Boss Wu shook his head and replied, "If you go in there, you'll be dragged into my mess. You should leave."

He spoke calmly, yet there was an air of command in his tone, likely honed from years of being a boss or a leader, which had forged such authority in him.

Though I was not one to easily yield, I sensed a threat in his words. I swallowed hard and stated, "I've come this far; there's absolutely no turning back now."

Boss Wu gave a cold laugh and said, "Do you even know what's inside here?"

I froze for a moment, then recalled what Zhuoya had told me, and replied, "It's the passage leading to another Golden Palace."

Boss Wu laughed again, this time laced with pure mockery. He gestured towards the still-smoking corpses scattered on the ground and said, "Inside is purgatory."

"What exactly happened just now? How did these people die?" I asked after a brief silence.

Boss Wu offered no answer. He flicked away his cigarette butt, stood up, brushed the dust from his clothes, and picked up a stone about the size of half a palm from the ground. He then slowly paced to the mouth of the cave and stood facing inward.

He tossed the stone in his hand a couple of times, then turned to look at me, saying, "Are you sure you want to stand there? If you don't step aside, don't come crying to me later."

Unsure of his intentions, I scratched the back of my head and quickly darted to the side.

At that moment, Boss Wu's face broke into the wicked grin of a child caught stealing cucumbers from a neighbor's field. He hurled the stone deep into the cavern.

Three seconds later, I heard a metallic clang echo from within, as if the stone had struck a massive iron drum.

Before I could process what had happened, an utterly horrendous sound erupted from the depths of the cave.

It was like the screeching of countless rats—a cacophony of squeaks at first, which then morphed into the frantic whooshing of innumerable wings beating the air. The sheer volume felt like millions of sparrows flying overhead, amplified tenfold by the cave's acoustics—it was terrifying.

The sound felt strangely familiar. I cautiously peered into the opening and saw, against my memory, that the cave was now lit by countless pinpricks of dim, emerald green light, and their number was rapidly increasing.

As the lights multiplied, a rolling wave of heat surged out of the cavern, so scorching it was like lava spewing from a volcanic vent.

Seeing me stunned, Boss Wu moved with incredible speed, grabbing my arm and dragging me towards a corner of the wall, safely outside the immediate radiation zone.

He pulled me against the wall until we were both braced there.

Before I could comprehend the situation, countless masses of spectral green light burst from the cave, coalescing like a monstrous, fiery dragon.

The moment this 'flame dragon' spewed forth, a sharp, acrid odor saturated the air, stinging my throat until it was dry, making blood seem to surge in my nostrils, and forcing my eyes nearly shut.

Coughing lightly, I forced myself to recall. I realized instantly: these fire masses were not something else—they were the Youhuo (Phantom Fires) I had witnessed in Black Bamboo Gully!

Those bats, rumored to nest in human bones and feed on scale dust, were entirely coated in combustible powder. If they touched a person, they instantly reduced them to ash.

I surmised that the many corpses on the ground were the work of these Phantom Fires.

But why was Boss Wu the only survivor? Curiosity burned in my mind.

I didn't have long to ponder. I watched the Youhuo surge from the cavern, forming a pillar of fire that shot skyward before dispersing in the mid-air, dancing wildly as they sought the source of the disturbance.

Even though we were pressed against the cave entrance, many of the Phantom Fires flew past us without noticing us. However, after circling once, their highly sensitive ultrasonic detection organs quickly pinpointed our location, and a dozen or so Youhuo shrieked and zipped towards us.

My heart plummeted. Watching those fully engulfed, flame-dropping, fire-spitting entities approach, I felt trapped with no escape.

The swarm of Youhuo moved with terrifying speed. In what felt like an instant, a blast of searing heat washed over me, singeing my hair and beard.

"Quick! Get down!" I urgently tugged at Boss Wu, who remained unresponsive. He merely turned to glance at me, his face alight with a confident, knowing smile.

I thought, What is wrong with this man? Did he intentionally lure these things out, just to drag me down with him to be burned alive? No wonder he looks so utterly relieved.

As I thought this, the overwhelming wave of Youhuo plunged towards us. It looked like certain death.

With no time to berate Boss Wu, I instinctively threw my hands over my head and crouched down.

One second later, I heard a frantic, chattering noise erupt from the center of the fire swarm. Countless flames whooshed past on either side of me, stinging my cheeks with heat, my hair crackling audibly.

This clamor and wave of heat lasted for about five seconds, then gradually receded.

I cautiously checked myself all over; there was no sign of burning. I was stunned—What in the world?

When I opened my eyes, I saw that Boss Wu was standing directly in front of me, his right palm stretched straight out before him, black smoke still curling from it, posed exactly like a traffic officer signaling 'Stop.'

I mumbled under my breath, "Did that guy just use... Ryūha Zan (Dragon Cleaving Slash)? To split the swarm of Phantom Fires?"

Boss Wu shook his hand, turned back to me, and asked, "You alright?"

I saw that his hand was even more scorched than before. Down the very center of his palm was a gash about two to three meters long, weeping thick, viscous red blood that stained his entire wrist.

"Are... are you alright? Should we stop the bleeding?" I asked anxiously.

Boss Wu shook his head, pulled out another cigarette, lit it, and said, "I'm fine. If it weren't for this blood, we'd be dead. When I used to descend into tombs, I accidentally consumed some very specific things that gave me this constitution. My blood repels many venomous insects and beasts."

"Consumed something?" I scratched the back of my head, wondering if he had eaten something like the Qilin Incense from Liang Qian's furnace—something that could grant such power.

"I've changed my mind," Boss Wu took a long drag from his cigarette and looked at me.

"What?" I stared at him, utterly confused.

Ignoring the pain in his hand, Boss Wu took another puff, blew the smoke away from the long hair obscuring his eyes, and stated, "All my men are dead. You can come in with me; we can watch each other's backs. But I have one warning: if you go in, you might never come out."

I managed a wry smile and shook my head. "So that’s what you were worried about. Don't fret. If I were afraid of death, I would have turned back long ago."

Boss Wu nodded. "Let's go. We drove out a large portion of those Phantom Fires, and they'll be startled for a while before they return. We can pass now." With that, Boss Wu lifted his foot and stepped into the cave entrance.

Suddenly, I remembered something and called out from behind him, "Wait!"

Boss Wu paused, turned his head back, and asked, "What is it?"

I rubbed my hands together and said, "Could you spare me a cigarette?"