"What terrifying resilience, the muscle has already closed up. In just a few more days, it will be completely healed. Are you truly human? I'm starting to get curious," the big man in black said with wonder while changing Zheng Zha's bandages.

Zheng Zha could only offer a bitter smile. "If I have anything to be proud of, it's only this regenerative ability. But days? We don't have days to spare. To awaken the Scorpion King, we must use this Staff of Anubis. I believe Imhotep is constantly searching for us. Although this forest is vast, with his magical power, he should find us easily, especially now that we don't have the Book of Thoth. Once he finds us, it's all over. Besides running away, we have no way to fight him."

"So we must reach the Pyramid of the Scorpion King as quickly as possible, retrieve the Scorpion King's treasure, and gain his army. Only then can we fight Imhotep. Then, we seize the chance to escape back to the City of the Dead, dig out the Book of Thoth as fast as we can, and kill the undead priest Imhotep once more!" O'Connell shrugged helplessly. "So that's why your plan is so insane?" With that, he glanced at the ground littered with packages of high-explosive TNT—this was Zheng Zha's plan.

It was just like when they moved the Three Truth Statues into the great pit before, only this time the target was the monkeys. They had already filled the gorge with explosives in advance, enough power to send tens of thousands of souls to heaven; ten cubic meters of explosives needed to be buried entirely.

Zheng Zha, meanwhile, was responsible for luring the monkeys. He needed to attract a large number of them, at least enough to clear the path ahead for the others, and then lead them into the gorge. Once the fuse was lit—

"It's a fast fuse, so it will explode in about two to three seconds. And my position would be at the bottom of the gorge. In other words, I have to run 300 meters in two to three seconds. My current running speed using Qinggong for a hundred meters is about six seconds. But when I activate the skill 'Explosion,' this speed increases by more than tenfold. At that moment, three meters would take me about 1.8 seconds. No matter how I calculate it, I can escape the gorge before the explosion begins. So, as soon as you see me leading the monkeys into the gorge, you must immediately ignite the fuse. I'm counting on you!" Zheng Zha stated earnestly to the others.

Although the plan sounded utterly mad, everyone had witnessed the power of Zheng Zha's 'Explosion' skill before. That terrifying speed was completely beyond what the naked eye could perceive, as was the power that resembled a bomb blast. Under those circumstances, he should be able to escape the gorge before the fuse burned out, and this seemed to be the only way to quickly clear out the monkeys.

Zheng Zha snapped out of the simulated Chu Xuan state, letting out a few heavy breaths before offering a wry smile. "That's all I can manage. I can only map out the deployment to this extent. Any further simulation will cause my wounds to ache and tear. Anyway, I trouble everyone to bury all the explosives at the bottom of the gorge first. Then we just wait about a dozen hours for my wounds to heal a bit more, and then we can—" Just then, an eagle's cry echoed, and a small, delicate eagle descended straight from the sky, landing on the arm extended by the big man in black. The man took a fine strip of paper from the eagle's leg, glanced at it, and then said in surprise, "They say they've started excavating the cliff, and they found it isn't as deep as imagined—only about twenty meters deep. Currently, 2,400 men are working in three shifts, continuously clearing the rock. They estimate they can fully clear it before the day after tomorrow. In other words, we might find the Book of Thoth before the day after tomorrow!"

Zheng Zha nodded. "That works out well. If we can't reach the pyramid within three days, we'll go back for the Book of Thoth first. At least then we won't have to fear Imhotep. So, I'm counting on everyone."

And so, the group truly began burying the large quantity of TNT high-explosive charges in the gorge, mainly at the bottom, and then, following the suggestion of O'Connell and the big man in black, they also placed some around the perimeter of the gorge to guard against any lone monkeys that might be sniping from a distance.

Perhaps they were lucky, for while they were there, they encountered no monkeys or beasts, not even Imhotep's entourage. Time trickled by, and before they knew it, the group had spent another full day in the jungle. Zheng Zha abandoned all other activity, spending the entire day circulating his inner force in meditation and rest. In this state, his wound recovery accelerated significantly. By noon the next day, the penetrating wound was basically healed; as long as the bandages were kept tight, brief strenuous movement wouldn't be an issue.

The plan had to be executed regardless. O'Connell and the others stood by the edge of the gorge as instructed, ready to ignite the fuses the moment they saw Zheng Zha leap down into the ravine. The explosives on the gorge's edge would detonate first, and then, driven by the blast inertia, the explosions would continue until the entire gorge was a boiling inferno—the monkeys inside would certainly perish.

Zheng Zha held a jade pendant in his hand, looked at the others, and smiled. "This is a protective item, originally intended for the final fight with the Scorpion King. I didn't expect to use it so soon. Haha, I hope it can withstand the dense barrage of fire from the monkeys."

With that, he activated his Qinggong and leaped onto the crown of a large tree, swiftly darting away across the leaves and treetops.

During his spare time that day, when moving occasionally, Zheng Zha also rode the Green Goblin Glider into the air, cautiously testing the height of the laser attacks. It was about three meters above the treetop canopy; if he went beyond that distance, the long wooden pole he carried would instantly be sliced in half by the laser. After several trials, he couldn't help but curse; how could a world existing between the end of the first war and the start of the second possess a weapon as exaggeratedly powerful as a laser cannon? It was incredibly frustrating. Otherwise, flying to the pyramid using the glider would only take a few minutes; why would they need to face those bizarre, gun-toting monkeys? Despite his thoughts, Zheng Zha kept sweeping forward relentlessly. With his Qinggong engaged, his movement in the forest was virtually unimpeded by terrain; a mere bounce off a trunk or canopy allowed him to sweep forward with ease. Thus, in just over half an hour, he spotted the first trace of a monkey.

Zheng Zha's plan was brutally straightforward: cause absolute chaos here. So, he directly hauled out the multi-barrel machine gun from his spatial pouch. As the monkey stared at him in stunned confusion, he raised the cannon and shredded the creature into pieces. The immense power of the cannon even snapped a large tree behind the monkey. Soon, sizzling sounds erupted from all directions. Zheng Zha didn't hesitate; he kept charging forward with the multi-barrel cannon. When a large crowd of monkeys charged out of the jungle, the cannon's might was displayed again. These monkeys didn't even have time to raise their weapons before they were swept into fragments. Since this was a multi-barrel cannon with infinite ammunition, Zheng Zha didn't spare a single round, firing wildly in all directions. Only when all trees within a hundred-meter radius had completely collapsed did he activate his Qinggong and continue to charge forward.

It was clear that the closer they got to the direction of the pyramid, the greater the number of monkeys, and even the weaponry they carried became heavier. When Zheng Zha saw shoulder-fired anti-tank rockets appear, he chose to retreat without hesitation. Although the jade pendant's defensive capability was indeed decent—he had been taking sniper fire all the way here—the monkeys were small and extremely agile in this jungle, making them perfect for hiding and taking potshots. But while the pendant could easily absorb the damage from these hidden shots, Zheng Zha absolutely dared not risk testing its ability against the power of a rocket. This was simply not a weapon of the same class.

Zheng Zha had long forgotten how many monkeys he had killed along the way; he only knew he had to keep sweeping forward, and the multi-barrel cannon in his hand rarely stopped firing. By the time he started running for his life, thousands of monkeys were already trailing behind him. He glanced back: a dense, dark mass of monkeys covered the trees and the ground, as if he had poked a hornet's nest. Bullets constantly struck his back, only to be blocked by a semi-transparent shield. However, this shield was visibly fading. When a high-powered Dum-dum bullet struck it, while it nullified the bullet's impact, the shield finally shattered.

Zheng Zha felt the jade pendant in his hand instantly crumble. Reacting with lightning speed, he pulled out another pendant from his storage ring and began swaying his body while moving. Yet, even so, he was still being hit by gunfire from behind. Individual strength felt utterly fragile at this moment. Thousands of armed monkeys were relentlessly pursuing him; not only he, but even a copy of himself might perish here.

The pursuing horde seemed to be growing, and Zheng Zha dared not think of anything else, as a faint crack was appearing on the jade pendant in his hand. If he continued to run ahead and take fire, he would eventually die amidst this endless rain of bullets. At that moment, the edge of the gorge appeared not far ahead. Zheng Zha roared, stomped his foot, and leaped forcefully into the gorge. Behind him, countless hissing monkeys simultaneously jumped down—a densely packed swarm of at least four or five thousand, a dark mass enough to make one's scalp crawl. Zheng Zha began accelerating gradually, finally reaching the center of the gorge. But when he looked up toward the opposite edge of the ravine, his heart suddenly leaped: Imhotep and a group of black-robed figures, holding O'Connell and the others at gunpoint, were forcing them to jump down—