After finishing all this, he took a deep breath and shouted at the tunnels on both sides. “Damn it, bring it on! Let your grandpa have a look!!” His voice echoed back and forth, with various echoes intertwining, extending deep into the tunnel.

After the shout, he began to sing “The Big Flower Sedan,” and for a moment, a complex symphonic roar composed of various echoes filled the pipes that had been silent for 30 years.

After singing four or five lines, Li Zu quieted down. Once all the echoes faded, he heard a different series of faint echoes coming from the tunnel where the black bear was running away. The faint echoes grew louder and louder, and he gradually discerned that the sound of wooden clogs was emerging again.

Li Zu bit down on a cold flame fire and opened the detonator. He slowly retreated into the darkness.

The sound of clogs came very quickly, and Li Zu almost didn’t bother to think about what it could be, as there were too few core clues. Since he wanted to know what it was, he decided to see it with his own eyes. Less imagination and scaring himself, more action.

The clogs stopped at the mouth of the passage. Li Zu closed his eyes, fixating on the darkness beyond the glow. He waited for something to appear from within.

It must be a gigantic creature, he thought, envisioning a massive snake-like entity emerging from the darkness, its scales shimmering with a ghostly green light.

However, what first emerged from the darkness was a mass of black mist, as if a cloud had separated from the distant darkness and surged toward the lit intersection.

The darkness increased, and the black mist gradually filled the entire space of the intersection. Then, Li Zu heard a clear sound of clogs, emanating from the top of the pipe in the intersection area.

It wasn’t produced by the black mist; it seemed like some device had been activated at the top instead.

The black mist surrounded Li Zu’s clothes, shifting in depth and shape, filling the entire space. What the hell is this? A ghost? Or some kind of toxic smoke?

How could the smoke be chasing after them?

Li Zu took a few steps forward to get a clearer look. As he slowly approached, he heard some resonating noises coming from that direction. Upon hearing the sound, he instinctively felt uncomfortable, and then he realized what it was.

It was the sound of insects vibrating their wings. The sound was dense, indicating that the individual insects were very small.

Could a swarm of bugs scare the black bear like this? He sighed and suddenly noticed something was off around him. He looked at the wall beside him and found that the asphalt was writhing.

The protrusions on the asphalt, resembling a skin disease, began to move. He lit the cold flame fire and discovered that the entire wall of the pipe was not made of asphalt at all, but rather a multitude of beetles the size of shirt buttons.

Countless small beetles began to shift, and the entire pipe wall seemed alive, with the black protrusions twisting in various ways. There was no end in sight, and it appeared that the entire pipe was filled with these insects.

“Damn it.” Li Zu felt a wave of frustration and pressed the detonation button.

In an instant, or rather, in just one-fortieth of a second, the power of the C4 far exceeded Li Cu’s expectations. The air pressure created by the pipes was even more exaggerated; the entire pipe felt like a cannon firing. In that moment, Li Cu was knocked unconscious by the air pressure, and he didn’t even hear the sound of the explosion before he was shot out like a cannonball.

The first impact was against the wall on his left, over 100 meters away from where he stood. His knee collided with the wall, resulting in a shattering fracture, and his body was crushed against the wall, sliding six or seven meters before hitting the ground. He bounced back and collided with the opposite wall.

It’s over, he thought to himself; Boss Wu is going to make a cut on his hand again.

He woke up after the last impact and began to vomit blood profusely, blood gushing from his nostrils, and his body was covered in abrasions revealing raw flesh. His eardrums buzzed painfully, and he felt a severe dizziness; everything around him was pitch black, and then a white light appeared before his eyes.

It wasn’t light from the outside, he believed; he was going to die.

Great, he thought, he was going to die immediately without feeling any pain.

This was really different from playing video games. He felt like a fool, too reckless.

His consciousness gradually faded, the white light expanded, filling his entire field of vision, and then it began to shrink again. Suddenly, he sensed a speed, a speed of consciousness departing, and finally, there was darkness.

He was about to lose consciousness.

In that moment, pain suddenly surged, pulling his awareness back. He felt his legs growing increasingly painful, followed by his hands, back, and chest.

He opened his eyes, took a deep breath to suppress the pain, which he had been holding back for several hours, then gritted his teeth and sat up. He leaned back against the wall, which was not particularly stable.

He couldn’t move sideways. As he leaned against it, the wall shifted, revealing a hidden door, and Li Cu fell headfirst into it.

It was a straight downward passage. Li Cu tumbled into the passage, landing in a drainage canal.

The water flowed rapidly, and he was instantly swept away by the current, with no strength to struggle. However, the drainage channel was not completely dark.

He saw numerous skeletal remains piled around the canal, phosphorescent and glowing, all of them white bones.

He felt no fear, because he was about to join this harmonious family.

Then he noticed something was off: the drainage channel was not made of concrete; it was carved from stone.

All made of black stone, the ancient, oxidized, and corroded patterns were very apparent; this place had to be at least several thousand years old.

Next, he vaguely saw murals on these black stones.

He couldn’t make them out clearly, but his curiosity compelled him to try to reach the shore; he wanted to understand what was happening before he died.

He struggled in the water, his hands and feet not responding to his control, the current carrying him forward. He saw a stone archway beginning to appear in this strange drainage system.

It was a black stone dam held up by iron chains, with some simple carvings that seemed to be designed to block the flow of water. Now, suspended above the current, Li Cu had to be cautious to avoid being struck by these stone dams.

As he got closer to the depths of the drainage channel, these dams grew larger, and the passageway felt wider. The accumulated white bones also increased in number.

His body temperature was dropping lower and lower, and the cold water eased his pain. The numbness throughout his body made him feel less uncomfortable, but he was also increasingly unable to control his body. His consciousness began to blur; he fought to keep himself awake, but he didn’t know how long it had been. Suddenly, he jolted awake again and found that the water had become calm, leaving him stranded on a rocky shore.

He had arrived at a cave with a vertical height that was quite significant. The bottom of the cave was covered with small stones, all of which had been ground down by the flowing water into pebbles the size of gravel.