Chapter 791: In the Pit

“Is someone out there?!”

Qi Xia listened carefully to the hoarse, aged voice. It didn’t seem to be coming from the alley but rather from somewhere much farther away.

But how could such a distant voice echo through this narrow, dead-end alley barely a few dozen meters long?

“I heard footsteps!” the voice called again. “If anyone’s there, please say something… I’m not a bad person! Is someone there?”

Qi Xia glanced coldly at the black bead hovering between his brows and replied softly, “Yes.”

**Bang.**

The black bead shattered the moment he spoke.

He initially considered leaving, but curiosity about what lay deeper in the alley gnawed at him. After a few seconds of hesitation, he took slow, deliberate steps forward.

Before he had even made it halfway, a **crack** sounded beneath his foot—as if he’d stepped on something brittle.

Carefully shifting his weight, he crouched down and picked up the object.

It was a femur, brittle with age, covered in fine traces of dirt.

What puzzled him was that the bone’s owner must have died long ago.

“Hey, young man?” The aged voice drifted eerily toward him again. “Come a bit closer, but be careful!”

Qi Xia paused, glancing up at the remaining bead above his head, and suddenly had an idea.

“Careful of what?” he asked.

The moment he spoke, the black bead shot off into the darkness, vanishing without a trace.

“Careful of the pit!” the old man answered. “Keep walking forward—there’s a pit! Don’t fall in!”

“A pit?”

Qi Xia tossed the bone fragment aside and cautiously tested the ground with his foot as he advanced.

The alley’s towering walls blocked nearly all light, forcing him to slow his pace while quickly analyzing the old man’s motives.

Was this elder luring people in to kill them?

But why choose such a secluded alley?

Unless someone deliberately followed the map into this side path like he had, no one would ever wander into this pitch-black dead end.

“Where are you?” Qi Xia asked.

“Just a bit farther!” the old man urged. “Come help me!”

“Help?”

Qi Xia took five or six more steps, his feet crunching over a layer of sand and gravel covering the stone path.

Another few steps, and his probing foot suddenly met empty air. Testing the edges with his toes, he confirmed an unseen, gaping pit stretched across the alley’s width.

Had the old man not warned him, he would have fallen right in.

“Are you here yet?” the old man called again. “Over here!”

Only then did Qi Xia realize the voice was coming **from inside the pit.**

He slowly crouched and peered down, bracing himself for the worst—yet what he saw was unexpectedly mundane.

A dust-covered old man stood in a pit over three meters deep, holding a shovel in one hand and a nearly spent oil lamp in the other, straining to look up.

The lamp’s dying light barely illuminated the pit’s confines.

“Young man, right?” the elder asked. “Can you see me down here?”

Qi Xia hesitated, then replied coolly, “What are you doing down there?”

“It’s a long story…” the old man sighed. “Point is, I was digging, but the hole got too deep—now I can’t get out. Could you help me?”

“Digging…?”

Qi Xia frowned, studying the pit—roughly two meters wide and three or four meters deep. If this old man had dug it himself, it must have taken ages.

“I’ll get you out,” Qi Xia said. “But first, tell me why you were digging.”

“I was afraid you wouldn’t ask!” the old man exclaimed, delighted. “I think I’ve discovered something incredible! Pull me up, and I’ll tell you everything! Thank goodness someone came before the lamp burned out—otherwise, I’d have been stuck!”

Qi Xia nodded. He couldn’t sense any danger from the man, so he agreed.

Unlike Wei Yang, this elder seemed fully lucid.

A sane man digging a pit in a dark alley? Qi Xia was deeply curious about his motives.

“Hand me the shovel,” Qi Xia instructed.

“Huh? Why?”

“It’s the only way to reach you. Unless you expect me to pull you up barehanded?”

The old man hesitated, gripping his shovel like a lifeline—his only weapon for self-defense. Yet, after some thought, he conceded there was no better option.

“Listen, young man,” the elder said gravely. “I’ve uncovered a **huge secret** about this place! Pull me up, and I’ll share it with you!”

“A **huge secret**…?” Qi Xia’s eyebrow rose. This trip might prove worthwhile. “Relax. If I wanted you dead, I’d just bury you where you stand. No need for theatrics.”

“Ah…” The old man nodded. “Fair point… Hold on!”

He bent down, stripped off his outer garment, and wrapped something inside it before tucking the bundle under his arm.

Finished, he straightened and slowly raised the shovel toward Qi Xia.

“Much obliged, young man!”

Qi Xia exhaled, crouching to grip the shovel. With their combined effort, the old man hauled himself up, pulling on the tool while scaling the pit’s edge.

Despite the pit’s modest depth, the task was strenuous.

Though the elder seemed spry, he insisted on using only one hand, forcing Qi Xia to steady the shovel with all his strength to drag the wiry, hundred-pound man to safety.

Tossing the shovel aside, Qi Xia said flatly, “Now—show me this **huge secret**.”

The old man panted on the ground for a moment before lifting the oil lamp to study Qi Xia’s face.

“Young man, why so blunt?” he asked.

“I saved you. Should I be polite about it?”

“Ha! Fair enough.” The elder mysteriously pulled out the bundled garment and waved it before Qi Xia. “What’s inside—that’s the **secret**!”

“Oh?” Qi Xia feigned indifference. “And what is it?”

The old man set the bundle down and placed the lamp beside it.

Only then did Qi Xia notice the scattered human bones nearby—the one he’d stepped on was just a fragment.

Stranger still, the bones looked freshly unearthed.

With the reverence of unveiling a priceless artifact, the elder carefully unfolded the cloth.

“Young man… meeting me here… is your great fortune…”

Qi Xia leaned in, squinting under the flickering light.

Inside lay a grimy, dirt-caked skull.