Even with a “path,” getting down was no easy task for Luo Ren—the crevices varied in depth, with the deeper ones showing little of the silver light outside, while the shallower crevices couldn’t support his weight, sliding away at the slightest pressure.

He proceeded with extreme caution. When his feet finally touched solid ground, he was, without exaggeration, drenched in sweat.

Mu Dai sat opposite him, watching him with a smile. She tried to stand but stumbled back down. After two or three days without food or water, coupled with the life-or-death struggle they’d just endured, she had no strength left after such overwhelming fear and joy.

She simply fell backward and lay down, her gaze meeting the cave ceiling, experiencing a strange tranquility.

During the past few days, trapped alone in the cave, she had alternated between hysteria and dejected complaining, or she’d bottled up her anger, furiously vowing to hack whoever harmed her into a thousand pieces.

Now, all those emotions had vanished.

If that dream had been a prophecy and Luo Ren was destined to face a calamity, then her earlier fall shouldn’t be resented but appreciated.

It was heaven’s mysterious gift—everything had aligned perfectly. A minute earlier or a second later, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

Luo Ren came over and knelt beside her, leaning down.

Mu Dai’s eyes grew warm, and with strength from an unknown source, she suddenly sat up and wrapped her arms around Luo Ren, burying her face in the crook of his neck.

She remembered how in her dream she had shed so many tears, experiencing a devastating sense of disillusionment she never wanted to feel again.

How wonderful it was now to hold him, someone of flesh and blood, breathing and warm.

Mu Dai whispered in Luo Ren’s ear, “Luo Little Knife, it would be best if you never get into trouble.”

Luo Ren held her tightly and finally replied, “Then you’ll have to keep an eye on me.”

He had many things he wanted to say, but couldn’t express them. Those life-or-death seconds kept replaying in his mind.

He couldn’t help contemplating the worst: what if he had died, or if Mu Dai had died?

He had never considered this question before.

Mu Dai sensed something unusual about Luo Ren and broke free from his embrace. “What’s wrong?”

Luo Ren smiled and reached for her hand. Unexpectedly, Mu Dai let out a sharp cry, pushed him away with her right hand, and nearly knocked him over.

He had grabbed her left hand.

He opened his backpack, took out a medicine pouch, and spread it into a long strip with compartments containing essential emergency supplies.

Mu Dai shined her flashlight on the middle finger of her left hand. The bandage was soaked through with blood several times over, appearing almost black.

Luo Ren took out scissors and cut open the knot of her self-applied bandage, but couldn’t remove the cloth as it had stuck to her flesh with dried blood.

He held his breath and carefully moved the scissors tip along the fabric threads to unravel it.

Finally, the wound was exposed.

Her treatment hadn’t been effective—there was congested blood, swelling, new scabs, and also signs of infection. Luo Ren could barely stand to look.

Mu Dai turned her head away and asked softly, “Will I lose my finger?”

Luo Ren remained silent. After a moment, he opened a package of alcohol cotton balls, took one, and began cleaning her wound.

The alcohol mixed with blood flowed down. Luo Ren held her wrist and could feel half her arm trembling.

Luo Ren’s eyes grew warm. He couldn’t remember which hand Mu Dai had used to grab him earlier, but he remembered that she had never let go from beginning to end.

How could Mu Dai not love him? Even if, taking a huge step back, she truly didn’t, he would accept it.

He took an antibiotic from the medicine pouch, crushed it with his knife handle, and carefully sprinkled it around the nail. Then he cut a small length of gauze and wrapped her finger.

Mu Dai turned to look. Luo Ren had bandaged it meticulously, with her finger wearing what looked like a little white hat. The slight numbness and fine pain gave way to a clean, dry sensation.

She said, “That feels much better.”

She smiled like an easily satisfied young girl.

Luo Ren smiled too, then, after a pause, asked, “How did you fall here?”

Their exchange of experiences hadn’t completed the picture; instead, it had become more convoluted and perplexing.

Mu Dai asked Luo Ren, “Do you think it’s the death talisman?”

Luo Ren nodded. Besides the death talisman, he couldn’t imagine any possible grudge with Qing Shan, but to say the talisman was definitely on Qing Shan didn’t seem entirely right either.

He pondered for a long time: “It’s hard to say. I feel… Ya Feng is also a very strange person…”

The cave incident happened so suddenly that there was no time to analyze it carefully. Now, thinking back, many things seemed suspicious.

—He had met Ya Feng in Qing Shan’s backyard, confident that he had been careful enough not to alert anyone, and had repeatedly instructed Ya Feng: “I was never here, and you never saw me.”

How did Qing Shan suddenly know about it and appear in that cave with Ya Feng as a hostage?

Who had revealed this information? It seemed no one but Ya Feng could have.

—And when Ya Feng fell, he caught her and rolled on the ground, then released her to draw his sword. At that moment, the trapdoor gave way.

Ya Feng had been so close to him then—how was he the only one who fell?

Mu Dai speculated, “Could it be that Ya Feng’s position happened to be away from the trapdoor?”

Luo Ren slowly shook his head. He remembered that when the trapdoor flipped, Ya Feng was definitely on it with him.

He couldn’t understand—how did she not fall through?

Mu Dai thought for a moment: “Given certain conditions, I could avoid falling too.”

Luo Ren looked up at her.

Mu Dai explained, “When I fell, I was standing on the trapdoor with nothing to grab onto, so I could only fall downward. But if I had been lying flat, I could have quickly used my limbs and abdomen to cling to the surface…”

She made a clinging gesture: “The person tightly holds onto the board, rotates a full three hundred and sixty degrees with the flipping board, then safely returns to the ground.”

Now he understood.

But while Mu Dai could do this due to her martial arts training and expertise in lightness skill, it would be too coincidental if Ya Feng were also skilled in lightness technique—excluding all other possibilities, only one remained.

The death talisman was on Ya Feng.

But how to explain Qing Shan’s behavior? Was he influenced by the talisman? An accomplice?

Luo Ren couldn’t figure it out.

Looking at Mu Dai, he saw her gazing up at the cave ceiling, her expression concerned.

“Luo Ren, do you think they’ll harm Cao Fatty?”

Luo Ren didn’t think so.

For himself and Mu Dai, the trapdoor was essentially a deadly trap, but for Cao Yanhua, they had merely confined and bound him, not attempting to kill him.

Luo Ren reassured Mu Dai: “Perhaps Qing Shan, remembering their family connection, won’t mistreat Cao Yanhua.”

“What about Yi Wansan?”

Luo Ren fell silent. He remembered seeing Yi Wansan’s apparition in the center of Qing Shan’s courtyard on that rainy night. Yi Wansan’s face had been covered in blood—even if alive, he must be injured.

He looked at Mu Dai: “In our current situation, don’t think about things beyond our control. Let’s take one step, then the next—no matter how worried you are about Yi Wansan, if we can’t get out, it’s just pointless anxiety.”

Mu Dai let out a long sigh. She understood the logic, but putting it into practice was truly difficult.

Suddenly, she remembered something: “Luo Ren, why did both of us see Yi Wansan on the water surface?”

Growing excited as she spoke: “If we saw him, could Cao Fatty and Hong Sha have seen him too? Is this a hint from the Phoenix-Luan Buckle?”

Luo Ren pondered this but didn’t think it was a hint from the Phoenix-Luan Buckle.

He believed it had something to do with last night’s heavy rain.

“Last night, the rain was very heavy. When I walked through the center of the courtyard, water came up past my ankles.”

“Think about it—in that situation, it was like a huge rain sheet covering the entire Cao Family Village. At least within this area, there were no gaps between water and water. Cao Yanhua was in a cave on high ground where there probably wasn’t any leakage, but you, me, and Yi Wansan—we were at different points under this rain sheet.”

He lowered his voice: “Then Yi Wansan sent a message, or rather, called for help, and both you and I received it.”

“Is it because among the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—Yi Wansan belongs to water?”

“It’s possible.”

Luo Ren said, “Look at the bright side. If he could still struggle to call for help, then at least as of last night, Yi Wansan should be alive. And don’t forget, we still have Hong Sha—she should arrive soon.”

Yan Hong Sha had indeed already arrived.

She had caught a small van that regularly serviced rural areas. It was packed with people, constantly stopping to let passengers off. By the final stretch, only Yan Hong Sha and two other girls sitting in the front remained.

The girls were about eighteen or nineteen years old, chattering nonstop. Without exchanging a single word with them, Hong Sha already knew they worked at a food court in the county and were going to attend a friend’s wedding.

After passing a fork in the road, the driver turned around and explained: “I can’t take you to the village entrance—the road is impassable. You’ll have to get off soon. If you’re lucky, you might catch a motorcycle ride in—but motorcycles generally don’t go all the way either. You’ll have to walk the rest.”

The two girls let out exaggerated cries, making such a racket that it hurt Hong Sha’s ears. She pushed open the rear window, letting in slanting rain and a refreshing coolness.

The two girls were whispering again.

—How did Ya Feng end up with Qing Shan?

—Exactly, with her looks, even if she couldn’t find a wealthy man, she could at least marry someone with some money, but she chose a country boy…

One voice suddenly lowered: “You know what? I heard that Ya Feng pursued Qing Shan.”

The other exclaimed in astonishment: “Really? What could she possibly see in him?”

…

Qing Shan? Wasn’t that Cao Yanhua’s cousin? So, Ya Feng must be the bride.

In the distance, a black Hummer came into view.

Hong Sha suddenly remembered something and quickly tapped the seat in front. “Driver, stop here, stop right here.”

The driver was puzzled: “Here, miss? There’s still quite a way to go.”

“Right here.”

Hong Sha watched the van drive away, making sure no one was around, then hurried to the spot Luo Ren had mentioned to dig up the car key before getting into the vehicle.

Once the door closed, the sounds of wind and rain retreated, making the car feel like a quiet little world.

Luo Ren had said he would find a way to call her, but it was already afternoon—more than a day and night had passed since their last conversation.

Hong Sha felt anxious.

She climbed into the rear compartment, where several tactical bags were arranged side by side. Opening them, she found they all contained the same items: rope, first-aid kits, compasses, and fire starters.

Hong Sha left her luggage in the car, packed one of the tactical bags with necessary items, added two bottles of water, and after exiting the vehicle, put on a disposable rain poncho before burying the car key back in its original place.

After walking for a while, she came across a small sundry shop. Business was slow due to the rain. The shopkeeper sat under the eaves, puffing on a pipe. Hong Sha approached to ask about the road ahead.

The shopkeeper pointed: “The rain makes the road difficult. Follow the small path straight ahead. If you’re fast, it’ll take two hours; if you’re slow, who knows—but you’ll get there eventually.”

Two hours? Hong Sha’s eyes nearly popped out.

The shopkeeper seemed to read her mind and laughed, saying, “Miss, there is a shorter route.”

He raised his hand, and following his direction through the misty rain, she saw the undulating blue-brown mountain ridge.

The shopkeeper changed his tone: “But who dares to take it? Even on clear days, there are rolling and falling stones. After last night’s heavy rain…”

He stopped abruptly, leaving much unsaid: “So, miss, just take the main road—it’s safer.”

Hong Sha verbally agreed, but her eyes darted around. “Would I get lost if I took the mountain path?”

“Not really. If you do get lost, just climb higher. Cao Family Village is right over there. Once you have the general direction, you can’t go wrong.”

Since she’d be sloshing through water and mud either way, why not cross the mountain? As for falling rocks, couldn’t she dodge them? Her years of martial arts training weren’t for nothing.

Hong Sha decided to take the shortcut, vigorously climbing the mountain in one go. Darkness came early in the mountains, especially on rainy days. Having just crossed one peak, her surroundings grew dim.

Standing at a high point looking ahead, she could faintly see a village that must be Cao Family Village. Looking back, two small moving black dots on the winding path were probably those two girls.

They were so far behind! Hong Sha felt great. She took a few sips of water and tackled the second mountain.

This climb wasn’t as easy. The mountain path was a mess, sinking with each step. Halfway up, she sensed something was wrong. Looking up, she saw a row of stones tumbling down.

Were there falling rocks?

Hong Sha’s scalp tingled. With one leap, she aimed to jump past them, but the rock she landed on wasn’t stable. She fell forward, sliding down about ten meters through rocks and mud, as if riding a skateboard downhill.

She finally stopped, with a mouthful of mud, but had essentially reached the bottom. Looking back, she saw a streak on the mountainside like a child’s slide.

Hong Sha cursed her bad luck, wiping mud from her chin, but also felt slightly fortunate: at least no one had seen her.

She put her hand on the ground, preparing to stand up.

The next moment, she froze.

Then, she looked at her left hand on the ground with near horror.

Yes, it was muddy there, but why did it feel wrong?

Trembling, she lifted her hand. In the mud where her handprint remained, in the spot where her hand had displaced the mud, another person’s hand was revealed.