The dust and smoke hung heavy, the ground littered with black debris from the blast. I leaned forward, shining my flashlight into the blasted fissure in the mountain, only to find it completely sealed off. The Black Snakes outside couldn't get in, but getting out the way we came in wouldn't be simple either.

Among the four people around me, Fatty was in relatively better shape, just a few scratches on his hand from flying rock fragments. Professor Chen remained unconscious, and Ye Yixin, knocked by the blast wave, had choked and passed out as well.

I reached out to check Ye Yixin's breath—bad news, no respiration. I cursed under my breath; she was always frail, and the shockwave must have choked her into apnea. She needed immediate resuscitation.

At this moment, the three of us who were conscious—Fatty, Irley Yang, and I—had temporarily deafened ears and couldn't communicate verbally for a short time.

I signaled frantically for Irley Yang to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Ye Yixin. I noticed blood trickling from Irley Yang’s nose and quickly gestured for her to stop the bleeding.

Irley Yang casually tore a strip of cloth and stuffed it into her bleeding nostril. Then, using blood on her palm, she quickly wrote a few characters before pointing at Ye Yixin. I shone my flashlight onto her palm and saw she had written "CPR."

What did that mean? I didn't understand. Was she saying Ye Yixin was beyond saving? I shook my head at her.

Seeing that I couldn't grasp her meaning, Irley Yang ignored her still-bleeding nose, lowered her head, placed both hands on Ye Yixin’s chest, and pressed down hard.

Only then did I realize her intention: she wanted me to administer cardiac compressions. Just as I was about to take over, Ye Yixin let out a slight groan, coughed up a breath, and began hacking constantly. I quickly motioned for Fatty to give her a few sips of water from the canteen.

Seeing Ye Yixin stabilizing, Irley Yang looked up, pressed her fingers against her ear bone, and managed to stop the bleeding from her nose.

The situation had just stabilized, but before I could worry about our current predicament, a new crisis emerged. That so-called Ghost Cave was deep inside the heart of Mount Zaglama. The black mountain itself was like a hollow shell, and our current position was likely somewhere within this outer casing.

Due to the internal voids within the mountain, immense internal tension had built up over millennia, causing the structure to crack into numerous fissures, large and small. The explosion from the yellow dynamite earlier had impacted the mountain body, putting pressure on these originally minute cracks. As the pressure increased, it created a domino effect.

Although I couldn't hear sound for the moment, I could feel the mountain vibrating. The narrow cracks overhead gradually widened, and countless fragments of rock began to fall, with the intensity showing no signs of abating.

While shielding myself from the small debris raining down, I urged the others to move quickly. The fissures inside the mountain were growing larger, and the falling rocks increased. Our only option was to scramble diagonally upward along the cracks. Every short distance we managed to climb, the space behind us would be instantly filled with rubble. If we paused for even a moment, we would either be crushed or buried alive. Gritting our teeth, we risked our lives pulling each other along, climbing toward relatively safer ground.

Stumbling forward, unsure how far we had crawled, our hands were lacerated and bloody from the sharp fragments. Our breathing grew ragged, feeling as though our hearts might burst from our chests. We were thirsty and exhausted, burdened by the unconscious Professor Chen and the faint Ye Yixin. Finally, we simply ran out of strength, unable to move another step. I closed my eyes; if we were to be buried alive, so be it; I wouldn't run anymore.

Unexpectedly, the diffusion of the internal fissures stopped. The area one meter behind us was completely buried. We collapsed where we stood, gasping for breath, hesitant to drink the remaining water even though we desperately needed it.

After a long pause, Fatty finally spoke, "Lao Hu, are we dead or alive right now?"

I looked at the dark stones surrounding us. "I figure we're pretty close either way. Even if we're technically alive for the moment, we probably won't be for long."

Fatty, likely exhausted to the point of delirium, turned to Irley Yang beside him. "Miss Yang, I’m saying goodbye in advance. When we two report to the King of Hell later, you’ll have to meet your God. Your path is long; take care on your journey."

Irley Yang snapped, "For God's sake, what time is it? Can't you two stop talking nonsense? Ah... I can hear again."

I opened my mouth and moved my jaw. Although I still had some ringing in my ears, I wasn't completely deaf anymore. We quickly inventoried the canteens and equipment. I realized my canteen must have been lost in the chaos. Ye Yixin was unconscious when we entered the city, so she had no canteen. Between the rest of us, we had less than two full canteens left.

I said, "The reality might be hard to swallow, but I need to tell you all: we are inside Mount Zaglama. There are no exits in any direction. We don't know if the air here is circulating; if not, we might suffocate within half an hour. We lost the rest of the explosives, and I doubt we can get out on our own strength. Half our team is dead or injured. Outside, only Old Man Anliman remains. That old fox is too slippery; he probably fled the moment things looked bad. We shouldn't count on any rescue from outside."

Fatty grunted, "Since that's the case, thinking about it won't help. Our throats are burning. We still have two canteens of water; let's divide it and talk about the rest later."

I split the water in half. One half went to Ye Yixin and Professor Chen; the other half we three shared.

Irley Yang only managed two sips before she couldn't swallow. After a moment of contemplation, she said, "If we truly die here, I think it’s all my fault. If I hadn't insisted on searching for the Jingjue Ancient City, none of this would have happened, and so many people wouldn't have been dragged into this mess. I really..."

I waved my hand, cutting her off. "You can't say that. We have an old saying in China: men die for wealth, birds die for food. Fatty and I brought this upon ourselves. If we hadn't been greedy for your forty thousand dollars, we wouldn't be in this desperate situation. Besides, Professor Chen and the others are in this line of work; even if you hadn't sponsored us, they would have found a way to look for the relics of Jingjue."

Saying this, I suddenly recalled something Irley Yang had told me before. She used to have recurring dreams about the Ghost Cave, even dreaming of the iron chains on the Queen's sarcophagus. She also mentioned dreaming vaguely of a giant creature clinging to the coffin, though she could never make out what it was. Wasn't that the Corpse Flower Rafflesia arnoldii growing on the coffin?

When she told me this, she thought it was a message from her missing explorer father. Thinking back now, it seemed awfully peculiar. Did Irley Yang possess any form of foresight? I decided to ask her directly.

Irley Yang shook her head. "It seems there was a voice constantly calling me, urging me to come to the Ghost Cave in Mount Zaglama. But when I saw the bottomless Ghost Cave with my own eyes, I realized my father's expedition team had never reached the cave at all. They probably died somewhere in the desert. But why I would dream of a place they never visited—I just can't understand it."

Fatty exclaimed, "Something like that? Maybe you were the Queen of Jingjue in a past life, revisiting your old haunts..."

Before he could finish, sounds of cracking and transmission echoed again from within the mountain. It seemed the initial shockwave hadn't completely dissipated and was starting up again. We had rested for a while, and facing death now, no one was willing to just wait for it. Ahead of us, a wide fissure split open. My flashlight beam swept inside, and it looked as if a person was sitting there.

At that moment, large and small fragments of rock were tumbling down like rain. Without time to examine further, seeing a path, we rushed in. Irley Yang shone her flashlight to illuminate the way, Fatty hoisted Professor Chen onto his back, and I dragged a weak Ye Yixin. We all darted into the newly formed stone crevice.

Before we could clearly see where we were, we felt a choking sensation—the air inside was dense with dust and stagnant from years of closure. We quickly pulled out our gas masks and fitted them over our faces. Just then, we heard a thunderous boom behind us as dozens of massive black boulders tumbled down, blocking the entrance.

Seeing our way back severed, I turned to survey the surroundings. We were in a square stone room, only about ten square meters in area. On the floor rested a large, ancient stone coffer. This coffer was distinctly different from the black stone prevalent throughout the Jingjue ruins; it was dusty gray and profoundly ancient, with a unique shape we had never heard of or seen before.

The stone box was over half a meter high and more than a meter long. Its craftsmanship was incredibly precise, carved with several stone murals whose purpose was unknown.

We were so absorbed in examining the peculiar stone coffer that we failed to notice two figures sitting cross-legged on either side of it. When we approached closely and suddenly illuminated them with our flashlights, the three of us gasped. Our torches fell to the ground, plunging the stone chamber into absolute darkness. Then, Fatty shrieked, "Two zombies!"