“Is someone outside?!”

Qi Xia listened carefully to that aged voice and felt that it didn’t seem to be coming from inside the alley, but rather from somewhere much more distant.

But how could this narrow alley, only a few dozen meters long that you could walk to the end of, have such a distant voice coming from it?

“I heard footsteps!” that voice called out. “If there’s someone there, please respond… I’m not a bad person! Is anyone there?”

Qi Xia coldly glanced at the black bead at his brow, then said softly, “Yes.”

*Bang.*

The black bead shattered the moment Qi Xia opened his mouth.

He had initially wanted to take the opportunity to leave, but he was somewhat curious about the scene deep in the alley, so after thinking for a few seconds, he walked forward step by step.

He had barely walked halfway when his feet made a *crack* sound, as if he had stepped on something.

Qi Xia carefully moved his foot away, then crouched down to pick up what was on the ground and took a look.

It was a brittle thighbone.

What made him feel strange was that the owner of these bones appeared to have been dead for a very long time—there was even fine soil on them.

“Young man?” that aged voice drifted over again. “Come forward a bit, be careful!”

Qi Xia thought for a moment, then looked at the bead above his head and suddenly had a new idea.

“Be careful of what?” Qi Xia asked.

“Be careful of the big pit!” the elder answered. “Walk forward a bit more, there’s a pit! Be careful not to fall into the pit!”

“A pit?”

Qi Xia casually tossed the bone fragment in his hand on the ground, then cautiously probed forward with his foot.

The walls on both sides of this alley were very high, almost completely blocking out the light. Qi Xia could only continuously slow his steps while rapidly thinking about the other party’s motives.

Could this elder be tricking people into coming in and then killing them?

But why would he choose such a hidden alley?

If he hadn’t followed the map and walked into this small path, logically speaking, it would be impossible for anyone to pass through this kind of alley where you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.

“Where are you?” Qi Xia asked.

“Come forward a bit more!” the elder said. “Come help me!”

“Help?”

Qi Xia walked another five or six steps and felt that the stone-paved road beneath his feet was already covered with sandy soil, making a *rustling* sound as he walked on it.

After another three to five steps, his probing foot suddenly found nothing beneath it. He used his foot to probe left and right and discovered that there was indeed a very large pit in front of him that he couldn’t see, completely crossing the alley.

If this elder hadn’t warned him, he should have already fallen in by now.

“Have you arrived?” the elder called out again. “I’m here!”

Only then did Qi Xia hear that the elder’s voice was actually coming from inside the pit.

He slowly crouched down, then leaned forward to look below. Before looking, he had mentally prepared himself for everything, but he never expected that the scene in the pit was nothing particularly special.

An elder with a face full of dust stood in a deep hole more than three meters deep. At this moment, he held an iron shovel in his left hand and raised a kerosene lamp that was about to burn out in his right hand, looking up with effort.

The light of the kerosene lamp was about to completely disappear and could only gather in the pit without being able to spread out.

“You’re a young man, right?” the elder asked. “Can you see me down here?”

After hearing this, Qi Xia paused for a moment, then said coldly, “What are you doing down there?”

“It’s a long story…” the elder said. “In short, I was digging a pit, and now the pit is too deep for me to get out… Can you help me?”

“Digging a pit…?”

Qi Xia frowned as he looked at the deep pit before him. Its width was about two meters, and its depth was three to four meters. If this old man had really dug it, he must have been digging for a very long time.

“I can rescue you,” Qi Xia said, “but you have to tell me why you’re digging a pit.”

“I was just afraid you wouldn’t ask!!” the elder said happily. “I seem to have discovered something incredible! Quickly pull me up and I’ll tell you right away! Fortunately, someone came before the oil lamp burned out, otherwise I really wouldn’t know how to get out!”

Qi Xia nodded. He really couldn’t sense any dangerous aura from the other party, so he could only agree.

This elder seemed different from Wei Yang—his consciousness was very clear.

A person who hadn’t gone mad digging a pit in a dark alley—Qi Xia was very curious about the other party’s motives.

“Hand up the shovel,” Qi Xia said.

“Huh? Why?”

“The distance isn’t enough. I’ll use the shovel to pull you up,” Qi Xia said. “Otherwise, how am I supposed to rescue you with my bare hands?”

The elder gripped his shovel and thought for a long time. The shovel in his hand looked like his self-defense weapon and couldn’t be easily given up, but after careful thought, there really was no other better way.

“Young man, let me tell you in advance…” the elder said with a serious expression, “I’ve discovered this place’s ‘great secret’! As long as you pull me up, I’ll share this secret with you!”

“‘Great secret’…?” Qi Xia raised his eyebrows, feeling that this trip had been worthwhile. “Don’t worry, if I wanted to kill you, I could just fill the pit with soil—no need to go through so much trouble.”

“Uh…” The old man nodded after hearing this. “I guess you’re right… Wait a moment!”

The elder lowered his head, took off his clothes, then wrapped something in a bundle in his clothes, and finally tucked it under his arm.

After finishing the packing, he raised his head and slowly lifted the shovel toward Qi Xia.

“I’m troubling you, young man!”

Qi Xia took a deep breath, crouched down and gripped the shovel. With both of them exerting force together, the elder grabbed the shovel while stepping on the edge of the big pit and walked up.

Although the pit wasn’t deep, the two of them still spent quite a bit of effort.

Though the elder looked very robust physically, he insisted on using only one hand, which meant Qi Xia also had to use all his strength to steady the shovel before he could pull this old man who looked at most a hundred pounds out of the pit.

Qi Xia tossed the shovel in his hand aside and said, “Alright, show me your ‘great secret.'”

The elder panted on the ground for a long time before raising the kerosene lamp to his face to look at Qi Xia.

“Why is your way of speaking so impolite, young man?” the elder asked.

“I rescued you, do I still need to be polite with you?” Qi Xia replied.

“Hey, you’re right about that.” The elder mysteriously took out the clothes from under his arm and waved them in front of Qi Xia. “What’s wrapped inside these clothes is the ‘great secret’!”

“Oh?” Qi Xia asked with an expressionless, puzzled sound, “What is this thing?”

The elder placed the clothes on the ground, then set the kerosene lamp beside them.

Only then did Qi Xia see that there were actually quite a few human skeletal fragments scattered around this area—what he had just stepped on was only one piece.

What made him even more puzzled was that all these bone fragments looked like they had just been dug up.

The elder carefully unwrapped the bundle on the ground, as if showing Qi Xia a peerless treasure.

“Young man… being able to meet me here… you can consider this your good fortune…”

Qi Xia looked at what was in the bundle by the faint lamplight and discovered it was actually a dirty skull.