As Tang Minghao said this, I suddenly recalled that fleeting moment when the Great King Fish had seemed hesitant. Could they truly be the same kind? The thought was chilling.

"The Great King Fish took Uncle Geng, and Li Zeng fell into the water pit. I was frantic but completely useless, feeling like every muscle in my body had turned to wood. Then, a wonderfully pleasant scent wafted from Yanzi’s body. I couldn't speak because my mouth was numb, so I could only resort to snatching at her. And then you all tried to stop me… I… I felt like my head was about to explode from sheer panic." Tang Minghao recounted, still shaking with residual fear.

I listened, aghast, but one thing remained unclear. "Just where did you run into such a bizarre collection of monsters to end up like this?"

Tang Minghao’s expression shifted subtly, growing serious. "The authorities in the lake are all immortals, good people. It must be that I did something wrong, offended them, and am now receiving my punishment." Fishermen have always held deep reverence for spirits and deities, and Tang Minghao was no different. I immediately dared not speak carelessly or ask any more probing questions.

We were reveling in the joy of Tang Minghao's return to normalcy. Although we had lost Geng Wei, his recovery was a blessing in disguise, a silver lining to our misfortune. But Yanzi quickly dampened our spirits. She warned, "Tang Minghao, you had better not overthink things. My magic can only temporarily suppress the evil entity inside your mind; it cannot eradicate it." She then added, "Everyone must protect him. If anything happens, no matter what appears, you absolutely cannot let him make contact with it."

"You mean?" I didn't quite grasp it. "Are you saying he could relapse at any moment?"

Yanzi nodded, then reiterated her warning for Tang Minghao not to dwell on anything, promising to find someone to cure him permanently once they returned to the surface. The color, which had just begun to return to Tang Minghao’s face, immediately drained away, leaving him ghostly pale. He sighed miserably, "Am I essentially useless now?"

Yanzi quickly countered, "Of course not. Whatever treasure we find will certainly include a share for you; you’ve contributed quite a bit."

Tang Minghao silently lowered his head, staring at the floor, offering no reply. Old Li looked at him with pity, unsure how to offer comfort. "Let’s go back," Xu Zhiwu suddenly suggested. "We’ve been searching for this so-called treasure for so long and haven't seen a trace of it. Instead, we’ve suffered losses in personnel. What good is finding a mountain of gold and silver if someone else gets hurt or even dies?"

Yanzi flatly denied this: "No, we can't go back. There is no way back unless we find the true treasure. As for the anomalies, that’s because you Han people offended our guardian deity, understand? Once you offend the guardian deity, it will certainly mete out the deserved punishment to that person."

We were back on this topic again, and I felt a flare of anger, but remembering my recent truce with her, I forcibly suppressed my temper. "Your guardian deity is awfully petty. We never even saw him, yet we offended him without cause. And now he can cause one death and one injury?"

Xu Zhiwu chimed in in agreement, "Exactly... I’ve studied Tibetan folklore for decades and never heard of such a powerful god!" Yanzi’s expression immediately soured upon hearing us speak of their "guardian deity." "Well, what do you want the god to do?" The atmosphere instantly grew tense again.

Old Li quickly played the peacemaker, diverting the conversation: "Why are we arguing about these things? Minghao is better now; let's hurry up and leave. If we stay here, are we waiting for that monster to drag away a few more people?"

Yanzi's mood shifted as fast as turning a page. I had no desire to converse with such a volatile woman, so I echoed Old Li's sentiment, urging everyone to focus on finding a way out immediately.

Time is precious; we must hurry back to solid ground. We couldn't afford any more disruptions, nor could we dream of any gold or jewels falling into our laps. As for Geng Wei, perhaps we could figure out a way to find him after we got out. Thinking this, I let go of the notion of gold and jewels and began meticulously scrutinizing every inch of the area we had traversed, hoping to find some clue leading to an exit.

The ground was still paved with flagstones, and the stones were still etched with bird-and-flower seal script and various strange ancient Tibetan characters. If someone recognized these markings, perhaps we could find the slightest thread of a clue, but none of us recognized these infernal things. The dim and mysterious environment stole our sense of time and direction. Everything around us was shrouded in a thick fog; we couldn't see anything clearly, unsure if some monster might suddenly emerge.

Thankfully, after walking for a stretch, the surroundings remained calm; no abnormal situations arose.

Yanzi casually mentioned, "Tashi told me that after passing through two checkpoints, we should be close to finding the treasure. You should know, this batch of treasure is the secret hoard of the Guge Kingdom. By the way, you all know about the Guge Kingdom, right?" Hearing this, Old Li and Xu Zhiwu, along with myself, immediately recalled our encounters at the Guge ruins, and our expressions all changed.

Only Tang Minghao, unaware of the truth, naively asked, "What is the Guge Kingdom?"

Yanzi gave a scornful laugh. "A kingdom founded on Buddhism."

Tang Minghao murmured, "Oh... that sounds like something out of a novel—some king or minister hides a massive pile of gold and silver somewhere, and later generations find out, sparking a treasure hunt." His speech was gradually returning to the state it was in when we first met; the grief of losing his brother seemed forgotten.

Yanzi replied cryptically, "Perhaps you could say that, like a novel."

The moment Yanzi finished speaking, a chilling voice suddenly echoed from the empty space: "Who?" It seemed to come from ahead. Was there another living person here? I grew instantly excited. "A fisherman who fell in by accident." The voice grunted suspiciously but said nothing further.

Tang Minghao assumed they were from the same county, so he quickly called out, "Fellow villager, I... we are from Tangjia Village." The voice uttered an 'yi' sound, repeating with slight surprise, "Tangjia Village?" It sounded as if he knew the village. Tang Minghao eagerly affirmed, "Yes, yes!" But the person abruptly changed tack: "I don't know it."

Regardless, meeting another living soul was an immense gift to us. If he could appear here safe and sound, he surely could lead us out. "It doesn't matter if you haven't been to Tangjia Village, fellow villager. Please, quickly lead us out and back to the surface. We are close to going mad from being lost," I urged him anxiously.

The person suddenly burst into laughter. "Out? You want to get out?"

I was baffled by his laughter but honestly replied, "Yes." He stifled his mirth. "Alright, then you all come over here."

As we prepared to move forward, Yanzi suddenly held out her hand to stop us and rapidly spoke several sentences in Tibetan. The person immediately replied curtly, "Don't speak Tibetan to me; I hate it." But I suddenly noticed that this person’s accent also carried a distinct Tibetan lilt—flat, lacking the rise and fall of tones, especially unable to articulate the falling tones (fourth tone) like all the Tibetans I had met.

Yanzi was momentarily stunned, perhaps not expecting such a reaction. She switched to Mandarin. "Who are you? Do you know Andowa Tashi?"

The person sneered, "There are so many people named Tashi in Yunnan; how would I know?"

Yanzi then asked a truly foolish question: "Are you a good person or a bad person?"

Even I couldn't help but suppress a smile, but the person solemnly replied, "I am a good person." I interjected, "If you're a good person, where do you come from?"

"Where?" The person hesitated. "I forgot."

Xu Zhiwu suggested, "Talking across distances like this is tiresome. Let's sit down together and chat slowly. Fellow villager, don't move from there; we’ll be right over to find you. It's so dark, if we get separated, it’ll be the end of us. It’s so rare to meet a living person. By the way, how many of you are there?"

The person slowly replied, "How many? When you count them up, there should be a few. Hurry up and come over. It's been a long time since I’ve seen living people."

So, our group followed the sound of the voice, with Tang Minghao volunteering to take the lead. The person occasionally spoke a few words to guide us.

Yanzi seemed consistently uncertain, saying several times that Tashi hadn't mentioned any living people down here, and that only Tashi, she, and a few of her most trusted people knew the entrance from the lake.

"Aren't Aunt Ma and the others around? They are quite capable people too. Don't discount them," I suggested. Yanzi remained silent.

"Yanzi, why do you call your father Tashi by his name?" After walking for a while and still not finding the person, Xu Zhiwu asked idly.

"Oh... he is not my real father. I call him father because of the mission," Yanzi said absently, then instantly clamped her mouth shut, realizing she might have let something slip.

Sometimes they liked to play mysterious and superior. At most, they had long-standing feuds with Aunt Ma and the others, but using the word "mission"... that was something else.

"Are you close yet?" the person asked us, sounding somewhat impatient and eager.

"I think so," I replied. The person muttered, "Oh," and fell silent again.

Slowly, a faint light appeared ahead, and the heavy fog seemed to thin. Tang Minghao excitedly told us, "We're almost there. This is great. He must be a local; I can smell the distinct scent on him that people raised by Fuxian Lake have."

I grew excited too. Judging by the man's tone, he sounded calm and confident. He would likely be able to show us a way to survive and get out.

"Fellow villager, how long have you been down here? Have you found the treasure? Do you know the way back?" Tang Minghao eagerly engaged the person in conversation. "I..." the person responded with an air of surprise, "What treasure? I don't know anything about that."

Yanzi immediately hissed in disapproval at Tang Minghao, "Why do you ask about treasure as soon as you meet someone? What if the other party is with the villains? What if he didn't even know about it? If you make him harbor ill intentions, forget the treasure—your life might be forfeit!"

Tang Minghao gave an embarrassed smile and dared not speak recklessly again.

"Are you wanting me to lead you out?" the person asked again, and as he spoke, we could tell by the sound that we were almost right in front of him.