Chapter 24: Hanging Corpse Banner

If He Yu hadn’t been blindly crawling through holes and just happened to run into me by sheer dumb luck, I might’ve been stuck here for the rest of my life. In a place like this, phones are completely useless—no wonder He Yu only brought a watch. That watch had an extremely precise timer, was waterproof, and practically indestructible.

The ticking hands reminded me that I’d already been trapped in this cavern for a full three hours—and I hadn’t even realized it had been that long.

He Yu and I leaned against the stone wall by the cave entrance. He was tearing into some packaged bread and biscuits he’d pulled from my bag, devouring them like a starving wolf. Crawling through those winding, chaotic tunnels must’ve drained him.

After washing down a mouthful of biscuit with some water, He Yu asked, “So what now? I mean, we’re lucky compared to most. At least the two of us ended up together. You’re the brains here—got any ideas?”

Ideas? I had plenty. But realistically, we only had three options: one, use the climbing pick to go back the way I fell in; two, crawl into the hole beneath the coffin and see if there’s another exit; or three, sit tight and pray that Tian Yuqing somehow manages to find us.

I glanced at the climbing pick He Yu had tossed aside—it was so worn down at the tip it was practically blunt. No way we could use that to climb back up. Silently, I folded down one of the three fingers I’d held up. Three options—one eliminated.

He Yu brushed the crumbs off his hands. “Forget about Tian Yuqing coming to save us. That guy’s suspicious of everything. He has no idea where we fell. Knowing him, he’d weigh the risks and decide it’s not worth it to come down here.”

I folded down another finger. In just a few words, He Yu had shot down the two safest options. That left us with only one.

If there really was no other way out, we’d have to crawl back through the hole beneath the coffin and try to find that corridor that might lead back to the Tomb Chamber. No idea where Lu A’yao ended up. Judging by He Yu’s tone, he probably had more ideas about this place than he was letting on.

Hopefully Lu A’yao didn’t get knocked out in the fall. If he landed in water like He Yu did, he wouldn’t be in much better shape than us.

Unwilling to give up, I stood up with the flashlight in hand. “Let’s check again—see if there’s another exit.”

He Yu patted the dust off his pants and stood up too. “Alright, I’m fed and watered. Time to get to work.”

I swept the flashlight beam across the rock wall opposite us. The far wall was completely bare. As I slowly moved the light inch by inch, it became clear this cavity was completely sealed off. The pit floor below us was carpeted with bones.

Our platform was over a hundred meters above the bone-covered floor, and with the airflow from the cave behind us, the stench wasn’t too overwhelming. I twisted the flashlight dial to dim the beam and stood still, thinking.

That strange bone came to mind. If all these animals were slaughtered and thrown in here as burial offerings, why was there a single bone left on the platform? If any bones were left behind, it should’ve been a full skeleton—not just one piece.

“Whoa!” He Yu suddenly shouted, making me jump. My nerves were already frayed from lack of sleep—his outburst nearly gave me a heart attack.

I rolled my eyes and stomped over to him, shining the flashlight in his face. “Hey, hey, hey—can you not do that? I’m already on edge. You scared the soul out of me.”

He Yu grabbed my sleeve, his expression oddly blank. “Don’t yell at me. Look up. What the hell is that?”

At first, I thought he was messing with me again. But this time, he didn’t argue back—just kept staring upward. I followed his gaze, and as our two flashlight beams swept across the ceiling of the cavern, every hair on my body stood on end.

There were no words to describe what I saw.

Suspended from the ceiling, layer upon layer, were corpses from different eras, hanging upside down like paper kites fluttering in the wind, bumping into each other.

The sheer density of them nearly covered the entire top of the Burial Pit. I estimated at least four or five layers of bodies. I’m 1.85 meters tall, and some of the older corpses dangled so low they were just a finger’s width from brushing the top of my head.

“Holy hell, how many bodies are up there? You never looked up before?” He Yu was just as stunned.

I snapped, “I only found the flashlight less than half an hour ago. What was I supposed to see in pitch black?”

Truth was, I’d felt something hanging overhead, but I’d assumed it was just prayer flags or something. The fear of the dark had kept me crouched low the whole time. Good thing I didn’t stand up straight—otherwise I might’ve ended up face-to-face with one of those dangling bastards.

“Hey?” He Yu suddenly smacked my arm and pointed his flashlight at one of the corpses hanging relatively close to us. “You see that guy? Doesn’t he look… a little too fresh?”

I squinted and quickly redirected my flashlight. The beam landed on a pale, ghostly face. The body was hanging upside down above the Burial Pit. I examined his clothes—there was a logo on his chest. I recognized it. A Japanese brand.

There was a massive gash in his abdomen. His intestines and organs had been ripped out, and the dried blood looked no more than a month old. The corpse was so fresh it sent a chill down my spine.

No matter how he ended up here, there was no way he gutted himself and strung himself up like that. Something—or someone—had done this to him.

I didn’t hesitate. I turned off my flashlight and shoved He Yu. “Stop staring. This place isn’t safe. We need to get back into that tunnel you crawled through earlier.”

He Yu and I locked eyes. Clearly, he felt the same. Without another word, one of us started walking back, the other slowly backing away.

I jogged ahead to the Coffin and Outer Coffin, quickly lifting the lid of the smaller coffin inside. The moment I got close, a wave of putrid stench hit me. I turned my face away to breathe in some fresh air, nearly puking on the spot. I had no idea how He Yu managed to stay in there for twenty minutes.

He Yu pushed past me, rolled up his sleeves, and jumped into the small coffin. “You keep an eye on that corpse. I’ll get the wet one out of here. You’re not used to this smell—if you go in, you’ll puke for sure.”

I’d never been so genuinely grateful to him. I let out a breath of relief and turned around, shining my flashlight back toward the hanging corpse. But no matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find it.

I rubbed my eyes and moved closer. Still nothing.

“Wait, what?” I frowned, flashlight in one hand, the other tapping the edge of the Coffin and Outer Coffin. “He Yu, where exactly was that body hanging? There are too many up there—I can’t find it.”

He Yu’s voice was muffled. “Don’t bother me. Can’t you see I’m busy? You can’t even find a corpse—what are you good for?”

I turned around and saw him bent over in the coffin, ass in the air, a strip of my gauze tied around his head to cover his nose and mouth. I smacked him hard on the butt. “Hurry up!”

“Ow! What the hell, you perv?” He Yu laughed, rubbing his backside. He grabbed the edge of the coffin and flipped out with practiced ease, flashlight in hand as he circled around the Coffin and Outer Coffin. “You seriously couldn’t find a body that big? It’s right—”

His voice cut off.

I walked over and saw him frozen, staring in one direction. “What is it?” I asked.

He grabbed my hand tightly, his face pale as a sheet.

“The body’s gone.”

He shone his flashlight toward a specific spot. The corpses were densely packed together, but the area he pointed at had a clear gap.

I swallowed hard, a creeping dread settling in. “Are you sure you didn’t remember the wrong spot?”

He Yu spoke fast, his eyes scanning every corner of the cavern. “No way. I can recite a ten-thousand-word thesis from memory without a single mistake.”

I said, “We can’t stay here. Forget the wet corpse—we need to get into that tunnel. Now.”