Li Cu was grabbing around in a panic, but caught nothing and fell into the water for about ten seconds. The water was warm, and the itching and pain on his body were washed away in just a few seconds.

They struggled to the surface, surrounded by darkness. Li Cu shouted, “Is everyone okay?”

“Not okay!” Su Wan yelled from a distance, “Something’s biting my little brother!”

“I didn’t ask about your little brother; I asked how you are!” Li Cu shouted back.

Su Wan continued to curse from afar, and Li Cu felt that Su Wan was a bit too far away; a few people had fallen down earlier, and they weren’t that far apart. He was about to shout again when, with a “plop,” a cold flame lit up behind him. It was Yang Hao, floating up while holding a bag. He couldn’t swim, but he seemed quite calm, perhaps because he could see the bottom of the water, which wasn’t very deep.

Looking around, Li Cu saw that it was a large pool, very large, with sandy edges. Liang Wan was a little behind them, closer than Su Wan, who was inexplicably far away. But soon, he swam over.

When the four of them climbed ashore, they discovered that this pool resembled a lake surrounded entirely by sand dunes. As they climbed up, they found the area around the lake was also desert terrain.

“Did so much sand really leak down?” Su Wan wondered. “It’s a blessing it didn’t get buried.”

Yang Hao raised the cold flame and clicked his tongue.

Everyone looked up; the ceiling was about six meters high, and it rose quite high. There were large patches of sand stuck to the ceiling, but it wasn’t made of cement; it was a mirror surface.

After walking a few steps, they saw that the entire ceiling was made up of mottled mirrors, not a single piece but countless pieces pieced together with almost no seams, although the mercury on top had fallen off quite badly.

What a strange place. Looking up, they could see themselves standing on the sand dune; if the lighting were strong enough, it seemed like there were two deserts facing each other.

This room was enormous, with no visible walls. Liang Wan took out a floor plan, flipping through it until he pulled out one sheet.

The name of this room was “Breathing Room.”

This should be part of the air conditioning system; these buildings were likely all enclosed. Liang Wan pointed to one of the circular holes marked on the plan, which should be where they fell down, with the large circle below representing the pool. The label read “Sand Filtration Pool.”

They had no idea what purpose it served in the system.

No one was waiting for them here; it seemed that Wu Xie didn’t really care about these matters. He wasn’t very respectful of people.

The exit indicated on the floor plan was to their left, and as they walked over, they found that the opening was blocked by a thick iron door that looked so solid that even a mother wouldn’t recognize it.

Could it be just a sealed room? Li Cu wondered if Wu Xie and the others were at another entrance.

They returned to the sand filtration pool, and Su Wan said, “Does Wu boss mean we’re supposed to stay underground for three days?”

Wu Xie’s messages were always very accurate, never alarmist. Li Cu looked at the pool again, then curiously glanced up at the ceiling.

The mirror reflected the entire pool, and he saw something white floating in the reflection of the pool above.

He looked down at the water pool, which was empty, but when he raised his head to look at the reflection in the mirror, he saw something floating, not far from the shore. It was vague, resembling a female corpse dressed in white, cold, icy, and eerie.

He snapped his fingers, “Whoever sees a stone nearby, pick one up for me.”

Turning around, he saw Su Wan collapsed on the ground, clutching his groin and starting to moan.

“What’s going on now?”

“I told you, something bit my little brother!” Su Wan exclaimed, unzipping his pants. As Yang Hao approached with the cold flame, he caught sight of Su Wan’s groin, which was covered in thick black hair.

Yang Hao and Li Cu exchanged glances, “You’ve got way too much hair.”

“It’s not my hair!” Su Wan protested, tugging at it. With a pull, a thick, hairy creature was yanked out.

They had killed quite a few of those snakes before, but they never expected to pull such a large one out from Su Wan’s pants.

Su Wan screamed and threw it away, and it landed right on Yang Hao’s face. Yang Hao jumped back, leaping more than a meter away.

Li Cu noticed that the base of Su Wan’s genitals had two large bite wounds, oozing black blood. In that moment, he thought about whether he should help Su Wan suck out the poisoned blood but immediately felt nauseous. He turned to Liang Wan, “Doctor Liang, what do you think we should do?”

Liang Wan, unfazed, pushed aside Su Wan’s genitals and squeezed several times, asking, “Are you dizzy? Do you feel any numbness in your limbs?”

Su Wan replied, “No, but you have to take responsibility for me.”

Liang Wan slapped him, “Taking responsibility for you means I’ll be a widower in an hour. Can you cooperate with the treatment?”

Su Wan said, “I brought the serum! It’s in my bag.”

Liang Wan rummaged through Su Wan’s bag, pulling out the serum, a syringe, and a complete set of sterilized supplies. Without knowing what Su Wan was thinking, Liang Wan quickly injected the serum and propped his head up on a sand dune. Su Wan complained, “Why is it always me? Ouch, it’s swelling. Who has a phone? Take a picture for me; I want to post it on Caoliu.”

Meanwhile, Yang Hao returned with sand all over his hands, saying the snake had escaped and wasn’t killed.

Liang Wan washed his hands in the water pool and said the snake came from the water. Yang Hao’s cold flame went out, and he shined his flashlight into the water but saw no trace of the snake. However, Li Cu was still thinking about the thing reflected in the mirror above the water pool. When he looked up, he found that the white object was gone.

Am I going blind? He wondered for a moment, then heard Su Wan howl in frustration. Turning back, he saw that the sand dune Su Wan was leaning against had collapsed, causing him to fall on his back, and something wrapped inside the sand was revealed.

It was five strange containers. While they were indeed strange, Li Cu had seen something similar before.

After kicking them a few times, he saw inside: many white, slimy fragments.

Li Cu fiddled with them and discovered that all five were open, with the slime dried into a plastic-like substance, and inside were black hairs and scales.

“They’re eggs.” These containers held eggs. Their earlier speculation was correct: these vehicles brought in containers and then carried something away. What they were transporting out of the desert were these eggs.

Eggs of that kind of snake.

Yang Hao kicked away the remaining sand piles and discovered that beneath the layers of sand, there were countless containers like this.

“This place is not safe to stay for long,” Li Cu said. “No matter what, we have to leave here. Otherwise, we really won’t survive for three days. Sister, look for an exit. Yang Zi, help me think of a way; I need to start a fire here. Su Wan, take out your gun and load the bullets.”

They were able to escape the rain by hiding here because they had a general understanding of the environment. If something went wrong here, not being prepared would surely lead to death.