Boss Wu insisted on taking the first watch, so I had no choice but to duck into the tent first. There were no sleeping bags or blankets in the tent, but thankfully the bottom of this American-imported camping tent was reinforced with nylon, preventing the discomfort of pitching on uneven ground.

In this deserted and desperate place, one should be grateful just to have a tent to sleep in; I dared not ask for more. Using my jacket as a quilt, I lay down casually, closed my eyes, and tried to rest.

Listening to the occasional faint sounds from outside made by Boss Wu, I still couldn't sleep. Ruminating on what Boss Wu had told me today left me quite unsettled.

Having experienced so many bizarre things, I could accept the existence of another person who looked exactly like me. However, the simultaneous presence of another Da Xiong, another Liang Qian, and even another Long Jia, felt profoundly unnatural.

I figured one set must be an imposter, or perhaps some other entity. But who or what would be impersonating them?

And who arranged all of this, and for what purpose? If so many identical people existed concurrently, it must have been premeditated, signaling a major conspiracy.

I couldn't fathom the nature of this plot, but it certainly involved the few of us, or more directly, it involved Grandpa. Because without Grandpa’s affairs, Liang Qian would still be a free-roaming explorer, and Da Xiong an ordinary cadet at the Academy of Sciences; they would never have crossed paths.

Could it be that all of this was orchestrated by Grandpa in secret? What exactly was he planning?

I had a vague feeling that Grandpa's objective was not as simple as avenging the Wei Kingdom, because the scope of this scheme was far too vast. As I thought, it suddenly struck me that Da Xiong, Liang Qian, and Long Jia had all died before my eyes, yet I never saw a single corpse in the end.

Da Xiong's body was taken away by the shadow within that sphere of white light, Liang Qian's body couldn't be found even after searching the crab pile, and Long Jia was blown to dust. After a person dies, there should be a body, unless these people were not human to begin with, which is why I wasn't allowed to see them.

Looking at it this way, the deaths of these three were not as straightforward as they seemed, especially Da Xiong's; someone might have deliberately removed his body after he died. When Da Xiong's body vanished, I heard intense sounds of a struggle.

At that time, Da Xiong was already dead and couldn't have fought anyone; even if he were alive, with so many broken ribs, he wouldn't have been able to move. It was most likely that the person trying to move Da Xiong clashed with something else that had entered the house—perhaps the strange dark shadow from the light sphere.

This suggests that someone else has been following me all along, and this person is quite formidable, capable of confronting the so-called true god head-on and gaining the upper hand. The reason this person didn't want me to see the bodies must be that there was something wrong with them, but what problem could an ordinary corpse have?

Unless these people were human when alive, they turn into something else upon death. My thoughts raced downward, and I suddenly remembered the Grandpa who returned to Chengdu with me; that Grandpa I eventually discovered was impersonated by a straw effigy, yet I hadn't noticed at the time.

Realizing this, I almost shot up from the ground, thinking: "Right! Perhaps the other Da Xiong, Liang Qian, and Long Jia are not human, but are impersonated by straw figures!" But was the other me also impersonated by a straw figure?

That didn't fit the logic, because if straw figures are used to deceive someone, there must be a target to be deceived; therefore, that 'me' must be a normal person, otherwise, it would make no sense for the straw figure to painstakingly disguise itself as someone I know. A group of straw figures brought me to this isolated island by whatever means necessary; as for why, I still don't have the answer.

However, I can probably guess who is driving the straw figures. If nothing unexpected happens, it must be the white-clothed girl I encountered earlier who bears a striking resemblance to Nie Qilan.

And it is highly likely that she is the one following me now. Her straw men have died one after another by my side, clearly failing in their purpose to monitor and guide me, so has she sent Boss Wu next?

With that realization, a jolt went through me, and I hastily scrambled up from the ground, put on my jacket, and exited the tent. What I hadn't expected, though, was that by the faint light of the headlamp placed outside the tent, I noticed Boss Wu was not sitting there.

My front was empty; there was no figure. I paused, then saw the empty tin can Boss Wu had finished eating still sitting on the ground.

I leaned closer and confirmed that it had been eaten. Looking at the few remaining soybeans inside, I didn't know if straw figures could eat like people, so I couldn't draw any conclusions.

The most critical thing now was that Boss Wu was gone. What could he be doing?

Reporting to the white-clothed girl? Thinking this, I quietly walked toward the cave entrance, looked left and right, and saw no sign of anyone.

As I stood there wondering, I suddenly glimpsed a faint flicker of a glow stick light deep within the cave to my right. A sudden inspiration struck me, and I crept forward in the dark, tiptoeing after it.

Fearing I might stumble and expose myself, I moved very slowly, groping my way through the rubble. But the light from the glow stick ahead was also moving slowly; I was actually getting closer to it.

Gradually, I could see clearly: it was indeed Boss Wu’s back. He moved incredibly lightly, making almost no sound.

Boss Wu held three bound glow sticks high in his right hand, moving while scanning his surroundings, as if searching for something. I stayed about ten meters behind him, and every time he paused to look around, I would crouch down and momentarily hide.

Slowly, I realized Boss Wu seemed to be looking for something, and that object was clearly not on the ground—it was on the walls or the ceiling. I thought he was most likely searching for another fork in the path or an exit.

I wondered, why didn't Boss Wu search while I was there, only starting to look after I had been in the tent for so long? This only strengthened my conviction that he was definitely hiding something from me.

I did my best to remain unseen by Boss Wu and followed him closely. Gradually, I noticed that it wasn't just a simple search; every time he stopped, he would look at an item in his left hand.

At first, I thought it was a compass used for orientation. But upon closer inspection, it didn't seem to be one, as that object appeared square, while a compass is round.

Every time he lowered his head to look at the object, his finger would press or scrape it once.