More frightening to Li Bai than anything else was that she hadn't heard Zhang Yuanchao's voice in so long.

"Why... why hasn't he called for me to stop? I'm about to walk out. Isn't he worried that I'll walk out on my own and leave him alone...?"

Thinking of this, Li Bai suddenly paused, and then her body trembled uncontrollably. It wasn't that she hadn't suspected Zhang Yuanchao's motives. With her vigilance, she should have suspected him. But strangely, Zhang Yuanchao had left a deep impression on her during the time they had spent together. She had noticed Zhang Yuanchao's eyes when he looked at her—they were pure, an extraordinary purity. This reminded her of her own family. Her family also looked at her with such eyes, her father and mother.

Gradually, the wariness of being plotted against faded away, replaced by a sense of panic, as if something very important was about to leave her.

She looked at the cellar entrance, which was now less than 10 meters away. She was sure that if she walked another 10 meters, she could leave this hellish place. The Road of Resentful Spirits, the monstrous infant, the Zhusheng Niangniang (Goddess of Childbirth), would all be irrelevant to her tonight.

But it was this distance that kept her from taking another step. She knew she couldn't, and even more so, shouldn't.

Without turning her head, she raised her hand and reached for her waist, numbly pulling the rope bit by bit. After pulling about a meter, the rope reached its end. Staring at the obviously cut well rope, Li Bai's expression instantly collapsed. "Zhang Yuanchao!" At this moment, she didn't care whether she would be discovered by those ghostly things. Li Bai only wanted to hear Zhang Yuanchao's honest voice.

After shouting several times, a sigh came from a distant place behind her. Li Bai couldn't figure out why she could hear it so clearly even from such a distance, but none of that mattered now.

"Girl, you shouldn't have stopped. If you had walked a little further, you could have gone back. That boy is still waiting for you outside. What are you doing... alas!"

Hearing Zhang Yuanchao's regretful voice, Li Bai became even more determined in her heart. She finally understood why Zhang Yuanchao had seen through this Road of Resentful Spirits so early, but had not used the current method until the very last moment.

Because... because this was simply a stupid method!

One of them had to stay behind to watch the Road of Resentful Spirits and prevent it from changing, so that the other person would have a chance to escape.

Zhang Yuanchao had given her the chance to live.

"Isn't there... isn't there any other way? I'm not in a hurry, not at all. I can wait. We... we might be able to think of other ways, no, not maybe, definitely! We can definitely think of other ways, we can leave together!"

"You believe me, I know a lot of things too. If you add me, we can think of a way together, we..."

Li Bai said a lot in one breath. She had so much to say, but after hearing Zhang Yuanchao's voice, all this hope was shattered again.

"There's no way, girl." Zhang Yuanchao smiled, without any regret, only unrestrained ease.

Li Bai knew all this, but she didn't want to believe it. Tears blurred her eyes, and also blurred the firelight at the tunnel exit not far away.

That was her way out, but also Zhang Yuanchao's path to death.

As long as she walked out, the abandoned Zhang Yuanchao would be left here forever.

She survived, but the Hanshan Ren (Shouting-Mountain Man) who found the way out was left on the Road of Resentful Spirits. How... how could there be such a thing?

"Who exactly are you? Why are you doing this to me?" Li Bai had asked the same question before, but had not received an answer.

"Girl, I am a Hanshan Ren. I didn't lie to you. I used to be a carpenter in the village." Zhang Yuanchao's voice was still so reassuring. "My Hanshan Ren is different from others. It's acquired, learned from a wild master."

"Who would want to give up a stable life to be a bitter Hanshan Ren?"

"But I have no choice, who told me... who told me that my precious daughter was lost?"

"I only have one daughter. Her mother left early, and I, an old man, raised her alone. She was the apple of my eye. It's all my fault for being useless. I took my daughter to the next village to do carpentry work, but we got lost in the mountains and I lost my daughter."

"She... she was only... only 6 years old when she got lost. Now 20 years have passed. If... if she is still alive, she would be about the same age as you."

Speaking of his daughter, Zhang Yuanchao's voice was obviously gentle. "I was stunned the first time I saw you. You look so much like her! Your eyebrows and eyes are just like my daughter's!"

"But I'm not your daughter, I... I'm not even from this world." Li Bai didn't hide anything. She didn't want to use this to deceive Zhang Yuanchao's feelings.

"Hehe, of course I know. How could I not recognize my own daughter? We are connected by blood." Zhang Yuanchao didn't care about Li Bai's words, and continued to say to himself, "But... but when I see you, I think of my daughter. If... if I had the ability I have now back then, would I have been able to find my daughter?"

"20 years! A whole 20 years! I have been wandering in this mountain with all kinds of people, just to find clues about my daughter. My cheap master had calculated that my daughter was blinded and trapped by those dirty things."

"But my master wouldn't say what kind of dirty things they were. My master is not a bad person, I can feel it. He must know that those things are very powerful, especially evil, so he didn't tell me, worried that if I really found them, I would be harmed by them too."

"I have been looking for her all these years, and I have searched this mountain all over. I have seen almost all kinds of yin and evil things, but there are no clues about my daughter, until... until I found this place!"

"Heishui Village is not right. Those wandering souls can deceive other people, but they can't deceive me!"

"I have been wandering in this area for 20 years, and I have never heard of Heishui Village in this mountain. The Heishui River is also not right. If you look closely, you will understand that the river's direction is opposite to the surrounding mountains. It is flowing from a low place to a high place!"

"When I woke up and found myself here, I knew that I had found it! The place my master said must be here!"

"Girl, hurry up and go. You and I are destined. I like you, seeing you is like seeing my own daughter." Zhang Yuanchao's voice suddenly became excited. "This must be the meaning of the mountain god, giving me another chance to make up for my past regrets."

"Dad!" Li Bai sobbed.

"Hey~" Zhang Yuanchao answered excitedly. The next second, that heroic tune rang out, "Good daughter, Daddy is here, you boldly move forward, don't look back!"