As the flames passed through, there was a sound of scorched flesh at the end of the tunnel, accompanied by a faint putrid, burnt smell.

Was that it? Ding Panling felt strangely unreal, like punching into cotton – he had been prepared for the Taisui to make one last desperate struggle but didn’t expect it to be resolved with just a pull of the finger.

But this massive mountain of flesh had truly fallen silent, with only the sound of flowing water and the groans of the wounded remaining in the cavern.

After the initial shock, Yi Yunqiao quickly ordered the remaining four or five people to carry Ding Changsheng and another severely wounded person to the rope net by the hanging rope. Regardless of whether things were finished or not, the severely wounded were in no condition to continue participating. The water was continuously filling up, and those four or five water carriers would soon be overwhelmed, so it would be best for them to evacuate as well – after they went up, forget about the “half-hour” rule, immediately lower the rope again for the second batch of people.

Then, everyone could be evacuated.

The water had risen to chest level and was clearly about to reach the lower edge of the tunnel. The charred black soil gradually submerged into the water, and though it hadn’t yet been revived, it gave off an ominous feeling. The first group, carrying the two severely wounded, made their way toward the hanging rope. Between wading through water and being careful not to jostle the wounded, their progress was frustratingly slow. At this moment, Ding Yudie spoke up: “Uncle Panling, how do we confirm it’s dead? Also, is everything burned up inside? What if it has more than one spore cavity like this?”

Yi Sa wanted to curse him for being a jinx, but thinking about it, she realized he had a point.

How could they confirm it was dead? What if it was just playing dead? If it recovered to its original state after everyone evacuated, what was the point of going down into the cave? Would all those deaths have been in vain?

Yi Yunqiao urgently said, “Saving our lives is the priority, we can’t worry about all that now. Let’s get out first, there will be plenty of opportunities later…”

Ding Yudie felt they should strike while the iron was hot: “If it’s not dead and we retreat, aren’t we just giving it a chance to recover? It’s so cunning, and after taking such a big loss this time, it will only be more cautious. Next time, we might not even be able to find the edge of the drifting cave…”

Ding Panling said in a deep voice: “Stop arguing!”

His expression was grave: “In my opinion, we must confirm it’s completely dead.”

The water level continued to rise, and the buoyancy got stronger. Yi Yunqiao was growing anxious and was about to object when Yi Sa couldn’t help but say: “Aunt Yunqiao, I think Uncle Panling is right. There are only two possibilities now: either it’s really too weak and can only play dead to survive, in which case we just need to deliver one more blow to finish things; or it still has strength and is just deceiving us – if that’s the case, it won’t let you leave anyway, so even if you want to go, you can’t.”

Yi Yunqiao opened her mouth but couldn’t find words to refute it. After thinking it through, she realized they had no choice but to face the challenge head-on: “Then what should we do?”

With enough fuel, they could burn out a new world, but after the intense battle earlier, both she and Zong Hang didn’t have much fuel left. They couldn’t afford to burn recklessly and needed to conserve what they had. Ding Panling thought for a moment, then gestured toward the end of the tunnel: “I’ll go in and take a look!”

Yi Yunqiao’s body tensed: “Are you crazy? If the tunnel gets blocked again, you’ll be swallowed up.”

Ding Panling smiled and patted the flamethrower in his hand: “If it swallows me, I’ll set a fire inside its belly. I have the guts – let’s see if it dares.”

After speaking, he half-swam half-walked, gripping the slimy edge of the tunnel, and pushed his body inside.

Yi Sa wanted to follow but didn’t dare, her heart unsettled. As she anxiously watched Ding Panling move forward, a shout came from behind: “Uncle Ding! Uncle Ding! Hang in there!”

Judging by the panicked tone, Ding Changsheng might not have made it. Yi Yunqiao turned and shouted: “If they can’t make it, drop them! Those who can walk, go up first!”

Mourning, crying, and wailing to heaven were luxuries reserved for those who had time and life to spare. Now, with survival uncertain, every second was precious. Yi Yunqiao really couldn’t stand people dawdling.

Before she finished speaking, there was another situation on this end. Just as Ding Panling had crawled halfway, large depressions suddenly appeared above the tunnel, first crashing down and then pushing outward, collapsing into the water. Yi Sa estimated the position and initially thought Ding Panling had been crushed, but then saw that he had been pushed into the water.

Just as Yi Sa was about to crouch down to dive in and pull him out, the water flow suddenly had strong vibrations, like ripples radiating outward.

She didn’t immediately realize what was happening, but Zong Hang figured it out right away: “Ancestor tablet?”

This was exactly like the scene around Poyang Lake when they opened the golden soup and Jiang Jun had just pressed the ancestor tablet to his forehead.

Sure enough, as soon as the words fell, nearby Ding Yudie and Yi Yunqiao suddenly stiffened, becoming motionless. Then, with a splash, Ding Panling stood up, his eyes vacant, raising his gun toward Yi Sa.

Zong Hang had heard Ding Xi’s lecture and witnessed the flamethrower’s power firsthand, and was extremely wary of it. Suddenly seeing Ding Panling’s gun pointed in their direction, he was instantly terrified. Not waiting to see if he would fire, he grabbed Yi Sa’s arm and plunged into the water – as soon as they entered the water, the surface above turned bright red, and even without direct contact, they could feel the water boiling and the burning sensation on their backs.

Yi Sa could see clearly that underwater, embedded in the chunks of flesh that had fallen from the Taisui’s body, there seemed to be large pieces of something that, though she couldn’t touch them, looked very similar to the material of the ancestor tablet.

Damn it, it did have another trick up its sleeve. The ancestor tablet could control water ghosts in water – earlier the cave had already been continuously filling with water, and when Ding Panling entered the tunnel and was pushed into the water by the falling flesh chunks embedded with the same material as the ancestor tablet, wasn’t that equivalent to pressing his forehead against the ancestor tablet?

Just as Yi Sa figured this out, she saw above the water’s surface Ding Panling’s shadow moving like a specter, his gun barrel probing down toward the two of them again.

Fire certainly couldn’t burn underwater, but fire wrapped in fuel was another matter, and even if it couldn’t burn them, the feeling of being in scalding water was bad enough. While Yi Sa’s scalp was tingling, she caught sight of Zong Hang shooting through the water like a fish, grabbing Ding Panling’s legs and yanking hard outward.

Ding Panling lost his footing and his body swayed, falling into the water, but he was extremely strong. His other foot kicked back in retaliation, sending Zong Hang flying. Yi Sa took advantage of this brief interval to surface, her heart nearly bursting from her chest. Her eyes quickly scanned around, first seeing two water lines racing rapidly toward the group setting up the rope net, and knew things were bad: none of them would get out, but she was too far away to help – saving herself was hard enough right now, she really couldn’t worry about those few water carriers.

Looking around again, she saw Zong Hang coughing as he got up.

Seeing Ding Panling’s gun barrel rising again, Zong Hang was in despair. It was too late to dodge, and though he thought of using his flamethrower, he held back – he couldn’t burn Ding Panling, who was just being controlled.

At this moment, he heard Yi Sa shout: “Get in there, get into the tunnel!”

That was the Taisui’s vital area – even if Ding Panling wanted to do something, he would have to be careful.

Before she finished shouting, Yi Sa already had the Black Ghost dagger in hand and flew toward Ding Panling. Instead of attacking, she just slashed through his fuel tank straps as she passed by. The fuel tank was already heavy, and its sudden drop caused Ding Panling’s upper body to tilt heavily, making his shot go wide.

Yi Sa’s momentum didn’t decrease as she swam directly toward the tunnel entrance.

Zong Hang had heard her words and already crawled inside. Now survival was paramount, and he didn’t care about the sticky wetness. His hands dug into the flesh like hooks, using the leverage to slide himself forward violently. After doing this three times, he was inside the cavity.

He had no time to look carefully, quickly turning back to reach out, just managing to grab one of Yi Sa’s hands as she climbed in. Suddenly he saw a bright red flash outside, and it’s no exaggeration to say his soul nearly left his body, scared so badly his hair stood on end. In that split second, he used every ounce of strength he had in his life to pull her in and hold her, then quickly dodged to the side.

There was a whoosh, and he felt intense heat beside his ear, followed by the sound of hair singeing. He knew his hair must have been scorched, but wasn’t sure if his flesh was burned…

Probably not, because roasted meat usually smells good, and he didn’t smell anything good.

Yi Sa was also so scared her legs went weak, lying in Zong Hang’s arms for a long time without moving, just breathing heavily: this gamble had paid off – no matter how much Ding Panling wanted them dead, he wouldn’t dare come in to use the flamethrower.

After she caught her breath, she looked up at Zong Hang.

He was equally shaken, staring with wide eyes, with the hair on one side almost completely burned off, making for a stark and comical contrast with the other side.

Yi Sa stared at him blankly, feeling both heartache and amusement.

Zong Hang was concerned about his ear but didn’t dare touch it: “Is my ear still there?”

It was still there, but the side of his ear and neck were burned bright red, and would certainly blister later. Yi Sa unconsciously said: “Half of it’s gone.”

What?

Zong Hang was stunned for a long time, his mind blank: half gone, he would be asymmetrical from now on.

Yi Sa burst out laughing, reaching out to touch his other cheek, saying: “Silly, it’s still there. You believe everything I say.”

She then turned around and looked up at the cavity.

Zong Hang was afraid Ding Panling would follow them in or use the flamethrower again, so he quickly gripped his flamethrower tightly and stood ready behind the cavity, though somewhat confused: “Why does he have to burn us?”

Yi Sa smiled bitterly: “Don’t you understand yet? We’re defective products, we’ve already died once and changed once. We can’t change again, can’t be used by it, and we’re fighting against it – what’s the point in keeping us around?”

That made sense. Zong Hang recalled what had just happened: “There’s an ancestor tablet here too?”

Yi Sa nodded: “Before, we speculated that the ancestor tablet was its ‘brain,’ but it had to work in water – so when pressed against a water ghost’s forehead, the water ghost could be controlled to do certain things.”

A brain, with such strange material, could actually be divided and maintain connections across vast distances using water as a medium…

Zong Hang couldn’t help looking up at the scorched cavity: “Yi Sa, is this the Taisui?”

Yi Sa was reaching out her hand, slowly wiping away a piece from the tunnel wall: “It doesn’t matter, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Taisui is just a name, a code name, convenient for us to refer to it.”

The feeling was strange, like a thick, soft, translucent mucous membrane. Yi Sa pondered for a moment, then decisively raised her dagger and stabbed it in, then slashed downward, using her hands to pry the membrane apart.

For the first half hour, the hanging rope was weightless at the bottom, meaning no one was there – a waste.

Ding Xi retreated into the car to smoke a cigarette, feeling quite bored alone, and the vast wilderness magnified this boredom and tedium many times over. The phone had almost no signal, so he couldn’t make calls, otherwise, he would have liked to chat with Jing Xiu – strangely, ever since she said she would bring a flower to his grave, he suddenly felt closer to her.

Perhaps it’s human nature to be drawn to those who show kindness to us – who would willingly approach a cold face?

He was listlessly searching through nearby cars for anything to pass the time with. In the smartphone era, few people probably read magazines or books anymore – he couldn’t even find a single printed booklet. He did find a handheld video camera with recorded footage, and as he scrolled through it, he suddenly saw himself.

He remembered now, that this was filmed during their last cave descent when Ding Panling asked if anyone wanted to leave any last words in case of danger. He had refused quite firmly, saying: “I can’t be that unlucky.”

He should have recorded something for Zong Hang just now. Regardless of whether it was inauspicious or not, what if something happened?

Ding Xi played with the camera for a while, filming the night scene outside and awkwardly taking some selfies, then dozed off until his phone alarm woke him.

This was what he had set, to go off every half hour.

Ding Xi got out of the car and walked to the pulley hoist, pressing the up button.

This time, there was a weight reading, meaning it wasn’t just an empty rope anymore, and judging by the weight, it was likely one person, unfortunately just one.

Was Zong Hang coming up again?

Ding Xi couldn’t tell if he felt disappointed or relieved, but again, at least they had tried their best.

Snow particles were falling from the sky again, and at this rate, there would likely be heavy snow in the late night. The wind was howling, amplifying the noise of the hoist and scattering it far, making the creaking sound seem to come from all directions.

As the rope wound up turn by turn, Ding Xi shone the flashlight down, and when he finally caught sight of the person’s crown, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

It didn’t seem to be Zong Hang.

Finally, as they neared the cave mouth, the person looked up and reached out to him, their gaze showing clear anger: “What are you doing? Couldn’t you pull a little?”

Ding Xi smiled awkwardly and reached out his hand, pulling him up in one motion.

It was Ding Changsheng.

Ding Changsheng had been in the water, with frost forming on his body. As soon as he stood steady, he was busy brushing off the icicles and ice chunks from his body. Ding Xi peered down and hesitantly asked: “Should we lower it again?”

Ding Changsheng was silent for a moment, then slowly shook his head and said: “No need, put it away.”