adminI felt a tightness in my chest as I thought of Uncle Tai. Ever since we rushed down from the waterfall, we hadn’t heard any news from them. Had they followed us here? But then again, that didn’t make sense; the fire dragon formation outside couldn’t be extinguished so quickly, and the tomb chamber had collapsed, so they shouldn’t be able to come this way. Moreover, to climb up here, they would need some kind of lighting tool. With the torches below extinguished and no flashlight to provide light, there was no reason for them to come up in the dark.
So, what was coming up?
Thinking of this made me break out in a cold sweat. We were only about ten meters off the ground, and our space for movement was limited. It would be difficult to make any large movements. If we encountered something bizarre, I wouldn’t know how to respond.
Old Yang gave me a look, suggesting that we should take the initiative and rush down to check. I waved my hand to signal him to calm down. We were in the light while the enemy was in the dark; we absolutely couldn’t act recklessly. If it really was Uncle Tai and the others trying to sneak up in the dark, a face-to-face encounter would inevitably lead to a fierce battle. Bullets don’t discriminate, and at such close range, we might end up injuring each other.
With that thought, I quickly devised a plan. I took off my belt and tied the torch to a branch, then signaled to Old Yang and Master Liang to hide in the shadows where the torchlight couldn’t reach.
The people below could only see the light from our torch, and this way, we could blend into the darkness, turning the tables and catching them off guard.
The three of us held our breath, forming makeshift listening devices with our hands and pressing them against the copper wall. I could feel a faint tremor approaching from a distance, the frequency chaotic and rapid, as if many people were scratching the grooves of the copper tree with their nails. The more I listened, the more uneasy I felt. Uncle Tai and the others were only two people; it was unlikely they could create such a dense sound. Could it be that rats had come in?
I regretted not dealing with that hole properly earlier. Cursing under my breath, I transferred my weapon to my right hand. Old Yang, standing above me, also chambered a round, both of us ready to spring into action at any moment.
The newcomers moved very quickly, without hesitation, and in an instant, they were beneath us. However, they hadn’t yet entered the torch’s illumination range. I could only vaguely see a few blurry shadows that seemed human but also not. I was so tense that my palms were sweating, and I was highly focused; for those few seconds, it felt as if time had stopped.
Suddenly, Old Yang’s face turned extremely pale, and he shouted, “Shit! Up, up, up! Quickly, go up!” Before he could finish, Master Liang seemed to have seen something as well, letting out a chilling scream. The two of them, as if they had seen a ghost, fled upwards in a hurry.
I didn’t know what terrifying thing they had seen. Instinctively, I glanced down and noticed something writhing in the darkness, but I couldn’t make it out clearly. Seeing that I was still standing there, Old Yang shouted, “Old Wu, what the hell are you standing there for? Run!”
I noticed his face was extremely pale, sending a chill down my spine. I didn’t have time to figure out what was happening. I pulled out the torch, gritted my teeth, and followed them up.
I was infected by the expressions of Lao Yang and the others, feeling extremely nervous inside, not knowing what was climbing up. The more I climbed, the colder I felt all over; the colder I got, the faster I climbed, and in the end, I completely fell into a state of madness, feeling my scalp tingle and my whole body stiffen, with only the thought of following behind them in my mind, unable to focus on anything else.
After crawling for about half a cigarette’s worth of time, the cool lawyer in front finally stopped. I crawled up to him and found that he wasn’t unwilling to climb; he simply couldn’t move anymore. His face was devoid of color, and he had reached his limit.
He was sweating profusely. Seeing that I was still trying to go up, he suddenly grabbed my leg and said, “Wait… wait a minute! Don’t… don’t leave me behind. I… I just need to rest a bit, and then I’ll climb with you!”
When I stopped for him, I felt my legs go weak, and I couldn’t muster any strength; they started to tremble uncontrollably. Just now, swimming and climbing the cliff had been high-intensity exercises done under extreme tension, and my muscles were already overwhelmed. Now, after such a physically exhausting climb, I hadn’t realized how bad it was. The moment I stopped, my muscles immediately lost control; even if I gritted my teeth, I couldn’t do anything.
I was anxious and restless, but had nowhere to exert my strength. Looking up, it was pitch black, and I had no idea how high we still had to go. My heart sank; I thought that if we kept climbing like this, who knows when we would reach the top? Even if we made it to the top, so what? It was still going to be a fierce battle, and by then, I would be even more exhausted; I might not even be able to lift my gun. With that thought, I steeled my heart, handed the torch to the cool lawyer, and tossed my paddle downwards, saying to him, “Climb my ass! Damn it, I can’t climb anymore. Forget it, whatever happens, let’s just fight it out!”
Upon hearing this, the cool lawyer’s face twisted in horror, and he nearly fainted, about to fall from the bronze tree. I hurriedly supported him and looked around, realizing that Lao Yang was nowhere to be found. I quickly asked him, “Where’s Lao Yang? Was he above us or below us just now?”
The cool lawyer barely had the strength to speak, waving his hand and pointing downwards. I remembered that while we were climbing, we had been rushing ahead. Lao Yang had seen me with the torch and had indeed fallen behind to cover for me, which is why I had left him behind. I hurriedly urged the cool lawyer to shine the torch down to check. When he did, I was nearly scared out of my wits; I saw a figure below, crouched on the bronze tree like a monkey, staring at us expressionlessly.
The person’s face was about one and a half times the size of an ordinary person’s, with features that looked like they were carved from stone, devoid of any human warmth. When the cool lawyer shone the torch down, it suddenly shrank back, seemingly wary of the flame. However, at the same time, a strange, almost smiling expression appeared on its face, extremely eerie.
Seeing that face made me shiver. I thought, Lao Yang is below us and now has vanished. Could it be that he has already met with misfortune? But then I remembered, if he had indeed encountered danger, he had a gun in hand; he would have fired a few shots. Not hearing any sounds, perhaps he was hiding below.
The cool lawyer, upon seeing that face, lost all his composure and screamed as he quickly fled upwards. I wanted to stop him, but it was too late. When I turned back to look below, I suddenly realized that the strange giant face had already pressed up against me, almost right at my feet.
Just now, from a distance, it seemed fine, but now that I was so close, I could see a huge face grinning menacingly at my feet. Caught off guard, I panicked and reflexively fired a shot. I heard a loud “bang” as the gun spat out a tongue of fire, hitting the giant face squarely in the forehead.
The shot was too close; the iron shot shattered the entire giant face to pieces, and the force of it pulled the giant’s body off the bronze tree, sending it tumbling into the darkness.
I didn’t expect the handgun to be so effective, and I let out a sigh of relief. Just as I was about to go and grab Master Liang, suddenly two pale, ghastly faces emerged from where the giant face had fallen. I was taken aback and reflexively reached for my gun again, but after pulling the trigger twice, there was no response. Then I remembered that this handgun could only hold two rounds; after firing, I had to manually reload it to continue using it.
However, the current situation didn’t allow me the luxury to reload calmly. Just as I opened the chamber, a claw had already landed on my shoulder. I turned around and saw a giant face pressed right up to my nose, realizing that something had somehow circled around to my back.
Master Liang had already taken the torch far away, and the light was gradually dimming. I couldn’t make out the features of this person and couldn’t determine what it was, so I had no choice but to act out of desperation and ram my head into it.
I put all my strength into this, but I didn’t expect the face to be as hard as stone. The impact made my head ring, and I nearly fell from the tree. At that moment, I suddenly heard Old Yang calling from somewhere: “Get down!!” At the same time, a gunshot rang out, and a flash of fire whizzed past, hitting the bronze tree next to my head and sending sparks flying everywhere.
I was nearly stunned by the gunshot and quickly retreated to the side. I touched my face and was horrified to find that the bullet’s airflow had left a blood mark on my skin.
Old Yang continued firing below, bullets flying everywhere, creating sparks, but unfortunately, none of the shots hit their target; almost all of them struck the bronze tree. A few bullets even ricocheted several times, zipping around in front of me like marbles.
I could no longer afford to care about those monsters. I dodged left and right, cursing in my heart that Old Yang was such a poor shot. At this rate, I might end up dead because of him.
However, his gunfire bought me some time. The strange beings seemed to be wary of the bullets and began to retreat. Seizing the opportunity, I took two rounds from the iron box under the gun barrel, loaded them into the chamber, and fired at the nearest grotesque face, sending it flying off the bronze tree.
With the immediate threat neutralized, I quickly looked down to check on Old Yang, only to find even more monsters peering out from the darkness. I could already see over a dozen giant faces, and it seemed they had all set their sights on me. Almost simultaneously, they moved, encircling me like phantoms.
I was terrified and couldn’t figure out what these things were. Judging by the shape of their bodies, they should be human, but how could humans climb in such monkey-like postures? Moreover, these monsters had heads that were far larger than those of normal people. But if they weren’t human, then what could they possibly be?
In the blink of an eye, two monsters jumped beside me. One grabbed my foot and pulled me down, while the other pressed directly onto my neck. I knew there was no chance to reload, so I transformed my gun into a hammer and swung it hard at the monster’s face that was pressing against me. I intended to knock this creature off the tree, but it merely leaned back for a moment before pressing against me again. At that moment, I suddenly noticed a crack appear on that massive face with a sharp sound.
