Chapter 363: Escape from Yin Mountain Ancient Tower

Looking at him sitting quietly before me, I couldn't describe the feelings in my heart.

I don't know what was running through my mind; there must have been countless thoughts surging, but I couldn't feel anything.

After a stunned moment I came to my senses and immediately reached out trembling to feel his wrist—stretching out that hand took almost all my strength.

Fortunately, there was still some body heat; his pulse was extremely weak, almost imperceptible.

I turned to look at Fatty and saw a huge hole in his stomach with his intestines hanging out; his pulse was even fainter.

The wounds on their bodies were still bleeding—all lacerations, obviously from the long claws of those things, very densely packed, suggesting an unimaginably brutal fight.

Too much blood loss, heart failure—death was almost irreversible. Despair, helplessness, frustration, regret, indescribable feelings all surged up together, and tears nearly burst from my eyes.

But somehow, from somewhere, I found the grit to push all those feelings away in the next instant and suddenly calmed down.

I myself was startled by this sudden calm, as if another self inside me had temporarily vetoed the incoming emotions. I don't know if others have the same experience at such moments, but right then my mind became incredibly clear.

—They weren't dead yet. I naturally couldn't just turn and run, but I also couldn't just watch them die here. I had to do something, make my final effort.

I stood up and began to figure out what to do.

First I found some incense ash, applied it to their deepest wounds to temporarily stop the bleeding, then stuffed Fatty's intestines back into his belly bit by bit. I don't want to record that feeling.

After that, I took the wetsuit, tore it into strips to make ropes, grabbed a wooden frame nearby, tied it together to make a drag-style stretcher, and strapped them both onto it.

"Even if you die, you're going to die on the ground," I said through gritted teeth.

After finishing, I took the exploration light, picked up the military bayonet beside me, and looked around. The ground was covered with green liquid—probably blood from those things—and even more with mangled human bodies, a complete mess.

I didn't look closely, nor did I dare to. Turning to the rock walls on all sides to find the opening Poker-face had mentioned, I froze at one glance—inside the stone walls, faint shadows were visible, even more than before, but far smaller, all shadows of children.

I looked around, horrified, and immediately dared not delay. I dragged them and probed into the opening Poker-face had mentioned.

Fatty was already extremely heavy, plus Poker-face's weight; I used every ounce of my strength to drag them both inside.

Just as Poker-face said, the opening was a passage. Those things seemed able to corrode the jade here, moving slowly through it. All around were veins of fine jade—any jade merchant would go crazy here.

But if they formed naturally within the jade, this passage should have been sealed. I pulled for a while and found the passage was very long. At the same time, looking at the passage walls, I felt something was very wrong—blurry faces appeared from time to time in the rock, as if the people inside the rock were gathering to watch me crawl.

Fortunately, my nerves were already stretched to the breaking point, so I simply ignored it and, gritting my teeth, dragged Fatty and Poker-face, focusing only on crawling. This passage had no branches, but it was very winding, some parts even vertical. I crawled for a full ten-plus hours, almost passing out from exhaustion, yet still didn't reach the end.

I don't know how much later, the light from my exploration lamp was almost out, when suddenly I heard the sound of water.

I crawled forward like crazy, and suddenly my hand found nothing—it didn't hit the expected ground, and I nearly fell.

With a dim light from the exploration lamp, I saw a fault ahead—an irregular crack in the mountain, not wide, so I could keep balance by spreading my legs. Above the crack, water fell like a waterfall.

I drank a few mouthfuls of water, shone the lamp ahead—there was no further passage; this seemed to be the starting point of the passage. Those things must have climbed down through this crack. I shone the lamp up, down, left, right—good heavens! The surface of the crack fault was covered with holes like those made by borers, all on the same side—these things were like mountain borers. The other side had nothing.

I put down Fatty and Poker-face, no longer able to care about their condition. I climbed down through those holes one by one to see if any might lead outside.

Actually, I had no idea how to tell, so I just explored each one. Suddenly I felt a breeze from somewhere. Overjoyed, I immediately followed the feeling and indeed found an opening with air circulation.

There's a way! I thought. I climbed back, untied a rope, and sent them down one by one.

I had been hungry for several days and had very little physical strength. This whole journey was extremely torturous; at some points, whenever I exerted force, I felt the world spin and started to dry heave. These were signs of extreme physical exhaustion—I felt I could pass out at any moment.

It took at least another six or seven hours to cover such a short distance. I squeezed myself in, and then it was more dragging and crawling in utter darkness.

I'm sure that during this process, many things must have happened around me, because strange sounds came from everywhere, but I had no emotional reaction at all—I was completely numb. Even if I died at this moment, I might just accept it.

I don't know how long I crawled when suddenly light appeared ahead. At that moment, I didn't even have the strength to speed up; I just kept crawling like a zombie, crawling and crawling.

Then, in an instant, I heard the sound of wind and water, and saw the long-missed ground. Before I could even react and identify where I was, I saw several people appear around me. I looked up—they were villagers with grim expressions.

They pulled me out of the cave mouth, but I didn't recognize any of them.

On a hillside on the other side of the lake beach, there were people everywhere; all I could hear was Changsha dialect.

My body was extremely weak; as soon as I was pulled out, I felt dizzy. Then a person led a group of people toward me. Judging by the sky it was evening; all around was brightly lit with gas lamps. Someone was holding a walkie-talkie and shouting incessantly, "Found him! Found him!"

The person leading the group toward me soon came into view. Looking from afar, I was surprised to discover that it was my Second Uncle, with Panzi following behind.

They both looked anxious, but before he could reach me, I lost consciousness.