By the light of the cold flame, we could clearly see a dark, ominous human skull right at our feet, its mouth agape as if staring directly at us. Even more unnerving, a faint, eerie green flame burned solely within this skull, making the sight profoundly strange.

Boss Wu glanced at me, seemingly confirming, "See? I told you.

The main attraction has appeared." Yet, I remained unconvinced. Following the skull's gaze, I looked toward the adjacent pile of bones and spotted something amiss.

Because nestled within the crevices of the jumbled bones, I perceived a black object, over a meter long, lying concealed. I noticed it only because it was breathing, its body exhibiting a slight, rhythmic rise and fall.

I couldn't clearly discern what it was, but I seemed to catch sight of a tail dangling on the ground, swaying left and right—it was definitely not human. "Gun!

Give me the gun!" I whispered urgently to Boss Wu, keeping my movements cautious. Boss Wu paused for a moment but still handed me the pistol from his waist.

I pulled back the bolt, aimed it squarely at the thing lurking in the bone heap, and was just about to pull the trigger. Boss Wu, however, grabbed my arm, exclaiming, "Are you insane?

Firing a shot here will alert every single spirit flame!" I froze, realizing, Right, how could I forget that? While I hesitated, a sudden, violent rustling erupted from the bone pile.

The thing I had spotted darted away with incredible speed from beneath the bones, covering over ten meters in an instant. At this point, Boss Wu seemed to see it too, halting mid-movement before shouting, "Chase!

Quick, follow it!" I thought to myself, It's running that fast; how could we possibly keep up? So, I pulled Boss Wu back, saying, "The situation ahead is unclear; we can't rush in blindly." Perhaps the bizarre atmosphere had momentarily clouded his judgment, as he paused upon hearing my warning.

After a few seconds, he asked me, "What do you think that thing was?" I shook my head. "Didn't get a good look.

Didn't seem human, and it was quite large." Boss Wu looked at the walkie-talkie in my hand, which was still emitting faint static, and then asked, "Do you think that woman's voice we heard earlier could have come from that thing?" I had the same suspicion, so I tapped the receiver twice more. Indeed, this time, there was no responding voice from any other walkie-talkie nearby.

Boss Wu and I exchanged a look, both filled with confusion and dread. Because aside from humans and a few species of birds, we had never heard of anything else capable of speech.

Actually, being able to speak wasn't that strange, but being able to use a walkie-talkie was simply unbelievable. I swallowed hard, gazing into the seemingly endless darkness ahead, and asked, "Do we still need to go deeper?" Boss Wu eyed me strangely.

"What? Scared?

You didn't even flinch when we talked about the female ghost earlier." I shook my head. "Not scared, exactly.

It’s just that the thing was too bizarre. There might be something extremely perilous waiting for us inside." Boss Wu pulled out the pistol tucked into the small of his back, wiped the barrel with his sleeve, and declared, "We're fully armed.

What's there to fear? Even if it’s a ghost, we can punch a few transparent holes in it!" Saying that, Boss Wu held his gun steady and led the way forward.

I sighed resignedly and had no choice but to follow. Boss Wu stared straight ahead, holding the cold flame in one hand and the gun in the other, slowly proceeding into the bone pile.

But after only a few steps, I heard a gurgling sound. Then Boss Wu cursed loudly, "Damn it, what is this stuff?

It’s slimy and disgusting." I looked down and saw that Boss Wu's foot had sunk into a pool of deep yellow viscous fluid. Describing it as viscous fluid is generous; it was only slightly thicker than water, creating concentric ripples when stepped in, but it dripped off the foot in thick, stringy strands when lifted.

The place already reeked overpoweringly, sickeningly foul, and this liquid—it nearly made me vomit everything I had eaten. Seeing that I looked like I was about to throw up, Boss Wu quickly warned, "Don't you dare spit here!

It’s disgusting enough already; are you planning to add some extra seasoning to the muck?" His words forced me to suppress the urge, and I clutched my throat, trying to steady myself. Boss Wu didn't rush forward.

He looked around the bone heaps and surmised, "I feel like this liquid is the digestive fluid left over when the spirit flame's young decompose animal remains. Plus, it's damp here, so the fluid couldn't evaporate, eventually forming a small ditch." I quickly cut him off.

"Stop talking! Say one more word, and I really will add seasoning to it." Boss Wu chuckled, grumbling under his breath as he picked his way through the bones.

I trailed behind him, wading through the repulsive water on the ground as we moved forward. With every step, I felt a slick slipperiness, and I could sense the gooey fluid seeping into my boots—a sensation capable of making every pore on the body crawl uncomfortably.

But thinking of *'s death, I realized that of the exploration team that came here, only Boss Wu and I remained; if we didn't push forward now, the others would have died in vain. Boss Wu and I endured the nausea, struggling forward while using our hands to push aside the bones blocking our path.

The formation of the bone pile was genuinely strange: near the eastern wall on both sides, the bones were heaped two or three meters high, but in the center, there were only scattered fragments rising less than knee-high, resembling a naturally formed passage. I suspected that some kind of animal might frequent this area, leading to this specific layout.

We weren't moving fast, but the deeper we went, the deeper the viscous fluid became, eventually submerging us nearly to our knees. Furthermore, the tunnel began to slope gradually downward again.

During this time, neither of us spoke; we could only hear the heavy sound of each other's labored breathing. Boss Wu initially kept his gun raised cautiously, but as his arm tired, he holstered it.

Gradually, our tension began to ease. Because although the thick fluid deepened, the bone piles thinned out; most of them were submerged and compacted over the years, opening up the view before us.

The cavern remained wide, and the light from the cold flame dimmed somewhat, but we could see clearly in all directions—front, back, left, and right. As we walked, suddenly, both Boss Wu and I noticed a massive, dark shape some distance ahead, almost entirely blocking half the cavern.

The silhouette of this object seemed strangely familiar to both of us, sparking a wave of confusion. So, we quickened our pace to get a closer look.

We saw a huge, soot-black bronze alchemy furnace overturned in the thick liquid, covered entirely in greenish verdigris. Judging by both its size and shape, we recognized it as being almost identical to the other furnace that had disappeared earlier; it was likely the same model.

What made both Boss Wu and me uneasy was that the lid of this furnace was open. And the lid itself was warped, twisted as if wrung like a rope, submerged in the water not far from the furnace body.

"Whatever was inside this furnace has come out," I told Boss Wu. Boss Wu nodded grimly.

"Right. I think we need to raise our guard." Unexpectedly, just as we finished speaking, a string of large bubbles erupted from the water beside the furnace, emitting a bizarre gurgling sound in the dim cavern.

Then we saw something moving beneath the surface of the water. The object moved with extreme speed, charging directly toward us.

The cavern was narrow; there was no escaping, so we could only retreat while frantically searching for cover. Boss Wu reacted faster, pulling out his gun and firing two shots.

Crack! Crack!

The two reports echoed in the tunnel, the bullets kicking up twin splashes on the water surface, seemingly hitting the object. But instead of slowing down, the thing accelerated its charge toward us.

Boss Wu's expression shifted to panic. "Quick!

Get onto the bone piles! Don't stand in the water!"