The black wolf was not a lone wolf, but a demon wolf.

The escape route that Tiezhu had analyzed based on his experience was completely wrong. Once the black wolf discovered that the other boys couldn’t throw stones with such astonishing force, everyone would be devoured by the wolf.

Those few machetes were utterly useless. If they had fled toward the outside of the mountain, perhaps a few could have escaped alive, but once they fled into the cave, the boys who had entered the mountain this time would completely walk into a death trap.

When Xu Yan tried to stop them again, it was already too late. Tiezhu had rushed into the cave first to check the terrain, the other boys followed closely behind, and that black wolf had already caught up.

With no choice, Xu Yan had to follow his companions into the cave. When the black wolf pursued them, several boys guarding the cave entrance immediately threw the prepared stones and dirt, but this time it was obviously of little use. The black wolf was no longer dodging, but slowly approaching.

“There’s a passage inside! Everyone come over!”

Tiezhu’s delighted shout came from the depths of the cave, so the boys quickly ran over. At this moment, one of the boys who had been guarding the cave entrance had just turned his head when a pair of furry wolf claws appeared on his shoulders.

Crack!

The sound of a breaking neck rang out at the cave entrance, directly reaching the depths of the cavern.

“Awang!”

“It’s that black wolf!”

“The black wolf bit Brother Awang to death, wuu wuu wuu…”

Exclamations and crying echoed back from the depths, but the boy named Awang could no longer hear them. His staring eyes had lost all life.

With one companion suddenly bitten to death, Tiezhu and the other boys were all terrified. Without looking back, they ran wildly toward the depths of the cavern. Xu Yan was also stunned, glanced back at the sinister silhouette of the black wolf at the cave entrance, sighed, and followed his companions fleeing into the depths.

Chaotic footsteps echoed in this long, narrow cavern. Strangely, this cave was different from those wild animal lairs. After the boys had fled more than a hundred zhang deep, they still hadn’t reached the end.

The deeper they went, the dimmer the cavern became. The cave entrance behind them gradually became a tiny point of light, looking even more sinister.

Flutter flutter!!

During their flight, the sound of flapping wings suddenly rang out above the boys’ heads, frightening little Xiaohua into crouching in a corner with her hands covering her head, while the others were even more terrified.

When these boys looked up with fearful gazes, the cavern suddenly brightened. Pale white light spots scattered down. At the cave ceiling, some flying insects disturbed by the living people flapped their wings, emitting phosphorescent-like flowing light.

After a brief pause, discovering it was a false alarm, the boys once again fled toward the depths.

The cave filled with flying insects and flowing light had now become a fantastical path leading to dreamland. If there had been no black wolf, if no companion had died, these boys would surely have been mesmerized by this strange scenery.

The echoing footsteps in the cave grew smaller and smaller until they disappeared. The disturbed flying insects crawled back to the cave ceiling. When these strange insects became still, they revealed their withered bodies and fell down with crackling sounds.

Those were phosphorescent insects, strange bugs that could only shine for a moment before dying completely. They dwelt in the deepest parts of graves, like phosphorescent fires that suddenly appeared in graveyards—once they lit up, they died.

The light that had spread to the depths of the cavern gradually dimmed, as if someone was slowly snuffing out these lights. At the junction of light and darkness, one could faintly see the silhouette of a fierce beast moving forward.

The black wolf had already silently pursued them along the passage in the cavern.

Dragging their panicked steps, the boys finally fled to the end of the cave. Here was a natural limestone cave, like a stone hall. The startled phosphorescent insects flew about everywhere, illuminating the four walls of the limestone cave as pale as paper.

Like a purgatory suddenly lit up in eternal night, the entire limestone cave possessed an indescribable eeriness, especially at the center—that strange square stone platform.

“What… what is that?”

“It looks hollow, is it a well?”

“Wells aren’t square, it looks like… a coffin!”

The boys’ terrified whispers formed eerie echoes. The stone platform in the center of the limestone cave indeed looked very much like a stone coffin, except it had no coffin lid. There was wind in the cave, producing a thin sound like ghostly wails and wolf howls. The boys, already wrapped in fear, began to shiver. One pressed against another—only by staying together could they resist the strangeness before them.

Since a stone coffin had appeared in the cave, this was not some wild animal’s lair, but an ancient tomb.

Creak creak!

Creak creak!

Strange sounds came with the wind, as if someone was scratching something, or like two pieces of bone rubbing against each other. Moreover, this strange sound was coming from the depths of that stone coffin.

The boys gathered in the corner of the limestone cave—several were about to cry out in alarm when they quickly covered their mouths with their hands. Every child’s eyes were filled with tremendous fear.

The fierce black wolf, the ancient tomb in the mountain, the strange stone coffin—all these experiences left these children from poor families almost beside themselves with terror, completely at a loss.

The boys’ fear came from tales of ghosts and spirits. Even the strongest, Tiezhu, was trembling in his legs at this moment, his machete slick with sweat from his grip. If Xu Yan hadn’t been standing beside him, he would have wanted to turn and charge at that black wolf.

No one wants to face a ghost—at least the black wolf is a living thing, he thought.

Tiezhu’s throat moved as he gripped his machete tightly and said in a low voice, “Zhijian, what do we do now?”

Zhijian was the courtesy name the old Taoist priest had given to Xu Yan.

Xu Yan, courtesy name Zhijian.

Taoist sects had no courtesy names, only Taoist titles. Those who took courtesy names were mostly from scholarly families, and they were usually given after coming of age. Xu Yan was only fifteen this year, but he already had his own courtesy name, which was somewhat strange. However, people in small villages and towns wouldn’t be so particular about such things. Someone with a courtesy name always seemed more refined than others. It was just that most people in Linshan Town thought Zhijian was Xu Yan’s Taoist title.

Whether it was a courtesy name or a Taoist title, if formally mentioned, it represented a kind of respect.

Although Tiezhu was the blacksmith’s son, he understood this point. Now facing this strange situation that he could no longer handle, he called Xu Yan by his other name, representing respect while also wanting him to make a decision.

Creak creak! Creak creak!

Just as Tiezhu finished speaking, strange sounds came again from the stone coffin in the center of the limestone cave. Two bone-white skeletal hands emerged from the stone coffin, dancing up and down. That hair-raising strange sound was actually the noise made by those two skeletal hands.

Desperately suppressed screams inevitably came from among the boys, especially little Xiaohua, the youngest, whose small face covered with tears was completely pale.

It wasn’t strange for an ancient tomb to have a stone coffin, and it was normal for a stone coffin to contain white bones, but if those white bones could move, that was terror to the extreme. Not only Xiaohua, but all the other boys were terrified, and Tiezhu’s legs shook even faster.

Creak creak! Creak creak!

The terror was far from over. As the two skeletal arms waved, in the rhythm formed by the friction of bones, a bone-white skull gradually floated up from the stone coffin, as if the withered skeleton was struggling to sit up but couldn’t manage it for the moment. The skull bobbing up and down, coordinating with the strange rhythm, looked as if it was laughing silently and wildly.

In the cold cavern, white bones began to dance!