Chapter 231: Original Intent

“A breeding ground? So you’re saying these things are multiplying inside Brother Kuba’s stomach? Then wouldn’t Old Qian also be…” He Yu looked at me with an indescribable expression.

Chen Canghai seemed to have undergone some military training abroad and had some knowledge of emergency medicine. I made room for him, and he immediately knelt on one knee, gently pressing his hand against Kuba’s abdomen. After feeling around for a moment, he looked up at me.

I immediately asked, “How is he?”

“It could be live, strip-like worms that have already hatched, or it could be unhatched eggs,” he said. “I’m leaning toward both. If these eggs are fully incubated by human body temperature, he definitely won’t survive. We have to get him out of here as quickly as possible and perform surgery to remove them.”

I asked, “Can you perform that surgery?”

Chen Canghai lowered his head to feel the abdomen again. “Not many eggs should have entered. Although we have sufficient equipment, I don’t have full confidence given these harsh wilderness conditions.”

“This place is too remote. Even riding back on horseback would take at least two hours. In two hours, the trail will be cold and he’ll be gone. Xiao Chen, give it a try. We believe in you!” He Yu said, pressing a hand on Chen Canghai’s shoulder.

A plan began to take shape in my mind. I stood up immediately and said, “Alright. Canghai, you take Kuba out first. Old Qian has definitely been hit too. He Yu and I will go find him and bring him back.”

Chen Canghai glanced at me. Seeing my determination, he didn’t argue. He unclipped two Tu Haozi from his waist and handed them to He Yu, then immediately hoisted the unconscious Kuba onto his shoulder, intending to carry him back to the tents. Before leaving, he stopped and warned me, “Brother, things aren’t like they used to be. You have to be careful.”

That sudden remark forced me to pause and reflect for a moment; it felt heavy with hidden meaning. However, Chen Canghai didn’t linger. Carrying Kuba, he quickly vanished into the woods.

I soon focused on the most pressing problem at hand. He Yu and I climbed over the deep pit one after the other. With one of us holding a knife and the other a gun, we slowly approached the base of the Couple Trees.

The spot directly above us was where Old Qian had been hanging from the vines earlier. I scanned the surroundings but couldn’t find him. He had indeed left his original position. Now, the only option was to climb the tree and look.

He Yu gave me a look, tucked his gun into his waistband, and took the lead in climbing. I stayed below on guard. Based on Kuba’s state earlier, a compromised Old Qian would surely possess some level of aggression. Although he wasn’t naturally intimidating, we had to be on guard. If that guy bit someone, he’d surely clamp down with a death grip; even if the bite didn’t kill you, it would take a chunk of skin with it.

Once He Yu had climbed up completely, I grabbed the trunk and began my ascent. Massive trees like these Couple Trees were easy to climb, but this one had likely endured too many parasitic plants over the years. The interior had been hollowed out, so we had to be extremely careful where we stepped.

We reached the main branches and swept the area with our flashlights.

“What’s going on? Why does it feel like this flashlight isn’t working right up here?” He Yu gave his flashlight a hard smack.

Keeping a constant watch on our surroundings, I reminded him, “It’s not that our flashlights are failing. These Couple Trees were likely planted here intentionally. The branches are coated in some kind of light-absorbing paint. Visibility up in the tree is less than four meters. I suspect this is the work of the ancient King of Gune.”

We moved back-to-back toward a branch within our limited range of light. Hearing this, He Yu asked, “This King of Gune… you think he just had too much time on his hands? This is just a fake tomb. Why go through all this trouble?”

I gave a soft chuckle from the front. “You don’t get it, do you? The faker it is, the more grand and imposing it has to be built. With more gimmicks on the outside, doesn’t it become even better at luring in tomb raiders? He set up a tree like this out here; it’s no wonder Ye Yuzhu mistook this place for the real Royal Mausoleum.”

As we walked, He Yu suddenly stiffened behind me. I stopped immediately and whispered, “What is it? Did you find Old Qian?”

“No,” He Yu swallowed hard. “But I found something even more terrifying. You might want to brace yourself before you look.”

I turned around and looked in the direction he was pointing. To my shock, I saw several dried corpses “standing” on another branch not far from us. The view was blurry, but they seemed to be wrapped and entangled in something.

He Yu and I froze in place for a moment. After a while, he whispered, “You’re still wearing that ward against evil, right?”

I didn’t answer him. What concerned me more was how these corpses were able to “stand” on the branches by themselves. I shone my light over and shook it; they didn’t move, proving they weren’t reanimated. But that stuff wrapped around them—what exactly was it?

Before I could figure it out, He Yu’s flashlight suddenly swept to the side. A figure darted quickly across the blurred branches.

“Old Qian!” I saw him clearly this time and took the lead in the chase. “He Yu! Go down and flank him!”

He Yu immediately started heading down, while I chose to pursue from above. I figured Old Qian wasn’t in his right mind now, so I should be able to drive him toward the ground.

Old Qian ran by leaping back and forth between the branches, moving incredibly fast. I shouted his name as I chased, making several large jumps across the limbs myself.

The gap to the last branch was too wide. I hesitated for a second, staring into the darkness beneath my feet, before making the jump. By the time I landed, my flashlight could no longer find him. It was then I realized our strategy had been flawed. I was now completely lost within the dense layers of branches of these two Couple Trees, with no sense of direction.

“Old Qian!” I called out, stepping forward onto the nearest branch.

When my light finally hit a figure ahead, I realized I had been mistaken. Standing on the branches before me were several dried corpses. Their clothing had rotted into tattered rags, making it impossible to see their original features, but they weren’t the ones from before. I suspected they might be people from Ye Yuzhu’s former expedition team.

I cautiously crept forward a few more steps, finally getting a clear look at the things coiled around them. Once I saw what they were, I scrambled back, a cold sweat breaking out across my skin. I realized with a jolt of horror that there were no naturally occurring vines on this tree at all.

What had disguised themselves as vines were tens of thousands of lime-green insects.

These bugs had clustered together, crawling and moving in unison so they resembled green vines swaying in the wind. It was highly likely that Old Qian and Kuba had been dragged into this grove by “vines” made of these creatures. However, they didn’t seem interested in me; even when I had been standing so close just moments ago, they hadn’t attacked.

I reached out and touched the jade hanging around my neck to steady my nerves. Just as I was about to turn and find another path, a figure suddenly lunged at me from a branch above. My footing gave way, and I went tumbling down the tree, dragging the person with me.

We fell only a few meters before slamming into a lower branch. My waist struck the wood hard, and the pain was so intense that I struggled for a long time without being able to get up. Through a haze of agony, I saw Old Qian stand up as if nothing had happened, his mouth hanging open as he lunged at me again.

I gritted my teeth, let out a roar, and threw myself at him. The two of us went rolling again.

I didn’t care what we hit during the tumble. I only remember hitting at least three branches that cushioned our fall. Every time Old Qian tried to bite me, I hauled him down with me to the next level. Finally, we both hit the ground, and Old Qian was knocked unconscious by the impact.

Upon landing, my entire body felt numb from the shock. My right hand had lost all sensation; I couldn’t tell if it was broken or just dislocated.

He Yu jumped down from the tree from some unknown direction. Before he could even help me up, I endured the pain and scrambled to my feet, shouting to him, “Move! Now! The trees are crawling with bugs!”

He looked stunned for a second but immediately turned to hoist Old Qian onto his back. The two of us ran for our lives, sprinting out of the deep woods.

Outside, the sky was bright. By the time we reached the tents, I was collapsed from exhaustion. Once I caught my breath, I noticed He Yu staring at my hand with a complicated expression. I followed his gaze and realized my right wrist was already starting to swell.

Chen Canghai came over and reset my wrist for me, then immediately went to sterilize his scalpel with alcohol.

Chen Canghai worked quickly. Before evening fell, he had extracted all the insect eggs from Kuba’s stomach. Tonight, it would be Old Qian’s turn.

Having just been revolted by the swarming mass of insects in the woods, I couldn’t stomach the bloody sight of someone’s abdomen being sliced open. I asked He Yu to assist while I went outside to sit by the tent and smoke a cigarette to calm down.

As the tobacco smoke spread, it was the first time in years I truly appreciated the habit.

My wrist still throbbed, but the pain felt distant, as if it could no longer trigger my senses. The ambitious drive I’d felt when we arrived yesterday had vanished completely. I began to instinctively sort through everything in my mind.

The wind of the grasslands and the deathly silence allowed me to settle. Lu Ayao’s departure felt like a sudden awakening from a beautiful dream, casting heavy shadows of doubt over the concept of trust between people.

It was just like the absolute trust I’d given Liang Zicheng when we first met. And what did that trust get me in the end? He took my work and used it to swindle people everywhere, eventually leaving my name off the reports entirely. He stole my paintings to sell for a fortune and even set me up in the Xinchang Bank vault.

In a game this large, how much trust did I have left to spend on anyone?

I sat there, finishing the cigarette puff by puff. Then I took another from the pack I’d borrowed from He Yu, lit it, and kept smoking.

By the time He Yu emerged from the tent with his hands covered in blood, I had finished the entire half-pack of cigarettes.

“I’ve never seen such a bloody scene in my life,” he said, rinsing his hands with a water canteen. “Xiao Yao, you really owe me one for this. And I have to say, it’s a good thing I’m so meticulous. When the three of us left the tent last night, I made sure to pull your flap shut. I bet that guy Lu just forgot to close the flap before he left, which is how Old Qian and the other guy got caught by those bugs!”

I didn’t say a word. He finished washing his hands and sat down beside me. Seeing the pile of butts at my feet, he chuckled. “Whoa! Since when do you smoke like that? Are you trying to finish a month’s supply in a single day?”

I remained silent.

Seeing that I wasn’t responding, He Yu seemed to realize something. He immediately began to apologize. “Look, I admit it. What I did last night was wrong. I shouldn’t have listened to Old Lu and kept you in the dark. It was a stupid move, and I didn’t think it through. I’m sorry.”

“Lu Ayao told you to do it,” I said. “If I’m going to blame someone, it won’t be you.”

“Hah! I knew you were the most reasonable one, Xiao Yao. Before Old Lu did it, I told him Gan Ji would lose his mind if he found out. But he wouldn’t listen! He said if you knew, you’d never let him leave like that.”

Hearing He Yu say this, I suddenly started laughing. “It seems we all thought we knew each other perfectly, but in reality, we only have half the story.”

“What?”

I turned to look at He Yu. The corners of my mouth were still turned up, but the warmth had vanished from my eyes.

I looked him straight in the face and said, “He Yu, I know you’re still hiding something from me.”