Reborn as a lotus, she initially refuses to hand it over to the state.

The fog gradually thickened along the mountain road.

The soil beneath my feet had become damp and black at some point, and the air carried an indescribable, sweet and pungent smell, like decaying leaves piled up for too long, mixed with the scent of some wild animal's den.

The people in the team weren't nervous; on the contrary, they were quite excited.

"The guys in the ninth inning were terrified."

Viktor, carrying his backpack, grinned and sneered, then patted the gear bag at his waist.

In addition to standard field tools, the contents also include specially modified high-explosive incendiary bombs and large-caliber weapon parts.

"If it's really as dangerous as they say, why has it been sealed off for so long without any news from inside?"

He spat dismissively: "In my opinion, it's just the Chinese government deliberately exaggerating. Either it's to block some kind of resource, or it's to monopolize the so-called extraordinary secrets."

Beside her, a blonde woman was adjusting the equipment with her head down.

Her name is Anna Hoffman, a senior biological researcher at the Asta Group, specializing in gene sample extraction.

She pushed up her goggles and said calmly, "The video might not even be real. AI synthesis and military propaganda are too sophisticated now."

"A blurry image lasting more than ten seconds, with no clear outlines, could very well be a man-made panic."

She paused for a moment, then a slight smile appeared on her lips.

"However, if there are indeed unknown life forms inside, its value will far exceed any anti-aging program, and may even be enough to change the entire human civilization."

Upon hearing this, a tall, thin man at the back of the group smiled.

His name is Matthew, a former member of an international poaching organization, and he is best known for tracking large predators.

He was currently wiping a short spear made of a special alloy.

"I'm more concerned about the exotic beasts."

He licked his lips, his eyes gleaming with greed.

"Recently, someone on an underground forum has revealed that a special kind of crystal forms inside the bodies of certain mutated organisms."

"After ingestion, it can strengthen the body and even grant ordinary people special abilities."

As he said this, his eyes became noticeably more intense.

"If it's true, we've struck it rich this time."

Victor laughed: "Then let's hunt a few first. If there are any strange beasts, we'll take their crystal cores directly. Then we'll bring the strongest one back."

His gaze drifted into the distance, deep within the Black Dragon Mountain, shrouded in thick fog.

A glint of fanaticism gradually appeared in his eyes: "A monster that can destroy helicopters? If we capture it and bring it back to the lab, its value would be enough to buy an entire country."

As Chen Mo listened to these words, he frowned. For some reason, the closer he got to this place, the more uneasy he felt.

Especially the ancient map in his hand; the edges of the map were faintly warm, and a line of blurry small characters on it appeared intermittently in the light: "Black Dragon Lurks in the Abyss, Lotus Suppresses the Evil Well, the Living Must Not Approach."

His throat bobbed.

He whispered a reminder: "I still suggest you be careful. Based on the information I've gathered, Black Dragon Mountain is very likely not an ordinary paranormal area."

"There might be some kind of ancient relic sealed here, and the Ninth Bureau's blockade is too extreme. It's impossible for the military to directly take over a normal mountain forest."

Victor scoffed: "Dr. Chen, you Chinese people just love to talk nonsense, about seals, suppression, and evil spirits."

"In the end, isn't it all just a story? If there really is a monster, then kill it. I'd like to see whether its teeth are harder or bullets are harder."

The deeper they went into the mountains, the thicker the fog became, but Victor and his group showed no sign of turning back.

On the contrary, after confirming that the monster in the mountains really existed, everyone's eyes became even more excited, because the more dangerous the place, the more likely it was to have a real opportunity.

After walking for a while, the woods ahead suddenly shook violently, and a gray wolf nearly three meters long pounced out of the bushes. Its claws were huge, its fangs were bared, and it moved so fast that it was just a blur.

boom!

Gunshots rang out, and Victor fired a shot to the head, but the bullet sparked as it hit the monster, failing to kill it immediately.

"Um?"

Victor raised an eyebrow: "So tough?"

The gray wolf didn't die; instead, it became enraged after being shot.

It roared and pounced, and just then, Xuan Ku, who had been silent all along, moved.

He took a step forward, so fast that he almost left a blur.

He raised his hand and threw a punch from a distance. The air exploded instantly as the fist landed on the giant wolf, and the wolf's head burst open on the spot.

The three-meter-long body flew horizontally, crashing into two trees and breaking the entire stadium into silence.

"My God, what am I seeing? This is incredible!"

Viktor couldn't help but gasp, and his gaze towards Xuan Ku changed.

Anna's breathing quickened: "A power-type superhuman?"

Chen Mo's eyelids twitched. He knew Xuan Ku was very strong, but he didn't expect it to be this outrageous.

This monk has definitely reached the mid-stage of the second tier, or even higher.

Xuan Ku withdrew his hand, and said with a sneer, "A beast is a beast, no matter how much it evolves, it's still a beast."

His gaze fell on the wolf corpse, and he raised his hand and struck again, smashing the wolf corpse's head open and taking out a blue crystal core from it.

A surge of energy emanated from it.

Sensing the surging energy within, Xuan Ku's smile widened.

"Let's delve deeper."

He shouted something, and everyone was immediately encouraged, following him deeper into the mountains.

Half an hour later, they stumbled into a mutated forest, filled with gigantic creatures, including two-meter-long venomous snakes and spiders the size of millstones.

There were poisonous bees the size of washbasins, and even a group of mutant monkeys half the height of a person.

But under overwhelming firepower, they were slaughtered.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Gunfire roared, incendiary bombs exploded, and blood and flesh flew everywhere. Matthew, his face flushed with excitement, continued to pierce the skulls of the monsters with his short spear. One by one, crystal cores were extracted.

Red, green, and gray-white—in just a few hours, they had already collected more than a dozen crystal cores.

Anna stared at the fluctuating data on the instrument, her breathing erratic: "The energy in these crystals is hundreds of times greater than that of known minerals."

"We're rich! We're really rich!"

Viktor burst out laughing: "Afraid of these things in the ninth inning? Useless."

He stomped on the head of a mutated leopard, crushed it, pulled out a dagger, dug out the crystal core, his eyes filled with fanaticism.

It wasn't just their forces that ventured deep into the mountains; awakened individuals from other martial arts families and large conglomerates in China also ventured there after the video about Black Dragon Mountain was exposed.

For martial arts families and financial groups, this is a rare opportunity. The stronger the spiritual energy recovery of a mountain range, the higher the level of the mutated beasts within it.

The energy represented by these crystal cores is also greater, and these people need to become stronger in order to achieve immortality.

"If we catch that beast and take its crystal core, our strength will definitely reach the second tier." A disciple of the Qingcheng Sect from a second-rate power was somewhat excited, his eyes filled with greed. They held some ancient weapons made from special meteorites.

They are currently chasing a deer with early-stage second-tier strength. This deer was injured by heavy weapons, but due to its strong energy recovery, it cannot be killed immediately.

The red deer's antlers were broken, and it was bleeding from its body and head. When it realized that these damned humans were still chasing it, the red deer let out a roar.

"roar!"

Despite its resentment and bitterness, it still turned and fled into the depths of the mountains when faced with the attack of dozens of awakened humans.