“Is this the ‘big secret’ you were talking about?” Qi Xia asked coldly.
“Hehe…” The old man gave a strange laugh and looked up at Qi Xia. “Isn’t this a ‘big secret’?”
Hearing the old man’s laughter, Qi Xia lowered his gaze once more to the skull. Though he could only see the back of it, the dry cracks and the layer of dust suggested nothing more than that someone had died and been buried here.
Maybe they had died decades ago, or perhaps just a few years.
No matter how he thought about it, this wasn’t anything extraordinary, let alone a “secret.”
No one could say how many people had died in this city over the past seven years, or how many corpses had piled up.
“Seems I bet wrong,” Qi Xia said, glancing up at his empty overhead. “But gambling is gambling—no one wins all the time.”
With that, Qi Xia turned to leave, but the old man called out to stop him.
“Wait, young man!” The old man excitedly cradled the skull in one hand and raised the kerosene lamp with the other. “Aren’t you curious?! I dug for so long to find this skull—how can you not be curious?!”
Qi Xia sighed and stopped, turning back slowly. In his eyes, the old man was no different from any other lunatic.
Seeing that he had Qi Xia’s attention, the old man eagerly took two steps forward, still clutching the skull tightly. “Young man! There’s more down there! A lot more!”
Qi Xia looked down expressionlessly at the skull in the old man’s arms. The light was dim, but it was clear the skull was nothing out of the ordinary.
“So, what’s the secret?” Qi Xia asked, lifting his gaze.
“Young man… you have to believe me… If you trust me, I’ll tell you everything!” The old man spoke with a strange expression. “But you absolutely cannot think I’m crazy!”
“Fine.” Qi Xia exhaled. “I’ll give you one chance. Speak, I’m listening.”
“Good, good!” The old man grinned and sat down abruptly, still holding the skull.
Qi Xia crouched beside him, and the two of them huddled around the faint glow of the kerosene lamp in the dark alley, staring at the skull.
Just as the old man was about to speak, he paused, then raised the lamp to within inches of Qi Xia’s face. “Young man… what’s wrong with your eyes? Are you sick?”
“Are you going to waste this chance?” Qi Xia asked.
“Look at you, so impatient!” The old man chuckled, baring his teeth. “Fine, I won’t ask! I’ll tell you!”
He lowered the lamp to the skull and said, “Young man… what do you think people are made from?”
Qi Xia frowned slightly. “What do you mean?”
“I mean… before humans became humans, what were they?” the old man pressed.
“Are we discussing ‘evolution’ now?” Qi Xia felt exhausted. “If you want to believe it, humans could have evolved from anything.”
“Good…!” The old man nodded excitedly. “Hearing you say that… I can safely share my secret with you! Do you believe… that ‘evolution’ exists here too?”
Qi Xia’s eyes chilled. “You’re crazier than I thought. As long as ‘Echoes’ exist, humans could theoretically turn into anything overnight. There’s no need for ‘evolution’ at all.”
“Yes… you make a good point, but I felt its call.” The old man patted the skull beside him.
“Call?”
“I sensed something incredible buried beneath this city… So I started digging with the shovel I found. After all this time… I finally uncovered it.”
With that, he slowly turned the skull to face Qi Xia and lowered the lamp, revealing its true appearance.
Qi Xia’s eyes widened.
The skull was bizarre.
Though its shape was unmistakably that of a skull, its front was completely smooth.
There were no eye sockets to hold eyeballs, no nasal cavities for cartilage—just a seamless surface. The lower part merged seamlessly with the jawbone, and where teeth should have been was only flat bone. Qi Xia turned the skull over and confirmed there were no ear cavities either.
In other words… the owner of this skull…
Had no face.
“Young man… say something!” The old man was practically vibrating with excitement. “Doesn’t this skull shatter everything you know?! Can you tell how long this person’s been dead?”
Qi Xia remained silent, his expression grim.
“At least ten years!!” The old man waved his hands. “Do you believe the people here are evolving…? ‘Evolution’ is real! Ten years ago, the people here didn’t even have faces!!”
Qi Xia reached out and lightly touched the skull. Fresh from the earth, its surface was still warm.
“Isn’t this a ‘big secret’?!” The old man crowed. “There are more bones like this down there! Definitely more than one or two!”
He stared at Qi Xia expectantly, but the young man remained silent.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?” The old man’s voice trembled. “I’m not crazy, am I? This skull really has no face!”
Qi Xia stood slowly and walked to the edge of the pit, peering down. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and he could indeed see pale bones jutting from the black soil—many more remains waiting to be unearthed.
“Incredible, right?” The old man brought the lamp over, his face alight with excitement. “I only meant to dig a little, but… I kept feeling the call from deep below… as if some mysterious force urged me to keep going. Who knew I’d dig so deep I couldn’t climb back out?”
Qi Xia picked up a small stone from the ground and tossed it into the pit.
“This is the deepest hole I’ve ever dug, and I actually found something…” The old man rambled on. “I need to ‘Echo’ quickly, remember this spot—maybe I’ll find an even bigger secret deeper down! I might be on the verge of uncovering this world’s truth!”
After a long silence, Qi Xia finally spoke again, sighing deeply. “Old man, if someone’s face is completely flat… can they still be called ‘human’?”
“How could they not be?!” the old man exclaimed. “Didn’t you see, young man? That skull had a spine attached! It’s not some artist’s sculpture—its bones show signs of oxidation! Even without facial features, there’s space for a brain! That’s undeniably a human skull!”
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