Chapter 1 He's in the Woods

He was currently in a dense forest, and not far from him, beside a thick tree, stood a blurry figure.

The figure's face was unclear, and its head seemed to be covered with a burlap sack. Its body blended into the surrounding darkness. What truly chilled Jiang Cheng was the figure's movement: its body was straight, and one arm was extended stiffly, pointing behind Jiang Cheng and the others.

A massive sense of crisis washed over him. Jiang Cheng practically leaped up and turned around, looking behind him. In mid-air, countless terrifying images flashed through his mind: the firelight reappearing behind them, or seeing pale, eerie faces—the faces of the missing people…

But all these imaginings ended the moment he landed, because he clearly saw that behind him, besides his teammates, there was nothing unusual.

Jiang Cheng's sudden movement, on the other hand, startled the others.

"What's wrong?"

Fatty quickly assumed a fighting stance, and the people behind him gathered together, their eyes warily scanning the darkness, as if something sinister was hiding just beyond their sight.

After a moment, the surroundings were completely calm. Nothing happened.

Luo Yunshan, his face grim, turned to look at Jiang Cheng. "What is it? Did you find something?"

Jiang Cheng ignored him. After regaining his senses, he immediately looked for the shadow he had seen earlier. The shadow was still there, but the more Jiang Cheng looked at it, the more something seemed off, as if… as if something was different from before.

After calming down, Jiang Cheng told everyone about the figure he saw. The others, skeptical, walked over. Only after getting closer did they realize that it wasn't a figure at all, just a tree that happened to be shaped like a person.

This tree had probably lost out in the competition with other trees, and its growth was poor. Its branches and leaves had all fallen off, leaving only a thick branch sticking straight out, which, from a distance, did look like a person with an outstretched arm.

Out of caution, the group carefully searched the area around the tree and checked for any footprints, but they found nothing.

Number 13, who had been crouching on the ground, stood up and quietly comforted Jiang Cheng. "Don't be too nervous. Calm down. It's just a tree." In such a dark and stressful environment, it was easy to see things wrong.

Jiang Cheng knew that something was definitely wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it. But what he said about something being behind them seemed to have sounded an alarm for everyone. After discussing it, they decided to continue in the direction where the firelight had disappeared.

On the road ahead, the image of the eerie figure he had seen earlier kept flashing through Jiang Cheng's mind, especially the stiff, straight arm pointing behind him.

In the dark mountains, the group moved forward slowly, with no specific goal. They only knew to keep walking, not knowing how far to go or where they were going. An atmosphere of despair and helplessness permeated the air, along with a growing worry about the future. Everyone felt an unspeakable sense of foreboding, as if the day would never dawn again.

Jiang Cheng couldn't even be sure if they were still in the real Xixie Ming Mountain or had wandered into some strange, unseen world.

Before Jiang Cheng could think further, a short scream suddenly rang out from behind, accompanied by the sound of someone rolling and falling. Turning around, they saw that someone had rolled down the hillside.

Although they called it a hillside, the steepness was closer to a cliff. The path they were on was narrow and damp, and in the darkness, one misstep could lead to serious trouble.

Judging from the sound of the fall, the hillside wasn't too high. Jiang Cheng prayed that the person wasn't seriously injured. He knew that the person who had fallen carried communication equipment. The burly man immediately tried to contact him using the walkie-talkie, but it was the same situation: the signal was poor, just meaningless static.

"I'll lower a rope and bring him up," the burly man said anxiously. "It won't take long. I've encountered similar situations before. If nothing else happens, he shouldn't be too badly hurt."

Staring into the darkness below, Jiang Cheng had a sudden, ominous premonition.

Just as the burly man was taking out a rope and tying it to a nearby tree, Luo Yunshan stopped him and gave him a calm look. "You stay here and direct. Have the others go down."

Soon, two people tied themselves to the rope. Jiang Cheng clearly saw that one of them was carrying a pistol. Luo Yunshan instructed them to bring the person back up as soon as they found him. Unless necessary, they shouldn't bandage him down there, and they should try to avoid using the lights for too long.

The two men agreed and, after preparing, went down into the darkness below. Watching their figures gradually disappear into the darkness, everyone's hearts couldn't help but rise into their throats.

It was clear that Luo Yunshan was also worried about the situation below. After all, the entire mountain felt wrong, and who knew what was lurking in the darkness below.

Amid the tense waiting, news came from below. A light flashed on and off. Jiang Cheng knew something about this. It was Morse code, a way of transmitting messages through the frequency and duration of light. With the signal being interfered with, using Morse code to transmit messages was their only option.

But when Luo Yunshan and the others saw the Morse code, their faces turned grim. The burly man explained that the message was bad: the person who fell had broken bones and couldn't move. He needed to be stabilized and bandaged on the spot.

"Then tell them to hurry up. What are they dawdling for?"

Fatty didn't understand. He didn't want to stay in this ghastly place for a second longer, let alone the two who had gone down, separated from the main group.

Then the light flashed again. This time, the message seemed to confirm Luo Yunshan's earlier suspicion, making his already grim face even darker.

"What did they say this time?" Fatty asked curiously.

"They… they want us to send two more people down, with a simple stretcher, to secure the person and then carry him up together." The burly man's face, which had been full of worry, was gradually replaced by fear. His lips were turning slightly blue.

Fatty also looked uneasy. Sending two more people down… This scene felt familiar. Where had he seen it before, or heard about it? In any case, it gave him a very bad feeling.

Jiang Cheng had already figured it out. It was in the world of the Dahe Niangniang (River Goddess), those fishermen who had been tricked into diving into the water to retrieve fishing nets. They were all dead. Everyone who had been tricked into diving had died, killed by those water ghosts looking for substitutes.

The burly man couldn't decide what to do and looked at Luo Yunshan for help. "Old Mr. Luo, I think there's something fishy about this…"

"Abandon the rescue, cut the rope. Quickly, cut it now! Everyone, retreat immediately!" Luo Yunshan ordered, without hesitation.