Chapter 388: Behind the Iron Door

The cave was dim and cramped, and the occasional sound of dripping water made one feel even more uneasy.

The dim yellow firelight moved with his footsteps, and those small creatures that had never seen light scurried away as Wu Xian moved.

Wu Xian held the torch, his gaze shifting constantly, moving forward vigilantly.

The light brought by this torch was very weak, so weak that it couldn't give Wu Xian a sense of security. The visible distance was only around the torch; a little further away, one could only see blurred shadows.

This was also something that couldn't be helped.

Making a torch was a technical job, not as simple as lighting a stick. Resources in the cavern were limited, and there was no way to extravagantly use cloth and grease; there was only a little bit of resin collected from dry wood.

The torches on Wu Xian's body could only be considered simple products, and the burning time of each one was limited. To ensure the duration of exploration, he also hung several on his waist.

These torches exhausted the resources in the cavern.

So Wu Xian had to bring back some things, such as food and burnable materials. If he couldn't bring anything back, it was hard to say whether he could scrape together resources for exploration next time.

"Sigh... it's a pity I can't take Xiong Gang."

Wu Xian turned his head: "But taking you is not bad, at least you can carry some sundries back."

"Roar!"

The fat tiger let out a helpless low roar.

It didn't want to follow Wu Xian either; it also wanted to stay in a safe place.

Normally, the relationship between the user of Suanni Yu Hu and the tiger should be one of keeping a distance, and apart from fighting, one couldn't take advantage of the tiger at all.

But the environment of this cave forced the fat tiger to follow Wu Xian, because only where Wu Xian was, was there light.

Wu Xian's speed wasn't fast because the path in the cave was intricate and complex. Every time he walked a distance, he would encounter a fork in the road, and some forks were even cross-shaped or star-shaped.

While being vigilant against danger, Wu Xian also had to remember the way back, but as the price for remembering the way, he couldn't calculate the time.

Even he could only manage to do two things at once, and it was very energy-consuming.

"That Mad Woman..."

Wu Xian recalled the scene when he stepped into the cave.

The Mad Woman held Wu Xian's hand, very solemnly asking Wu Xian to pay attention to safety, and also told Wu Xian that there were many terrible things in the cave, but when Wu Xian wanted to ask in detail, she became crazy again.

It was a bit strange.

When Wu Xian wanted to explore the cave, the resistance from the Mad Woman was the greatest, but when the matter was settled, she was the one who most hoped Wu Xian could return alive.

Looking closely at her face, one could see that before she became this crazy and sloppy appearance, her looks were quite good, but she had been tortured into her current state by this underground cave.

The cave was very barren; all that could be seen were stones, and those small creatures would also be scared away.

It wasn't until he had walked for the duration of one torch that Wu Xian saw something worth paying attention to.

It was an iron door installed at a fork in the road.

This made Wu Xian's spirit lift. It seemed that besides the temple, there were other traces left by humans here. Even if there was nothing behind the door, dismantling this door and taking it back could be considered a gain.

Wu Xian rubbed his hands nervously.

After all, this was a Fudi; it wouldn't be surprising if there were things behind the door, such as poisonous snakes and insects, traps and hidden weapons, or zombies hiding in the dark with their arms spread, just waiting to hug and gnaw on people.

So, to avoid accidents, Wu Xian observed the door carefully, only to be surprised to find that the metal hinges of the door had long been destroyed, and the whole door was just stuck to the door frame.

So he stood to the side of the door and pushed gently.

Thump! The iron door fell to the ground, making a thumping sound, kicking up a large amount of dust and a strange odor.

It was quiet inside the door.

The fat tiger sniffed, not making an obvious vigilant reaction, which meant there were at least no obvious enemies inside the door.

Wu Xian noticed that the door hadn't fallen completely; something was still pressing underneath it. Wu Xian lifted the door, and underneath was a skeleton. The skeleton was wearing complete clothes, and half a skeletal arm was still hanging on the door handle. There were many footprints on the ground, indicating that this skeleton had struggled with all its might.

Then Wu Xian used the torch to illuminate the scene inside the door.

This was a small room, about seven or eight square meters, with almost no furniture, only a wooden bed covered with a bed sheet, and an oil lamp placed on a stone, with a few old pottery jars next to the oil lamp.

Seeing that oil lamp, Wu Xian's breathing became a bit rapid.

In the dark underground cave.

An oil lamp was a good thing. As long as there was oil and a wick, it could provide continuous light, which was of huge help in extending the time of living in the darkness.

Maybe those few pottery jars contained lamp oil or food! In addition, on the bed, there lay a smaller skeleton, curled up in the corner. The clothes had rotted beyond recognition, and the bed sheet under the skeleton was black and greasy, having been soaked through by corpse oil.

The story of what had happened here was almost all written in the scene.

Wu Xian stood at the door, silent for a moment.

Then he let out a long sigh, touching the tiger's head with emotion.

"What a tragedy."

"This pair of father and son, or father and daughter, must have wanted to use this small hut to hide from the monster."

"But they were still found by the monster. The man desperately held the door, not letting the monster outside come in, until he died of exhaustion, never letting go of this door."

"But it's a pity, he died, and his child also died. The bodies were gnawed clean by insects, leaving only the white bones."

The fat tiger raised its big head irritably.

What was this human roaring about?

It was just a tiger; it couldn't understand the human's roar, nor did it understand the meaning the human wanted to express. And why pinch the tiger while talking? If this person wasn't the summoner, it would have already bitten Wu Xian.

Wu Xian stuck the torch into a crevice in the rock outside the door and stood at the door, then lit another torch, then lifted the iron door from inside the room and leaned it against the wall.

"There are many resources in the room. As long as we take the things here back, we can hold on for a while longer. I'm going in now..."

Wu Xian's voice turned from excitement to indifference.

"You were probably waiting for me to do this."

Swish! Wu Xian suddenly threw the torch onto the bed, setting the corpse-oil-soaked bed sheet on fire, and then quickly lifted the door and held it against the frame.

Firelight lit up inside the door, and pungent thick smoke came out.

Bang! Suddenly a great force came, and something hit the door.

But Wu Xian was prepared. He desperately held back this impact. The thing inside was like going crazy, making frantic roars and emitting strange and manic hisses.

But all this was meaningless.

With the burning of the flames, the strength of that thing gradually became smaller, and Wu Xian also felt the door was too hot to touch, so he dodged to the side.

Boom! The iron door fell down.

A charred creature rushed out from the door.

The creature still had some strength and wanted to pounce on Wu Xian, but was directly tackled by Fatty, who opened his blood-filled maw and cleanly bit through the creature's throat.

"Sure enough, there was something hiding..."

The thing that fell, although upright, didn't look like a human. Since most of the fur had been charred, Wu Xian couldn't figure out what this thing was for a moment.

"This thing... is it edible?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 389 =====