I heard a sudden splashing sound from inside the cave; presumably, Da Xiong had gone after that person. My heart seized with anxiety, and I scrambled to climb up quickly. Liang Qian shouted from the cave entrance, "Come back!" After two calls, Da Xiong gave no response at all. She muttered in annoyance, "How can this guy be so reckless?" She sighed, glanced at Old Huang, and said, "I'll go in and check first."

Not feeling at ease about Da Xiong either, I followed, gripping an iron shovel.

As soon as my feet touched the water pooling on the cave floor, an icy chill shot through me. It was the height of noon in midsummer; the temperature outside must have been at least thirty-seven or thirty-eight degrees Celsius, yet entering the cave made me shiver. At this moment, Liang Qian silently drew the wolf-eye flashlight from her waist, clicked it on, and began to move forward.

We walked in single file for about five minutes. Liang Qian glanced back at me and asked, "Why haven't Old Huang and the others come in yet?"

I shook my head and turned to look back at the light streaming in from the entrance. Suddenly, the ground shook violently, and I nearly lost my footing. Pale-faced, I asked, "An earthquake?"

Even as I spoke, the light from the entrance vanished abruptly. I heard the sound of stones tumbling from above. I knew the previous tremor must have caused a partial collapse of the entrance. What terrible luck; I wondered if Old Huang and the others were alright.

Liang Qian frowned, biting her lower lip. "It didn't feel like an earthquake. This cave is dreadfully eerie; there must be something wrong."

"What do we do?" I asked, slightly flustered. "Should we wait here for them to dig us out, or should we press on...?"

Liang Qian replied, "Who knows how long it will take them to clear it. That person Da Xiong was chasing seemed abnormal. We should go ahead and look..."

With that, Liang Qian unslung a handgun from her back, pulled back the bolt, and said to me, "Let's go..." I had no idea where she got the gun, but seeing her serious expression made me swallow hard.

However, I wasn't about to lose face in front of a girl, so I pretended to be perfectly calm.

Liang Qian smiled slightly. "Don't be surprised by whatever you see later. I was in Black Bamboo Valley three years ago; many strange things happen here, though there are many things I can't tell you yet."

I knew she said that to prepare me mentally, but for some reason, it only made me more nervous.

Liang Qian didn't say another word. She tucked the flashlight under her arm, held the gun steady, and cautiously moved forward.

I stayed close behind Liang Qian, wading through water nearly up to my waist, constantly scanning the sides, terrified that one of those long-necked monsters would suddenly emerge from the darkness beside us and grin at me.

After a while, I quietly asked Liang Qian, "Da Xiong won't be hurt, right?"

Liang Qian fell silent for a moment before saying, "I don't know. You'll find out soon enough. I see this passage has no forks; Da Xiong must be just ahead."

We walked forward for about ten minutes when the passage suddenly took a sharp turn to the side.

Liang Qian pointed out, "This is clearly a man-made tunnel. A natural cave wouldn't have such an abrupt bend."

I nodded, just about to say something, when I suddenly saw half a human face slowly materialize at the bend in the passage! Because the flashlight beam illuminated the opposite wall, the face was perfectly hidden in the dim shadows, secretly peering at us.

My heart lurched, and I whispered, "Da Xiong?"

Looking closer at the face, something felt wrong. Given Da Xiong’s usual nature, if he had seen us, he would have swaggered out, cursing, "Damn it! You finally made it."

A chill ran down my spine, and cold sweat beaded involuntarily on my forehead. Trembling, I said to Liang Qian, "Th-there’s half a human face over there!"

Hearing this, Liang Qian started, quickly swinging the flashlight beam toward where I pointed.

But in that instant, the face retracted sharply, vanishing into the turn of the passage.

Liang Qian had clearly seen some trace of movement and shouted, "Da Xiong!"

There was no reply from that direction. Liang Qian didn't call a second time. She re-tucked the flashlight under her arm and pulled a strip of white cloth from her hip pocket, biting down on it while wrapping it several times around her right palm.

I knew what she was doing—it was to prevent the stock from slipping due to recoil when firing, which could injure her.

Her movements were fluid and swift, possessing a striking, heroic aura that left me mesmerized.

After finishing, she raised the shotgun again and signaled me, "Keep close."

Seeing her severe expression, I felt extremely uneasy.

We forced ourselves forward. Though the distance was only about twenty steps, it took us a full minute to cover it.

Finally, Liang Qian pressed herself against the corner wall, took a breath, and then cautiously extended the flashlight, illuminating the passage ahead first.

Then, she suddenly darted forward, twisting her body so she was facing directly into the passage. I heard her cry out, "Aiya!" from behind, followed by her taking two steps back.

Her reaction clearly indicated she had seen something deeply shocking. My heart plummeted, and I forgot my fear, craning my neck to look.

The sight that greeted me made me gasp, nearly causing me to collapse onto the ground.

At the end of the flashlight beam lay a massive, pitch-black coffin. As the light touched it, the illumination was terribly dim. Beside the coffin, there seemed to be three corpses leaning against it. A closer look sent my soul scattering in terror.

All three dead faces had their skin stripped away, their eyeballs bulging so close to falling out, and their mouths stretched wide open, as if they had witnessed something terrifying in life.

Flies swarmed over the three decaying bodies, and the cave was filled with an overwhelmingly foul stench of rot. I almost vomited up the roasted venison I'd eaten yesterday.

Liang Qian's face was ashen. After a long pause, she said, "Don't come over. I'll check who those people are."

My face was dark. I had never seen a dead body before, and my first encounter was this gruesome. I genuinely couldn't process it immediately.

After a while, as the nausea finally subsided slightly, an even more terrifying thought struck me.

Clearly, the passage ended with only those three dead bodies, with no sign of any living creature. Then, what was the half-face we saw at the turn? And since Da Xiong had come this way, where was he now?

As I pondered this, I suddenly heard a rustling sound—like someone whispering, or perhaps something hard scraping against the stone wall.

At first, I thought it was Liang Qian making the noise, but after a moment, I realized something was off. I had once kept a pangolin in a glass cage; its claws were incredibly sharp, making a high-pitched screeching sound against the glass. This sound was very similar to fingernails scraping glass.

Just as I was about to turn and tell Liang Qian, I heard her exclaim, "Something is moving inside the coffin!"

Hearing this, I jumped, realizing the sound was the corpse inside the coffin scratching at the lid.

I had never believed in the existence of zombies.

But if it wasn't a reanimated corpse, what else could be inside the coffin?

Before I could fully react, Liang Qian leaped onto the coffin lid, pressing down on whatever was beneath, and said to me, "Don't be afraid, I've seen a Zongzi before; I know its weakness."

I watched her pull out the censer from her backpack, strike a match, and toss it into the incense burner. A thin smoke rose, spreading a strange, sweet aroma. Sure enough, the commotion beneath the coffin lessened considerably.

I couldn't believe my eyes and was about to speak when I suddenly heard a muffled, stuffy voice, as if speaking through a pinched nose, shout, "Let me out!"

I knew instantly, even with my navel, that it was Da Xiong's voice. I thought, Did the idiot somehow end up inside the coffin?

Liang Qian clearly heard the voice too. She let out an "Eh?" and shouted down, "Da Xiong! Are you down there?"

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