After crashing down heavily, when my body brushed against something soft, I thought I must be hallucinating, that something was wrong with my brain. How could everything my limbs touched be soft and cold? By all logic, this place should have been the underground, a terrain of jagged, sharp, and uneven rocks...

While I was still dazed, there was a dull thud, and a shadowy figure fell from the sky. I gasped, crying out involuntarily, "Old Li?"

It was indeed Old Li. He grunted, struggling to stand up, and only then did I realize I was still lying flat on my back, so I too tried to get up. Fortunately, the soft landing buffered the impact, and my bones were largely unharmed.

The ground beneath my feet felt strange—yielding and springy, yet possessing a surprising resilience that made it difficult to gain purchase. I tried several times before finally managing to stand. Everything ahead of me was blurry; I couldn't see clearly. I dared not move rashly and cautiously called out to Old Li, asking how he was.

Old Li responded with a low "Mm," acknowledging me. Immediately afterward, a blinding light shone down. Having been in darkness for so long, my eyes were completely unable to open against the glare. I had to shield them with my hand, and when I managed a peek, I saw it was Old Li, wildly swinging a small searchlight around.

"Why do you have a light?" I asked, utterly astonished.

Old Li ignored me, not even glancing my way, but instead bent down, lowering his head to scrutinize the substance beneath our feet. After a long look, he raised his head and uttered something incomprehensible: "It's algae."

"What?" I didn't understand him, so I asked again.

"Algae... What we're standing on isn't the ground; it’s a thick layer of algae," Old Li frowned. "This is a major problem."

Only then did I comprehend, quickly crouching down to look. It was indeed the appearance of algae, but... how could such a thing exist in the depths of this subterranean abyss? Algae needed photosynthesis to survive, didn't it? Here, where sunlight never reached, how could they possibly live?

"What major problem?" I asked Old Li, my mind teeming with confusion, completely forgetting the fear I had felt moments before.

"It's a big problem, in short; I can't explain it clearly, not yet certain," Old Li said, worry etched on his face, as he stood up, inadvertently sweeping the beam of the searchlight toward the ceiling. In the light, a human face with enormous eyes descended toward us with a smile!

My blood turned to ice. I immediately rolled sideways on the spot, shouting, "Old Li, get down!" Old Li froze for a second, then reacted instantly, covering his head with both hands and diving sideways.

The human-faced monster approached menacingly, but just as it neared the top of our heads, it slammed on the brakes, decelerating suddenly. Then, lightly flapping a pair of wings resembling a bat's, it shot upward about a meter or two.

Fearing the light would make them a target, Old Li, in his haste, couldn't turn off the searchlight and simply stuffed it haphazardly into his chest. The light filtered dimly through his clothing. The human-faced monster suddenly charged directly toward the light emanating from Old Li's chest. Just as it neared his clothing, it flapped its wings again and powerfully glided backward, then circled upward once more.

Seeing its fierce posture directed at Old Li, I was too terrified to even make a sound. The moment the face circled away, I scrambled, half-rolling, half-crawling wildly to the side. Old Li seemed paralyzed by the creature, his mouth agape, frozen in place. Seeing him like that filled me with anxiety, and I repeatedly urged him to flee. Old Li finally snapped back to reality, shouted, and scrambled toward me.

My limbs felt weak. I wanted to crawl faster, but my body refused to obey. Shaking uncontrollably, I managed only a few meters after a long struggle. As I was crawling forward, a smiling, large-eyed human face suddenly shot toward me. I was horrified, thinking it was about to attack, and immediately rolled aside. However, the creature seemed to treat me the way it had treated Old Li—it rushed toward me, only to abruptly reverse course just before reaching my face. Even so, I was so terrified that two-thirds of my soul seemed to have fled; my whole body shook relentlessly, leaving me too weak to exert any force. Running was out of the question!

"Hurry up, go, go!" Old Li yelled desperately, his voice completely changed. I knew we had to escape quickly, but my limbs wouldn't cooperate. I couldn't crawl even half a step after a long time, let alone stand up and run. Old Li wasn't faring much better; although he managed a few crawling strokes, the human-faced monster would charge down to scare him every time he moved a bit. This back-and-forth tormented us until we were utterly exhausted and depleted of strength.

Eventually, I simply gave up resisting. When the human face rushed toward me, unable to crawl further, knowing its trick, I stopped dodging and stared fiercely at it, waiting to see what it would do. Perhaps startled by my direct gaze, the creature stopped not far from me, momentarily forgetting its routine and failing to fly away. I saw it clearly: perched atop a massive head between two wings, its belly was flat and grayish-black, and tiny, delicate claws were tucked beneath it. Apart from the head—which was a massive, smiling human face—the rest of its body, including the wings, was identical to a bat's.

After staring at the human-faced monster for a few seconds, my heart hammered wildly. I didn't know what it intended. My mind raced, calculating how I would defend myself if it decided to attack. To my surprise, it just stared at me with its huge, smiling eyes for a moment, then suddenly spread its wings and flew away. This time it flapped sluggishly upward for a long distance; I could only faintly make out its silhouette against the high ceiling.

If not now, when? I immediately used all four limbs to crawl sideways. Perhaps the human-faced monster had grown tired of playing with us, because for a long time, it didn't dive down to frighten us again. Old Li and I managed to crawl to what should have been the cave wall.

But touching the stone wall made me long for death. Based on the algae beneath my feet, I had vaguely guessed the place might be quite damp, like the bottom of a well. But when my fingers brushed the slick moss coating the stone, I was absolutely certain we were standing somewhere with an extremely abundant water source underground.

Just then, a beam of light shone down from above. It was Xu Zhiwu! Xu Zhiwu and the others! There was hope! I needed to tell them to use a rope to pull us up! I was so excited I stammered incoherently. Regardless of whether those above could see me, I waved my arms wildly, shouting, "Brother Zhiwu... Help! Help!" My voice echoed, the final syllable of "help" trailing off into a long, lingering reverberation.

After shouting a few times, the light swept around, seemingly searching for us. But that accursed human-faced monster immediately shot upward toward the light! I heard the hysterical screams of Xu Zhiwu and Ni Qiong from above, then the light vanished instantly, followed by the disappearance of human voices. The human-faced monster then swooped down again, circling in front of us, seemingly showing off its might.

The monster hadn't attacked us directly, limiting its actions to psychological torment... I couldn't guess what it had done to Xu Zhiwu and the others.

This time I wasn't afraid anymore. Since climbing the slick stone wall was impossible, and I had no idea how long we could last anyway, what could the human-faced monster do to me? Death was inevitable. If it could use the sight of a human face to terrify me, couldn't I find something to try and scare it back?

With that thought, I immediately patted my pockets, trying to find some strange object to frighten the creature. However, after searching for a long time, I found nothing except my military dagger. I grew annoyed. Drawing the dagger, I threw it straight at the human-faced monster like a throwing knife. To my astonishment, upon seeing the flying blade, the creature seemed extremely frightened, let out a strange screech, and fled upward as if running for its life.

Old Li watched the monster depart in disbelief, then watched me walk over smugly to retrieve the dagger, even casually blowing away dust that wasn't there. "Something that terrifying, and it fled because of a mere dagger?" he asked.

It was pure luck on my part. I had assumed the human-faced monster would be some formidable creature, yet a simple toss of a dagger sent it scurrying away in panic. It seemed to be a paper tiger. Now I felt much more secure.

"Old Li... what do we do now?" Although the human-faced monster had flown away, the wall was too slick, and we had no tools whatsoever to climb it.

Old Li looked at me helplessly, shaking his head. "I don't know." His voice was filled with exhaustion and panic.

I hadn't expected Old Li to be so utterly shaken. I paused, realizing I would have to figure out a way up myself. Otherwise, falling from such a height without breaking my neck, only to starve to death here, would be an utter joke if word ever got out.

Old Li sat there, panting heavily, seemingly unable to recover his senses for a while. I was the only one who could stagger to my feet and search for a way out—to see if I could find a spot less slippery and figure out a way to climb up.

I feared the human-faced monster might realize the dagger was harmless to it and return. If it came back alone, it was manageable, but if it brought companions, the mere sight of so many flying faces in the air would be enough to scare me to death... As I stood up, I realized I was also severely weakened, but... I had no choice but to grit my teeth and persevere.

I slowly traced the stone wall inch by inch, feeling my way along, while Old Li cooperatively kept the searchlight focused where I moved. I was so focused on the wall that I paid no attention to my feet. While moving, my foot suddenly caught on something, and I pitched forward, landing flat on my face! Luckily, the ground was covered in thick, soft algae, preventing a bruised face. But this fall shattered my nerves and scattered my soul; I lay there for a long time, unable to get up.

Before I could utter a sound, Old Li cried out from over there, "A person!"

Dizzy and disoriented, I only realized what Old Li had screamed when I recognized that I was pressed directly onto the object that had tripped me—a person. A living person, still warm!

Without thinking further, I rolled over, scrambled to my feet, and ran toward Old Li.