Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I let out a cold snort.

“Run? Against the two of you, why would a dignified Earth Master like me need to run?”

As I spoke, I raised the Thunderstruck Wood in my hand.

“Take this!”

Fang Lu instinctively raised her hand to shield her face. I had already charged toward her, but as I reached her side, I sidestepped and bolted out the door. Jiang Haoyan and I were perfectly in sync; he followed right on my heels.

We scrambled down the stairs at top speed, with Fang Lu screaming in exasperation behind us.

“Catch them!”

There was a side door on the west side of the temple. The lamas who had been chasing us earlier had run out through this very door. The gate was wide open, and Jiang Haoyan and I rushed through it, diving into the woods.

Once we entered the forest, we slowed our pace. There was already a group of lamas in the woods who had been pursuing us earlier; I had to be careful not to run straight into them.

In the nights of Tibet, the moon seems exceptionally close to the ground. Jiang Haoyan and I held hands, cautiously sticking as close to the edge of the forest as possible.

Many colorful flags were tied throughout these woods. Some hung high in the treetops, while others trailed haphazardly on the ground, making it easy to trip if one wasn’t careful. Jiang Haoyan tripped and let out a muffled groan as he sat up.

I crouched down beside him. Why did the object that tripped him look so familiar?

I picked up the semi-spherical object and held it up to the moonlight. Only then did I realize it was a skull. A pair of hollow eye sockets stared back at me, with maggots crawling inside.

I tossed the skull aside in disgust.

“Who’s there-Ganbu?”

A shout suddenly came from not far away. Jiang Haoyan and I were startled. After a quick glance around, I pointed toward a tree trunk.

“Climb up.”

Jiang Haoyan nodded. He braced his hands against the trunk and crouched halfway down, signaling for me to climb onto his shoulders. I stepped up without hesitation. As he stood up unsteadily, I realized something was wrong with the tree in front of me.

The trunk was thick, and about two meters up, it branched into three sturdy limbs. Right where the branches intersected, something seemed to be tied down with cloth straps.

I climbed onto the trunk, and Jiang Haoyan found another tree to hide in. As I sat cross-legged on a branch, the silvery moonlight illuminated the object across from me with perfect clarity.

It was a wooden chest, about half the height of a person. It was so old that several holes had worn through its surface. From one of the holes, a pale, bluish-white hand protruded. The hand was significantly smaller than a normal person’s, with long fingernails and fingers slightly curled.