Chapter 102: Good News

The whole thing was so strange that even now, looking back, I feel utterly perplexed. I had no prior history of sleepwalking, yet the texture of that stone pagoda felt no different from reality. If that Lu A’yao who appeared out of thin air hadn’t been so different from the real person and given himself away, what would have happened to me next?

A fit of coughing eventually jolted me awake.

I choked up mouthfuls of white mycelium. I was still lying in the same spot, but in a very uncomfortable position. Half of my back was pressed against the stone wall, and my lower body was nearly wrapped like a mummy in that white Hair Fungus.

I snapped into full consciousness and realized that Tian Xiaoqi, not far away, hadn’t woken up yet. She might have been smothered into unconsciousness. Her situation was similar to mine, and the white mycelium crawling out of the cracks in the black stones was already trying to burrow into her mouth.

At that moment, three or four strands of mycelium seemed to realize I had regained my senses. They looped around from the back of my head to the front, staring me right in the face.

I desperately thrashed my body from side to side and managed to flip over onto the ground. However, I miscalculated my position and landed face-first. It was a brutal impact that brought both nosebleeds and physiological tears. Without a moment to recover, I used the strength in my waist to roll violently toward the open space.

This happened to be a gentle slope. I rolled several times before finally snapping all the mycelium that had been entangled with the stone wall. These strands weren’t like the ones in the caves beneath Shennongjia; they moved slower, but their structure was incredibly tough.

Without a blade, I wouldn’t have been able to tear through them with brute force alone.

Both of my hands were bound inside three or four layers of mycelium. While rolling, I hit the Claw Knife at my waist several times but couldn’t manage to pull it out.

I continued crawling on the spot to adjust my posture, wriggling like a maggot for five minutes. The lifeless mycelium loosened slightly under my efforts, and my left hand finally reached the hilt. Then, I flipped my body to the right and, using the momentum, gave a hard tug. I successfully gripped the knife in my hand.

I used the tip of the Claw Knife to slice through the mycelium from the bottom up. When I looked up again, new mycelium crawling out of the rocks had already moved close to my head. I quickly pulled back, and my lower body felt lighter as I tore through most of the remaining strands.

But I didn’t have time to strip off the rest. Tian Xiaoqi’s situation looked dire. She was quite small and thin, and she was now almost completely covered by the mycelium. Once her airway was fully blocked, she would certainly suffocate.

Rushing over to save her with just a knife wouldn’t work. The mycelium’s reach had already extended to my area. If I only used the knife, I might not only fail to save her but end up trapped myself.

When exactly did this mycelium appear?

We had sat by the fire for so long without any issues. Now that the fire was out, these things had come out to play.

In a moment of desperation, I scrambled to the extinguished fire and grabbed a piece of wood. I pulled a lighter from my pocket, but my hands had been bound for too long and were shaking violently. It took three tries before I got a flame. The wood caught fire instantly, and I used it to relight the main fire pit. Suddenly, the surroundings grew much brighter.

The mycelium seemed to have lived deep underground for years and had never seen such a bright light source. As soon as the fire appeared, they retreated back into the cracks in the stone walls.

It seemed to be working!

Waving the torch in my hand to drive back the mycelium, I ran over to Tian Xiaoqi. I grabbed the fungus covering her and dragged her toward the fire.

Her face had turned blue from lack of oxygen. Suspecting something might have entered her windpipe, I quickly used the fire and the knife to clear the large patches of mycelium from her body. Then, I supported her abdomen, flipped her over, and pounded her back hard.

She spat out several clumps of mycelium and dry-heaved a few times. Her complexion gradually began to improve, but she remained unconscious. I didn’t know if she was trapped in a hallucination like I had been.

I laid her flat on the ground and raised my torch to look around. What I saw made my legs go weak. Strands of mycelium were crawling out of every crack in the black stones above us that the firelight didn’t reach. They were writhing together like tangled hair, a truly horrifying sight.

The open chamber we were in wasn’t very large, but most of the jade ore surrounding us contained those black rocks. Wherever there were black rocks, that Hair Fungus appeared.

I knew I had to move.

Although the fire could temporarily keep the Hair Fungus at bay, staying in one place wasn’t a long-term solution. Our food and water would eventually run out.

I looked around with my torch and once again saw the pagoda that was partially embedded in the stone wall. Strangely, the area where the pagoda touched the wall had the fewest black rocks in the entire chamber.

The unpleasant memories from earlier began to flood back. It was as if the pagoda had come to life along with the cave, luring us inside for refuge. But at this moment, we had no other way to survive except to enter the pagoda.

Thinking quickly, I lay down and pulled Tian Xiaoqi’s limbs over me. I rolled once and stood up with her on my back. Then, I grabbed two burning pieces of wood from the fire, snatched up our essentials, and steeled my heart to charge toward the pagoda door.

The Hair Fungus spreading from both sides shrank away from the light of my fire. With one leg in a splint, it was difficult to carve out a path while carrying Tian Xiaoqi. Fortunately, the mycelium showed no intention of approaching the stone pagoda, so the latter half of our trek went very smoothly.

Once inside, I closed the door and inserted the two torches into the hollows of the pagoda pillars. These spots were likely meant for candles.

The interior of the stone pagoda was exactly as I had seen it in the hallucination. I was still a bit traumatized by the monster in my dream, and my skin crawled. I felt that using this place as a temporary shelter might not be entirely safe.

Just as I finished settling Tian Xiaoqi down, a burst of static suddenly came from my bag. I was already tense, and the sound nearly made me jump out of my skin.

But I reacted quickly. This damn walkie-talkie actually had a signal!

That likely meant our current position was very close to the other teams carrying walkie-talkies!

I hurriedly pulled the walkie-talkie from my bag and walked around the entire first floor of the pagoda. I found a corner with the least interference and held it to my ear, only to be nearly deafened by He Yu’s booming voice.

“Mayday, Mayday, SOS, Namo Amitabha, may the Infinite Heavenly Worthy bring blessings, Winter Melon calling Potato for the eighty-eighth time. Is anyone there? Is there a ghost? Answer me, answer me! I knew this damn thing was useless in this piece of shit place…”

I quickly shouted back, “Old He!”

The moment I spoke, the other side went silent. Then came He Yu’s voice, talking to himself. “Huh? What’s going on? Why does it sound like Gan Ji is talking inside my head? Am I hallucinating?”

“You’re not hallucinating! He Yu, it’s me! Where are you guys?” I leaned against a window on the first floor of the stone pagoda and shouted into the walkie-talkie.

He Yu clearly stopped moving. His tone shifted from confusion to pure joy. “Hey! Wait! We’re at… uh, it’s a bit hard to describe. No, you tell us where you are first!”

I organized my thoughts and gave him a rough description of the stone pagoda I was in and the Hair Fungus crawling around outside.

He Yu swore as soon as he heard me. “Damn it, you’re saying you’re in the stone pagoda right now?!”

I sensed something was wrong. His end was filled with static again, but I realized this time it wasn’t due to a bad signal. It was the sound of He Yu running. I could even hear the walkie-talkie rubbing against his pants.

Anything that could make someone run in a cave like this certainly wasn’t simple.

I started to panic. “What’s happening on your end?”

He Yu was out of breath. “Damn it, Old Lu says he knows where you are. We’re heading your way now. Good lord, he’s running too fast! I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep up. Just stay in the pagoda for now. I’ve got to go!”

Before I could reply, the endless static returned. He must have tucked the walkie-talkie into his waistband; I couldn’t imagine how else it would make such a racket.

Although the walkie-talkie was finally working, there was likely still a significant distance between us. I placed the device by the window and walked to the center of the pagoda to check on Tian Xiaoqi.

Tian Xiaoqi was in bad shape. Her face had an unnatural bluish-purple tint, and a four-fingered bruise had appeared out of nowhere on her neck, looking as if someone had strangled her.

I didn’t know how dangerous the things in her illusion were, so I tried to wake her up. Shaking and shouting did nothing. I was about to resort to splashing water on her face, but our supply was pitifully low.

Just as I unscrewed the canteen cap to pour water over her head, a sharp crack echoed from the Pagoda Spire. The sound came from outside, as if something had hooked onto the stones at the top.

I quickly pulled my machete from my bag and stood up. Then, I heard He Yu’s voice over the walkie-talkie: “Winter Melon calling Potato. We found a pagoda with firelight inside. Did you light that?”

The joy of reuniting with the group exploded in my heart. Finally, I was about to get out of this mess!

I grabbed my flashlight and leaned halfway out the window, scanning the stone walls. “It’s me! It’s me!” I shouted.

He Yu replied through the walkie-talkie, “Alright, alright, we see you! Old Lu has already secured the rope. He’s about to slide down the rope to the top of the pagoda. Go up there and meet him!”

I reached for the ladder to climb up, but then I saw Tian Xiaoqi leaning against it. I pulled my leg back and returned to the window. “I forgot to tell you,” I said to He Yu, “besides me, there’s an unconscious casualty here.”

“I know, it’s Chen Canghai!”

“No,” I said. “It’s Tian Xiaoqi.”

“Huh?? How did you end up with her?”

I scratched my head. “It’s complicated. I’ll explain everything once you get here.”