Chapter 119
Chapter 119
Inside the cave, Wei Sen switched on her flashlight and carefully examined the bloody corpse on the ground. From his build and clothing, she recognized him at a glance as Liu Shuang, who had vanished into the forest yesterday.
The skin of his face had been torn off. All that remained was a crimson, mangled layer of exposed tissue. His gums jutted out in a grotesque grin, and without eyelids to contain them, his two eyeballs bulged wide in an eerie stare.
Bloody gouges had been clawed into the ground around the body. His hands and feet were twisted together like ropes, leaving his entire posture unnaturally contorted.
Wei Sen guessed that the Skeleton Monster had forcibly ripped off Liu Shuang’s face while he was still conscious. That was why his body had frozen into such an expression of extreme agony.
And to stop him from struggling, the Skeleton Monster had used its immense strength to snap his limbs and twist them together…
Wei Sen had always felt that death itself wasn’t frightening. But suffering torture like this before dying was truly chilling.
She shone the light farther in and saw, to her surprise, a trail of bloody footprints leading deeper into the cave.
Wei Sen remembered that the cave photos Guo Lan had shared yesterday did not show any bloody footprints.
In other words, after Liu Shuang’s blood had spilled near the cave entrance, someone had entered the cave and accidentally stepped in it, leaving these prints behind.
After Liu Shuang was dragged back to the cave by the Skeleton Monster yesterday, and before this moment, someone else had come here.
Wei Sen immediately photographed the footprints and sent them to Huang Xinze.
Perhaps he had the ability to infer a suspect’s profile from the footprints. Even if he couldn’t, he could still ask Lao Wang, who was a police officer.
Wei Sen followed the bloody footprints deeper inside. The prints grew fainter and fainter before finally disappearing in front of a half-meter-tall stone.
Footprints vanishing into thin air?
Wei Sen examined the area around the stone carefully. She noticed that the soil in a ring around the left side of the stone was clearly darker than the surrounding ground, which meant that patch of soil was wetter. That had been the stone’s original position for many years.
This stone had been moved.
With that thought, she tried pushing the stone in front of her.
It was extremely heavy. She used all her strength and finally managed to shift it aside little by little.
To her surprise, there was an entrance hidden behind the stone, and beyond it was a whole other space.
Wei Sen crawled through the entrance. The space inside was spacious, and there was even a bed, a table and chairs, and women’s clothing.
Someone had been living here all along. A woman.
And since the entrance was usually blocked by a boulder, it meant this person did not want anyone to discover she lived here.
Wei Sen quickly photographed the scene inside the Secret Space, then left and restored the boulder to its original position.
Wei Sen continued exploring the cave. Soon, she also saw the bloody words on the stone wall that Guo Lan had mentioned yesterday, as well as the corpse of the Order Keeper.
Farther in, there were too many corpses to count.
Although none of them had rotted because of the extremely low temperature, their conditions still varied depending on how long they had been dead.
Wei Sen walked for a long time before finally finding the first corpse placed at the deepest part of the cave. Its skin had lost all moisture. It was dull gray in color, cracked across the surface, and the entire body had shriveled severely.
She took a photo and sent it to Huang Xinze as well.
[Huang Xinze: Holy crap!
Huang Xinze: You went to the cave alone?!
Wei Sen: Help me analyze the footprint information, and estimate how many years this corpse has been dead. Thanks.
Huang Xinze: Okay! It’s dangerous in there, so be careful!
Wei Sen: Mm.]
Wei Sen couldn’t find any other clues in the cave, so she soon returned outside and began picking Snow Lotus flowers.
Since the village doctor needed these, she would pick enough Snow Lotus flowers and deliver them over. She refused to believe she couldn’t pry his mouth open.
Wei Sen summoned the Ghost Axe from the System.
Fortunately, while Lin Ze was getting Cheng Wanning settled in, she had gone back to the guest room and brought the Ghost Axe with her.
The Ghost Axe still had two days left before its usage period expired. It would be a waste not to use it.
So Wei Sen used the Ghost Axe like a sickle and began harvesting Snow Lotus flowers at high speed. Before long, she had stripped the entire patch in front of the cave clean.
The final step was to put away the Ghost Axe, then casually find some unlucky corpse inside the cave, strip off its coat, use it as a packing bag, bundle up all the Snow Lotus flowers, and carry them away.
Technically, she could have put all the Snow Lotus flowers into the System’s built-in Storage Space. But to avoid exposing the System in front of Lin Ze, she chose the safest method instead.
Soon, Wei Sen hoisted the enormous bundle-twice her size-onto her shoulder and headed toward the village.
Not far away, Lin Ze slowly stepped out from behind a tree trunk.
Not long after the Skeleton Monster had chased after her, he had taken out another Anomalous Artifact and used it to restrict the Skeleton Monster’s movements. Then he had doubled back and hidden silently outside the cave, watching Wei Sen’s every move.
His original intention had been to ensure Wei Sen’s safety, but he hadn’t wanted her to misunderstand, so he hadn’t shown himself. To his surprise, he ended up witnessing Wei Sen’s little operation.
She had actually taken an Anomalous Artifact out of thin air. Did her Watch have a storage function too?
But the only way to obtain a new function was through an SSS-Rank Instance.
And on average, it took clearing twenty SSS-Rank Instances to roll a single new function!
So where had her storage function come from?
This woman had even more secrets than he had imagined!
As Lin Ze thought this, he quickly took another route toward the village.
Wei Sen walked along with the Snow Lotus on her shoulder. For some reason, she kept feeling as if she were being watched, but when she looked around, she didn’t see anyone.
Soon, Huang Xinze sent a message back through the Watch.
[Huang Xinze: Shocking! The footprints are Meiya’s! I compared them to the footprints she left beside the hot spring pool. They’re identical!
Huang Xinze: What was she doing at the cave?!
Huang Xinze: Also, that corpse has probably been dead for around twenty years. The timing roughly matches when the village doctor said strange things started happening in the village!
Huang Xinze: My guess is that the first batch of Order Keepers started appearing in this Instance around then.
Wei Sen: Share the information when we get back tonight. Don’t spread it for now!
Huang Xinze: Yes, ma’am!]
Wei Sen sank into thought.
The footprints belonged to Meiya, which meant the person living in the Secret Space inside the cave was her!
She hadn’t gone home for all these years, and had actually been living in a cave with a Skeleton Monster!
What kind of conflict did she have with her family that made her refuse to go back when home was only a few miles away?
And what was her relationship with the Skeleton Monster?
Why didn’t the Skeleton Monster hunt her?
Could she and the Skeleton Monster be on the same side?
Wait!
Meiya had been at the inn the entire time after 6:30 today, so the bloody footprints must have been left before then!
And judging by how dry the blood was, the footprints had to be at least three or four hours old.
So Meiya had definitely left the inn last night!
But when Wei Sen first encountered Meiya that morning, she had noticed there were no footprints leading in through the inn entrance!
Also, Meiya had personally said that the fourth floor was the innkeeper’s private territory, and that the innkeeper didn’t like anyone going up there. Did that not include Meiya?
That morning, Meiya had gone straight to the fourth floor!
As she pondered this, Wei Sen soon arrived at the village doctor’s door. Before long, Lin Ze also appeared from another direction.
Seeing this, Wei Sen temporarily stopped thinking about Meiya and shifted her focus to the village doctor lead first.
Lin Ze stepped forward and knocked on the village doctor’s front door.
Soon, a burst of light footsteps came from inside. The door opened, and standing behind it was the girl Wei Sen had met in the forest last time.
“Oh, big sister, big brother! It’s you!”
Wei Sen and Lin Ze exchanged a glance, neither having expected the other to have met this girl too.
“We’re here to visit the village doctor,” Wei Sen said.
The girl led the way ahead. “Welcome! Grandma is preparing lunch!”
The two followed the girl into the house. The village doctor sat beside the fire pit, where something was simmering in a three-legged cauldron suspended over the flames.
“What are you here for this time?” The old woman looked up at the two of them and asked in an irritated tone.
Wei Sen set down the things she had been carrying. “I’m here to bring you something.”
When Wei Sen displayed several Snow Lotus flowers, the old woman was so shocked she couldn’t speak for a long while.
After a long time, she slowly looked at Wei Sen and asked in a low voice, “What do you want to know?”
At that, a faint smile appeared on Wei Sen’s face. “A few questions… questions I’m sure you know the answers to.”