Chapter 228: Fourth Brother’s Camp

I only hesitated for a second before rolling out of my sleeping bag. My mind raced as I quickly grabbed the jacket by my pillow and pulled it on.

Where had everyone gone? Out to relieve themselves? I reconsidered and immediately dismissed the thought. There was no damn reason for three men to go out together for that. What, one guy gets woken up by a full bladder and has to drag two others along so they can all pee in unison while discussing the meaning of life?

Outside the tent, the wind on the grasslands howled, occasionally letting out a shrill whistle. It took a lot of courage to stay here all alone. I really couldn’t hold it anymore, so regardless of where those three had gone, I needed to head out and take a leak first.

Using the dim glow of my phone, I fumbled around the tent until I found a hurricane lamp. I switched it on, and the surroundings instantly brightened. With a steady light source at hand, I finally breathed a small sigh of relief. Turning my head, I noticed that the moment the lamp flared to life, swarms of insects from all around the tent began diving toward the light. Tens of thousands of bugs pattered against the fabric like rain. It wasn’t an impressive sight; it was terrifying.

Suppressing my disgust, I held up the lamp and unzipped the tent to step outside. The moment I exited, my heart tightened. The grassland at night was nothing like the romantic vision I had imagined. For at least a kilometer in every direction, everything was swallowed by an endless darkness, save for the small circle of light in my hand. Each step I took onto the soft grass felt like walking into a bottomless abyss that would never end.

I didn’t dare wander too far. I picked a spot nearby to relieve myself, and just as I was pulling up my trousers, the faint light caught the horses tethered to a tree trunk not far away. I only saw three horses. Sensing something was wrong, I immediately lifted the lamp and went over to investigate.

We had brought seven horses in total, one for each person. When we tied them up at dusk, we had kept them all together. Actually, Kuba had said earlier that there was no need to tether them. These horses had been raised by his family since they were foals; they wouldn’t run off even if left loose. Even if they did wander, an old horse knows the way home, and they would eventually find their way back to Zhurige’s house. Still, I had tied them all in one place just to be safe, thinking it would make for a quicker escape if anything went wrong.

But after I circled the area with my lamp, I confirmed there were indeed only three horses left. Even if Lu Ayao, He Yu, and Chen Canghai had taken three, the numbers still didn’t add up.

In this vast grassland, surely no one was out here stealing horses?

The thought flashed through my mind. Once I was certain only three horses remained, I jogged over to the tent shared by Old Qian and the others. I set the lamp on the ground and crouched in front of the entrance.

“Kuba! Old Qian! Lu Qianshan! Wake up, quick! I think our horses have been stolen!”

After I shouted, the surroundings remained deathly silent.

I pounded on the side of the tent. “Hey! You three, wake up! The horses are gone!”

The only response was the persistent chirping of insects in the stillness.

I started to feel that something was seriously wrong. Old Qian and Kuba might be heavy sleepers, but Lu Qianshan definitely wasn’t. The alertness of those with the surname Lu was top-tier. At the slightest hint of trouble, they would be on guard. There was no way I could be out here shouting for this long without anyone responding.

I instinctively reached for the tent zipper, but I lost my balance and tumbled forward. To my surprise, I fell right into the tent. The flap had already been unzipped at some point!

I hastily raised the lamp to illuminate the interior. What I saw made my blood run cold.

Where was everyone? Aside from some clothes and empty sleeping bags, there wasn’t a soul in sight.

My scalp felt like it was about to explode. I crawled a few steps further in and reached out to feel the temperature of the three sleeping bags. They were ice-cold. My heart sank right along with them. This meant they had been gone for quite some time.

I immediately recalled a ghost story He Yu had told me before. It was about a group of people traveling together through the grasslands, only for one of them to wake up and find all his companions mysteriously missing. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t find them. Facing the boundless darkness alone, the survivor began to overthink until he eventually believed he had schizophrenia-that his companions were all figments of his imagination, and he had actually entered the grasslands carrying all that gear by himself.

A wave of dizziness washed over me. I sat in the tent and took two deep breaths, trying to calm myself down. After all, this wasn’t the first time I’d dealt with strange occurrences. As the saying goes, the first time is awkward, but the second time is familiar. I decided not to overthink it. Instead, I crawled out of the tent and circled the area with my lamp. Finally, I confirmed they definitely weren’t nearby. They must have discovered something and headed further out.

With three horses left, it proved the others had likely ridden the rest away. I knelt down to look for hoofprints. Deciding one lamp wasn’t bright enough, I grabbed another one from Old Qian’s tent. I bent low and began searching outward from the hitching post. This place was so remote that people rarely passed through, so I figured if anyone had led horses away, the tracks wouldn’t have disappeared.

This time, I actually found a trail.

There were several rows of hoofprints on the ground. They converged at first, then split into two directions. One set was faint and unclear, while the other set circled around a nearby grove and headed up the hillside.

I decided to follow the clearer tracks up the slope first. However, I knew all too well the deceptive nature of mountain distances-what looks close can exhaust a horse to death. Climbing such a steep slope on foot would surely kill me, so I circled back to the three remaining horses. I picked Old Qian’s smaller horse and struggled for a long time before I managed to haul myself into the saddle. I rode out, adjusting my direction as I tracked the prints.

Once I crested a ridge, I immediately spotted two tall horses grazing in the distant fields. Looking further ahead, I saw Chen Canghai and He Yu lying prone together. Their backsides were stuck in the air as they peered at something. My anger flared instantly. I dismounted, sprinted over, and delivered a heavy slap to each of their shoulders.

“Could you people say something before you head up here? You just left me all alone at the camp!” I roared at He Yu.

Seeing me standing there, He Yu hurriedly reached out and yanked me down to the ground. He extinguished the lantern in my hand at the same time, and in an instant, the three of us were lying in a row on the grass.

“Keep your voice down, for heaven’s sake! Look at what we found. It’s a massive secret.” He Yu gestured with his eyes for me to look ahead.

I turned my head. A few hundred meters away sat a brightly lit camp. Every tent was illuminated, and sentry posts had been established nearby. Several men armed with guns were scattered around the perimeter. Even though night had fallen, the lights remained on and the fires were still burning. It was clear their equipment was top-notch, far superior to our two flimsy, wind-blown tents.

“Canghai was the one who spotted this. Do you think this could be your Fourth Brother’s team?” He Yu asked, shifting his weight as one of his arms had gone numb from lying prone.

The second the words left his mouth, I saw an old man wearing glasses emerge from one of the tents. I immediately locked eyes with He Yu.

“Wu Yili!”

We both spoke the name at almost the exact same time. But the person who followed Wu Yili out of the tent shocked me even more. It was Tan Qiu!

I hadn’t seen anyone from the Tan Family in a long time. Why were they getting involved in this? I wondered. It seemed Fourth Brother and his people were going all in this time. They wouldn’t rest until they turned the Tomb of King Gune upside down and found whatever it was they were looking for.