Gazing at the footprints left on the ground, I swallowed nervously. Red Sister and Chen Jiansheng's complexions were equally grim.

We were being spied upon.

What was even more frightening was that we didn't know whether this thing was human or ghost.

In other words, it might not be just the three of us here. There might be something else.

Fear comes from the unknown, and the more we thought about it, the more terrified we became. Even Chen Jiansheng no longer dared to bluster.

"Chen... Chen the Earthworker, is there any chance it's someone from your gang? Do you have any dwarfs or disabled members in your group?" I tried to ask.

"No," Chen Jiansheng frowned, "Aside from me and Chen Zhiguo, the others have all met with misfortune. Besides, we don't have such disabled individuals in our team."

With this unexpected incident, we didn't dare to continue our journey rashly. After a discussion, the three of us decided to rest here for the night to recover our strength.

During the night, we took turns keeping watch, not daring to all fall asleep at once. When it was my turn, my watch was from one to three in the early morning.

Chen Jiansheng was the one who had made the fire, using a fire starter. There was no shortage of burnable materials here, and we had gathered some rotten and dried branches and logs.

Our temporary resting spot was right next to a small mound of earth, chosen because there were fewer plants in this area.

Guarding the fire pit, as the night approached half past two, my eyelids were fighting a fierce battle with sleep. But it was my turn to keep watch, and I kept telling myself not to sleep. When I could no longer resist, I pinched my thigh hard.

Red Sister and Chen Jiansheng were now asleep.

After adding two sticks of firewood, I struggled to stay awake, my head nodding little by little.

"Snap," suddenly, I felt a pain at the back of my head, as if someone had hit me with a clod of earth.

Looking at the small clod rolling away at my feet, my drowsiness vanished without a trace.

A cold sweat broke out on my back; I was startled.

In the flickering firelight, I slowly turned my head to look behind me.

There, about thirty meters ahead on the ground, stood a little dwarf.

He wore an oversized folded brim hat and was draped in a tattered layer of black clothes. The black clothes were caked with dirt, worn and old, as if they had been stripped from a corpse...

"It's a dream, definitely a dream," I pinched the webbing of my hand hard, a wave of pain confirming reality.

"Snap," the little dwarf threw another clod of earth at me. This time, due to poor aim, it missed.

I retreated in fear, step by step, until I was by Chen Jiansheng's side.

Without daring to speak, I touched Chen Jiansheng, trying to wake him.

At first, he didn't respond, and in my panic, I pinched him.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"What the hell, man? Are you sick?" he grumbled, awakened by my pinch.

My face was ashen as I looked at him and silently pointed behind me.

Bleary-eyed, Chen Jiansheng glanced over my shoulder.

Quickly, he rubbed his eyes vigorously.

We were face to face; I could see it clearly.

His complexion turned pale in an instant.

Chen Jiansheng lowered his head, his lips trembling as he whispered, "Don't make a sound, just sleep, pretend you didn't see anything." With that, he lay down on the ground and closed his eyes.

The night passed without a word.

The next morning.

"Didn't you two get any rest last night? You both look awful," Red Sister asked.

My face was still pale, and so was Chen Jiansheng's, because last night, we had both seen that thing.

I hesitated, not daring to tell Red Sister about it.

It was Chen Jiansheng who spoke up about the incident.

After he finished recounting our encounter from the previous night, Red Sister turned to me, her brow furrowed, and asked, "Cloud Peak, is it true?"

I clenched my fists and nodded.

Chen Jiansheng looked around with a grave expression and said in a low voice, "I knew something was off. The Yue Axe I buried couldn't have sprouted legs and walked away on its own. It must have been tampered with by that thing."

"Did you see its face?" Red Sister asked, frowning.

"No, we didn't see it."

"That thing was wearing a very large Folded Brim Hat and was dressed in clothes it must have scavenged from somewhere, covered up tightly, I couldn't make out anything," I recalled the scene from last night carefully, making sure I hadn't missed anything.

Afterward, the three of us conspired for a while and came up with a secret plan.

Initially, I was very scared, and I told Red Sister that we should just leave and forget about whatever that thing was.

But Red Sister shook her head and said there were too many mysteries here, and her instincts told her we shouldn't just leave; we needed to follow this thread.

During the day, we all tried not to look around too much, kept our heads down while walking and talking, and were cautious about what we ate. We still fed on those fruits to stave off hunger.

When night fell, as usual, we lit a large fire. No one stood guard; the three of us lay down around the fire, closing our eyes.

However, this time was different from last night; none of us were asleep. We were all feigning sleep.

Red Sister held a small dagger, her palm facing downward, concealed by her sleeve. Chen Jiansheng and I each hid a sharpened stick in our hands, pressed under our arms, indiscernible from the outside. To any onlooker, it would appear that the three of us were sleeping.

Seconds and minutes ticked by, and in the latter part of the night, the fire had dwindled to a small glow due to the lack of fresh wood.

"Pat-ta," a small clump of earth was tossed in our direction as a probe.

We continued to feign sleep, eyes closed, no one stirring.

I gripped the wooden stick hidden beneath my arm, my heart pounding with fear.

Minutes passed.

"Pat-ta," another clump of earth was thrown.

Still, we lay motionless, sleeping, ignoring the disturbance.

About an hour later, faint footsteps could be heard approaching.

I squinted through barely opened eyes, lying on the ground, stealing cautious glances.

I saw the same small dwarf from the previous night, holding a little rock, inching closer to the fire, twisting and turning with each step.

The creature's gait was peculiar, a wriggling motion, like that of an old woman.

He advanced slowly, cautiously, inch by inch drawing nearer to us.

Fearing detection, I quickly shut my eyes and ceased to watch.

The footsteps grew closer.

I could sense the creature was now right beside me.

"Strike now!"

Chen Jiansheng sprang up from the ground, his shout piercing the air as he drew his sharpened stick and thrust it forward!

Red Sister also leapt to her feet, aiming her dagger straight at the dwarf.

"Squeak!" The creature let out a rodent-like shriek and turned to flee.

We had lain in wait the whole night for this moment, and we were not about to let it escape. I was the closest, and I grabbed its small leg, holding on with all my might.

"Quick! I've got it!" I shouted desperately.

The creature, its leg caught, erupted into a frenzy, leaping and thrashing with tremendous force, nearly wrenching free from my grasp.

"Thwack," Red Sister's dagger plunged into the dwarf's belly, burying itself to the hilt.

Dark red blood flowed freely.

In pain, the creature dodged Chen Jiansheng's strike, nearly dislocating my wrist in its struggle.

It was over in less than a minute.

With a thud, the dwarf fell to the ground, Red Sister's dagger still embedded in its abdomen, twitching and convulsing as blood pooled on the ground.

Seeing this, the three of us exchanged pale glances.

We communicated with our eyes, the message clear.

Who would remove the creature's hat?

To see if it was truly dead. (To be continued)

*******

I have also posted the following more chapters [All free]: https://www.readgates.com/article/7b136c