Chapter 207: Beetles
“It’s probably some kind of worm, living on the stone slabs inside the cave. Those tubes might serve the same function as spider silk.” After coming out, Xie Chongyi took their water cups, glanced at them with obvious distaste, then had Wu Heng hand him a clean one. After taking a sip of hot water, he said to Xue Qi, “You should be able to handle this. Why did you call us here?”
“I can’t!” The blue spider clung to the top of the tent. “There are too many of them—I can’t deal with that many!”
“And we still haven’t even seen what the worms actually look like. What if they’re really disgusting?”
Wu Heng strongly agreed with Xue Qi. “Exactly.”
Xie Chongyi glanced at him. “Then I’ll go in and deal with it. You can come in after I’ve cleaned everything up?”
Wu Heng immediately replied, “No.”
“What do you want, then?” Xie Chongyi asked with a smile.
“We go in together,” Wu Heng said, looking toward X, who had retreated into the tent. “The bird and the dog stay behind.”
X completely agreed. Bringing a small bird into a place like that was obviously a bad idea. It relaxed and lay down, while a white blur dashed over to Wu Heng’s feet, eagerly trying to please him.
X lifted its neck to take a look. A dog is still a dog.
“You have to stay,” Wu Heng said to Shukui, who was about to follow them. “Stay with X and guard the luggage outside.”
The five of them entered the cave again. From the back, Lin Mengzhi muttered “excuse me, excuse me…” as he squeezed his way forward, all the way between Wu Heng and Xie Chongyi, looking visibly uncomfortable.
He waited for a while, but Wu Heng didn’t ask what was wrong. Finally, Lin Mengzhi spoke up himself, sounding aggrieved, “Damn it, I ended up hugging Xue Shen and sleeping like that the whole night yesterday.”
“I saw,” Wu Heng said, as vine threads flowed out from his palm, extending and twisting into a blade.
“That’s because I fell into the river yesterday—it was freezing as hell.”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t.” Wu Heng gave Lin Mengzhi a puzzled look. “Mengzhi, I didn’t say anything.”
Lin Mengzhi was on the verge of losing it, because he felt like something about this situation just wasn’t quite right.
“You just slept hugging a guy your own age for one night—nothing to make a big deal out of,” Wu Heng said.
Lin Mengzhi finally found what felt strange.
“Then why didn’t he sleep hugging his own brother?!”
“Maybe you were the one clinging to the class rep and wouldn’t let go?”
“Bullshit. Xue Shen isn’t a woman.”
“So it has to be a woman for you to hug them?” Wu Heng tapped the dry rock wall with the handle of his knife. “As long as they look decent, you’d be fine with it, right?” At this point, he was referring to Liu Ning.
“Fine with what?” Lin Mengzhi shot back instinctively, then pressed on, unwilling to let it go. “Fine with what? Say it clearly!”
Xie Chongyi pulled Lin Mengzhi back from behind and raised a finger. “Shh. We should be speaking quietly now.”
They had entered the cave and were standing where they had been before.
“Should we just set it on fire?” Lin Mengzhi asked.
“Can you guarantee the flames would only burn those worms?”
“Who could guarantee that? Fire and water don’t discriminate.”
Xue Shen stepped forward silently. “The ecosystems in places like this are usually very fragile. There might even be species here that humans have never discovered before. Burning everything would be a pity.”
Wu Heng sheathed his blade, thought for a moment, then slid it back out from his sweater sleeve and placed it into Xie Chongyi’s palm. “It will protect you.”
“Thanks, husband.”
In the pitch darkness, after the sound of someone retching, a voice rang out: “Who’s talking? This cave is haunted.”
Wu Heng ignored the chaos behind him. He reached out, his palm touching one of the milky-white tubes. A thin slit appeared on its surface, and vine-like threads seeped into it. In an instant, starting from the green glow beneath Wu Heng’s palm, the threads spread through every tube, and the cave walls ahead were faintly illuminated in green.
The underground river at their feet was as wide as a lake, its surface rippling. From afar came the rushing sound of water, proving that the cave was far from a flat, straight passage.
A rustling sound quickly spread, followed by sharp clack-clack noises like armor plates colliding.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Xue Qi said, turning his back as he focused on the rear.
“We’re already in here—what good feeling could there possibly be?” Lin Mengzhi had barely finished speaking when something wet dripped onto his head. He looked up—only to see a pair of enormous eyes, like red lanterns, right in front of him.
Pfft. A dagger stabbed straight into its throat. With a twist of the wrist, its head separated from its body and fell into the water with a splash.
But its body still clung to the rock wall. It had many legs, hooked like barbs, holding it firmly in place.
Xie Chongyi pulled back his blade and wiped the sticky slime off on Lin Mengzhi’s shoulder. “Be careful.”
“How is it…” Lin Mengzhi swallowed. “Damn—how is it this big?” It was nearly the size of an adult man. Its armored shell still showed the segmented rings typical of a worm’s body, but compared to the tiny, bean-sized soft worms people were familiar with, it was practically a completely different creature.
“So this cave isn’t part of Deathlands—then what is outside?”
“It’s not on the map, but it can only be one of the three bases: Huahu, Xiangxue, or Wurenxiang,” Xue Shen said, wiping his blade on his arm. As soon as he finished speaking, he turned and thrust his knife out again. With a hoarse screech, another mutated worm fell into the water.
“They’re here.” Wu Heng tried to use his wood-based ability, only to realize there were almost no usable plants here—there weren’t even wood-attributed insects. He moved forward as the vines beneath his feet crept cautiously along the ground while also climbing up the surrounding rock walls. The crackling sounds of combat above their heads were enough to show just how many mutated worms there were.
Any that slipped past the poppies had to be dealt with by the people on the ground.
The foul, fishy-smelling slime inside the worms rained down in sprays. The blue-glowing river surface splashed with ripples of all sizes, and the entire cave gradually filled with a cold, rancid stench.
They continued forward, weaving through towering rock formations that looked like they had been eroded by flowing water. The steady drip-drip of water came in waves, echoing endlessly around them.
After going on a killing spree, the poppy checked every corner to make sure nothing had slipped through. Only then did it return to the group—without forgetting to lick the worm fluid clean off their bodies.
“It feels like a snake crawling on me,” Xue Qi said, goosebumps rising all over his skin. Then he frowned, noticing his breathing becoming labored as he looked down. “Why is something squeezing my waist so hard?”
When he lowered his head, he realized the thing wrapped around his waist wasn’t green—but yellow-brown.
“This is bad.” He looked up, and in the blink of an eye, his entire body was lifted off the ground.
Luckily, Lin Mengzhi was closest. Reacting quickly, he grabbed Xue Qi’s ankle. The thing constricting him came from deep within the darkness, looking like a yellow-brown blade of dry grass—but the rough, grainy texture made it clear it wasn’t a plant.
Lin Mengzhi lashed out with a flaming whip. The moment it touched fire, the thing recoiled.
But when Xue Qi slammed heavily back onto the ground, Lin Mengzhi’s own ankle was seized instead. This time, it had learned—giving no time for a human to react. It hoisted him up and whipped him around violently, not even giving him a chance to cry out before he lost consciousness.
“Brother! Lin Mengzhi! Hurry!” Xue Qi struggled to his feet, his head spinning. When he touched the back of his head, he realized he’d somehow split it open and was covered in blood.
Only then did the three people ahead notice the two had fallen behind.
“You keep moving forward—I’ll go check,” Xue Shen said, looking at Wu Heng.
The poppy was still scouting ahead. Wu Heng and Xie Chongyi continued forward slowly. The path beneath their feet began to slope, and the surrounding water grew an even clearer, brighter blue. Looking closely, they could see pale pink fish swimming beneath the surface.
“They don’t have eyes,” Xie Chongyi said softly, watching the fish below. “Because they’ve lived in a lightless cave for so long, their eyes gradually degenerated—but their other senses became much sharper.”
“Pretty nice-looking,” Wu Heng said. He usually didn’t have much appetite for creatures that were both beautiful and resilient.
“If we let everyone behind us pass through this cave, the ecosystem here might get damaged.” Xie Chongyi tapped lightly on the rock wall, feeling a bit regretful.
“Just tell them to be careful not to damage it,” Wu Heng replied. “Some caves have been developed into tourist spots before—it should be fine.”
“But there are always plenty of people who can’t resist leaving a ‘so-and-so was here’ mark.”
Wu Heng smiled faintly. “Then just kill anyone we catch doing that. This place is under our control anyway.”
After chatting for a while, Xue Shen returned, dragging Xue Qi and Lin Mengzhi with him. “They were cave-dwelling katydids. Taken care of.”
Xue Qi could still walk on his own, but Lin Mengzhi couldn’t. The katydids had learned their lesson and knocked him unconscious in advance. Xue Shen hoisted him onto his back, then met the meaningful looks from the other two. “Do you still remember what our mission is?”
They were responsible for exploring the depth of the cave—reaching the end and opening a passage. Meanwhile, the poppy spread out inside the cave, searching in all directions to confirm whether any aggressive creatures toward humans still remained.
After nearly half a day, they finally reached the end. The dark, heavy rock wall only produced dull thuds when struck—its thickness was obvious.
Xie Chongyi cautiously tried to use his ability, but Wu Heng caught a glimpse of it. Acting casual, he withdrew his hand. “We’d better figure out the direction of the rock layers first. Otherwise, if we make a move, the cave might collapse—and we could end up buried alive in here.”
“I’ve got a way,” Xue Qi said. “You guys break it, I’ll ‘stitch’ it back together. As long as it’s stabilized, that’s enough, right?”
“You and Xue Shen work together,” Xie Chongyi said. “Put Lin Mengzhi down first. Is anyone here going to eat him?”
“Do it,” Wu Heng said. He pressed his palm against the cold rock wall. In an instant, a blinding white light spread from a single point into the entire surface, and the sound of cracking stone began to push forward, layer by layer, deep into the rock.
The water flowed along with the beam of light, sweeping up the constantly falling rocks, while highly adhesive spider silk gradually pieced together the shattered stone layers and collapsing walls.
A scream suddenly echoed from somewhere, muffled and distant.
“It’s not me—I’m fine!” Xue Qi shouted indignantly as all three turned to look at him. He might not be the strongest, but he wasn’t that weak!
They turned to look at Lin Mengzhi—he still hadn’t woken up.
Wu Heng withdrew his gaze and continued pushing forward. Beyond this point, nothing could be seen anymore—not even with an ability user’s enhanced vision. They could only rely on Wu Heng’s light ability to see. The ground was already piled with broken corpses, while the damaged rock layers were being repaired in time. As long as they later introduced some mutated plants to fully stabilize the structure, the problem would be basically solved.
But the screams grew more frequent—sharper, more piercing.
Wu Heng frowned. This time, he simply used his full strength and forced the passage all the way through. His figure shot forward through the newly opened tunnel, emerging directly outside the cave.
Daylight burst into view.
For a brief moment, Wu Heng couldn’t see anything—just a blinding white glare. When his vision finally cleared, a giant armored beetle, brandishing twin scythe-like forelimbs, had already flown right up to him.
He rolled aside instantly. The twin scythes slashed down where he had just been standing. Without hesitation, he lashed out with vines and drained it dry. As the buzzing of its wings faded from his ears, the previously unclear screams became sharp and distinct.
The base Xue Shen had mentioned was already swallowed by a storm of yellow sand. The beetles in the sky clustered like dark clouds. Humans who hadn’t managed to evacuate in time had become an easy feast—
and on the ground, a tide of corpses was surging toward them.