Li Cu felt something was off. What was he doing? Why had he encountered a strange stranger after sinking into the sand? This stranger spoke of a treasure here and invited him to explore it.

It was abnormal, but why didn’t he care? He felt calm inside, very sleepy, and wanted to enter the dream realm of the stone that the stranger mentioned. Even though it felt strange, he thought, “Let it be.”

No, this wasn’t right.

As Li Cu drifted into a deep sleep, just before losing consciousness, he would always reach the peak of his judgment about what was abnormal, and then suddenly wake himself up. But after waking, he would immediately fall back into the same feeling. He couldn’t break free.

Li Cu forced himself to shift his focus. If his mind wouldn’t let him feel strange or have any thoughts of resistance, then what about other thoughts?

He tried to gauge the temperature around him; it was quite pleasant. His skin was dry, and his clothes were also dry. How long had he been rescued?

He remembered just coming up from the reservoir, and he was soaked to the skin, even his underwear. Now he was completely dry. Had he really been rescued for at least four hours? Was it really that long?

He found this a bit strange, and as soon as that thought arose, he couldn’t think anymore. No matter what, his mind couldn’t provoke thoughts about this “strange” notion.

He couldn’t reason, couldn’t judge logically. His train of thought was interrupted.

What to do? There was definitely something wrong, but his brain was forcing him to ignore it. He had to take action. Li Cu felt around his body aimlessly and found a package containing serum.

He pulled out a syringe from inside. His mind was blank, unable to concentrate. With the last bit of control over his consciousness, he stabbed the syringe into his thigh.

Due to the sluggishness of his consciousness, the process was slow, and because of that, the pain was even more intense. Instantly, his brain began to awaken.

With each stab of the syringe, he became more alert. He stabbed himself repeatedly, losing count, and everything around him faded away, plunging him into endless darkness.

He immediately noticed the dry sensation on his body had vanished; his clothes were still not dry.

Was he still in the sand? He moved slightly but felt something was wrong; the surroundings didn’t feel like sand. He turned his head and felt cold, slippery scales.

Then, the thing coiled around him began to twist and tighten.

“It’s that snake,” Li Cu realized. Judging by the strength and size of the scales, it must be the white snake. He could also feel the sand rubbing against the scales and him.

He was still beneath the sandy ground. But somehow, this snake had burrowed into the sand and wrapped itself around him.

Li Cu inhaled a few breaths; a foul smell hit him, the air must have been compressed by the snake coiling around him.

Was he just dreaming? Definitely not. That sense of clarity and reality was something a dream couldn’t provide. He felt that one of his hands could still move, and he was still gripping the syringe. He didn’t know what state his thigh was in after he had stabbed it.

He turned his head and felt the snake’s tongue flicking at his neck. Then, the snake’s head lifted slightly against his face, emitting a strange low-frequency sound. At the same time, a strong scent—or rather, a fishy odor—spurted from the snake’s mouth.

Li Cu began to feel dazed again. In a daze, he found himself at the edge of a cave. As he approached, he realized that a large boulder had covered most of the entrance, leaving only a narrow gap. Even so, the gap was surprisingly wide.

“Go in,” the man in white said to him. “What are you waiting for?”

Li Cu looked at his hand and found that the syringe was gone, replaced by a rope. He smiled foolishly and said, “Let’s go!”

They found a long stone nearby and tied the rope to it. The man warned, “Be careful; the walls of the cave are very smooth, making it hard to find footholds. Don’t just slide down.”

With that, he took the lead and descended into the cave.

Li Cu followed, and then came Su Wan.

The three of them held onto the rocky foot and slowly retreated to the bottom of the cave entrance. Li Cu noticed that the walls were indeed very smooth, with no crevices to grip onto. This meant that his initial plan of climbing like an ordinary person wouldn’t work; they had to rely on the rope and the strength of their legs to descend, which significantly increased the difficulty.

After descending for about ten minutes, Li Cu shone his flashlight downwards and gasped in amazement. He realized that what the man had said was not an exaggeration. He could see the dazzling golden light reflected from the gold at the bottom of the cave.

Even though they were still some distance from the bottom, the sight of the brilliant golden light raised questions about just how much gold was buried in this cave.

Moreover, the bottom of the cave was just the entrance; if this area was already filled with gold, the amount of gold inside the cave must be astonishing.

Continuing downwards, within half an hour, they all reached the bottom of the cave. Instead of landing on rock, they found themselves standing on a thick layer of gold bars. To their surprise, the bottom of the cave was not the pitch-black space they had imagined. At the turning point of the cave, there was a lateral passage that revealed a dazzling brilliance.

How could there be light underground? Li Cu found it very strange. He let go of the rope, jumped down, and stepped onto the golden ground as he walked deeper into the cave. As he walked, he had previously been half-skeptical of the man’s words, but now it seemed that words could hardly describe this place. It was not merely a treasure cave but a massive water pipe clogged with countless gold, silver, and jewels.

Yes, the gold had completely blocked the entire area.

Li Cu rushed into the depths of the cave, and at that moment, he realized that all the light was actually sunlight, streaming in through a dozen small holes in the ceiling of the cave. Clearly, this underground space had a connection to the outside world. This part served both to ventilate the cave and to bring sunlight inside. Although the sunlight was very faint, similar to the light from a flashlight, in the darkness, the reflection from the gold illuminated the surroundings with a golden glow.

Li Cu had been stunned, and he stepped forward. Su Wan, who could be considered a wealthy man, also turned pale at that moment, remaining silent. Clearly, in the presence of such gold, the concept of wealth was rendered meaningless. Having seen this gold, even if one had never possessed it, would make one regard money as mere dirt.

The two of them moved forward, and just then, the person in front suddenly called out, “Wait a moment, don’t move! I have something to say.”

In that instant, both Li Cu and Su Wan stopped. Li Cu’s heart was filled with vigilance because he had heard that person mention before that the gold here was so abundant that even if a hundred more people came to share it, each one would still be among the richest in the world. Generally, people wouldn’t harbor the notion of monopolizing such wealth, but one couldn’t say that there were no crazies in this world, no one blinded by money. The person had said that in a dream; if they were to see it in real-time, their actions might be shocking. In this world, there were countless examples of people killing each other over such situations.

So when that person said to wait, Li Cu immediately grabbed Su Wan. However, when they finally saw that person, they realized that his expression was not one of joy or despair upon seeing wealth, but rather a coldness or perhaps cunning.