I had no idea of the extent of my injuries, nor did I dare to examine them closely. If I checked and found that, like Dà Xióng, all my ribs were broken, I feared I wouldn't have the strength to continue, and then Boss Wu would truly be beyond saving.

I walked slowly, painstakingly so, resting after every few steps, each movement an effort.

This was the most arduous predicament I had ever faced; this cramped, foul-smelling cave felt like the longest stretch of road I had ever traveled in my life.

Despair filled me, and I moved forward like an automaton, numbly pressing on, no longer caring where I was headed.

After rounding the bronze alchemy furnace submerged in water, I continued walking for perhaps an hour.

Suddenly, a splashing sound echoed from the distance—I couldn't tell if it was a waterfall or a steep slope, but water had definitely begun to flow.

I crouched down and touched the water beneath my feet; it was no longer viscous but cool and clear.

I cupped a handful and smelled it near my nose; it carried only the distinctive scent of cave rock, devoid of the previous stench.

It must be that several springs within this cavern had converged here, purifying the water.

Without giving it much thought, I was desperately thirsty, so I raised the water and drank several greedy gulps.

To my surprise, the water held a distinct, sweet flavor—icy cold, piercing my core, and quite palatable.

I managed a bitter smile, thinking this might be the only comfort left to me.

After drinking and resting for a while, I pushed myself to walk on. I felt my strength return significantly, and the tightness in my chest eased, so I quickened my pace.

The closer I walked, the louder the rushing water became, though it wasn't deafening like a waterfall, and the cavern didn't narrow.

I had no means of illumination, so I had no choice but to press on in the dark.

The sound of the water grew louder and louder until the rushing surrounded me completely.

As I pondered this, I suddenly struck my forehead painfully against something hard.

Fortunately, I hadn't been moving too fast, so the impact wasn't severe.

I rubbed my forehead and cautiously reached out in front of me to feel what I had hit.

Very quickly, my hands found a rough, uneven stone wall.

Feeling along the stone face left and right, I located the cave walls on both sides.

Clearly, I had walked into a dead end, blocked by a sheer rock face—the very end of this tunnel.

Initially, frustration washed over me, but then I paused, realizing something was amiss.

If this was a dead end, where was all that water sound coming from?

So, I traced my hand down along the rock wall, and sure enough, I found a fissure at the base of the wall.

This gap lay between the rock face and the ground, about half a meter high, and elongated in shape.

Water was draining through here, feeding into a deeper subterranean river; this was the entrance to that underground river.

Generally, once one entered this passage, there would be a very steep downward slope.

Due to years of water erosion, the slope must be incredibly smooth; therefore, if I positioned myself to crawl in, I would be swiftly swept into the underground river.

However, I couldn't estimate the depth of the underground river now, nor could I know if the passage narrowed inside, potentially trapping me.

But what choice did I have other than to slide into the entrance of this underground river? Go back? That was impossible.

Even if I retraced my steps, a massive labyrinth would still await me; there was no escaping anyway.

In truth, at this point, life or death held little meaning for me.

Seeing the people around me perish one by one had rendered me immune to such outcomes.

Still, to avoid dying for nothing, I resolved to verify the condition of this underground river entrance one last time.

I searched the water at the bottom of the opening; the water was bitterly cold, and occasionally, tiny fish brushed against my arm before darting away quickly.

Soon, my fingers brushed against an object made of fabric.

The cloth was large and bulky, jammed between two stones, preventing it from being washed into the underground river.

It took considerable effort to yank the object out of the water.

Feeling it in my hands for a moment, I realized it was a piece of clothing, nylon, very large, and intact.

I felt around the pockets and, astonishingly, found a lighter and a cigarette butt.

From these items, I deduced this must be Boss Wu’s coat.

He had pocketed the cigarette butt, the same kind he used for marking their trail earlier.

I silently thanked Boss Wu for being captured by the monster, for leaving me this lifeline.

His sturdy kerosene lighter was waterproof as long as the metal cap was closed.

So, I shook the water off the lighter, flipped open the cap, pressed the mechanism a few times, and successfully lit the flame.

A faint glimmer of light is enough to give someone lost in darkness the impetus to survive; seeing this small fire instantly dissipated much of my negativity.

Using the firelight, I crouched down to examine the entrance to the underground river.

It was then I noticed that while the stone wall before me looked perfectly natural, covered in moss and protruding knobs, the entrance to the underground river seemed artificially carved—shaped like a human eye.

If the entrance had appeared naturally formed, I might have hesitated before entering, but seeing its artificial contours solidified my resolve to go in.

Because, as Zhuō Yà had explained, this cave system led to another Golden Palace. If that were true, the passage was built for people to use, not purely natural.

Therefore, the underground river entrance before me must be the passage Zhuō Yà spoke of.

Without hesitation, I wrapped Boss Wu’s large coat around myself to avoid scrapes during the slide.

Then I squatted down. To avoid hitting my head on the descent, I first placed my feet onto the slope at the entrance, allowing my body to slide down in a relatively normal posture.

Finally, I slowly edged forward until more than half my body was inside the opening, then released my hands, sliding down the incline.

I felt the icy water immediately saturate me, a bone-chilling cold.

Cold wind whistled past my ears; the descent was extremely fast.

Though I was curious if a stalactite or a protrusion might suddenly appear ahead, I dared not look up, and in this pitch blackness, I wouldn't see anything anyway.

So, I could only surrender to fate, falling like a free object.

Luckily, the entrance to the underground river remained wide and unobstructed.

Soon, a strange white light appeared before my eyes.

I felt a flicker of curiosity but still kept my head down.

It wasn't until I heard the deep roar of a waterfall ahead, combined with a sudden emptiness beneath me, that I snapped my eyes open to look.

However, besides the strange white light, I saw nothing else; my body continued to plummet, leaving me feeling utterly lost.

I briefly thought I was about to be dashed to pieces, but that thought vanished as I heard a loud whoosh beside my ear—I had landed in the water.

Evidently, the drop hadn't been that high, as I hadn't been badly hurt landing in the river [Note: Character was cut off in the original text, implying 'river bed' or similar].

I thrashed a few times and surfaced from the river bottom.

Just as a wave of relief washed over me, I realized the situation was deteriorating rapidly.

The current in this river was incredibly strong, slamming me backward.

I couldn't quite grasp the terrain, as the direction the current was pushing me was exactly opposite to the direction I had slid down.

I urgently looked behind me and saw, under the diffused, peculiar white light, a curtain of water hanging where the entrance to the underground river—from which I had slid—exited.

That opening was about seven or eight meters above where I now floated.

The river I was in now was flowing directly toward that waterfall. This meant my current river and the waterfall likely did not belong to the same water system.

There must be a gap, and a deep one, between the waterfall and this river. The sheer force of the underground current must have propelled me across that gap into the river on the other side.

Understanding this offered no help whatsoever, because I realized the gap was now alarmingly close. The water roared as it fell downwards, and I had absolutely no way to stop my momentum; I was about to be pulled over the edge.