Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Fifth Grandpa waved his hand, signaling everyone to let me down. While I was still dazed, the group immediately retreated from the valley, standing guard at the entrance.

I circled the tree trunk, intending to take a closer look, when a sudden gale erupted. The vines and branches above my head began to shake violently.

A split second later, there was a loud thud. A massive dark shadow plummeted from the sky and landed right beside me.

The vines overhead grew at a frenzied pace, allowing only faint, flickering light to filter through the gaps in the leaves, illuminating the monster before me.

It stood on two legs, roughly two meters tall, with long arms covered in thick red hair. Its elbows and knee joints were inverted, bending inward-the opposite of a human’s.

Even more unsettling was its face.

It looked about seventy percent human, but its mouth was enormous. The entire lower half of its face was occupied by that gaping maw, and its upper lip was pulled back so far it nearly covered its nose.

Upon seeing me, the Wild Man began to laugh.

“Jie-jie-jie-”

As its mouth opened wide, a thick, nauseating stench of blood and rot hit me. Still laughing, the Wild Man reached out and grabbed my wrist, his hand clamping down right over the bamboo tube.

I immediately yanked my hand out of the tube and reached for the dagger at my waist.

But in the next heartbeat, things took a sudden turn.

The Wild Man lunged toward me, staring at me for a few seconds. Then, he let go of the bamboo tube and grabbed both of my shoulders with his hands.

A surge of immense force radiated from my shoulders. I felt as if my bones were about to be crushed. The pain in my arms was so intense that I couldn’t help but loosen my grip, and the dagger clattered to the ground.

“Jie-jie-jie-jie-jie-jie-”

The Wild Man threw his head back and laughed even louder. Bits of animal flesh and fur were still stuck between his jagged teeth.

Outside the valley, the villagers broke into cheers.

Fifth Grandpa was so moved that tears welled in his eyes. He slapped his thigh in excitement.

“Excellent! After all these years, someone has finally caught the Wild Man’s eye. God is watching over Maogou Village!”

As the villagers celebrated, the Wild Man gripped my shoulders, swung me over his back, and began to climb the tree trunk with agile, rapid movements.

Soon, we disappeared into the dense canopy.

Once we reached the top of the tree, the Wild Man set me down and pointed forward.

I looked down and gasped in shock.

The trunk was actually hollow. From the top, it looked like a massive pit, with an endless darkness stretching down below.

The Wild Man laughed again. Still chuckling, he grabbed a vine. Holding me with one hand and the vine with the other, he slid downward. After sliding for quite a while, we hit the ground. The Wild Man set me down and stared at me with a grin.

Once my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I looked around. I realized that the ground beneath my feet was covered in a dense layer of bleached bones, piled as high as a small hill. Not far away was a large mass of dried grass that looked like the Wild Man’s nest.

The Wild Man reached out toward me again. I reflexively grabbed a leg bone from the ground and swung it with all my might at his head.

The Wild Man dodged nimbly. He let out a few angry screeches and moved to grab me again. Just then, a rustling sound came from the nearby pile of dried grass.

In the silence of the Tree Hollow, the sound of fabric rubbing against dry grass was exceptionally clear.

The Wild Man froze. He glanced at the grass pile with a hint of fear, then grabbed a vine and climbed out at high speed.

I gripped the leg bone tightly, staring tensely at the pile of grass.

“Who’s there!”

“Heh-heh-”

A low, raspy growl came from the grass, and the pile began to shift more violently. I swallowed hard, an inexplicable sense of dread welling up in my heart.

The opening at the top was mostly blocked by the canopy, leaving only a few shafts of light to filter down. Dust motes danced in the beams of light. I took a deep breath and pressed my back against the tree trunk.

In a deep, enclosed space like this, if whatever was over there was more terrifying than the Wild Man, I would have nowhere to hide.

I widened my eyes, staring unblinkingly at the pile of grass.

Finally, the top layer of grass shifted, and a hand suddenly shot out.

The skin was a pale, sickly grey-white. The fingers were slender, the wrist emaciated, and the fingernails were almost as long as the fingers themselves, curling in a strange fashion.

Holy crap, is it a zombie?

If it’s a zombie, I can relax.

Just as I breathed a sigh of relief, the hand pushed the grass aside, and a woman sat up. Her long, messy hair, which looked like dry straw, almost completely covered her face.

She brushed her hair aside with her fingers, revealing a gaunt face.

Because she was so thin, her cheekbones protruded sharply, making her eyes look unnaturally large. She was staring at me with a dull, vacant expression.

I was stunned.

It wasn’t a zombie or a ghost. It was a woman-a living woman.