While Xu Milu was enjoying her dinner, the earth, still thinking about the "thing better than the sun" she had mentioned, couldn't resist crawling over and leading her into the woods with its tail.

"Let's go see the underground cave."

Although Xu Milu didn't understand, she still followed along the path covered with purple ferns, crossing the swamp. After passing through the lush bushes and stepping over the low shrubs, a series of round, bun-shaped stone mounds soon appeared in front of her.

These stone mounds do not appear to be natural formations. The massive stones have been polished into rounded shapes and carved with snake scale patterns. Each mound has an arch-like opening carved out of it. In front of the opening are two waterways, but instead of clear lake water, they are filled with dark, sticky animal fat—it looks like it has been there for many years.

Next to each stone mound is a lamp carved out of stone, with sections of dark substance soaking inside. A small, flickering flame dances within, and the smell is not unpleasant; rather, it has a faint fragrance of pine and cypress.

Xu Milu observed carefully and discovered that these lamps functioned similarly to the ever-burning lamps in the tomb chamber; as long as the grease didn't dry out, these lamps would not go out.

This is indeed a clever idea.

"After you finish eating the meat, throw the bones and skin here, tie them together with pine and grass, and it will shine, as if the sun is still in the sky, and it will never go out."

As it swam on its belly, it wagged its tail and explained to Xu Milu:

“When someone dies, they are dragged here, skinned, and their flesh is placed on a stone. The meat is thrown into the swamp to offer to the gods. This is my family's stone, this is my mother's skin, this is my grandmother's skin, this is my grandmother's mother's skin—”

She stopped in front of a large stone mound, gently rubbing her face against the snake-scale patterns on it before turning to look at Xu Milu:

“After I die, I will be skinned and hung here. My mother said that if I am skinned, I can come back to life and become a jade grass, a camel, a big tree, or a stone. You are my friend, and I want you to skin me and stick me on the other side of the mountain—I want to become a poisonous bird, fly over the corpse of Erfu, and see what's on the other side.”

Xu Milu was shocked by the primitive and simple survival philosophy of the Ghost Kingdom people. They seemed to have an almost indifferent calm towards death, as if death was just an appointment to be attended.

She wasn't sure if people from the Ghost Kingdom were reincarnated after death, but looking into his sincere eyes, and seeing how much he trusted her upon their first meeting, Xu Milu couldn't help but nod.

"Okay, I promise you, if you die, I will skin you and take your skin to the other side of the mountain."

“Friend! You are a friend of the earth, but when you die, the earth will peel off your skin and hang it here.”

Di was overjoyed, like a child. He rubbed his tail on the ground, broke off a piece of tree trunk, dipped it in a little lamp oil, and gestured for Xu Milu to follow him into the cave.

Xu Milu couldn't help but shudder. Her new friend always managed to say the most terrifying things in the most innocent tone.

...

...

Inside the cave was a pile of white bones, all of which appeared to be the remains of people from the Ghost Kingdom. The thick snake bones reflected an ivory-like luster under the firelight, with human heads attached to them. Even the most authoritative biologists would not believe their eyes.

These are all women's skulls. Over the long years, the flesh and blood on the skulls have been completely eroded away, leaving only a piece of white bone. And they just quietly "watch" Xu Milu, this uninvited guest.

"...This feels like visiting someone's grave."

Xu Milu carefully avoided the broken bones on the ground, and couldn't help but sigh silently. After the fox demon, the black dragon, the elf, the dwarf, and the Orok people, she had gained another friend from the Ghost Kingdom.

—And she's the kind of person who, at the slightest disagreement, would have her best friend skin her alive and even take her best friend to visit her ancestral graves late at night.

"Found it, here it is."

He held up the torch and looked up, gesturing for Xu Milu to look.

The ceiling inside the cave wasn't high; Xu Milu could reach out and touch it. By the light of her torch, she could see some patterns resembling murals carved into the stone walls.

These patterns are like static paintings, recording everything about the Earth Clan: hunting, gathering, reproduction, childbirth, and even death. Everything about these demon women is recorded in the form of murals.

Just as Xu Milu guessed, the Ghost Kingdom was indeed a near-primitive matriarchal society, where bloodlines were calculated and property was inherited through the matrilineal line.

The women of the Ghost Kingdom possess serpentine bodies stronger than the men, so the able-bodied men of the Ghost Kingdom are responsible for gathering and cooking food, polishing scales, and taking care of the elderly and children, while the women are responsible for hunting, fishing, and protecting themselves from wild animals.

They worship the gods of the heavens, believing that the heavens are their rulers. Every fifteen full moons, the people of the Ghost Kingdom gather together to offer sacrifices to their deceased relatives with the prey they have hunted.

When a person from the Ghost Kingdom dies, they will follow their ancestral teachings to peel off the snake skin of the deceased, soak the snake skin in the juice of Yao grass, and leave the body in the mountains and forests to feed wild beasts. When the snake skin becomes soft and the flesh and blood have been eaten away by the wild beasts, the people of the Ghost Kingdom will collect the body, which is left with only white bones, and put the bones into a stone cave for preservation.

This primitive view of life and death also implicitly contains a reverence for nature and a simple concept of giving back to nature.

Although some of the murals have become blurred due to the passage of time, the specific content they are telling can still be clearly seen. Xu Milu carefully examined them in chronological order and soon found what she was looking for.

That mural was probably carved by the Earth Mother and Grandmother during their lifetimes. The exact time is unknown, but we can see from the picture that a huge firebird flies over the Ghost Kingdom, with a string of red fireballs following its tail, and all the Ghost people are kneeling on the ground in worship.

In the next mural, a red firebird lies atop a giant's head, its eyes blazing with flames, its drooping red tail feathers almost obscuring the sky, followed by a sky full of flames.

The last image shows a firebird flying away, leaving behind a huge red crater. All the beasts that approached were burned to charcoal. The people of the Ghost Kingdom used their blood to draw heavy skulls as a reminder to their descendants.

When did this happen?

Xu Milu pointed to the mural and turned to ask.

After seeing the mural, he shook his head:

“This was left by my grandmother. They say that a huge red bird perched on the forehead of Erfu’s corpse. When it took flight, the water on the ground dried up, the fish in the swamp jumped onto the ground, and the wild animals in the forest became restless. Later, the bird flew away, and Erfu’s forehead is still burning with fire. No living creature dares to come near it.”

Almost instantly, Xu Milu was certain that this must be the trace left by her bloodline "father".

...

...

Before dawn the next day, Xu Milu followed the direction indicated by the ground and continued her journey through the swamp. By the morning of the fourth day, her gaze swept across the boundless land and she saw a red flame rising in the distance. She knew that this was her destination.