novelraw Chapter 330: Deterrence
Chapter 330: Deterrence
The rainforest awoke at dawn amidst a blanket of gray-white mist.
Lin Jie had been sitting motionless on a tree branch for a full three hours. Even with the insect repellent powder Nadia had provided, this forest remained filled with restless agitation that made peaceful sleep impossible.
"Wake up."
Lin Jie jumped down from the tree, landing without a sound.
He patted awake Julian and Evelyn, who were still curled up in their hammocks.
The two groggily got up, their faces showing clear exhaustion and red, swollen mosquito bites.
In this damned place, even sleeping was a luxurious expenditure of physical energy.
After a brief rest, the team set off again.
Today's journey was even more difficult than yesterday's.
As they ventured deeper inland, the terrain began to undulate. They frequently had to climb moss-covered rock faces or wade through waist-deep muddy swamps.Nadia still walked at the front.
But Lin Jie keenly noticed that something was off with the young guide's demeanor today.
Her steps remained agile, but her gaze kept frequently scanning specific trees around them.
On those trunks were carved extremely concealed marks that resembled either claw scratches or some kind of symbol.
"What's wrong?" Lin Jie walked up beside her and asked in a low voice.
"We've entered a territory."
Nadia stopped walking, her fingers lightly tracing a carving on the trunk of a huge camphor tree.
It was a hornbill pattern, its lines rough and ancient.
"Whose territory?"
"My people." Nadia's voice sounded dry. "The Dayak tribe from the upper reaches of the Bahan River, the place where I was born."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Julian caught up from behind. "If we can get help from the local tribe, our journey will go much smoother."
"Not necessarily."
Nadia shook her head, her hand gripping the hilt of the parang at her waist tightly.
"In their eyes, I'm a coward who ran away. A sinner who abandoned ancestral glory and brought shame upon the longhouse."
"And."
Her gaze sharpened, staring intently at the unusually quiet dense forest ahead.
"They're already here."
As soon as the words left her mouth.
"Swish!"
An extremely faint whistling sound cut through the air.
A blowgun dart, only as long as chopsticks, shot out from the thick bushes and embedded itself precisely in the dirt beside Nadia's foot.
A tuft of red feathers on the dart's tail trembled slightly in the morning breeze.
"Don't move."
Lin Jie immediately raised his hand, signaling everyone to stop.
He didn't draw his gun, instead narrowing his eyes slightly.
The previously noisy cicada chirps and bird calls around them had vanished without anyone noticing.
The entire forest fell into a suffocating dead silence.
Within this silence, figures began emerging from behind surrounding trees, from bushes, and from the canopy overhead.
Dozens of lean, dark-skinned Dayak warriors.
They were bare-chested, wearing only bark cloth or animal hides around their waists.
Every face and body was painted with red and black pigments, war totems only applied during headhunting rituals.
Their weapons were varied.
There were long blowguns, bone spears polished to a gleaming white, and the terrifying parangs.
It was a perfect ambush.
The encirclement formed in an instant, all weapons aimed at the four people standing at the center.
"Traitor."
A hoarse, aged voice came from behind the crowd.
The warriors parted to either side, creating a passage.
An old man wearing an ornate hornbill feather headdress and several necklaces of human skulls walked forward.
He leaned on a black wooden staff carved with runes, his cloudy yet authoritative eyes fixed intently on Nadia.
"You dare return, and even bring these filthy outsiders with you."
The old man spoke in an ancient indigenous dialect. Though Julian was proficient in linguistics, he could only vaguely understand this obscure dialect.
Nadia stepped forward, straightening her back, meeting the old man's gaze directly.
"I've come to save you, High Priest." She answered loudly in the same language. "The Black Ghosts' end has come. These people are here to help us eradicate those devils."
"Devils?" The High Priest sneered coldly, raising his wooden staff to point at Lin Jie and the others. "They look like new devils to me."
"Look at their clothes, look at those iron tubes in their hands—they're all things that bring disaster."
"Seize them!"
The High Priest gave the order.
"Cut off the traitor's head to sacrifice to our ancestors! Skin the outsiders to make drumheads!"
The surrounding warriors let out low war cries, and the encirclement began rapidly tightening.
The atmosphere stretched to its breaking point.
Julian reacted with lightning speed. With a flick of his right hand, Discipline, wrapped with iron wire, appeared in his grip.
The muzzle wasn't aimed at anyone, but its icy aura had already locked onto the warriors charging at the front.
Evelyn suddenly clenched her right fist. The Leyden Jar on her Tesla Coil Glove began flashing with blue light, tiny electric arcs crackling and jumping between her fingertips.
"Don't shoot!"
Lin Jie barked a command, stopping his teammates from retaliating.
He understood clearly—this was an asymmetrical conflict.
With their Grotesque Armaments, if a real fight broke out, these dozens of indigenous warriors with only cold weapons would be no match.
Even without guns, just one of Evelyn's electric arc bursts could take down a whole group.
But that would change the nature of things.
They would go from "passersby" to actual "invaders."
In this perilous rainforest, gaining one more friend might not be useful, but gaining a group of deadly enemies familiar with the terrain and skilled in traps would be absolutely fatal.
Moreover, Nadia was still here.
He couldn't massacre her people right in front of their guide.
This had to be resolved another way.
A method that could intimidate these superstitious, strength-worshipping primitive people without shedding blood.
Just as those poison-tipped blowgun darts were about to be fired, those sharp bone spears were about to be thrust.
Lin Jie moved. He took a step forward.
This step wasn't particularly fast or forceful.
But the black knuckle duster he'd been concealing under his right glove—the Spiritual Guidance Trigger—was suddenly clenched tightly in that instant.
Micro-needles pierced his palm, the spiritual energy circuit connected.
"Hum—"
An invisible yet mountainously heavy pressure erupted outward in a ring!
White's Airspace.
It wasn't killing intent.
Nor was it malice.
It was the absolute condescension of the ancient ecological apex predator, the white vulture soaring through the highest heavens, looking down upon ants on the ground.
It was the hierarchical suppression of a mythical being over mortal life.
Under the terrifying pressure of this aura, the Dayak warriors preparing to charge froze as if hit by a paralysis spell.
They felt themselves transforming into field mice stared down by a giant eagle.
Primordial, genetic, instinctual fear of natural predators instantly shattered their psychological defenses.
"Clang."
A warrior's parang fell to the ground.
Then a second, a third.
These brave men who would usually charge forward to fight tigers and black bears were now trembling.
Their knees weakened, faces paled, breathing became difficult.
The High Priest, bearing the brunt of it, had his expression drastically change.
As the tribe's only spirit medium, his perception of this spiritual pressure was far more acute than ordinary people's.
In his spiritual vision, that young man in the black trench coat standing at the crowd's center vanished.
In his place appeared the phantom of a colossal divine bird radiating holy white light, its wings spread wide enough to blot out the sky!
That was...
The High Priest's cloudy eyes widened, his pupils reflecting extreme shock and reverence.
In the ancient legends of the Dayak people, the hornbill was the messenger connecting the mortal world and the heavenly realm, the incarnation of the war god.
But a being even nobler, even more sacred than the hornbill was the "White Eagle God" that existed only in myths.
It was the master of the sky, the supreme deity protecting the jungle.
"A miracle... a divine miracle..."
The High Priest trembled, releasing his wooden staff, his back bending forward.
"Thud."
This old man who held supreme authority within the tribe knelt before Lin Jie on both knees, pressing his forehead deeply into the damp earth.
"Forgive us... great emissary of the White Eagle God..."
As the High Priest knelt, the surrounding warriors, paralyzed by the pressure, finally reacted.
Their original hostility transformed into even more fanatical reverence.
Dozens of warriors knelt in unison, lowering their proud heads toward the man standing at the field's center.
A bloodshed conflict about to erupt was thus defused without violence.
Julian and Evelyn exchanged a glance, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.
They knew Lin Jie had this "overbearing aura" ability, but they hadn't expected it to be so effective in this primitive tribe steeped in totem worship.
This was the so-called "dimensional reduction strike."
Using higher-dimensional civilization mythology to crush lower-dimensional primitive beliefs.
Lin Jie slowly relaxed his fist.
That suffocating pressure receded like a tide.
But his expression remained cold and imposing. Since he'd been mistaken for a divine emissary, he had to play this role to the end.
In this jungle where strength and mystery were valued, maintaining an aloof, mysterious aura was often more useful than explanations.
"Rise."
Lin Jie said calmly.
Nadia stared at this scene, somewhat stunned.
She watched her people, who had never yielded even when facing the Black Lotus Sect's guns, now trembling at this man's feet.
Her expression grew complex.
There was a reassessment of Lin Jie's power, but also a trace of relief as a fellow tribeswoman.
She stepped forward and translated Lin Jie's words in the native tongue.
The High Priest rose shakily. He didn't dare meet Lin Jie's eyes, only making a respectful "please" gesture.
"Please... please follow me back to the longhouse."
"We will use our finest rice wine and wild boar meat to entertain the honored divine emissary."
...
Half an hour later.
Lin Jie's group was welcomed into the Dayak tribe's camp.
The architectural style here was highly distinctive.
A massive bamboo-and-wood longhouse, supported by hundreds of round logs and raised about three meters off the ground, stretched along the riverbank in a winding line nearly a hundred meters long.
The entire tribe of several hundred people lived within this single house, sharing the same long corridor and roof.
This collective living arrangement was for defense against beasts and headhunting raids from hostile tribes.
At the longhouse entrance hung strings of skulls, already blackened by smoke.
These were the heads of enemies slain by ancestors across generations.
They were considered symbols of courage and the tribe's guardian spirits.
Though Evelyn had some mental preparation, her face still paled as she walked beneath those strings of skulls, and she subconsciously grabbed the hem of Lin Jie's coat.
Inside the longhouse, the light was dim, the air filled with the smells of tobacco, roasted meat, and aged bamboo and wood.
The High Priest invited Lin Jie to sit at the central position of the long corridor—the seat belonging to the chieftain.
The other tribespeople gathered around respectfully. Women brought clay jars filled with cloudy rice wine and roasted meat wrapped in banana leaves.
Lin Jie didn't refuse the food, knowing this was a key step in building trust.
He lifted the clay jar, symbolically taking a sip of the sour, spicy rice wine, then nodded.
This gesture slightly eased the tense atmosphere around them.
"Tell me."
Lin Jie set down the clay jar, his gaze passing over the flickering fire pit to look at the High Priest opposite him.
"Why are you all so wary?"
"Have people from the Black Lotus Sect been here?"
Upon hearing the word "Black Lotus Sect" translated by Nadia, an expression mixing fear and hatred appeared on the High Priest's face.
"Those devils in black clothes..."
The High Priest sighed, his voice aged and sorrowful.
"Three months ago, they barged into the forest with fire-spitting iron tubes. They captured our hunters, stole our women, and seized the sacred land left by our ancestors."
"Sacred land?" Lin Jie keenly caught the key term.
"Yes, sacred land." The High Priest pointed deeper into the jungle, precisely in the direction Lin Jie's team had marked as the "Garden of Eden" location on their map.
"That place used to be where the Dutch planted trees. But since those devils arrived, it's become a forbidden zone."
"They not only perform those evil rituals inside, they're also... feeding monsters."
The High Priest's body trembled slightly.
"What monster?" Nadia couldn't help but ask.
"Nabau."
The High Priest uttered a name representing disaster and destruction in Borneo legends.
"The Giant Nabau Serpent."
"It's a giant snake longer than this longhouse. It has a red cockscomb on its head, can walk on water like a dragon, and can devour all light around it."
"Those devils... they're feeding it with living people."
"I saw it with my own eyes... they threw captured tribespeople into the river. Then the river boiled, and that snake opened its huge mouth, swallowing both people and boats."
"And..." The High Priest's voice began trembling. "When that snake appears, the river flows backward, stones float, everything becomes heavy, so heavy people can't lift their feet."
Lin Jie and Julian exchanged a glance.
River flowing backward, stones floating, gravity anomalies.
This didn't sound like an ordinary giant python, but a powerful UMA.
"Where is it?" Lin Jie asked.
"In the big river ahead." The High Priest said. "It's the only way to reach that devil's nest. That snake is the gatekeeper there."
"No one can pass. Any boat trying to get close gets dragged underwater."
Lin Jie fell silent for a moment.
This was indeed crucial intelligence.
If they had proceeded by boat without knowing this, they likely would have been wiped out there.
"We'll deal with it."
Lin Jie stood up, his voice calm yet forceful.
"Since I've come to eradicate devils, this watchdog naturally needs cleaning up too."
The High Priest stared at Lin Jie in shock.
"But that's Nabau... a legendary monster..."
"Before a divine emissary, there are no legends."
Lin Jie adjusted his trench coat.
"Prepare boats. We need to cross the river."
"Now."
...
When they left the longhouse, the entire tribe came out to see them off.
Their eyes were filled with reverence, but also held a trace of hope.
Nadia walked beside Lin Jie, her emotions complex.
She had finally returned home, but not as a sinner—as a savior's guide.
"Thank you," she said softly.
"No need." Lin Jie looked at the dense jungle ahead. "We're just making a trade."
"Besides, the real trouble is just beginning."
They passed through the tribe's territory, arriving at a wide, muddy river.
This was an upstream tributary of the Rajang River.
The current was swift, the water yellowish-brown, its surface appearing normal.
But in Lin Jie's keen perception, beneath this seemingly calm water lurked an extremely massive, highly unstable energy fluctuation.
That fluctuation was like a giant vortex, constantly distorting the surrounding magnetic field and gravity.
Evelyn took out a compass.
Its needle was spinning wildly, unable to settle.
"The magnetic field is chaotic." Evelyn said. "There's something big down there."
"That's our second target."
Lin Jie unbuttoned his trench coat, loading a round into Serene Heart.
"Get ready, everyone."
The four boarded a new bamboo raft borrowed from the tribe.
Nadia pushed off with a bamboo pole, and the small boat slowly moved away from the shore, heading toward the center of the wide river.
And deep within that muddy water.
A pair of cold, yellow, vertical pupils, large as lanterns, slowly opened.
It sensed.
New food had arrived.