The True Exit

A man who had very likely been soaking in water here for over a century could still signal with his eyes and mouth words of warning. At this moment, the shock of his gesture even surpassed that of the figure seated on the bed. It was not just Li Zhuiyuan; everyone had been glancing back and forth between the massive gates and the great bed, and they naturally saw the man's guidance. Runsheng had always listened to Li Zhuiyuan, while Tan Wenbin only took the initiative when lightening the mood, never meddling during decisions. Only Xue Liangliang reached out to grab Li Zhuiyuan's arm, applying a gentle nudge toward the bed. "Xiaoyuan, make the call." Xue Liangliang quietly revealed his stance: he wanted to go past the bed. This was Li Zhuiyuan's choice as well. Sometimes, the dizzying complexities of human nature, scheming, and convoluted logic could all be set aside. In sizing up a dilemma, one only needed to grasp the essential point: Those four men from the Qing Dynasty had surely faced the identical situation back then, and they must have made the most normal choice by rushing through the gates—and then they turned from corpse retrievers into bed-bearers. In truth, that man did not even need to give a warning. The moment the four of them appeared in such a guise among the bearers, Li Zhuiyuan had already made his decision. The reason he had lingered a moment longer was like taking a few deep breaths before a bungee jump. "Dash under the bed!" They broke into a sprint at once. This scene closely resembled the colossal serpent-mouth gate when they had first entered the underground palace and ascended the stairs—an act of walking right into the creature's jaws. In an instant, seven of the eight bearers shifted their level gaze down toward the four charging figures. The golden drapery slowly drew aside, and the woman's long hair inside parted to both sides. Li Zhuiyuan saw her face. It was human, yet entirely covered in snake scales, and the light shifting in her eyes revealed vertical serpent slits. The four reached the front of the bed. The other three swiftly bent low to avoid hitting their heads, with the boy being the sole exception. Sprinting beneath the bed, Li Zhuiyuan caught sight out of the corner of his eye of the waist of that Qing Dynasty informant, where a jade pendant hung. The boy instinctively reached out and grasped it. The jade pendant might carry some clue to the man's identity. Even though the warning had not altered his choice, he still felt indebted for the kindness. If he could trace the man's descendants or successors, he would repay the favor to them. For the family of the truck driver Zhu Yang, Li Zhuiyuan had already had Xue Liangliang send a remittance. Li Sanjiang had not taught the boy many corpse-retrieval techniques, mostly because much of his repertoire was flawed. Yet the boy had learned something of vital importance from Li Sanjiang: the decency and honor of a corpse retriever. However, the tug not only failed to tear the pendant away, it nearly caused him to stumble. Li Zhuiyuan decisively let go. He could not possibly stop or walk alongside the great bed just to untie a piece of jade. At last, the four ducked out from beneath the bed and kept running with their momentum for a stretch until they reached the edge of the pool. The eight bearers and the exalted figure atop the bed merely watched them without making a move—perhaps out of disinterest, or perhaps because they had more pressing matters to attend to. *Clink...* The jade pendant that had resisted his grasp earlier slipped loose from the waist on its own, tumbling all the way down until it rolled before Li Zhuiyuan. Li Zhuiyuan picked it up and blew the dust off. Inscribed around it were five characters: "Yin Zhiwang of Fengdu." Fengdu was currently under Fuling in Sichuan Province, not far from Wanzhou, where they were now. The surname Yin was fairly rare, and this man was an orthodox corpse retriever. As long as any descendants remained, tracking them down should not be difficult. Stowing the jade pendant away, he looked up and saw that the eight bearers had already carried the bed to the great gates. *Hehehe...* Laughter continued to spill from behind the doors, and the woman's face behind them kept leaning out. The edge of the bed slammed against the gates, producing rumbling booms. Tan Wenbin said in astonishment, "Wait, is the grand reception to the Realm of Ultimate Bliss supposed to be this crude and violent?" Xue Liangliang countered, "What else? Did you really believe there was such a thing as ascension?" Tan Wenbin shook his head. "No, not that. I just thought it ought to be a little more aesthetic, a little more romantic." *Creak...* The gates, which had merely been ajar, were slowly forced open by the sturdy, powerful legs of the bed. At the same time, behind the four, a succession of mechanical clacks echoed from the pool. They turned around at once and discovered that the pool that had held the bed and concealed the eight dead-flippers was draining rapidly. Xue Liangliang said, "There's a mechanism down there. It must be linked to the great gates above. When one opens, they both open." As the gates opened wider, the water level dropped even faster. Soon, most of it had drained away, revealing a hollow opening at the bottom. Tan Wenbin remarked, "Looks like someone pulled the bathtub plug." Li Zhuiyuan said, "Could this be the real way out?" Tan Wenbin asked, puzzled, "But doesn't it lead downward?" *Hehehe...* *Hehehe...* Just then, the laughter behind the gates abruptly grew denser. The four turned back and saw that the woman's face had multiplied from one into two, then four, eight... Soon, both sides of the gates were packed from top to bottom with women's faces. All of them were laughing, an eerie, chilling sound. Tan Wenbin swallowed hard. "So many?" Li Zhuiyuan's ears twitched slightly. "More than that." As the gates were fully forced open, the faces clinging behind them crawled out. It was crawling, without a doubt, for behind each face was a body like that of a gecko, though the limbs were disproportionately short compared to an ordinary gecko's and covered entirely in mucus. The four legs had all but atrophied, leaving the creatures to writhe forward purely on their bodies. They looked like snakes yet were not snakes, and it was hard to tell whether they were evolved or degenerated. All the women's faces were uniform, carved in virtually the same style. Li Zhuiyuan suspected this appearance had once been the true face of the woman on the bed. She had turned into a snake, while the snakes had turned into her. They squirmed out. At first, they crawled along the doorframes, then gushed forth from above in a dense, roiling mass that became a veritable black torrent. Within that deluge, countless identical human faces pressed against one another, forming grotesque, grinning smiles. "Holy crap!" Tan Wenbin could not help but curse. The others felt the same dread. Had they chosen to rush through the gates earlier, wouldn't they have plunged straight into a nest of these things? The mere thought made one's scalp tingle. Most of the gecko-snakes crawled along the upper reaches of the underground palace. With the bone pyre "ignited," a vast swarm of fireflies had gathered above, and the creatures were devouring them. It was a feast. Li Zhuiyuan suddenly pieced things together. A cycle of life seemed to govern this underground palace. Whenever the fireflies here bred to a certain population, the gecko-snakes behind the gates would begin their calls, like young crying for their mother to feed them. Then the snake-faced woman upon the bed would command the dead-flippers to hoist her couch, leave the pool, ascend the steps, and ram open the gates leading to the Realm of Ultimate Bliss. It truly was a realm of bliss—not for outsiders entering, but for the horrors within coming out to feed. The appearance of their party had merely acted as a catalyst. A flashlight, a torch, or even the slight stir of human movement had likely roused the fireflies prematurely. Sensing the disturbance, the gecko-snakes behind the gates had called out in turn, advancing the feeding schedule. In a sense, this was also an anti-grave-robbing mechanism. Because it had been triggered early, the fireflies had not hatched in sufficient numbers to satisfy so vast a horde of gecko-snakes. The remaining living creatures throughout the palace would naturally become their prey. By now, the foremost gecko-snakes had dropped from above, lunging toward the bone piles and animal mounts to feast on the fireflies nestled inside. The ones emerging behind found little left to eat, and many had begun squirming rapidly toward the four. There was no time to hesitate. Even if the passage beneath the pool led to the underworld, they had to jump. Hell was better than being torn apart by these creatures—or worse, being turned into hosts for their parasites. "Down!" The four leaped into the pool basin together and plunged into the hole. There were stone steps below, with Runsheng bringing up the rear this time. The first gecko-snake to follow darted across the passage wall, flicking its tongue as it lunged forward. *Bang!* Runsheng swung his spade, but the creature reacted with startling agility. It pulled back to dodge the blow, coiled rapidly, and sprang straight for his face. It was so fast that Runsheng had no time to swing again, but just as the gecko-snake was about to strike his forehead, his left hand snapped out and clamped down on it. *Hiss, hiss, hiss...* It writhed in pain, the woman's face contorted in agony. Up close, he realized it was not a human face at all, but a grotesque illusion created by folds of skin bunched together on its snout. It resembled the folded paper fortune-tellers popular among school children, where every facet bore different patterns or characters, and only when fingers pulled the four corners open did the gaping maw in the center reveal itself. *Smack!* Runsheng slammed the gecko-snake violently against the wall, smashing it to pulp with tremendous force. Foul-smelling fluids splattered everywhere. Then came a second, and a third. Runsheng struck and retreated, fighting to buy time for his companions behind him. As more gecko-snakes poured into the tunnel, Runsheng gradually grew overwhelmed. In the chaos, two snapped onto his left arm and right thigh, and another slipped behind him, sticking to his back like a suction cup as its mouth gaped open. "Runsheng, hurry over!" Xue Liangliang shouted. Runsheng ceased defending and focused entirely on sprinting back. Xue Liangliang and Tan Wenbin stood on opposite sides of the corridor. As Runsheng darted through, the two threw their weight against a pair of bronze slabs resting in recesses along the walls, slamming them together. *Squish! Squish!* Several gecko-snakes were crushed between the bronze doors. *Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!* A barrage of impacts shuddered from the outside as countless gecko-snakes threw themselves against the barrier. Fortunately, the doors were solid enough to hold. The gate had no bolt and could not be locked. It could be slid open from either side, but that required lateral leverage—a feat the gecko-snakes outside clearly could not manage. Tan Wenbin looked down at the severed gecko-snakes still squirming on the floor and emitting their eerie, chortling laughter. Raising his foot, he stomped on them one after another, crushing them into paste. On the other side, Runsheng ripped off the two clamped to his arm and leg, tearing away chunks of his own flesh in the process. Holding one in each hand, he slammed his palms together. *Smack!* Both were smashed at once. Li Zhuiyuan stepped forward to help him with the one on his back, but Runsheng twisted aside to evade him. "Xiaoyuan, don't touch this. Stay back." With that, Runsheng threw his back against the stone wall of the passage, crushing the creature into mince. "Aargh..." Ripping the flesh earlier had barely hurt, but crushing the one on his back sent an agonizing pang straight into the depths of his mind. When Runsheng pulled away from the wall, he found the mashed gecko-snake still hanging there, anchored by a feeding mouth embedded deep into his flesh. This one had not been feeding. It had been preparing to parasitize him! That was likely how the four Qing Dynasty corpse retrievers had ended up as bed-bearers. Runsheng reached behind and seized it. "Runsheng-ge, don't—" Before Li Zhuiyuan could finish the warning, Runsheng ripped the thing clean off his back. The mouthparts did not remain inside, but a chunk of flesh the size of a mahjong tile was torn away with them. "Ugh..." Runsheng gave a shiver, his expression briefly taking on a bizarre trace of relief. It was likely a numbing compound secreted by the gecko-snake during parasitic insertion, akin to digging a thumbnail into a mosquito bite to dull the itch. Xue Liangliang looked around anxiously. Everyone's clothes were soaked through and filthy; there was simply nothing suitable for disinfecting or bandaging the wound. Runsheng, however, calmly pulled the iron cigar tin from his pocket. When he opened it, the thick incense sticks inside were remarkably dry. Auntie Liu had made the tin herself, and its waterproofing was superb. He drew one out, put it into his mouth, chewed it, and spat it into his palm before smearing the paste over his wounds. Xue Liangliang hurriedly caught a handful to help smear it over the largest wound on Runsheng's back. "Does it work?" Runsheng shook his head. "Don't know." After watching for a moment, Xue Liangliang exclaimed in surprise, "Hey, it really works! The bleeding stopped." Runsheng sat back against the corridor wall, catching his breath. Soon, however, he braced his hands against the floor and stood up. "Xiaoyuan, I'm good." "Runsheng-ge, rest a little longer." "No, I'm fine. Just a little dizzy, like being tipsy, but not tired." It was likely the lingering effect of the numbing agent. Seeing this, Li Zhuiyuan wasted no more words. "Then let's keep moving. We'll rest properly once we're out." The four pressed onward. This time, Tan Wenbin and Xue Liangliang walked in front, leaving Runsheng at the rear. Xue Liangliang said, "Xiaoyuan, that gate felt like it was designed specifically against those things. Did we head down too late?" "Not really. The small passage below the pool only opens when the great gates above are forced open. It was only revealed once the corpse water drained, and by then the gates were wide open and those things were already pouring out. "The only time advantage we could have gained would have been diving into the corpse water the moment we sensed the pool draining, then swimming through the opening one by one the instant it was wide enough. "But it was our first time here. Seeing this for the first time, no one could have reacted that quickly. "Besides, that gate wasn't built for outsiders like us." Xue Liangliang asked, "Oh?" Li Zhuiyuan shone his flashlight upward toward the ceiling of the corridor, where murals came into view. "This place was meant for her." Xue Liangliang looked at the murals above and nodded. "So this was the living quarters she designed for herself." Tan Wenbin asked, "Wait, does a tomb really need this kind of description?" Li Zhuiyuan said, "This isn't a tomb. The owner never intended to sleep here for eternity. She might not even have been dead when she moved in." Tan Wenbin asked, "Buried alive voluntarily? Would someone like that really exist in this world?" "They do. Different pursuits," Li Zhuiyuan said, pausing briefly. "Baijia Town was like that." Xue Liangliang's expression remained steady as he studied the murals overhead. "The scenes recorded here must be from the ancient State of Yong, right?" Li Zhuiyuan replied, "Yes. The woman on the bed was likely a ruler of the State of Yong—either in terms of secular power, or as a religious priestess." The paintings depicted a noble woman worshipped by the masses as she set out to attain her supreme faith. She had overseen the construction of this place, selected the fiercest beasts and strongest warriors, and climbed a towering celestial stairway. Above the clouds at the stair's summit lay a giant serpent. It was drawn very much like a dragon, yet lacked horns and other defining traits, flicking a long tongue instead. Above the serpent's head hung the sun, and at its tail, the moon, signifying that in her cosmological belief, the serpent ruled the alternate cycles of day and night. The final painting showed the woman leading her loyal warriors and beasts across the stairway into the clouds to stand before the great serpent. That was the bliss in her eyes. "Wait!" Li Zhuiyuan stopped and halted the group. Then he began stepping backward, sweeping his flashlight over the figures standing behind the woman across the murals. "Look. In all the earlier murals, whether she was receiving homage or directing the palace's construction, this rather gaunt, darker figure stood behind her. But in the final mural, where she ascends to heaven, he's gone." This silhouette was drawn in much the same manner as the background figures, distinguished only by being slightly darker and leaner. In a single painting, it might have been an errant brushstroke by the artist. But for this specific figure to appear in every painting except the last was no accident—it was deliberate. Xue Liangliang said, "Indeed. It looks like he was highlighted on purpose, proving this person held high status back then, or was someone the woman valued deeply. "Also, I don't know if antiquity was the same, but nowadays, when working on a major project, the titular head is often just a figurehead. The deputy is the one who actually handles operations and drives the work. "The woman's prominent status in the murals was probably political correctness for that era. The figure behind her was likely the true mastermind who guided her to high rank in Yong, built the underground palace, and led her to ascension." Li Zhuiyuan said, "Yet that mastermind never went to the Realm of Bliss to meet the great serpent." After a brief silence, Xue Liangliang and Li Zhuiyuan spoke in unison: "She was duped." Clearly, the altar or ascension pool above was not the bliss she had envisioned. Now she was more like a parasitized tool, a living key whose purpose was to open and shut the doors, sustaining the cycle within the underground palace. Tan Wenbin asked gingerly, "Um, brothers, I don't mean anything by it, but shouldn't we focus on getting out? What's the point of analyzing this now?" Xue Liangliang answered, "If this entire place belonged to that woman, we'd probably be safe by now. If it didn't, then we've only just truly stepped inside." Tan Wenbin's mouth twitched. Li Zhuiyuan shone his flashlight forward. "Let's go. We must be careful. It's not time to let our guard down yet." Not long after passing the murals, stone stairs leading upward appeared. This was good news. For four people seeking an exit, any path leading up was worth taking. As they walked, arched doorways appeared on both the left and right, resembling the design of side chambers in tombs. Yet when the beam swept inside, they found them completely empty. Tan Wenbin asked, "Plundered by water monkeys?" Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. "No. Water monkeys couldn't lick it this clean." After sweeping the light once more, Li Zhuiyuan said with conviction, "It feels more like once the woman above had been duped, nothing was ever placed down here to begin with." Continuing forward, two more pairs of side chambers appeared, just as empty, further supporting his hypothesis. Finally, a grand archway loomed directly ahead. According to underground architecture, the primary lair should follow the side chambers. Flanking the archway knelt a man and a woman in leather armor, their likenesses mirroring the two statues among the beasts in the upper palace. Behind each corpse, a small stone serpent head protruded from the wall, steadily trickling water over them. Runsheng said, "A heavy stench of water corpses." Having been doused with water for so long, how could they not stink? Runsheng rolled his neck, drew a deep breath, and gripped his spade. He was exhausted and far from his best, but right now, he had to take the front. Tan Wenbin and Xue Liangliang held their flashlights tightly, preparing to charge alongside Runsheng the moment the corpses stirred. At this final stage, getting out required risking their lives. They took their stances, yet neither corpse showed signs of awakening into a dead-flipper. Perhaps the four had not come close enough to trigger them. Li Zhuiyuan raised his flashlight toward the ceiling again, where two more murals appeared. One depicted a ship upon the sea, with a lone person standing aboard. Both ship and person were tiny, tucked into one corner. The focus lay diagonally across: beneath the sea sat an enormous structure. It was peculiar, looking like an underwater palace, yet viewed as a whole, it possessed a head, horns, and long whiskers like a colossal beast, with the sun and moon suspended above it. This shape and scene reminded Li Zhuiyuan of what Zheng Haiyang's mother had described in the psychiatric hospital. Had the man who deceived the noblewoman of Yong sailed out to that very place? The second painting showed a man standing upon a mountain surrounded by peaks, with a woman prostrated at his feet. Pieced together, the meaning was clear: the man had visited that mysterious realm in the Eastern Sea, returned to the ancient State of Yong in the southwest, and taken this woman as his devotee. If he had truly journeyed there, had he brought something back? Or... was the entity that returned even him at all? Just then, Li Zhuiyuan sensed an unsettling aura gently tugging at his nerves. Walking the yin path frequently had granted him heightened sensitivity in certain respects. Of course, this was not entirely a good thing; if it continued to intensify, he would turn neurotic sooner or later. Li Zhuiyuan took hold of Tan Wenbin with both hands, rested his forehead against his back, and closed his eyes. This time, he set no time limit, because if he failed to resolve this, whether they woke him would hardly matter. He walked the yin path successfully. Li Zhuiyuan looked up. Runsheng and the others were gone. Before him, the man and woman still knelt on either side of the archway, while a third figure stood in the center. He wore magnificent garments woven with gold thread and a serpent-shaped mask, appearing both martial and mysterious. The large figure and the boy gazed at each other. After a moment, the boy said, "You really aren't human. You're a dead-flipper." Of those aboard that ship who had descended into the sea at that place, the only known returnees were Zheng Haiyang's mother and Zhu Changyong, both of whom had become dead-flippers. As for the others who had remained on board, all had gone mad. Before Zhu Changyong had jumped into the shredder clutching that turtle, he had barely looked human, his body heavily decayed and swollen, one eye already ruptured. The mysterious masked man before him was likely wearing the mask to hide his bodily transformations. Deceiving the noblewoman of Yong into building this underground palace had been for his own sake. He wanted to survive; he wanted to return to being human. The latter had plainly failed, and whether he had even achieved the former remained questionable. Aside from an air of mystery, the man exerted little perceptual pressure upon him. Li Zhuiyuan still remembered Wei Zhengdao's "good friend" buried beneath the peach tree at Big Beard's home. Even though that entity had become a dead-flipper on the verge of dispersing, the crushing dread it exuded during the yin journey was beyond description—as proven by the twenty flayed boiled prawns led by Ding Dalin and Secretary Jin. Li Zhuiyuan had later wondered if that entity's presence was the reason no dead-flippers dared show themselves near his hometown in the following months; a tiger had already claimed the mountain. The only one to make a move during that time had been an outsider from the sea. Since you are neither that formidable nor that terrifying, I have no reason to fear you. You are merely a pathetic creature who duped her and hid here to linger on borrowed time. "The exit should be in the primary lair behind you. When you designed this place, you must have dreamed of recovering one day. I don't believe you would trap yourself to death here. "Let us pass. We want to leave. We promise not to touch a single thing in your lair." The masked man turned and walked to the kneeling male corpse. He raised a hand, revealing a bell, and began to ring it. The sound of an egg hatching cracked from within the male corpse. Immediately after, a serpent's head poked out from the corpse's mouth, swayed to the bell's rhythm, and slipped back inside. The corpse stirred, picked up a sword from the floor, and stood. Clearly, the masked man had rejected the non-aggression pact and initiated hostilities. In reality, Runsheng and the other two saw the male corpse stand and face them. Runsheng said, "Xiaoyuan is walking the yin path. Protect him." Xue Liangliang acknowledged, "Binbin, keep Xiaoyuan safe. Runsheng and I will take him together." "Got it." Tan Wenbin glanced back at the boy resting against his back. It was merely a habit to check on him, but the sight made him gasp in horror, "Holy crap, Xiaoyuan's eyes are bleeding—so much blood!" Runsheng and Xue Liangliang did not turn around. They kept their eyes fixed on the male corpse advancing step by step. If they could not get past this hurdle, whether Xiaoyuan went blind would hardly matter; none of them would leave alive. "It's fine, we can handle this!" Runsheng comforted him. "He's not a mercury corpse. We can take him!" Xue Liangliang heard the forced confidence in Runsheng's tone. Given Runsheng's character, if he were certain of victory, he would have said, "We can kill him!" Besides, there was more than one corpse. The female corpse beside him would likely rise soon as well. Meanwhile, through Li Zhuiyuan's vision, the masked man felt awakening one was not enough and moved toward the female corpse. He raised the bell again, but before he could ring it to hatch the serpent egg, the female corpse opened her eyes first. The masked man froze. The boy smiled. In the palace above, four of the eight bearers were mercury-refined corpses, fanatically loyal to their mistress in life and tortured terribly in death. The other four were senior predecessors in the corpse-retrieving craft, among the most formidable dead-flippers. Even if he could try controlling Yin Zhiwang, one against seven was futile. Moreover, the woman on the bed was practically a corpse demon skilled in bewitchment; with her present, he had no opening to use Wei Zhengdao's black-covered book. Now, things were different. A happy choice of two: you picked one, and I picked one. During his confrontation and dialogue with the masked man, Li Zhuiyuan had already been synchronizing with the female corpse, reading her memories and correcting them. The latter was not difficult, because he did not need to spin a lie—he only had to state the truth. The moment she opened her eyes and saw the masked man here, she knew the truth. For he had no right to be in her mistress's underground palace! "Your mistress was deceived and harmed terribly by him, her body taken over by serpents, trapped in ceaseless torment. Go! Avenge your mistress!" In reality, the female corpse awakened. Seizing the sword beside her, she rose to her feet. The sight made Runsheng, Xue Liangliang, and Tan Wenbin go cold inside. Yet the next moment, a jaw-dropping scene unfolded: the female corpse lunged forward, ran her sword straight through the male corpse, pinned him beneath her, and began tearing into him in a frenzy. Li Zhuiyuan opened his eyes. The bad news was that his vision was a wash of crimson; the good news was that he was not blind. "Quick, into the primary lair! Find the exit!" Regardless of who won between the two corpses, they would eventually turn on the outsiders who did not belong here. Runsheng moved to carry Li Zhuiyuan, but Tan Wenbin beat him to it and hoisted the boy onto his back. Seeing this, Runsheng wasted no time. He led the charge into the primary lair, with Xue Liangliang and Tan Wenbin right behind. The four brushed past the two corpses locked in savage combat. The primary lair was crudely finished—or rather, not finished at all, being almost entirely a natural stone grotto. In the center sat a gilded, magnificent chair, upon which the masked man rested, his hands on the armrests. In the rock above the chair, countless honeycomb-like perforations dripped dark red fluids continuously. The fluids either splattered onto the masked man or pooled at his feet upon reaching the ground. Runsheng sniffed. "It's that thing's blood." It was the blood of the gecko-snakes. The masked man was another link in this cycle. The woman above, dreaming of ascending to meet the serpent god, was merely a pawn to breed the gecko-snakes for him. Behind the palace gates lay the nest of gecko-snakes. When food ran scarce, they turned on one another, and their blood was collected through the perforations to flow down to him. This was how he had continually delayed his dispersal. Li Zhuiyuan could not help but admire the man's ingenuity. If terrarium and vivarium hobbyists in the outside world learned of his existence, they would probably take the night train here just to study under him. As for the colossal beast that had attacked the survey team above, it was likely the supreme survivor of the cannibalistic gecko-snakes. Under normal circumstances, an ecosystem like the survey area could never sustain such a massive species. But with someone cultivating this system below, a giant would be produced every few decades or centuries. Li Zhuiyuan even suspected that when Yin Zhiwang and his companions found this place all those years ago, they had likely come to eliminate this very beast that had been terrorizing the populace. To sail the seas during the Spring and Autumn period, return to the southwest, and manipulate a small state to do his bidding—had such a figure not turned into a dead-flipper and hidden away down here, his name and legends would have certainly graced the annals of history. At this moment, the masked man's chest heaved. Gripping the armrests, he seemed desperate to rise, but his body was too frail—so weak that, despite being a dead-flipper, he lacked the strength even to stand. No wonder he had not intervened personally earlier, resorting instead to walking the yin path to summon his guardians at the gate. Seeing him still struggling, Runsheng swung his spade straight into the man's chest. *Bang!* The chest was brittle and caved in immediately. The result startled even Runsheng. It was the first time he had encountered a dead-flipper so fragile. Without hesitation, he swung the spade again, aiming squarely at the masked man's head. *Crack!* The mask flew off, and the head burst like a dried bitter gourd. A bitter gourd rather than a watermelon, because beneath the garments, the body was emaciated beyond belief, like a shrunken mummy. For a dead-flipper to fail even at retaining moisture proved its vitality had long run dry. Now, he was thoroughly silenced. "Over here! There are carved stone stairs leading up!" Xue Liangliang had already moved behind the chair, where a curved ledge allowed them to climb. Runsheng shouted, "Move!" Li Zhuiyuan was riding on Tan Wenbin's back when he saw Tan deliberately approach the headless corpse, reaching out to search through the garments. Tan Wenbin was terrified, his hands trembling. Even with a defeated dead-flipper, rummaging through the clothes of such an eerie figure whose head had just exploded was nerve-racking. Yet Tan Wenbin fought through the fear. Soon, he found a bell. "Xiaoyuan, do we want this?" "Yes." The boy knew Tan Wenbin was trying hard to prove his worth to the group, adding value regardless of how frightened or disgusted he felt. With one last rummage around the waistband, Tan Wenbin pulled out a handful of black mush resembling rotted straw. "Damn, this isn't crap, is it?" Just as Tan Wenbin was about to fling it away, Li Zhuiyuan cried out in delight, "Keep it safe, Zhuangzhuang-ge!" "Huh?" Though he did not understand why, since Xiaoyuan wanted it, Zhuangzhuang would tuck it into his chest and carry it out even if it were dung. It was no filth... Li Zhuiyuan had recognized it: it was rotted bamboo slips. What secrets could be recorded on bamboo slips kept on the masked man's person at all times? The value of those secrets was countless times greater than the bell. And rotted bamboo slips could still be restored to extract the text. Li Lan had done precisely that kind of work before. "Binbin, let's go!" "Coming!" Tan Wenbin lingered no longer. Carrying Li Zhuiyuan to the curved ledge, he began climbing the stairs. The incline was steep, with Xue Liangliang in the lead, Tan Wenbin second, and Runsheng supporting from below. They all knew freedom lay above, and their latent strength surged as they scrambled upward with all their might. As they climbed, Xue Liangliang felt the rock before him shake. The entire ascending passage began to shudder, as if something were about to burst through. "Climb fast! It's coming!" With that shout, Xue Liangliang pushed onward, and those below scrambled to keep pace. When they had climbed a stretch higher, the sidewall at the section they had just passed shattered outward. A colossal body thrust through the breach, yet it did not pursue them upward, hurtling straight down instead. Carried on Tan's back, Li Zhuiyuan could look down the entire way. Counting the length of the creature, he marveled once more... It truly was immense. Soon, rumbling booms echoed from below. The creature had entered the palace, seemingly triggering a cave-in. The chain reaction rivaled a minor earthquake, sending suffocating clouds of dust surging upward to engulf all four of them. Fortunately, they were already close to the top. Straining with their last ounce of strength, they finally crawled out through an ordinary rock fissure into the open air. All four collapsed onto the ground, faces turned to the sky, breathing the fresh air as they gazed upon the sun and the blue expanse: "We're finally out..."