Chapter 79: This Savage Has Something Extraordinary
The terrain of Skull Island is divided into the Broken Coast, Primitive Villages, Cringing Lowlands, Twisting Swamps and Canals, Steam Jungle, Abyssal Canyon, and Barren Highlands. Among these, the Barren Highlands rise as the highest region on the entire island, and it is there that Kong and Li Xiaoxiong make their home.
Li Changsheng’s destination this time was the Barren Highlands. However, he was in no rush to head straight there; instead, he wanted to thoroughly study the island’s wildlife.
He disembarked at the southernmost edge of Skull Island, where the thick fog was thinning, revealing the towering stone walls lining the shore. These walls were constructed from upright stone slabs arranged side by side, much like the wooden fences of a villa—though countless times taller and more imposing. Clearly, these were not the handiwork of the wild islanders in the films but a remnant of the once glorious civilization from thousands of years past.
Li Changsheng carefully made his way across the jagged reefs and skull-shaped boulders of the Broken Coast, wandering along the towering walls for a long time, until he finally discovered a gorge leading straight into the island’s interior.
This must be the same place the protagonists entered in the movie.
Without hesitation, Li Changsheng docked his speedboat at the shore, disembarked, and headed inside. The moon shone brightly overhead, and with the powerful beam of his flashlight, the gorge’s every detail was thrown into stark relief.
The gorge was about ten meters wide, its sides flanked by sheer cliffs eroded by the relentless sea. After walking a kilometer along the gorge, his view opened up. Everywhere, sharp-tipped bamboo stalks—three or four meters tall—stood upright, forming a narrow pathway, clear evidence of human presence.
At the end of the path loomed a massive stone gate, more than twenty meters high and over three meters wide, its entrance reinforced with dozens of sharpened spears pointing inward, clearly meant to fend off some sort of beast.
Li Changsheng knew these islanders had set up such defenses to keep dinosaurs and Kong from emerging from the depths of the jungle.
Suddenly, his foot struck something hard. Shining his flashlight down, he was startled to see he had stepped on dozens of human skulls. Goosebumps prickled his skin.
Damn, that scared the hell out of me. These natives really have no sense of order, just leaving things like this lying around?
Suppressing a shudder, he made his way up a ten-meter stairway beside the wall. Looking down from above, he saw a derelict stone hut, long abandoned by humans. The air inside was thick with death and silence—no sign of life at all.
What a waste this scene isn’t used for a horror movie.
These islanders truly know how to hide.
He knew there were many of them surviving within. But given the island’s harsh ecosystem, these people lived like rats, cowering in their burrows, filled with terror and insignificance—utterly powerless. Here, humankind had no foothold, born only to be prey.
As he pondered this, a sharp swish cut through the air to his left.
A spear shot toward his chest like a venomous snake. Li Changsheng twisted aside, dodging it as it sailed through the air before landing heavily on the ground.
Turning, he fixed a grim stare on his would-be assailant—a burly islander, his skin dark as night, blending perfectly with the shadows. No wonder Li Changsheng hadn’t noticed him at first.
“Trying to ambush me? I’ll send you to hell.”
Without hesitation, Li Changsheng drew his pistol from his spatial pouch and fired three shots in quick succession, each one infused with magic. The islander’s head exploded before he could even cry out.
The gunshots echoed through the air, stirring the islanders from their slumber. In no time, the base of the wall was crowded with spear-wielding men. In their midst, protected by the others, sat an old crone shrouded in loose rags, only her shriveled, pitch-black fingers protruding. Her mouth worked furiously, uttering a string of strange, ancient notes that grated on the ears and set one’s teeth on edge.
As her chant rose, the islanders grew increasingly frenzied, their eyes wild and beast-like, fixed upon Li Changsheng. It wouldn’t be long before they charged.
The sound made Li Changsheng’s skin crawl, like metal scraping across concrete. “This old hag is intriguing,” he muttered, knowing she must be the tribe’s priestess, chanting some ancient spell or ritual to commune with the spirits. Whatever it was, it clearly had an effect—not just on the islanders, but even on him.
His curiosity was piqued.
But these islanders were beyond reason now; their eyes glowed red with bloodlust. He thought to himself, I’ll bring Kong over next time and see who among these people would dare act up.
With that decision made, Li Changsheng shone his flashlight directly at the old crone, then fired a magic bullet at her feet. With a loud bang, she recoiled, her incantation cut off, and shrank back into the wall, her gaze filled with fear as she looked at him.
Li Changsheng gave her a lingering look, then turned and, with a few agile leaps, slipped away into the depths of the Steam Jungle.
The other islanders wanted to give chase but were held back by a stern slap from the old crone.
...
“Damn! Mosquitoes!”
His powerful flashlight, like a firefly in the darkness, attracted swarms of flying insects, chief among them mosquitoes—a real nuisance.
Cursing under his breath, Li Changsheng stopped in his tracks, brandishing his baseball bat with vigor, sending clouds of insects tumbling to the ground.
He glanced around. In the Steam Jungle, dead trees crisscrossed, casting eerie shadows everywhere. Without a compass, he would have been hopelessly lost.
All around, strange noises filled the air, unsettling even him—a genetically modified being. It wasn’t fear of the creatures here, but rather the unknown. Were they lurking in the undergrowth, or swimming in the water? Were they venomous or not? Everything here was a mystery.
He’d planned to do a bit of “survival king” style wilderness living, but the ecosystem here was far more treacherous than he’d imagined. You never knew what you might step on next.
After trekking five or six kilometers, his boots had squished through all manner of sticky substances. He’d hoped to roast some dinosaur meat, but hadn’t seen even a shadow of a dinosaur yet.
Fine, he thought, I’ll wait for daylight.
Deciding to rest where he was, he suddenly heard a scuttling noise on the ground. Looking closely, he saw an enormous hermit crab—about forty centimeters long, wearing a seal’s skull as its shell.
From his knowledge of Skull Island, Li Changsheng recognized this as one of the island’s bizarre specialties: the mighty Bonehouse Crab. Being much larger than most hermit crab species, they struggle to find suitably sized shells, so these innovative opportunists use whatever they can find—including hollowed-out bones, hence the name.
With a swing of his bat, Li Changsheng dispatched the crab. He built a fire, donned gloves, and held the crab’s powerful claw over the flames for a long time, roasting it until the aroma of cooked meat filled the air.
Even then, staring at the charred crustacean, he hesitated to take a bite. Better let Xiao G try first.
He tossed the roasted crab into his spatial pouch and pulled out his phone.
Li Changsheng: @Certain Scientific G-Creature, I got you a specialty from Skull Island. Give it a try—see if it helps your evolution.
Xiao G wasn’t human anymore anyway, and with Dr. William feeding him all sorts of bizarre things every day, his resistance to toxins was off the charts.
As for himself, Li Changsheng took out a few loaves of bread from his spatial pouch and washed them down with cola to fill his stomach. Then he retrieved a box truck, crawled into the cargo hold, shut the door tightly, washed up with bottled water, and burrowed into his sleeping bag for a deep, sound sleep.