Chapter 491: Chapter 491: 3 Letters

A few hundred meters away, next to a large boulder, stood a small wooden cabin. By now, the cabin was almost completely covered by the surrounding vegetation, with only a few spots revealing its underlying structure.

The cabin door was slightly ajar. Su Qing sent a climbing vine inside and saw a skeleton lying on the wooden bed. It wasn’t just bones; it was a mummified corpse. She could vaguely make out the owner’s face—he appeared to be an old man of about sixty. His hair and beard were graying, and his face was dark. Su Qing concluded he had likely died from poison.

This was because there were some dried, dark red stains around his mouth and on the wooden bed beside him—most likely blood.

’Someone actually lived at the bottom of this cliff.’ And it was obvious this person wasn’t Su Shengjun.

Su Qing continued to survey the cabin. Not far from the bed was a wooden table. On it sat an envelope held down by a stone, with a wooden box next to it. Other than that, there were only some daily necessities like pots, bowls, and pans. But clearly, since no one had used them for a very long time, everything was covered in a thick layer of dust.

Su Qing expanded her observation again and discovered a grave in a clearing not far from the cabin. An unmarked tombstone stood before it, its occupant unknown.

Besides the cabin and the grave, there was nothing else at the bottom of the cliff. So, Su Qing started walking toward the cabin.

But just as Su Qing took a few steps, the swarm of snakes that had seemed to be watching her suddenly stirred. They slithered toward her, flicking their tongues with a menacing HISS, their cold eyes fixed on her. They seemed determined to keep her away from the cabin.

Seeing this, Su Qing couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. ’Clearly, these snakes have some connection to the person in the cabin. Perhaps he was the one who trained them. It’s a shame he’s gone now, but the snakes seem to be sticking to their old habits, guarding the cabin.’

Su Qing ignored the snakes and continued toward the cabin.

Seeing her keep walking toward the cabin, the swarm of snakes grew enraged. Several of them shot toward Su Qing at high speed. But before they could even get close, several vines shot out with lightning speed and wrapped tightly around them. No matter how much the snakes struggled, it was useless.

Then, before the other snakes could react, they too were tightly bound by vines.

Su Qing had no intention of killing the snakes. ’After all, strictly speaking, this is their territory now. I’m the one trespassing in their home. It would be going too far to kill them.’ So, she simply restrained them and walked to the cabin.

Pushing open the half-closed door, Su Qing couldn’t help but wave a hand in front of her face. With a mummified corpse inside and no visitors for a long time, the cabin smelled rather unpleasant and was filled with dust.

After waiting outside for a moment, Su Qing went in. She first pressed her palms together and bowed to the old man on the bed. "I mean no disrespect," she said. "I am only here looking for clues to find an elder of my family. I hope you won’t be offended, Sir."

With that, Su Qing took a plain-colored bedsheet from her storage space and covered the mummified body on the bed.

Then, Su Qing’s gaze fell upon the letter on the wooden table. ’The man left a letter on the table before he died. He clearly hoped to leave some information for those who came after.’ So, Su Qing opened the envelope on the table and took out the letters inside to read.

There were three letters in the envelope. After reading the first one, Su Qing looked over at the man on the bed in surprise. She never would have imagined that this person was a servant of the An Family, assigned by Mr. An to stay here and guard the valuables the family hadn’t had time to take with them.

This reminded Su Qing of what those two men she’d encountered in the mountains searching for medicinal herbs had said when she first arrived in this world. They had been talking about things like a treasure map. It was later confirmed that those men were from the An Family of Xiangcheng. The "Young Master" they mentioned was An Zhihan, and the "First Master" and "Second Master" were An Zhihan’s two uncles.

At the time, Su Qing hadn’t paid much attention to their conversation. ’A treasure map? What does that have to do with me? I’m not going to look for it.’ But unexpectedly, Mr. An really had hidden treasure in Baihua Mountain and had even specially assigned someone to guard it. It was just a shame this guard had passed away before anyone from the An Family arrived.

This first letter also expressed his apology for failing to complete the task Mr. An had given him. Clearly, this first letter was written for the descendants of the An Family.

After finishing the first letter, Su Qing frowned slightly. As far as she knew, Mr. An was currently in a coma and had been for several years with no sign of waking. ’It seems the old man never had the chance to tell his two sons the location of the family treasure. His sons probably know there’s treasure hidden in these mountains, but they don’t know the exact location. That’s why they sent those men to search all over Baihua Mountain back then.’

And now, what An Zhihan’s two uncles had failed to find despite all their efforts, she had stumbled upon.

Then, Su Qing opened the second letter.

This letter wasn’t addressed to the An Family, but to whoever happened to stumble upon this place. In it, the guard briefly explained his origins and expressed his hope that the finder would help pass the news to the An Family’s descendants so they could come and retrieve the treasure. As a thank you, the guard had left behind his method for taming the snakes as a reward for delivering the message.

Reading the second letter, Su Qing let out a soft sigh.

’The allure of wealth is truly tempting. Anyone else would probably just take everything here for themselves. After all, with something so valuable, who wouldn’t be tempted?’

For Su Qing, however, it didn’t matter much. If she wanted to make money, she had plenty of ways to do so. Besides, she wasn’t short on cash right now.

There was another thing: she knew An Zhihan. And An Zhihan was planning to deal with the An Family—a development Su Qing was happy to see and even willing to help along. She planned to give these things to An Zhihan later. ’With these things,’ she thought, ’it should be much easier for An Zhihan to deal with the An Family.’

Putting down the second letter, Su Qing then picked up the third and began to read.

When she was about halfway through, her eyes suddenly widened. Then, she quickly opened the wooden box beside her.

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