Daily life of slaying demons in the government

Chapter 595: Man-Eating Cave

Yang Qian stayed at Old Man Ma's house for two days. On the second day, Old Man Liu's second son came back. On the third day, Yang Qian was led into the mountain by the other party to see what the so-called man-eating cave was all about.

The second son of Old Man Ma is called Ma Yuan, a sturdy man in his thirties.

Like Old Man Ma, he was a down-to-earth person. He was very grateful to Yang Qian for curing his wife's illness. When he heard that Yang Qian wanted to see the man-eating cave, he immediately wanted to dissuade him. Finally, after seeing Yang Qian shatter a large stone in the air, he agreed to take Yang Qian to see the wonder.

"Mr. Yang, are you the immortal master they are talking about?"

"Why? Have you heard of the Immortal Master?"

"Hehe, of course not! Every time I go to the city to sell something, I always go to the teahouse to listen to some stories. I often hear about the deeds of the immortal master. They are so amazing, including the method you used yesterday. It's called, it's called magic, right?"

"What do you think?"

"I think Mr. Yang is the immortal master! Hey, can you tell me if I can learn some skills from him?"

Yang Qian was amused by this honest and straightforward man and said, "You are already thirty-two or thirty-three years old. Even if you have talent, it's too late at this age. You should just live your life honestly and stop thinking about things all the time. Otherwise, how can you be worthy of the family you are shouldering?"

Ma Yuan scratched his head and said rather uncomfortably: "Mr. Yang is teaching me a lesson. I am just curious. I won't think about it anymore."

Ma Yuan didn't seem angry, and he didn't ask any more questions about magic. He just introduced the origin of the man-eating cave to Yang Qian.

"The cave is actually not that big, just like an ordinary cave. It is said that there are monsters living in it, locked up by gods. In fact, it is not common to eat people. When I was a child, a few of my playmates were naughty and mischievous outside the cave. In the end, they were severely beaten by their family members, but they were not eaten by the cave.
Last month, something happened to the youngest son of the Yao family. The boy was only 20 years old this year, and he was very accurate with a bow and arrow. He would definitely be a great hunter in the future. But he was chasing a wild boar and passed by the man-eating cave. As a result, the wild boar was fine, but he himself was sucked in.

He brought his hunting dogs with him. When his companions caught up with him, they saw the dogs barking at the cave, so they didn’t dare to go in and investigate. After searching the area, they said that the boy had been killed by the man-eating cave.”

Yang Qian listened carefully and found it a little funny because the origin of the man-eating cave described by Ma Yuan was different from what the old man Ma said.

According to Old Man Ma, there is a monster in the Man-Eating Cave, called a Stone Dragon, which sleeps for a long time and eats people when it wakes up. But it is afraid of sunlight, so it stays at the entrance of the cave and attacks people and animals passing by.

In fact, whether it is a prisoner monster or some strange beast, these claims are not very reliable.

But the story of the man-eating cave is not an old rumor, so it aroused Yang Qian's interest.

He used the cloud-flying technique to carry Ma Yuan on the journey. The boy was scared to death at first, but he soon adapted to the situation. He lay on the cloud and cried loudly, as excited as a baby.

"Watch out, don't miss the spot."

"Don't worry, Mr. Yang. I can recognize this mountain with my eyes closed. Look, it's the mountain in front of us with many redwoods. Let's go down."

Ma Yuan's memory is indeed very good. He can distinguish the destination below even at high altitude.

Yang Qian landed as he was told, and soon found the so-called "man-eating cave" after landing.

"Are the paper money here burned by the villagers?" Yang Qian saw ashes of burnt paper money about 20 to 30 feet away from the cave. "Well, usually hunters from our village come here. These should be burned by the Yao family."

The cave was indeed not very big as Ma Yuan said. It was just on a mountain wall.

It's not a cave, but it can be called a crack in the rock wall. It's only shoulder-width wide, so people of normal build can only bend over to get in, and those with larger builds can only go in sideways.

As soon as Yang Qian saw the cave, he used his divine sense to explore it. It was actually quite deep inside, and the deeper you went, the more interconnected it became, like a cave or an ant nest. But Yang Qian did not sense the abnormality of the so-called man-eating cave.

Is this another story that is spread by rumor or simply made up?

Following Ma Yuan, they stopped at the 50-foot mark of the cave entrance. Ma Yuan proudly said that they often came here to play when they were young, and as long as they didn't go 50 feet in, there should be no problem.

When Yang Qian got close to the cave entrance, he also saw some obviously broken branches beside the cave entrance. When asked what happened, Ma Yuan shook his head and said he didn't know. He was also surprised that the small tree in front of the cave entrance was broken. He had never seen it when he passed by here not long ago.

Is someone else being sucked in? Or is it something else?
"What are those footprints?" Yang Qian's eyesight was much better than Ma Yuan's, and he quickly found some footprints and scratches left by wild animals next to the broken tree.

Ma Yuan was indeed a hunter. After being reminded by Yang Qian, he immediately spotted the faint animal footprints and recognized them at a glance.

"Those are the footprints of a mandrill! Look at the big toe, this mandrill is not small! This thing is more powerful than a tiger in the mountains. Even experienced hunters may not be able to defeat it. If you are targeted by it, you will be in danger of death."

"Mandrill? It looks like there is something in this cave." Yang Qian could sense a faint smell of blood at the entrance of the cave, which must have appeared a few hours ago, so it has not dissipated yet. Moreover, the direction in which the animal's footprints disappeared was towards the cave.

And judging from the broken tree, it must have been broken not long ago. The two sides fit together perfectly.

A mandrill passed through the cave entrance and was pulled into the cave.

Judging from the wrist-thick tree fragment and the size of the mandrill, it would take a lot of strength to pull it into the cave. At least it would take the combined strength of three or five people.

The most important thing is that even though he guessed that a mandrill was pulled into the cave, Yang Qian's divine sense still could not find any traces. Even with his divine sense's speed of a hundred miles in an instant, he had already seen the complex underground network of the cave clearly. But no matter how he looked at it, it was just an ordinary cave, without any suspicious places.

This is very strange.

Yang Qian asked Ma Yuan to wait there, and he walked forward a few steps until he stopped at the entrance of the cave.

After standing still and waiting for a while, Yang Qian still didn't find anything unusual.

"Either this place is a place for storytelling. Or the secret is being kept hidden."

Yang Qian had a flash of thought in his mind, and he raised his right leg and stepped on the ground. An invisible wave spread out from him as the center, and even the rocky ground was rippled with earth and rocks for a distance of 70 to 80 feet. But this kick was not actually heading towards the ground, but towards the ground.

Yang Qian wanted to see if what he detected with his divine sense was true.

(End of this chapter)