The fat man shook his head: "We used all of it to blast the King of Ten Thousand Slaves. You didn't say you wanted some left."

I thought to myself that I was in trouble. I could never have imagined that I, Wu Xie, would die like this. There were birds everywhere, no space at all, not even a chance to run. Am I really going to die here and turn into bird droppings?

Just when I was getting extremely anxious, the fat man suddenly pulled me back and said, "It's too disadvantageous to be attacked from both sides like this. There is a crack in the rock. We can hide in it and each of us can block one side. We can't let these dead birds die so easily."

I looked back and saw that it was the angle between two giant rocks under the rift. There was a gap as wide as one person, which was connected to both sides. It might be inconvenient to move inside, but it was a first-class place for defense.

It was better to die immediately or to resist for a while and then die. We immediately untied the bullet belts on the corpse and quickly got into the gap. The space inside was very small. I could still move around, but it was difficult for the fat man. It was estimated that it would be difficult for these birds to get in.

Fatty had experienced many life-or-death situations, so he was much calmer than me at this time. He immediately piled up a few stones in the gap as a shelter and said to me, "They can only come in one at a time. If we kill a few of them, we can block the entrance and we can hold out longer."

I smiled bitterly in my heart. We didn't have many bullets, and there was no time to change them. If the bullets in the magazine were used up, it would mean death. But it wasn't the time of death yet, so there was still a glimmer of hope.

My mind was still full of random thoughts when I suddenly heard the flock of birds outside begin to howl. Through the gap, I saw that the strange bird at the head suddenly opened its mouth disproportionately, revealing a mouthful of fangs. Then, from its mouth, a macaque-like creature suddenly spit out. It was extremely agile and jumped to the ground in an instant. It first looked around cautiously, then ran into the pile of corpses and started to bite them. I took a closer look and found that the monkey had no skin and was covered in blood. It seemed to be an organ of the strange bird.

Then other strange birds also began to spit out this kind of creature. Countless "monkeys in the mouth" squatted out from the flock of birds and rushed to the pile of corpses in the middle. There seemed to be no class distinction. They rushed up to eat. In an instant, there was blood and scattered meat everywhere. Conflicts occurred from time to time while fighting for food.

The fat guy and I both frowned and felt like vomiting, thinking that if we ended up like this, we would never be able to accept it.

There were so many "monkeys in the mouth" that the corpses outside were soon eaten up. The bloody smell in the air reached an unacceptable level. The fat man's eyes were bloodshot, knowing that it was our turn next. He took a sip of white wine and said, "Damn it, if you want to eat me, the fat man, let's see if you have the iron teeth."

I was shaking a little bit, but I also took his wine and drank most of it, and my throat was burning immediately. Wine is really a good thing. Men feel different when they have wine and when they don't.

The "monkeys in the mouth" outside were searching around in the wreckage. Suddenly one of them noticed us in the gap and let out a strange scream. Then the other "monkeys" gathered around curiously, poking their faces out and looking at us.

Only then could I see clearly that the "monkey" had no lips. No wonder the monkey's teeth were so sharp and ferocious. What surprised me most was that all the "monkeys in the mouth" had a bronze hexagonal bell hanging on their necks. Some were still intact, while some were only half of it. However, these bells made no sound as the monkeys moved.

I was very scared at the time and didn't think about what it meant, but afterwards I thought that these bronze bells must have a great relationship with the whole mystery, although it seems that these bells do not belong to the same culture.

The "monkeys in the mouth" were very cautious at first, and they surrounded the cave entrance for a long time. Fatty and I didn't dare to breathe, holding our guns and waiting for them to come in. After a while, a few of them couldn't hold back anymore, and suddenly hung down from the top of the gap, jumped into the gap, and tentatively pounced on Fatty.

The fat man was caught off guard and fired his gun almost at the strange monkey's head. The bullet flew out and took the body away, falling into the pile of corpses. Then his gun went off accidentally, and the bullet swept across the monkeys, causing them to scream in fear, and several monkeys were immediately beaten to pieces.

All of the monkeys immediately noticed us in the gap, and the situation got out of control. The leading "monkey in the mouth" let out a sharp cry, and all the monkeys began to crawl into the gap. I swallowed, knowing that my nightmare was about to begin.

Before I could pray, two monkeys jumped into the gap like lightning, hung on the top of the gap and opened their huge mouths towards me. The Type 56 was too long to hit with the butt of the rifle, so I had to kick one out with a flying kick, and then shot the other one to death with two shots. The blood immediately burst out and blew all over my face. Then another one rushed in wildly. I was not mentally prepared to shoot again, so I picked up the gun and started shooting.

For five or six minutes, I didn't know what I was doing. I just saw ferocious monkeys rushing in one after another, and I swept them out again. Blood was splattered everywhere. The monkeys were like crazy and showed no fear at all. Sometimes several of them even squeezed into the gap together and got themselves stuck. I kicked them out fiercely. However, more monkeys came like a tide. Even if only half of their bodies were left, as long as they could move, they would still drill into the gap. They were extremely vicious.

Soon the bullets ran out. I thought I could hold on for an hour or so, but in reality, the consumption of bullets is not something you can control. I still have a lot of bullet belts, but as long as the monkeys don't stop charging, we won't have a chance to change bullets.

The fat man's M16 jammed first. He was already furious, and threw away his gun while cursing. He took out his saber and wanted to go out for hand-to-hand combat, but the enemy didn't give him the chance at all. In an instant, five or six monkeys jumped on him and started biting him. The fat man screamed in pain and killed the two monkeys on his hands, but another four pounced on his face at once.

Soon after, my rifle ran out of bullets. I pulled the trigger and heard several "clicks". My heart suddenly sank. Then several red lights instantly rushed in front of me. Before I could draw my sword, I was hit on the shoulder and inner thigh. Subconsciously, I used my injured hand to scare it, but it was of no use. While struggling, there was only one thought left in my mind: I, Wu Xie, and Fatty Wang, may never be able to get out of the secret realm of Changbai Mountain. As tough as we are, we will eventually die one day.