224: Chapter 224 I can't stop thinking about it.

Wang Laoliu stopped in his tracks, rain streaming down his face.

He glanced back at Yang Ningcong.

That look made it clear he wanted to slap Yang Ningcong across the face right then and there.

If that plastic explosive just now hadn't been brought down by an idiot like Yang Ningcong, this explosion would never have happened on their side.

Two women died in vain.

The safe location he had carefully chosen and the shelter he had spent hours building were completely ruined.

He had almost been sent to meet the King of Hell himself.

In his life, he had killed at least fifteen to twenty people, yet he had almost ended up falling victim to a bomb he made with his own hands, and all because of a rich punk who couldn't even recognize a plastic explosive.

It wasn't that Wang Laoliu didn't want to lose his temper.

But getting angry wouldn't solve anything.

The temperature was dropping, and there was no shelter whatsoever on this damned beach; their body temperatures were already falling.

If they wasted another two hours, hypothermia would cull the rest of them before that intern even had to lift a finger.

"If you don't want to die, follow me."

Wang Laoliu dropped those words and turned to continue walking toward the fissure.

Yang Ningcong cursed under his breath, but still scrambled up from behind the sheet metal and stumbled after him.

Several women supported each other as they stood up, trudging unsteadily behind them.

No one asked where they were going, and no one dared to stay behind.

The fissure was deeper than it looked.

Squeezing through the narrowest entrance sideways, it opened up a bit inside.

The ground was dry.

But the smell was wrong.

A stench combining putrid decay and damp mold clung to their nasal passages the moment they stepped into the cave mouth, refusing to dissipate no matter what.

"What is this smell..." Yang Ningcong covered his nose, his face contorted into a ball.

Wang Laoliu ignored him.

He squatted down and took a look: there were traces of ashes, and a few bundles of firewood were scattered nearby.

Someone had lit a fire here before.

"Laoliu, did someone live here before?" Yang Ningcong looked at the half-built stone wall someone had constructed on the side.

Wang Laoliu nodded.

Without even thinking, he knew it must have been the survivors from Su Qingxue's group.

One of the female internet celebrities who walked in groped along the stone wall, wanting to find a clean place to sit.

Her hand reached into a recess and touched a hard, round object.

It was ice-cold and smooth, with two holes on it.

She looked down.

A skull was facing directly at her.

Its empty eye sockets lacked a jaw, and a few strands of withered, blackened hair still clung to the top of the skull.

"Ahhhhhh—!"

The female internet celebrity's scream echoed back and forth within the narrow rock fissure, making everyone's eardrums ring.

Her legs went weak, and she collapsed directly onto the ground, her backside pressing down on a piece of something that looked like either wood or bone.

"What! What is that!" Yang Ningcong stepped back, pressing his back against the stone wall.

The female internet celebrity pointed at the recess, her fingers trembling at an accelerated frequency.

"Head... Head..."

Wang Laoliu walked over and looked down.

It was indeed a skeleton.

It had been dead for a long time; the skin and flesh had long since been decomposed by insects, ants, and microorganisms.

The remaining skeleton was scattered in the recess, and some parts still maintained a curled-up posture.

It looked like it had died hugging its knees.

Wang Laoliu didn't look anymore, turning and walking over to the pile of ashes.

He gathered the firewood together, took out some cotton wadding, and felt for his flint from his pants pocket.

He carried this thing with him everywhere, placed inside a waterproof bag.

Someone who had hung around the jungle for a long time always kept a fire starter pressed close to their skin.

After scraping it a few times, sparks splashed onto the finest tinder, and a wisp of smoke rose.

The flame jumped twice, slowly licking against the dry wood.

The flames illuminated the entire rock fissure thoroughly.

Those skeletons were scattered in various corners.

Some were curled in the stone wall recesses, while others were half-buried under the soil, revealing only a few ribs and half a spine.

The furthest one had its head tilted downward, its hand bones resting on a cloth bag beside it that had rotted into sludge.

Their postures varied, but their cause of death was identical: they had all gone while curled up, hugging themselves.

Starved to death, or frozen to death.

"This... This is too many..." A female assistant squatted beside the campfire, her voice trembling.

She counted the white bones within sight—at least five. In the deeper, pitch-black areas where she couldn't see clearly, she had no idea how many more there were.

Yang Ningcong huddled by the campfire, staying as far away from those bones as possible.

He stared at the dancing firelight, saying nothing, but his Adam's apple bobbed several times.

Several women huddled together, completely soaked, their teeth chattering uncontrollably.

Outside was an endless torrential rain and a gale that threatened to flip the entire island upside down.

That explosion just now had not only blown up their shelter from the wind and rain, but also completely shattered their last shred of wishful thinking about this island.

The deaths of Meng Tiantian and that female assistant were truly tragic.

Intestines mixed with muddy water hung on tree branches, and half of a head was missing.

Under the stimulation of such extreme depression and bloodshed, human nerves always tended to slide toward the most absurd abyss.

The internet celebrity closest to the innermost part was named Xiao Chuan. She hugged her knees tightly with both hands, her eyes fixed on the campfire, her voice shaking beyond recognition: "Don't you guys think... this island is freakishly evil?"

No one answered, only the muffled rolling of thunder outside.

Xiao Chuan swallowed a mouthful of saliva and continued muttering neurotically: "I once took a gig to film a short wilderness adventure drama."

"The feng shui master they invited told me that water can gather yin energy, especially on isolated islands surrounded by deep sea on all sides, which is called a dead zone in feng shui. People who die in such places have grievances that cannot disperse, and their souls can only wander around the beaches and forests."

A female assistant beside her drew in a sharp breath, subconsciously shrinking further away from the skeletons.

"Stop talking!"

"I can't help but think about it!" Xiao Chuan's eye sockets turned red, lowering her voice, "Look at those skeletons on the wall; they are obviously victims just like us."

"They had fire and a place to take shelter from the rain, so why did they all die here? And what about the shed we just built? How did the spot chosen by a professional like Wang Laoliu suddenly blow up?"

Another woman chimed in with a trembling voice: "Yeah... It blew up inexplicably. Those two bodyguards too; they fell straight down onto the gravel beach. Who knows if they were pushed by someone up top, or pushed by a ghost on the way down..."

"This is called looking for a scapegoat. People who die in the water from a shipwreck have to drag living people down if they want to be reincarnated."

"Four people died on this beach today, just enough to make a table. Do you believe it? As long as the rain doesn't stop, those things will sneak in through the fissure tonight and stand behind us, staring at us."

Speaking of this, another internet celebrity suddenly burst into tears: "When I was running away just now, I glanced back and saw Meng Tiantian had only one hand, and that hand... was still moving! Did she not want to die and wanted to drag us along with her?!"

"And the ghost wall!" Xiao Chuan raised her head, her gaze somewhat vacant, "Do you guys remember the weather before the cruise ship accident?"

"It was clearly a sunny day, and suddenly waves came. This is not any normal sea area at all; this is the legendary Devils Triangle where once you enter, you can never get out!"

"We can't get out, and those wronged ghosts of shipwreck victims won't let rescue find us either."

"We are haunted by ghosts, and everyone is going to die here."