SES Chapter 76 Part 2

Luo Ren shook his head. “Old Man Yan can sense the aura of treasures—his eyes are specially trained for it. People like that don’t need to focus on martial arts. And besides…”

He stepped forward and gestured at the height of the carving—it was almost level with his nose. “Mu Dai isn’t this tall. Most people carve marks on trees about chest height without thinking. For a mark to be this high, even standing on tiptoe, she wouldn’t reach it. She’d need a rock to stand on.”

Yiwansan instinctively glanced around. There were a few scattered pebbles, but no large stones.

Cao Yanhua was stunned. “Then… who made it?”

Then it hit him. “And how are we supposed to catch up with Little Master and the others now? This place is huge—everything looks the same.”

Luo Ren said, “We turn back now and retrace our steps. Worst case, we go all the way back to the mountain entrance and start tracking again. Three people traveling together will definitely leave traces. With luck, we’ll find the right path halfway back. The only thing is…”

He looked up at the sky.

It was already afternoon. They had lost hours for nothing.

Up in the tree, Yan Hongsha had been watching through Mu Dai’s binoculars for a long time. She finally lowered them, looking puzzled. “Mu Dai, there’s nothing. Did you… imagine it?”

Mu Dai shot her a look. “Imagine it? If I were imagining things, would I be able to tell you it was an amber pendant, strung on black silk, shaped like an eye? That’s a lot of detail for a hallucination.”

Yan Hongsha fell silent.

Once they were down from the tree, she asked Old Man Yan, “Grandpa, what do we do now?”

He was calm. “Most likely someone’s intercepting the treasure. Nothing we can do about that now.”

“The Yan family is well-known in this trade. It’s not surprising if someone’s been watching us day and night. Maybe they saw me leave and decided to tail us.”

Is that so? Mu Dai didn’t respond. From Lijiang all the way into the mountains, she hadn’t felt like anyone was following them.

“The location of the treasure well is out. If soldiers come, we’ll meet them head-on; if water comes, we’ll block it with earth. If they’re reasonable, we can negotiate a split. If they’re not, and they come in with killing intent…”

Old Man Yan lowered his voice. “You two better be ready for that.”

Mu Dai felt a heavy weight in her chest. After a moment, she moved to the side and bent down to pick up straight branches. She wasn’t looking for a fight, but if the other party refused to talk, she wasn’t about to just sit there and die.

Yan Hongsha came over. “What are you doing?”

“Throwing darts.”

Hongsha helped her gather a few branches, grumbling, “My grandpa is going to drive me crazy! If he knew there was danger, why didn’t he bring more people?”

Mu Dai said, “Your grandpa has no real fighting skills, and you’re a half-trained amateur. If he brought capable people, they might get greedy and turn on him halfway through. Then he’d end up with nothing.”

Exactly—being stingy could backfire.

Hongsha felt bad. “Sorry, Mu Dai. I dragged you into this.”

Mu Dai smiled faintly, a little wistful. “You didn’t drag me into anything. I came here to make money. No point in apologizing or complaining now.”

She cradled the branches and sat by the treasure well, trimming each one to the same length, shaving off bumps, and whittling one end to a sharp point.

The machete wasn’t as handy as Luo Ren’s knife—she missed it.

Hongsha was digging again. The sky was darkening, and it looked like they wouldn’t finish today. Would they really have to work through the night?

Just as she was thinking that, Hongsha gave a startled “Ow!” and sank suddenly into the pit, stumbling. Mu Dai thought she had fallen and rushed over.

One look told her the truth.

Beneath the dirt was a large wooden plank with two ropes nailed to it. She tapped it with the shovel—thud, thud. Hollow. About a meter and a half from the top of the well. Likely, they had hammered supports into the well walls, set the plank on top, then covered it with compacted soil.

Mu Dai pulled Hongsha out, and Hongsha used the shovel to clear away the dirt until the edges of the plank were exposed.

The two of them stood at the rim, looking down at it, both uneasy.

Old Man Yan said, “Each of you grab a rope and pull the plank out.”

Mu Dai bent to grab one rope, but Hongsha suddenly whispered, “Wait.”

She hurried over, pulled a pack of tissues from her pocket, and handed one to Mu Dai. “Plug your nose—it could smell bad.”

Just thinking about it made her skin crawl. This place saw constant rain—what if water had seeped in and half-filled the well, with a corpse floating on top?

Mu Dai’s stomach tightened. She twisted the tissue into a strip and stuffed it into her nostrils. Then she and Hongsha both crouched, each taking a rope. She thought grimly: No matter how much they pay me next time, I’m never doing this again.

She looked at Hongsha. “On three. One, two, three—pull!”

The first time, the dirt around the edges just loosened—the plank didn’t budge.

No problem. They tried again. “One, two, three—”

This time, the plank lifted, tilting awkwardly. It was heavy, but they managed to haul it out and toss it aside.

The well walls were exposed—dark, damp, the stone glistening with seepage.

Hongsha’s knees went weak. “Mu Dai, I’m not going down there. What if I have to collect treasure next to a corpse…”

The thought alone made her gag.

Mu Dai said, “Don’t panic—let’s check first.”

The sky was dimming. Shivering slightly, Mu Dai switched on her flashlight and shone it into the well.

The dark, wet walls… the jumble of stones at the bottom… and a smell that was impossible to describe. The mustiness of something sealed away for years? It made her eyes water.

Something felt off.

She looked again. “There’s nothing.”

Hongsha blinked. “Nothing what?”

Mu Dai leaned in for another look and confirmed, “No body.”

Nobody? Hongsha quickly craned her neck to see, and even Old Man Yan shuffled over, pushing up the eyepatch he never removed—making him look oddly comical.

Sure enough, the bottom was small, the light reached everywhere—empty.

Old Man Yan’s face darkened. “How could it be empty?”

He looked dazed, leaning on his cane as he took two steps aside, muttering again, “How could it be empty?”

At that moment, a rope noose shot out from the forest—like a lasso—and looped neatly around Old Man Yan’s neck.

Mu Dai saw him jerk violently, yanked him off his feet, and dragged him toward the forest.

“Grandpa!” Hongsha screamed.

Blood ties ran deep—in that instant, she reacted faster than Mu Dai. She lunged forward, grabbing both of Old Man Yan’s legs, but the pulling force was so strong that after a brief pause, it dragged her along, too.

Mu Dai dashed after them, knife in hand. She spotted a tall, shadowy figure in the trees and, without thinking, hurled a throwing dart. It spun through the air, slicing clean through the rope.

The figure seemed to stumble, tumbled to the ground, then vanished behind a tree.

The whole thing—three seconds? Five?

The forest fell silent except for their ragged breathing. Hongsha scrambled up and shook Old Man Yan, sobbing. “Grandpa? Grandpa?”

He groaned—alive, thank goodness.

Mu Dai’s arms trembled as she gripped her knife. She crept forward and, in the fading light, saw her darts scattered on the ground.

Missed? Impossible—at this range, she knew every shot had landed.

A chill spread through her. She backed up several steps, grabbed Hongsha, and stammered, “Go—go, go!”