The henchman, who had been kicked, clutched his backside and lingered, refusing to move.

He looked at the thick fog that had just been riddled with bullets with apprehension, fearing that some deadly cold gun might suddenly emerge from that man-eating white fog.

"Brother Monkey, I..."

Just as the henchman was about to beg for mercy, he looked up and met Ma Hou's sinister triangular eyes.

"Click".

Without a word, Ma Hou pressed the dark barrel of his gun firmly against the henchman's forehead and coldly uttered a single word: "Go."

Either way, it's all the same – death.

The henchman could only swallow his complaints and nodded with a long face: "Brother Monkey, I'll go right away."

He swallowed hard, his hands trembling as he picked up the homemade gun and waded through the sour, foul-smelling mud, making his way into the smoldering bushes.

The morning mist had not yet dissipated, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder and the heavy stench of blood.

The henchmen, guns in hand, barely dared to breathe, carefully pushing aside the broken branches and leaves blocking their way.

The muddy ground was a mess, covered with tree bark and wood chips blasted apart by shrapnel, and there wasn't a single living person in sight.

"Brother Monkey, there's nothing here. That grandson wouldn't be...?"

Just as he was about to turn around to report, his right foot, clad in rubber shoes, darted forward, and his ankle was suddenly caught by a taut vine buried in the mud.

"stretch--"

A dull, snapping sound suddenly rang out.

Before the henchman's astonishment could fade, a sickening grinding sound suddenly came from deep within the thick, smoke-blackened tree canopy above.

Immediately afterwards, a huge black shadow tore through the white mist, accompanied by a howling wind, and slammed down from mid-air with the force of thunder.

That was a thick red pine branch, weighing two or three hundred pounds, which Old Scar had pruned off overnight!

"Bang!"

The chilling sound of bones and flesh shattering exploded instantly.

Like a battering ram, the red pine stalk struck the henchman squarely in the chest.

Before he could even let out a scream, his entire chest cavity collapsed instantly, and black blood mixed with fragments of internal organs gushed from his mouth.

The henchman was like a rag doll being run over head-on, sent flying three or four meters away by the terrifying force.

"Smack!"

A mass of rotten flesh slammed heavily into the muddy water, its limbs twitched twice as if electrocuted, and it died instantly.

Dead silence.

The entire forest was deathly silent, except for the corpse still bubbling with blood.

The remaining henchmen trembled with fear at the sight of the flattened, mangled flesh, their hands nearly dropping their homemade guns.

They retreated in unison as if avoiding a plague, afraid that their feet might step on the next deadly trap.

Despite the gruesome sight of blood and gore, Ma Hou remained completely calm.

He stared at the blood-stained red pine branch that was still swaying back and forth in mid-air, and instead let out a chilling laugh.

"No wonder that bastard didn't utter a single loud fart all night!"

A sinister glint flashed in Ma Hou's eyes as he gritted his teeth and spat out, "So he didn't run away at all! He spent all his time setting traps and plotting in this muddy mess!"

"Monkey, Monkey King, what do we do now?"

One of the henchmen, his voice trembling with fear, pointed desperately at the white fog ahead: "Who knows how many deadly traps he's laid in this godforsaken place last night? If we keep wading forward, we might lose a few more brothers!"

"Look at you bunch of spineless cowards!"

Ma Hou slapped the henchman across the face, his eyes filled with extreme malice.

Instead of being intimidated, he narrowed his eyes with a calculating look on his face, a vicious smile curving his lips.

"He set a trap, so we just have to walk right into it?"

Ma Hou slung his scorching hot five-shot shotgun over his shoulder and spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the ground: "What did General Zhang from Northeast China say back then? 'If the mountain won't come to me, I'll go to the mountain myself!'"

As soon as he finished speaking, the monkey suddenly turned around.

He strode to the mud pit, grabbed Scarface Liu by the back of his collar, and dragged him like a dead dog through the stinking mud, leaving a long trail of blood. He then dragged the half-dead Scarface Liu to a large blue stone at the edge of the mud pit.

Ma Hou stomped on Scarface Liu's broken kneecap, and instantly pressed the barrel of his gun firmly against Scarface Liu's temple.

Using the bluestone as cover, he shrank half of his body into the bulletproof blind spot, and, facing the deathly still white mist, he laughed wildly in a hoarse voice.

"Old Scar! I know you've been watching me closely nearby!"

The veins on Ma Hou's hands bulged, and his eyes gleamed with a sinister, calculating glint: "What are you thinking? You want to deliberately stall, wait for us to step on the landmines, and then take advantage of the chaos to rescue this damned eunuch, right?"

He snorted coldly and laughed wildly.

"I'm not falling for your trick!"

The monkey's mockery grew stronger, his voice echoing through the forest like a vengeful ghost: "Back in the day, I followed my good brother and walked this ghostly path countless times! I could find my way out of any ditch with a poisonous snake in it, or a blindfold with a ditch in it, even with my eyes closed!"

He shoved the scorching hot barrel into Scarface Liu's temple and let out a sarcastic taunt at the top of his lungs.

"But you can't get out! You're an outsider!"

Ma Hou paused, then directly exposed Old Scar's most fatal weakness: "The outside world is a fucking trap! You killed that old bastard Chen Jianguo's son, which caused him to issue a kill order throughout the city and hunt you down like mad! Now, you have no other way out but to sneak out through this old forest!"

Old Scar's escape route was completely blocked by Ma Hou.

"I'll count to three right now!"

Ma Hou stared intently into the depths of the white mist, his words piercingly menacing: "If you don't come out, I'll shoot him right now! Then I'll turn around and leave with my brothers, and you'll just be trapped and die in this man-eating forest!"

The henchmen around them reacted instantly, immediately raising their homemade guns and aiming them all at the thick fog ahead.

"three!"

The monkey's thumb was gripping the trigger tightly as it roared fiercely.

The thick fog remained deathly still.

"two!"

The greed in Ma Hou's eyes instantly transformed into a frenzied ruthlessness. His finger on the trigger was suddenly pulled back, and the gun spring emitted a teeth-grinding scraping sound.

Just as he was about to utter the last number and pull the trigger, it happened.

"Brother Monkey, don't shoot!"

A hoarse, low voice, clearly showing signs of submission and compromise, suddenly drifted out from the thick white mist ahead.

Immediately afterwards, the swirling miasma was slowly pushed aside by a pair of large, muddy hands.

Old Scar, wearing a pair of hard-soled leather shoes covered in mud, trudged through the muddy ground, crushing the withered branches and leaves.

He was covered in dust and dirt, his clothes torn and tattered by the thorns in the forest, and stained with foul-smelling mud and grass clippings. He was extremely disheveled.

He slumped his shoulders slightly, raised his hands high, and his once cold and hard face was now ashen, exuding a sense of despair and death as he walked out step by step from the depths of the man-eating fog.

"Hahaha--"

Seeing this tough guy, whom he and his men had relentlessly pursued all the way, causing his brothers to suffer all night in this man-eating old forest, now appearing obediently surrendering with a disheveled look on his face, Ma Hou felt as if every pore on his body had relaxed.

The twisted sense of control he felt, having those unruly outlaws firmly under his feet, was absolutely exhilarating!

"Hahaha--"

The monkey licked its back teeth, spat a mouthful of yellow phlegm into the mud, and let out a piercing laugh like that of a night owl.

"Old Scar, you've got some serious skills, haven't you!"

Ma Hou held his five-shot shotgun level, the dark muzzle aimed directly at Old Scar's chest. His tone was laced with the extreme arrogance of a petty tyrant: "Not only do you hide in the shadows and shoot with unerring accuracy, but you also set traps and trip people up in this rotten wood! But so what if you're so skilled? In the end, you're still firmly in my grasp!"

He arrogantly pointed the gun barrel at Old Scar's nose and spat a sharp spit.

"You're like Sun Wukong on that stage; no matter how high you somersault, you can't escape the palm of this Buddha! You brat, come here now!"

Old Scar stood a few meters away in the mud, his hands raised, a hint of fear perfectly expressed on his ashen face.

"Brother Monkey, everything can be discussed."

Old Scar's tone was humble, and he bowed slightly: "I accidentally killed Young Master Chen that night, and now the Chen family has laid a trap to take my life. I don't want anything now, I just want to live unharmed."

"Survive? No problem!"

Ma Hou generously raised his chin at Lao Ba, adopting the demeanor of a big brother: "We're out here in this business for money. As long as you can give us more money, we're all set! Come over here now, walk slowly, and let's have a good chat."

Upon hearing this promise, Old Scar secretly breathed a sigh of relief, as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

He still held his hands high, his hard-soled leather shoes covered in mud, and slowly moved towards the large bluestone, his steps uneven.

Old Scar compromised, but his henchmen around him didn't dare to relax at all.

"Get the hell together!"

The henchman who had just been nearly killed by a piece of firewood swallowed hard and let out a low growl.

With a sickening "click" sound, the remaining six or seven henchmen were on high alert, instantly leveling their homemade guns and double-barreled shotguns.

Seven or eight black gun barrels moved with Old Scar's steps, and everyone's fingers were tightly gripping the triggers, their nerves stretched to the limit.

If that old scarred man dares to make even the slightest unnecessary movement, they will absolutely not hesitate to blast him into a pile of mangled flesh.

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