The Corpse Flower, I suspect, doesn't just disrupt the mind through the fragrance it exudes; what’s far more potent is its color—a single glance up close can induce vivid hallucinations. It’s no wonder there were no defensive mechanisms near the coffin of the Jingjue Queen; this malevolent flower served as the ultimate tomb guardian. Anyone attempting to approach the Queen’s sarcophagus would have their five senses stolen by the Corpse Flower, only to be killed by the memories churning within their own minds.

It appears the stone beam suspended over this bottomless chasm is the zone controlled by the Corpse Flower. The moment one steps onto this "corpse beam," hallucinations begin. Presumably, the explorers and tomb robbers who came here before met the same inexplicable end as Chu Jian and Sa Dipeng, likely never grasping what was happening until their final breath.

Fortunately, Shirley Yang was a step ahead and stopped Fatso from pulling me, otherwise, I would have died on that beam long ago. The more I thought about it, the angrier I became, and I viciously cursed the deceased Jingjue Queen’s mother, grabbing my rifle and firing several shots at the Corpse Flower perched on the distant sarcophagus. The bullets struck the flower's leaves and branches as if hitting rotten wood, failing to even make a hole, much less elicit any reaction.

Helpless, I had no choice but to stop. Sa Dipeng lay near the coffin at the end of the beam, his blood pooling on the stone. He seemed beyond saving, but we couldn't just leave his body there.

We had to find a way to cross and retrieve him. I exchanged a few words with Shirley Yang and Fatso, but no good plan emerged. Professor Chen, though not in mortal danger, remained deeply unconscious, while Ye Yixin wept beside him, gasping for air.

The situation we faced was a veritable tangled mess, leaving us paralyzed on where to even begin. Fatso suddenly announced, "Old Hu, I've got a brilliant idea to take out this evil flower." I asked him, "The Corpse Flower is incredibly potent; what trick could you possibly have?" Fatso replied, "Potent, yes, but not insurmountable. It only interferes with sight and hearing, luring those who approach toward death.

You all wore gas masks when you went over, yet you still fell for it. This tells us it doesn't just kill through emitted fumes; merely looking at it mesmerizes you, blurring reality, which is why you couldn't act. My brilliant idea: we don't look.

We blindfold ourselves, get on the ground, and crawl across, then just rip that flower out by the roots, what do you say?" I responded, "Alright, you go ahead and crawl over blindfolded. We'll watch your back, cheer you on from here." Shirley Yang objected, "No, that won't work. Except for Professor Chen, who knows a little about the Corpse Flower, none of us know a thing.

How can you be sure it only hypnotizes through the five senses? This devilish flower is too bizarre. If we misjudge, we could easily die right there on the stone beam." Fatso countered, "If you say so, are we just going to abandon Sa Dipeng’s body and beat a hasty retreat?" I said, "Even if we leave, we can't let the Corpse Flower have the last laugh.

Don't we have all this yellow explosive material? I’ll shorten the stone beam, sending that flower tumbling down into the depths of the chasm." The three of us were arguing heatedly when we suddenly saw Sa Dipeng's body twitch violently in the distance. We immediately stopped arguing, focusing all our attention on the situation over on the beam.

The powerful searchlight had been kept at a low angle so that anyone returning from the beam wouldn't be blinded by the light. At this moment, I slightly raised the angle of the beam, centering the light pillar on Sa Dipeng in the distance. Sa Dipeng rolled over, seemingly being dragged by something, pulled steadily toward the black abyss beneath the beam.

Just as I squinted to see better, the high-powered searchlight flickered twice and then died. I couldn't tell if it was a bad connection or if the bulb had blown, but the entire cavern was plunged into absolute darkness. This was a critical moment.

I smacked the searchlight hard, but it wouldn't turn back on. I urgently told Fatso to bring the spare batteries. Fatso said, "No spare batteries.

Both sets of spares are with the camel train. You told everyone to travel light because the gear was too heavy when we entered the city, remember? We didn't bring any extras." Shirley Yang lit a cold flare, illuminating the surroundings.

Even a small amount of light in darkness brings a sense of security, but we still couldn't see anything far off. What exactly was dragging Sa Dipeng away? Were there other creatures in this giant hole?

In the darkness, we heard a distinct rustling sound coming from the sheer stone wall of the bottomless abyss. It wasn't loud, like some kind of animal writhing and crawling, and the sheer number of them was impossible to estimate. I recalled those terrifying, spine-chillingly eerie snakes and quickly told Fatso to grab Professor Chen.

Whatever was emerging from the hole, it was undoubtedly hostile, and our best course of action was to retreat. The cold flare had limited illumination time, so we all took out our "Wolf Eye" flashlights. Fatso hoisted Professor Chen onto his back, Shirley Yang held the now weak-legged Ye Yixin, and the group, having fixed our direction, began pulling back toward the path we came from.

The surrounding noise grew louder. Shirley Yang raised her camera and began rapid-firing the shutter. The flash went off with a series of sharp kacha-kacha sounds, momentarily bathing the area in brilliant white light.

In that lightning flash, we saw countless black-scaled serpentine creatures crawling out from all directions—some small, barely ten centimeters long, others nearly a meter long. Each had a black nodule atop its head; some were clearly mature, the large nodule having developed into a massive black eyeball. The black eyes atop the snakes' heads were extremely sensitive to light.

When hit by the camera flash, they recoiled frantically, but their numbers were too great—tens of thousands—and they continued to pour out of the cavern, piling and tangling together. The path we took in was now completely blocked; we couldn't force a path through them. While the camera flashes and flashlight beams could temporarily ward off the snakes, it was a short-term fix—a solution that only postponed disaster.

Once the camera's power was depleted, we would all inevitably be bitten to death. The black snakes kept increasing. The can of solidified fuel we brought when entering the city had been used up in the temple; we were now helpless and could only retreat step by agonizing step.

The ground was covered in black snakes. With danger imminent, Fatso suddenly pointed toward the mountain wall a few meters behind us and shouted, "There’s a small cave here! Let's get inside to shelter first!" I turned to look and realized it wasn't a cave, but a deep, ancient fissure split in the mountainside, only about as high as a man.

We couldn't tell how deep it went, but in desperation, we had to retreat inside to hold out temporarily before devising a better strategy. We quickly pulled the immobile Professor Chen and Ye Yixin and retreated into the mountain crevice. It was narrow at the top and wider at the bottom, and it extended deep inside.

The floor was also split by a fissure, but the gap underground was only about a centimeter wide, meaning we could step on it without fear of falling into the chasm. Shirley Yang had excellent composure and remained calm even in this desperate situation. Assessing the layout of the fissure, she noticed a wide, horizontal crack several meters behind us and formulated a plan.

She told me, "Can you blast the entrance shut to stop the snakes' assault?" At that moment, a few black snakes had already wriggled inside, preparing to strike. Shirley Yang pressed the shutter; the snakes flinched away from the sudden light. Fatso struck with lightning speed, using his entrenching shovel specifically to smash at the snakes' heads, then sweeping the dead ones out of the opening with the blade.

Remembering the sight of Hao Aiguo’s death, I thought that being buried alive by an explosion was better than being bitten to death by venomous snakes. I hastily pulled out several packs of yellow explosive, having no time to calculate the necessary quantity. I relied purely on my experience as a former sapper, quickly inserting the detonators, and told Fatso and the others to run quickly toward that horizontal fissure deeper in the mountain.

I armed the explosives, firing at the black snakes trying to crawl into the opening as I retreated, finally squeezing into a turn with Shirley Yang and the others after backing up a few steps. I was just about to tell them to open their mouths wide and cover their ears to avoid being deafened by the blast. Before I finished speaking, a tremendous explosion roared, echoing like muffled thunder throughout the cavern.

Shrapnel and the shockwave of the explosion surged in. Although we were sheltered around the corner, avoiding the direct impact, we were still hit by the blast wave, feeling as if someone had punched us heavily in the chest. Our ears rang violently, our minds filled with a buzzing hum, and we couldn't hear anything.

Fatso opened his mouth and said something to me, but I couldn't hear a word. I yelled at him, letter by letter, "T-H-E-R-E-S-E-E-M-S-T-O-H-A-V-E-B-E-E-N-A-B-I-T-T-O-O-M-U-C-H-E-X-P-L-O-S-I-V-E! A-R-E-Y-O-U-A-L-L-R-I-G-H-T?" I couldn't tell if any sound even left my throat.

Being so close to the detonation point, and with the fissure amplifying the sound, my eardrums felt pushed inward; I couldn't even hear the words I was shouting myself.