I was surprised when he asked me that. My mind was blank, and I shook my head, saying, “So big? I don’t think I’ve eaten anything like that. What do you mean? What are you thinking, Liang Shiye?”

Liang Shiye took a little of my blood, smelled it, and said to me, “From what you just described, it reminds me of something. I once heard an old gentleman say that there is something that, when eaten by a person, can drive away evil spirits, and evil insects won’t come near. It’s a very rare traditional Chinese medicine. Think about it, have you eaten anything similar?”

I gasped, thinking of black shell-like things? Traditional Chinese medicine? This really stumped me. So much has happened recently, and I’ve been eating in a hurry most of the time. I haven’t been sick, and I usually don’t pay much attention to what I eat. Now, being suddenly asked, I really couldn’t remember anything.

Old Yang mocked me, saying, “I’ve only heard that black dog blood and rooster blood can drive away evil spirits. Who would’ve thought that our Old Wu has this ability too? Don’t tell anyone about this, or everyone will come to borrow your blood, and in a few days, you’ll be squeezed dry!” After saying this, he burst into laughter.

I cursed, “Can you have a little decency? What dog and chicken! I’ll tell you, human blood has always been the best for driving away evil, especially the blood of death row inmates. There are even people at the execution ground who ask forensic doctors to dip white cloths in it and hang them on the door beams. Don’t talk nonsense if you don’t understand.”

Seeing that I was getting anxious, Old Yang laughed triumphantly. After a couple of laughs, he suddenly exclaimed in pain, touching his back and grimacing. It seemed he had been hurt there earlier, and now the laughter was causing him pain.

I thought to myself, serves him right, and ignored him. I said to Liang Shiye, “If you can’t describe it more specifically, just saying it’s black and shell-like doesn’t help. There are too many things that fit that description. Does this thing have any obvious characteristics?”

Liang Shiye thought for a moment, looking a bit embarrassed, and said, “I’ve never seen it myself; I’ve only heard others describe it, and it’s been a long time. I really can’t remember if I try hard.”

I couldn’t help but feel disappointed and sighed.

Liang Shiye smiled and said, “Don’t take it too seriously, little brother. This isn’t a bad thing. If it weren’t for you just now, we would have been done for. I see this as fate; it’s all predestined. Think about it, in the future, when you go tomb raiding, with this capital, nothing will be too difficult!”

Hearing this, I felt quite uneasy. The way things have gone so far indicates that my life is in a bad state. If I continue to tomb raid, I’m probably looking for death. I looked up and said to them, “That being said, we haven’t tested it yet, and we don’t even know if it’s really my blood that’s working. If it weren’t for that, it would be troublesome. Let’s take this opportunity to hurry up and go up; we can talk about it after we pass this section.”

Liang Shiye wanted to rest a bit more, but seeing the lurking Gu insects around, he agreed with my idea. We started to climb a few steps again when Old Yang suddenly grabbed my hand and whispered, “Wait… wait a minute!”

I turned back and saw that his face was ashen, covered in cold sweat, and his expression was quite inappropriate. My heart sank, and I asked him what was wrong.

Old Yang was holding onto the rock with one hand and touching his back with the other, gritting his teeth as he said, “I don’t know what’s going on. Just now, after laughing, my back started to hurt terribly. It might have been when the rope broke and I got a bit injured. Can you take a look? Why does it hurt so much? I can’t even use my strength.”

The impact when the rope broke just now was quite severe. I had already felt pain all over my body, but the situation was urgent, and I didn’t have time to think about it. Now that the atmosphere has calmed down, these wounds are starting to act up. Lao Yang at the bottom of the rope hit himself much harder than we did; could it be that something is fractured?

I told him not to move and lifted his shirt. I saw a bruise on his back near the third rib, and there was even a slight dent. I pressed on it lightly, and he suddenly screamed like a pig being slaughtered, arching his back and nearly knocking me over.

I thought to myself that this injury might not be simple; just touching it caused such pain. Could it really be a fracture?

Lao Yang’s face twisted in pain as he struggled to turn his head and asked me how it was. I frowned, unsure of how to respond, and finally said, “Just looking at it doesn’t reveal much. But since you’re in so much pain, we can’t climb anymore. If the bone is already broken, doing any strenuous activity would be no joke. We need to find a flat place to examine it carefully.”

Lao Yang was eager to get up and struggled to rise, gritting his teeth and saying, “Forget the detailed check; our torches and flashlights won’t last long. We can’t stay here; let’s talk about it when we get to the top.”

Kong Shiye looked at his back, shook his head, and said, “No, Lao Yang, Xiao Wu is right. Your back is deformed; it definitely needs to be checked. If it really is a fracture, it needs immediate attention. Otherwise, the bone could easily puncture your chest cavity, and that would be disastrous. I know a bit about this; we’re not far from the top now, so there’s no reason to delay.”

Lao Yang wanted to argue with him a bit more, but perhaps the pain was too much; his words turned into groans. I noticed the small rock caves nearby, which seemed relatively flat. I exchanged glances with Kong Shiye, and without further discussion, the two of us helped him into one of the better rock caves. I took back the torch and placed it at the entrance to keep the insects out.

This cave was about seven or eight meters deep and less than a meter high. Because it had been shielded from sunlight for years, the air was very humid, and the rock walls were covered with spots corroded by mold. There seemed to be some signs of human activity, though they were not obvious. After going about five or six meters in, I could see the bottom of the cave, which was a rough rock surface. There was nothing else.

I checked to make sure there were no dangers before putting away my gun. Kong Shiye used a paddle to fashion a splint and tied it to Lao Yang’s back. Lao Yang’s face relaxed a bit. I thought to myself that this master is different; he knows everything. It seems that next time we go underground, we should find someone like him.

After Kong Shiye finished, I asked him about the situation. He lowered his voice and said, “The bone should be intact, but it’s definitely cracked. I’ve temporarily stabilized it; it shouldn’t hurt as much now. But Xiao Wu, you should really advise your friend; in his condition, he absolutely cannot climb any higher.”

I glanced at Master Liang and knew that he was hinting at something, likely suggesting that I should go down. He had hinted at this several times along the way; to be honest, this kind of adventure was really quite forced for him. I could tell he had long been considering retreat, but unfortunately, due to his stubbornness, he couldn’t bring it up. Now that he had found an excuse, he would naturally take the opportunity to elaborate.

However, this made me uncertain about whether to trust his words regarding Lao Yang’s injuries. Seeing my skepticism, Master Liang quickly added, “Little Wu, although I’m not on the same path as you guys, we all mix in the same world. There are some things I won’t gloss over. You should know this for yourself. To be honest, look at us right now. If we insist on going up, we might really die here this time.”

I glanced at Lao Yang, who was enduring pain and hadn’t noticed our conversation. I then patted Master Liang’s shoulder and quietly said to him, “We need to assess the situation. You should go rest now; it’s not the time to discuss this. Even if we decide to go down, we need to be well-rested first.”

Master Liang mumbled something, leaned to the side, and started rubbing his thigh without saying anything more. I checked the remaining supplies, sat down, rubbed my temples, and began to consider what Master Liang had said.

Initially, I wasn’t very interested in what Li Pipa had mentioned. If they had asked me to give up earlier, I wouldn’t have had any objections. But now that we had gone through so much to get here, it felt a bit reluctant to give up at this point, almost like a sense of retreating at the last moment. However, deep down, I knew Master Liang’s words made sense. One of us had a broken bone, another was in very unstable condition, and I myself had reached my physical limit. If we recklessly climbed up, it would truly be unwise.

But this made it difficult regarding Lao Yang. After all, he and I were in this together, and now to team up with outsiders against him might jeopardize our friendship. Although Master Liang seemed rather spineless, he was an old hand in this world, and this could very well be his way of dividing us. If I followed his line of thinking, I might end up walking into his trap. It was truly a dilemma.

After thinking it over, I couldn’t come to a conclusion, so I decided to stop thinking about it and take it one step at a time.

When I turned to look at them, Master Liang had already fallen asleep. He was exhausted and was already snoring. Lao Yang had also dozed off, but not very deeply, likely due to the injury on his back. This small hole, though damp and chilly, was much more comfortable than hanging outside. Seeing them sleep so soundly, an overwhelming fatigue washed over me. Though I forced myself not to sleep, I still unknowingly drifted off.

I slept extremely soundly, and when I woke up, my body felt soft and a pleasant tingling sensation spread throughout me. At this point, the torchlight was very dim, indicating that I had slept for quite a while. Peeking out, I noticed that the Gu insects had disappeared, with only a few scattered ones still clinging there.

I breathed a sigh of relief, turned on my flashlight, and looked up. From this angle, it seemed we were only about three to four hours away from the top of the copper tree. The things up there were almost within reach, and now to go down would truly feel like a waste.

Old Yang hasn’t woken up yet, but he looks peaceful and seems to be feeling much better. I turned to look at Mr. Liang, wanting to wake him up to discuss what to do next, but to my surprise, the spot where he was lying was empty—he wasn’t there.

“Hmm?” I instinctively froze for a moment, shining my flashlight deeper into the cave, but saw no trace of him. I thought to myself, where did he go? At that moment, I suddenly noticed that the paddle used to secure Old Yang’s injury was missing, and I broke out in a cold sweat. A sense of foreboding washed over me, and when I reached for my waist, I realized, of course, that my handgun was also gone!

“Bastard!” I cursed loudly. I really didn’t expect that someone who looked so cowardly would steal my gun and run away while I was asleep! But why didn’t he take the flashlight too? How could he move without a light source? I was so furious that I didn’t think carefully; I grabbed a torch and wanted to rush out to chase him. This guy was slow on his feet, and if he hadn’t gotten too far, I could definitely catch up.

As soon as I stepped out of the cave, I hadn’t even had time to discern whether he went up or down when suddenly, a dark shadow swung down from above. A kick landed squarely on my chest, and I felt a surge of air as I was forcefully knocked back into the cave. After hitting the ground, I gritted my teeth and tried to stand up, but my chin was struck again, and this blow was extremely hard—I nearly lost consciousness. In my daze, I saw a fat man with a cigarette in his mouth sneaking into the cave, holding a short rifle, with Mr. Liang following closely behind him, looking pale and tense.

I recognized that fat man with just one glance; he was one of the two bosses from Guangdong, the one named Wang. He pointed the gun at me and told me to move aside, then turned to Mr. Liang and asked, “Old Liang, which young fellow has ever had a taste of Qilin’s blood?”