"Yelan, I'm asking you, can you hear anything strange on our end through the phone?"
Yelan could hear perfectly. As Ren Yuanhao spoke, he felt as if someone was blowing directly into the microphone!
However, Ren Yuanhao's breathing was quite steady. This breath was definitely not from Ren Yuanhao.
Yelan was a little worried and didn't want to scare them. He said, "I can hear a clear blowing sound, and it's very close to the phone!"
At this moment, Ren Yuanhao and the two women were standing in a triangular formation. That's right, they had all heard a distinct breathing sound earlier, but it disappeared soon after. Now, through the radio waves, the other party could hear a similar sound.
"Hey, Ren Yuanhao, could it be that there are ghosts here?"
Yang Lingxue's voice trembled inexplicably as she mentioned the word 'ghost'.
"Don't scare yourself. There are indeed many things in this world that science cannot explain, but if you attribute all these unexplainable events to ghosts and spirits, you'd be far off the mark."
Before Ren Yuanhao could hang up, Yelan's voice began to break up, likely due to the extremely poor signal.
"Wait, Lingxue, you were at the back the whole time. Were you hearing this same sound?" Shen Lan Ni suddenly realized.
"No, and yes."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, the sound I heard earlier was much lower, and it was easy to mistake for footsteps. Of course, it might have been footsteps. But this, the breathing sound is clearly a bit rapid."
Yang Lingxue cautiously shone her flashlight elsewhere, afraid that a monster would truly emerge from somewhere.
The three of them kept flashing their lights but found nothing out of the ordinary besides the strange tree. At this point, Shen Lan Ni boldly proposed a theory that made everyone's blood run cold.
"What if that breathing sound is coming from that tree?"
"Lan Ni jie, don't scare me, I'm scared~"
Ren Yuanhao was very close to that tree earlier, and his injuries had indeed improved considerably because of it. Therefore, he was absolutely confident...
No, not absolutely. He suddenly thought of the structures on the tree branches that resembled human meridians. Since they were human-like, it wasn't unreasonable to have human-like breathing. Moreover, in this deep and dark place, photosynthesis would be impossible, so it was understandable for the absorption and conversion system to change!
---Damn it, System, what should I do now? The treasure you asked me to find might be a tree demon! ---
Ren Yuanhao didn't voice his thoughts. Instead, he said in a deep voice, "I don't think you should overthink things. Perhaps this cave isn't entirely without an exit. The sound from earlier might have been the wind blowing from somewhere."
"Overthinking this won't help. Since there are inscriptions on the stone door, why don't we try to decipher them first and then decide on the next step."
Shen Lan Ni had some knowledge of seal script, as her father had always been fond of calligraphy and painting. Through osmosis, she had learned a bit. Coupled with Ren Yuanhao's ability to decipher a few characters, deciphering it wasn't too difficult.
"In ancient times, Emperor Qin Shi Huang, in his quest for immortality, dispatched three thousand boys and girls to the immortal mountain of Penglai. They built a teak ship to sail into the Eastern Sea. The sea was rough, with howling winds and crashing waves. The ship swayed violently, and everyone feared it would capsize. The ship carried valuable treasures, gold, silver, precious trees, and silver flowers.
In the face of danger, wicked thoughts arose. That night, hundreds of people stole the treasures and set sail in small boats to escape the sea that was engulfed by waves. Only one person drifted with the current and was rescued by a fisherman. However, he was afflicted with a terrible illness and died soon after. The treasures he brought back from the large ship were obtained by the fisherman and his wife.
However, time flows, and the world changes. The whereabouts of that treasure should have been lost to the world forever. Yet, fate is inexorable, and there is a divine will in the unseen. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Thieves supported a strange and peculiar military unit that specialized in robbing ancient tombs to obtain funds for military supplies. The world called them 'Mojin Xiaowei' (Tomb Raiders). They actually unearthed a golden tree seed from an unnamed ancient tomb. This object was precisely what the fisherman and his wife had obtained from the rescued boy.
Unfortunately, after acquiring this treasure, the man rushed for a thousand miles, intending to catch up with Cao's forces and achieve great merit. However, due to his eagerness, he fell off a cliff, his body and head separated. The golden tree seed then rolled through the world, eventually entering this desolate place through a cave at the bottom of the cliff.
When I obtained this item, I was in a sorry state, afflicted with a cold. The seed had already grown into a tree, mysteriously strange. I narrowly escaped with my life, but my cold was cured as the demonic tree absorbed my essence and blood. Later generations may simply laugh at this fate.
Decades later, my luck was prosperous. In my later years, I was grateful for the tree demon's regenerative grace. I carved these seal inscriptions onto a massive stone and raised mountain sprites with蛊毒 (Gu poison) to guard it for generations. If those who enter this place later find this stone door, they are fated. They only need to find my coffin, kneel and kowtow three times before me, and they can open the secret passage to escape. However, after a thousand years, what form the demonic tree will take is beyond my prediction. Alas, fortunate, fortunate!"
After the three of them painstakingly pieced together and deciphered these passages, Yang Lingxue scoffed.
"This mountain cave is fine as it is, but they have to create so much trouble. If it weren't for this giant stone, we would have been out long ago. And they expect us to kowtow three times? Not a chance."
"I don't think we can entirely blame him. Think about it, if this tree is so magical, and later people with greedy hearts come along, they might claim it for themselves, leaving no way for those like Ren Yuanhao, who are afflicted with serious illnesses, to be saved. Wouldn't that be a pity?"
Shen Lan Ni could understand the feelings of the person who carved the inscription, and of course, there was a hint of greed and mischief in it. However, compared to the tree demon being destroyed, it was insignificant.
Ren Yuanhao pondered for a moment and then continued, "No wonder the mountain sprite didn't attack us. I guess it sensed my illness."
"Don't defend that perverted monkey. It kidnapped me earlier, so don't think you can wash away its sins, humph."
"Maybe it mistook you for a female monkey."
Ren Yuanhao said this casually, but Shen Lan Ni's expression suddenly changed dramatically!
"Wait, say that again!"
Seeing her expression change, Ren Yuanhao repeated, "Maybe it mistook you for a female monkey."
"Lan Ni jie, you're making fun of me too! You~"
Yang Lingxue was furious, but what Shen Lan Ni said next made both of them turn pale with shock!
"Is that mountain sprite hinting at something to us? And even mountain sprites, they can't live this long. So, there must be a female mountain sprite in this cave!"
"You mean, the breathing sound just now, it must have come from that female mountain sprite?"