Overcome with grief, Cao Yanhua cried out: “It’s over! The wild woman took my Brother San away! If she hides him for ten years, eight years—”
Luo Ren raised the torch toward the higher part of the stone wall, hesitating. There was still fairly fresh blood on the wall—by all logic, the wild woman should have come back. But then why was it so quiet up there?
Mu Dai tightened the vine tied around her waist. “I’ll go up and take a look.”
Since they couldn’t find any rope on short notice, they had braided a couple of long vines instead—one for Mu Dai, and another planned for Yi Wansan. Both were tied around Mu Dai’s waist.
Luo Ren clipped the flashlight to her belt at the back and whispered, “Be careful.”
Mu Dai smiled, drew in a deep breath, and began climbing. In truth, the stone wall was easier to scale than a flat surface—plenty of ridges and cracks to hold on to. She rose quickly, and halfway up she even turned back to flash Luo Ren a reassuring hand signal.
He smiled back at her, but as soon as she turned away, the worry in his eyes crept back in.
Before long, Mu Dai slipped into the cave entrance.
Luo Ren tensed, a chill spreading across the back of his hand. Fortunately, Mu Dai soon popped her head back out from above and waved vigorously at them.
The gesture meant: Nothing.
Luo Ren’s heart first settled, then immediately sank in disappointment.
Cao Yanhua plopped down onto the ground in despair.
At this point, it wasn’t an attack from the wild woman that scared them most—it was the thought that she might be hiding somewhere. In such a vast forest, who knew where she could be lurking?
From above, the beam of the flashlight wavered, and Mu Dai began her descent. Luo Ren stepped forward and caught her as she came down.
As soon as her feet touched the ground, Mu Dai heard Cao Yanhua sniffling and whining. He held up a rock he had scratched on, showing it to Yan Hongsha. “Look—I carved ‘Help’ into this stone…”
Yan Hongsha had no idea what to say. She lifted her eyes toward Luo Ren and Mu Dai.
Suddenly, Cao Yanhua burst out, furious: “We have to find Brother San! Alive or dead—we need to see him! We can’t just leave him in this damned place, stuck with that lunatic savage!”
Luo Ren finally spoke.
“We’re out of food. And we don’t have the equipment we need.”
Cao Yanhua’s head snapped up, stunned. “Brother Luo, what are you saying? You mean we can’t find Brother San anymore?!”
Luo Ren stayed silent.
Cao Yanhua’s face flushed pale, then red. “Luo Ren, you can’t just take the map and leave! We all came in together, we leave together! My Brother San’s fate is still unknown…”
He grabbed Yan Hongsha’s arm. “Hongsha, say something!”
But Yan Hongsha kept quiet. After everything that had happened, she’d grown used to listening to Luo Ren’s judgment.
“I’m not saying we’re abandoning Yi Wansan,” Luo Ren explained. “But we’ve been struggling in this forest too long. Our clothes are soaked, our stomachs are empty, and if we keep going like this, we’ll only get weaker. You’ve seen the savage woman yourself—stabbed, shot, and still fighting as if nothing happened. We need help. More people, more weapons.”
Cao Yanhua opened his mouth, but couldn’t come up with a rebuttal. He knew Luo Ren was right, but he still desperately looked for allies.
“Little Sister, Young Master—you’ve known Yi Wansan the longest, you…”
Mu Dai was silent for a moment, then said, “Qiju Village is the closest. We’d better make haste and get out. Because…”
That was sudden because it drew everyone’s eyes to her.
Luo Ren asked, “Because what?”
“Because… I don’t think there’s just one savage.”
The words brought a few seconds of stunned silence. Yan Hongsha looked nervously out into the fog and shrank inward. Cao Yanhua’s voice dropped as he protested, “But Brother San and I were in the cave for days. From start to finish, there was only that one wild woman.”
Mu Dai didn’t answer directly. “While you and Yi Wansan were in the cave, did you notice the paintings on the walls?”
“Yeah, I saw them.”
“What about the ceiling?”
“The ceiling?” Cao Yanhua’s mouth opened, then shut. The cave was dark. Whenever they lit a fire, it only lit a small circle. He had never thought to look at the ceiling. Yi Wansan hadn’t either.
“When I climbed up just now, I shone the flashlight at the ceiling. There are paintings there too. A woman carrying a basket, surrounded by two children. And then I suddenly remembered—the rag dolls in that woman’s cave. There were two of them.”
Luo Ren frowned. “But what Cao Fatty said is true. From beginning to end, we’ve only ever seen one wild woman.”
Mu Dai replied, “At first, we only thought the cursed sword had possessed her, and the woman didn’t show up until much later. But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t there all along.”
Her words made Cao Yanhua’s skin crawl with goosebumps.
He stammered, “Th-then let’s just get out… find help…”
Then he turned pleadingly to Luo Ren. “Brother Luo, we are going to come back, right? We won’t leave Brother San behind, right?”
Luo Ren reassured him firmly. “Don’t worry. No matter how many wild women are in these mountains, as long as Yi Wansan hasn’t been found, I’ll come back with reinforcements.”
Lingering here would do no good. They decided to travel by night. Even though moving in the dark slowed them down, every extra mile covered was worth it.
Luo Ren navigated mainly by stars and compass, piecing it together with fragments of memory. Sometimes Mu Dai would hear him muttering numbers under his breath: 1 or 2.
When she asked quietly, Luo Ren explained, “It’s just shorthand. Back when we entered the labyrinth, I used it so we wouldn’t go in circles. At every junction, you pick left or right. Left is 1, right is 2. A string like 122122111 might look simple, but it’s actually one complete route.
“If you add more complexity—like climbing up or dropping down—you just add numbers. Add 3, add 4. That way it becomes a 3D map.”
Mu Dai stared at him in awe, tried it herself, and quickly got lost.
When she told Luo Ren, he laughed. “Your little brain…”
But then he suddenly stopped mid-sentence. Mu Dai felt her heart skip a beat. She looked up, but his expression was unchanged. He simply held her hand tighter and warned her to watch her step.
Even so, her heart felt strangely hollow. She couldn’t shake the sense that he already knew some things she wasn’t ready to say.
By dawn, they sat down to rest. A thick fog had settled over the forest, turning everything hazy. Beyond a few yards, they could barely see anything. Everyone grew uneasy. Luo Ren frowned as well. He had planned to speed up once daylight came, but in weather like this, navigation was even harder.
He was about to tell Cao Fatty and the others to stick close when a noise came from up ahead.
Mu Dai heard it too. She froze. Luo Ren hushed everyone and crouched low, pressing his ear to the ground.
Yes—footsteps. Uneven, but light. Not like the wild woman’s.
He stood, signaling everyone to get behind him.
The footsteps grew nearer. Out of the mist, shadowy figures began to emerge. The one in front spotted them, quickened his pace, and burst through the fog with a shout.
Relief washed over Luo Ren. He even let out a small laugh.
It was Zhama.
He had a bow slung across his back, a machete at his waist, and a hunting rifle in his hand. He waved his arms excitedly, shouting, “Here! Found them! Over here!”
He repeated it in the local dialect.
More footsteps followed. Several men dressed like locals appeared, all armed to the teeth. They smiled shyly as they sized up Luo Ren and Mu Dai’s group.
Luo Ren frowned slightly. “You came here to look for us?”
Zhama nodded. “Yeah. Your friend said you were still in the mountains and might be in danger, so we came.”
Friend? Yi Wansan?
What was going on? Luo Ren couldn’t make sense of it.
Cao Yanhua pushed forward, stumbling over his words in excitement. “Is it my Brother, San? He got away? He escaped from the wild woman?”
Zhama didn’t understand who “Brother San” was, but he recognized the word wild woman. Puffing up proudly, he raised his rifle and declared, “We killed the wild woman!”
Meow meow On TPH Chapter 26.1