Three months later.
Arcadia returned to the Wakan jungle as promised.
This time, she returned as deputy leader of the "Morgan Expedition Team."
The team leader was none other than Dr. Edward Morgan.
He had learned from Arcadia that his only son was still alive, and he was overwhelmed with excitement, wishing he could sprout wings and fly back to the Wakan jungle immediately.
However, work demands forced him to be patient, and after some preparation, he finally assembled an expedition team.
After five years, the doctor returned to the rainforest under the guise of scientific research, searching for his lost son.
Arcadia volunteered to be his teacher's guide.
Recalling the thrilling encounter during her last jungle expedition, Arcadia had learned her lesson.
For safety reasons, this wealthy noblewoman hired a mercenary team to serve as bodyguards for the expedition team.
The mercenary group's leader was named Hessen, a veteran who rose to fame during the War of Succession.
He was a middle-aged man of exceptional build, his face covered in a full beard, his scars barely concealed.
A massive sword slung across his back, his eyes radiating a sinister, cold aura.
Captain Hessen quickly found an opportunity to prove himself worthy of his high commission.
The expedition disembarked and headed for the settled village of Tarzan.
As they passed through a swamp, they heard the sounds of fighting.
The conflicting forces were Wakan and Lizardmen.
The cold-blooded Lizardmen, covered in emerald green scales, were the most representative subhuman race of the rainforest.
To be fair, Lizardmen were not inherently evil.
It was just that these subhumans, living deep in the swamp, were considered more barbaric than the Wakan by visitors from the civilized world.
The Lizardmen had good reason to hate humans.
Wakan often invaded the swamps to fish and hunt, encroaching on their territory.
This frequent and violent conflict between the two sides erupted in conflict.
This scuffle at the edge of the swamp was merely commonplace racial friction.
The team tried to quietly circumvent the conflict zone.
Unfortunately, they were out of luck. Not far ahead, a group of Lizardmen suddenly burst out from the bushes.
They wielded flint spears, their scaly, reptilian faces brimming with murderous intent!
The two sides met on this narrow path, stunned.
The Lizardmen leader was the first to recover.
He thrust out his forked tongue and hissed at them.
The expedition team looked at each other, puzzled.
Only the knowledgeable Dr. Morgan could discern the ancient dragon language being spoken. He hurried forward, speaking in his broken Dragon language, attempting to explain to the Lizardmen that they were merely passing through and had no intention of intervening in the conflict between the Lizardmen and the Wakan.
Unfortunately, the exchange was not pleasant.
The Lizardmen leader, reluctantly accepting the doctor's arguments, agreed to let them go, but with one condition.
The expedition team must leave behind all their ironware!
Especially the swords and chainmail worn by the mercenaries.
In the rainforest, iron ore is scarce, and ironmaking technology is extremely backward.
Armor and weapons forged from fine steel are especially valuable!
The Lizardmen leader, seeing the well-equipped group, couldn't help but become greedy and wanted to collect a toll.
After hearing Dr. Morgan translate the Lizardmen's demands, the mercenaries erupted in fury!
Demanding they hand over their armor and weapons?
"Dream on!"
"Arrogant Lizardman, you're courting death!"
The crowd erupted in anger, swords unsheathed!
"Quit the noise!"
Captain Hesse shouted, and his mercenaries fell silent.
"Dr. Morgan, please convey my respects to the Lizardman leader."
Captain Hesse said calmly.
"We can discuss surrendering our weapons."
The doctor translated.
The Lizardman leader's gloomy expression softened.
The compatriots behind him slowly lowered their spears, which had been held high.
Captain Hesse, in front of everyone on both sides, removed his helmet and chain mail.
He also removed the greatsword slung across his back.
Carrying his equipment in both hands, he strode toward the Lizardman.
The lizardman leader crossed his arms over his chest and grimaced.
A nearby lizardman stepped forward to take Captain Heisen's equipment.
A disarmed, unarmed human was seen as no threat by the lizardmen.
However, they soon paid a bloody price for this prejudice.
The moment the handover was complete, Captain Heisen suddenly stomped his foot!
Boom!
The ground beneath his feet shook violently, sending dirt flying.
Level 2 Martial Skill—Earthquake!
Captain Heisen's magically infused stomp triggered a localized earthquake within a fifteen-meter radius!
All the lizardmen, caught off guard by the earthquake zone, nearly all fell.
Only the lizardman leader, holding onto the violently shaking tree trunk, managed to hold on.
Captain Heisen himself was unaffected by the earthquake.
With a sneer, he strode forward, closing in on the lizardman leader.
"Hiss—human! Cunning! Damn it!"
The lizardman leader, enraged, snatched up his spear with one hand and thrust it fiercely into Heisen's chest.
Clang!
The sharp, flint-polished spear pierced Heisen's unarmored chest, sending a shower of sparks flying!
Captain Heisen, a master of the third-level physical training technique, remained unfazed by the blow.
Eyes glaring, he strode forward, holding the spear.
Crack!
The wooden spear shaft was bent into a bow by his thrust.
The lizardman leader leaned against the tree trunk, his hands trembling.
He could barely hold the spear shaft.
Crack!
The spear, unable to bear the weight, finally broke.
The lizardman leader screamed and turned to flee.
Captain Hessen grabbed the half-broken spearhead and threw it away.
Puff!
The spearhead struck the lizardman leader squarely in the back, piercing through his chest.
The body fell to the ground with a thud, and a pool of blood spread.
Meanwhile, Arcadia was not idle either, joining the mercenaries in beating the fallen.
The lizardman, knocked to his knees by Captain Hessen, was struck with a powerful blow before he could even get up.
With their leader dead, the minions had no desire to fight.
Leaving behind several corpses, they fled in a tumbling rage.
After this fierce but brief battle, Arcadia, swords in hand, approached Hessen.
"The natives trapped by the lizardmen across the swamp are all residents of the village of Tazan!"
"These simple natives once treated us so warmly! Now they're in trouble, we can't just stand by and watch!"
"Besides, we have Tazan's favor!"
"Captain! Bring your men and follow me to rescue them!"
"Hehe..."
Captain Hessen sneered and shook his head.
"Miss, I'm so sorry."
"Our contract doesn't include rescuing the natives."
"Unless you pay extra, no deal."
"You... well, name your price!" Arcadia said, holding back her anger.
Hessen casually quoted a sky-high price.
A price that was impossible to accept.
Arcadia finally understood. This wasn't just about money. Hessen didn't want to cause any trouble.
"If you won't go, I'll go alone!"
Filled with resentment, Arcadia activated her ancestral form.
Transforming into a silver-helmeted and silver-armored angel of revenge, she spread her silver wings and flew toward the swamp.
At that moment, a familiar roar echoed from the forest!
A young man with a leopard's head and a human body burst out of the dense forest like a flash of black lightning.
In the blink of an eye, he had charged into the rear of the lizardmen's camp.
Screams echoed from the crowd!
Black shadows flashed like lightning.
Lizardmen fell one after another, blood spurting from their throats.
Eyes wide, filled with confusion.
From start to finish, it took only the blink of an eye.
Before even seeing the other party's movements, he had already received a fatal blow.
The black panther man's speed was terrifying! Inconceivable!
The lizardmen, their morale broken, quickly scattered.
"Tazan!"
Arcadia cheered as she descended, not even bothering to transform back into human form before leaping forward.
She, clad in silver armor, fell into Allen's arms.
"Dear friend, we finally meet again!"
As the two young men embraced each other, Captain Hessen stroked his beard, frowning slightly.
He felt a tinge of fear at the Black Panther's strength.
...
After five years, Morgan and his son were finally reunited.
Alan comforted his tearful stepfather and recounted his five years of wandering in the wilderness.
Recovering his son was only one of Dr. Morgan's goals.
He also had an important mission on this journey.
Based on unearthed artifacts, the doctor speculated that deep in the rainforest, an intelligent race even older than the Wakan existed.
Before this race's complete decline, it had once created a glorious civilization.
The doctor and his team decided to venture deep into the dense forest to explore the remains of this ancient civilization.
Alan joined the doctor's team, leading them to avoid the forest's ferocious beasts and dangerous areas.
During their journey, Arcadia spent every day with Alan.
She naturally developed feelings for this wild young man.
One evening, the two young people met under a banana tree.
Unable to control their emotions, they created a great harmony of life together.
This was Alan's first time being intimate with a girl of angelic descent.
Compared to ordinary golden cats, Angel's skin was smoother, her pores more delicate, and felt incredibly delicate to the touch, like porcelain...
Alan couldn't say whether this was a genetic trait of angels. ...
Happy times are always so short-lived.
After more than two months of arduous journey, Dr. Morgan finally achieved his goal and found ancient ruins in a valley deep in the jungle.
To be more precise, it was a deserted temple.
The building, built of huge stones, housed serpentine statues.
A quick inspection revealed that the statues' faces resembled human faces.
Most of them were young women, quite beautiful.
Statues with human faces and snake bodies...
The more Alan looked at them, the more familiar they seemed.
He recalled hunting a serpent monster in the mountains of his hometown, Quint.
That serpent monster was said to be a severely degenerated naga.
Its facial features vaguely retained human features.
His suspicions were soon confirmed by Dr. Morgan.
The statues within the ruins are none other than the legendary Naga!
What the doctor is exploring is actually the civilization created by the ancient Naga.
These Nagas, with their human faces and snake bodies, are all born sorcerers!
Their hearts are more vicious than their fangs!
They wield magic to dominate races, including humans.
They served as slaves to build this once-magnificent temple.
The temple's interior walls...
Fragments of garbled murals can be seen everywhere.
Alan couldn't understand what they meant.
The doctor, however, was overjoyed.
He worked tirelessly, making rubbings of the murals and attempting to decipher them.
The expedition team remained in the temple for over ten days.
With the help of his assistants, Dr. Morgan achieved a breakthrough in his research.
According to his identification, the mural depicts the rise and fall of the ancient Naga tribe.
This mysterious ancient civilization belongs to a branch of the Naga clan known as the "Spirit Naga."
The last matriarch of the Spirit Naga clan, seeking immortality, studied necromancy, slaughtered the surrounding indigenous people, and performed blood sacrifices.
This mad pursuit ultimately led to her own death...
Not only that, but the matriarch's relatives, friends, and descendants were also buried with her.
This mad monster, until her final moments, refused to acknowledge her misguided path, claiming that death was merely the beginning of a more authentic life.
She believed she would not die, but rather embraced eternal life.
She believed her family and descendants would not die either, but, thanks to her, would accompany her in eternal life.
What the matriarch thought was no longer important.
The other Nagas in the tribe had had enough of her madness.
They plotted in secret and set a trap.
They lured the mad mistress and her cronies deep into the ancestral tombs, where they launched a rebellion.
After a bloody battle, they slew the mistress and her cronies!
The coup was a success, but the naga still couldn't rest easy.
Before her death, the mistress declared she would return for revenge.
She insisted on claiming she was "immortal."
It sounded like crazy talk.
But... what if it was true?
What if she could truly return from the dead?
Strange events later made the coup plotters even more terrified.
They built this temple to suppress the mistress's spirit and try to escape the spirit's curse.
What happened next is not recorded in the murals, and Dr. Morgan has no idea.
However, judging by the signs of dilapidation at the site, the Spirit Naga clan clearly went downhill after the coup.
Whether or not it was due to the Matriarch's curse, the tribe no longer exists, completely lost in the dust of history.
Only broken walls and ruins remain for future generations to examine.
Based on the clues provided by the murals, Dr. Morgan has roughly deciphered the location of the Naga clan's ancestral tomb.
Common sense tells him to stop.
The ancestral tomb, where the mad Matriarch was murdered, is undoubtedly a very dangerous place!
The murals repeatedly warn that trespassing into the ancestral tomb will result in a disastrous outcome!
Of course, Dr. Morgan also acknowledges that there must be valuable artifacts deep within the tomb.
The Naga clan values luxury, and burial treasures are indispensable.
Captain Hessen was intrigued by the ancient tomb and suggested that the doctor continue exploring.
Perhaps everyone could seize this opportunity to strike it rich.
However, the doctor rejected the temptation.
He firmly believed that it was wise to quit while the going was good.
After a heated argument, the doctor and the captain parted ways on bad terms.
Captain Hessen considered leaving the doctor behind and searching for the treasure alone.
However, without the doctor's guidance, how could anyone find the ancient tomb of the Naga tribe in this primeval forest?
No one else could do it.
So, what happened next was a natural progression.
That night, Captain Hessen and his mercenaries launched a rebellion.
First, they poisoned the soup, knocking everyone in the expedition unconscious, and then massacred them.
Captain Hessen didn't need any more survivors except Dr. Morgan.
Allen was the only one in the team resistant to the toxin.
He and Arcadia were the only ones who escaped the massacre and survived.
Allen could have exposed Heisen's conspiracy earlier.
But he didn't.
Atavistic meditation, ultimately, is about improving one's spiritual practice.
From this perspective.