Chapter 1: Pink Skull

  The 300-mile Taifu Mountain Road has dozens of large and small bandit dens on both sides.

  In the biting cold wind, the Golden Dagger Escort Agency's convoy had been struggling on the rugged mountain road for three days without encountering a single bandit.

  The team was shrouded in an oppressive atmosphere, with everyone's nerves stretched to the limit.

  Xiao Ziyang followed Lei Dabiao to walk the escort at the age of twelve, and had walked back and forth on this Taifu Mountain Road for nearly a hundred trips. He was as familiar with this road and the old bandits in the mountain as he was.

  Never has anyone trekked through Taifushan Road for three days without encountering a single bandit!

  Yesterday, while everyone was still rejoicing at their good fortune, Xiao Ziyang had a bad premonition, but he didn't say anything because he was just a porter.

  Today, the unusual calmness finally made everyone feel uneasy.

  Xiao Ziyang climbed onto the highest cargo truck in the convoy, crouched on top of the cargo box, and observed the surroundings.

  Li Hu looked at Xiao Ziyang with some dissatisfaction for taking action without permission, but ultimately didn't say anything.

  The porters and cart drivers looked at the back of Xiao Ziyang, who was sitting high on the cargo truck with two huge guandao swords that ordinary people couldn't even lift with both hands, their tense faces slightly relaxed, as if they had seen a reliable support.

  Just as everyone's nerves were about to snap, a shrill howl of terror suddenly came from the front of the convoy.

  At this shrill cry, the convoy was thrown into confusion at once. The drivers abandoned their carts and jumped down, squatting on the ground with their heads in their hands.

  Some of them drew their swords and shouted loudly towards the front, while others dodged and hid behind the large vehicles. Some even turned around and ran away in a panic.

  These porters were all old hands at carrying loads, and shouldn't have been so flustered, but the situation over the past two days had been too strange, no one had ever encountered it before, everyone's nerves were stretched taut, when suddenly a blood-curdling scream was heard, and they fell into chaos like an exploding camp.

  The three escorts were all old hands, leaving one to clean up the disorganized porters, while another followed Li Hu's lead and rushed forward towards the front of the convoy.

  At the same time that the shrill scream rang out, Xiao Ziyang flipped off the carriage to one side, like an arrow leaving a bowstring, and sped forward over two halberd heads.

  Watching Xiao Ziyang surpass him like a flash of lightning, Li Hu's eyebrows furrowed slightly and he slowed down his pace.

  Xiao Ziyang yanked open the two-handed, head-bowed, screaming, and desperate handcart, finally seeing what had terrified this old porter so much, at the same time feeling as if his heart had been suddenly pinched by someone.

  Li Hu and another man who had been following behind them saw that there was no fight in front of them, so they quickened their pace and hurried to catch up.

  The two of them passed by Xiao Ziyang, and upon taking a closer look, they were suddenly horrified! Li Hu let out a startled cry and took a big step back. The other escort was even more unbearable, and he actually sat down on the ground with a thud.

  What appeared in the sight of the three people was a pink skull!

  This pink skull, located on a bend in the mountain road, was blocked by a protruding rock on the side of the mountain road. As a result, when the three people could see it, they were only about ten feet away from it. No wonder the scout would be scared like that.

  The reason why this skull is pink is that it has a thin layer of flesh on it!

  After recovering from the shock, Xiao Ziyang calmed down and carefully examined it.

  On closer inspection, he felt a chill rising from his back.

  This skull is too eerie!

  This is a complete skull, with no bones scattered all over the body. But the flesh and blood are nowhere to be found. There is not a single trace of blood around the skull.

  What's even stranger is that the skeleton was still wearing clothes. Apart from some damage on both sides of the body, the clothes were still intact.

  Xiao Ziyang took two steps forward, gently pulling open his clothes, inside was also a scene of carnage, only a skeleton covered in flesh remained.

  Suddenly, Xiao Ziyang's hand shook violently, his body stiffened, and his hair stood on end in an instant.

  He saw a row of clear tooth marks on the ribs of this skull! The tooth marks looked very familiar, just like the ones he left when gnawing meat bones before!

  This... this is clearly a human bite mark! No! That's not right! This isn't a human bite mark, because it's half the size of a human bite mark. Just like... just like... a child's bite mark!

  Li Hu and the others who had cautiously approached also saw these rows of teeth marks along with Xiao Ziyang's line of sight, having the same idea as Xiao Ziyang.

  "Clang, clang, clang, clang!" A series of teeth-clashing sounds came from behind, Xiao Ziyang didn't despise them, because he was also gritting his teeth tightly.

  Li Hu asked with a mouthful of food: "Could it be that monkeys gnawed on it?"

  Xiao Ziyang said, "Monkeys won't eat humans, even if they do, they wouldn't gnaw so cleanly... and absolutely wouldn't keep their clothes intact after eating a person!" Xiao Ziyang's throat was dry and hard to speak, he didn't dare believe that the voice was his own.

  Xiao Ziyang felt even more terrified.

  He suppressed the fear in his heart and carefully examined the clothes on this skull.

  Li Hu and the other person suppressed their desire to escape, watching Xiao Ziyang flip through the pink skull.

  Li Hu asked anxiously after waiting for half a day: "Zi Yang, have you figured out anything?"

  Xiao Ziyang stood up, his eyes still fixed on the skull at his feet. His voice was somewhat hollow: "He should be a mountain bandit from some nearby stronghold, with a not-too-low status in the stronghold. Judging from the freshness of the flesh on the skull, this person has been dead for no more than a day."

  Li Hu heard this and looked at the skull's two eyes again, asking: "How did you figure it out?"

  Xiao Ziyang turned around and said, "The clothes this person is wearing are made of excellent material and have fine workmanship, but they're filthy. Who else could wear such good clothes in such a state except for a mountain bandit?"

  Li Hu asked again, "How did you see that he has a high status in the mountain stronghold? Even if his clothes are made of luxurious materials, maybe it's just because he was lucky and robbed someone rich."

  Xiao Ziyang said: "Even if this person is a mountain bandit, to wear clothes with such virtue, it's probably going to take quite some time. Look, the clothes on his body are damaged in some places, but the seams are all brand new. Moreover, there are no signs of wear and tear on the cuffs, shoulders, and other parts. Others may not know, but they think that being a mountain bandit is just about eating meat and dividing gold, Li Biao wouldn't know, actually being a mountain bandit isn't that glorious; On the contrary, it's just a miserable life of suffering from wind and sun, building walls and repairing strongholds. If this person wasn't the leader of the mountain stronghold, how could his clothes be so intact?"

  At this point, Xiao Ziyang stretched out his foot and flipped over the skull on the ground, revealing its back. It was only then that Li Hu and the others saw that behind this person's back was a scabbard, but the sword inside the scabbard had gone who-knows-where. Xiao Ziyang pointed at the scabbard and said: "A knife sheath made from shark skin - this definitely isn't an ordinary knife. Someone who can use such a good knife naturally wouldn't be an ordinary mountain bandit."