Liu Dashao thought to himself, “Damn it, this creature is truly monstrous! It split this massive stone door in half in one strike. If it hit a person, there wouldn’t even be ashes left!”
It seemed slow, but it was actually fast—there was no time for anyone to hesitate. The creature, with its muscular legs, charged toward them at lightning speed. Seeing this, Liu Dashao gritted his teeth and shouted loudly, “You all run! I’ll handle this thing!” With that, the Taoist Master’s Sword slowly emerged from its sheath.
After hearing Liu Dashao’s words, the others didn’t hesitate and immediately dashed into the darkness of the tomb passage. As Big Guoguo ran, he couldn’t help but look back at Liu Dashao fighting the creature, his mind filled with confusion and concern.
The group ran further and further away, the passage ahead still pitch-black. Looking back, the scene of Liu Dashao battling the creature grew increasingly blurry until it finally vanished into darkness.
The four sprinted frantically down the tomb corridor, their flashlights shaking wildly as they ran.
No one knew exactly how long they had run before Big Guoguo called everyone to a stop. The four collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Big Guoguo said, “That creature is so powerful—do you think Master Liu can handle it alone? I’m afraid he might not make it.”
Fan Debiao snatched the Big Tuanyuan cigarette box from Big Guoguo, pulled one out, and stuck it in his mouth. “Don’t worry,” he said confidently. “My brother’s got serious skills. He’s a legitimate descendant of Zhang Tian师, the Taoist Master. With the Taoist Master’s Sword in hand, even if he can’t defeat the creature, he can definitely escape.”
Big Guoguo had been extremely worried about Liu Dashao’s safety, but after hearing Fan Debiao’s words, he felt somewhat reassured. Standing up, he looked around and noticed they were still inside the tomb passage. Shining his flashlight, he saw darkness both ahead and behind them. He found this strange and said, “We’ve run for so long—how come we’re still in the tomb passage? And even with the flashlight, we can’t see the end. How long could this passage possibly be?”
Fan Debiao chimed in, “Yeah, we’ve run at least three kilometers. Based on the terrain here, we should’ve exited the mountain and dropped down to the ridge by now—unless we weren’t running straight!”
Big Guoguo shook his head. “No, I observed while running. We definitely went straight—I’ll vouch for that with my honor.”
Fan Debiao scratched his head, puzzled. “That’s strange then—if we went straight, why are we still here?”
“Hey, old grave robber,” Fan Debiao suddenly asked, “did you notice if we were going uphill or downhill?”
Big Guoguo replied impatiently, “Didn’t I just say we went straight? Uphill or downhill would be a diagonal path!”
Fan Debiao muttered, “Man, this is really weird. Could we have hit a ghost wall?”
Cai Qingchong spat on the ground and scoffed, “Ghost wall? That’s all nonsense. There’s no such thing as ghosts or spirits in this world. Don’t be so superstitious.”
Fan Debiao argued, “You can’t say that! My buddy Liu specializes in dealing with this kind of stuff—”
At that moment, Big Guoguo stood up and said, “Let’s not argue about this now. Let’s keep moving forward for a while and decide later.”
With that, he started walking into the darkness.
“Wait a second!” Fan Debiao called out, stopping Big Guoguo. He pointed behind them and said, “Grave robber, aren’t you going the wrong way?”
Big Guoguo threw his cigarette butt to the ground, looked back and forth, and insisted, “I’m pretty sure this was the way.” He glanced at Fan Debiao.
Actually, after their earlier discussion and seeing that the walls of the tomb passage all looked the same, Fan Debiao shook his head helplessly, indicating he had no idea either.
Seeing that even the experienced Fan Debiao was confused, Cai Qingchong asked Big Guoguo, “Boss, do you know which way is correct?”
Big Guoguo shook his head again, then thought for a moment and said, “No big deal. We can go this way first. We’ll walk the same distance we ran before and then come back. If we find the stone door, we’ll take the other path; if not, we’ll return the way we came. Of course, if we run into the creature on the way to the stone door, that’ll be a problem.”
He added, “But don’t worry—I’ve got my Thompson submachine gun. If I do run into the creature, I can handle it.” With that, he walked into the darkness.
Fan Debiao hesitated for a moment, then said, “I’ll go with you. If we do run into the creature, having an extra person will help.” He chased after Big Guoguo.
Back in the tomb passage, Cai Qingchong and Su Yougui were sitting against the wall.
“Brother, didn’t expect you had it in you,” Su Yougui smiled.
Cai Qingchong gave a bitter smile. “Same to you. Where are you from originally—”
Before he could finish, his expression changed. He immediately signaled Su Yougui to be quiet.
From the darkness came the creature’s eerie cry. The sound sent chills down Su Yougui’s spine. He thought to himself, “How did this creature catch up so fast? Did Liu Dashao fail and get chopped up like firewood?”
Cai Qingchong whispered to Su Yougui, “We’re too weak to face the creature directly. We need to find the others first!” With that, he ran in the direction of Big Guoguo and Fan Debiao. Su Yougui didn’t dare hesitate and followed closely behind.
They hadn’t run far when suddenly, from behind them, came the sharp sound of gunfire echoing through the rock walls.
Hearing the gunshots, both stopped in their tracks.
Cai Qingchong frowned. “That’s the sound of a Thompson submachine gun—Big Guoguo and the others must be behind us.”
Su Yougui was shocked. “But weren’t they supposed to be ahead of us? How come they’re behind us now?”
Cai Qingchong pulled out his pistol, narrowed his eyes, and said, “We must’ve fallen into the tomb owner’s trap. There’s some kind of mechanism in this passage that’s messing with us. Never mind that now—we need to deal with the creature first!” He turned around and ran back.
Su Yougui pulled out his pistol too and followed, even though he wasn’t sure he even knew how to use it properly. In this pitch-black darkness, staying alone would be asking for trouble if something strange showed up.
After running a few steps, they saw Big Guoguo and the creature come into view. Big Guoguo was firing his submachine gun nonstop at the creature, while Fan Debiao was carefully shooting one bullet at a time with his pistol. Sparks flew as the bullets hit the creature’s body, making a metallic ‘ding ding’ sound.
Su Yougui muttered, “Wow, how tough must those scales on the creature be?”
It seemed that Big Guoguo and Fan Debiao’s attacks were only slowing the creature down slightly. As it slowly approached them, Cai Qingchong raised his pistol and fired two quick shots. The creature howled in pain and turned toward him, revealing its two blood-red fangs. Even though they had seen this before, the sight still sent shivers down their spines.
Without hesitation, Cai Qingchong leapt into the air, trying to jump over the creature. As he reached the top of his jump, the creature swung at his legs. Just as it was about to hit him, Cai Qingchong kicked off the wall with his right foot and did a backflip, landing next to Fan Debiao. His speed and agility were impressive, earning astonished looks from the others.
Seeing that the creature’s attention was now on Cai Qingchong, Fan Debiao thought to himself, “I can’t just stand here fighting alone.” He quickly rolled past the creature.
Reaching Big Guoguo, Fan Debiao shouted, “We can’t hurt it with bullets! We need to use the black donkey’s hoof from our Taoist techniques!”
Big Guoguo shook his head. “No way! If we get close, it’ll definitely chop us up. Let’s retreat first and think of a plan!”
With that, the four of them ran away again.
As they ran, Su Yougui asked Fan Debiao, “Captain Fan, weren’t you running ahead of us? How did you end up behind us?”
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