But there was no other choice; after all, he had been too eager to show off back then. Reluctantly, he had no choice but to approach the snake swarm step by step, intending to use the small amount of deterrence he had just displayed to awe them, allowing him to walk in and retrieve the explosives.

Initially, because Ma Xiong had once forcibly pried open a snake's mouth with his bare hands, these snakes showed him considerable respect, clearing a path for him. Ma Xiong’s suspended heart finally eased a little. He turned back, made a face at Lu Zong and Fatty, and then eagerly walked towards the satchel of explosives.

However, the moment he shifted his direction towards the explosives, the snake swarm suddenly hissed collectively, as if signaling their companions to guard the explosives well and prevent Ma Xiong from taking them. He even saw the snakes at the front arch their heads, ready to strike at Ma Xiong at any moment.

Ma Xiong summoned the manliness he had shown earlier, waving his arm in the air and miming the action of breaking a mouth, even making a "crack" sound with his own mouth, intending to warn the snakes: "None of you mess with me. Annoy me, and I’ll flatten you into patties with one smack."

The snake swarm ultimately retreated a step, still showing a degree of fear, but they quickly surged forward again, seemingly ready to defend the explosives with their lives. He started to worry; he feared that if too much time passed, the snakes might forget his heroic deeds, and all they would remember was a giant, clueless animal standing among them. By then, he knew he wouldn't be able to pry open the mouths of so many snakes.

As he was filled with apprehension, the voices of Fatty and Lu Zong suddenly came from behind him: "Damn it, we are good friends with Ma Xiong! Offending us is offending Ma Xiong, and offending Ma Xiong means your mouth will be pried open! Can you really bear to die such a miserable death?"

Ma Xiong turned his head to see that the snake swarm had actually begun attacking Fatty and Lu Zong. At this moment, a dead snake was dangling from Lu Zong's dagger, apparently having been stabbed through when it attacked, now hanging limply from the blade.

Lu Zong carried Gan Da on his back while Fatty covered the front, his military knife flashing with a courageous light. Fatty continuously shouted to drive the snakes away, occasionally pausing to call out to Ma Xiong: "Ma Xiong, why don't you intercede for us, brother? Ask them to spare us for your sake! You guys are related, after all; there's no need to be so formal!"

Ma Xiong felt annoyed when he recalled Fatty shifting the blame onto him, and he retorted angrily, "Since you put it that way, I’ll consider us relatives. You guys can be our welcoming gift, hah!"

Fatty, however, appeared especially righteous and resolute, declaring, "Ma Xiong, fine then. Look, is my body enough for them to feast on? Just rescue Lu Zong and Gan Da; don't worry about me. Let me make a magnificent sacrifice in this tomb. If I couldn't be born with a bang, I can at least die with one."

Ma Xiong looked at Fatty’s serious face, thinking Fatty was truly capable of putting on an act. He calmly said, "How can I rescue you now? Look at my situation; they don't recognize me as a relative here."

Fatty listened, looking back at Ma Xiong with some curiosity: "What? I thought you guys were getting along quite well just now. Why the sudden change?"

Ma Xiong said in annoyance, "Don't even mention it. These snakes are all venomous-hearted wretches; they actually forgot my heroic deeds from earlier. Now we are all the same." Just as he finished speaking, he felt a chill on his shoulder. He hastily blocked with his dagger, hearing a clang. He saw a gleaming snake fang drift past his eyes and fall to the ground. Within a few seconds, he heard the sound of a snake’s body hitting the ground behind him. He quickly turned back and saw a small snake lying on the ground, with a gash on its mouth from his dagger, missing a tooth. It seemed that when it tried to bite him, his dagger had blocked its mouth, suffering the same fate as the snake earlier—losing a tooth.

He secretly cursed how close it was. If he were bitten by one of the venomous snakes here, who knew how long he would live. Seeing that these snakes had purplish bodies and shiny fangs, their venom must be potent.

Fatty chuckled, "Look, they just wanted to give you a sweet kiss, and you refused; why did you have to hurt them?"

Ma Xiong cursed, "Damn it, Fatty, stop messing around! Look at the situation we are in; we need to worry about our lives first."

Fatty suggested, "Ma Xiong, you should come back. If the four of us stick together, we can look out for each other. It’s not good for you to be alone over there. Try it; see if they’ll let you retreat."

Ma Xiong lifted his left foot, intending to step forward. However, the area ahead was filled with snakes as thick as a man's arm, all raising their heads and staring intently at Ma Xiong. He could only sigh and pull his foot back, saying, "Fatty, no way. I can't take that risk. You can kill me, but I won't joke about my legs. My legs are my life!"

Fatty scratched his head and said, "This is trouble. You’re in a real bind now. We’re all separated; how are we supposed to fight side-by-side? Ma Xiong, think of a way to fight our way out!"

Ma Xiong looked at the snake swarm coiled on the ground; his legs started cramping, blood rushed to his head, and he felt dizzy, unable to distinguish which snake head belonged to which body. He shook his head to clear it and then said, "Hey, look around you for anything we can stand on—the higher the better. Right now, I can only jump across."

Fatty looked around, then glanced at Gan Da in Lu Zong's arms, saying, "It seems Gan Da isn't waking up. Why don't we let Gan Da be Ma Xiong's stepping stone? It would be putting waste to good use, right?"

Lu Zong firmly disagreed. Ma Xiong took a neutral stance; agreeing would benefit him, but disagreeing felt like betraying himself, so he remained neutral.

Finally, Fatty sighed and replied, "Nothing. There aren't even two decent-sized rocks here. How do you expect to fly across?"

"Right, fly across! I can fly across!" He smacked his forehead, cursing himself for being so dense. There were so many vines here; he could grab any one of them to act as a wing and fly across easily. He shouted to Fatty, "Fatty, hurry up and get behind you! Untie that vine behind you from its tip and pass it to me; I’m going to swing across!"

Fatty looked back at the arm-thick vine and smacked his head. Right, they could swing across using the vines!

Without another word, he turned, walked to the vine, and gently pulled it with both hands, bringing it down from above. Excitedly, he pulled the vine to the edge of the snake boundary and reminded Ma Xiong, "Ma Xiong, I'm throwing it! Catch it!"

Ma Xiong concentrated, watching the vine in Fatty's hands. That vine, not too thick, was his lifeline now. One careless move, and he could easily lose his life.

Fatty shouted, "One, two, three!" and threw the vine towards Ma Xiong. Ma Xiong reached out and caught it, then pulled it, estimating it could bear his weight. He let out a wild yell to bolster his courage, lifted his feet off the ground, and relying on the vine's momentum, he finally swung across.

He patted his chest and kept muttering, "God, I was scared stiff! If I had fallen halfway, I’d be dead. Thank heavens I have good luck!"

Fatty said, "Ma Xiong, you don't actually have good luck. You should have swung directly to that door over there."

"Door?" Ma Xiong asked Fatty curiously.

Fatty looked at Lu Zong with an extremely serious and sympathetic expression and explained, "Look, doesn't that illusion we saw earlier look like that wall opposite us? Actually, the door hidden in space is on that wall across from us. If you had put in a little more effort just now, you could have swung over and been saved. But you swung back here. We figured you came back to retrieve Gan Da, hehe."

Ma Xiong curiously looked back at the opposite wall; it was indeed identical to the illusion he had seen earlier. And the door that should have appeared on the wall was located less than ten meters from where Ma Xiong was standing. Perhaps if he had swung straight across and charged through the wall, he could have opened the door and been rescued.

He looked at Fatty with vexation, "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

Fatty gave a shameless, wide grin and said, "It’s not a big deal. At least this trip allowed you to carry Gan Da over. Now only you can carry Gan Da; look at my build. If I don't pull the vine down myself, that’s good. If I carried another person, perhaps both of us would suffer."

Ma Xiong thought Fatty had a point. If Lu Zong carried Gan Da, given the delicate muscles of a scholar like Lu Zong, he might not have been able to endure it halfway and would have ended up feeding both himself and Gan Da to the snake swarm. He stopped complaining and quietly watched the snake swarm, calculating the route to escape.

He noticed a relatively protruding rock behind him, about three meters high. He stood on it and looked across, estimating the position of the exit door, which was about three meters away on the opposite side as well. If these two walls were symmetrical relative to the vine's peak, swinging from the three-meter-high rock here would impact a height of three meters on the other side, potentially breaking through that opening and finding the exit.

Ma Xiong took Gan Da off Lu Zong’s back, feeling that Gan Da seemed a little heavier again, but he didn't dwell on it, assuming it was just accumulated waste that hadn't been expelled. He said, "Fatty, when I climb onto that rock in a moment, give me a hand. When I shout 'start,' please swing the rope over forcefully from below. With your strength and the momentum of the rope itself, I should be able to reach the other side smoothly."

Fatty nodded and replied, "Old Ma, you don't need to worry when Fatty does things. Just put your mind at ease. Worry only about not being passed out as your own feces; leave the rest to me."