Chapter 46: Both Mother and Daughter (Part 2): Seems Like a Person

Her light and airy tone, paired with that calm and indifferent face, overflowed with sarcasm.

Since birth, Fu Li had never suffered such direct humiliation. Her head buzzed immediately as hatred and anger exploded within her emerald eyes. The corners of her eyes turned red, and the flush rapidly spread across her entire face, down to her neck, disappearing into her collar.

The Kill Snake Bone Whip coiled around her forearm wriggled like a living creature, hissing and flicking its tongue as it slithered downward. Fu Li gripped it tightly, her force so great that her entire hand trembled.

“Young Fu Clan Head, calm down!” Qin He had wanted to stop her when footsteps suddenly sounded in her ears.

She looked up. A shadowy figure in the cave bent down to pick up all six Night-Luminous Pearls scattered on the ground, cradling them in her arms as she walked toward them.

The dim light of the Night-Luminous Pearls only illuminated the shadow’s chest and the lower half of her face, making it impossible to discern if she was human or ghost. She approached step by step. Besides her footsteps, there was also the sound of something dragging along the ground—an extremely eerie scene.

Shang Shan crawled up from the ground and looked toward the newcomer. Qin He drew her dual swords, her eyes filled with vigilance. Fu Li also realized there was another eerie presence behind her. She glared at Mu Qian Tan before hurriedly standing up.

The shadow finally entered the range of the firelight, revealing part of her appearance. Everyone was startled.

It was an emaciated woman, skinny to the point of being almost just bones. Her cheeks were sunken inward, her eyes tightly closed, her lips reduced to dry skin with the corners slightly hooked upward as if smiling.

If she had been merely skin and bones, it wouldn’t have been surprising. But what made her frightening was the layer of sand and stone covering her skin. At first glance, she seemed like a moving statue. And that slightly smiling face resembled an ancient, gradually weathered idol.

Mu Qian Tan thought to herself: ‘Little Sister Li, what a treasure.’

Li Biyuan coughed a few times and said awkwardly: ‘In the books, behind waterfalls there are always rare treasures. How come for us it’s a ghost?’

Mu Qian Tan said: ‘It seems… not a ghost either.’

Perhaps sensing their fear, the woman stopped at the edge of the firelight. She slowly bent down, small stones crumbling from her knees and waist with cracking sounds, as if rusted and laborious.

When she had bent down enough, she picked up a Night-Luminous Pearl. Her fingers made a crisp knocking sound upon contact with it. The three in front immediately grew vigilant. They watched as the woman rolled the Night-Luminous Pearl on the ground just like Fu Li had done earlier. One after another, they all rolled to the feet of the three.

It seemed she only wanted to return the items.

The cave fell utterly silent. Shang Shan spoke first: “Seems like a person.”

Qin He said: “Could you reveal your true form?”

Fu Li kicked away the Night-Luminous Pearl at her feet and lashed out with the Jing Sha. The whip’s shadow exploded with a boom echoing through the cave. The humiliation of being startled and embarrassed in public made her tone sinister: “Whether she’s human or ghost, beat her first and talk later.”

Sensing the thick killing intent, the woman’s expression remained unchanged, still wearing that smile. Under the four gazes, she took a step forward, then another. She wore no shoes, so her steps should have been silent by rights, but they produced considerable noise—likely because her soles had also hardened.

Qin He had rushed to the front to meet the enemy earlier. Now, seeing the woman approach, she stepped aside to let her pass. She held both swords in one hand and pressed down on Fu Li’s raised wrist, signaling her not to act rashly and to first see what the woman intended.

The woman shuffled forward with extremely stiff steps until she reached the campfire. She extended her two dry, skinny, blackened hands and held them directly above the flames. Then she placed her right hand over her left palm and slowly slid it to the left. Their thumbs hooked together as she spread and bent her palms.

Fu Li’s anger had not subsided. She shook off Qin He’s hand and snorted from her nose: “Watching a ghost put on a show here.”

The woman ignored her and continued her motions. Qin He watched intently, trying to understand what the gestures meant. But her movements were so bizarre and rigid that they were completely incomprehensible.

Shang Shan watched silently for a while, then mimicked the motions with her own hands, adjusting to a more recognizable rhythm. She suddenly realized: “It’s wings!”

The thumbs hooked, the other eight fingers bending and flattening—it was the shape of wings flapping.

Qin He said: “Wings—do you mean birds?”

The woman nodded her head downward, then lifted it, making a gesture pointing upward.

The three looked up to the orange-yellow cave ceiling illuminated by the firelight. Qin He said: “Do you mean this mountain?”

The woman nodded again. For her final gesture, she touched her abdomen.

Qin He said: “Do you mean… yourself?”

The woman shook her head.

If she had meant herself, a normal person would pat their head or point to their chest. But this woman stroked her belly, as if something was inside it. Shang Shan said: “I get it. Do you mean your child?”

The woman slowly clapped her hands and shook her head slightly, apparently delighted. But her petrified body performing these actions only made it chilling rather than joyful.

Her movements were so slow that even if she attacked, it would be hard to cause great damage. Qin He sheathed her swords and said warmly: “Could you tell us directly what you want to express?”

Though they had guessed the meaning of each individual gesture—bird, mountain, child—the three had almost no connection, leaving them at a loss for how to link them.

Fu Li stroked the whip’s tail and said discontentedly: “Why bother listening to her prattle and waste time? Better to think about how to deal with those mantis demons.”

Shang Shan said: “You talk too much. If you don’t want to listen, go out yourself.”

Qin He’s temple throbbed. She pressed down on Fu Li again and said to the woman: “We’re truly sorry. We don’t understand what your gestures mean. Could you inform us in a clearer way?”

The firelight illuminated the woman’s face, making that faint smile seem extremely mysterious. She began gesturing again above the fire, but this time it was even harder to understand.

Fingers twisting, leaping, palms drumming—chaotic and messy. From no angle could the shape be discerned, and ordinary hands couldn’t contort like that. Qin He exclaimed in astonishment: “This… what is this?”

Fu Li, who had been furious moments ago, saw that even Qin He couldn’t figure it out. Her competitive spirit flared, and she tried to guess the gesture as well.

The three focused intently. The more they watched, the stranger it seemed; the stranger it seemed, the more they wanted to know the answer. They racked their brains but couldn’t figure out what she was demonstrating. Only Mu Qian Tan, who had remained seated opposite the woman without moving the entire time, looked upward and said faintly: “It’s up there.”