"Cough, cough, cough." The man coughed heavily, spitting out a mouthful of blood. "Our boss just passed through here not long ago. I thought I was dragging them down, that they left me here... Ah." Before he could finish speaking, a scream tore from the man. With a wet thwack, blood erupted from his chest cavity. Upon closer inspection, a leaf from a carnivorous plant was seen extending directly from his heart, a bloody organ dangling loosely.

Plop. Suddenly, a carnivorous plant behind Young Master Liu snapped its sunflower-sized head and swallowed the man's entire head whole.

Boom.

The plant beside the man was not to be outdone; it sucked in his legs as well.

The two carnivorous plants began to squabble over this morsel of flesh. Then, more and more of the plants noticed the scent of human meat and deployed all their roots, surging toward the spot. Quickly, the man's body was entangled by various writhing tendrils.

Young Master Liu shouted in alarm, "We have to get out of here, find a way out, find the entrance, and leave this place!"

With that, Young Master Liu fled forward. Since all the carnivorous plants were currently distracted by the feast of the other man's flesh, very few paid any attention to their group.

A muffled bang echoed, spraying gore everywhere. Young Master Liu felt as if the sky was raining down. He licked his lips; it tasted salty. He couldn't see clearly in the darkness, but he surmised that the man had been entirely consumed by the plants. The explosion he heard was the sound of his body being ripped apart. Young Master Liu felt a pang of guilt; in a way, he had signed that man’s death warrant.

A crunch, crunch sound followed, like some enormous beast gnawing on its prey.

Young Master Liu calmed his nerves, looking at Fan Debiao and Su Yougui. "You two must keep a clear head. You draw attention, and with me here, we will be fine."

He said this only to comfort the two, as he himself felt utterly uncertain about their survival. He didn't even know if he could last until the end. However, giving them extra confidence to push forward was a wise move; at least they wouldn't be paralyzed by fear when danger struck.

Thump, thump. Arriving at a spot sparse with carnivorous plants, Young Master Liu knocked on the wall. It sounded hollow inside—this must be the door. After prying for a long time with the shovel, he finally managed to force the door open.

Instantly, a beam of light shot out from within. Young Master Liu started, fearing a trap. He quickly dodged to the side, but the light emitted no apparent danger.

Su Yougui and Fan Debiao looked at Young Master Liu with mocking eyes. "This guy, he's too cautious, living too cautiously."

As if sensing their thoughts, Young Master Liu replied, "In a place this dangerous, any lapse in caution results in irreversible consequences. Just look at Hu Beikang. And my Martial Uncle—if they had been even slightly more careful, if they had dropped to the ground just one second sooner upon hearing the sound of the Gu insects, their lives could have been saved."

Hearing this, the other two fell silent.

Since the light posed no immediate threat, the three of them stripped off the carnivorous plant roots clinging to them and stepped into the opening, then heavily shut the stone door.

"Master Liu, look here. How can the space inside be so small? Are some ancient emperor or general so stingy as to build such a long and perilous passage, only to have such a tiny main hall?"

The space they were in could barely fit five people, and the three of them already felt somewhat cramped.

Young Master Liu reflected, "Something's not right, absolutely not right. How could this be? Is this truly all the space there is? Besides, there's no coffin or anything like that in here?"

After speaking, Young Master Liu placed his hand on the stone, gently feeling it, checking if the rock was hollow.

Bang, bang, bang, bang. He knocked a few times, and each strike returned a dull thud, indicating that the area was solid, not hollow.

Strange.

Young Master Liu was perplexed. Why was there no echo?

Fan Debiao, however, looked down at his feet and exclaimed in astonishment, "Master Liu, look! What is this under our feet? This is a sheet of glass!" Young Master Liu quickly looked down—sure enough, the floor was covered by a thin, slightly transparent layer. Damn it, it really was glass.

Young Master Liu immediately told the two not to move.

Crack.

A small piece of the glass floor shattered, emitting a sharp ka-ba sound.

Snap. Snap. The cracking sounds continued; it seemed the floor was about to collapse. It clearly could not support their weight.

What was going on? Why was there glass here? Young Master Liu's mind was reeling with questions. In that era, how could there be such a thing as glass?

He puzzled over it ceaselessly.

Crack, crack, crack, crack, crash!

The floor actually exploded, and the three of them felt the wind tearing past their ears. They plunged downward.

"Ah! Ah!"

The three let out loud cries for help.

Young Master Liu felt his body sinking rapidly, the roar of the wind beside his ears like a ferocious beast.

Suddenly, a gust of crosswind struck, and their bodies abruptly decelerated.

Young Master Liu was bewildered. He looked down, only to have a powerful blast of wind sting his eyes, forcing him to close them.

The speed of their descent slowed increasingly, as if something below was holding them back.

Finally, they seemed to drift in mid-air, floating down lightly, like feathers.

"Master Liu, this... thing... did we run into a ghost? Or... can I fly now?" Fan Debiao sounded utterly incredulous.

Never mind Fan Debiao; even Young Master Liu felt as if he had entered heaven, tossed down only to fly toward paradise. But he knew this wasn't heaven; everything he was experiencing was real. The violent winds below were supporting their bodies, causing the slow descent. Stones floated around them, giving the sensation of actual flight.

Strange. Where was such a strong wind coming from? And what was that glass above? Young Master Liu was filled with curiosity.

Suddenly, their bodies accelerated again, and with a thump, they crashed down, landing in a heap—one face-planting into the dirt.

Young Master Liu quickly looked up. He saw that the circular hole they fell through was surrounded by large, thigh-thick cylindrical openings, each jetting out powerful streams of wind. That was the source of the upward draft that had slowed their descent.

The three swallowed nervously, still shaken, looking at their saviors with immense gratitude.

Young Master Liu noticed that every step Su Yougui took caused the ground to emit a ka-cha, ka-cha sound. He looked down and saw that the stones were all shimmering with light—a silvery-white luminescence, like diamonds.

He bit one; his teeth couldn't even scratch it. A surge of pleasant surprise hit him. "Could these really be diamonds?"

He held one up to the light, examining it closely. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet—all seven colors refracted outwards.

Fan Debiao, meanwhile, erupted into loud laughter, collapsing onto the ground and scooping the broken rock fragments into his arms. "Mother of mine, oh my! My ancestors bless me! They are diamonds! All diamonds! I’m rich!" Fan Debiao was weeping with excitement. He had never witnessed such a scene—shining diamonds in every direction. He hadn't even dreamt of such a sight.

Su Yougui almost popped his eyes out. "Mother of mine, this is the legendary diamond? Mother of mine, I’m rich! I’ve actually seen the legendary diamond!" Su Yougui fell to his knees as if the diamonds were his own mother.

Young Master Liu was also immensely thrilled inside.

But his head began to feel cloudy. Looking at the scenery before him, the dazzling, iridescent light seemed like small, beautiful women constantly shimmering and swaying before his eyes. Constantly swaying.

He became somewhat mesmerized, reaching out his hands to grasp the phantom images, but when he extended his palms, he could not catch the ethereal things at all.

Young Master Liu quickly pulled out a Clarity Talisman from his pouch and stuck it to his forehead. After a while, he gradually regained his senses.

It had been an illusion. A hallucination induced by something. He immediately realized that an unknown gas pervaded this place, assaulting their nerves and causing them to hallucinate. He surmised that the glass they stepped on earlier must have been this gas evaporating, condensing into ice upon meeting the cold air—and this moisture was likely evaporating from the diamonds. The object above must have been a massive diamond as well.

If there was really such a large diamond, he thought, he would never have to worry about food or clothing again in his lifetime.

He looked at Fan Debiao and Su Yougui again. Both were smiling foolishly, their eyes vacant and unfocused, their hands waving aimlessly in the air. They kept mumbling, "Hehe, don't go, don't go."

Young Master Liu knew they were suffering from nerve gas poisoning. He hoisted both men up and carried them to a door nearby, walking a full hundred meters before dropping them. Away from the mental toxins evaporating from the diamonds, it took quite some time for them to slowly recover.

Even Young Master Liu felt a dull ache in his temples. It must have been worse for the two of them. They were both panting, their gazes hazy, looking at Young Master Liu. "Master Liu, Master Liu, I just... I saw beauties. Beauties... prettier than any woman I’ve ever seen," Fan Debiao stuttered out.

"Alright, alright, wake up, the beauties are waiting for you," Young Master Liu said, dripping a drop of his own fresh blood into each of their mouths. Only then did their consciousness gradually return.

Their memories of the recent events seemed to have been wiped clean; they couldn't recall what had just happened.

"What just happened? Why does my head hurt so much?" Fan Debiao asked.

"You bumped into a corner of this tomb chamber just now and hit your head, opening a bloody gash. It's fine now, don't worry," Young Master Liu fabricated a quick excuse.

"Help! Help!" At that moment, a human cry for help echoed through the desolate tomb chamber. Young Master Liu was so startled that every hair on his body stood on end, a cold sweat breaking out.