Directly following this is a massive body that pins Ma Xiong and Ge Mei down. At that very moment, a tremendous explosion rips through the air!

We ducked behind a large boulder. The bomb detonated on the other side of us. Though not close, the blast instantly deafened Ma Xiong, leaving a high-pitched ringing in his ears and his mind reeling. Worse still, the shockwave from the explosion caused the rock we were leaning against to shudder violently. As one side of Ma Xiong's body was pressed tightly against the stone, this sudden vibration sent a numbing shock through his entire frame.

The stone chamber immediately began to shake, raining down fragments of rock of varying sizes. This tremor didn't subside; instead, it intensified. Seeing this, Ma Xiong inwardly cursed, "We're done for. This damned place is about to collapse!"

Lu Zong was crushing us from above. Ma Xiong could feel the hot breath from Lu Zong’s mouth puffing onto the back of his head. Lu Zong was clearly trying to speak, but Ma Xiong couldn't hear a word. All Ma Xiong perceived was the continuous vibration of the surrounding space, with dust and small pebbles raining down upon him.

After speaking for a while, Lu Zong suddenly stood up. Ma Xiong figured he was preparing to tell everyone to flee this collapsing cavern. Looking up, Ma Xiong saw large slabs of rock beginning to fall nearby and instantly realized that scrambling about now was incredibly dangerous. He yanked Lu Zong back down, then proceeded to take the backpacks off everyone’s backs one by one, instructing them to use the packs as head protection. Ma Xiong then took the pack off his own back and held it over his own head before pulling everyone down into a crouch.

The cavern shook fiercely, and the falling stones were now the size of fists. Several such rocks slammed into Ma Xiong, causing sharp pain. We huddled on the ground, leaning against the large nearby boulder, our heads shielded by backpacks. Feeling the force of the rocks impacting the packs above, Ma Xiong inwardly conceded that this precaution was indeed wise.

Stones and sand continued to fall from the ceiling, occasionally punctuated by massive boulders, though thankfully none struck our immediate vicinity. We remained crouched like this for a long time until the vibrations in the cavern slowly ceased. When the shaking finally stopped, Ma Xiong let out a huge sigh of relief, thinking the cave, though battered, had thankfully not completely caved in.

The four of us stood up, and a shower of sand and small stones immediately cascaded off our bodies.

Just then, Ma Xiong’s hearing began to return slightly. He heard Lu Zong dusting himself off and cursing, "Damn it, they really dared to throw that! They’re in the cavern too, don't they value their own lives?"

Ma Xiong shouted to the group, "That Xiao Tao is a ruthless bastard, and Old Meng’s skills aren't ordinary either. It’s a good thing we injured both of them. With the cave collapsing, I wonder if those two are even alive."

Our hearing hadn't fully recovered, so we were all speaking quite loudly.

At that moment, Lu Zong seemed to recall Ge Mei’s precise shooting earlier and yelled to her, "Ge Mei girl, you shoot well! How did you learn?"

Ge Mei smiled and replied, "Master Ma Xiong is the Kestrel; what do you think?"

Lu Zong countered, "That's not right. I remember you weren't very brave before. How did you suddenly get the nerve to shoot people?"

Ge Mei said, "It depends on what it is. Ma Xiong fears ghosts and monsters, but he isn't afraid of people."

Liu Quansheng interjected then, "Actually, people are the scariest..."

Ma Xiong walked forward softly, only to bump into a rough, uneven stone wall. Touching it, Ma Xiong realized a wall of piled rock now separated them from Meng Xiong and Xiao Tao. He reached his hand upward and found the wall was quite high, with only the top edge exposed. Seeing they were separated, Ma Xiong finally turned on his flashlight. The cavern brightened again. He then swept the beam around, trying to gauge the extent of the collapse.

The illumination revealed a devastating collapse. The entire floor of the cavern was distorted, piled high with rocks big and small. Seeing this, Ma Xiong knew they had been incredibly lucky to be unharmed.

After resting for a while, just as we were about to sneak over the rock wall, a sound suddenly erupted from the other side—specifically, a shriek! It was a truly miserable sound, echoing one after another. Ma Xiong guessed the kid must have been hit by a large stone and immediately called for the others to crawl over and look.

As the group prepared to move.

"Ah! Ah! Ah..." At that instant, Old Meng’s voice joined in, equally agonizing, even more piercing than Xiao Tao’s scream. Their cries rose and fell, raising goosebumps on our skin. Ma Xiong felt something was wrong; it couldn’t be that both were struck by falling rocks—that kind of bad luck was unlikely.

Then, Ge Mei suddenly exclaimed, "Listen!"

Hearing this, Ma Xiong concentrated and was instantly stunned.

He could hear their screams not fading due to exhaustion, but rapidly receding! Their voices were moving swiftly away from them! At that moment, Ma Xiong recalled a horror movie he once watched where a character was being dragged away by a monster, his screams diminishing just like this!

We listened to their harrowing cries, our hearts seized with dread, utterly confused about what was happening. Soon, the sounds of their screams faded completely from hearing.

Lu Zong frowned and asked, "Did those two run into something powerful, something chasing them away?"

Liu Quansheng shook his head, saying, "The sound moved away too fast. They are injured humans; how could they possibly run that quickly?"

Ge Mei trembled slightly and asked hesitantly, "Could they have been dragged by something..."

No one spoke further; the bizarre situation had stunned us into silence. Ma Xiong figured anyone in this situation would assume Meng Xiong and Xiao Tao were being dragged off by some creature. Separated by a wall of stone, we had no way of knowing the truth. For the time being, no one dared try to climb over the rubble.

Then, a silence fell over everyone, making the atmosphere suddenly strange. The cavern was utterly quiet; not a sound could be heard. Suddenly, we heard a peculiar noise emanating from behind the stone wall—a low, guttural, "gulu gulu gulu." This was followed by another sound from behind the wall: a rattling scrape of falling stones.

Hearing this, Liu Quansheng whispered urgently, "Something is crawling over!"

Ma Xiong recognized the sound of something trying to ascend the wall and quickly motioned for everyone to retreat while simultaneously switching off his flashlight.

With the light extinguished, the surroundings plunged back into absolute darkness. The four of us huddled together, daring not to breathe, the only sounds in the cavern being the strange gulu gulu call and the scraping of gravel from behind the stone barrier.

Before long, the sound reached the gap at the top of the wall. We immediately heard a cascade of rocks tumbling down toward us from the peak. The four of us slowly backed away again as the gulu gulu sound suddenly intensified into something resembling a roar. Simultaneously, we heard something vigorously digging through the sand and stone at the top of the wall.

Fearing the thing had spotted us and intended to squeeze through, Ma Xiong quickly fired a shot in that direction.

Instantly, a sharp cry of pain erupted from the top of the wall. Without hesitation, Ma Xiong fired again and again until the entire magazine was empty. Only then did he stop.

The gunfire echoed through the cavern, gradually weakening until, when the firing ceased, the area around the wall fell silent once more. When the last echo died, the cavern returned to a profound quiet. Everyone maintained a silent understanding, exchanging only subtle glances while straining their ears. We didn't know if Ma Xiong had killed the creature, nor did we know if other monsters lurked behind the stone barrier.

He whispered quietly to the group, "Stay put."

Ma Xiong then slowly aimed the flashlight toward the opening in the stone wall. After taking a few slow breaths, he gently nudged the switch on with his thumb.

A grotesque face, its skin deathly pale, materialized in the beam, radiating a horrifying, cold sheen. Its eyes were wide open, threaded with visible red veins. The pupils were not round but shaped like jujube seeds, resembling the eyes of a reptile. The face had no visible ears, only eyes, nose, and mouth. The nose area was flat, with only two triangular nostrils situated centrally. The creature’s mouth was enormous, bulging outward. This face remained perfectly still before Ma Xiong, staring directly at him.

Though momentarily paralyzed by the sudden appearance of the monstrous visage, Ma Xiong was cornered. With a shout, he kicked out!

The face remained stationary, directly meeting Ma Xiong’s boot. With a dull thud, the entire massive body was sent crashing to the floor.

Lu Zong finally raised his pistol and fired several shots into the fallen creature.

Seeing the thing lying still, Ma Xiong quickly directed the flashlight beam onto it again. This time, the full form of the creature became visible.

Its appearance was identical to those stone statues of men with serpentine bodies, but this one was undeniably alive, though riddled with bullet holes from where we had shot it.

Seeing the creature was a man-headed snake, everyone was shocked; none of us believed such things truly existed. Lu Zong circled the corpse twice, looking increasingly astonished, murmuring, "Damn it, how can things like this exist in the world? Ma Xiong, do you think this is the result of some human-snake crossbreeding?"

Ma Xiong replied, "If you’re suggesting hybridization, it’s likely impossible. Biologically speaking, different species have reproductive isolation, especially between beings as disparate as humans and snakes. This thing is probably the result of mutation. As for what caused the change, we simply don't know."

Ge Mei looked at the fallen creature and frowned, saying, "This thing is disgusting!"

Liu Quansheng stroked his chin, then glanced at the dead monster. "It seems this thing dragged those two away. They were probably too injured to fight back then. Who knows how many of these monsters are behind that stone wall? We need to be cautious and conserve ammunition."

Ma Xiong nodded. Despite its terrifying appearance, the monster was clearly flesh and blood and could be killed by gunfire. Seeing that the immediate danger had passed, Ma Xiong paused thoughtfully before signaling the others to slowly climb over the rock wall.

Ma Xiong reached the gap at the top of the wall first and shined his light through. The cavern on the other side was severely collapsed, but fortunately, it wasn't entirely sealed; passage deeper inside was still possible. Seeing no immediate threats over there, Ma Xiong cautiously lowered himself through, and the others followed suit, one by one.

This section of the cavern was littered with large fallen stones. We navigated around the debris, constantly scanning our surroundings for any potential threat while moving slowly forward. This tunnel was long; even after walking for quite some time, the flashlight beam still couldn't reach the end.

Perhaps it was psychological, but as we walked, Ma Xiong felt the cavern growing colder. Intermittently, shafts of chilling air pierced his back, giving him the sensation that malevolent eyes were watching from the darkened corners.

Ma Xiong reasoned that perhaps the chill was due to being soaked from entering via the water route. Thinking this, he turned to look back at the group, intending to see if others shared his sensation. But the moment his gaze swept over Lu Zong, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

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