Sensing something was off, Grandpa Max stood up, joining Phil as they faced Chen Xuzhi.
"Old man, I hope you can answer Phil's question." His tone remained polite, but his hand had already moved toward his waist.
"Ah, you young people..." Chen Xuzhi set his teacup down and shook his head with a wry smile. "Well, it's good to be cautious—at least you won't be led around by the nose. But this time, your suspicion is misplaced."
"What do you mean?" Phil frowned, finger tightening near the trigger.
Chen Xuzhi's eyes gleamed as he pointed at the rifle in Phil's hands. "A weapon of that poor quality wouldn't even scratch the Yeti."
"How do you know that?" Phil shot back, clearly unconvinced.
"Call it intuition," Chen Xuzhi said with a quiet laugh. "Besides, I'm just an old man. Fighting's for young folks like you. My old bones can't take that kind of punishment anymore."
"The elder has a point," Grandpa Max said, gesturing for Phil to lower his weapon. "We've been disrespectful. Please don't take offense, sir."
"Mark..." Phil gritted his teeth but finally lowered the gun.
"Remember this, young man," Chen Xuzhi said lightly. "Not every creature fears a gun."
Phil snorted coldly but said nothing more.
Chen Xuzhi continued his report about the Yetis. It turned out that after the local Plumbers arrived in Shennongjia, they had charged straight into the forest without hesitation.
"Those plumbers looked even younger than the two of you—probably just rookies," Chen Xuzhi sighed. "They disappeared the same night they went in. That's when headquarters realized something was wrong and sent two of their best plumbers—you two—to investigate..."
After hearing that, Grandpa Max frowned deeply.
Phil, on the other hand, gave a confident smirk. "Relax, Max. We're not like those rookies. It's just a few Yetis—I could handle them on my own."
"That may be true, but..." Grandpa Max trailed off, not wanting to dampen Phil's confidence.
The previous team might have been new, but they were still elite among humans—qualified plumbers who had handled alien threats before. Their gear alone should've been more than enough to deal with ordinary extraterrestrials.
So why couldn't they even handle a few "Yetis"?
Max's instincts told him something was wrong. His gut warned him not to act rashly.
"Phil, we can't underestimate this. A Yeti that could wipe out an entire Plumber squad isn't ordinary. We'll stay here tonight and move out in the morning to search for both the Yetis and the missing team," he suggested.
"Stay if you want!" Phil snapped, slinging his custom laser rifle over his shoulder and heading for the door. "An elite plumber afraid of a few hairy beasts? If word gets out, I'll never live it down at the Academy!"
"Phil, wait!" Grandpa Max called after him.
But Phil wasn't listening anymore. He was determined to hunt down the Yetis, rescue the missing plumbers, and prove to everyone back at the Academy that he was the best of the best.
That day, the snow began to fall heavily, blanketing the mountains and cutting visibility to almost nothing.
Phil trudged forward through the storm, the wind howling and snow whipping against his face as he pressed deeper into the forest.
Behind him, Grandpa Max and Chen Xuzhi followed closely. Though Max didn't agree with Phil's recklessness, he couldn't let him go alone. If the Yetis were as dangerous as they feared, Phil wouldn't stand a chance on his own.
Snow whirled wildly around them, and a thick haze settled over the forest.
Before long, the three of them had ventured deep into the snowy wilderness—where they stumbled upon the bodies of the previous Plumber team.
The corpses were gruesome beyond belief—faces torn apart, limbs missing, bodies mauled by some feral beast. Blood had frozen into dark red crystals, scattered across the snow like strands of crimson silk.
As Grandpa Max was struck by the horror of the scene, a sharp whistling sound cut through the air above.
Before he could look up, an immense force slammed into him, hurling him across the clearing. He crashed into a massive tree, the impact so violent it felt as if every bone in his body had cracked. Agonizing pain shot through him.
"Roar!"
A towering black Yeti emerged before him, nearly two and a half meters tall. Its tangled mane hung wild over blood-red eyes, and its body rippled with thick, bulging muscle. Beating its chest like a drum, it let out an earth-shaking bellow that echoed through the forest.
It had used the corpses to distract them, then leapt from a tree in ambush—too swift for anyone to react.
Phil snapped out of his daze, raising his custom rifle to fire.
But the Yeti moved first. In just two strides, it closed the distance, seized the weapon, and wrenched it from his hands with terrifying strength.
Crack!
The silver rifle snapped in half, splintering into useless chunks of metal under the creature's brute force.
Phil's eyes widened in panic. He spun to run, but the Yeti was faster. With a few heavy blows, it sent him sprawling to the ground. He collapsed, unconscious, onto the frozen snow.
"This isn't a Yeti... it's an alien!" Grandpa Max gritted his teeth, glaring up at the beast.
He recognized it from the Plumber archives—a violent, bloodthirsty species with overwhelming strength. They attacked anything that crossed their path, regardless of how powerful the opponent was.
According to the records, these savage aliens shared a planet with the Tetramand. But while the average Tetramand stood over three meters tall, this species barely reached two. Their tribes often clashed, and the savages were always brutally defeated.
Still, their kind was naturally feral and aggressive. Even knowing they couldn't win, they would start fights with the Tetramand—only to be beaten mercilessly, suffering devastating losses each time.
Because of that, few of them remained in the galaxy. Finding one on Earth was unthinkable. Grandpa Max realized this one must have arrived by stowing away on a ship.
After knocking Phil unconscious, the beast turned toward Grandpa Max. Seeing him still alive, it roared again and charged.
Grandpa Max strained with everything he had to grab the rifle lying on the ground, but his body wouldn't respond. The cold had numbed him completely, locking his muscles in place.
Just as the alien's shadow loomed over him, a hunched figure suddenly stepped between them...