11 Devil Mountain

Zhou Yun looked ahead at the beautiful scenery. The sky was azure, dotted with fluffy white clouds, and below were buildings that looked like tiny dots. She couldn't help but say, "It must be even more beautiful here at night." When the lights came on, the atmosphere was wonderful.

Pan Fei agreed, walked closer to Zhou Yun, and gazed at her, saying, "Of course, you can see the lights of the whole city here at night. Every single one is like a star in the sky, even more beautiful than the stars."

Pan Fei's tone was somewhat gentle, and Zhou Yun could sense a hint of ambiguity. She couldn't help but glance at Pan Fei and saw that his eyes were bright and he seemed very enthusiastic.

Zhou Yun smiled slightly, but didn't say much. Then she lowered her head and pondered, looking somewhat puzzled.

The two men admired the scenery ahead, while Fang Chengjin behind them examined the boulder. The boulder was rough, dark, and clearly defined. Fang Chengjin crouched down, frowned, and grabbed a handful of rubble and black sand hidden beneath the boulder.

Blood, stench... and dampness... the smell of damp dust... how could it smell like this?

**

Just as Fang Chengjin was observing, Zhou Yun suddenly turned around, searching for Fang Chengjin's figure. She saw him squatting down in front of the boulder and walked towards him.

Zhou Yun asked, "What did you find?"

Pan Fei, who was standing nearby, also noticed all of this and walked over. His gaze was a little anxious as it fell on the thing in Fang Chengjin's hand.

At this moment, the sand in Fang Chengjin's hand was just ordinary sand and soil, nothing special about it.

Looking at the ordinary sand, Zhou Yun wondered, "This should be mud and sand from the ground." As she spoke, she also tried to rummage around the corner of the boulder, but found nothing.

Pan Fei explained, "It's not surprising that there's sand like this next to a boulder."

Fang Cheng carefully loosened the sand, letting it slip slowly from his palm, and slowly stood up, his gaze deep.

Seeing that he hadn't noticed anything at all, Pan Fei shrugged and chuckled.

Zhou Yun was puzzled, but seemed to have noticed something was wrong, so she didn't ask any further questions and got up.

Fang Cheng carefully walked around the boulder, came up to take a look at the beautiful scenery, and with his back to Pan Fei, he slowly said, "Mr. Pan seems to be very familiar with this place."

Pan Fei smiled and, meeting Zhou Yun's questioning gaze, explained, "To be honest, this is my first time here too. I just searched for a lot of information about Devil Mountain online beforehand, so I know a little bit about it. You must have come here because you know about this popular spot. Since mountaineering bloggers became famous online, this little-known mountain has become known to others."

Fang Chengjin then asked, "Mr. Pan, how much do you know about this Devil's Mountain? I heard that this mountain was plundered by pirates before. Did the pirates also know that there was treasure here? Generally speaking, pirates don't easily come to the island unless..."

Pan Fei chuckled and walked over to Fang Chengjin. "Professor Fang is really curious. Well, how can you be a professor if you don't learn more?"

The last sentence sounded a bit mocking, and Zhou Yun couldn't help but frown, thinking that Pan Fei was too arrogant.

Pan Fei continued, "Hundreds of years have passed. Even if there were treasures, they would have been looted. Professor Fang, do you still want to search for treasure?"

Fang Chengjin: "If you have one, that would be best. Who wouldn't want a priceless treasure?"

Pan Fei smiled, but the meaning behind his eyes was unclear.

The conversation between the two was not very pleasant; it seemed as if their words contained ulterior motives. After chatting for a short while, Pan Fei suggested going down the mountain.

The three continued walking downhill, and halfway down, they came across a forest of dawn redwoods, lush and green, with leaves that seemed to be dancing in the air, soft and swaying in the wind.

Zhou Yun: "Metasequoia trees. It is said that you can only find the Devil's Stone if you see these metasequoia trees. It seems that we were able to come here by mistake through another route."

Pan Fei smiled and said, "There are many paths in the mountains here. It's not that you can only get up by seeing a metasequoia tree. I guess it's just a rumor spread by outsiders."

Zhou Yun lowered her eyes and nodded silently.

As we were descending the mountain, a burst of laughter suddenly came from ahead. However, because the dawn redwood trees were so tall, they blocked our view, so we could only glimpse the indistinct figures through the treetops.

Zhou Yun: "It looks like there's someone ahead."

Pan Fei raised an eyebrow: "There are quite a lot of people climbing mountains lately."

Fang Chengjin spoke up: "Let's go take a look."

Fang Chengjin's sudden outburst startled Pan Fei. Pan Fei couldn't help but glance at Fang Chengjin, frowning slightly. Fang Chengjin walked a few steps away, and Pan Fei leaned closer to Zhou Yun, whispering, "Your mentor seems a bit strange. Does he always speak so abruptly?"

Zhou Yun said awkwardly, "He doesn't talk much." Actually, Zhou Yun felt that Fang Chengjin didn't like Pan Fei very much, but she couldn't say it out loud.

Pan Fei gave an "oh" and shrugged helplessly.

**

As we passed through the dawn redwood trees, three figures gradually became clearer in front of us.

Judging from their backs, there were two women and one man. The first to spot Zhou Yun and the others was a very cute-looking girl, about twenty years old, with thick foundation, big eyes, and shimmering false eyelashes, and glossy pink lips.

"Hey, someone's coming!" she called out first, and the man and woman next to her immediately turned around to look at Zhou Yun and the others. The man was very muscular, with a physique that looked like he had worked out at the gym. The other woman was a bit older, with short hair, a pretty face, and a slender, toned figure, accentuated by a form-fitting tracksuit.

"Hello!" The little girl skipped over and smiled at them. "Are you here to climb the mountain too?"

The girl's voice was a little high-pitched and a little hoarse.

Zhou Yun looked at the girl in front of her, lost in thought.

A look of amazement flashed in Pan Fei's eyes, and he stepped forward to respond enthusiastically: "We're here to climb mountains too, to see Devil Mountain."

"What a coincidence, the three of us are too," the little girl replied with a smile, then pointed to the sign behind her, "We're planning to stay at this guesthouse/manor, but we don't know what it's like. Has any of you been there?"

The three of them looked at the sign at the same time.

There are guesthouses and manors inside; please enter if you wish to rest or play, but an entrance fee is required.

There was only this line of text, with an arrow below it indicating to keep going, but no contact number was provided.

Ahead of them, there was indeed a narrow path, lined with trees, just wide enough for one person to walk through. In the distance, they could see a bright light at the end, which looked like another, more open place.

Pan Fei was puzzled, but at the same time full of excitement. "I haven't been to this one before, but nowadays, the more unique homestays are all located in the mountains. I've been to some mountain homestays before, and the experience was pretty good, embracing nature!"

The young girl was a little conflicted: "That's what we were thinking too, but we searched online and couldn't find this guesthouse. It feels a bit strange and mysterious."

Pan Fei was eager to try: "It's okay, we can go in and take a look anyway. If we can't stay, we can just come out. There are so many of us, we can treat it as an adventure."

Another robust man chimed in, "That's true. Let's go in and take a look. The point of mountain climbing is to discover these unique things. I guess it's someone who got tired of working hard in a first-tier city and came home to run a guesthouse. There are still villagers at the foot of the mountain, so maybe it's someone from that village."

Pan Fei turned to Zhou Yun and asked, "Shall we go take a look?"

Zhou Yun didn't respond; she looked at Fang Chengjin. Whether or not she went would definitely depend on Fang Chengjin's opinion, since she was there to accompany Professor Fang on his hike, and they didn't plan to stay overnight.

Fang Cheng stared at the path for a while, then said, "Let's go take a look."