In the basement of the villa, a Tibetan man finished his shower, and a chubby guy came up from the swimming pool. They were shaving together in the changing room. After the Tibetan man shaved, he used a special purple ointment to rub the skin around his tattoos on his hands. The skin around his tattoos was a completely different color from his own skin, with a ring of scars around the tattoos. It was clear that this Tibetan man wanted to wear down the scars.

The chubby guy spoke a few clumsy words in Tibetan, and the Tibetan man replied in slightly awkward Chinese, “You don’t have to force yourself to speak; I won’t understand anyway.”

The chubby guy chuckled self-deprecatingly, “How can you look so good when it’s not even your own skin?”

“Wisdom of my ancestors,” the Tibetan man said, pulling out two fingers from his pocket and comparing them with his own fingers, revealing a look of disappointment. He began to wash the fingers in the water. After cleaning them, he took out a box and placed the two fingers inside. Inside, there were already a dozen such fingers arranged like cigars, all shriveled and dried. He sprinkled a bit of brown powder on the newly added fingers before closing the box.

The chubby guy looked a bit anxious and said, “You’re only interested in long fingers, not in thick fingers, right?”

The Tibetan man held the chubby guy’s hand and looked at it. “If I cut it off, my knife will weep.”

“I didn’t expect your knife to have a tender side,” the chubby guy replied.

“No, my knife loves cleanliness.” The Tibetan man got dressed, braided his long hair, and then left.

The chubby guy shrugged and said, “All the fighters are weirdos.”

Back upstairs, Xiuxiu had already tidied up the room, making it look as if no one had ever been there. The chubby guy said, “Hey, you don’t have to be so particular.”

“Basic courtesy,” Xiuxiu replied. The chubby guy kicked the sofa that Xiuxiu had just arranged, and she angrily asked, “What are you doing?”

He used a knife to cut through the leather under the sofa cushions and pulled out several long guns, pulling the bolts back to start loading bullets. “We’re going to have a tough fight here; I think tidying up is useless; we need to renovate.”

Saying this, he tossed a gun to Xiuxiu. “Come on, Uncle Fat will teach you how to shoot.”

Li Cu slowly woke up, coughing violently and spitting out the sand from his nasal cavity.

He was no longer in the sand, which felt strange. He touched his head and opened his eyes. A wind lamp was placed beside him, casting a dim light that illuminated an area of about three or four square meters.

He wanted to call out because his legs hurt badly, but his regained rationality kept him from doing so immediately. He saw the vines tangled around him.

Except for the area around him, everywhere else was filled with thousands of entwined cypress trees with multiple heads.

He sat up and saw a person sitting in front of him. To his surprise, he didn’t recognize this person. It was a complete stranger sitting opposite him.

The person was dressed in white, wearing something like a jacket, and was quietly watching him. It was a young man.

Through the young man’s back, Li Cu saw a huge hole in the ground. Due to the angle, he couldn’t see how deep it was. The entrance was rugged and seemed to be naturally formed.

Why wasn’t I suffocated? Where is this place? Did this guy save me? What about the others?

He turned his head, rubbed his temples, feeling a bit foggy, and asked, “Who are you? Where is this place?”
The man opposite him didn’t answer but instead asked him a question: “Give me your gear, and we can both get in.”
Li Cu frowned, feeling perplexed. “What? What gear? Where’s my friend?”
He looked up at Li Cu and noticed that this person was exceptionally handsome, with a fair face and no blemishes. If it weren’t for the voice, it would be hard to tell whether he was male or female. The man continued, “Do you understand? As long as you give me the gear, we can get in, into that cave.”
In an instant, besides feeling strange, Li Cu found it somewhat amusing. He suddenly felt at ease, thinking that everyone else didn’t matter much anymore. Instead, this person in front of him was quite entertaining to talk to.
He asked the man, “Why do we need to go into that cave?”
The other man laughed, as if Li Cu’s question was silly. He laughed for a long time, then sighed and said, “Why do we need to go into that cave? Young man, all the wealth of Black Water City is inside that cave—gold, jewels, and precious stones. Regardless of its historical value, just based on the intrinsic value of those items, it would be enough for us to live comfortably for several lifetimes.”
Li Cu sat down, watching the man grow increasingly excited as he spoke.
The man looked at Li Cu and continued, “You know? Inside this cave, there are things that don’t exist in the human world. It’s a treasure trove of ancient artifacts from a bygone era. All the gold and silver jewelry from before this generation is in that cave, and we have no records of it. These items have been sought after by governments and historians from all over, who have offered high prices for them. They need these artifacts to complete their historical timelines. We only need to throw out one or two pieces, just one or two, and we’ll be set for life.”
Upon hearing this, Li Cu’s interest completely faded. It wasn’t that he didn’t love money; in fact, he quite liked it. But for him, such empty talk, combined with the notion of such vast wealth, exceeded anything he could comprehend or control. He found it all illusory and unrealistic. Moreover, he didn’t trust the person making these claims; they sounded like clumsy lines from a novel.
If the cave contained only a few pieces of jewelry, he might believe it, but the way the other person described it as such immense wealth—so vast that it seemed to dwarf even the entire world’s wealth—felt like a trope from an online novel. He thought there were many people who could be enchanted by various legends, but he had never encountered anyone who would believe these tales without rational analysis.
Yet, he felt a strong impulse to debate the matter with him, which he found strange. He could clearly think about whether Su Wan and the others were not by his side, whether they were dead.
But there was no sadness; he didn’t find it important. He just wanted to continue discussing this issue with the man.
Li Cu then asked, “You speak so convincingly; have you actually been inside the cave?”

Li Cu was thinking that if he just asked this question, he would definitely wake the man from his fantasy. For him, everyone was visiting this place for the first time; it was impossible for anyone to have entered the cave before, and the conclusions he drew from various legends must be illusory. Using those illusory legends to get others to help him was irresponsible. However, Li Cu miscalculated. He sarcastically remarked at the man, but before he could finish his sentence, the other party nodded, looking at him with a knowing, even disdainful gaze, and said, “Of course, I’ve been inside.”

Li Cu was taken aback. If that were the case, this answer was indeed unexpected. Had he really been inside? But after thinking for a moment, he found it unlikely and pointed to the cave, asking, “Have you really gone down there?”

The man nodded and said, “Of course, I’ve been inside.”

Li Cu continued, “If what you say is true, that there are so many gold and silver treasures inside the cave, and you’ve been there, why did you come back? If what you say is true, you should never run out of riches for hundreds of lifetimes. Why did you return to this place?”