SES Chapter 78 Part 1

Chapter 78

Thank goodness, Luo Ren didn’t press her any further about that almost absurd treasure hunt. He only asked how things had been these past few days.

Yan Hongsha told the truth without daring to hold anything back—at first, she had wanted to save some face for Old Man Yan, but Luo Ren’s questioning was too detailed. Besides, the old man’s matter was a pivotal link in the chain, impossible to gloss over.

So she basically confessed everything.

Luo Ren listened carefully. Later, he fetched the discarded Saoqingniang doll to examine. Seeing that she was no longer involved, Yan Hongsha quickly slipped back to her room. As soon as she shut the door, she let out a long sigh, nearly breaking into tears.

She must have been blind to ever like Luo Ren. Just talking to him for a few sentences had scared half her soul away. The more she thought about it, the more frightened she felt: thank heavens Mu Dai hadn’t actually been strangled to death by that savage—otherwise Luo Ren probably would’ve skinned her alive.

A little while later, Luo Ren and Yi Wansan both came in.

The small room suddenly felt crowded with twice as many people. With daylight now streaming in, Mu Dai finally felt a real sense of relief.

A feeling of renewal.

Luo Ren turned to Cao Yanhua and Yi Wansan. “You two—if we keep pushing for another full day on the road, can you manage?”

Cao Yanhua’s face drained of color. He looked down at his chubby legs. “Brother Luo, we just marched day and night without stopping… If we keep going, I’ll be crawling out of here.”

He even dragged Yi Wansan into it as a shield: “I mean, I’m not completely hopeless, but look at Brother San here—those skinny arms and legs…”

To have his body ridiculed like that…

Normally, Yi Wansan would’ve jumped up and started an argument. But this time, he swallowed his pride. Truth was, he was exhausted too—if he marched another whole day, he’d be ruined.

Luo Ren fell silent, deep in thought. Because they had taken the wrong path earlier, they had lost a huge chunk of time, forcing them to travel through the night nonstop. Luo Ren himself could handle it, but for Cao Yanhua and Yi Wansan, this pace was beyond their physical limits. Once they stopped, they were half-crippled.

Mu Dai asked Luo Ren, “Are you thinking… of retreating?”

Luo Ren nodded. “The situation in the mountains doesn’t look very promising. We’re too poorly prepared—short on weapons, medicine, and food. I was thinking…”

He trailed off, not finishing. The conditions simply didn’t allow it—saying more would just be a waste of breath. Besides, the savages clearly had the upper hand in the jungle. Dragging along a group of elderly, wounded, and half-crippled people for another full day in the woods was a risk he wasn’t willing to take.

He ordered Wan San, “Gather up all our food and water. We’ll rest here for a full day. Count it as two days—one to stay, one to leave. Six meals, six people. Divide it carefully so no one goes hungry.”

As he spoke, his gaze shifted toward Old Man Yan. His tone was blunt: “Mr. Yan, when you killed someone to cover up the treasure’s aura, the person you killed was from the village, wasn’t he?”

Everyone was shocked. Yan Hongsha stammered, trying to defend her grandfather: “No, Luo Ren. It was one of his treasure-hunting companions. He got sick and died…”

She clung to the faint hope: even if his throat had been cut, maybe it was done after he’d already died of illness? Killing a dead man didn’t sound quite as bad, right?

Luo Ren replied, “First, even if a treasure hunter couldn’t read the aura, once they spotted a treasure well, they’d be cautious. If your grandfather wanted to claim it for himself, he’d definitely act in secret. Even if someone really had died from illness, he wouldn’t bury them right on top of the well he wanted to claim.

Second, I’ve never gone treasure hunting, but I know enough: in a team like that, everyone shares the spoils. Every extra person means a smaller share. So the teams are lean and efficient—no one drags along useless dead weight. Anyone chosen is a skilled hand.

As for your grandfather, his only value was his sharp eyes. He was weak in other areas, but that didn’t matter. The others, though—they had to be strong enough to scale mountains, fight beasts, tend wounds, and handle emergencies. Compared to them, your grandfather was probably the weakest in the group. Using blood to mask the aura, he wouldn’t dare target one of his companions.”

He narrowed his eyes. “So instead, he set his sights on someone from the village. And since the victim was a woman, she was easier prey, wasn’t she?”

Old Man Yan said nothing. After a while, he let out a dry, awkward laugh, but still offered no defense.

Yan Hongsha burned with shame, but clutched at a final straw. “Luo Ren, yesterday when we dug up the well, there wasn’t anybody inside. Maybe… maybe that woman didn’t actually die?”

Luo Ren’s gaze turned cold. “Your grandfather said he cut her throat. Blood sprayed everywhere—that kind of spray means he likely severed the carotid artery. After tossing her in the well, he laid planks, filled it with soil, tamped it down, and disguised the surface so it looked untouched. After all this time, she’s long dead.”

A chill crawled over Mu Dai’s skin. She shivered as she imagined the scene, suddenly seeing the old man she’d been traveling with for days as a ruthless, sinister killer.

“The dead don’t walk away on their own,” Luo Ren continued. “The only possibility is that someone secretly witnessed the whole thing. After Old Man Yan left, they dug up the well, carried off the corpse, then restored the site.”

Wan San felt a cold dread. He glanced from the old man to Luo Ren. “Could it have been that savage? Like the saying goes, ‘debts have their collectors.’ If the savage attacked him once, then again, maybe that’s the reason.”

Old Man Yan rasped out in a cold, hoarse voice, “Or maybe it was one of my companions, shadowing me in secret. After I left, they dug up the well themselves.”

Luo Ren shook his head. “If it were another treasure hunter, they’d have taken the treasure and left. They wouldn’t bother restoring the site. And with the Yan family’s wealth, if someone held your secret, they could’ve extorted you for enough to live half a lifetime. But clearly, you’ve lived peacefully all these years. Which means the hidden witness wasn’t another hunter—it was either a villager or the savage.”

Mu Dai spoke up, “If it were a villager… Grandpa Yan would never have walked away in the first place.”

Out of respect for Hongsha, she still called him “Grandpa” in front of others.

Luo Ren nodded. “Exactly. Mountain folk are fierce. If someone from the village caught him doing that, even if they didn’t confront him on the spot, they would’ve rallied others to stop the treasure hunters from leaving. So the hidden witness wasn’t a companion, wasn’t another hunter, and wasn’t a villager.”

Yan Hongsha whispered, “Then that leaves… the savage, doesn’t it?”

By now, she’d abandoned all attempts to defend her grandfather. Murmuring, she said, “I guess that makes sense. Otherwise, why would the savage keep targeting him?”

Cao Yanhua suddenly remembered something. “Do you guys recall what Zha Ma said about the she-savage? That story about her attacking an old man in his fifties? Twenty years ago, wasn’t Old Man Yan about that age? Could it be…”