SES Chapter 82 Part 1

Chapter 82

Mu Dai saw Luo Ren glance down into the well, then step back two paces. His expression grew grave as he looked at her and slowly shook his head.

Yan Hongsha broke into sobs.

For all his faults, even if she herself thought he deserved to die, faced with it happening for real, she couldn’t hold back her grief.

He was still her grandfather.

Mu Dai didn’t know how to comfort Yan Hongsha. She just held her back to keep her from rushing forward. After a while, Yan Hongsha stopped struggling and simply collapsed onto the ground.

Mu Dai thought about going to take a look herself, but just as she lifted her foot, Luo Ren stopped her.
“Don’t get close either,” he said.

Then he added, “Give me the scope.”

Mu Dai handed him the monocular. Luo Ren peered into the well for a long time before finally putting it away.

Yan Hongsha lifted her tear-streaked face to him.

Luo Ren hesitated.

It was cruel, but she deserved an explanation.

“He was hanged upside down,” he said at last. “The cause of death looks like blood loss.”

Yan Hongsha’s face went pale. “His throat was slit?”

The neck was indeed a blur of blood and flesh, but—

“Not just that,” Luo Ren said. “There are a lot of wounds.”

In his mind, the picture became clearer: the throat-slitting had likely been the final fatal blow. But before that, the old man had been tortured—bled out, little by little.

It was probably at night, in the pitch-black, freezing darkness, strung up alone in the well, listening to the sound of his own blood dripping away.

Only the old man himself knew the true terror of those final hours.

Yan Hongsha muttered, “It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t slept last night, maybe I could’ve saved him…”

Luo Ren unstrapped his gun and backpack. “I’m going down for a closer look.”

Because of the angle and poor light, the scope couldn’t show everything. Some details could only be confirmed up close, with the naked eye.

Mu Dai worried. “There’s treasure energy down there.”

“I won’t take long.”

He hadn’t wanted her to see the corpse in the well, but if he went down, she’d inevitably look anyway. With a trace of helplessness, he reminded her:
“Just keep your eyes on me when the time comes.”

“I’ve seen horror movies before,” Mu Dai said. “It’s not that scary.”

“Real life is different. And it’s even worse when it’s someone you know.”

That made her hesitate. She didn’t argue further. Yan Hongsha looked up at him. “You’re just going down like that?”

He glanced at the well’s opening. “It’s not that wide. I can brace myself against the walls and climb down.”

“Don’t,” Yan Hongsha said quickly. “My grandpa always said the treasure energy is poisonous—the deeper you go, the stronger it gets. You’d better use a rope.”

She dug into her bag, pulled out a brand-new climbing rope, the tag still hanging from it, and handed it to him. They had unearthed the treasure well that day, but chaos had broken out before she even had a chance to descend.

Luo Ren took the rope, gauged the depth where the body hung, tied one end to a tree, tugged it to make sure it held, then fastened the other end around his waist.

Mu Dai stood at the well’s rim. Even though the rope was secured to the tree, she still grabbed hold of it with her hands. She told Yan Hongsha, “You go stand by the tree and keep watch. Don’t let the knot come loose.”

Yan Hongsha understood—Mu Dai didn’t want her near the well. Without a word, she went over to the tree.

—Just keep your eyes on me.

Easier said than done. The well’s opening was so small—one glance downward revealed everything inside.

The body was strung up with a thick vine rope, looped around the support peg where the old weight-bearing plank had once been. The corpse hung close to one side of the well, so Luo Ren descended along the opposite side. The rope length was just right, letting him stop beside the body.

He raised his head and gave Mu Dai an “OK” sign before examining the well walls.

There were plenty of claw marks. He grabbed one of the old man’s hands—sure enough, his fingernails were packed with moss and mud scraped from the walls.

So the theory held. He’d been alive when he was strung upside down, thrashing desperately, until finally—his throat had been cut.

Cut? No, not by a blade. Savages didn’t really use knives.

Suppressing his unease, Luo Ren looked closer: the throat wasn’t slashed. It had been bitten through.

He rolled up the sleeve. The wounds along the body matched what he’d suspected—savage claws had ripped into him, crisscrossing cuts everywhere. There had to be a hundred wounds, maybe more.

The sequence was clear: they’d seized him in the chaos, slashed him with their claws, strung him upside down to bleed, and finally tore out his throat.

But something still didn’t sit right.

He glanced upward. That final bite—did it happen at the top of the well, or down here? If it were at the top, they would’ve had to haul the old man back up. Seemed like a lot of trouble. But if it happened down here, a savage would’ve had to climb down. In such a cramped space, with their size, that seemed…

Cramped.

Seeing him look up, Mu Dai leaned over. “What is it?”

At that moment, Luo Ren suddenly heard Yan Hongsha scream. At the same time, the rope around his waist went slack. His weight dropped, and the light above went dark—Mu Dai had fallen in too.

A roar filled his head. He spread his limbs fast, slowed himself after dropping five or six meters, and stabilized.

But he was more worried about Mu Dai. She might know light-foot techniques, but falling headfirst with no warning—if she hit him, it could still be bad.

When he looked up, his heart clenched in both fear and relief.

She was clutching the old man’s corpse.

Of course—falling like that, the only thing she could grab onto was him.

He prayed she wouldn’t break down crying again.

He called her name carefully. She answered, her voice trembling.

Keeping calm, Luo Ren said, “Mu Dai, the wall’s right beside you. Don’t panic. Climb down slowly, toward me.”

She let go, pressed against the wall, and edged downward. But she was still shaking. Her technique faltered. At the end, she almost dropped outright—right into his arms.

He caught her tight, pulled her head against his chest, and looked up at the well’s mouth.

From below, the sky was just a small square. But no one peered in. No sound at all.

Luo Ren exhaled. The only way to know what had happened was to climb out—but he didn’t dare. What if, the moment he surfaced, a blade came down on his head?

Looking down, there were still nearly twenty meters to go. He couldn’t risk descending either. Yan Hongsha had said the treasure energy got stronger the deeper you went. To Luo Ren, it was probably like swamp gas—natural but dangerous, like hornets or black ants. Best not to provoke it.

He asked, “Are you hurt?”

Mu Dai shook her head, still trembling.

He leaned close to her ear. “You’ve outdone yourself this trip—fought savages, fell down a well, hugged a corpse. Mu Dai, if you were a guy, you’d have girls lining up to date you just for bragging rights.”

She looked up at him.

“I mean it,” he said. “Back in the Philippines, I didn’t even pay for drinks at bars. I’d just sit there and say, ‘I’ve crawled out of a pile of corpses,’ and women would buy me rounds, their eyes shining.”

Mu Dai glared at him.

“But, being honest, I could never quite get past my hang-ups about Malay looks. If I could’ve gotten over that, Mu Dai, you wouldn’t even have a shot at me now.”

She laughed despite herself. Luo Ren leaned down, kissed her cheek, and asked, “Better?”