Chapter 21: Cave Lord

Yes, the fire was with her.

Ye Chan blinked, suddenly realizing why she could see so clearly in this cave.

“It’s happening again,” she murmured.

Long Li said, “Ye Chan, the gu inside you is different from everyone else’s.”

She had noticed something off earlier, and seeing the strange changes in A Yan back in the Water Dungeon had confirmed it.

Gu Xianwang added, “Yes, every so often, that blood spot in your eye becomes a little clearer. Now it almost looks like a pupil. That bowman—”

She paused, reluctant to go into details. “I think the gu in you is especially unique.”

Ye Chan lowered her head, at a loss for words. Being special wasn’t always a good thing—especially with something as deadly as this. It was like having panda blood, that ultra-rare type: precious, sure, but if a crisis hit, your odds of survival were slimmer than most.

She couldn’t say she wasn’t scared after seeing all those gu eggs on Little Hei. But whining about it now would only make things worse, and it wouldn’t solve a damn thing.

To fix this, with her limited student experience, all she could do was keep her head on straight.

Stay optimistic. Stay calm.

She let out a dry laugh. “Well, I don’t feel too bad yet. Who knows? Maybe this gu will turn me into a superhero like Peter Parker.” She struck Spider-Man’s classic web-shooting pose. “Thwip! City safety’s in my hands from now on. Hahaha…”

She glanced at the two of them and saw no smiles, so she awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck.

At least the superpower hadn’t sped up the healing on her huge lump—it still hurt like hell.

Long Li said gently, “That granny once mentioned something called the God Eye. When she brought it up, she pointed right at that empty room. Did you go in there?”

Ye Chan opened her mouth. “…You mean the room with the incense altar?”

She flushed with embarrassment. “I… I snuck some sweets off it…”

She had eaten them. Long Li’s brows furrowed slightly. Recalling what the Gu Witch had said about even the Long Family not being able to withstand the God Eye, a suspicion began to form in her mind.

Gu Xianwang noticed the shift and asked, “Did you think of something?” She had almost said, “Do you know something?” but instinctively held back, not wanting to lump her in with the likes of Sara.

It was a strange feeling, like two sides vying for the same person’s loyalty.

Long Li nodded. “Yes, a few things. But I need to see that granny again to be sure. Either way, our priority now is finding Sara.”

Gu Xianwang’s voice grew heavy. “I’m afraid Sara doesn’t want to see us.”

Long Li didn’t respond. She glanced at the fungus flower on the rock wall. Ahead, the tomb passageway sloped sharply downward, ending in a narrow crevice. The sound of water came from below.

There was wind, too—a hissing breeze carrying a faint, sweet scent. It wasn’t noticeable at first, but standing there in the draft, the air started to feel richer, fuller.

“Almost like being deep in a forest. I think we’re close to the exit.”

Ye Chan beamed. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go—fight our way out!”

She took a couple of steps, then looked back and saw neither of them following. Gu Xianwang was still standing there, her expression solemn, back to her old self.

She looked at Long Li and spoke coldly. “If we see Sara again, I’ll still do everything in my power to get what I want.”

In the end, she had drawn the line herself.

This journey had only strengthened her conviction that she was in the right place. She had also come to understand Long Li’s position. She was grateful that Long Li had taken her side back in the Water Dungeon, but that was as far as it went.

Nothing mattered more to her than finding a way to save her mother.

“I understand,” Long Li replied simply.

~~~

That awkward vibe was back, worse than ever. This time Long Li led the way, Ye Chan stuck in the middle, and Gu Xianwang brought up the rear. Ye Chan wiped sweat from her forehead, feeling inexplicably hot.

What was this feeling? It was like when she was a kid and some nosy relative kept badgering her: “If your parents divorce, who do you go with?”

Like, mind your own business, you old busybody.

But she had no one to snap at now. Both sides were big shots who’d saved her life. And she was just dead weight. Sister Gu hadn’t ditched her yet, and while Sister Long was great too, she was with that Sara.

Yeah, she’d stick with Mom. She let out a random sigh.

Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t notice Long Li stopping short ahead. Ye Chan slammed right into her back shoulder. Her nose stung, tears nearly spilling out.

Was this karma for picking sides coming at her that fast?

Ye Chan covered her nose and asked, “What’s wrong?”

The firelight swung to the side, illuminating a crevice high in the rock. There dangled a giant cave cricket, apparently dead as could be. Yet two fungus flowers had sprouted from its abdomen and head—pale white, slender, and vaguely resembling chicken-fir mushrooms.

“Ugh…”

Following the glow, she spotted more such insect corpses clinging to the rock wall ahead. Big ones, small ones—money-string insects, water lice, even ghost-head bats of middling size.

“Holy shit… what the hell is going on here?”

Long Li frowned and glanced back at Gu Xianwang bringing up the rear. In a low voice, she said, “Cover your mouth and nose. Careful of the spores.”

Ye Chan suddenly recalled the gas mask that guy in the Black Mud Pool had worn. “Right! This is a karst cave. How did I not think of it? Fungus. The air here might be crawling with fungal spores.”

Gu Xianwang actually had masks with her, but they were all stuffed in her backpack. Covering up now wouldn’t do much good.

She exchanged a look with Long Li. “Hear anything?”

Long Li nodded.

A faint, rhythmic tapping against the rock—like some kind of vibration.

ZZZ—ZZZ ZZZ—

Ye Chan shrank her neck and whispered, “Sister Gu, is that your phone?”

Gu Xianwang’s face was stone-cold. She shook her head and silently mouthed the words.

Someone.

At the far end of the rock wall, there might be people. But they had no idea if those people were allies of the bowman… or of Sara.

Neither option sat well with Gu Xianwang.

She eased her hand to her waist, fingers brushing the knife hilt.

Long Li flicked off the lighter, dropped into a crouch, and hugged the corner of the rock wall as she peered around the bend.

Light seeped in from another crevice turn about five meters away.

She glanced back. “I’ll check it out. You two stay here.”

Before Ye Chan could even nod, Gu Xianwang had shouldered past her to the front, combat knife gripped tight in her fist. “Together.”

Long Li got the message and didn’t argue. They nodded to each other and burst from the narrow passage. Long Li slid low through the gap, using the friction of the gravelly ground, then clawed onto the rock and pressed herself to the far side.

They peered out left and right. Sunlight stabbed their eyes, blurring everything for a moment. Then a vast rock cave unfolded before them.

To the left, the rock face climbed upward in what looked like ancient stone stairs, half-buried under scree. At the top loomed an arched cave mouth, faint shadows of rustling leaves backlighted by the sun. Beneath the stairs stretched a broad pool of water—the gathering point for the local underground streams, no doubt.

Gu Xianwang’s gaze drifted right, to the cave’s entire right-hand wall. It was blanketed in thick white mycelium, so dense that scarcely any rock showed through.

Sunlight angled from the cave ceiling, carving the space into stark halves of light and shadow. At the pool’s edge, a walkie-talkie antenna protruded like a probing tendril, stretching from the darkness into the sunlit zone.

ZZZ—ZZZ ZZZ—

No answer.

Long Li recognized it. “That’s our gear.”

Gu Xianwang whispered, “Go get it?”

“You know how to use a bow?”

Gu Xianwang shook her head.

Long Li considered, then unslung the bamboo bow. She tucked one arrow between her pinky fingers and nocked another on the string. “I’ll cover you.”

They had no backpacks for cover anymore, and they couldn’t rule out more archers lurking in the shadows. Sending Gu Xianwang out alone wasn’t the smartest play—not with multiple enemy factions in the mix. Her risk would be huge.

And if Long Li turned on her? That meant enemies front and back.

“Got it.”

Gu Xianwang eyed the cave interior and took a step.

Scrape, scrape, scrape.

Her ox-tendon soles ground against the loose stones. She moved fast, hugging the border between light and dark as she darted into the shadows.

Long Li stepped out at the same instant, planting herself squarely in the opening like a bullseye. She drew the bow into a crescent moon, arrow ready to fly. The sharpened iron point swept like a sniper’s crosshair across every shadowed nook that might hide a killer.

A breeze toyed with her hair. Nothing stirred. Gu Xianwang pressed close to the fungal wall, then cut toward the walkie-talkie.

It was odd. In this enormous cave, nothing else from their gear had been left behind—just the one walkie-talkie. If Sara’s team had been attacked here, there should be signs of a fight. If they hadn’t… why ditch it so abruptly?

A signal for Long Li?

Gu Xianwang drew nearer, a sheen of cold sweat prickling her back. In the corner of her eye, she caught only a hazy outline of Long Li, still standing there. But… what was her expression?

Was she watching? Was that arrow covering her—or taking aim?

Gu Xianwang bent down and reached for the walkie-talkie.

Suddenly, a deafening burst of static crackled from the walkie-talkie: “ZZZ—Captain Long, Captain Long!”

Gu Xianwang’s scalp prickled. She dropped and rolled aside just as a rush of air whistled from behind her—a bamboo arrow streaking past, grazing the very spot where she’d been standing.

She whipped her head around in shock and saw a humanoid clump of white fungus standing silently right in front of her, having crept up without a sound. The arrow had scraped across its cheek, tearing away a small flap of flesh.

It was a man.

“Miss Gu!” Long Li barked. She was already hugging the rock wall, circling toward her.

Jolted by the warning, Gu Xianwang kicked her legs and scrambled upright. The fungus person lunged with arms outstretched, just like a zombie. Its feet, wrapped in dense mycelium, hit the ground without a whisper, its movements blindingly fast.

She sidestepped the pounce and staggered back several steps.

There was something wrong with that white fungal cluster.

As if to confirm her hunch, two more white shadows erupted from the fungal wall in the distance. Neither was particularly tall—like women. One hunched low like a beast, charging forward on hands and feet.

Great. They were coming for her again. Gu Xianwang’s heart hammered as she yanked out her waist knife. For a split second, she hesitated to go for a killing blow.

What if it was a living person underneath?

Two arrows whistled in rapid succession, the bamboo shafts slamming into the man’s and the beast’s calves one after the other. The force was immense—at least three inches deep into flesh. Yet neither uttered a sound, acting as if they felt nothing.

If their movements hadn’t slowed even a fraction, Gu Xianwang might have sworn the arrows hadn’t pierced the fungal layer at all.

She seized the gap, flipping her knife to the flat of the blade and twisting free of the pincer. But the woman behind had anticipated her path. She sprang from the side, meeting Gu Xianwang head-on. The knife back cracked against the woman’s shoulder. Unfazed, the woman dropped low and lunged upward, fingers clawing for Gu Xianwang’s throat.

The white mycelium was thick and tangled, like a ragged doll with its stuffing torn out. It was too close, too fast—goosebumps exploded across Gu Xianwang’s skin as the mycelium nearly brushed her flesh.

In the blink of an eye, someone yanked her collar from behind. Two solid thumps sounded as feet kicked something away. Riding the momentum, Long Li spun and swapped places with her. Long Li’s right hand lashed out, her bare palm shoving the woman’s face back. Then her fingers raked downward, ripping away a layer of root-like mycelium from the woman’s face.

Beneath it was Sara’s face.

Gu Xianwang caught only a glimpse before spinning back around. The other two fungus people were clambering to their feet right in front of her—doubtless from Sara’s team too.

Long Li’s back pressed against her shoulder, her breathing ragged and distinct. In that instant, Gu Xianwang pieced it together: Long Li had recognized the white fungal figure as Sara from the very start.

That’s why she’d spared her legs with the arrows. That’s why she’d risked it bare-handed to tear away the fungus.

Before Gu Xianwang could move, Long Li snapped a kick into Sara’s gut, sending her tumbling backward. Then she shoved Gu Xianwang.

“Get out first. Grab rope from Ye Chan.”

Gu Xianwang glanced back and saw her already charging in. With two punches and two kicks, Long Li stomped the back of a fungus person’s knee, forcing it down to kneel.

Her hand!

Sweat beaded on Gu Xianwang’s forehead. She could clearly see thin fuzz sprouting across Long Li’s right palm, like fine barbs embedded in her skin.

No time to retreat. In the heat of the moment, she bellowed toward the narrow passage: “Ye Chan! Toss the rope!”

“Coming, coming!” Ye Chan’s voice echoed from the rock tunnel.

Before anyone appeared, the shout reverberated and swelled through the rock cave, layer upon layer. A frantic fluttering erupted from the shadows of the fungal wall—countless tiny wingbeats.

Like butterflies startled by falling rain, swarms of white moths poured from the fungal wall, scattering like celestial flowers from the hands of nymphs.

Countless spores wafted outward on the breeze from their beating wings, fanning in every direction. For that one instant, it was almost beautiful.

Beautiful enough to kill.