"Let's hurry up," the female hunter's face was somewhat pale, "I can only maintain my ability for another five minutes at most."

"We're almost there." The fisherman nodded, "Considering the distance, we should be almost out of this forest."

Sun Hang tore off the wristband from the Indian hunter and casually put it into his pocket—the hunter's wristband also functions as a name tag. Not only can it track the death toll, but if undamaged, it can also record the physiological data before and after a hunter's death...For the Dubhe Tower, this information is quite important.

Therefore, after a hunter dies, their teammates will retrieve their wristband as soon as possible.

However, the wristbands of those hunters who died on the beach probably won't be recovered anytime soon.

The four of them said nothing, moving quickly, leaving only the rustling sound of shoes stepping on dry fallen leaves and Shino's somewhat rapid breathing in the forest.

Although both were support-type hunters, the female hunter had at least undergone professional combat training, whereas it was clear that Shino was someone who spent long hours in the lab and hardly exercised; in terms of physical ability, he might be the least fit among this batch of hunters.

The heavy equipment had already been transferred to Sun Hang and the fisherman, but Shino still fell to the end of the team, so Sun Hang and the rest frequently had to slow down to allow Shino to catch up bit by bit.

"Something's wrong!" After walking for a few minutes, the fisherman suddenly spoke up, "Based on the distance we've covered, we should already be out of the forest, right? Could we have gone the wrong way?"

"Are you sure we're following the trail left by the two previous groups of hunters?" asked Sun Hang.

"Yes, absolutely—" the fisherman suddenly stopped mid-sentence, squatted down, and quickly brushed away the fallen leaves covering the ground with his hands.

"Damn! How did the trail disappear?"

He got up and walked back, sweeping the leaves along the way with his feet.

"This is impossible! I was clearly following the footprints they left all the way! How did all the footprints disappear?! Damn it, could it be we're trapped in a ghost wall?" the fisherman shouted.

"You... you need to control your emotions a bit..." The female hunter's face turned even paler, "I can barely hold back your inner anger."

"Calm down." Sun Hang walked over and put a hand on his shoulder, "It's not your fault, there's something strange about this forest."

"Then why did the first two batches of hunters pass through it smoothly, yet we encounter a ghost wall?" the fisherman said, "Could it be a trap set by those Angsa people?"

Sun Hang was about to say something when, in a daze, he heard a strange laugh from a primate. He turned towards the direction of the laugh, and on a tree whose name he couldn't recall, a large piece of bark had been peeled off, revealing a carving of an ape covering its eyes.

In the blink of an eye, the tree seemed to return to normal—neither the bark was peeled off, nor was there any ape carving.

"Figures... it's you guys again." Sun Hang cursed inwardly, "You'll use any means necessary to prevent me from nearing that research facility, huh..."

"Damn those Angsa dogs! Those Indians are no better! And the people that came later..." The fisherman's emotions were on the verge of collapse, and the female hunter's breathing became extremely rapid as bright red blood slowly flowed from her nose, sliding down her cheeks and dripping onto her chest.

"Release the emotional control over the fisherman immediately," Sun Hang instructed her.

"No! His negative emotions have piled up to the limit. Releasing it now will lead him to totally lose control!" the female hunter gritted her teeth and said.

"He might fall into a confused state where he can't distinguish friend from foe... even we could become his targets..." Shino whispered.

Meanwhile, the fisherman had already started spinning in circles in place, his feet stomping heavily on the ground as if he was wishing he could stomp a hole through it; his tightly clenched fists swung vigorously through the air, his face flushed, muttering curses under his breath... it seemed like he was a patient having a violent outburst.

"Release the emotional control over the fisherman," Sun Hang repeated, "I have a way to resolve it."

"Are you sure?" Shino looked at Sun Hang, who nodded earnestly.

"The moment it's released, he might attack us. I'll count to five, be ready..." The female hunter wiped her nose, speaking with some difficulty.

"Okay."

"Five..."

Before she could say "four," Sun Hang chopped at the back of the fisherman's neck, knocking him out.

The fisherman fell straight back and Sun Hang quickly caught him, hoisting him onto his shoulder.

The female hunter and Shino were stunned for a moment and met eyes, and Shino said, "Well... that is indeed one solution."

"But the problem is... we still can't find our way out of the forest!" The female hunter said worriedly, "I have this feeling... we've been going in circles just now..."

"With interference from the Three Apes, actually making it out of the forest would be truly astonishing." Sun Hang mused to himself, as he walked to a large tree and raised his hand to cut it down.

"You can determine direction by the tree rings on the stump. In the Northern Hemisphere, the rings on the south side are sparser while those on the north side are denser." Sun Hang raised his hand and pointed towards the three o'clock direction, "Judging by the rings, the center of the island should be that way."

"Then let's head in that direction," Shino quickly agreed.

"Hold on." Sun Hang knew that finding the right direction wasn't hard, but as soon as they started moving, everything in the forest would change—just like before. The fisherman clearly had followed the footprints left by the previous two groups, yet in a blink, all those footprints had disappeared... Sun Hang believed that even if he marked the direction by cutting down trees as he walked, the Three Apes could still lead them back to the center of the forest.

Is there a way to break the "trick" of the Three Apes...

Sun Hang suddenly recalled the carving he had seen earlier.

This time, only one of the Three Apes had appeared, the one covering its eyes...

And the trail of footprints the fisherman followed relied on what he saw, so if...

Sun Hang took a piece of rope from his backpack, tied two knots in the middle, and tossed it to Shino and the female hunter.

"Uh... what's this for?" Shino asked confusedly.

"Close your eyes, hold the rope, and follow me," Sun Hang said, "Remember, until we walk out of the forest, do not open your eyes."

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