Chapter 473: Quicksand Trap

The sound from beneath the sand hadn't faded yet when I suddenly heard countless muffled thuds from the darkness in the distance, as if something was falling from the top of this stone cave and landing in the quicksand.

The sounds were very dense, and in the end it was almost like rain; the number of falling objects must have been considerable.

Fatty was in the middle of rolling with vigor, but when he heard this sound he immediately stopped and muttered to himself, "I think I hear the sound of bad luck."

He sat up right after saying that. We didn't have much to defend ourselves with, so Fatty pulled out those iron spikes.

I knew something must have gone wrong too, but I looked around and could only see quicksand.

The place where the sound came from was still a fair distance away; although the "Wolf-Eye" could shine very far, it was hard to make out details in the yellow sand. Even looking into the distance, I couldn't tell what was falling.

I felt uneasy—right now we had absolutely no defense. Once the ground we were lying on got damaged, we'd sink into the quicksand.

Although the quicksand wasn't deep enough to trap us to death, we'd still be like turtles in a jar. To put it bluntly, if we got stuck in the quicksand.

Even just a few patient mosquitoes could bite us to death here. I said to Fatty, "These crappy 'toothpicks' of yours won't do much good. Keep crawling, go as far as you can—maybe we can hold out until we reach the edge."

Fatty looked at the iron spikes in his hand and immediately nodded: "Alright, let's go." We lay down again and immediately started rolling and crawling. Fatty noticeably picked up speed; evidently, fear is humanity's primary driving force.

But we hadn't gone far when something fell right beside us. Fatty shone his flashlight on it and saw it was a bone.

Fatty then shone the flashlight up at the cave ceiling and saw that the entire stone roof was covered with many corpses, looking as if they'd been flattened and stuck there.

At the same time, we noticed the ceiling was shaking, the corpses stuck to it were wobbling, and bits of debris kept falling off.

The sounds of objects hitting the ground continued like rain, and this time I heard it especially clearly—the sound seemed to be moving and was rapidly approaching us.

Fatty shone his flashlight in that direction and could faintly make out corpses being shaken off by something. A huge shadow hanging upside down from the cave ceiling flickered in and out of view under the flashlight beam.

This time it was certain: this place seemed to be a feeding ground. All animals that entered the ventilation and light shafts would end up gathered here, dealt with by something. We just didn't know what that thing was.

Damn our luck—why didn't that ghostly shadow tell us more? If I'd known this place had such a design, I wouldn't have run so fast and fallen into such a crude trap. If we'd been more careful, we might already be inside the ancient building.

I cursed in my heart and felt utterly hopeless. Given the surroundings and the size of that thing, running away seemed impossible.

Even on flat ground we couldn't outrun it. Were we going to be flattened and stuck on the cave ceiling this time too? In this state, it seemed like even having a more dignified death was out of the question.

A thousand experiences told us that no matter what, we had to hold on until the very last moment. Fatty handed me an iron spike—in the old days, these were usually things Buddhist elders used.

At best, you could stab a widow or an unlucky old landlord woken up in the middle of the night. Though not easy to sell, it was still an antique, and I'd originally wanted to keep it as a souvenir.

I never thought I'd be using it to fight something like this. Fortunately, the thing was very sharp; no matter what you jabbed, the other party wouldn't enjoy it.

Fatty was a lot less bold without his gun. We stood on the frame skeleton, half-crouched, waiting for that thing to get close. That way, at least during its first attack, we could either jump aside to dodge or take the chance to counterattack.

However, we held our stance for a long while, and that thing actually stopped when it reached our perimeter.

I thought to myself, damn, this thing is huge but still pretty cautious. What the hell is it? A living creature or a corpse?

Looking at the huge shadow on the distant cave ceiling, sweat squeezed out from between my fingers. How could a living creature appear in a place like this? I'd never seen such a beast. If it were a dead thing, it shouldn't be acting this cautiously.

Just then, the sand in front of us suddenly rippled, a wave rolling across the surface. I shone my flashlight on the quicksand and saw that the bone that had fallen earlier was changing—it seemed alive, crawling across the sand.

The bone twisted in the sand, and the cotton-like stuff on it contracted and expanded. I could see several black tentacles poking out from underneath the bone.

We turned our eyes back to the cave ceiling and were even more stunned. All the bones stuck up there were moving, and a large number of black tentacles as thick as toothpicks were extending out.

These tentacles twitched, as if the whole ceiling had suddenly grown spikes. Soon, many insects began to fall from the ceiling.

All black, about the size of a fingernail. After landing, they crawled straight into the quicksand and disappeared. Fatty reacted quickly, picking up another frame to use as an umbrella over our heads, so we didn't get covered in insects.

I immediately recognized what this was—a kind of stone silkworm, a common aquatic pest. I don't know how they managed to survive on land here. These insects use their secreted liquid to glue stones and bones together into a cocoon and hide inside.

These things bite very painfully, but they aren't very mobile. Usually, they only come out of their cocoons when disturbed.

Fatty's hand, which had been gripping that "umbrella," got bitten several times and swelled up quickly.

I told him to hold the umbrella with the iron spike instead and stay calm: "These bugs aren't aggressive."

Fatty said, "I don't think so. If we fall into the quicksand, we'll become their favorite meal—they'll chew us clean."

Soon, most of the stone silkworms on the ceiling fell into the quicksand. Fatty quickly lowered the "umbrella." I suddenly understood: the bones up there probably weren't flattened and stuck like we thought; the bugs must have carried them up piece by piece and glued them. Fatty used the "umbrella" as a shovel to scoop some sand and found that just under the surface, the sand was practically full of stone silkworms.

Fatty cursed, "Holy crap, I'm not worried about starving anymore. These things must be super high in protein. Eating them is cleaner and more nutritious than city food."

I looked at the dark shadow lurking in the distance and thought, that thing is probably thinking the same thing we are: "I'm not worried about starving anymore—those two look nutritious."

I said to Fatty, "If you want to eat, go ahead. The better you eat, the tastier you'll be when something else eats you. While that big guy is still playing artsy, let's keep retreating. It didn't react to all that noise—maybe it hasn't even noticed us."

Fatty said, "Impossible. It's blocking the direction we need to go—we have to pass right under it. Damn it, I really don't have that kind of hobby."

I said, "Then what do you suggest? Wait for it to suddenly change its mind and wipe us all out? Or wait for it to die of boredom on its own?"

"If it attacks us, there's nothing we can do. There's no point worrying about that," Fatty said, keeping one hand busy to shift the chassis and continue moving forward while scanning the surroundings. "The best way is still to find somewhere to hide. This place is too big; we can use the flashlight as bait."

"Is it attracted by light?" I asked doubtfully. "The sika deer that fell in here didn't carry flashlights. I think it's more likely smell and sound."

"Which one is it, then?"

"Smell seems more likely," I said. Fatty immediately pulled a bottle out of his pocket.

"What the hell is this?"

"Huoxiang Zhengqi Water—help me, hurry." Fatty took off his sock, put the bottle inside, and swung it like a meteor hammer. When it got up to full speed, he threw it. The bottle arced through the air and smashed against one of the pillars—a clear shattering sound.

"This stuff has a very strong smell. If it's attracted by scent, maybe this will draw it away."

The dark shadow showed no reaction.

"Maybe your sock is too stinky and covered up the smell of the Huoxiang Zhengqi Water," I said.

Could it be sound? I thought to myself. Earlier, so much stuff had fallen from above, so the shadow had stopped—maybe it was waiting for the noise to die down?

The sound of falling insects was still around, but it was getting softer. I grew uneasy. Watching the shadow, I suddenly let out a loud yell.

The shadow did move a bit. Fatty immediately covered my mouth and whispered, asking what I was doing.

I said, "This thing seems to judge our location by sound. And it's not particularly good at distinguishing sounds—just a little interference and it can't lock onto us."

"We need to be ready. Once the noise completely dies away, we absolutely cannot make any sound."

Hearing that, Fatty got excited instead. "That's too passive. If that's really the case, we should take this chance to sneak over and kill it."

I thought to myself, even if you could creep up to it, given our current situation, getting up to the top of the cave would be too difficult. As I was thinking, the dark shadow suddenly shrank back.

As we spoke, the dark shadow suddenly shrank back.

We were startled, and watched as the shadow slowly retreated into the darkness.