When Little Shu asked why the Monkey Tribe had kidnapped the children, a sinister smile flickered across the hunchbacked old woman's face. She turned away, murmuring under her breath, "I don't know the answer to that either. Perhaps when you find the Monkey Tribe, you will understand."

I remember blushing every time I lied as a child. Whenever I skipped school to play games and got cornered by my older sister upon returning home, if I answered her questions with a flushed face, I'd receive a severe beating. Some might argue this is simple: just stay calm when you lie, don't let your heart race, and your face won't redden. In truth, blushing is an unconscious reaction for many when lying; it's incredibly difficult to suppress without dedicated training. Without someone pointing it out, some people never even realize they have these habits that betray their falsehoods—just like the hunchbacked old woman, who always turned her face away when she lied, avoiding my and Little Shu's gaze.

However, although Little Shu and I both knew she was lying, we couldn't press her. First, neither of us had been trained as a 007 agent; we didn't know how to coax sensitive information out of someone. Second, we weren't the Gestapo; we wouldn't resort to torture to extract the truth. If Old He or Wang Jue had been here, perhaps they would have figured out a way to make her talk, given their many years of experience and far deeper social savvy than us high schoolers. But under the current circumstances, we were powerless against her; we could only be led around by the nose, doing exactly as she instructed.

"Fine, then tell us what we need to do next," Little Shu said with resignation.

"That is no problem," the hunchbacked old woman replied, turning back to face us. With her eagle-claw-like hand, she reached into her pocket and pulled out an object.

Little Shu and I stared intently at the item. It looked like a scroll, made of a material that seemed ancient, perhaps parchment, faded gray and somewhat grimy. Her hands trembled as she untied the cord, and trembling again, she unrolled the scroll, revealing a landscape map sketched in ink that slowly presented itself before our eyes.

"This is the map of the Sea of the Dead," she said. Then, she looked up, a hint of fawning deference in her expression as she addressed us both. "The only map of the Sea of the Dead in the entire world—a priceless treasure! With this, you can enter and exit the Sea of the Dead freely. It also marks the territories of the various races in the Demon Realm, allowing you to locate the Monkey Tribe with ease."

Little Shu and I leaned in to observe the rare and unique map closely. Like all ancient maps, it was covered in incomprehensible symbols. Based on conjecture, we could vaguely determine that the ink lines delineated boundaries, the triangular zigzags represented mountains, and the three wavy lines must signify water. There were also various animal-like heads scattered about, impossible to identify immediately, but we roughly understood that the areas marked by these heads probably belonged to a specific demon clan. It was clear that understanding this map fully without any guidance wouldn't be a simple task.

Noticing we were engrossed in studying it, the hunchbacked old woman deliberately rolled the map back up with her dry, claw-like hands, tied the cord, and solemnly handed it to Little Shu.

"With this map, you will find the Monkey Tribe. Now, what I must do is send you to the Sea of the Dead. Mirror Villa, just like Primeval Villa above it, possesses a passage to the Sea of the Dead. You won't need to traverse that corridor infested with Man-Eating Netherworms to get there." With that, the hunchbacked old woman pushed open the library door and slowly walked out.

So, Li Xiaohao's villa was called Primeval, and though I’d been there twice before, this was the first time I’d heard its name. A Mirror, a Primeval—the names seemed fitting for the identities of these twin siblings. She even mentioned the Man-Eating Netherworms! It seemed the effects of the Intestine-Piercing Gu were far more obvious than anticipated. In just a few minutes, she had completely deciphered our concerns about those creatures.