Chapter 5: Female Voice

It was a massive stone statue covered in moss, about two meters tall, with the proportions of three heads stacked on top of each other. The statue was wrapped all over with vines. Its carving was extremely intricate. Despite the passage of time, Zuo Qingcang could still clearly see the resentment and ferocity on the statue’s face, as if it had suffered some kind of unprecedented torment.

Seeing a statue like this in the remains of an ancient civilization seemed normal. But the problem was, just one minute ago, Zuo Qingcang clearly remembered that there was definitely no statue in this spot.

So where did this statue come from?

Zuo Qingcang frowned and gently tapped the statue with his spear. From the sound, it seemed to be truly made of stone. Next, he circled around the statue once, but found no reason for its sudden appearance.

The situation seemed a bit strange, and Zuo Qingcang thought about retreating first. Just as he was thinking this, he raised his head to look back the way he came, and his eyes widened in shock.

The path he had taken to get here had vanished without him noticing. The vines and branches he had chopped down seemed to have grown back completely. The surrounding forest had suddenly become incredibly dense. Sunlight from the sky, blocked by layer upon layer of thick branches and leaves, only allowed dim light to filter through.

At some point, the forest had fallen completely silent. Even the calls of birds and the chirping of insects had disappeared. Only the sound of Zuo Qingcang’s own breathing remained.

Zuo Qingcang suspected he might have misremembered the route. He turned his head to look at the other side of the forest again, only to find that moss-covered stone face now extremely close to him.

“Crap.” That was what Zuo Qingcang yelled out.

‘This statue is alive.’ That was his inner thought.

In the next moment, his body’s instincts were triggered. The muscles in his arms tightened violently. He twisted his waist hard, concentrating his body’s strength into an instant burst that transferred to his palms. Then, the bamboo spear in Zuo Qingcang’s hand shot towards the statue like a meteor, striking fiercely.

A cracking sound rang out. Under the tremendous force, the bamboo spear shattered into countless bamboo fibers upon impact with the statue’s neck. Simultaneously, using the thrust’s recoil, Zuo Qingcang pushed himself backwards, leaping away rapidly.

The statue, struck by the bamboo spear, let out a furious roar and lunged viciously towards Zuo Qingcang.

‘This thing is beyond human strength to stop.’

The moment the bamboo spear struck the statue, Zuo Qingcang understood clearly from the feedback through the spear that this stone monster, whatever it was, was absolutely not something his human flesh and blood body could withstand.

After leaping back several steps, Zuo Qingcang rolled on the ground. He heard a loud boom, like a container truck crashing onto concrete. The spot where he had just been standing was now a large crater crushed by the statue. Seeing this, Zuo Qingcang’s face changed. He realized the statue’s weight and strength were even greater than he had estimated. Probably just a glancing blow would be enough to break his bones.

So, after a few continuous rolls, Zuo Qingcang, on all fours, suddenly pushed off with both hands and feet together. His whole body shot forward like a tiger bursting from its cage, skimming over the rotten leaves on the ground. In two or three moves, he vanished into the surrounding jungle.

This series of clean, efficient movements might have been impossible for the Zuo Qingcang of his previous life to perform so crisply and powerfully. But after constantly using Liu Zhicheng’s body these past few days, he discovered that Liu Zhicheng’s physical fitness exceeded his imagination. Whether it was strength, speed, stamina, or explosive power, it was far superior to Zuo Qingcang’s former body.

He believed that with his current body, if he faced his previous self, he could probably take on three of him at once.

Relying on this agile body and powerful explosive force, Zuo Qingcang didn’t care about the scratches from branches and vines anymore. He weaved directly through the bushes, constantly putting distance between himself and the statue, rushing swiftly deeper into the jungle like a giant serpent.

Behind him, the over-two-meter-tall statue let out a terrifying roar, plowing directly through the thickets he had passed through. It made a series of rumbling sounds, like a bulldozer, following closely on Zuo Qingcang’s heels.

However, Zuo Qingcang was still flesh and blood. Although he managed to avoid being caught for the moment thanks to his muscular explosiveness and the stimulation of adrenaline, he couldn’t keep up this all-fours, full-speed dash through the dense forest for long.

This wasn’t just because of the physical strain, but also because of the complex environment of the dense forest. Running at such high speed here was very dangerous.

Within just two minutes, Zuo Qingcang felt himself panting heavily. He took a moment to look at his surroundings and realized he had unknowingly run into an unfamiliar part of the dense forest. There were rocks covered with vines and foliage everywhere, but the vegetation was so thick that Zuo Qingcang couldn’t see what lay beneath.

Suddenly, a tree hollow flashed past in front of him. Before he could think much about it, he felt a fierce, evil wind blast past the back of his head. The statue had already thrown a punch aimed at his skull.

He didn’t have time to think. Putting strength into his body, he leaped into the tree hollow and began crawling deeper into the jungle. At this point, with the statue’s roars in his ears, the only word in Zuo Qingcang’s mind was ‘run’. As he advanced rapidly, the statue’s sounds grew more distant, and the tree hollow became narrower and narrower. Finally, he could only crawl forward on his belly through gaps in the branches and vines.

When Zuo Qingcang felt his strength deplete and slowly came to a stop, he could no longer hear the previous roars of the statue. Lying in the thicket, he began to gasp for air in large breaths. His mind kept replaying the ferocious visage of that statue.

‘What the hell was that thing?’

‘Did I lose it?’

While gasping, Zuo Qingcang observed the terrain around him. The place where he was hiding now had vegetation so dense it was astonishing. Countless roots and branches tangled together, forming numerous tree hollows, barely large enough for a person to crawl through on their belly.

In a place like this, you couldn’t even stand up. Combined with the fact that sunlight could hardly penetrate, the entire tree hollow was pitch black, making one feel very oppressive. But with the danger of the stone monster outside, Zuo Qingcang had no choice but to grit his teeth and keep going.

After more than ten minutes, the darkness seemed to have swallowed all light. The tree hollow was completely silent, except for the continuous sound of Zuo Qingcang’s heavy panting. He counted in his mind to estimate the time as he crawled forward. Zuo Qingcang secretly decided that if he couldn’t find a way out after crawling for another twenty minutes, he would turn back to see if the stone monster had left.

But in this peace and quiet, a faint rustling sound suddenly came from the darkness. The sound was very abrupt in the silence. Hearing it, Zuo Qingcang felt his heartbeat quicken.

Because although the sound was intermittent, rising and falling, it distinctly sounded like a woman’s voice speaking.

On a deserted island, in a pitch-black tree hollow, someone who had just been chased by a stone monster hearing such a sound would probably be scared half to death.

However, Zuo Qingcang still maintained some calmness. He slowly drew the Dagger from his waist and then listened carefully for the direction of the sound.

The sound somewhat resembled the wind blowing through tall buildings or mountains, but much more subtle. It sounded like a woman whispering in the dark. But what Zuo Qingcang found eerie was that he couldn’t feel the slightest trace of wind in the tree hollow where he was now.

Cold sweat slowly beaded on the tip of Zuo Qingcang’s nose. Holding the Dagger, he slowly crawled on his belly towards the source of the sound. In the utter darkness, the branches and vines above gently brushed over his body, almost as if someone was stroking him with their hands.

Slowly moving closer to the direction of the sound, Zuo Qingcang also wondered in his heart what the source of the sound could be. Theoretically, the first thing he thought of was the sound of wind, which might mean he could find the exit of the tree hollow by following it.

The second possibility was the sound of some animal. From the animal’s den, he might also find an exit.

The least likely possibility was naturally a human voice.

But thinking of the strange events that had happened one after another since arriving in this world, a fourth possibility involuntarily crossed Zuo Qingcang’s mind.

‘It couldn’t be a female ghost, could it?’

‘But even if it is a female ghost, it’s still better than going out and being smashed into paste by that stone monster.’

The voice really sounded too much like a woman talking to herself. Even the intonation sounded a bit like the language of Great Qi. But no matter how intently Zuo Qingcang listened, he couldn’t understand what the other person was saying.

At times, it also sounded like lamenting, the tone full of a damp, sodden feeling.

Zuo Qingcang could only hold his breath and focus, inching his way towards the source of the sound. As the sound grew louder in his ears, a foul smell gradually arose in the tree hollow. Simultaneously, small points of fluorescent light began to glow in the darkness. Those lights danced and jumped in the dark, seeming to be some kind of firefly, casting the surrounding tree hollow in an emerald green glow.

But Zuo Qingcang’s attention was no longer on that. Because the stench reaching his nose was becoming more and more obvious. And whether for Zuo Qingcang, who had battled in slaughterhouses in his previous life, or for Liu Zhicheng, who lived on the battlefield in this life, this smell was not unfamiliar.

It was the smell of corpses. And it had to be the stench formed only after a large number of corpses piled up. When Liu Zhicheng served in the Northern Garrison Army, Great Qi once buried alive one hundred thousand White Wolf Tribe soldiers. That smell was something he would never forget for the rest of his life.

Zuo Qingcang was now certain that beneath this dreamlike fluorescent glow lay many rotting corpses. He didn’t know how many there were, or what the owners of those corpses were.

But he was sure that this tree hollow ahead hid great danger.

The muscles on his back tightened sharply. His whole body, like a startled wild beast, began to slowly retreat the way he came. But he hadn’t retreated more than a few steps when the sound of a dry twig snapping suddenly came from beneath him.

As this sound rang out, the female voice that had been continuously muttering to itself suddenly stopped, as if startled.

In this sudden silence, Zuo Qingcang lay motionless on the spot. He could even clearly hear the sound of his own heart beating.