As we neared the bronze door, the sounds of fighting inside grew fainter, suggesting the cloaked figure had already ventured far within.

But the closer we tried to push in, the more apparent it became that entry was impossible for us.

Because the circular bronze door was suspended from the ceiling, completely blocking our path; to get through, we had to detour around it, which required climbing over.

And to make that detour, we had to navigate through a dense mass of cocoons.

Though the sight of these human cocoons made us deeply uneasy, we had no choice but to brace ourselves and slowly move forward.

Up close, these cocoons resembled ripe grapes hanging on an autumn trellis, suspended motionless.

Each cocoon was tethered to the vaulted ceiling by a strand of silk, perhaps twenty or thirty centimeters long, incredibly tough, almost like steel cable.

I casually tugged at a nearby strand of white webbing and found that it was indeed incredibly strong; it took significant effort just to snap a thread as fine as a strand of hair.

This realization brought me a measure of relief, knowing we wouldn't plummet to our deaths by accidentally snagging these tethers.

I took the lead, the first of the three of us to enter the cluster of cocoons.

These inverted cocoons swept past me one by one, exuding a chilling, strange atmosphere.

I began to wonder: what exactly was wrapped inside—human or something vaguely humanoid?

If not human, it must be some sort of slender, skin-like creature housing a soft-bodied parasite. If human, then who could they be? Perhaps subordinates of Takeda Shingen we encountered at the riverbed?

As I was musing, I suddenly felt one of the nearby cocoons shift.

To be honest, the movement startled me.

I immediately stopped inching forward and turned my attention to the cocoon that had moved, trying to ascertain the cause.

The two behind me had clearly noticed the disturbance as well, and they both halted their progress.

I instinctively reached out to touch the moving cocoon, but Nie Chuan suddenly grabbed my arm.

He shook his head at me and murmured, "Don't touch it. If it's wrapped this tightly and still moving, it definitely isn't human."

I nodded, withdrawing my hand.

Following that, the three of us discovered that many of these cocoons were exhibiting movement.

However, this motion was neither breathing nor speech, only faint, subtle vibrations.

After navigating past the cluster of cocoons, we finally let out a collective sigh of relief.

We had reached the flank of the brightly illuminated door, making entry effortless now.

But by this point, the sounds of fighting from inside had completely ceased.

The three of us exchanged glances, agreeing that I should enter first to scout the interior.

So, I edged forward a little more, reaching the juncture where the door met the surrounding silk-webbed ceiling.

The wall here, which had previously been latticed with openings, had become a solid sheet of metal, offering no handholds.

Fortunately, however, this section was heavily draped with strands of spider silk.

Gripping a strand, I exerted my arms, managed to hook my fingers onto the rim of the bronze door, and then swung myself around, turning to face the interior wall of the door, and looked up—only to be stunned.

Because within the bronze door, there was a massive, straight, upward-climbing structure resembling a pipe, also cast in bronze.

Furthermore, the inner wall of this pipe was incredibly smooth and flat; the spot where my fingers were currently gripping would have been impossible to hold onto without the aid of a few strands of silk webbing.

How could the Cloaked Figure move so freely inside this? I couldn't help but wonder.

At that moment, an accidental turn of my head caught sight of the spot the Cloaked Figure had grasped when he fell.

And there, I discovered an extremely deep, small depression—a hole about the size of a human finger—and there were smears of blood around this indentation.

Looking further up, I spotted more small holes and blade marks. Some holes weren't deep, and I could even see fingerprints embossed on the inner bronze wall.

I thought to myself, My God, that Cloaked Figure could carve grooves into metal using just his fingers? Is he even human?

I remembered seeing his unusually long right middle finger back at the ruins beneath Durban Island; I had found it strange then, but I didn't know what specific use that finger might serve. Now, I was getting a clear demonstration.

While I was lost in thought, the other two caught up and asked what I was looking at that had me frozen.

I pointed to the small indentations on the wall beside me and said, "These are from the Cloaked Figure’s fingers. Who is he?"

They were equally horrified and speechless for a moment.

After two seconds of stunned silence, we heard faint human voices echoing from the pipe above us, followed by a series of sharp clanging sounds.

I knew then that having come this far, there was no turning back.

As I was contemplating how to ascend, Da Xiong suddenly cried out, "Damn it, what’s going on? My clothes are stuck to the wall!"

I turned back to see that the left breast pocket of the black windbreaker Da Xiong was wearing was adhered firmly to the edge of the bronze door.

I frowned, rushing over to investigate.

But even after exerting great effort to pull the fabric free, the pocket instantly stuck back to the metal.

Since we were already hanging on the wall, having made so many exertions, I panted out to Da Xiong, "What did you put in your pocket?"

Da Xiong thought for two seconds and replied, "Nothing much, just a few gold coins."

At that moment, Nie Chuan interjected, "More than that, right? What about that dark, odd-looking thing I gave you? You insisted it was a treasure you had to keep for study."

His comment jogged my memory: that dark, square object was something we found on a corpse at the bottom of the river. We hadn't been able to identify it then, so we handed it over to Da Xiong.

Realizing this, I immediately reached into Da Xiong's pocket and sure enough, my fingers brushed against the square object.

It was clinging tightly to the inner wall of the bronze pipe, and it took considerable force to wrench it free.

Gasping for breath, I held the object tightly and asked, "Is this a magnet?"

Nie Chuan shook his head beside me, saying, "Unlikely. Look, this pipe is made of bronze. If it were magnetic, it would be magnetic bronze, not a standard magnet."

I managed a wry smile, thinking that throughout history, people only talked about magnets; where would magnetic bronze come from?

But his comment did give me an idea. In ancient times, there was an object specifically used to find meteoric iron, called a Xuntieshi (Iron-Seeking Stone). Artisans during the Spring and Autumn/Warring States periods reportedly used it; it was said to attract anything containing metal—iron, nickel, or any other metal.

This substance was supposedly extraterrestrial in origin, and even today, scientists cannot explain the principle behind the Xuntieshi or what it truly is.

It seemed that what we held was exactly that.

And finally, I understood its purpose: it was for climbing this bronze passageway.

Since the pipe was utterly smooth with no place to grip, normal people couldn't scale it, and any monstrous beast or demon obstructing the path would cause them to fall to their deaths.

So, in order to ascend this slick bronze interior, Takeda Shingen’s men must have spared no expense to acquire this item, indicating that something extremely important resided within the bronze door.

However, what gave us pause was the clear evidence that Takeda Shingen’s men had failed, as their subordinates all perished in the tunnels.

Even ancient soldiers possessed far superior physical conditioning to us; they must have encountered some grave danger that forced them to dig tunnels and flee.

This threat seemed unlikely to be something like the bizarrely acting Mushihime; it must reside deep inside this bronze structure.

The Xuntieshi would make climbing the bronze inner wall incredibly easy, but since we only possessed one, this presented a problem.

After a moment’s thought, I quickly devised a solution: I would climb up alone first, then use the magnetic stone to anchor a rope, allowing the other two to follow.

I tested the magnet; as soon as it adhered to the wall, even hanging my entire weight from it, there was no slippage. It seemed perfectly secure.

The most frustrating part, though, was the difficulty in repositioning it.

Fortunately, I devised a method: first, tie the rope to the magnet, then throw it upwards. Once it adhered to the wall, I would climb up, and then repeat the process for quick, easy ascent.