The cave is roughly the size of two basketball courts, with a stony bottom that is higher in the middle and lower around the edges, where it is submerged underwater. All the small pebbles are black, worn smooth like black Go stones. The water here is very calm, and one can feel the water seeping into the soft stones below, which should be part of a filtration system.

Where did this water come from? Is it rainwater, or was it already underground in this ruin? If it is rainwater, why am I still alive? Shouldn’t I have already been completely corroded away?

He looked down at his hands; they were pale and covered in countless sores. He realized something was wrong—not that he hadn’t been corroded, but rather that he felt no pain at all. Had his neck just been smashed to pieces?

He struggled to twist his body, and as soon as he emerged from the water, gravity caused excruciating pain in his knees, making him scream out in agony.

However, the pain jolted Li Zu out of his dazed state. He yelled a few times and crawled up to the top of the dry stony beach.

Lying on his back, he saw plant roots hanging down from the ceiling like waterfalls. The cave walls were also covered with numerous roots sprawling down. Phosphorescence filtered up from the water’s surface, casting a magical green light that enveloped the entire cave.

He looked at his skin, which was severely corroded. Even if he were to heal, he would probably end up looking like someone with serious burn injuries. But the corrosive nature of the water here had weakened, likely mixed with some underground water. Otherwise, he should have already turned to bones.

He didn’t dwell on this further; instead, he began to remove all his clothes to inspect his wounds. Since he had not died by now, he likely wouldn’t die at all. Since survival was assured, there was no need to engage in futile actions.

He examined his knees, which had completely deformed, and the pain showed no signs of alleviating. “I need a professional doctor,” he thought. For a moment, he suddenly remembered school, sitting at his desk doing homework, and watching a girl in a white dress from the neighboring class walk past the window.

Those days were simple and safe, filled only with the worry of a teacher’s angry shout. At the time, he found it utterly annoying, but looking back now, it seemed so uncomplicated.

How had he ended up in such a state?

His backpack contained only some food; the rest were just a rope and a few climbing tools. He silently calculated that with one leg incapacitated, he would only have one functional leg left. The recovery time would likely take about three months. If he could hold out here for half a month, he could jump back into the water as a disabled person and find a way out.

He had to call for help; otherwise, this death would be too painful.

But he couldn’t think of a way to call for help. He sat there, groaning, using most of his energy to endure the pain while trying to think with the little energy he had left.

His eyes gradually adjusted to the surrounding light, and some things that were previously invisible began to take shape in the green glow.

He saw that among the plant roots, many reliefs and statues were hidden, almost merging with the vines, making them hard to detect. The distance was still too far to see the details clearly, but among the statues, some were quite large. He saw one statue entangled in vines, yet the image seemed remarkably familiar.

“Oh, SHIT!” he realized what he had seen. In this place, he thought he wouldn’t be surprised or hesitate by anything he encountered—whether it was a Buddha statue, an unfamiliar local deity, or some other foreign religion. But he never expected to see the statue of this person appear in this place. He was stunned, feeling a bit disoriented in time and space.

This underground structure in the desert, built since the 1980s, had a bizarre architectural design, and countless pieces of information were swirling chaotically in his mind. “So that’s how it is; everything here serves this purpose,” Li Cu understood. He got it, and he found it amusing, but he couldn’t bring himself to laugh. A wave of sorrow washed over him: “I can’t die; I need to take what I can see out of here.”

He looked up at the hanging roots, took out a rope and a hook from his backpack, and made a noose. He tried to reach the roots and tie the noose around them. The roots were three or four people’s distance away from him, and he threw the rope a few times, managing to wrap it around a root as thick as his arm.

He swung his arm, but every movement sent sharp pain throughout his body. He collapsed to the ground, exhausted, and took a few bites of hardtack, swallowing it down with the blood in his throat. He closed his eyes and began to sleep. The other end of the rope was tied around his waist; he didn’t untie it, and he wasn’t actually asleep—in fact, he finally lost consciousness.

On the other side, Liang Wan was in a dark room. This was a place close to the core of Area 3; she had wandered aimlessly until she calmed down and found herself here. This room was the only “room” she had seen on her way, as all other entrances led to another pipe.

The room contained abandoned tables and chairs, with a very rigid design but made of quite exquisite materials. She decided to rest here; there was a ventilation duct in the room, and a warm breeze flowed in from it. In the cold, damp pipes, this warm air made the room feel very safe.

At the end of the room, there was a closed water basin. From the many coat hooks and wooden cabinets on the walls, it seemed to be a bathing area. There was also what appeared to be a previous installation for a showerhead, which was now gone. The water in the basin was slightly warm.

Liang Wan rested in the chair for a long time, and she had no doubt that Li Cu and Su Wan were dead. In the chaos, she had jumped into the filtration pool with Yang Hao. That boy didn’t care about her at all; he only thought about running for himself.

Men were unreliable in any situation, especially when they were needed the most. She glanced at her watch, and the countdown was still ticking. A third of the time had already passed since Wu Xie said they needed to survive for three days.

No matter what Wu Xie meant back then, the fact was that surviving here for three days was indeed very difficult. She washed her face in the basin and realized the water was very clean. Looking at herself, she felt a stirring of emotions. After hesitating for a moment, she took off all her clothes and stepped closer to the basin.

The water wasn’t boiling hot, but it was warm enough to start cleansing every pore on her body, giving her a dizzying sense of pleasure.

She buried her head in the water to calm herself down. The glow of the fluorescent stick wasn’t strong, but in the darkness, it gave her the illusion of being in a spa. She lifted her head and touched her forehead, realizing she had a fever.

In high-pressure situations, her body often developed a fever for no apparent reason. She looked at her shoulders, where patterns slowly began to emerge on her fair skin. It was a totem of a phoenix.

She had always been puzzled by her tattoo; she couldn’t remember when she had gotten it. This pattern only appeared when her body temperature rose, and she had only seen the same phenomenon on someone else.