Chapter 460: Ghost Shadow Emerges

After the sky was completely dark, the moon slowly rose. I found a tree hollow to lean against, and for the first time I felt a flicker of doubt. I wondered: had I completely gone the wrong direction? Were all the tracks I'd followed along the way wrong? That method of finding traces by looking at the trees—I couldn't even remember if I learned it from TV or if Fatty taught me—was it all a bluff?

"It's only the first day," I immediately told myself, trying to figure out what Fatty would have done last night. If he found that I'd been knocked unconscious, he wouldn't have just gone back alone and then continued forward with the troops as if nothing happened, because with both fake Wu Xie and me missing, he would surely guess that I'd been taken by fake Wu Xie. He definitely would have gone back to inform the others.

No, he wouldn't inform the others. From his behavior, he didn't trust anyone now. And besides, how could he explain something like that when he got back? If Panzi were around, he might tell Panzi, but now, he would definitely go looking for me alone.

Continuing my reasoning: if I were him, what would I think first? I'd think I'd been taken by the fake Wu Xie, and the fake Wu Xie would definitely bring me back to the foreigner's group, or maybe kill me.

He would judge which possibility was more likely based on the situation at the time, and take corresponding measures. In any case, there was a good chance he was nearby searching for me alone.

Of course, I couldn't ignore another possibility: that after dealing with me, that guy might go back to ambush Fatty. But I believed Fatty wasn't the type to be easily ambushed. That guy dragged me so far away and pushed me down a steep slope precisely so Fatty wouldn't find me. Based on this clue, the ambush possibility wasn't high, but it was still more reliable to assume Fatty was looking for me.

Still, although Fatty had good eyesight, in that situation he could only shout my name to find me. But I was in a deep coma. If I'd called someone all night and got no response, what would I think? I'd definitely wait until dawn and look for traces.

Apparently Fatty hadn't found me. But this area was huge; he might not have covered it all in one day. He was probably resting somewhere in this region right now. Given Fatty's personality, he wouldn't give up so soon.

Thinking this, I looked up at the moon in the sky. All around was silent, with only a few insect chirps—much quieter than the midsummer night when we first came. I realized this was a good opportunity.

I found a tree and tried to climb it, but found it very difficult. So I continued up a gentle slope until I could clearly see the entire valley. I stopped at a gap in the canopy and started shouting at the top of my lungs: "Fatty!"

At the shout, almost all the insect chirps stopped. From this angle, the shout seemed to echo back and forth in the opposite mountain, startling a flock of birds in the valley.

I was a bit startled, but didn't care. I kept shouting, pausing every few calls to listen carefully for any echo.

There was no echo. No matter how I shouted, I only heard wind in my ears.

Maybe Fatty's voice didn't have such a natural amplifier, so I couldn't hear his echo, I thought. I was considering whether to make a torch so he could have a direction to find me—combined with sound, he might be able to locate me—when suddenly I heard a rustling sound from the bushes on the gentle slope below me.

I didn't have a flashlight, so I looked down by moonlight. Everything was patchy and I couldn't see anything.

"Fatty?" I immediately called out. The movement in the bushes quickly shot from one side to the other, moving very fast.

I shut my mouth immediately. If Fatty could move through the bushes that fast, he'd have to be a ninja of the Fatty-Ryu school. It must be an animal down there, and judging by the sound, a big one.

I thought of the lynx in these mountains. I grabbed a stone beside me, felt around, and thought, lucky me, there are so many stones around here. Then I threw it toward where the movement came from.

The stone hit a tree, bounced a few times. I threw two more stones—surely I wouldn't hit anything—but the movement quickly left. The bushes rustled in a line and then gradually stopped.

I thought, could it be a wild boar or something? I sighed in relief, thinking I had to find a big tree to climb. Otherwise, in this situation, encountering a wild animal was very likely. Tonight I had to rest well, or I'd be useless tomorrow. The longer I delayed, the lower my chances of survival. If I didn't find any clues by noon tomorrow, I'd have to go back to the stream for water and figure out a way to follow the stream out.

That stream should lead to the stream channel next to Banai. At least I hoped so.

Leaning on tree trunks, I walked downhill again. I was already very exhausted, only thinking about finding an area with big trees quickly, shouting a few more times, and then going to sleep. After just a few steps, I suddenly felt something was wrong. In the dappled moonlight, I saw a certain low tree in the darkness that looked strange.

I shuddered, stopped, and looked carefully. Then I realized it wasn't a tree—it was a person.

It was a figure with completely collapsed shoulders, like a ghost. He stood motionless in the darkness. I couldn't even tell if he had been there all along. I froze, not knowing whether I should pounce on him or turn and run. Then I realized I couldn't do either. The choice was his.

I simply didn't move, just stood there staring at him. He didn't move either. In the darkness, I couldn't even tell whether he was facing me or had his back to me.

If his back was to me, then he would be standing there with his face pressed against a tree, completely still—that would be a truly hair-raising sight. Was this thing even human anymore?

My palms began to sweat. After a standoff, I suddenly noticed he was standing in a very strange posture. It might have been due to his body's structure, but the posture looked impossible for a human.

I guessed a few times, then realized: he was telling me to come over. My brain buzzed. Before I could react, the shadow moved, walking down the gentle slope.

Was he telling me to follow him? I wondered, then saw the shadow take a few steps, stop, and make a gesture—still the same meaning: come here.

I thought it over and realized that if he wanted to harm me, he wouldn't need to do all this. In this wilderness, he could kill me in any way he wanted. And if I didn't go, and he got angry enough to kill me, that would be a worse deal for me.

I held onto the tree trunk and followed him.

We walked for who knows how long. Whenever I couldn't hold on, he would stop and wait for me. After a while, he suddenly stopped, and I stopped too, not daring to get too close. I felt a deep, instinctive fear of what he really looked like.

I looked up and saw a huge rock face in front of me, so large I couldn't see the top. Under the moonlight, a massive cave mouth appeared on the rock wall. From inside the cave, a faint, dim firelight was visible.

Without looking back, he walked into the cave. I hesitated, thinking, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," and followed him in. After a few steps into the cave, the fire grew brighter. I saw the man sitting by a campfire. The black shadow was now clearly illuminated.

He gestured for me to sit in front of him. My heart pounded. Looking at his face and body, I felt a slight prickling sensation all over.

This person looked like a lump of wax that had been rapidly melted, then the melting process abruptly stopped. His skin was all pitted and rotten. He had almost no shoulders, his arms hanging by his sides, because all the flesh from his shoulders had fused with his body. Through the thin skin covering the bones of his shoulders, I could see the joints inside.

His face was completely melted. His hair was very long and extremely tangled, almost completely knotted together. But I noticed he had no beard.

With hair that long, a beard should have been very long too, but I saw not a single whisker on his face.

My mind went blank. An unpleasant possibility occurred to me: could this be a woman?

His upper body was bare, but from his torso I couldn't tell if he was male or female. At this level of damage, male or female was meaningless. But if it was a man that had become like this, I could still accept it—at least I could put myself in that situation and think I could endure it if my mind was calm. If it was a woman, how pitiful would she be?

Perhaps it's just that the hair follicles on his face were destroyed, I thought to myself, there's no way I can grab his pants to check.

He didn't speak, using his hand to brush aside some dead branches and leaves, then tossed them into the bonfire. The fire slowly grew stronger, and I gradually saw that there were other remarkable things inside the cave.