Chapter 24: Signal

Gu Xianwang’s hands froze for a moment, and then she tore at the cocoon clothing like a woman possessed. The mycelium peeled away from the fungal wall, withering gray almost instantly and losing all its toughness. Her arm muscles bulged as she applied ruthless force, stripping the entire white cocoon clean in a matter of seconds.

Long Li came to stand beside her. What the white cocoon had enfolded was a skeleton. The skull had been severed cleanly from the neck by what looked like a knife stroke. Strangest of all was the body of the skeleton itself. The ancient phrase “bones of ice and jade” was mere poetic exaggeration—but this skeleton truly gleamed with a jade-like luster, pale green all over and smooth as congealed fat.

The bones grew darker in hue the closer they came to the heart, shading into deep green, as if intricately carved from jade.

Judging by the size and shape of the pelvis, it was unmistakably the skeleton of a woman. But whatever it was, this thing had been dead for decades, if not centuries. How could it possibly have moved or spoken?

Jade bones carried their fragrance. Gu Xianwang leaned in close and sniffed again and again. It was too similar—the scent matched exactly the aroma that clung to her own body during her episodes. Wasn’t it the very same cold, woody perfume borne by the Forbidden Witch Bone?

Gu Xianwang’s face drained of color, an inexplicable chill seeping through her entire body.

Long Li took hold of her wrist and drew her aside. She pulled a bottle of mineral water from her backpack, twisted off the cap, and handed it over. “Calm yourself first.”

Gu Xianwang took the bottle mechanically and gulped down a mouthful, then another. The cool, clear water slid over her tongue and soothed her parched insides. She blinked, her eyes finally focusing on the trail of blood trickling from Long Li’s left wrist. “What happened to your hand?”

Long Li held out her palm, displaying the glistening wound right before Gu Xianwang’s eyes. “Knife cut it.”

Gu Xianwang frowned as realization dawned. “One of your companions?”

Long Li offered no denial, her gaze shifting to the backpack. “Not sure if there’s a medical kit in here.”

Gu Xianwang screwed the cap back on her water bottle and crouched to rummage through the pack, irritation flaring. “What’s the deal with your organization’s people? Even if they’re desperate to chase quotas, they wouldn’t turn on their own like that, would they?”

Ye Chan: “…”

No way. Sure, those two were total jerks, but hadn’t Sister Long cut herself?

And what about that wound? If they didn’t bandage it soon, it was going to heal on its own.

Gu Xianwang dug around for ages before pulling out a roll of bandages and half a stainless-steel flask of vodka. She uncapped the vodka and took a sniff—a fierce blast of hard liquor.

“Let’s rinse it with this for now. I’ll bandage you up.”

Long Li extended her hand obediently. “Sure.”

The alcohol splashed over the wound, dissolving the clot and releasing a sharp, fishy tang into the air. Ye Chan’s face scrunched up in sympathy. How much must that hurt? What kind of brutal field medicine was this?

Gu Xianwang worked swiftly, ripping off a strip of bandage and winding it around several times before tucking the end securely in place. “Keep this hand dry for the next few days, understand?”

“Got it.”

Gu Xianwang finished rewrapping the bandage neatly and stowed it back in the pack. Her rational mind was starting to clear. She turned toward the Gu Witch, who was still kowtowing devoutly before the jade bones, and asked in a low voice, “Is that skeleton the so-called Cave Lord?”

Long Li replied, “Yes… and no. This skeleton is probably the core of the fungal cluster. This fungal wall likely grew straight out of her corpse at first, then mutated bit by bit into what it is now.”

Gu Xianwang pressed, “So she was parasitized too?”

Long Li shook her head, her words heavy with implication. “Have you heard of the Forbidden Witch?”

Gu Xianwang went rigid. “What?”

“The Forbidden Witch.” Long Li stepped closer, speaking deliberately. “In ancient times, those who served the gods were called Xi if men and Wu if women. In the old tongue of certain southern minorities, one kind of witch maiden went by the name Forbidden Witch.”

“…What sort of witch maiden?”

“A witch maiden who broke a divine taboo.”

“And what happens when they do?”

Long Li shook her head. “I don’t know. All I know is that Forbidden Witches gradually warp into something neither human nor ghost… and they carry a strange perfume. Just like—”

Gu Xianwang finished the thought in a daze. “Like this skeleton.”

So that’s why her head had been hacked off and left to rot in this karst cave?

Ye Chan wasn’t buying it. “This has to be some exaggerated myth, right? Back in ancient tribes, the clan leader held divine authority and used stories like that to cow the people into obedience.”

“I figure this fungal cluster doesn’t attack me because the God Eye secretes some kind of pheromone—like with bee hives. Once it picks up that scent, it treats me like one of its own and holds back.”

“The real question now is, where the hell did this God Eye come from?”

“The altar.” Long Li turned her gaze toward the cave mouth, her eyes deep and inscrutable.

Ye Chan muttered under her breath, “I bet this place was rigged up by those Ancient Yelang Clan folks. Damn, they sure knew how to pick ’em—a gold mine cave like this? You’d be eating like a king for eight lifetimes and still have leftovers. No wonder these mountain folk are so goddamn ruthless.”

Long Li stepped aside and yanked the mycelium off Sara’s body. With the core of that fungal wall destroyed, Sara snapped out of her frenzy. Long Li gave her a couple of slaps on the face, and her awareness slowly returned.

“Long? Fuck! That son of a bitch Chak, daring to screw me over—who the hell tied my hands? You trying to get yourself killed?”

Long Li sliced through the ropes binding her with a single knife stroke and hauled her to her feet. “What the hell happened to you all?”

Sara rubbed her wrists and scanned the group with a predatory glare. Well, damn—all familiar faces.

“Got ambushed by that bastard,” she snarled. “This shithole, this ghost of a cave lord—you take her out, right?” She eyed Gu Xianwang with a mocking lilt. “Tch, some people really have a death wish. Captain Long, picking up stray cats and dogs is one thing, but at a time like this? You drag back two dead weights? Don’t they just cramp your style?”

Ye Chan bristled at that. “Hey now, Sister Gu, you catch a whiff of anything? It’s like a dung beetle yawning—what a massive stinking mouth! Whoa, smells like straight-up piss—rank, utterly putrid!”

“You little—!” Sara’s eyes bulged as she rolled up her sleeves, lunging to throw down.

Long Li grabbed her arm and said coolly, “Cut the crap and talk properly.”

Gu Xianwang shouldered her own backpack, fixing Sara with an icy stare. “You’re one to talk—you were rescued from the cave lord’s clutches yourself. Who’s the real dead weight here?”

Sara slung an arm around Long Li’s shoulder and jerked her chin up. “No way—are you two seriously that clueless about your place? Long saving me is just how it is. What business is it of yours? Should’ve known you cockroaches wouldn’t die easy—back in that crap village, I should’ve—”

Long Li shoved her hand away, cutting her off. “Enough. Chak and Old Dog already headed to the altar ahead of us. Everyone else wiped out?”

“Fuck that prick.” Sara spat on the ground. “All gone. We ran into these black-furred spiders in the cave—things bigger than your face, insanely venomous. Then that idiot son of a bitch killed one of ours in the chaos and bolted. We barely made it to this rock cave, and some woman jumped us.”

“Woman?”

“Yeah, didn’t you see her? Short, face like it got burned off—half-melted, ugly as sin.” Sara pulled a face of disgust and pointed at the Gu Witch. “Oh, and this old Gu hag? Lost her shit at the sight of her, scrambling like she’d seen a ghost. If I wasn’t chasing her down, no way that damn mycelium would’ve snared me so easy.”

A short woman.

Gu Xianwang frowned, suddenly recalling the figure that had dragged her into the bamboo grove after Old Stick knocked them out.

Could it be the same person?

“The cave lord… the cave lord’s gone. The cave lord… it’s Yuzi. Yuzi came back—she’s back to take revenge on us!” The Gu Witch suddenly let out a bloodcurdling shriek, going berserk as she bolted upright. Just like Sara said, she moved faster than a wild animal.

The four of them froze. The Gu Witch was already scrambling up the cave walls hand over hand. Sara gave chase, nearly grabbing her—when the Gu Witch yanked a long tube from her pants, pulled the fuse, and whoosh—fireworks burst into the sky.

“Fuck!” Sara kicked her square in the back in rage. But outside was a sheer cliff drop. The Gu Witch stumbled, tumbling over the edge.

Gu Xianwang felt a chill run down her spine. Long Li lunged to the cave mouth in an instant, leaning out with half her body dangling, fingers clamped tight around the Gu Witch’s wrist. “Don’t move!”

At her sharp command, the Gu Witch’s cloudy eyes flew wide in terror. She pointed at the patch of skin exposed on Long Li’s nape, voice trembling. “Long… Long Family… impossible for you to still be alive… You’re a ghost! A ghost!”

With that, she sank her teeth into Long Li’s hand, tearing out a bloody gash. She wrenched her own wrist viciously, dislocating it with a pop. Her fingers slipped free, and she plummeted into the treetops at the cliff base.

The scene was horrifying. Ye Chan stood rooted far back, barely able to catch her breath.

What the hell was going on? What was wrong with this godforsaken place?

Was life really that cheap here?

Sara scowled, her face grim. “That old bitch sent up the signal. She’ll draw every last stronghold villager down on us.”

Long Li pulled herself upright, staring thoughtfully into the depths of the cliff. After a long moment, she turned to Gu Xianwang. “Let’s move. Head to the altar first.”

Gu Xianwang fell silently into step behind her, staring mutely at the cave mouth. Beyond stretched a vast expanse of lush jungle, the sheer pit walls plunging into an apparent bottomless abyss. Far off in the primeval forest loomed several stone pillars, topped with human-shaped statues—their hollow eyes seeming to gaze back at her.

Outside the cave lay a vast sinkhole, and deep within it stood the stone pillars from the photograph.

Even to the naked eye, the water-eroded murals on the cave walls remained strikingly clear. That tree, those worshippers—they now carried a profound, tangible meaning. Standing there, Gu Xianwang felt as if she had crossed through time, becoming the photographer herself. Her gaze shifted away from the camera lens and back toward the rock cave.

The Cave Lord, the Forbidden Witch, the Fungal Wall, and the countless horrifying insect swarms lurking in the karst cave.

Who could that photographer be?

How had he managed to stand right here?

Was he someone from the mountain stronghold?

If so, why had he sent her the photo? To lure her here and feed her to the Cave Lord?

A chill mountain wind brushed against her face, and Gu Xianwang had never felt so cold.

“Miss Gu?”

Gu Xianwang turned.

Long Li stood on the narrow rock tunnel, extending her hand.

“Let’s go.”