The shadows in the wall were indeed getting closer to us, and their movements had strange changes, with their heads stretching forward in an eerie manner, as if trying hard to poke out from the stone wall.

“Moving?” the fat guy, still half-asleep, didn’t quite understand.

“They used to be buried about three feet deep in the rock wall, and now they’re less than a foot away,” the quiet guy said, making a gesture. “In five days, they’ve moved over two feet closer to us. In another day and a half…”

He paused, not finishing his thought.

I understood what he meant. In another day and a half, these shadows might emerge from the rock layers.

“Could they be alive?” I couldn’t help but feel a chill run down my spine.

The quiet guy shook his head, staring intently at the shadows, his movements as if he were locking eyes with them.

My sleepiness vanished in an instant. I grabbed the exploration lamp and shone it around, seeing shadows everywhere, making my skin crawl. What exactly were these shadows? If they came out of the wall… the thought made my scalp tingle.

After walking around, I suddenly realized something and exclaimed, “Damn! Is that the purpose of those things?”

“What purpose?” The fat guy was still groggy.

“I’m not sure, but maybe it’s some kind of ritual. We are the sacrifices, or perhaps it’s a kind of feeding, and we are the food, or it’s a hunt, and we are the bait… In short, we are prepared for these shadows.”

The fat guy frowned, finally coming to his senses. He stared blankly for a moment and cursed, “No way!”

“What do you mean no way? Just look at those shadows’ eerie shapes; they definitely aren’t busty beauties. If they’re attracted to us, it’s certainly not a good thing.”

I was instantly filled with confusion, not knowing what to do. I looked at the quiet guy, but he seemed deep in thought, oblivious to us.

Suddenly, the fat guy pulled out a masonry hammer from a pile of tools and tossed it to me.

“What’s this for?” I asked.

“Strike first to gain the upper hand,” he said in a low voice. “Hit them until they don’t even recognize their mother.” He was about to smash it down.

I grabbed him, “We don’t even know what these things are. Hitting them a few times might not kill them; it might even release them from inside. Then let’s see how you deal with it!”

The fat guy cursed, “I really can’t stand your stupidity! Can’t you just make a crack to see what’s inside first?”

I still felt uneasy. Looking back at the quiet guy, he still ignored us.

The fat guy thought this meant the quiet guy agreed. He raised the masonry hammer and swung it down at a shadow.

He hadn’t eaten for several days and was physically weak; the first hit only created a small dent. But the stone here was very brittle, and a crack quickly appeared.

He spat a few times and then swung again. Following the dark green jade vein, he managed to crack a deep fissure.

In an instant, a very strong odor emanated from the stone, making it almost impossible to breathe, and we instinctively took a few steps back.

The fat guy wanted to hit again, but I pulled him back once more because I saw something revealed deep within the crack.

We covered our mouths and noses, waiting for the smell to dissipate a bit before moving closer.

The fat guy picked up the mining lamp and shone it inside.

At first, I only saw a dark green mass that looked like a rock, but I couldn’t tell which part of it was a human figure. I wasn’t really scared, but as I got closer, that mass shifted slightly, and then a pair of eyes—just the whites—emerged from behind a crack, staring at me.

In that instant, I nearly suffocated.

Those eyes had no emotion, no direction, but you just knew they were looking at you, peering at you from the crack. The situation was incredibly eerie!

Both the fat guy and I involuntarily gasped, and we both realized immediately that this thing was not human!

Not daring to look again, I suddenly turned my head away, and the fat guy didn’t know what to do either.

I looked at him, thinking, Aren’t you going to hit it so hard it won’t even recognize its mother? But he shook his head vigorously.

Just as I was about to say something, a baby-like scream suddenly came from the crack, piercingly sharp. At the same time, a pair of extremely thin claws shot out, grabbing my neck.

The speed was too fast for anyone to react; I was already being pulled toward the crack, slamming hard against the rock wall.

At that moment, the quiet guy reacted faster than the fat guy. He lunged over to grab me, while his other hand thrust a military dagger into the crack, stabbing at the wrist of that clawed hand. He stabbed three times before that thing finally let go.

I was thrown out and quickly pulled away by the fat guy.

The claws quickly reached out again, swiping a few times but missing. The fat guy swung a hammer a few times, not even sure if he hit anything, and the claws retreated back inside.

We were still shaken, gasping for breath. The fat guy exclaimed, “Damn! What a tough character!”

Meanwhile, the quiet guy had already walked over to the campfire without looking back, picked up a basket, and grabbed a plate of charcoal, saying, “Help me.”