Liu Quansheng finally grasped Lu Zong's meaning, tilting his head in confusion. "Impossible, right? This stone figure looks utterly inanimate. How could it cut you on its own?" Ma Xiong didn't doubt Lu Zong's words. Though often slow to catch on, he wouldn't misjudge something like this. Thinking this, Ma Xiong bent down to closely examine the small stone figure. Soon, his gaze settled on a small knife held aloft in the figure's hand. The blade of this miniature knife was incredibly sharp, and on its edge, a trace of bright crimson blood was visible. Clearly, this was what had cut Lu Zong.

However, Lu Zong had clearly been gripping the stone figure's waist just moments before. How could the knife in the figure's hand have reached him? Did the stone figure truly move on its own, as Lu Zong claimed, to inflict the wound? As Ma Xiong puzzled over this, he suddenly noticed that under the dim beam of the flashlight, the stone figure's eye blinked!

Ma Xiong thought it was a hallucination and immediately stared fixedly at the figure's face. Suddenly, the stone figure’s startlingly lifelike countenance twisted into a sinister, mocking smile directed at Ma Xiong!

Ma Xiong leaped back in shock, a chill instantly racing down his spine. He scrambled backward several large steps while shouting urgently to the others, "Get away from those stone figures!"

Seeing Ma Xiong suddenly retreat, the others naturally pulled back with him. Just then, a chorus of laughter erupted from the cluster of stone figures. The figures, varying in size, began to move one after another, brandishing the knives and spears in their hands while letting out loud, sustained laughter.

"What the hell are these things?" Liu Quansheng, severely rattled by the sudden transformation, cursed under his breath before quickly drawing his pistol.

At that moment, the serpentine tails of the stone figures began to writhe. The group of figures charged forward, laughing maniacally. No wonder Ma Xiong had felt their arrangement was so haphazard earlier—they were alive all along. Even if positioned neatly by human hands, they would soon vacate their spots.

Seeing the stone figures rush them, we scattered! The figures coordinated smoothly, splitting into several groups to pursue us. More than a dozen stone figures chased after Ma Xiong, their expressions savage, weapons waving wildly. They followed closely behind Ma Xiong, laughing and twisting their serpentine bodies.

The stone figures were incredibly fast. Even with Ma Xiong running at full tilt, the leading few managed to catch up. Hearing their laughter right behind him, Ma Xiong knew escape was impossible, so he spun around and squeezed the trigger of his pistol toward the figures.

Bang! Bang! Two rounds, whistling through the air, slammed toward the head of the foremost stone figure.

Ma Xiong expected the figure's head to shatter under the impact of his bullets. Instead, a bizarre sight unfolded. As the two bullets entered the stone figure's head, it was as if they had struck water; they passed straight through. A ripple, like a disturbance on a water surface, briefly shimmered across the figure’s head, and then it returned to normal.

The fact that the stone figure was impervious to bullets was something Ma Xiong had not anticipated at all. Observing that they seemed less than solid, he wondered inwardly if they were mere illusions.

However, what happened next quickly dispelled that notion. The leading stone figure raised its long blade and brought it down on Ma Xiong. Ma Xiong sidestepped just in time. The blade missed, striking a large rock behind him instead. With a sharp clang, the rock split cleanly in two!

Ma Xiong mentally cursed his luck. How could the stone figure be ethereal when he attacked it, yet solid when it attacked him? How could this be fought? It was sheer bullying!

The current situation allowed Ma Xiong no time for deep thought. As he dodged, two stone figures surged up from behind. Each held a wickedly sharp spear, stabbing toward Ma Xiong from his left and right flanks. Ma Xiong saw this as an opportunity. He precisely targeted the two spears, leaning aside to let the points pass. At that instant, regardless of whether they were real or illusory, Ma Xiong swiftly extended both hands and snatched hold of the spears. Elated that he could grip them, he immediately employed a left-right sweep, unleashing his Xuan Ji Binding Technique. With a forceful push and a twist, he sent both stone figures tumbling to the ground.

Before he could catch his breath, several more stone figures swarmed toward him from behind. Seeing their overwhelming numbers, Ma Xiong decided that if he couldn't fight them, he could certainly run. He quickly turned tail and bolted.

Just then, a loud burst of laughter rang out behind him. Ma Xiong turned back and saw two stone figures, even smaller than the one Lu Zong had initially grabbed, right upon him. Barely larger than small dogs, their speed was astonishing; they zipped behind Ma Xiong in an instant.

Although the swords they held were shorter than Ma Xiong's hand, a stab would surely hurt badly. Seeing them aggressively raise their tiny blades to pierce him, Ma Xiong refused to let these little assailants succeed. He instantly pivoted and delivered two flying kicks, sending one spinning off to each side.

Ma Xiong had intended a perfect landing, but the two stone figures proved incredibly hard. The impact sent a sharp pain shooting up both his legs. Seeing the figures behind him closing in, Ma Xiong realized fighting them was a losing game. He turned to run again, only for his forehead to violently slam into a rock!

The impact nearly stunned Ma Xiong senseless. Stars exploded behind his eyes, and he tumbled to the ground, dizzy and reeling. The blow was so severe that he struggled to get up, a grim realization dawning: the stone figures were right behind him. In his current state, he would surely be ripped apart!

As Ma Xiong silently bemoaned his terrible luck, the sounds from behind abruptly vanished. Strange, he thought. He rubbed his forehead, looked up, and was stunned to find no stone figures behind him whatsoever! Suspecting something was wrong, Ma Xiong hastily pulled out his flashlight and swept the beam around. He discovered the entire cavern was empty; not a single stone figure was in sight.

Just then, Ma Xiong heard Ge Mei’s panicked cry: "Ah! Don't come any closer!"

Ma Xiong rushed toward the sound and saw Ge Mei running frantically around the cavern, repeatedly glancing back in terror. Yet, there was nothing behind her. Seeing this, Ma Xiong understood immediately: the stone figures must have been hallucinations. Hitting his head on the rock must have awakened him.

With this realization, Ma Xiong dashed toward Ge Mei and grabbed her. At that moment, he didn't care that she was a girl; he raised his hand and slapped her hard twice.

Slap! Slap! The sharp cracks made Ge Mei freeze, staring blankly at Ma Xiong. After a moment, she snapped back to reality, turned to look, and gasped, "Huh? What happened? Where are those monsters?"

Ma Xiong said, "It was an illusion, not real. Let's hurry and wake up the other two."

Then, Ma Xiong and Ge Mei split up—Ge Mei to find Liu Quansheng, Ma Xiong to find Lu Zong. Following the sound of Lu Zong’s voice, Ma Xiong quickly reached him. The young man was rolling on the ground, grasping at the empty air as if wrestling something intangible.

He was shouting at the nothingness in his hands: "Ma Xiong, go to hell! You were the one who cut my hand just now, weren't you? You little monster! Ah! You dare come back? I'll bite you!"

With that, Lu Zong opened his mouth as if to bite his own hand. Ma Xiong rushed forward and delivered two sharp slaps to his face.

The blows made Lu Zong pause, then his eyes widened as he looked at his empty hands, confused. "Huh? Where did the little monster go?"

Ma Xiong shook his head with a wry smile and explained the illusion to Lu Zong. Lu Zong instantly understood and cursed, "Damn it! I knew why that little monster couldn't be killed! I was about to bite it—it was all a hallucination!"

Soon, Ge Mei had also slapped Liu Quansheng awake. The two walked toward Ma Xiong and Lu Zong, their faces flushed bright red and looking utterly dejected.

Everyone looked miserable. The three of them bore the red marks of two slaps on their faces, while Ma Xiong's forehead sported a significant lump.

Ma Xiong shone his flashlight on the spot where the stone figures had been standing and saw them all still standing motionless. Lu Zong held up his thumb for everyone to see. "It really was an illusion. Look, Ma Xiong’s thumb is fine; there’s no wound here at all, right?"

Liu Quansheng rubbed his reddened cheek, frowning. "That's strange. How could we all hallucinate at the same time? What was causing this?"

Ge Mei approached the group. "Yes, it's so strange. We don't even know when we started being deceived."

Hearing Ge Mei speak, Ma Xiong began to ponder the timing as well. When exactly did the illusion start? How much of what they had experienced was real, and how much was false? A single object immediately leaped into Ma Xiong's mind: the Serpent Eye Stone!

Ma Xiong immediately reached up to touch his hair. He instantly noticed something was wrong. When they were in the quicksand passage, their hair should have been full of sand, but now, his hair felt perfectly clean, devoid of any grit. He then checked his skin and found no trace of the marks left by the leeches that had fed on him earlier.

Lu Zong, seeing Ma Xiong constantly patting his hair and skin, found it odd. "Old Yi, what is it?"

Ma Xiong snapped back to the present and addressed the group. "I suspect that the leeches, the quicksand, and the venomous snakes—it was all fake! We might have started hallucinating as soon as we touched that Serpent Eye Stone Queen mentioned. We should still have red marks where the leeches sucked our blood, but our skin is completely intact now. And when sand fell from the passage ceiling, our hair should be full of it, but check your hair—is there any sand left?"

Upon hearing this, everyone touched their heads and realized their hair was clean.

Lu Zong, realizing how long they had been fooled by the illusion, grew increasingly angry the more he thought about it. He burst out, "Damn it! This Serpent Eye Stone is too vicious! I thought I was about to be buried alive in quicksand—it was all fake? To hell with that worthless bead!"

Ma Xiong shook his head with a bitter smile and shone the flashlight along the stone walls flanking the cavern. "Look, this is the only passage. There are no other openings in the walls. This must be an illusion too."

Liu Quansheng shrugged. "This is the first time I've seen such a potent bead. I should have been more careful and destroyed it right away. If it weren't for you, Brother Ma Xiong, suddenly snapping out of it, we’d still be suffering under this damned illusion."

Ma Xiong replied, "It’s good that we woke up. I noticed we haven't seen Meng Xiong and the other two along the way. They’ve probably gotten deeper in. We need to move quickly so they don't get the Coiled Dragon Dark Gall first."

Just as we were preparing to move forward, a deafening explosion echoed from the depths of the cavern! Following the sound, a burst of firelight flickered in the distance.

We were caught completely off guard and jumped in fright. Before we could recover, the entire cavern began to shake slightly, accompanied by the sound of cracking stone. Soon, fragments of rock began to fall steadily.

Ma Xiong realized the explosion had triggered a collapse and quickly urged everyone to flee. The tremors intensified. As soon as we moved from our original spot, it collapsed behind us. There was no time to think; we just bolted forward, heads down. Lu Zong yelled to Ma Xiong, "Old Yi, why the sudden explosion? Do you think those three monkeys spotted us and are trying to blow up the cavern to kill us?"

Ma Xiong shouted back while running, "I don't know! If that’s the case, we won't let them off once we get out, damn it!"

Fortunately, the tremors in the cavern gradually subsided. Ma Xiong stopped and looked back. The area behind us was now piled high with rubble. Though it hadn't fully collapsed, had we been even slightly slower, being crushed by the falling stones would have been the end of us.

Liu Quansheng, heavy-set, was gasping for air. He took a deep breath before addressing us. "Those bombs must have been planted by the first three people who got in. We..."

Before Liu Quansheng could finish, another massive boom resonated from the cavern's depths!

This time, Lu Zong bolted immediately, cursing, "Damn it, are we never going to be done with this?"

The cave-in this time was far more severe. Despite running for our lives, we were still pelted by falling stones, wincing in pain. By now, true fury had seized everyone; they were desperate to rush forward and tear apart whoever was setting the explosives.

Just then, Lu Zong, who was running ahead, suddenly pointed forward and exclaimed, "Look, there's light up ahead!"

Ma Xiong looked up and immediately saw three beams of light sweeping back and forth. Recognizing them as flashlight beams, he immediately cursed, "Son of a bitch, it really is those three Zhenhai monkeys causing trouble!"

Lu Zong drew his pistol while running. "Damn them, trying to kill us! Kill them all, leave no one alive!"

But Ma Xiong suddenly noticed something amiss. As the three beams swept around, he detected a mass of dark shadow overhead, visible through the light. Concerned that the explosions indicated something unusual, Ma Xiong quickly told everyone to turn off their flashlights. Fortunately, the cavern fell silent again, and everyone slowed their pace as instructed.

As we drew closer to the three beams, sounds like the squeaking of rats grew audible. Then, within the light beams, we saw a swarm of creatures flying in the air ahead. The sheer number made them look like a moving black cloud from a distance.

Ma Xiong, recognizing them as bat-like creatures, immediately signaled us to advance cautiously, staying low. We reached a large boulder, placing us very close to the source of the noise. Then we heard a roar: "Xiao Tao, throw another **! Blast them!"

"Okay!"

"Shark, Xiao Tao, stop! If you blast this cavern again, it'll collapse!"

"Then what do we do? If this keeps up, we’ll all be sucked dry by these beasts!"

Hearing the three voices, Ma Xiong confirmed these scoundrels were behind the action, but it seemed they were in serious trouble. At that moment, Liu Quansheng came alongside Ma Xiong and whispered, "Brother Ma Xiong, those things up ahead are Blood Bats. They are fierce by nature and are likely swarming those three."

Lu Zong asked, "What are Blood Bats?"

Ma Xiong explained, "Blood Bats are a mutated species of bat, intensely bloodthirsty. Individually, a few aren't terrifying, but they always move in hordes and fear nothing. They charge furiously at any living thing to bite. These creatures typically inhabit dark underground caverns or ancient tombs. Many tomb raiders have died at their hands. That's why Blood Bats are also called tomb killers—you can think of them as piranhas that fly!"

Lu Zong commented, "No wonder those three monkeys were setting off bombs; they must have run into this swarm!"

Ge Mei also came forward and asked us, "So, what do we do now? Wait here?"

Ma Xiong said, "Staying here is dangerous. If those three panic and throw more bombs, we’ll likely be buried alive in this cave."

Lu Zong pulled out his pistol magazine, checked the rounds, and slotted it back in. He then said, "So what's the plan? Hiding won't work, and charging forward is suicide. There are so many Blood Bats, even a whole platoon would be tied up for ages! If those three hadn't thrown bombs, they would have been bitten to death by the bats long ago!"

Ma Xiong saw that the situation was genuinely difficult. After a moment of contemplation, he made a firm decision. Since they were already engaged in life-or-death business, it was better to charge through the bat swarm than to wait here for those three to collapse the cavern with more explosions!

With that, Ma Xiong told the group, "The Blood Bats are focused entirely on those three right now. Get ready. When I yell 'Charge,' don't worry about anything else—just plow straight through this bat formation!"