Immediately, Little Grace put down what she was holding, returned it to the house, and then, together with Henry Clark, instead of taking the old road, found a small path in the opposite direction, winding into the forested mountains.

Several days of rest had allowed Henry Clark's body and strength to recover quite a bit.

Because of his physical recovery, he hadn't seen those strange daytime shadows much anymore, which made him somewhat believe what Little Grace and Doctor Xu had said.

In the cold and quiet forest,

the two of them walked one after the other, stumbling forward, crossing a large slope and reaching the bottom of the hillside.

Little Grace looked around, and by the side of a tree hollow, seemed to have found something.

She walked over and touched some carvings on the edge of the tree hollow.

"It's here," she said seriously.

Then, just as Henry Clark was about to ask, she raised her hand and pointed to the distance on the right.

Henry Clark was taken aback and followed her finger to look in that direction.

He saw a gray rock wall, faintly visible from afar through the forest.

In the middle of the rock wall, suspended in midair, was a dark cave.

The cave entrance was at least two or three meters above the ground, but someone had dug some indentations to use as steps.

Henry Clark glanced at Little Grace and saw that she had already started digging for vegetables nearby, so he gripped the reinforced luminous stone and walked over there himself.

Soon, he arrived at the base of the rock wall.

He carefully examined the cave before him.

The entrance was over two people high and more than one person wide. The inside wasn't very deep; from outside, with the help of sunlight, he could see the cave floor.

At the bottom, there were some things like cloth bags scattered messily, as well as a few pelts from unknown animals.

"Are there animals here too?" Henry Clark couldn't help but ask.

"There are, but... few," Little Grace had also come over by now.

"Before, there were many. After the black disaster came, there were fewer."

Henry Clark nodded, climbed up using the indentations, and entered the cave.

The whole cave was just over five meters deep, but a bit wider inside, more than three meters across—just enough for one person to rest.

The ground was quite dry, with no musty smell, clearly due to the type of rock here.

The cave was generally oval-shaped, though not a perfect oval.

Henry Clark thought to himself that compared to Little Grace's house, this place was obviously much more comfortable—at least there was less risk of mold attacking his lungs, so he could live much longer.

Most importantly, that Baiqiu Village itself felt a bit sinister. He always felt that encountering so many strange shadows during the day was probably related to the environment of Baiqiu Village.

Otherwise, why would so many villagers be unwilling to keep living there, even though there were so many ready-made houses?

"By the way, Yiyi, do you know how many villagers are still in contact now?" Henry Clark had gotten somewhat familiar over the past few days and had a general idea.

From the booklet and Little Grace's words, he learned that many Baiqiu Village villagers lived in the nearby woods, either building their own houses or digging cellars to hide in.

A few people had left and gone to the nearest town.

Among them were quite a few people whom Little Grace had saved.

Little Grace also came in at this moment, looking around the cave.

"There are four more around here," she counted on her fingers. "Besides us."

"Okay, got it," Henry Clark nodded. He took out a prepared tape measure—one of the supplies from Little Grace's house—and measured the dimensions of the cave entrance.

Then he climbed down and surveyed the surrounding environment.

"Can I live here?" he asked Little Grace.

"You can. No one... cares anymore," Little Grace nodded vigorously.

Henry Clark was satisfied. This place was too dangerous; actually, he wanted to live with Little Grace, but the strange shadows were too dangerous, too well disguised, impossible to guard against.

Plus, the environment at Little Grace's place was too poor and dirty, making it easy to develop chronic illnesses.

And the strengthening of the black mark had to be kept secret.

These three reasons made him eager to find a suitable place to live alone.

And this cave was the best option.

It's just that gathering supplies and making modifications would probably take quite a bit of time.

After all, living alone at first meant relying only on stored food.

The cave also lacked a proper door, and things like a chimney and fire pit needed to be set up.

Having settled on his future residence, Henry Clark began using Little Grace's tools to wander the forest and select materials.

He didn't know what kind of wood to use for the door, but he knew it had to be hard and sturdy enough.

In the following days, Henry Clark kept designing the structure of his cave, the door, various pieces of furniture, and also started picking out materials.

Soon, he chose a dead tree that was hard enough.

The dead tree was dry enough to be as moisture-resistant as possible.

Then came the tree cutting.

His weak body and powerless arms meant that after just one day of chopping, Henry Clark came back with sore arms and couldn't move at all the next day.

So—

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Crack.

Little Grace hefted the axe, watching as the dead tree, as thick as a thigh, slowly broke and fell.

"Do you need more?"

She turned her head, looking at the complicated expression on Henry Clark's face, and asked seriously.

"..." Henry Clark's expression was hard to describe. He shook his head.

"That's enough..."