Chapter 292: Meeting

"How is this possible?" I looked at Wenjin and shook my head, unable to comprehend. The fragrance on Wenjin was indeed the same as the scent of a banshee, but to say she was about to turn into one soon—that was too unbelievable.

"I don't blame you for not being able to accept it." Wenjin sighed softly, "We couldn't believe it ourselves when we first discovered it."

I kept shaking my head, unable to think at all. Everything felt chaotically absurd. If what I had pieced together before were fragments of the whole story, then the information Wenjin had just given me was like a giant hammer that smashed those fragments into dust. Now there wasn't even a possibility of piecing them back together.

"That 'It' did something to you, preventing you from aging, but at the cost of turning you into those... those... monsters?"

Wenjin nodded: "From my experience, from the moment the internal changes begin to fully transforming into that thing, you only have half a year. We call it 'corpse transformation.' The first one to transform was a girl. Watching her gradually turn into that kind of creature was horrifying. It felt like your body skipped the step of 'death' and went straight from 'living person' to 'corpse.'"

"But how does this happen?" I asked. "Is there any way to cure it?"

Wenjin shook her head: "The timing of the 'corpse transformation' is completely irregular. The only signal is this smell. We speculate that this strange change might be related to that ancient tomb near Xisha. Our first thought was that maybe it was an ancient disease, sealed in that tomb for a long time, and we got infected. Later, after research, we found that wasn't the case. Still, this phenomenon must be connected to Wang Zanghai."

"Is that why you've been researching Wang Zanghai?"

She nodded silently.

They were trapped in the basement in Golmud for quite a long time. The process of escaping was extremely complicated. Though Wenjin briefly recounted it to me, that's a different story, and I won't go into detail here.

After escaping, they were initially pursued by a group of strangers with no way out. After a period of hardship, they sneaked back into the sanatorium, only to find it empty. Everything had been moved out. They found no materials and had no idea who had imprisoned them or for what purpose. To evade this unknown force, they decided to go against conventional thinking and chose this abandoned sanatorium as a hiding place, simultaneously investigating Wang Zanghai's history and avoiding the pursuers.

That led to what happened later.

At this point, I asked them, "So, do you think there's some way in this godforsaken place to cure this 'corpse transformation'?"

"Based on numerous details, we deduced that Wang Zanghai was searching for a technique for immortality, recorded in the Warring States silk manuscripts. But clearly, the technique he revived from the ancient texts was not mature. We might have become test subjects for this immature thing. Though we can stay young forever, the effect is very unstable, and we all end up becoming monsters." Wenjin said, "Wang Zanghai's lifelong pursuit was surely to perfect this technique. I think this place is his final stop. The records in the Warring States silk manuscripts originated here, so this is the most likely place. However, on this matter, Huo Ling and I disagreed. She went into this place on her own once, while I chose to wait. At first, I thought she was dead, but months later she returned. Clearly, she failed. Her corpse transformation had already begun. She became forgetful, emotionally unstable, her metabolism accelerating faster and faster. In the end, she turned into that thing. The entire expedition team was reduced to just me, waiting for an unknown fate."

"I meant to stay hidden forever, but a month ago, I finally smelled the scent on myself. I knew the final fate had arrived. I have to bring this to a close. Your third uncle, that 'It' behind Jude Kao."

"But what does all this have to do with me?" I thought and asked, "Why did you send me that videotape?"

"I wasn't the one who sent you the videotape." Wenjin said seriously, "That's another missing piece. I was quite surprised to see you in the team, so I had Dingzhuo Zhuoma call you along. From your appearance, I deduced that 'It' had infiltrated my plan. That's why I warned you all. 'It' sent the tape I originally meant for Jude Kao to you instead."

"Why would 'It' do that?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe 'It' didn't want Jude Kao to make this trip. 'It' wanted a simpler team made up of Qiling, Xie Lianhuan, and you. I can only guess. However, this time Xie Lianhuan used a very clever scheme, and by a twist of fate, my plan still went ahead. 'It' must also be trying to figure out which one of these people I am."

I rubbed my face, feeling my thoughts becoming slightly clearer, and asked, "How much time do you have before the transformation? Do we still have time?"

She held my hand and said, "Don't worry about me. Since I've come this far, I accept whatever fate has in store, whether good or bad. Anyway, this is my final stop, and it's Qiling's final stop, and Xie Lianhuan's, too. What you need to think about is yourself."

I looked at them, thinking, "You all aren't going back out—how can that be?" Just then, I heard someone lightly tapping on the stone outside our barrier, and a voice coughed and said, "Is there someone in there?"

I immediately became alert. The poker-face moved closer, and I quickly said, "Be careful! It might be snakes. The snakes here can speak human language!"

The voice outside immediately said, "Are you Tianzhen?"

The poker-face told me not to worry—snakes wouldn't hold a conversation with you. He then removed the barrier, and I saw a face covered in mud. It was Fatty. Behind him were several others, all Third Uncle's men, including that Black Glasses guy.

Fatty's face was covered in mud. "So you're here. Hey, little bro, you're here too. Ah, did you catch him?"

I wanted to tell him to stop making so many interjections. Fatty asked us what had happened. I said my story was too long and asked him instead—how did he find us? Where was my third uncle? Fatty said "Ah," and said, "We saw a bra stuffed into a crevice. Damn, that was a weird sight in Tamutuo. We squeezed in and found a crevice and mud inside. I taught the others how to protect themselves, but your third uncle wasn't fast enough—he got bitten. We gave him antiserum right away, and he's behind us. We heard voices and came to check, thinking it might be those snakes."

Even though Wenjin said Third Uncle was actually Xie Lianhuan in disguise, in moments of urgency, I still didn't feel he was fake at all.

I glanced back at Wenjin, wondering what she planned to do. Wenjin nodded at me. "Come on, let's go take a look."

The men behind didn't recognize Wenjin and asked me who this woman was.

I said, "She's Third Master's sweetheart." Fatty immediately said, "Call her Big Sister."

Those men were stunned, but they actually listened to Fatty and called out. Wenjin shot me a glance, telling me to cut the nonsense.

They were in a reservoir not far away. This reservoir was even bigger, with almost no branches, and it was also filled with root-like fungal threads. This time, at least half the people were gone, all of them ashen-faced. Wenjin told them to block the only entrance. I thought it was strange—could this reservoir be the end of this entire water system?

I went to check on Third Uncle. I saw blood holes on his neck and arm. His face was blue, and he was semi-conscious.

"He bit three people before biting him. The venom was used up, but still strong," said the man taking care of him.

Third Uncle's eyes opened slightly. I couldn't tell if he saw Wenjin—probably yes. I saw him tremble, then look at me, unable to say a word.

My heart ached. Looking at his face, I simply couldn't imagine he was Xie Lianhuan. I had grown up interacting with him. Even if he was actually Xie Lianhuan, most of my memories of Third Uncle came from him, and nothing could change that.

Wenjin walked over, sat beside him, and looked at him without speaking. The two of them just stared at each other. Third Uncle suddenly reached his hand out to her with difficulty.

Wenjin took it and said softly, "Xiaoxie knows everything. You don't have to hide anymore. We don't blame you."

He moved his lips. I saw tears streaming down his face. He looked at me, then at Wenjin, struggling to speak.

Wenjin was also moved, she leaned down, pressed close to his mouth, and after listening, tightly held his hand: "I know, you've returned to the team, this is not your fault."

He looked at me, and I held his hand too. I didn't know what to say. Things had happened too fast here. Yesterday I was still chatting with him, calling him Third Uncle this and that, and now it had come to this. Thinking about it, I couldn't help but call out: "Third Uncle."

Hearing me call him Third Uncle, he suddenly became agitated, stirred, and slowly lost consciousness. I thought he was dying and immediately called for help. The person next to him came over and looked, then said: "Don't worry, he's just fainted."

I let out a long breath. Just then I heard someone behind me shout, "There's a stone door here!" We went over to look. Several of Third Uncle's men had found a stone slab at the bottom of this cistern, with two iron rings on it. They yelled and pulled hard on the iron rings to lift the stone slab, and found a hole underneath.

Black Blind and Poker-face went down to scout, and returned shortly. Black Blind said that below was a hidden world, completely not man-made, it seemed like a karst cave with many stone doors around. It seemed to have been discovered and utilized when digging the water system here. The air inside was fresh, and there seemed to be no traces of snakes. It also seemed to lead to other places.

The road we came on might be covered with snakes. To return the same way, we'd have to wait until dark at least. Maybe there was a way out from below. Fatty said we might as well go down and take a look.

Upon hearing there seemed to be no snakes, everyone here wanted to go down. I told them the situation was not yet clear, don't all swarm down like a flock. The place we were now was still relatively safe. There might be traps below, which could be worse than snake bites.

After I said that, no one was willing to go down. In the end, it was decided that the few of us would go down first to take a look. The others were just a motley crew, wouldn't be of much help going down, so they would stay to look after the wounded and wait for us to return.

Poker-face and Black Blind went down again, followed by me and Fatty, and right behind us was Wenjin.

Below was a huge circular cave. Shining a miner's lamp around, we could see many stone doors. Fatty dropped the rope and walked off to one side, saying, "Whoa, it really is a hidden world!"