Chapter 68: Trapped Again

No one in their right mind would willingly crawl into a coffin to keep company with the dead.

So when it came to climbing up, we were all in perfect agreement. The pillar was covered in intricate carvings and decorative protrusions. The only upside to such a design was that it gave us plenty of footholds.

We picked a spot with the most cutouts and started climbing. Lu A’yao led the way as usual, but this time, we had to make sure Hou Jinshan didn’t try to slip away halfway through. So I positioned myself right behind him.

Three people, three flashlights, scaling the massive relief sculptures and raised surfaces. Some of the hollowed-out sections in the bronze pillar were brittle, and one misstep could send you falling. I had to stay laser-focused—not on the pool below, but on the crisscrossing bronze decorations underfoot.

We hadn’t climbed more than twenty meters when I suddenly heard Hou Jinshan above me cry out. A bronze rod, over ten centimeters long, came tumbling down from above. I quickly let go with one hand and twisted my body to the side. The rod missed my head by a hair’s breadth and plunged straight down.

Damn it, how many times has this happened already? I let it slide the first few times, thinking it was just his weight causing the rods to snap. But now it was happening too often. Was this bastard deliberately stepping on the brittle ones, trying to kill me?

“Hou, I’m warning you—we’re all in this together. If you try anything shady again, I swear I’ll pull you down right now. If one of us dies, we all die!” I grabbed Hou Jinshan’s leg and refused to let go.

He immediately started begging, “Oh come on, my little grandpa, I swear I just couldn’t see clearly! You gotta cut me some slack, right?”

Lu A’yao had stopped ahead of us and looked down at him. Hou Jinshan chuckled nervously and waved his hand. “Won’t happen again, I promise. I’ll watch my step. You go on ahead.”

I let go of him and shifted a few steps to the right, climbing along a different path. The surroundings fell silent again, so quiet it was unnerving. In this kind of dead silence, my mind would usually start to wander. To keep myself from spiraling into wild thoughts, I forced myself to focus on something else.

Back when I was thinking about the Wood-Returning Stone, I had considered the possibility that Hou Jinshan had tricked both me and Li Wanchou. But there was another scenario—one that, the more I thought about it, seemed closer to the truth.

That was, Hou Jinshan and Li Wanchou both knew about the existence of the Wood-Returning Stone and had already reached a mutual understanding. When they realized I only had a vague idea of what it was, they decided to cover up the truth entirely, hiding their real intentions from me.

From the very beginning, their motives had been anything but pure. When we first entered the cave, I didn’t see any guns on them. It wasn’t until later that I realized they had stashed them in their bags. That meant they might have planned to get rid of me and Xiao Wu even before we came in.

But Hou Jinshan knew I had some knowledge of mechanical traps, so he kept me around until we reached the corridor bridge, waiting for the right moment to act.

Lai Qi had once said that Li Wanchou was terminally ill, with not much time left. This should’ve been the critical period for him to receive treatment at the hospital. Yet he had come all the way here, throwing caution to the wind. There could only be one reason: he was after the legendary Wood-Returning Stone, said to cure all illnesses.

But then, why had Hou Jinshan come?

I climbed onto a bird-shaped relief sculpture and looked at Hou Jinshan, who was drenched in sweat. I frowned and asked, “You got a terminal illness too?”

He turned to look at me, stunned for a second, then laughed. “No way, little grandpa. You’re overthinking it.”

I was about to press further when Lu A’yao suddenly descended from above. He held up his knife and gestured for silence. “Turn off your flashlights.”

We quickly switched them off and clung to the carved decorations, not daring to move a muscle. Once everything went quiet, I could clearly hear that eerie sound again—the sound of something carving into stone.

It was the same sound as before.

Only this time, it was much closer, and the pace at which it was approaching had suddenly quickened.

Then, without warning, the sound stopped. A strange gust of wind came out of nowhere, almost strong enough to knock both me and Hou Jinshan off the pillar. It swept past me, and that terrifying sound exploded right next to my ear.

Suddenly, one of our flashlights flicked on—I didn’t know whose—and I came face to face with a bird-like creature. It had an owl’s face with a sharp beak. It saw me too. Its massive wings spread wide, and it let out a cry that sounded disturbingly like a baby wailing. The sound was so piercing it felt like my eardrums would burst.

Just as it lunged at me, a whip cracked through the air and coiled tightly around its neck. Lu A’yao released his grip and dropped down from above. With a flick of his wrist, the barbs on the whip sliced across the creature’s throat like a blade.

The flashlight beam swept across the space, and suddenly, baby-like cries echoed from all directions.

“Don’t look back! Keep climbing!” Lu A’yao shouted as he grabbed onto a bronze rod with one hand and lashed out with the whip again, yelling up at me and Hou Jinshan.

The moment Hou Jinshan heard that, he bolted upward like a rabbit. I had hesitated, wanting to help Lu A’yao, so I was a split second slower. By the time I snapped out of it, Hou Jinshan had already climbed more than ten meters ahead. I had no choice but to scramble after him, clambering up the decorations as fast as I could.

The bird creatures were flying wildly above us. Their sharp talons occasionally snagged our clothes. My collar was soon torn in several places. The air was filled with the sounds of whips cracking and those eerie cries, but I didn’t dare stop for even a second, let alone look down.

I looked up. Hou Jinshan was directly above me. Just then, a strange bird suddenly swooped down from overhead. I instinctively ducked low. The bird missed me but latched onto Hou Jinshan, its talons digging fiercely into his back.

It looked like the claws had sunk straight into his flesh. Hou Jinshan screamed in agony, “Gan Ji! Gan Ji, help me! Hurry!”

One claw gripped his back, the other clamped onto his head, talons buried deep into his skin. The bird was clearly in feeding mode.

Seeing this, I scrambled up the bronze pillar, bracing myself as I climbed. With a backward grip on my knife, I slashed at the bird’s wing with all my strength. But it was like hitting iron. The impact jolted my hand painfully, and the blade was flung from my grip.

For a moment, I froze, unsure what to do. The Owl-faced Bird had now noticed me. Still clutching Hou Jinshan’s back, it craned its neck toward me, studying me with interest. Its neck stretched out nearly half a meter, and its sharp beak looked like it could pierce a human skull with ease.

There was no way I was going to stare it down. I spotted a protruding ledge and flipped myself over it. The bird seemed more interested in me now. It released Hou Jinshan and flew straight at me.

I rolled across the ledge, got to my feet, and ran around the pillar as fast as I could. When I reached the far side, I caught a glimpse of the statue placed in the shrine. I grabbed the bronze brazier in front of it and turned, ready to smash it at the bird. But to my surprise, the creature stopped half a meter away and didn’t move.

It gave me a single glance, then flapped its wings and flew off.

I looked around. The battle had been intense up front, but this area behind the shrine was still eerily empty. The bird seemed to be afraid of something.

My gaze slowly shifted to the right. Inside the shrine, the headless statue sat silently in the pitch-black alcove.

At that moment, I saw Hou Jinshan collapse onto the ledge, barely breathing. I rushed over and dragged him to safety, then looked around for Lu A’yao. To my surprise, he was standing right in front of the lower shrine, his clothes soaked as if drenched in blood.

The birds didn’t dare approach the shrine. At first, they clustered together, but then they began screeching and gradually dispersed. None of them flew far, though, as if they were trying to wait us out.

I dropped low and shouted to Lu A’yao, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he replied, lifting his bloodless face to look at me. His eyes were calm and steady. “But we’re trapped here.”