After being dragged by my third uncle until my eyes were filled with stars, I didn’t have much of a temper. I couldn’t really say anything about my own situation, so I had to obediently let them lead me deeper. In the narrow well shaft, I was pulled around a few bends until we reached a junction. I was yanked out and found myself in another dry well shaft, but this one was wider. It seemed to have experienced a collapse, with large boulders lying across the bottom, and there were many withered tree roots above. I looked up and thought that the surface above must be the ruins, and on the boulders, I saw several people waiting for us.

As I approached, I immediately spotted the chubby guy, tightly wrapped up, still unconscious. Someone was giving him an injection, and I felt a sense of relief wash over me. I silently thanked God; it seemed that while the person in white was saving me, someone else had rescued the chubby guy. That bastard was lucky after all.

At the same time, I saw the person in white sitting on a decayed log, also wearing a gas mask, huddled among the tree roots. His white skin looked snow-white in the water, but from above, it appeared rather strange, almost yellowish. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was an old diving suit.

Looking at the others, I noticed they were all wearing diving suits too, though they were all new. Clearly, my third uncle was well-prepared; having diving suits here would make things much more comfortable.

The person didn’t notice me, and I recalled that I hadn’t really seen his face earlier. I thought to myself that this was a great benefactor, and I should thank him properly. When I was led in front of him, I was about to express my gratitude, but as he turned his head, I caught a glimpse of a very familiar pair of black glasses through the lenses of his gas mask.

I was taken aback, thinking, “Could it really be him?” I couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

He looked up at me, seemingly smiling, and nodded in my direction. I nodded back, just as I was about to thank him, my third uncle walked over. I was dragged in front of him, and he squatted down to examine me, then sighed, “You little rascal, why are you so disobedient?”

I felt a bit embarrassed; things had turned out this way unexpectedly, and I didn’t know how to respond. I wanted to call him, but he gestured for me to stop. He sat down and didn’t reprimand me but immediately asked me softly in Changsha dialect, “Don’t speak. Let me ask you, where are Panzi and that little guy?”

I quickly recounted everything we had just experienced. After listening, my third uncle clicked his tongue, “I didn’t expect this dead fat guy to be so clever; he also fell for it this time.”

“What happened?” Hearing him say that, I felt uneasy.

“The snakes here are too sinister; they can mimic human speech. Their combs can imitate the sounds they hear to lure you over. We almost got killed by them.” One of the guys added, “In this damn place, you can’t trust any sounds you hear.”

I glanced at the chubby guy and asked my third uncle, “How’s he doing? Is he alright?”

“He’s already been given the serum; from here on out, it’s up to fate.” My third uncle looked at his watch and said to me, “Quick, take off your clothes.”

“Taking off clothes? What’s wrong?” I thought to myself, wondering why they were already taking action. Suddenly, my shirt was torn off, and I was pressed against the well wall. As soon as my clothes were off, I immediately heard a soft voice exclaiming, “Wow, it really is there!” I didn’t know who said it.

I was momentarily stunned, cold sweat breaking out. What did this mean? Was there something on my back? I wanted to turn around to look, but I was held down.

“Don’t! Don’t move!” my uncle whispered. “Just stand still!”

I started to get goosebumps and tried to feel my back, but upon closer inspection, I couldn’t feel anything. The sensation was there yet not there, and it was incredibly uncomfortable.

“What is on my back?” I asked. As soon as I spoke, I heard my uncle hush me again. “Don’t be curious about that right now; you’ll find out soon enough.” Then I heard the sound of a fire starter.

“What are you doing?” I thought to myself. Did he want to burn something to show loyalty to the country?

Just as I was pondering this, I felt a heat rising from my back. Before I could prepare myself, I suddenly felt something moving along my spine. Then we all heard a series of cries coming from behind me, and what horrified me was that the sound resembled that of a baby.

Before I could think it through, my uncle acted decisively. I suddenly felt a searing hot object jab into my spine several times, causing me to almost jump up. At the same time, the eerie cries became sharper, and the thing moving on my back slipped down. It felt like a handful of loaches falling off my back.

“It’s off! Get away!” someone whispered urgently. I hurried to stand up, but for some reason, my legs felt weak, and I stumbled. When I turned back to look, I saw several white things, about the thickness of pencils, hanging from my ankles like intestines. I instinctively pulled my feet back to kick them off, but in an instant, those things began to move. I clearly saw their small fangs opening in their mouths, biting toward my calves.

In that split second, someone beside me acted. I saw a flash of black light, and a stone came crashing down, killing the first one. Then a barrage of stones fell, instantly flattening the heads of those little snakes into a mushy pulp.

I curled my feet up and wiped the cold sweat off my face, only to see that it was a twisted snake, resembling intestines, white and wriggling, with just its body left, continuously rolling and twisting. I felt the slime from my back dripping down my spine, and I collapsed to the ground, gagging.

My uncle took a few more strikes at the snake, cutting it into two pieces, before finally relaxing. He handed me my clothes. “Wipe yourself clean and put them on. Tighten the collar and pant legs.”

“What… what just happened?” I asked, feeling my back. I discovered that they were small chicken crest snakes, but these snakes weren’t red; they were white and very small in size.

“This is a baby snake that has just hatched, and its skin hasn’t hardened yet. You were just in the Dead Man’s Pool, where the mud is actually full of these little snakes. If something passes by, it will definitely attach itself. Almost everyone had them on them before.” One person said, “This snake bites your skin with its teeth; you’ll only feel a brief pain, then your back goes numb. You won’t feel anything even if you’re whipped with a leather whip. Then it slowly burrows into your skin, sucking your blood. When it grows big enough, its venom will be strong enough to kill you, and it will come out of your skin, by then it will be fully fed, and your skin will be red.”

I looked at the snake, still feeling a bit shaken, wondering how it had gotten onto my back without me feeling a thing. Such a disgusting creature should have made me feel at least a little strange when it crawled into my clothes; it was impossible not to notice.

Thinking back, I had felt something biting my ankle while I was in the water; could it have been then that these snakes were secretly climbing up? I touched my back and found it covered in slime, which was utterly disgusting.

I wiped it off with my clothes, and then a group of people returned from the well shaft. Seeing my uncle, they shook their heads and said softly, “Third Master, that way is completely blocked, there’s no way out. What should we do?”

My uncle stood up, thought for a moment, sighed, and nodded. He said to them, “There’s no choice; we can’t stay here any longer. We have to go back and try again tomorrow.” He then cursed me, “Tell the brothers to set off.”

The man nodded in response, whistled to the people around, and they all stood up, quickly shouldering their gear. I was also helped to my feet. My uncle noticed I seemed to have something to say, so he told me, “Whatever you want to say, wait until we get back to our base. It’s too dangerous here; don’t talk in the well shaft, understand?”

I understood his concerns and nodded to show I got it. They immediately set off, retreating deeper into the well shaft.

As we trekked along, I had no idea where we were heading; I only knew that visibility was extremely low all around us. From time to time, I could hear a “kekekekekeke” sound coming from the depths of the nearby side passages, very close and very high-pitched. Clearly, this was their territory, and there were snakes all around us.

I felt a bit nervous, but since there were many people here, whenever a snake made a sound, someone would immediately be on guard in that direction, which reassured me. It seemed that people really do need a sense of security.

I didn’t know how long we had been walking; we passed two wells with water, and I estimated it had been at least an hour. I began to hear a familiar sound gradually emerging from the silent well shaft. I wanted to ask, but everyone else was silent along the way, not even coughing, so I felt embarrassed to make a sound.

As we delved deeper into the well shaft, the temperature gradually dropped. After walking for a while, we began to pass through some severely damaged areas. We could still see dried moss and traces of vines above, and some live tree roots were still visible. These roots had grown down through the cracks in the stones, confirming that we were close to the surface. Perhaps if we poked any stone, we might see sunlight.

We crawled through the tangled roots clinging to the well walls, and I could vaguely see some blackened, decaying snake skins among them. I knew this area must be a hotspot for snake activity, which was quite terrifying. This intricate drainage system could probably rival that of ancient Rome, and I never expected it to have turned into a giant snake nest.

This biological defense technology could be considered high-tech in the Western Regions. I wondered why this country didn’t continue to dominate; perhaps another nation finally discovered a way to deal with these venomous snakes.

We crawled for quite a while, and by the time I started feeling a bit dizzy, we finally reached our destination. In the distance, I could see a faint glow of fire. As we approached, I realized it was a massive stepped reservoir, composed of six or seven interconnected pools resembling terraced fields. Surrounding it were stone pillars and beams, reminiscent of the underground structures of Roman bathhouses. As we descended, I noticed the entire area was surrounded by sheer rock walls, filled with numerous stone caves. These caves were deep and large, resembling square stone hollows, and it seemed each one had passages and stone steps connecting them, forming corridors between the caves.

It began to feel like a temple dedicated to some religious purpose. In any case, this place couldn’t be just a simple reservoir, as there were signs of human activity here.

The firelight came from within the caves. We moved closer, climbed a few steps, and passed through several passages between the caves until we entered a relatively spacious cave, about six or seven decameters wide.

Inside, we saw tents, sleeping bags, and a large amount of equipment haphazardly piled up. Two people were sitting by the campfire, likely keeping watch, with their backs to us, seemingly unaware of our return.

Our group was completely exhausted, with hardly any strength left in our legs. I set the person I was carrying down, jumped on one foot a few times, and then nudged the two watchmen with my foot, saying, “Get up and let the young master sit down; standing there like logs is ridiculous.”

Just as I was about to say they didn’t need to be so polite, the two of them suddenly collapsed to the ground. We gasped in shock; their faces were blackened, and their eyes were wide open, clearly indicating they were already dead.