Chapter 282: Entrance

I walked up and immediately saw Fatty wrapped up tightly among them, still unconscious, with someone injecting him. I felt relieved and sighed inwardly, "Thank God." It seemed that when the person in white saved me, someone else had rescued Fatty. That bastard is lucky to be alive.

At the same time, I also saw the figure dressed all in white sitting on the rotten wood. He had put on a gas mask and was curled up among the tree roots. His skin, which looked snow-white in the water, appeared strange up here—almost yellowish. Looking closer, I realized it was a very old diving suit.

Glancing at the others, almost all of them were wearing diving suits, though new ones. Clearly, Third Uncle had prepared thoroughly; having diving suits here made things much more comfortable.

That person didn't notice me. I thought about how I'd barely seen his face and said to myself: He's really a great benefactor; I need to thank him properly. As someone helped me over to him, I was about to express my gratitude when he turned his head. Through the lenses of the gas mask, I saw a very familiar pair of black sunglasses. I was stunned, thinking, "It's him," and let out an "Eh."

He looked up at me, seemed to smile, and nodded at me.

I nodded back, about to thank him, when Third Uncle walked over from the side. I was dragged in front of him. He crouched down, studied me for a moment, and let out a long sigh. "You little bastard, why are you so disobedient?"

I felt a bit awkward. Things had turned out this way—totally unexpected—and I didn't know what to say. I wanted to address him, but he stopped me with a gesture. He sat down, didn't scold me, and immediately asked softly in Changsha dialect, "Don't talk. Let me ask you, where are Panzi and that young man?"

I quickly recounted what we had just been through. Third Uncle clicked his tongue and said, "I never thought that fat bastard, sharp as he is, would fall for it this time too."

"What's wrong?" I asked, feeling uneasy at his words.

"The snakes here are too creepy—they mimic human speech. Their combs can imitate the sounds they hear and lure you in. We almost got screwed by them," said one of the guys beside us. "In this godforsaken place, you can't trust any sound you hear."

I looked at Fatty and asked Third Uncle, "How's he doing? Is he okay?"

"We've already given him antivenom. Now it's up to fate." Third Uncle checked his watch and said to me, "Take off your clothes now."

"Take off my clothes? What for?" I wondered. But they already started themselves, pulling off my shirt and pressing me against the well wall. As soon as my clothes were off, I heard a quiet "Holy shit, there really is one," from someone—I couldn't tell who.

I froze and broke out in a cold sweat. What did that mean? Is there something on my back? I wanted to turn and look, but I was held down.

"Don't! Don't move!" Third Uncle whispered. "Just stand like that!"

I started getting goosebumps. I tried to feel my back, but I couldn't sense anything. That ambiguous sensation was maddening.

"What's on my back?" I asked. As soon as I spoke, Third Uncle shushed me again. "For crying out loud, can you stop being curious for once? You'll find out soon enough." Then I heard the sound of a fire striker.

"What the hell are you doing?" I cried out in my mind. Is he going to brand "Loyalty to the Nation" on me?

I felt a burning heat on my back. Before I could prepare, I suddenly felt something move on my spine, and then we all heard a series of cries coming from behind me. It made my hair stand on end—it sounded like a baby's voice.

Before I could ponder it, Third Uncle got rough. I felt something extremely hot poke my back several times in a row, almost making me jump. At the same time, the eerie cries became shrill, and then the thing moving on my back slid off—just like a clump of loaches falling off you.

"It's off! Move away!" someone whispered urgently. I tried to stand, but my legs inexplicably gave way. I stumbled and looked back, seeing several pencil-thin white things like intestines hanging from my ankles. I jerked my foot back, kicking them off. But in an instant, they all moved, and I clearly saw tiny fangs open in their mouths, lunging toward my calf.

At that moment, someone beside me acted. A flash of black, and a stone came down, crushing the first one. Then more stones rained down, flattening all the little snakes' heads into pulp.

I wiped the cold sweat from my face, pulled my leg back, and saw a twisted, intestine-like snake, pale white with only its body left, writhing and twisting incessantly. I felt the slime on my back dripping down my spine. I collapsed to the ground and started dry heaving.

Third Uncle stabbed the snakes a few more times, cutting them in two, then breathed a sigh of relief. He handed me my clothes. "Wipe yourself clean, put them on, and tie up your collar and pant legs tight."

"What... what... what was that?" I asked, touching my back. Those were tiny cockscomb snakes, but white instead of red, and very small.

"Those are newly hatched snakes—their skin isn't even hard yet. When you were in that pool of corpses earlier, the mud underneath was full of these little snakes. Anything that passes by gets covered with them. Almost all of us had some," said one person. "They bite your skin with their fangs; you only feel a little pain, then your back goes numb. You wouldn't even feel a whip. Then they slowly burrow into your skin and suck your blood. When they grow up and their venom is strong enough to kill you, they come out. By then, they're full of blood and their skin turns red."

I looked at the snakes, still shaken. How did they get on my back? I didn't feel a thing.

Something so disgusting crawling into my clothes—I should have at least sensed something strange. There's no way I wouldn't have known.

Then it hit me: when I was in the water earlier, I kept feeling something biting my ankles. Was that when these snakes were climbing up? I touched my back—all slimy, disgustingly so.

I wiped myself with my clothes. Another group of people retreated from the well shaft, shook their heads at Third Uncle, and said softly, "Third Master, that way is also blocked. No way out. What do we do?"

Third Uncle stood up, thought for a moment, sighed, and nodded. "No choice. We can't stay here any longer. We have to go back. We'll come out again tomorrow." Then he cursed me again and said, "Tell the brothers to move out."

The man acknowledged and whistled to the others. Everyone stood up immediately and shouldered their equipment.

I was helped to my feet. Third Uncle saw I seemed to have something to say and told me, "Say whatever you need to when we get back to our base. It's too dangerous here. Don't talk in the well shaft, got it?"

I understood his concern and nodded. They set off immediately, retreating deeper into the well shaft.

We trekked for a while. I had no idea where we were going, only that visibility was extremely low. Every now and then, from deep within the forks, we heard a "giggle giggle giggle" sound, very close and very shrill. Clearly, this was their territory—snakes were all around us.

I was a bit nervous, but at least there were many people. Whenever a snake called, someone immediately kept watch in that direction, which somewhat reassured me. It seems people really do need a sense of security.

I don't know how long we walked. We passed two well shafts with water. I estimate at least an hour. Then I started hearing a familiar sound gradually emerging in the silent shaft. I wanted to ask, but everyone else had been silent the whole way—not even a cough—so I felt awkward making noise.

As we went deeper, the temperature dropped. After another stretch, we began passing through severely damaged areas where I could still see traces of dried moss and vines. In some places, there were live tree roots—branches from above that had grown down through cracks in the stone. This section was definitely close to the surface; maybe poking a stone up would let us see sunlight.

We crawled through the tangled roots clinging to the well walls, and here and there we saw rotting, blackened snake molts. This must be an active snake zone. It was terrifying to think about—this complex underwater system could rival ancient Rome's, yet it had become a giant snake nest.

This biological defense technology was high tech for the Western Regions. I wondered why this country didn't continue to dominate. Maybe another country finally found a way to deal with these venomous snakes.

We walked stooped for a long time, until I felt dizzy, before we reached our destination. From a distance I saw a faint glow of fire, and as we drew closer, I found it was a huge, terraced-like reservoir, composed of six or seven interconnected pools like stepped rice paddies. Around it were stone pillars and beams; it looked like an underground structure reminiscent of a Roman bath. After climbing down, I discovered that the entire surrounding rock wall was covered with numerous grottoes, deep and spacious, each like a square stone chamber. They seemed to have passages and stone steps connecting them, forming corridors between the grottoes.

So I then felt it might be a temple used for religious purposes. Regardless, this place couldn't be a simple reservoir, because there were signs of human activity.

The firelight came from one of the grottoes. We walked over, ascended a staircase, passed through passages between several grottoes, and entered a relatively spacious grotto, about sixty or seventy square meters in size.

As we entered, we saw tents, sleeping bags, and a lot of equipment scattered messily inside. Two people were sitting by the campfire, presumably watching the fire, their backs to us, apparently not noticing our return.

The entire group was completely exhausted, with hardly any strength left in our feet.

I was set down and hopped a few times on one foot. The man carrying me was worn out; he rubbed his shoulder and kicked one of the two fire-watchers, saying, "Get up and give Third Young Master a seat. What's the point of standing there like a wooden post?"

I was about to say there was no need to be so polite, when suddenly the two of them toppled over and fell to the ground. We looked and gasped—their faces were black, their eyes wide open. They were clearly dead.