Ran Zhihui's Warning

"Professor Han, zf, we couldn't find him."

Amid the anxious waiting, an old man in a straw hat walked in with several people from the Security Section and spoke helplessly.

They had done everything they could, too.

But this was simply too bizarre.

Even the local old man felt a chill run down his spine when he thought about it.

A living, breathing man, six foot one and packed with muscle, who looked far more like a physical education student than a humanities student, had somehow vanished right under their noses.

Without a trace.

And it was still raining outside!

The footprints of a man that size should have been easy to track through the mud.

There was no shortage of skilled trackers among them.

Yet the situation was just that strange.

This grown man's footprints had led into the dense forest, then disappeared!

It was as though someone had picked him up and flown away with him.

But what in the Western Hunan Mountains could possibly be that tall?

And how could a person fly?

Professor Han stamped his feet in agitation. Everyone else looked anxious, too, but there was nothing any of them could do.

"What are we going to do? What are we going to do?"

Professor Han was utterly distraught.

He braced one hand on the table and pressed the other to his forehead, grief written all over him.

Grief for Ran Zhihui.

Ran Zhihui was no ordinary student. He was his very first disciple, the successor to whom he had passed on his life's work, the one he intended to inherit his connections and research expertise!

A successor and a disciple were not the same thing!

He could have many disciples, but only one true successor!

Nurturing a young man like that was no easy task. If he was gone, all those years of painstaking effort would have been for nothing!

But Professor Han could do nothing except fret.

Several times, he tried to go out and search himself, only to be stopped.

"Professor Han, you can't go out!"

The Security Section personnel blocked him with everything they had. They had no other choice.

The terrain of the Western Hunan Mountains was extremely complicated.

Letting an elderly professor like him go out there would be sending him to his death!

"zf, don't panic. I'll find a way to get people searching."

The old man, his skin tanned dark and shiny by the sun, gritted his teeth and spoke again in a mixture of dialect and standard Mandarin.

He could not even spare the energy to curse.

His heart was filled with unease.

What had happened today reminded him of the old tales his elders had told to scare him when he was a child.

The thought sent a chill through him.

According to the elders, these mountains held a Ghost Yamen that stole people's souls, an Old Immortal Tomb that devoured the young, an Empty Village whose lights came on every night, and a Snake Bride waiting to marry. Suppressed long ago by Taoist priests and lamas, these things had slept peacefully deep in the mountains.

But if they disturbed those sleeping things...

What awaited them would be utter disaster.

At the thought, the old man shuddered involuntarily.

Wasn't this exactly what the elders had spoken of—a newly opened Forbidden Ground?

Few people ever came here. There was not a soul in sight.

And what had happened was exactly like someone having their soul snatched by a ghost.

It was not that he looked down on these students. Even if he told them to run for their lives, they would not get very far.

Besides, that young man had disappeared at night!

Yin and yang divided darkness from dawn. The early morning and dusk were precisely when yin and yang changed places.

Still, fear was one thing.

The old man gritted his teeth, finally stamped his foot, and called several Security Section personnel to join him. Carrying flashlights and radios, they walked into the storm-swept darkness.

Finding him came first.

Standing in the shadows in a raincoat, Xu Nian had also tried several times to go out.

Raindrops still clung to the young woman's raincoat.

She held a flashlight.

She, too, had just returned from outside.

Professor Han was a good man, and there was not much scheming or infighting among his disciples.

More importantly, Xu Nian was the only girl on their team, and everyone took great care of her.

Ran Zhihui was no exception.

His sudden disappearance had left Xu Nian anxious, too, but she dared not stray far from camp. As the locals put it, what were they supposed to do if Xu Nian also got lost in the woods?

Should they search for Ran Zhihui or for Xu Nian?

Xu Nian could only make a circuit of the surrounding area with several of her senior fellow students, calling their eldest senior's name.

It was no use.

When she tried to go out again, the Security Section personnel refused to let her.

Leaving everything else aside, at night, snakes were everywhere in the Western Hunan Mountains.

Among the known snake species in the Western Hunan Mountains alone were highly venomous ones such as the Ironhead Viper, Bamboo Green Viper, Five-Pacer, and White-Headed Viper.

On a rainy night, one careless step into a venomous snake's territory could get someone bitten.

That would only make things worse!

They had no antivenom here!

Snake antivenom had to be stored in a temperature-controlled refrigerator.

Antivenoms were also highly specific.

The county hospital and epidemic prevention station down the mountain both had antivenom.

The township clinic had some, too, but not every kind.

In the middle of the night, getting from the mountain to the nearest township clinic would take at least four hours. With rain falling and the roads muddy, getting out of the mountains might take even longer. Were they supposed to risk several more students and cause another accident for the sake of one missing person?

What kind of joke was that?

Soon, only a few Security Section personnel remained in the tent, while several students tried to comfort Professor Han.

Professor Han sat down without speaking or responding to anyone.

In such a stifling atmosphere, it was easy for people's thoughts to run wild.

For some reason, Xu Nian remembered the strange things Ran Zhihui had said to her before he disappeared.

"A blood-red figure. You have to believe me."

Her senior, who stood over six feet tall, had bloodshot eyes. He had whispered to Xu Nian, "Something's wrong here. Something's terribly wrong. Do you know what we found?

"Ritual vessels with a Taotie Pattern. Judging by their design, they should have belonged to Yin-Shang nobles. Do you know what that means?

"The territory ruled by Yin-Shang was around hn. But this is gz!

"One's in the north, the other's in the south!

"And what we're excavating might be a sacrificial burial pit. Even among the things we've already dug up, there are plenty of bones that don't look human or animal.

"There are some pottery jars, too. Professor Han told me not to tell you, but... but something's wrong here.

"Human bones packed full of worms. Have you ever seen anything like that?

"Pottery jars filled with human heads. Have you ever seen that?

"Those skeletons pierced by banyan trees... I even feel as if they're still alive. This is sinister. It's sinister!

"You should leave as soon as you can! I'm begging you. I can't persuade Professor Han, but you have to listen to me.

"I've never lied to you. Can't you trust me just this once?

"They all say I've gone mad, but I know I'm perfectly sane!"

By that point, her senior was rambling uncontrollably. He was from hn, and he had slipped into his native dialect as he spoke, going on and on.

"Listen to me. You're a girl. The next time you leave the mountains, say you're feeling unwell and ask for leave. Professor Han might be unhappy with you, but there's nothing he can do to you.

"Listen to me, listen to me. Leave this place, or we're all going to die. We're all going to die."

When Ran Zhihui said those words, Xu Nian did not know whether she had imagined it.

She saw something that nearly made her heart and lungs stop.

One of Ran's eyes turned to the left, while the other flicked to the right.

That look...

It was not an expression any normal person could possibly make.

It was so fucking terrifying!