Today, Xiao Juan was on a business trip by train, and she insisted on turning on her hotspot to send out a chapter for everyone while on the train. She's about to reach an area with no signal soon, so we hope everyone understands.

Since Andre said the path from the Grand Theater to the underground city had collapsed, there was no need for us to go there anymore.

So, after some discussion, the group decided to press forward, cutting through the most complicated residential area.

Before setting off, Andre warned us that if the path descended below ground level, it would be best not to speak if possible. Or, it would be best not to speak near any relatively intact houses.

We didn't know what he was afraid of, but it was rare to see him with such a serious expression, so we all agreed.

We readied our weapons and lighting equipment, then headed toward the nearest narrow path.

Calling it a path was generous; it was more like a gap between the walls of two dilapidated houses, perhaps less than a meter wide, paved with broken flagstones, but extremely cramped.

We trod through the fine rubble that had fallen from the walls, our steps making crunching sounds that filled the quiet ruins with an eerie atmosphere.

Accidentally, I noticed many cracks splitting the wall of the ruined house to our left.

So, I aimed my flashlight into one of the fissures and peered inside.

I could see that the tables and chairs inside the room were utterly rotten. Beneath the wall opposite me sat several dark earthenware jars; some had fallen and broken, while others still stood upright.

One of the jars was filled with black rainwater, and a human skull dangled over its rim. Its lower jawbone had fallen off, and the skull itself was weathered with numerous small holes; only the empty sockets retained a recognizable shape.

I thought this person must have tried to hide in the jar to escape the tsunami, but clearly, they had failed. I wondered what story this person experienced before meeting their end here.

Passing through the gap between the two houses, we stepped onto a transverse lane.

We called this a "road" only because it was longer than the previous gap, and the houses on either side were built more regularly, with doorways facing the street.

However, this so-called road was barely two meters wide.

We looked left and right; the road was enveloped in mist that varied between dense and thin, leading to an unknown destination.

But where it led didn't really matter, as our direction was straight ahead.

So, we paused only briefly before stepping forward again, squeezing into the gap between the buildings.

Just then, Lauren began to bark uneasily, constantly sniffing the air along the street.

I turned back to Lauren and asked, "What's wrong?"

Lauren barked twice at me, then looked down at the ground again.

I knew it had discovered something, so I called to the people ahead to wait, walking over myself to investigate.

Approaching Lauren, I saw that the dog had indeed found some suspicious traces.

They were footprints! And they were muddy footprints.

Obviously, footprints left a thousand years ago couldn't have survived until today; these must have been left recently.

I couldn't imagine anyone else was on this island; the only possibility was * (The character name is intentionally left blank as per instructions).

I also considered whether the mud came from our own boots, but clearly, none of us had mud on our footwear.

In fact, we had originally planned to wait at least another month before landing on the island, but it was precisely because we were concerned about *'s safety that we rushed here so urgently.

It had only been a day since * landed on the island; I couldn't know what had happened to him.

Judging by the mud on the prints, at least *'s experience here hadn't been ordinary.

As I pondered this, Da Xiong also crowded over, looked at the muddy footprints, and expressed great surprise.

I figured he knew * better than I did, so after just glancing at the sole pattern and the size of the foot, he exclaimed, "These are *'s prints! * has been here."

We shouldn't have been surprised to find *'s footprints; after all, having arrived on the island, reaching this location was quite normal. However, the mud on the prints was what concerned us most.

The others, hearing that *'s footprints were found, gathered around.

A faint smile touched Andre's lips as he kept staring at me with a look that was almost a smile.

It finally dawned on me then that * coming to the ruins island was something he was kept in the dark about, so I managed an awkward laugh, while Liang Qian's face instantly flushed deep red.

Da Xiong, having thicker skin, chuckled and said to Andre, "Professor, the thing is, since we're all on the island now, we might as well tell you the truth..."

Midway through Da Xiong's explanation, Andre waved his hand dismissively and said, "No need to explain. I already guessed. You all have never been content to sit still. If it were me, I'd be anxious too, but some things require the right timing. For example, today's timing is quite good."

With that, Andre glanced at the woman in black, but she remained silent, only looking down at the footprints on the ground.

I was completely bewildered, thinking these two must share some secret.

I didn't know the secret, and they certainly wouldn't tell me, but for now, the clue about * was the most important thing.

So, Da Xiong and I followed the trail of muddy footprints to track where * had gone.

Evidently, * had come from the left side of the cross street, which was the direction of the Grand Theater.

We followed Lauren, moving along the lane toward the theater.

Andre and the others had no choice but to follow us.

However, our tracking didn't seem smooth, as after a short distance, *'s footprints turned into a narrow alley.

We walked further down the alley, passing through layers of thin mist, and saw that it was actually a dead end. At the very end of the alley stood a pitch-black statue.

This statue was somewhat similar to the two we had seen by the beach; both depicted a powerful, majestic soldier holding a spear.

They shared the same piscine tail, the same severe weathering, and even the irregular oval hole on the forehead was identical. The only difference was that this statue was missing its right arm.

*'s footprints extended out from beneath this statue, yet it seemed no different from appearing out of thin air.

There was no hidden door, no steps, not even a single crack on the statue.

It made no sense whether * had climbed down from the statue or emerged from a hidden panel on it.

I need to clarify here why climbing down from the statue also doesn't make sense.

That's because although this was a cul-de-sac, the wall at the end had collapsed. While the mound of rubble made walking extremely difficult, there was no need to climb the statue.

Furthermore, *'s footprints appeared directly in front of the statue; there were none on the ground to the left or right sides.

It was impossible to assume * had walked out of the rubble pile.

In other words, judging by the footprints, * had suddenly materialized directly beneath the statue.

This was incredibly difficult to comprehend—a living person appearing out of nowhere; what a bizarre event.

Clearly, everyone present was intelligent, and they all frowned upon seeing such footprints.

So, we decided to approach the statue to see if there were any other clues.

At that moment, Lauren barked again and then bolted toward the side of the statue.

We hurried to follow, as it was obvious Lauren had made a new discovery.

Lauren ran a short distance and stopped in front of the pile of rubble beside the statue.

We crowded over and all frowned.

What Lauren had found was a piece of bloody bandage.

My head spun; I thought, could something have happened to *?

I picked up the piece of bandage to examine it. The blood was almost completely clotted; it must have been left yesterday.

Although Xin Lin was anxious, *'s footprints seemed steady, suggesting his life wasn't in immediate danger.

Next, we conducted a thorough inspection of the statue, using both magnifying glasses and magnetic field detectors. But the result was as we expected: the statue carved from sea-rock had no mechanisms or hidden doors, not even one large crack.

We found this result somewhat unbelievable.

I frowned, looking up at the small hole in the statue's forehead, feeling it was increasingly peculiar.

A very strange idea suddenly struck me: Could * have squeezed out of that small hole?

Just as I found this thought utterly ridiculous, Da Xiong suddenly yelled, "Come look, there are marks on this wall too!"

We quickly moved over and saw that what Da Xiong was pointing to was the wall on one side of the alley.

That wall was also constructed of black stone blocks; their dark color made the two muddy streaks on it particularly obvious.

These two mud streaks were separated by about two meters. If this represented the distance between the legs of some creature, how large must this thing have been?

We followed the mud streaks downward, noticing that they traveled in almost the exact same direction as *'s footprints.

This at least proved they were in a front-and-back pursuit relationship, though it was unclear who was chasing whom.

The streaks didn't extend very far; they vanished after about ten meters on the ground.

I deduced that this thing first crawled on the wall, then jumped to the ground and continued crawling away.

This meant the creature might have suction cups on its feet, perhaps something like a gecko.

But what kind of gecko was this large? I genuinely couldn't imagine.

And the strangest part was that a climbing gecko should leave paw prints, yet here there were only two muddy streaks—what was that about?

Did the gecko wear roller skates?

I shook my head, knowing this wasn't the time for jokes, and carefully surveyed the surroundings again but found no other discoveries.

Then Da Xiong said, "Stop overthinking. Let's follow the footprints to see where * ended up. If we find him, won't we know everything?"

We all nodded and continued forward, following the footprints.

But after just a few steps, Lauren behind us began to bark wildly again, and this time, it was facing the statue's forehead.