Eerie Cave (Part 2)

Mo Li simply couldn't believe his senses. Not long ago, Wei Dengke had still been joking around with him, so how had he died in such a short time? The contrast was too great!

After standing there dumbfounded for a full four or five seconds, Mo Li once again reached out to check Wei Dengke's breathing. The result was still the same—there was no breath at all. Mo Li completely panicked. Only the three of them had come to this snow mountain, and now the Yeti had dragged them into a cave. If Wei Dengke was really dead, only he and Zhong Lichun would be left.

Forcing himself to calm down, Mo Li began feeling around his own body. However, after searching, he became depressed. His clothes had been worn through in countless places, and worst of all, his pants pocket had also been worn through. The small flashlight inside had long since disappeared.

With his own lighting equipment gone, Mo Li could only search Wei Dengke's body. However, Wei Dengke had too many strange parts hanging from him, making the search especially troublesome. Mo Li found it baffling. His own clothes had been worn to shreds, yet the straps holding all the things on Wei Dengke's body were completely intact, and none of the odds and ends hanging from them had fallen off. They were far too sturdy.

After groping around for a long while, Mo Li finally found a glow stick in a large pocket on Wei Dengke's right leg. He casually picked up two and snapped them hard. The glow sticks reacted, flashing with a ghostly green light.

After tossing the glow sticks beside Wei Dengke, Mo Li used their light to examine his body. Fortunately, Wei Dengke was wearing a hat, and his entire body was protected by his outdoor jacket, so he had no serious injuries. However, there was a bruise on the right side of his forehead. Clearly, he had struck something while being dragged by the Yeti.

Looking down at the rope tied around Wei Dengke's waist, Mo Li rolled his eyes. Because of the tension, the rope had been pulled extremely tight, deforming Wei Dengke's waist. No wonder the guy couldn't breathe. If Mo Li had been constricted like that, he wouldn't have been able to breathe either!

Mo Li reached out to untie the rope around Wei Dengke's waist, only to discover that the knot had become impossible to undo by hand because of the pulling force. The more anxious he became, the harder it was to untie. Wei Dengke had already been constricted for a long time. If the rope wasn't removed quickly, he really might suffocate.

In his desperation, Mo Li didn't have time to worry about anything else. He turned and searched Zhong Lichun for the military knife she had used before. However, Mo Li was a very proper person and didn't dare touch her randomly, so he searched only around her arms and calves. Fortunately, Zhong Lichun hadn't kept the military knife anywhere embarrassing. It was tucked into her boot. Otherwise, Mo Li would have been in an awkward situation.

Pulling out the military knife, Mo Li cut through the Climbing Rope tied around Wei Dengke's waist. He then performed artificial respiration on Wei Dengke. Thanks to Mo Li's efforts, Wei Dengke finally began breathing again after coughing violently twice.

Seeing Wei Dengke breathing again, Mo Li dropped onto the ground and then let out a relieved expression.

After saving Wei Dengke, Mo Li finally had time to look around. This was clearly a cave inside the mountain, but he noticed that the cave walls were extremely smooth, as if they had been polished by hand. Could this cave have been excavated by people? Or had a natural cave been artificially tidied up?

Who would have dug a cave here under such harsh conditions? And what was this cave used for?

After staring at the cave wall for a while, Mo Li seemed to vaguely see something on it. However, the area illuminated by the glow stick was too small, so he couldn't make it out clearly.

Mo Li turned to glance at Wei Dengke and Zhong Lichun. After confirming that neither of them was in danger, he picked up a glow stick from the ground, stood up, and walked over to the cave wall. He then brought the glow stick close, wanting to see what was on it.

With the light, Mo Li finally saw that the cave wall was covered in large numbers of irregular black patches. These patches didn't feel like mere colors. Instead, they looked like some kind of plant, perhaps moss.

To see more clearly, Mo Li leaned his face closer until it was almost against the cave wall. Just as he brought his face near, the black patches resembling moss suddenly began moving strangely. All of them started retreating rapidly, moving toward the top of the cave wall.

The sight startled Mo Li. His head jerked back on reflex, and he retreated a step, putting some distance between himself and the cave wall.

Fortunately, the moving patches didn't pose any danger to him. Instead, they seemed to be hiding from something, disappearing entirely into the darkness at the top of the cave. Once the patches in that area had vanished completely, Mo Li was stunned by what he saw before him.

A mural that looked extremely ancient had appeared on the cave wall. Its colors were very plain, consisting only of brown-gray and white paint. The painting itself was also crude, only slightly better than a child's doodle.

The mural depicted more than a dozen humanoid figures. Some were shorter and seemed to be holding weapons resembling spears, while others were much taller and appeared to have long hair covering their bodies.

Based on his understanding, Mo Li concluded that the short figures holding weapons were probably humans, while the enormous, hairy figures opposite them were Yetis. Although the scene was simple and abstract, Mo Li was certain that the mural depicted humans fighting Yetis.

Discovering the mural immediately piqued Mo Li's interest. The cave wall was covered in huge stretches of patches. If every patch concealed a mural like this, then this place contained an enormous amount of information!

Although Mo Li wasn't an archaeologist, he still had his curiosity. He had lived here for ten years, yet he had never known there was a cave here, much less murals on its walls. This should count as a major discovery.

Approaching another, somewhat larger patch, Mo Li brought the glow stick in his hand over to it. To his surprise, although the light illuminated the cave wall, the black patches didn't retreat as they had before.

This left Mo Li puzzled. Why had those black patches—whatever they were—retreated earlier, yet shown no reaction now? Could he have triggered some condition before that had caused them to leave? But what had he done?

Recalling his actions earlier, Mo Li subconsciously began repeating them. He raised the glow stick again and then brought his face close to the cave wall. Because he was nervous, his breathing had become somewhat hurried.

A miraculous scene appeared. As soon as Mo Li brought his face close to the cave wall, the black patches that had shown no reaction before began spreading rapidly like a receding tide. Just as before, they headed toward the darkness at the top of the cave and disappeared into it.