Chapter 422: Stone Shadow: Snake Bite

I didn't even feel scared. My face went cold, and by the time I brushed whatever it was off my face, it was already burning with pain. When I touched it, I could clearly feel the fang holes from the bite.

I held my cheek, hardly believing it. Almost instantly, I felt a numbness spreading from my cheek.

I thought back to how A Ning died. It had felt so sudden and unreal back then. I never expected I'd die from the same kind of creature.

Soon the numbness began to spread through my whole body. I saw that thing standing there, staring straight at me, and suddenly I realized something was wrong.

This thing wasn't a jiangshi. Hell, could it be intelligent? Then I slowly backed away, thinking I had to tell Xiao Hua what was happening here before I died.

I took a few steps back, looking for the crack. I tried to shout, but found my tongue and throat were completely numb. I collapsed onto the pack, and the last thing I touched was a piece of pottery shard.

Xiao Hua had used one of these earlier to test the load-bearing.

I picked up a piece and, by feel, carved a few words. I didn't know what I wrote. I felt that snake coil back onto my body, but I had no strength left to focus. My consciousness began to fade.

Dying from a snake bite, just like A Ning—she'd laugh at me. That was my last thought. I wanted to laugh, but just as everything was about to disappear, I suddenly heard a strange sound.

Violent dizziness. At the moment when consciousness was about to vanish, everything seemed to stop.

I don't really remember what state I was in. But I clearly recall that intense dizziness—so bad I couldn't think. The few times I did come to for an instant, all I thought was: Why the hell am I not dead yet? This is killing me.

I felt that after a very long time, someone seemed to come to my side. After that, the dizziness slowly faded. When I woke up, I saw Xiao Hua and his men all around me.

I couldn't feel my body. At first it felt like I was just a head—couldn't speak, couldn't lift my eyes, couldn't do anything. I could only see them through the slits of my eyes. It took a long time before I gradually recovered.

I didn't know why I wasn't dead. They helped me up. Xiao Hua looked at me and said, "You got lucky—not because we rescued you in time——"

"Lucky?" I asked in confusion.

"Something bit through your cheek. Probably a snake. Very little venom got in—it all stabbed into your mouth. From now on, you'll probably sound even worse when you talk."

I touched my cheek. There was indeed a bandage on it. I also felt my neck—both had been treated.

"Those snakes?" I asked.

He looked around: "They should still be here. I spread the herbal medicine I carry with me all around. It should be safe here. You were out for two hours. Don't talk too much, or the wound on your face will scar." He handed me water and made a tilting motion: "Drink. Tilt your head to one side, or the water will leak out the other side."

I did as he said, feeling surprised. Two hours—I felt like I'd been out for days. How could it be so short?

I looked around. I was still lying in the same place where I'd passed out. I hadn't been moved. So it really was only two hours.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine. I didn't run into any snakes. When I came back, I saw you lying here, and——" He pointed at the charred corpse I'd burned on the other side, "—and that. Not bad, you can throw a punch. I thought you were done for."

"If I'd kicked it, the Xie family and the Wu family would be even." I coughed a few times. He asked me what happened, how I ended up like this.

I briefly told him the story. Then I noticed to one side a rope, one end tied to a rotating axle. The turning axle had pulled the rope taut and straight, suspended in the air. I didn't know where the other end was tied. It was a simple single-rope zipline, already connected from inside the crack. It looked like Xiao Hua had successfully reached the end of the crack and set up the zipline. So after I passed out, he didn't immediately come out to check on me—he kept crawling in, reached the end, finished his planned work, and then came out to see if I was dead.

I felt a little annoyed. That kind of mental state—I couldn't tell if it was ruthless or determined. But obviously, for him, he had no psychological burden at all. I finally saw one difference between him and me.

Still, I didn't show that emotion. I had no energy, and I didn't want to break some unspoken rule. I knew that in this line of work, there was no habit of risking your life to save a partner. It was like a prearranged contract—the two people agree that if either encounters danger and might drag the other down, each can abandon the other. That seems very fair before an accident happens.

At the time, Xiao Hua really couldn't tell my situation. Whether to immediately turn back and rescue someone—if I were him, I would have hesitated too.

I couldn't help thinking of Fatty and Poker-face. If they had been there, that thing covered in black fur would have had its head twisted off before it even scratched my back. Or I'd see Fatty stomping out of those pottery jars, messing everything up, but I'd definitely be saved.

At that moment, an extreme sense of insecurity hit me, stronger than before. Even though we were three people now, I was really only responsible for myself. That feeling was very unpleasant. At the same time, I suddenly realized why Xiao Hua hadn't shown much gratitude when I went into the cave to save him—only annoyance.

He was used to solving his own problems alone. Before doing these things, he had already assumed there would be no backup, no help. He wouldn't blame anyone for his own death, nor blame himself for others' deaths.

Is this the Old Nine Gates? I felt a chill.

"This rope is too long. Even if it's pulled tight, our weight will still cause it to sag into an arc due to torque. The knots at both ends will bear a lot of pressure. I don't know if it'll snap halfway when we climb," he said, seeing me staring blankly at the rope. "So I tied the rope very high on this side of the room, so more pressure will be concentrated here. That way, as long as someone's watching, we'll know before the rope breaks."

"You sound pretty damn professional," I said. "What did you see inside? What does that mechanism room look like?"

"Uh." Xiao Hua's expression was strange. "I can't describe it. I've never seen anything like that."

His expression told me I'd have to go see it for myself to know what it was. I sighed and tried to stand up to check my condition. As soon as I moved, my elbow pressed against something. I looked down—it was that piece of pottery shard.

At the same time, I saw some writing next to the shard, scratched into the ground with it—crooked and uneven.

I remembered that before I passed out, I had tried to leave a message for Xiao Hua using that shard. I was so dazed I had no idea if I'd written clearly. Now it seemed I had written something.

I glanced at it instinctively, and suddenly I froze.

I saw a large number of crooked characters on the ground. I thought I had only written a few words.

I shone my flashlight and saw it was a long series of numbers.

189652802200059 "What is this?" I asked Xiao Hua.

"Isn't this your last words?" Xiao Hua asked. "I thought it was your card number and password."

"My last words?" I was bewildered, thinking to myself that at the time I had no idea what I had written, and why would I write these numbers? But looking at the handwriting, it was indeed written by me in one go, the strokes very continuous. I couldn't distinguish my own handwriting because it was very sloppy, but I realized it really was written by me.

This must have been written when I was in a daze, but why these numbers?