I Raise My Wife in a Supernatural Story (Infinite) - Chapter 21.1

“Since the Stone Age, traces of human activity have been found in the cliff caves of the Zhong Mountain Range. Today, we’ll pass by the Cliff Cave, and everyone can take photos to commemorate the visit.”

Sister Hong waved a small flag in her hand, earnestly explaining the historical development of Zhong Mountain to the group.

The fog had lifted today, and as promised yesterday, Sister Hong led everyone into Zhong Mountain. The path they took was the same suspension bridge connecting the folk street to the mountain.

Qi Yan discreetly observed Song Yu and noticed that she still looked nervous while crossing the bridge. Clearly, the incident from two days ago had left a deep psychological scar.

But what puzzled Qi Yan was that Cao Jian had been missing for a day, yet Song Yu appeared completely unfazed, as if his disappearance meant nothing to her. With both Baldie and Cao Jian vanishing one after another, anyone could guess they were likely in grave danger. Yet, as Cao Jian’s girlfriend, Song Yu’s reaction was far too indifferent nothing like the deep affection she had previously displayed.

What was going on? Qi Yan was burning with curiosity.

Bai Qing, however, remarked, “You want to figure everything out, are you some kind of government official in the outside world?”

Qi Yan couldn’t help but retort, “I’m just a student!”

“Is that so? With the way you insist on uncovering the truth about everything, I thought you worked for the authorities.” Bai Qing chuckled.

Qi Yan froze for a moment, suddenly realizing something from Bai Qing’s words. This was supposed to be an escape game, not a mystery-solving adventure. She had been so caught up in her own rhythm, driven by curiosity, that she instinctively wanted to uncover the entire truth behind the story. But if she thought about it simply, she didn’t need to know every hidden detail of this tale she just needed to find a way out!

Finding the “eye” or “heart” of this world that was the most crucial key.

Bai Qing’s voice came again: “There are only a little over three days left. We need to hurry.”

Qi Yan didn’t need the reminder. She knew this trip into Zhong Mountain was pivotal.

Sister Hong led the way at the front, chattering nonstop, while Qi Yan followed behind, lost in her thoughts.

Halfway up the mountain, everyone was exhausted from the climb and stopped to rest at a viewing platform. Huo Zheng and Tang Shanshan approached Qi Yan, asking what her plans were for the day.

“Nothing concrete for now. Let’s follow Sister Hong’s script and see how things unfold,” Qi Yan replied, recalling Cui Lan’s warning. “There’s likely danger today, so be careful.”

Her tone was so certain that Huo Zheng and Tang Shanshan didn’t dare take it lightly, immediately tensing up.

Tang Shanshan whispered, “Sister Qi, do you know something?”

Qi Yan glanced at Sister Hong sitting in the distance and the absent-minded Song Yu, then briefly recounted what she had overheard the night before.

“So, this trip into Zhong Mountain is definitely a trap. Setting aside ghosts and supernatural elements for now, based on the plot’s direction, Sister Hong and Baishui Town are clearly in cahoots luring tourists in to offer them as sacrifices to some so-called Zhong Mountain deity.”

Huo Zheng and Tang Shanshan’s expressions grew increasingly grim.

“Then today, in this mountain, we’re practically.” Huo Zheng lowered his voice urgently. “Right now, we’re still in the developed tourist areas with marked trails. But this mountain is huge. If Sister Hong wants to lead us deep into the wilderness, it’d be all too easy. By then, we’d be completely lost, sitting ducks.”

This was also Qi Yan’s concern, and likely the crux of the challenge set by this script.

“So what do we do now?” Tang Shanshan asked hesitantly. “We can’t just run, can we?”

Qi Yan shook her head. “Definitely not. Not only would we fail to escape, but there’s nowhere to run to.”

Trapped within this script, the only way out was to follow its rules.

Huo Zheng looked at Qi Yan and asked, “Do you have any ideas, Miss Qi?”

Qi Yan sighed. “For now, let’s take it one step at a time. Following Sister Hong’s guidance through this script’s plot will inevitably lead us to key story points. I believe today’s journey into Zhong Mountain is a crucial step not just dangerous, but also a potential breakthrough. Perhaps we can find the ‘Eye’ of this world, the way to leave.”

“You think this so-called ‘Eye’ is in the mountains?”

“I can’t be sure, but we’ve already explored several places in the folk-custom street. Although we didn’t get a chance to investigate the ancestral hall thoroughly, we did examine the drum altar, and there was definitely no way out there.”

As the guiding NPC, Sister Hong would only lead them to key plot points in the script. Therefore, Zhong Mountain must hold the answers they sought.

After resting, they continued their ascent.

Song Yu followed closely behind Sister Hong, head bowed, matching her every step. Qi Yan observed her subtly not out of excessive caution, but because Song Yu’s demeanor was impossible to ignore. From the first day they entered this script, this timid girl had been teetering on the edge of collapse.

Now, with her boyfriend gone, her mental state had deteriorated further. To Qi Yan, she seemed almost like a lost soul her eyes hollow, her gait strangely stiff, resembling a walking corpse.

A chill ran down Qi Yan’s spine, and she instinctively kept her distance.

Sister Hong led them deeper into the mountain trails. At some point, the scenery around them shifted, the path grew steeper, the underbrush denser, clearly taking them into the heart of Zhong Mountain.

Qi Yan sensed trouble and exchanged glances with Huo Zheng and Tang Shanshan. Having survived the ordeal at the altar together, they had developed some tacit understanding. Without a word, they all subtly distanced themselves further from Sister Hong.

After another five minutes of walking, before Huo Zheng could voice his doubts, Sister Hong stopped first. Pointing to a platform above, she said, “We’re almost there, the core attraction of this trip: the Cliffside Cave.”

Along the way, they had encountered many tourists and villagers, all appearing perfectly normal, as if this were the most bustling and must-see spot.

Sister Hong led them up the final steps, revealing the entrance to a karst cave. Above the mouth of the cave hung an inscribed plaque reading “Cliffside Cave.” The plaque and its calligraphy appeared ancient, clearly not a modern addition for tourism.

Other groups were gathered at the entrance, each led by their own guides. None were large, the smallest private tours had just two or three people, while the largest, like their original group, had six. Now reduced to four, they were mid-sized among the current tours.

This time, Sister Hong didn’t let them wander freely. She guided them inside, even offering a proper tour guide spiel. For a fleeting moment, Qi Yan almost forgot this wasn’t a real trip.

“The Hanging Rock Cave has always been renowned for its wonder, beauty, and seclusion it’s said to be the origin of humanity in the entire Zhongshan Mountain Range.”

The word “wonder” often intertwines with “strangeness”, oddities and marvels, a myriad of peculiar sights. In Qi Yan’s eyes, this cave truly lived up to its reputation as both wondrous and bizarre.

Stalagmites, stalactites, and stone pillars formed over millennia had accumulated into a breathtaking array of scenery: stone forests, intricately carved pillars, even cascades of stone resembling waterfalls. Sister Hong mentioned it had taken 150,000 years for these formations to take shape.

Despite Qi Yan’s lingering vigilance, she found herself ensnared by the surreal beauty of the cavern, genuinely admiring the scenery as Sister Hong led her deeper inside. The cave was a labyrinth of towering stone pillars, each uniquely shaped, creating an otherworldly spectacle, a true stone forest hidden beneath the earth.

The most striking difference between the cave and the outside world was its profound silence, growing deeper the further they ventured. This silence wasn’t merely auditory, it seemed to seep into the mind itself, carrying an almost hypnotic power that soothed away all restlessness.

Had Qi Yan been fully alert, she might have noticed something amiss. At this moment, not just her group, but every other tourist was being guided toward the cave’s deepest recesses by their respective guides. Even more unsettling, everyone’s expressions had begun to shift including hers, Huo Zheng’s, and Tang Shanshan’s into a serene, almost dreamlike state of relaxation.

“Wake up! Snap out of it, kid!”

A surge of icy coldness erupted from her fingertips, jolting straight into her forehead. The sudden chill shocked her back to awareness.

Qi Yan’s eyes widened in alarm as she instinctively scanned her surroundings. Huo Zheng and Tang Shanshan trailed behind Sister Hong with vacant, dazed expressions, completely oblivious to the thickening aura of danger.

“Holy hell!” Qi Yan screamed internally. “I almost lost my soul!”

Whether it was her soul or not, she had certainly been acting like a mindless puppet.

“Thank goodness for you!” Qi Yan muttered, keeping her head low as she walked, terrified Sister Hong might notice she’d regained her senses.

But being awake came with its own problems, she couldn’t run, and she had no idea what to do next. For now, she mimicked the others’ trance-like state, keeping her head down to avoid suspicion.

“What do we do? Just keep blindly following them?”

Bai Qing replied, “I don’t know.”

“…”

Asking her was pointless.

Left to her own devices, Qi Yan decided to press on, wanting to uncover the truth. A strong intuition told her she was close both to the answers and to finding a way out.

As they descended further, the group of tourists swelled. Qi Yan noticed scattered individuals gradually merging into the procession, all seemingly entranced, marching forward without question.

After what felt like an eternity, the narrow passage suddenly opened into a vast cavernous hall grand enough to rival a concert stage.

The hall was supported by countless stalagmites and pillars, some dripping water that chimed melodiously, others naturally adorned with intricate, almost supernatural carvings. Torchlight flickered from ornate lampstands, casting a dim, golden glow that, combined with the eerie shapes and hues of the stone, gave the chamber an unsettling, underworldly atmosphere.

Qi Yan tilted her head back to look. Inside the cavernous hall, aside from naturally formed stone pillars, there were also man-made altars and tables. Upon closer inspection, it resembled a sacrificial altar.

She suddenly frowned, another altar. Combined with what she had heard from Cuilan, this was likely the place where they intended to sacrifice innocent tourists like them!

Unlike the underground altar they had visited before, this was the actual site where the people of Baishui Town made offerings to the Zhong Mountain deity!

Hidden within the vast Zhong Mountain range was such a massive altar, and judging by its location deep within the karst cave, it must have been here for an extremely long time.

Qi Yan followed the crowd of tourists forward, quietly moving closer to the nearest stone pillar for a better look. She noticed that the carvings on the pillar bore traces of age nearly identical to those on the altar buried beneath the Bronze Deer Platform.

“The two statues above the altar, they just don’t sit right with me,” Bai Qing’s voice sounded in her ear. “A deer and a dragon, both carved from stone. At first glance, they seem ordinary, but upon closer inspection, the deer’s front hoof is stepping on the dragon’s reverse scale.”

Qi Yan was slightly startled and asked inwardly, “What does that mean?”

“Though I am not human, I do understand the hierarchy among your kind. In ancient times, the imperial family revered the dragon as supreme. You don’t need me to tell you who among humans could use the dragon as their symbol, do you?”

“The deer is the totem of the Lu family in Baishui Town. Judging by the appearance of these two stone carvings, the ancestors of the Lu family in Baishui Town deliberately intended to trample those who used the dragon as their symbol beneath their feet.”

Qi Yan pondered for a moment before saying, “When we discovered that altar beneath the Bronze Deer Platform yesterday, I already sensed something. That altar was definitely not built by the people of Baishui Town. It likely belonged to some imperial family of the past. The execution tools, the dragon-revering altar, and the mass grave, what I can piece together probably relates to ancient imperial tombs and burial practices. This Zhong Mountain range might be the resting place of some long-forgotten emperor.”

“At first, I couldn’t figure out the connection between Baishui Town and the imperial family buried in these mountains. But after hearing what Cuilan said last night and seeing everything in this cave today, I suspect this was an act of sinister rebellion.”

The people of Baishui Town were rebelling against evil, yet they themselves were also evil.

Before Qi Yan could finish her thoughts, commotion erupted at the front of the group. Several tour guides stepped onto the altar, joining a group of Baishui Town villagers who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Qi Yan stole a glance Sister Hong stood at the edge of the altar, still appearing indifferent to everything.

Not daring to look too long for fear of alerting Sister Hong to her awareness, Qi Yan stealthily moved closer to Tang Shanshan and Huo Zheng beside her. She pinched them, trying to snap them out of their daze.

But whatever curse had befallen them was too strong her efforts were futile.

Qi Yan had no choice but to silently plead with Bai Qing, “Do you have any way to help? At least wake these two up?”

Bai Qing asked, “You care about them that much?”

“We’ve been traveling together. I can’t just stand by and watch them meet a terrible fate.”

Her kindness seemed to amuse Bai Qing, who silently studied her for a moment before chuckling lightly. “I’ll try. But remember, you owe me a favor, my lady.”

Qi Yan nearly choked. If not for fear of being discovered, she might have coughed aloud. “Why are you suddenly calling me ‘my lady’?!”

“Hah, I thought you’d be more concerned about the point of owing favors.”

Qi Yan’s face flushed red, but she held back her words: “Compared to that, favors are nothing!”

Bai Qing said calmly, “The spiritual contract is already formed. Neither of us has the chance to back out now.”

Just thinking about it made Qi Yan feel aggrieved. She had merely drawn a beginner’s fortune slip, and somehow ended up getting married just like that, she was tied down? Even if her partner was as beautiful as a celestial being, a rare sight in this world, it still wasn’t acceptable! She still had some principles, after all.

But principles were the least of her concerns now. The villagers and tour guides on the altar had already begun to move. They activated a mechanism that opened a hidden passage in the innermost stone wall of the altar. A new cave entrance appeared before the crowd, and the gathered tourists suddenly grew even more excited, pushing and shoving to squeeze inside.

The cavernous hall was packed with people. Qi Yan didn’t have time to count exactly how many, but a rough estimate put it at thirty or forty.

So many people, all seemingly possessed, rushing uncontrollably toward what was clearly a dangerous cave.

Qi Yan was jostled forward by the crowd. While silently urging Bai Qing to do something, she strained her ears to listen to the villagers’ conversation.

“Forty-nine outsiders. After today, we’ll have peace for another three years.”

“Will we really have peace?” a middle-aged man questioned. “Originally, we only needed to sacrifice two children, but now it’s been forced to forty-nine outsiders! Every three years, we go out and trick these outsiders into coming here. No matter how deep we hide in the mountains, sooner or later, the police will catch on!”

“Sooner or later?” a woman retorted. “After the last incident, didn’t the police already come to Zhong Mountain to seal it off and search? If it weren’t for how well-hidden these caves are, our Bai Shui Town would’ve been finished long ago!”

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