The Fat Man finally spoke slowly, "I see something ahead floating in mid-air that looks like an exit."

Ma Xiong added, "That should be an image perceived by our optic nerves due to inertia. When we look forward, certain deliberate or accidental structures cause our visual nerves to see strange phenomena. These strange sights aren't actually real; they are just images appearing on our retinas because our visual processing can't catch up instantly—it's a scientific phenomenon, only recently researched by scientists at the American Academy of Sciences in the US. I never expected that people in the distant past had already noticed this strange phenomenon and applied it to tomb mechanisms. This is huge for our field of archaeology!"

The Fat Man coughed and said, "Yeah, these things are truly advanced."

Lu Zong looked ahead but couldn't see the phenomenon they were describing. Feeling puzzled, he asked the two, "What exactly does the sight you're talking about look like? Why can't I see it?"

The Fat Man and Ma Xiong looked at Lu Zong's wide, round eyes and couldn't help but laugh. "Haha, you need to blink to see this hazy thing; how could you see it like that? Come, I'll teach you. Stare straight ahead, yes, right at that place covered in skulls. Isn't there a large blank space in the middle without any skulls? Stare at that spot for thirty seconds, then shift your gaze away from the skulls and blink continuously—you'll see what we see."

Lu Zong eagerly followed Ma Xiong’s instructions. Sure enough, he saw that on the wall covered with skulls in that blank space, a door made of vines actually appeared. The door was ajar, seemingly inviting someone to enter, yet also hinting that a thousand mechanisms awaited inside.

Lu Zong swallowed hard and asked, "What do we do now? That door looks like it's fake; it only appears in our mistaken vision the moment we blink. That door doesn't actually exist, right?"

The Fat Man reassured him, "Don't say that. Although it's just a visual error, it greatly helps us find the exit."

Lu Zong's disappointment finally lifted a little, and he asked, "How so? What should we do?"

The Fat Man said, "Actually, I heard my second uncle mention this type of mechanism before. Legend says this mechanism hides the door perfectly, and then, based on the eye's judgment of an image and auto-color filling functions, it designs a series of images. After staring at a certain image, the observer will see the image the designer wants them to see the moment they blink. Some show skulls, some show ghosts—all with one purpose: to protect the tomb owner's resting place from violation by psychologically defeating tomb robbers and scaring them away. However, instances where a door pattern appears are extremely rare. I vaguely remember my second uncle mentioning that if certain tomb owners didn't want robbers to die in specific spots, they would place a door there and guide the trespasser through it via suggestive illusion. Usually, this was done by the builders who were forced to be buried with the tomb owner. Since the owner chose to have them interred, they had to prepare a way out for themselves. The only trick to digging an escape route without being discovered was this: hide the door, and then, based on the eye's illusion, locate the door's position to find the exit."

Lu Zong nodded repeatedly as he listened. "It seems Zhang Qian and the Ice Crystal Fetal Body wanted to be interred here, but they didn't expect the tomb builders to leave themselves a back door. Haha, it looks like we've been saved by those tomb builders."

Ma Xiong wasn't nearly as happy. Looking at the gleeful Lu Zong, he said, "Don't celebrate too soon. The ways to see through these tricks have always been different. We should focus on figuring out how to find the real door first. If we follow this illusion and can't find the real door, we'll die here just the same."

Lu Zong's nerves, which had been buzzing with excitement, immediately wilted. He looked at the Fat Man and asked, "Find the real door? How?"

The Fat Man said, "It's not actually that hard. The method for finding the door via illusion has always been conventional. It relies on comparing the illusion with the actual scenery. If what appears in the illusion happens to match a certain spot in the cavern, then the place where the illusion shows a wall, if you dig a little in reality, will be the legendary door."

Seeing the Fat Man's serious expression, Lu Zong started looking too. Ma Xiong, however, was already blinking and peering around everywhere.

Before Lu Zong could even look carefully, he felt a tingling, itchy sensation under his foot. He hurriedly looked down and was astonished to see a snake slithering on his foot. He shrieked and kicked the snake away, only to discover a dense swarm of snakes ahead, about to surge toward them. Seeing the pitch-black mass of reptiles, he couldn't help but gasp, then stuttered, pointing at the Fat Man and Ma Xiong, "Fat Man, Ma Xiong, look at the snakes in front of us, they've already..."

The Fat Man impatiently snapped, "Look at what? The most important thing now is finding the door, never mind what—Ah! Oh my god, when did so many snakes get here? Why are they moving so fast?"

Ma Xiong was also stunned. He hadn't expected the snakes to move that quickly. In the instant the three were frozen, the snakes had already reached them. Ma Xiong used the dagger in his hand to sever the spine of a thick snake that brushed past his leg, then quickly leaped away. Watching the blood spray from the massive snake, he said fearfully, "Truly, one wave hasn't settled before another rises. Just when we found hope, we are struck by disappointment. Who knows what danger lies ahead."

The Fat Man said, "What's the use of sighing now? Do you have any dynamite left? Damn it, blow these things up for me! Just looking at them gives me a headache."

Ma Xiong fumbled in his pocket. "I have a little left, but I'm worried that if we use too much, it might blow away this iron chain. Then we’d all fall down together, which wouldn't be good."

The Fat Man retorted, "And you'd rather we get eaten by these snakes? Hurry up, never mind that! I'd rather fall to my death than be swallowed by those snakes."

Ma Xiong looked at the oncoming venomous army, gritted his teeth, pulled out the dynamite, gauged the amount, and figured it was enough. He ordered the Fat Man and Lu Zong, "You two get behind me quickly. Try to press your bodies low to the ground so you aren't thrown over by the shockwave from the explosion. Trust me, this amount of explosive is enough to kill the snakes in front of us and buy us precious time. As soon as the blast dies down, we immediately get up and search for the door to survival, okay?"

Lu Zong and the Fat Man nodded in understanding, simultaneously dropping low and covering their ears.

Ma Xiong nodded to them, gave them an encouraging look with determined eyes, and began lighting the fuse.

But just as the lighter was about to touch the dynamite, a massive snake, as thick as a child's arm, suddenly shot up from the ground, slithered past his hand, and stopped straight on his arm. Ma Xiong couldn't bear the snake's weight, and the dynamite and lighter fell to the ground simultaneously. He was stunned.

After knocking the dynamite down, the large snake provocatively flicked its tongue at the four, hissing loudly.

Ma Xiong looked at the dynamite wrapped by the snake's belly and reached out to probe, trying to see if he could retrieve the explosive from underneath it. However, as soon as he took a step closer, the snake became extremely tense, arching its body backward, showing signs of an imminent attack.

Ma Xiong dared not take the risk, so he retreated, then dejectedly said, "Can anyone help me get the dynamite back? The snake stole our explosives."

The Fat Man and Lu Zong, who had been lying on the ground with their eyes closed waiting for the explosion, suddenly opened them in surprise. "What? The snake stole our dynamite? How could you be so clumsy, losing out even to a snake?"

Ma Xiong snapped back angrily, "You try lighting it if you're so capable! These snakes don't fear death; they'd happily be buried with us humans, dying without complaint. But can we afford to be so careless?"

The Fat Man ignored their argument, quickly stood up, and said, "Lu Zong, get up quickly! Be careful those snakes crawl onto you."

Lu Zong hastily stood up, cautiously watching the approaching snake swarm. He slowly pulled the dagger from his waist, gripping it tightly, ready to meet the serpents' attack at any moment.

Ma Xiong also pulled out his dagger and held it firmly. The Swiss Army knife in the Fat Man's hand was also flashing brightly. Since getting the knife from Ma Xiong, he had kept it constantly in hand; it seemed he had developed an affection for the blade.

Suddenly, the large snake coiled around the dynamite leaped violently, rising higher than a man, and charged straight at the Fat Man. The Fat Man was prepared. His military knife sliced through the air, leaving only the sound of metal cutting atmosphere, followed by the snake's painful hiss, and then the thud-thud sound of its body hitting the ground. However, there were two thuds because the snake’s body had snapped in half. On the ground, its two severed sections writhed in agony, its tongue still glaring fiercely at the Fat Man, its eyes seemingly bloodshot.

The Fat Man suddenly felt a touch of fear. Looking into the snake’s eyes, he sensed that the ultimate battle was about to begin.

The snake suddenly let out a piercing shriek that echoed through the cave, and instantly, the entire serpent mass arched its back, poised to leap and overwhelm the four men.

Ma Xiong shouted, "Not good!" and called the three to cluster together, forming a circle, brandishing their knives and waving them in the air, hoping to intimidate the swarm.

But the snakes showed no fear. They were all waiting for a command from the large snake to attack.

The Fat Man realized the gravity of the situation and quietly said to Ma Xiong, "Ma Xiong, strike the leader first. You need to go up there and destroy that severed, large snake so it can't give orders. Only then can we save ourselves."

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