Chapter 5

It was a colossal three-headed stone statue covered in moss, standing about two meters tall, with vines wrapping around its entire body. The carving was incredibly detailed, and even after the passage of time, Zuo Qingcang could still see the resentment and ferocity on the statue's face, as if it had endured some unprecedented torment.

In such an ancient civilization, seeing such a stone statue seemed quite normal. However, the problem was that just a minute ago, Zuo Qingcang clearly remembered that there was no statue at this spot.

So where did this statue come from?

Zuo Qingcang frowned, lightly touching the statue with the spear in his hand. From the sound, it seemed to be made of stone. He then circled the statue, but found no reason for its sudden appearance.

The situation seemed a bit eerie, and Zuo Qingcang was considering whether to retreat. Just as he was thinking, he looked back at the path he had taken and was startled to find that it had disappeared. The vines and branches he had cut seemed to have grown back, and the surrounding forest had become incredibly dense. The sunlight, filtered through the thick foliage, only cast a dim glow.

At some point, the forest had become eerily quiet, with even the birds and insects falling silent, leaving only the sound of Zuo Qingcang's breathing.

Zuo Qingcang suspected he might have taken the wrong path and turned to look at the other side of the forest, only to find that the moss-covered stone face was now just a few inches away from him.

"Damn it," Zuo Qingcang shouted.

'This statue is alive,' he thought.

In the next moment, his instincts kicked in. His arm muscles tensed, and he twisted his waist, channeling his strength into his hands. Then, the bamboo spear in Zuo Qingcang's hand shot forward like a meteor, piercing the stone statue with great force.

A cracking sound echoed as the bamboo spear, under the immense pressure, shattered into countless pieces upon impact with the statue's neck. At the same time, Zuo Qingcang used the momentum of the thrust to leap backward rapidly.

The stone statue, struck by the bamboo spear, let out a roar and lunged at Zuo Qingcang with great force.

'This thing is beyond human strength to resist.'

At the moment the bamboo spear hit the statue, Zuo Qingcang, feeling the sensation through the spear, clearly understood that this stone monster, whatever it was, was not something he could resist with his human body.

After leaping back a few steps, Zuo Qingcang rolled on the ground. A loud thud, like a container truck falling onto concrete, echoed as the spot where he had stood was crushed into a large pit by the statue. Seeing this, Zuo Qingcang's face changed, realizing that the statue's weight and strength were even greater than he had estimated. Even a slight touch could break his bones.

Thus, he saw Zuo Qingcang rolling several times, then suddenly using all four limbs to leap forward like a tiger out of a cage, diving through the decaying leaves on the ground and quickly disappearing into the surrounding jungle.

A series of clean and swift movements, which the Zuo Qingcang of his previous life might not have been able to perform so efficiently, were now possible due to the excellent physical condition of Liu Zhicheng's body. Whether in strength, speed, endurance, or explosive power, Liu Zhicheng's body far exceeded Zuo Qingcang's past body.

He believed that with his current body, he could probably take on three of his past self.

Relying on his agile body and explosive power, Zuo Qingcang ignored the scratches from branches and vines, darting through the undergrowth, constantly moving away from the statue, like a giant python, swiftly heading deeper into the jungle.

Behind him, the two-meter-tall stone statue roared terrifyingly, crushing the undergrowth as it followed Zuo Qingcang, making a series of rumbling sounds, like a bulldozer, tightly pursuing him.

However, Zuo Qingcang, being a human, could not sustain this four-limbed sprint through the dense forest for long, even with the burst of muscle power and adrenaline. This was not just due to physical strain but also because the complex environment of the dense forest made such high-speed running very dangerous.

In just two minutes, Zuo Qingcang was already feeling short of breath. He took a moment to look around and realized he had run into an unknown dense forest, with moss and leaves covering the stones. However, the vegetation was so dense that Zuo Qingcang could not see what lay beneath.

Suddenly, a tree hollow flashed before Zuo Qingcang. Before he could react, a fierce wind blew past his head as the statue punched at him. Without hesitation, he leaped into the tree hollow and crawled deeper into the forest. At this point, with the statue's roars echoing in his ears, Zuo Qingcang's mind was focused solely on running. As he delved deeper, the statue's roars grew distant, and the tree hollow became narrower, forcing him to crawl through the gaps in the branches and vines.

When Zuo Qingcang felt exhausted and slowed down, he could no longer hear the statue's roars. He lay in the undergrowth, panting heavily. The image of the statue's ferocious face still played in his mind.

'What the hell is this thing?'

'Have I lost it?'

While catching his breath, Zuo Qingcang observed the surrounding terrain. The place where he had hidden was incredibly dense with vegetation, with countless roots and branches intertwined, forming small hollows that barely allowed a person to crawl through.

In such a place, it was impossible to stand up, and with almost no sunlight reaching the ground, the tree hollow was pitch black, creating a very oppressive atmosphere. However, with the danger of the stone monster outside, Zuo Qingcang had no choice but to continue crawling.

After about ten minutes, the darkness seemed to have swallowed all the light, and the tree hollow was silent, with only Zuo Qingcang's heavy breathing breaking the silence. He counted in his mind to estimate the time and continued to crawl. Zuo Qingcang decided that if he did not find an exit in another twenty minutes, he would turn back to see if the stone monster had left.

But in the midst of this silence, a rustling sound suddenly came from the darkness, breaking the stillness. Zuo Qingcang's heart rate quickened at the sound.

The sound, though intermittent and varying in pitch, was clearly a woman's voice.

In an uninhabited island, in a pitch-black tree hollow, after being chased by a stone monster, hearing such a voice would likely scare anyone half to death.

However, Zuo Qingcang maintained a certain level of calm. He slowly drew the dagger from his waist and listened carefully to the direction of the sound.

The sound was somewhat like the wind blowing through tall buildings or mountains, but much softer, like a woman whispering in the darkness. What made Zuo Qingcang feel uneasy was that he could not feel any wind in the tree hollow.

Cold sweat trickled down from Zuo Qingcang's nose as he held the dagger and slowly crawled toward the source of the sound. In the darkness, the branches and vines above him gently brushed against his body, as if someone were caressing him.

As he slowly approached the source of the sound, Zuo Qingcang speculated about its origin. Theoretically, the first possibility was the sound of the wind, which could lead him to the exit of the tree hollow.

The second possibility was the sound of an animal, which might also lead him to an exit from the animal's den.

The least likely possibility was a human voice.

However, considering the strange events that had occurred since he arrived in this world, Zuo Qingcang couldn't help but think of a fourth possibility.

'It can't be a female ghost, can it?'

'But even if it is a female ghost, it's better than being crushed to death by that stone monster.'

The voice sounded very much like a woman talking to herself, and the tone even seemed to be in the language of Da Qi, but no matter how hard Zuo Qingcang listened, he could not understand what she was saying.

Sometimes it sounded like she was crying, with a wet and sorrowful tone.

Zuo Qingcang held his breath and slowly crawled toward the source of the sound. As the sound grew louder, a foul smell began to permeate the tree hollow, and faint bioluminescence gradually appeared in the darkness, like fireflies dancing and illuminating the hollow in a greenish glow.

However, Zuo Qingcang's attention was not on the bioluminescence. The foul smell was becoming increasingly noticeable, and for both Zuo Qingcang, who had fought in the hellish battlefields of his past life, and Liu Zhicheng, who had lived through wars, this smell was not unfamiliar.

It was the smell of corpses, and the kind that only comes from a large number of decomposing bodies. Liu Zhicheng, who had served in the Northern Army, had once witnessed the live burial of ten thousand White Wolf soldiers, and the smell had haunted him for life.

Zuo Qingcang was now certain that beneath the dreamlike green glow, there were many decomposing bodies. He did not know how many there were or what they were, but he was sure that this tree hollow hid great danger.

His back muscles tensed, and he slowly retreated, like a startled beast. But before he could take a few steps back, a twig snapped under his weight.

With this sound, the woman's voice, which had been continuously whispering, suddenly stopped.

In the ensuing silence, Zuo Qingcang lay motionless, able to hear his own heartbeat clearly.