The atmosphere was at its most tense.

Rou Yi suddenly said to the others, "How about I try to communicate with them?"

"Communicate with primitives? Has your brain been kicked by a donkey or slammed in a door?" Dodge thought.

The Fatty naturally understood Rou Yi's strength, and he glared at Dodge, warning him to shut up.

Rou Yi first identified the leader among the primitives. She raised her hands, showing her palms and backs to the leader, indicating that she had no weapons.

The leader was attracted by Rou Yi's strange behavior and focused his attention on her.

Most primitive tribes have no language. Communication between tribes relies entirely on unintelligible "咿呀咿呀" sounds and sign language, with sign language being the primary means.

Rou Yi first used several internationally recognized sign language gestures for "hello."

The leader stared intently at Rou Yi, trying to understand what she was trying to express. He also made several gestures and uttered a few strange cries, responding to Rou Yi.

Seeing that the other party was willing to communicate, Rou Yi imitated the other party while trying to figure out the meaning of the gestures. Gestures are also a language, and mastering a language is as easy as eating for Rou Yi.

In the back-and-forth exchange of gestures, Rou Yi finally grasped a little about communicating with the people of the tribe, and began effective communication with the tribal leader.

Rou Yi tried her best to explain to the people of the tribe that the team members were not invaders, but explorers who had accidentally strayed into their territory.

The leader was skeptical. He pointed at Dodge, the Fatty, and the others, making several gestures to Rou Yi.

Rou Yi quickly said to the team members, "He wants you to drop your knives on the ground."

"Just knives? What about the guns?" Dodge asked.

"He probably doesn't know that guns are weapons. Their understanding is limited to traditional weapons such as knives, swords, bows, and spears," Rou Yi explained. "You can just put the guns away."

Dodge, the two mercenaries, and the Fatty did as they were told. They put their guns back in their holsters, then took off their knives and threw them on the ground.

One of the tribesmen cautiously picked up the knives that had been thrown on the ground.

During this time, the team members cooperated quite well, remaining motionless, which greatly satisfied the tribal leader.

Seeing that the team members' weapons had been taken away and the threat had been eliminated, the leader ordered his men to remove the large net. He whistled, and the leaves on several nearby trees began to shake irregularly. After a while, several people climbed down from the trees.

"Good heavens, there are more people than I imagined."

The Fatty sighed with emotion. These primitive tribesmen who were born and raised in the rainforest were the true kings of the rainforest. If there had really been a fierce battle just now, the team would have been wiped out.

The leader had a good impression of Rou Yi and was extremely enthusiastic. He invited the team to visit their tribal camp.

It was unclear whether these tribesmen were truly hospitable or had other plans, but since they had the numbers, Dodge's team, seeing that it was difficult to refuse, agreed to the leader's invitation.

Dodge's team followed the tribesmen toward their camp.

The tribesmen did not tie up the team members, restrict their personal freedom, or deliberately keep their distance.

They were simply curious, constantly observing and sizing up these outsiders, occasionally touching their clothes and equipment, full of curiosity about new things.

The Fatty suddenly said to Derek, "Did you notice?"

Derek nodded and said softly, "Yes, the archers in one direction haven't come down. They're still in the trees."

...

"What?"

Derek exclaimed, startling the tribesmen, who immediately became vigilant.

Realizing that he had overreacted, Derek immediately put on a harmless, apologetic expression.

Seeing that the tribesmen were no longer nervous, Derek quietly asked Rou Yi, "They didn't draw that mark, and they didn't arrange those stones?"

Rou Yi nodded in agreement.

"Please ask for more details."

Derek said to Rou Yi.

Rou Yi continued to communicate with the tribal leader through gestures.

After some exchange, Rou Yi finally understood the whole story. She told Derek, "There's more than just this one primitive tribe in this rainforest. There are other tribes as well. The tribes don't get along well with each other. They often have conflicts and struggles over territory, resources, and different customs. Therefore, when they come out to hunt, they often travel in groups, and people are left behind in the tribe to guard against surprise attacks.

"The twentieth marker was not far from their tribe. Not long ago, the people in the tribe heard a loud bang in the rainforest. They suspected that wild animals were roaming or that enemies had invaded, so they followed the direction of the sound and ventured into the rainforest to investigate.

"They found the marker, then ambushed and waited near the marker, and finally waited for us."

Derek frowned. He didn't expect that someone in this rainforest could recognize and imitate their marker symbols. If he hadn't taken an extra look, he would have really believed it.

Derek had a bad feeling. If someone had deciphered the meaning of the symbols and imitated them, then they might have taken the wrong path from some marker in the past.

Derek asked Rou Yi again, "Where did that loud bang come from? Is it far from here?"

Rou Yi conveyed Derek's meaning to the leader, who said it wasn't far, it was near where they found the marker, no more than two hundred mudu (a tribal unit of length, about five hundred meters, with one mudu being about two meters).

"Damn, something might have happened to the advance team."

Sweat broke out on Derek's forehead, and he said nervously to the others in the team.

Then Derek took out the communication radio and continued to contact the advance team, but the other side of the radio remained unanswered.

The tribesmen looked at Derek talking into a black box and found it very strange. The black box could also make crackling sounds. They suspected that there was some animal locked up in the black box, so they curiously stared at the communication radio in Derek's hand, looking at it again and again, and occasionally touching it with their hands, but the black box didn't react at all.