As I advanced toward those grotesque black silhouettes, they clearly sensed my presence, recoiling with palpable apprehension. Seeing that they lacked any overt aggression, a sense of certainty settled in my mind, and I quickened my pace toward the shadows.

But when I was only five or six meters away, they seemed to perceive a threat, lunging and gesturing wildly as if trying to force me back. Though I still couldn't discern their faces, their movements suggested some kind of humanoid shape, yet their motions were far more rigid and unsettling than any ordinary human's.

Facing their menace, I felt no fear; I paused only briefly before continuing my advance. When I closed the distance to only two or three meters, I decisively switched on my flashlight and aimed its beam directly into the face of one of the figures.

The resulting glare caused me to freeze momentarily. Because I clearly saw a human face—and it was smiling.

However, the smile was utterly false, the expression horribly stiff. Most strikingly, its face was unnaturally flat, as if coated in some kind of oil, reflecting a faint sheen under the beam of the torch.

I couldn't articulate the sense of strangeness and dissonance it provoked; it gave me goosebumps all over. The individual before me was a young woman, physically unremarkable but not unattractive—rather, somewhat pleasant to look at.

Her skin was pale, her smile rigid, her gaze vacant, and her body hunched over, clad in a drab, ochre-colored garment. That clothing was utterly devoid of ornamentation, frighteningly plain; I couldn't even make out a collar or any buttons.

Number Two also saw the strange figure from behind me and exclaimed, "Damn, this thing isn't human at all, it's..." Before he could finish, the woman in the earthen-yellow clothes seemed to recoil from the light, slowly backing away. But the manner of her retreat was even stranger.

I saw no movement in her feet, and her expression remained completely unchanged—that same vacant smile fixed in place. As this figure drifted backward in such an odd posture, my mind was suddenly struck by a bolt of lightning.

Because I suddenly remembered who this woman was. She was one of the amateur explorers we had seen earlier!

Though I’d only glimpsed her once, the mole situated slightly to the left of her brow confirmed her identity. When I last saw her, she was wearing a field jacket.

I had no idea when she might have changed into this stark outfit, and the transformation of her body was too extreme. What exactly had happened to her?

Just moments ago, she was a normal person; how could she have devolved into this state so suddenly? Just as this thought crossed my mind, Number Two snapped at me, "That's just a photo!

What are you spacing out for, kid! Someone has glued photographs onto the faces of these moving things." Shhh-shhh-shhh, the sound of the shadow group shuffling across the ground gradually receded, but I remained frozen in place.

Thinking it over carefully, I realized he might be right; the flat face and rigid expression were indeed features only achievable with a photograph. But this introduced a new problem: those amateur explorers should have been first-timers here.

So who managed to take their pictures so quickly? Or perhaps they were carrying such large photographs with them all along?

Both scenarios seemed illogical. In the end, only one possibility remained: these so-called amateur explorers were part of a setup.

This meant that it wasn't us who fell into their trap; rather, we had walked right into theirs! At this realization, I sucked in a sharp breath and turned to look at Number Two.

Number Two clearly grasped the same thought, saying, "Let's chase after them first, see what those things really are, and then figure out the quickest way to get out of here!" I understood his meaning perfectly: pursuing them was necessary to ascertain the enemy's nature, while leaving was about escaping the snare. The enemy's strategy was clearly designed to lure us deep into this labyrinth of earthen pillars.

However, it was certain that these things with photographs on their faces were not weapons intended for our annihilation, as they had only been tracking us from the start, confirming that we had reached this specific location. Their decision to flee now suggested their weakness.

Therefore, if I could just catch up, I was highly confident I could seize one of them. With that conviction, I cast aside all caution.

I had kept the pearl generated by the Shen production process wrapped in my mouth without using it, but now I swallowed it whole, unleashing a startling surge of power. Using mental force to propel myself, I covered fifty or sixty meters in just a few leaps.

Those figures weren't fast to begin with, so the distance closed instantly. The one trailing at the very rear was now close enough for me to grab its shoulder with an outstretched hand.

So, naturally, I reached out to seize its shoulder. But to my surprise, the instant my hand shot out, the figure ducked low and seemed to phase directly into the ground.

I lunged into empty air, plunging into the cluster of figures, wildly grabbing, trying to catch one, but the moment my hand made contact with any of them, it vanished into thin air. Though I saw them suddenly shrink and disappear, I couldn't clearly make out the mechanism—it only seemed as if they burrowed into the earth, yet no traces were left on the ground.

In perhaps ten seconds, every single one of those figures had completely vanished without a trace. Number Two, running slower than me but still burdened with his basket and the bound A-Gui, hurried over.

Seeing me standing there, stunned, he asked, "What happened? Where did those inhuman, non-ghostly things go?" I looked up at Number Two, then down at the ground, and said with a note of disbelief, "Gone!

Vanished into thin air, just like the Earth- in those mythological dramas." Number Two was also startled, his brow furrowing deeply. After a moment, he came over to inspect as well.

We both crouched down, gently scraping away the topsoil, carefully examining the ground, and found no mechanism or trapdoor. What was peculiar, however, was that in this specific patch of ground, several tufts of vibrant green weeds were growing.

The surrounding area was bare and empty; only here were these few weeds present, which immediately aroused suspicion. But when we pulled one up to examine it, the weed caused no change or reaction.

Upon closer inspection, they were just ordinary weeds, the kind commonly seen everywhere in the southern regions. Still, Number Two seemed unconvinced and asked me, "Are you sure it wasn't an illusion?

And when you chased them, were these weeds already here?" I thought back carefully. "It probably wasn't an illusion.

When I touched their shoulders, it felt ice-cold, and the material of their clothes didn't feel like fabric—it felt very hard. As for the weeds, I didn't pay attention at the time." Number Two’s brow tightened.

"We might not be able to leave here." Hearing this, I quickly pressed him, "What do you mean? Why do you say that..." Number Two replied, "I suspect what we saw might not have been truly real; perhaps it was merely phantoms within some sort of formation." I still didn't fully grasp it and pressed further, "Phantoms?

What do you mean?" Number Two asked me, "Do you know how Zhuge Liang could trap tens of thousands of troops using just a few stones? And when trapped, those soldiers could still see illusory armies moving back and forth within the formation." I nodded.

"You're talking about Zhuge Liang's Eight Trigrams Formation, right? I heard it was a creation that defied heaven and earth, bordering on sorcery.

Could it be..." Number Two nodded. "You guessed correctly.

Today, we might have encountered something like that. This earthen forest is inherently a maze, and the perfect place to set up such an array.

It would be all too easy to trap and kill us here." I paused, then inquired, "Then, did those amateur explorers really transform into those strange figures with photos pasted on their faces?" Number Two shook his head. "Definitely not.

They might not have followed us at all." Saying this, he seemed to have an epiphany, slapping his bald head. "Amitabha, why didn't I think of that!" I was confused again, asking, "Think of what?

Did you figure out how we get out?" Number Two shook his head. "No.

I mean, when we first entered that village and saw that circular, concentric layout, we should have realized there was a master at work here! That village subtly followed a specific Feng Shui structure; it couldn't have been built by ordinary villagers!" I let out an "Oh," and understanding dawned on me as well.

Perhaps those werewolf-like creatures became normal people by day and murderous fiends by night precisely because they were influenced by the local Feng Shui." We both fell silent for a moment, and then I asked Number Two, "What do we do now?" Number Two replied, "There's nothing for it; I can only ask my Master." It was then I remembered he had a very powerful Master, supposedly capable of anything. Number Two carefully took the woven basket off his back and set it on the ground.

He then sat in the lotus position before it and gently called out to whatever was inside, "Master? Master, your disciple has a favor to ask!" But no matter how many times he called, there was no sound or movement from within the basket.

After calling perhaps two or three times, Number Two shook his head at me. "The old man is sleeping.

He won't wake up until the sun rises tomorrow." I felt helpless, desperately wanting to lift the lid of his basket, drag his Master out, and wake him with a splash of cold water. But I managed to restrain myself and said to Number Two, "So, you're saying we have to spend the night in this eerie stone forest?

Since this is the enemy's trap, danger could strike at any moment." Number Two frowned and asked me, "Now we can only rely on ourselves. Do you know Feng Shui?" I paused when I heard that.

"Feng Shui? I actually know a little!"