The sun rose in the east. Another night had passed.
Braving the howling morning wind, two dust-covered figures darted out of the vast mountain forest.
Lian Youming pressed his cracked lips together. Spotting a truck hauling timber along the road, he and Yang Shuang chased through its dust and nimbly clambered aboard. This day and two nights had worn them out. They had made two trips through the Greater Khingan Mountains, on edge the whole time. Now they were hungry and thirsty, their legs sore and numb.
Lian Youming was strong enough to bear it, but Yang Shuang had already been weak. By now, her face was deathly pale with exhaustion, and she panted as though her lungs would burst. "Little sister, tell your brother the truth. Just what is that old man guarding to draw so many people here?"
In the end, he had been unable to hold back.
Yet Yang Shuang's answer left him baffled.
"I don't know either."
Lian Youming rolled his eyes. His dusty face and stark black-and-white eyes made him look like a refugee fleeing famine.
"Didn't you say there was someone there? Someone alive?"
With things having come this far, Yang Shuang held nothing back. Nodding and catching her breath, she said very seriously, "I didn't lie to you. When I was little, I really did see someone in that tomb. Someone even older than my grandmaster."
Lian Youming frowned. "Then why say you don't know?"
Yang Shuang considered her words. "How should I put it..."
Seeing her hesitate, Lian Youming ventured, "Do you think the old man is hiding something else?"
Yang Shuang turned her head and nodded. "That's right... especially after we came down from the Logging Camp. Grandmaster rarely met with me after that, and he made arrangements for everything."
Lian