Wu Laoban offered a wry smile, pulling the cigarette pack from his pocket. He glanced at it and said, "This is the last one. It’s yours." With that, he tossed the pack over to me.

I looked at the brand—a pack of Zhongnanhai, strong stuff.

Lighting up that cigarette, Boss Wu and I started walking into the cavern, one after the other.

Boss Wu was well-equipped; in his hand, he held a German-imported, high-intensity wolf-eye flashlight.

He adjusted the beam to its widest setting, aiming to illuminate the largest possible area.

Both of us keeping our cigarettes dangling, our steps were so light even a cat would have been ashamed of its own stealth.

Boss Wu led the way, sweeping the flashlight beam around our surroundings.

Soon, we discovered that this cavern was a natural grotto, untouched by human excavation. The floor was littered with uneven rubble, and above us hung stalactites, like tangled wolf fangs, dangling five or six meters over our heads.

The stone walls were pocked and scarred, etched by droplets of water seeping from the ceiling.

Though the wolf-eye beam was intensely bright, the ceiling was several meters above us. Anything slightly further away was immediately obscured by flickering shadows, revealing only sparse, intermittent points of light—possibly the Youhuo (Ghost Fires) clinging to the roof.

It seemed they didn't burn constantly; when resting, they simply pulsed, much like fireflies.

Seeing the dozens of dimly glowing orbs overhead, Boss Wu made a shushing gesture towards me and whispered, "Don't talk. Some of them are still dormant."

I nodded, unsure if it was the stifling heat of the cave or the fear these things inspired that caused sweat to bead on my forehead.

After speaking, Boss Wu stopped looking up at the ceiling and instead focused the beam on the treacherous stones beneath our feet, ensuring we wouldn't lose our footing.

We shuffled forward cautiously, our eyes constantly tracking the jumble of rocks and, in the crevices between them, the haphazardly strewn corpses.

These people had been burned alive. It seemed Boss Wu's men had already passed through here, perhaps unaware of the Ghost Fires in this section, leading to such heavy casualties.

Everyone except Boss Wu had perished while scrambling to escape.

The sight of those grasping, contorted corpses unnerved me. Although I had seen many dead bodies, I had rarely witnessed such a horrific scene; it was difficult to remain composed.

Boss Wu seemed significantly calmer. He moved ahead quietly, guiding me forward.

After walking a short distance, Boss Wu halted and murmured to me, "Wait, look here."

I followed the beam of his flashlight and saw he was pointing to an area where the stalactites overhead were sparser.

At first glance, I only registered numerous small, milky-white dots wriggling. But upon closer inspection, my scalp felt as if it had just been hit by static electricity again—numb and tingling.

Because I clearly saw countless tiny Minghuo Zai Zi (Little Nether Fire Younglings) crawling over a human corpse hanging upside down from the ceiling, gnawing on their sustenance.

I had no idea how that body ended up suspended there, but the sight was utterly nauseating.

Boss Wu looked, swallowed hard, and said, "Don't startle them. While these little ones aren't inherently dangerous, the larger ones must be nearby."

I nodded, glancing up at the milky-white creatures. They resembled newborn rats, perhaps, but rats with wings were certainly more repulsive than their terrestrial counterparts.

Boss Wu beckoned to me then, saying, "We are almost there. We disturbed those bats right here earlier, which is how we ended up in such a mess."

Listening to him, I simply nodded, not paying too much attention, because the further inside we went, the more human corpses hung from the ceiling. I watched some of the small bats struggling to grip the rock face, fearing one or two might lose their hold and drop into my collar.

We proceeded in such suspense for five minutes when I finally saw a dark, cylindrical shape ahead.

I initially assumed it was another golden artifact, but leaning closer, I realized it was bronze.

The object before us resembled an ancient Chinese Danlu (alchemy furnace) used for refining elixirs. It stood three meters tall and two meters wide, occupying nearly half the cavern space.

However, it wasn't standing upright in the center of the cave; instead, one leg was broken, and it was wedged against the stone at an angle.

I noticed the bronze furnace was covered in scratches and dents, one of its handles broken off. Clearly, it hadn't been placed here deliberately; it had likely rolled down from somewhere above.

Boss Wu swept his flashlight beam around us, but we saw no stone door or side passage nearby.

Furthermore, the terrain of the cavern was relatively flat, with no steep slope that would allow such a massive furnace to roll down.

And a massive, thick furnace forged entirely of bronze would weigh at least several thousand catties. I couldn't fathom how it had been brought to this location originally.

Boss Wu's earlier stone-tossing act had struck this bronze furnace, producing a loud clang. This clearly indicated he already knew the furnace was here, suggesting his previous team had likely reached this spot.

So I asked Boss Wu, "Did you come this far before?"

Boss Wu nodded, not looking at me, his eyes fixed intently on the furnace before us. "That's right. We reached this point, and then those Singaporean scientists became very excited upon seeing this furnace and came up to examine it."

"Did they strike it with a hammer? Or did someone accidentally trip and knock it, thus attracting the Ghost Fires?" I continued to ask in a low voice.

Boss Wu shook his head. "I don't know. When we first entered, we saw the Ghost Fires. I warned them that the objects were extremely dangerous and not to make any noise. These men were professional archaeologists with strict discipline; I don't believe they would deliberately strike the furnace. But the furnace did sound off back then—maybe someone triggered a mechanism, I'm not sure. In any case, let’s be careful now."

I nodded, thinking that the presence of this furnace here was certainly strange, and wondering if anything remained inside it.

Our decision made, we crept stealthily toward the bronze furnace.

Boss Wu's flashlight skimmed over the surface, and then I saw it: the metal was covered in densely packed, exquisite etchings.

These patterns were mostly vines and flowers, interspersed with simplified drawings of birds and beasts, perhaps depicting a scene from a lush forest.