57: Shadows beneath Eagle Head Rock

The embers of the campfire gave a final hiss in the damp morning mist, and a few wisps of blue smoke rose stubbornly toward the grayish-white sky, only to be quickly shattered by the dense canopy.

Wang Dalong was awakened by a persistent buzzing. He opened his eyes to find a colorful moth, as large as his palm, resting on the mesh window of his tent. Its two massive compound eyes, like black gemstones, stared at him coldly.

"Holy crap!" He sat up with a start, his sleepiness instantly vanishing.

Outside the tent, Lin Feng had already finished packing and was checking the equipment in his backpack. Beside him, Juan, the dark-skinned and taciturn guide, was using a sharp machete to cleanly shave a tough vine, seemingly preparing something. Carlos and the other seven local support staff were also up, dismantling tents and packing up the camp with practiced, quiet movements, like a swarm of well-trained worker ants.

These seven support staff had been recruited by Carlos in Santarém. Most were descendants of local Indigenous peoples, short in stature but exceptionally sturdy, with an innate reverence for and familiarity with the Rainforest. They didn't speak much, simply working in silence, their eyes following Lin Feng and Wang Dalong with a calm mixture of curiosity and detachment.

"If you're awake, hurry up and pack. We need to reach Eagle Head Rock before dark today." Lin Feng didn't even look up; he was busy replacing the batteries in a waterproof GPS device.

Wang Dalong muttered, "Even capitalists aren't as exploitative as you," while nimbly crawling out of the tent. He saw that Juan had used vines and several thick branches to add an extra layer of reinforcement around the sides of the wooden boat, creating a simple anti-collision structure.

"What is this for?" Wang Dalong asked Carlos curiously.

Carlos pointed toward the river and explained, "Juan says that further ahead, the channel narrows and the current gets faster. He heard changes in the sound of the water last night; there might be submerged rocks ahead. We're reinforcing it just in case."

Wang Dalong's heart tightened at the news. Looking at the murky, bottomless river water, he felt as if countless unknown dangers were lurking beneath the surface.

A simple breakfast consisted of compressed biscuits and leftover grilled fish from the night before. After eating, everyone boarded the boat. Juan pulled the engine cord, and the wooden boat roared to life once more, cutting through the morning mist as it continued upstream.

The further they went, the more primitive the scenery on both banks became. Towering ancient trees blotted out the sun, their massive buttress roots plunging deep into the soil like walls. Countless thick vines hung from above, coiling around the trunks like giant pythons. The air was thick with a heavy scent of rotting vegetation and damp earth.

Wang Dalong held his camera, scanning the strange plants and the occasional passing bird, but the sense of novelty he'd felt when first entering the Rainforest was gone, replaced by an oppressive feeling of being swallowed by this endless green. He felt as if countless eyes were peering at their tiny wooden boat from behind the dense, shadow-casting leaves.

"Brother Feng, I feel like something's not right," Wang Dalong whispered, leaning toward Lin Feng. "The forest... it's too quiet."

Lin Feng didn't look at him, his gaze still locked on the river ahead. His senses, enhanced by the genetic serum, were exceptionally keen, and he had noticed it too. Earlier in the journey, they could always hear the cries of monkeys and the songs of various birds, but now, aside from the roar of the engine and the sound of water, there was total silence.

This silence was more nerve-wracking than any clamor.

"Stay alert," Lin Feng said, offering only those two words.

Juan had clearly noticed the anomaly as well. He shut off the noisy engine and picked up a long bamboo pole to begin punting the boat. The boat's speed slowed, gliding almost silently over the water. Carlos and the other support staff also picked up their weapons—a few old shotguns and sharp machetes—scanning the banks with wary expressions.

Suddenly, a violent rustle came from the jungle on the left bank, and a small tree was snapped in half by something crashing through it.

Everyone's hearts leaped into their throats.

A dark shadow lunged out of the forest like a bolt of lightning, jumping onto a massive piece of driftwood lodged by the riverbank in a few bounds.

It was a robust Jaguar. Its fur was a beautiful tawny yellow, covered in black rosettes, and its muscular lines were fluid and full of explosive power. It held the carcass of an unknown animal in its mouth, blood dripping from the corners of its jaws.

It spotted the wooden boat on the river and let out a low growl from its throat, its golden pupils filled with warning and wildness.

Wang Dalong was so terrified he nearly dropped his camera into the river. He froze completely, not even daring to breathe. The support staff on the boat also gripped their weapons tensely.

The Jaguar merely stared at them for a moment, seemingly assessing the threat level of these intruders. It had no intention of attacking; it simply let out another low, deterrent growl, then turned nimbly with its prey in its mouth and vanished into the shadows of the dense forest in a few leaps.

Only when that suffocating pressure had completely vanished did Wang Dalong let out a long breath, slumped onto the boat deck, his back soaked with cold sweat.

"My god... so that's the king of the jungle..." his voice trembled.

Lin Feng's expression remained unchanged, though he took one extra look in the direction the Jaguar had disappeared. The cold system prompt rang in his mind once more.

[Side Quest: Rainforest Survival Trial (1/3), dealt with a wild beast encounter.]

It seemed the appearance of this Jaguar had happened to fulfill one of the quest conditions.

After this scare, the atmosphere on the boat became even more somber. Juan restarted the engine and increased their speed; everyone wanted to leave this area as quickly as possible.

Around four in the afternoon, as the sun began to slant and golden light pierced through the layers of leaves, a massive rocky mountain appeared at the end of the widening river channel.

The mountain stood by the river, its shape extremely peculiar. From the side, it looked exactly like a gargantuan eagle's head, gazing up at the sky. Its sharp 'beak' and steep 'cranium' appeared majestic and mysterious against the backdrop of the setting sun.

"Eagle Head Rock," Carlos said, his voice tinged with a hint of relief. "We've arrived."

Juan slowly steered the boat toward a shallow beach beneath the rocky mountain. This place seemed to be a natural harbor where the current was gentle.

Everyone jumped off the boat, feeling a long-awaited sense of security as their feet touched solid ground.

Lin Feng looked up at the massive stone eagle head and pulled out the replica notebook he kept tightly wrapped in a waterproof bag. He flipped to a page where a sketch was drawn in scrawled handwriting, depicting the very Eagle Head Rock before them.

Beside the sketch, a line of text was written:

"Where the eye of the giant eagle gazes, there lies the gateway to the Golden Kingdom."

Lin Feng put away the notebook and cast his gaze in the direction the 'eye' of Eagle Head Rock stared—into a deeper, darker, more primeval Rainforest.

From here on, they would bid farewell to the river and truly step into this unknown green hell on foot.

While they were busy unloading supplies from the boat and preparing to set up camp on the open ground beneath the rock, no one noticed that the guide, Juan, had inconspicuously adjusted a small, unremarkable black pendant hanging from his chest.

On the surface of that pendant, the indicator light of a miniature camera flashed silently once.