Chapter 1 The Lost Land

"This is the mountain we are about to climb, Gawu Zhangde Snow Mountain. The locals call it... the Lost Land." The man lowered his voice.

"Legend has it that every climber who tries to conquer it dies a tragic death because their souls are left in the snow mountain, lost and unable to find their way out."

"My grandson died because he climbed this snow mountain... that's why..." The man choked up.

"Old man," Fatty couldn't help but ask, "Your grandson... disappeared after climbing this mountain?"

"No, he came back, but... but the person who came back wasn't him!"

Jiang Cheng and the others understood the man's ambiguous words. It seemed that his grandson had already died in the snow mountain, and some ghost lurking in the mountain had returned disguised as his grandson.

After a moment of contemplation, at Jiang Cheng's signal, Huai Yi asked, "Old man, it's not that we don't believe you, but what you're saying is confusing and scary. Do you have any direct evidence?"

It seemed that this elderly man was the key character guiding the plot.

Hearing Huai Yi's words, the man nodded heavily, took off the large backpack from his back. Only then did everyone notice that the old man was hunched over, and very severely.

Opening the backpack, the man took out a cloth bag from it. He didn't open it immediately, but held it in his hands, his expression hesitant. After a long while, he took out a photo and placed it in front of everyone.

The photo showed a man of about 25 years old, with a strong build, holding a trekking pole in his hand. The background was a snowfield, and his eyebrows and eyes resembled the old man's.

"My name is Shang Mo, and this is my grandson, Shang Zuo." Shang Mo opened his mouth with a hoarse voice, "There are some things that are difficult to tell you, but... but it's already like this, so it doesn't matter."

"My grandson is like me, a restless person. His parents couldn't control him either. He has been interested in mysterious cultures since he was a child, and later mixed with a group of foreigners, doing things like sao cang and pao yin huo." Shang Mo said.

"Sao cang, pao yin huo, what does that mean?" A woman with beautiful eyes and a delicate face asked softly.

"It means tomb raiding." The man sitting on the woman's right, wearing glasses, replied. The man had a calm demeanor and seemed like he had been to this kind of place before.

After being exposed, Shang Mo just showed a bitter expression and nodded, "That's right, my grandson is a tomb raider, and to be honest, he is very talented in this field. He is a dianxue (finding the location of tombs) expert. Those foreigners value this point and pulled him into the group."

"Later, the domestic crackdown was strict, so they turned their attention to foreign countries. I don't know what news they got, but they finally set their sights on this snow mountain!" Shang Mo said here, his face full of the bitterness of an old man mourning his son.

Scanning the snow outside the window, Jiang Cheng turned his head and asked, "What, is there a tomb in this snow mountain?"

"Yes." Shang Mo gritted his teeth and nodded, "Legend has it that there is a Saintess Tomb at the top of Gawu Zhangde Snow Mountain, but no one has ever found it, so no one knows whether the tomb exists."

"In short, they disappeared after entering the snow mountain."

"But not long after, one night, Shang Zuo suddenly appeared at the door, tattered and smelly. My son and daughter-in-law didn't pay attention to these things. They only knew that their son was back. They were overjoyed and immediately called me to tell me the good news."

"I was still abroad at the time. After receiving the news, I immediately packed my things and prepared to return home."

"As a result, I was delayed for a few days on the road, but during this time, I kept in touch with my son and daughter-in-law. As for my grandson, Shang Zuo..." Shang Mo paused, "I am an archaeologist, can you understand? So I have a bad relationship with my grandson, and I haven't spoken to him for many years. I'm not surprised that he wouldn't answer my calls."

"But in my communication with my son and daughter-in-law, I felt that they were getting weirder and weirder, and it seemed... seemed very panicked, and they would say some very strange things on the phone."

"It's all about my grandson, Shang Zuo, saying that he doesn't sleep at night, but sits on the chair all night, the chair in his bedroom, with his back to the door, without moving."

"When asked, he doesn't speak."

"Also, he doesn't eat well. How should I put it, he doesn't eat rice or vegetables at all. He used to love his mother's stir-fried dishes, but now he has no interest in them."

"He only eats meat, all kinds of meat, and his appetite is astonishing."

"Later, my son and daughter-in-law felt that something was wrong. He could eat five or six roast chickens in one meal, and he could chew the bones. Moreover, his expression when eating meat was particularly fierce. My daughter-in-law said... yes, she said it was particularly terrifying, like a beast, with that kind of food-protecting look in his eyes."

"This won't do. They were worried that Shang Zuo would get sick from eating too much, so they restricted his meat intake. It's not that they wouldn't give him meat, but they gave him less each meal. But one night, my son and daughter-in-law were sleeping when they were awakened by a strange sound."

"A crackling sound, like an animal, an animal grinding its teeth."

"They followed the sound and found that it was coming from the kitchen. The refrigerator door was open, and Shang Zuo was squatting on the ground, with his back to them. My daughter-in-law couldn't help but call out to him. When he turned around, they found that he was holding a piece of meat in both hands, raw meat, the kind they had just bought to make ribs. Shang Zuo was tearing at it, and the crackling sound was the sound of his teeth biting into the bones!"

Imagine being in the dark kitchen, with the refrigerator door half open, and a guy squatting on the ground, with his back to you, gnawing on raw meat.

Is this... really a human being?

"After finally getting through the night, my son and daughter-in-law wanted to take Shang Zuo to see a psychiatrist. He must have been stimulated by something and had a mental problem, but Shang Zuo refused to go."

"Later, they saw that Shang Zuo behaved very normally during the day, so they relaxed a little and decided to observe him for another day, but unexpectedly..."

The old man, who had been relatively calm, suddenly covered his face, tears streaming down his face, his voice choked with emotion. He tremblingly reached out and took out another photo from the cloth bag.

Jiang Cheng and the others narrowed their eyes. This was a relatively dark photo, taken at night, and the lens was shaking violently, as if the photographer was in a hurry at the time.

Vaguely, they could see that the background was a place like a bedroom. It seemed that someone was standing in the bedroom, taking a picture towards the bedroom door.

At the moment of seeing it clearly, everyone couldn't help but gasp. Close to the door frame, there was a figure squatting there, revealing only half of its face, looking inside.