My body trembled uncontrollably, and seeing Yoshino close enough to grab me, I desperately tried to move forward. But my hands felt weak, unable to exert any force, and my body grew heavier and heavier. As Yoshino seemed poised to crawl closer, I cursed my terrible agility, knowing that anxiety was useless; I could only inch my way along the chain slowly.

After shuffling only a few steps, just my luck, Yoshino glanced at me with an expressionless face, then leaped up, landing directly on the chain I was gripping... I screamed in terror: "Ah—Help!"

"Crack!" Yoshino planted one foot on the chain, causing it to swing violently. I swayed with it, clinging to the chain for dear life, afraid to let go.

But after only a few violent swings, in just a few seconds—before my scream had even ended—Yoshino plunged downward, completely rigid, mouth agape and eyes wide as he stared at me. Only after a dull thud of something heavy hitting the ground below did I snap back to reality. With the threat of the reanimated Yoshino gone, my body stopped shaking, and my hands regained their strength.

"Technician Luo, what are you spacing out for? Hurry and crawl over!" Old Li was nearly at the chain, and seeing I was momentarily safe, he called out a reminder.

I was still wondering why the sound of Yoshino falling was so distinct, as if the abyss had a limited depth. Hearing Old Li shout jolted me into action, and I quickly moved forward.

As I neared the middle of the chain, Old Li would turn back to look at me with almost every step, his headlamp glaring blindingly into my eyes. So, when I clearly saw a very familiar red mountaineering suit beneath my feet, I assumed I was hallucinating, seeing things. This abyss was so deep; how could I possibly see a piece of clothing down there... "Impossible, I must be seeing things," I told myself.

...

Old Li reached the endpoint first, and after a little while, I did too. The chain, just as he said, was actually used for a suspension bridge, firmly anchored into the jagged, bizarre rock formations at the end. Two steps down along the anchored rock face, there was another cave!

I was developing an aversion to caves; the sight of any dark opening made the hair on my scalp stand on end.

"Old Li, I really can't go on. Let's rest a bit. There's another hole there... We can figure out the rest later," I said weakly, leaning against a rock.

Old Li had completely collapsed between two large stones, panting heavily, too exhausted to answer.

I was too depleted to even force my eyes open, just breathing continuously with them closed.

After quite some time, I finally regained some strength. I looked at Old Li; his breathing had evened out considerably. Still feeling uneasy, I asked him if he had seen a red piece of clothing at the bottom of the abyss.

"Red clothing?" Old Li pondered for a moment. "I think I saw something red, but I didn't pay close enough attention to tell if it was clothes. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me..."

I had initially thought the same thing, but hearing Old Li confirm it made me certain there was something red down there. I borrowed his searchlight and shone it down into the abyss, trying to get a clearer look at whether that red object was indeed a mountaineering suit.

This time, I saw clearly. Not only did I see that it was a woman's red mountaineering suit, but I also saw that what we assumed was an abyss was actually just a pit about four or five meters deep. At the bottom of the pit, Yoshino was frantically trying to scale the nearly vertical wall with his bare hands—effort that was clearly going to be futile.

Old Li also noticed the oddity, came over to stand beside me, and said doubtfully, "When we were on the other side, this pit was shrouded in mist and clouds, looking bottomless. How can we see it so clearly now?"

I shook my head, ignorant of the mystery, my mind fixed on that red clothing. I worried whether the devils would go so far as to harm the owner of that suit—Zhuoma Yangjin.

We watched Yoshino hop and skip below with malicious glee, unable to gain any height. We might have watched him for a long time had it not been for the sound of a gunshot.

The gunshot was utterly abrupt. Old Li and I had largely assumed that only we could have made it this far by chance. Unexpectedly, a shot—then two—then a burst of chaotic gunfire erupted from less than two steps behind us. Old Li quickly grabbed his rifle and told me to stay vigilant for an ambush.

My nerves, which had only just begun to relax, immediately tightened again. I quickly took cover behind a rock formation, surveying the surroundings. After that burst of chaotic firing, silence returned, which only made us more uneasy. I stood guard anxiously, and for some reason, the ground beneath my feet felt intensely cold. I looked down and saw translucent, crystalline shards scattered at my feet. Could it be chips of ice? "Why would there be ice in this cave! What an idiot," I muttered to myself, not daring to pick one up to confirm, as the coldness underfoot grew stronger. Was it possible that we hadn't noticed the cold earlier because we were so tired?

This area was densely packed with jagged, strange rocks, dark and opaque, some stones appearing cloudy and semi-transparent, similar to yellow quartz—it would be very easy for someone to hide behind one and take a cheap shot at us. It was too unsafe, and unbearably cold. Thus, after a while, seeing no further activity, we quickly retreated into the cave behind us.

That cave seemed to be just two steps down from where we were, but it took us quite a while to reach it. The ground was covered in high and low strange rocks, interspersed with sharp, yellow and white protrusions that looked as if they had been cut by knives and axes. As we approached the cave entrance, an increasingly strong smell of gunpowder assailed our noses. The crystalline shards on the ground were becoming more numerous. Finally, I couldn't resist my intense curiosity. Thinking we had stumbled upon a crystal mine, I picked up a piece and brought it close. Although it was crystal clear, it was piercingly cold in my hand and was even beginning to melt slightly into water.

"Damn it! It really is ice," I mumbled softly.

Old Li, who was walking ahead with his gun raised, immediately turned back with a stern look, glaring at me and signaling me to be quiet.

At the cave mouth, a very pungent smell of gunpowder hit us full in the face. The memory of the Japanese using gunpowder to blast open the locked iron door at the mountain communications post suddenly flashed through my mind. If the Japanese were here too, then... then we... Besides, weren't there some scattered, fresh footprints over there?

I grabbed Old Li and whispered, "Old Li, I... I'm afraid the Japanese are inside. They..."

Old Li didn't look back, crouching low and slipping into the cave, murmuring, "There are big fish in here, I suspect. Didn't you see the stones and ice on the ground? Even if there are zombies or faceless demons inside, we have to go in. Never mind just a few Japanese."

I hesitated for a moment, realizing that even retreating meant facing the zombies again, with an uncertain fate. I had no choice but to follow Old Li into the cave. This cave was nothing like the smooth ones before; it was uneven, rising and falling. Something squeaked and groaned beneath my feet whenever I stepped on it, and the soles of my feet were so cold they were nearly numb, the acrid smell of gunpowder clinging to us the entire way.

After walking about ten steps, the sides of the cave were piled high with white, shimmering objects that might have been ice, leaving just enough space for one person to squeeze through sideways in a crouch.

Old Li pulled me along, scrambling and crawling towards the passage ahead. The light on his head swung wildly, making me dizzy again. We were at an altitude of over five or six thousand meters, and after that exertion, my strength was almost completely depleted, my head buzzing as if it might explode at any moment.

After a few more steps, Old Li suddenly stopped. He looked up at the ceiling, then down at our feet, and exclaimed in surprise, "There's ice here!"

My head was still throbbing painfully, and when I heard Old Li mention ice, I didn't have the energy to respond, just seizing the chance to catch my breath. Old Li's endurance far surpassed mine; although he was also gasping, he still had the strength to survey the surroundings. What he saw made even him, a man of vast experience, suck in a sharp breath.

He pulled me up from the ground and said, "We are under a glacier! Let's move quickly; the Japanese have already caused this ice to collapse!"

Hearing Old Li's words, I also looked up. Indeed, the ceiling was white with shattered ice fragments. Calming myself, I took a sniff; the air was thick with gunpowder. Those damned short ones, blasting their way through a cavern like this—weren't they afraid of being buried alive here!

"Technician Luo, let's go quickly, this place could collapse at any moment!" Old Li pulled me forward. As I listened to him, a thought suddenly struck me: if we could cause this cave to collapse, the monsters behind us wouldn't be able to follow.

Thinking back, that idea was pure self-inflicted misery. We had no idea what lay further inside, yet we were rushing to seal off the way back. It was only because we had been so terrified by those unkillable things that even Old Li agreed with my suggestion immediately.

The structure of the ice ceiling had already been compromised by the Japanese blasting. We both carefully squeezed past first, then turned back to observe closely. Old Li ultimately made the final decision. He used the stock of his rifle to smash at the ice on one side, while I used his entrenching shovel on the other. Eventually, most of the ice was bearing its weight on two fragments nearly half a meter in size. After a while of smashing, just as Old Li predicted, the ice below could no longer support the weight above. After a bone-jarring roar, the entire icy ceiling collapsed, completely sealing off the narrow passage.

Having done all that, I immediately went limp. Frankly, the chase earlier had already exhausted all my energy, and now that the danger was gone, my body felt weak, not wanting to move even a single finger.

Old Li was not in much better shape; he was also breathing heavily, saying, "Technician Luo, let's rest... rest here for a bit. We don't know what kind of... what kind of monsters are ahead. We need to conserve energy!"

I probably didn't even speak then; I didn't have the strength to. In any case, we both lay in the ice-strewn cave, gasping for air, our minds too fatigued to even process thoughts.

After resting for a while, my head cleared slightly. Just then, I thought I heard a sound.

I calmed my breathing and listened carefully, but the sound was gone again.

Old Li crawled over to my ear and whispered, "Technician Luo, that was gunfire!"