The fire in the pit was dwindling when Chen Jiansheng kicked two dry sticks into it, and the flames revived with new vigor.

"Cloud Peak, you go, take off the hat," Red Sister instructed me, handing over a dagger.

"Alright..."

Clutching the dagger with both hands, I approached cautiously, step by step.

Taking a deep breath, I kicked away the large Folded Brim Hat that covered the thing's head.

Beneath the hat was the face of a monkey!

No, not quite.

To be precise, it wasn't a monkey's face, but it bore a resemblance.

We exchanged glances, all of us wearing expressions of astonishment.

The creature's face was elongated and pointed, with a protruding nose, the hair on either side of its mouth was a bright red, a layer of white fur covered its forehead, and its eyes were tiny, giving it a very eerie appearance.

Now, with its eyes closed and mouth half-open, it was clearly dead.

"Hey? Is this creature that thing?" Chen Jiansheng suddenly turned to Red Sister.

Red Sister examined it closely and frowned, "Can't be sure, I've never seen it before."

Their cryptic exchange made me anxious, so I asked Red Sister if she knew something.

Red Sister told me that this creature might be the legendary Mountain Goblin, akin to the Mountain Spirits and Wilderness Monsters of folklore.

She shared what she knew about it.

In the past, if you asked an experienced Old Hunter in the remote mountainous regions about the most formidable and most sinister thing in the mountains, the answer wouldn't be tigers or leopards but nearly unanimous.

Mountain Goblin.

In some places, it was also known as Mountain Ghost, or Mountain Deity. Mountain Goblins were male and female; the Male Mountain Monster had a taste for human flesh, was lecherous, and liked to violate human women, while the Female Mountain Monster enjoyed playing tricks on people, often disguising herself as a human child to blend into a crowd and play games with other children. If she enjoyed the game, she might abduct the child.

This creature was just over a meter tall and liked to use large hats to conceal itself, so from a distance, it really looked like a child. Also, regarding the Mountain Goblin's hat, some of the older generation claimed that its hat could make the wearer invisible. If a human wore it, they could hide their form from others' sight.

Of course, this claim about the Mountain Goblin's hat granting invisibility was likely a tall tale. I say this with confidence because I tried it.

In front of Red Sister and Chen Jiansheng, I mustered the courage to pick up the hat and try it on.

The hat had a foul, musty smell. After putting it on, I asked, "Red Sister, Chen the Earthworker, am I invisible now? Can you see me?"

Chen Jiansheng looked at me with drooping eyelids and said indifferently, "Right, lad, you're invisible now. From now on, you can wear that hat to rob banks; I guarantee no one will see you. And you can go to the women's bathhouse; even the cameras won't catch you."

I curled my lip and tossed away the tattered hat, fully aware of the mockery lacing his words.

As for the origin of the hat, we were clueless. However, while we were rummaging, Chen Jiansheng suddenly recognized the clothing on the Mountain Goblin.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Because it was inside out.

Chen Jiansheng fished a plastic bag from the lining pocket of the garment, opened it, and found a lighter and a half-pack of Five Golden Flower Cigarettes.

His face turned an ashen hue as he kicked the creature's corpse five or six times in succession.

"Damn it! This beast! This is one of our team member's clothing! This beast stripped it off to wear it himself!" he exclaimed, his rage flaring as he kicked it several more times.

"Enough, it's dead. What's the use of your frenzy?" Red Sister said, shaking her head. "Search for something else, see if you can find that thing you mentioned hidden on its body."

I pitched in to help, meticulously searching again but found no trace of the Green Jade Ritual Implement Chen Jiansheng had mentioned.

Suddenly, Chen Jiansheng clapped his hands with a snap that startled me.

Red Sister frowned and asked what he was up to.

Holding the cigarette pack, he pointed upwards, his excitement palpable as he said, "My brothers met their fate up there, I saw it with my own eyes! This beast took the clothes to wear for itself and then came down to this Tomb Owner's back garden. Chen the Logistician, what does this tell us?"

After a moment's thought, Red Sister mused, "There's a path."

"Yes!" Chen Jiansheng pointed skyward then to the ground. "That's right, there must be a passage connecting above and below. If we can find this path, we can climb up!"

I, too, was thrilled, for if what Chen Jiansheng said was true, then we could leave this place, ascend, and find Big Brother and Third Brother.

But the immediate question was, where was the path the Mountain Goblin used to come down from above?

Some things were beginning to take shape.

The lush vegetation in the crevasse below might very well be the Tomb Owner's private garden. If the Tomb Owner was Mustard Marquis, leveraging the influence of Princely Kings, it was conceivable he could gather such precious flora and plant them in his own constructed garden for his posthumous enjoyment.

Such a method was akin to the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, where mercury represented the seas and Night Luminous Pearls stood in for the sun, moon, and stars.

The slight difference lay in the fact that Sima Qian explicitly recorded the details of the Li Mountain Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in the Records of the Grand Historian, while the Mustard Marquis went unmentioned in both Unofficial History and official annals.

Red Sister had devised a plan for finding our way up the mountain.

Despite their sinister nature, Mountain Goblins still retained some monkey-like habits, and Red Sister speculated that they were social creatures.

Would the goblins send someone to search if one of their own was missing?

It could hardly be called a plan. Chen Jiansheng had been trapped here for half a year. When pushed to the brink, one is willing to try any possible means of escape.

We propped up the Dead Mountain Monster, leaning it against a tree, and then dressed it with its hat and clothes.

Retreating a hundred meters, we hid behind a large tree, surreptitiously watching for any sign of movement.

Thanks to our meticulous arrangement, from a distance, the Mountain Goblin didn't look dead but rather seemed to be resting against the trunk.

After more than an hour, we finally got what we were waiting for.

I was dozing off when Red Sister tapped me, signaling to stay awake as something was happening. I took a quick glance from behind the tree.

I was startled.

For some reason, a fog had suddenly rolled in.

About three or four hundred meters ahead, in the misty white fog, numerous small, shadowy figures emerged. Their faces were indistinct, but many hats were visible.

There were about a dozen of them, and they wore different clothes, some black, some white, acquired from who knows where. These creatures mimicked human walking, swaying side to side.

The scene before us was faintly reminiscent of an old Hong Kong movie, evoking the eerie atmosphere of a Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.

I swallowed hard, my heart racing up to my throat.

Soon, the creatures discovered their deceased comrade.

They circled around, looking at each other, squeaking like mice in disarray.

After a while, as if reaching a consensus, they lifted the dead one in groups of four and started to leave, swaying as they went.

"Follow them," Chen Jiansheng whispered, taking the lead with a crouched gait.

Maintaining a distance of over a hundred meters, and with the geography in our favor—flora abundant—we could immediately hide in the nearby bushes at the first sign of trouble.

We moved cautiously, stopping intermittently. The creatures often looked back, nearly catching us several times.

After what seemed like an eternity of twists and turns, we followed them to a well-hidden little cave.

The entrance was concealed by dense undergrowth, and had we not watched the creatures enter, we would have never noticed it.

Watching the short figures disappear into the cave, I whispered to Chen the Earthworker, "You've been here a while. Have you ever come across this place?"

Chen Jiansheng, hidden in the bushes, poked his head out and took a careful look.

"It's just a tiny rat hole, covered with grass."

"How could I have found it?" (To be continued)

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