Above him?

Luo Ren gave a cold laugh, suddenly rolled to the side, and with his right hand, hurled his knife fiercely in that direction.

There was a muffled thud as it struck flesh—it must have hit the target. But before he could look back, a rush of air swooped down from above. Whatever this thing was, it seemed like the wild person: resilient to both being shot and stabbed.

Luo Ren quickly turned around, his right hand forming a claw-like grip to seize the throat as the person lunged.

His strike hit home, but…

At close range, he could see that skull-like face and the tangled white hair, but these weren’t the most important details. What mattered most was—

The person’s throat was severed, with flesh turned outward, covered by a circle of amber-yellow substance. It looked like amber, but this layer was soft and slightly warm. Incredibly, it yielded to his grip, sinking into the flesh, and began to emit a faint glow.

Could it be poisonous? Would skin contact cause problems?

Luo Ren’s thoughts raced. He twisted her neck and threw her aside, quickly withdrawing his hand. With a flip, he stood up. The person retreated hastily and, upon reaching the wall, scurried up it like a gecko in an instant.

Luo Ren stared at her throat. In the faint glow, there were deep red marks, chaotic and without pattern, like tangled ropes piled together.

The person clung to the stone wall, looking down from above. Two deep, dark eyes fixed on Luo Ren, with slight movements at the throat.

There were almost imperceptible, thin sounds, like wind or taut metal wires being drawn past the ears—impossible to capture.

Thoughts raced through Luo Ren’s mind.

—Could a person with a severed trachea and throat speak?

—If possible, what frequency of sound would they produce? Was she using these strange, inhuman sound waves to communicate with the wild person?

Communicate with the wild person?

Luo Ren’s eyes suddenly narrowed. Indeed, within moments, heavy footsteps sounded from outside the cave. Without time to think further, Luo Ren quickly retreated. From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the wild person’s form appear. He leaped up with a kick, changing from a direct charge to a low side kick, striking the wild person’s knee fiercely.

The wild person howled in pain as the injured area was struck, falling forward. Almost simultaneously, Luo Ren sensed movement behind his head. This was the moment he had been waiting for. With all his might, he flipped away. As he rose, just as he had anticipated, the person and the wild person collided.

Taking advantage of this interval, Luo Ren rushed out.

Cao Yanhua watched helplessly as Yi Wansan finished both apples. As Yi Wansan threw away the cores, Cao Yanhua’s stomach made an untimely growling sound.

This sound considerably dispelled Yi Wansan’s anger.

Cao Yanhua seized every opportunity to thaw relations with Yi Wansan: “San-san Brother, we need to figure out a plan quickly…”

Before he could finish, his expression suddenly changed: “Did you hear that?”

They had heard it, far away, what sounded like gunshots, two of them.

Cao Yanhua exclaimed excitedly: “That must be my Brother Luo.”

He clenched his fists: “I hope he kills the wild person!”

Having just eaten two apples, Yi Wansan’s stance wavered: “The wild person has been shot before. Luo Ren mentioned that these bird-hunting shotguns don’t have enough killing power.”

Cao Yanhua worried: “Would this kind of… animal become more aggressive when injured? Then we…”

Wouldn’t they be in even greater danger?

Yi Wansan also realized the danger. Even people change when injured, let alone this wild person who couldn’t be communicated with.

He tried to think positively: “She captured us and gave us apples to eat. She doesn’t seem like she wants to kill us.”

“People feed pigs, too, but don’t they still end up slaughtering them?”

This comparison was so apt that Yi Wansan had no response.

In a last desperate attempt, he said: “Maybe she sees us differently?”

At this moment, Cao Yanhua was particularly sharp-tongued: “Why? Has she taken a fancy to us?”

This question suddenly reminded Yi Wansan of something. He blurted out: “We’re the only ones who haven’t attacked her.”

Cao Yanhua didn’t understand.

Yi Wansan explained: “Think about it. Old Yan had a blood feud with the wild person. When we arrived at the stone hut, the little boss lady was fighting for her life with the wild person. Hongsha tried to use a shovel but was thrown aside. Luo Ren shot her twice. But!”

At this point, he emphasized his words, looking at Cao Yanhua as if to say: Do you understand?

Cao Yanhua did understand: “But we two have shown her… friendliness from beginning to end?”

If not attacking could be considered friendly.

Thinking about it, it made sense. The two of them had never done anything to the wild person, not even pulled a single hair from her body. And after being captured and brought to the cave, they had been lying so obediently. Even when desperate to urinate, Cao Yanhua had once shown the wild person a sincere, friendly smile.

Was this the reason?

Cao Yanhua looked at Yi Wansan.

Yi Wansan said, “Brother Cao, this might be our chance. If she returns without attacking us, we’ll continue being friendly—friendly enough to make her let her guard down…”

Cao Yanhua nodded heavily.

If a small force could overcome a larger one, perhaps subduing this wild person would depend on him and San-san, Brother!

Mu Dai waited anxiously until Luo Ren finally appeared.

She let out a long sigh of relief.

Luo Ren had some scratches, but fortunately, none were serious. Mu Dai took out alcohol and cotton balls to clean his wounds. As Luo Ren reached out to take them, he suddenly paused.

He spread his fingers to look; on his right hand fingers, there was some…

Like resin, rouge-colored, resembling amber.

Mu Dai saw it too: “What is this?”

Luo Ren briefly explained what had happened in the cave. Yan Hongsha nearly jumped up in shock: “You saw her too? Is it… a ghost?”

She hurriedly recounted what she had seen.

Luo Ren smiled: “There are no such things as ghosts. When I threw her away, she had weight.”

Mu Dai wanted to take his hand for a closer look, but Luo Ren quickly avoided her: “Don’t touch it, it might be poisonous.”

Mu Dai bit her lip, suddenly remembering something. From her pocket, she took out the rouge amber piece she had pulled from the wild person.

Luo Ren took it and compared it to what was in his hand: “The color is the same, but this piece is hard. When I grabbed that person’s throat, that amber was soft, as if it had a temperature…”

Yan Hongsha suddenly screamed: “Look! Luo Ren, look!”

No one needed her reminder; everyone saw it.

When the rogue amber came close, the layer on his fingers showed a slight tremor, moving toward the amber pendant.

Like a magnet attracting metal, or like small raindrops on glass suddenly being absorbed into larger droplets.

The layer of amber on Luo Ren’s hand disappeared.

Mu Dai’s scalp tightened. She slapped the rouge amber out of Luo Ren’s hand: “Don’t hold it!”

She had carried it close to her body for so long, and this thing could move.

Luo Ren looked at the amber on the ground: “Is there water in the bag? Take out a bottle.”

Mu Dai quickly pulled out a bottle and unscrewed the cap. Luo Ren very carefully picked up the amber by its black silk cord and dropped the pendant into the bottle.

With a splashing sound, it sank to the bottom. Due to the water’s refraction, from the outside, it looked like an enlarged blood-red eye.

It needed to be kept in water…

Mu Dai and Yan Hongsha exchanged glances.

Indeed, Luo Ren continued, “Do you remember that the first and second malevolent tablets both created scenes through external forces? The first used fishing line puppets, the second created huge pictures from undersea beast bones.”

Yan Hongsha nodded: “You mean this third one has also created drawings somewhere, but we haven’t found them yet.”

Luo Ren said, “What if we found it long ago but just didn’t realize it?”

Mu Dai was puzzled: “We found it?”

Had they seen any drawings on this journey?

Luo Ren picked up a twig and smoothed the muddy ground in front of him, drawing several lines.

Piled and stacked, like tangled ropes.

Luo Ren said, “At first, I didn’t think of it, but in the cave, when I fought with that person, the rouge amber on her neck suddenly emitted a faint glow, revealing a character like this.”

Mu Dai found it hard to believe. This could be called a character?

“The first and second malevolent tablets both involved ancient oracle bone script, so in my spare time, I searched and looked at some oracle bone characters, and some made a deep impression on me. This character looks chaotic, but it can be broken down into three parts.”

Besides that character, he first drew the upper part, which looked like a twisted rope.

“This looks like a rope, meaning to hang or bind.”

Then he drew the lower part: “This is a person with ropes tied around them.”

“Taken together, a person tied with ropes and hung up—it’s the character for ‘hanging.'”

Yan Hongsha shuddered slightly, suddenly saying: “My grandfather was hanged.”

Luo Ren sighed lightly inside and looked at Mu Dai: “What else? What else was hung up?”

What else? Mu Dai was bewildered: “The… Clear Weather Woman doll?”

“Exactly, the Clear Weather Woman doll.”

The Clear Weather Woman doll in Lian Shu’s shop was a clay figurine for appreciation, so it had a base. But in folk customs, when used for praying for good weather, it must be hung up.

The hung-up Clear Weather Woman doll was a scene.

Each time the Clear Weather Woman doll was hung up, it was followed by a specific attack. The first time, Old Yan was captured by the wild person but was intercepted by Mu Dai and the arriving Luo Ren. The second time, during the wasp attack, Old Yan finally couldn’t escape.

Slightly different from the first two malevolent tablets, this one didn’t present the scene after taking a life, but showed signs beforehand.

Mu Dai pondered: “So the third malevolent tablet isn’t with the wild person but with that person you met?”

Luo Ren nodded.

“Combining what Hongsha and I saw, that person is a woman with her trachea cut open and flesh turned outward. She is the person Old Yan killed back then.”

“But for some unknown reason, before she completely died, the malevolent tablet protected her throat. Since the tablet itself is formless, it needed to use a solid state to seal the wound. This amber piece might be from the treasure well, or it might have been worn by that woman herself.”

Yan Hongsha interjected: “It should be something she wore. The gems in the treasure well are all raw stones. In other words, even if they were excavated, they would still need to be cut and polished by specialized craftsmen.”

Luo Ren recalled the appearance of the woman he had seen in the cave.

“Her skin was very white, deathly pale, possibly due to excessive blood loss and because she hadn’t seen sunlight for years. She lives underground, but I suspect she also spent a long time in the well initially.”

He smiled at Mu Dai: “Her movements are quick, somewhat like your wall-climbing technique. She must have spent considerable time in the well, getting used to climbing straight up and down.”

Mu Dai was puzzled: “Didn’t we previously guess that the wild person saw what happened, and after Hongsha’s grandfather left, quickly dug her out?”

Luo Ren shook his head: “Based on age calculations, the wild person would have been young at that time. Given the wild person’s natural bestial nature, if she had witnessed the event, she would have jumped out to prevent it or attack. If she didn’t intervene then, it means she didn’t see it.”

“Moreover, for someone whose trachea and throat had just been severed, learning to communicate and speak differently would take time.”

That woman must have spent a long time in the well, desperately moving up and down. Due to the malevolent tablet, she clung to life, unable to die, yet transformed by the underground cold, blood loss, lack of food, and treasure gas into something neither human nor ghost.

She had been constantly trying to make sounds again until one day, the female wild person passed by and suddenly heard… a sound coming from underground.