Chapter 359: Mutation

In the following days, nothing changed. At first I couldn't adapt, starving to the point of dizziness, but after three days, my body automatically switched to internal consumption and I gradually became more energetic. Nothing happened; time seemed frozen. In martial arts novels, many lovelorn men and women get trapped in desperate situations, and when they return to the outside world and recall the past, they often find that the time spent in the desperate situation was the happiest and most peaceful.

But the actual situation was completely different. The campfire was turned down to its lowest, with only the constant sound of water around. Under the firelight, the rock wall showed a very dark yellow. The feeling of being confined in the cave made me anxious all the time. I had to learn from Poker-face to meditate every day just to barely endure it, otherwise I would have gone crazy.

Fatty, with his personality, could endure it even less. I don't know how he managed to get through the previous two weeks, but he came up with a new trick almost every day.

Additionally, over these days, we used incense ash to wipe the stone wall bit by bit, hoping to find some other traces.

Indeed, there were many scratches on the ground. It seemed the previous people often drew things on the ground during their rest. We saw a simple chessboard and many characters, but none were of any value. Only one item caught my interest—on the ground in front of the cave wall, probably carved by a miner during his break, several repetitions of the same name: Zhao Cuijie. Probably driven by lovesickness. Seeing this, I couldn't help but think of Agui up on the surface; I figured he must be even more devastated.

By the third day, I couldn't help but doubt my own thoughts. I thought, if we stayed here endlessly like this, would nothing happen in the end? Or perhaps that demon had already forgotten about us?

Poker-face was still the same. My bayonet had been taken by him and was stuck horizontally at his waist. He barely moved, leaning by the campfire all day, showing not a trace of anxiety.

Although he had always been like this before, I felt that this time his calmness was excessive. Sometimes I even had the illusion that he knew what was about to happen.

The calm lasted until the middle of the night on the fifth day—or it should be midnight if my watch was still accurate—when suddenly something happened.

I woke up to urinate, still groggy, and suddenly noticed that Poker-face was no longer in his original spot. Startled, I instinctively looked around and found him standing in front of a rock wall, staring at something.

Fatty was snoring nearby. I sensed something was wrong, checked my watch, and kicked him awake. The two of us walked over.

When we reached the rock wall and looked, we were both stunned—the human figure had appeared again.

I thought to myself, why would Poker-face look at this thing in the middle of the night? Then I looked again and noticed that the rock wall wasn't wet, and the eerie human figure seemed different from before.

I brought the mining lamp, turned it on, and illuminated the entire rock wall. The next moment I gasped—all the shadows inside the rock wall could now be seen clearly. Under the strong light, the distance of these shadows from the surface of the rock wall felt much closer than before.

"Holy shit! What's going on?" I cursed.

Poker-face said, "They are moving toward us."