Although she shivered from the cold, Ashley’s mind remained exceptionally clear.
She lacked the strength to search for the original path underwater now. Besides, that path was a raging torrent, and the aqualung’s oxygen supply would only last for a dozen seconds of intense exertion before weakness and suffocation set in. Swimming back upstream was simply impossible.
She had reached this place by riding the current’s push. If the flow reversed, she could never swim against it.
“Exploring caves is way too dangerous. One slip-up and you’re in crisis…”
Ashley poured half the fuel oil from the Black Lantern onto the ground and lit it, creating a small campfire.
Warming herself by the fire dispersed the chill, and her trembling stopped.
To warm her entire body, she raised her arms to increase her exposure, catching sight of the smooth, pale, tender skin from her armpit to her waist, her cute, plump little belly button, and the gradually emerging curves of her developing hips. Suddenly, it felt too erotic. She quickly lowered her arms and pressed her knees together… Damn it, to be seduced by her own body—who knew if she should feel happy or angry about that.
This fuel oil was made for cave exploration. Besides keeping the Black Lantern burning for extended periods, it could also be used for temporary heating.
After wringing out the moisture from her clothes and drying them, Ashley changed and let out a sigh of relief. The crisis of hypothermia had passed.
She carefully inventoried her belongings. The remaining fuel oil in the Black Lantern would burn for another 10 hours, the nutrient blocks from Sweet Home would last a week, and if she conserved them without water shortages, half a month wouldn’t be an issue. Her gyroscope and other cave-exploring gear were all intact.
However, getting lost meant avoiding random wandering above all else. Right now, she shouldn’t seek a path to the surface but wait in place for rescue.
Ashley and Sasha shared a tacit understanding built from years together. She knew Sasha would contact the people she knew—Amber, Flora, Little Black Feet, the Curator, and others.
Soon, the search team would follow the dark river from the cave where the fight happened straight to here. The distance wasn’t long, and the route wasn’t complicated. They’d find the Fluorite Cave quickly.
Ashley smashed a piece of fluorite and used the powder to spell out her name’s initials on the ground.
Taking the Fluorite Cave as her starting point, she would cautiously explore the surroundings, searching for survival-friendly ancient relics to tide her over until the rescue team arrived.
If she could find another “Sweet Home,” surviving underground for three months wouldn’t be a problem.
–
–
Saint Dormer Community.
Betty hurried toward the northern warehouse. The queen was returning to her castle to plot her next moves.
Sasha was a clever bird. It had seen its owner confront this ponytail girl—they were enemies, not friends, so no hope there. It flapped its wings and flew toward the dormitory building.
“Call the police! Call the police!”
The parrot shouted anxiously at the blonde loli.
Having spent time together, Flora knew Sasha didn’t spout nonsense. Realizing something was wrong, she hurriedly put on her shoes to head to the police station, but the Four Heavenly Kings, who had caught wind of it, blocked her at the door!
“This can’t get out,” Nelson said with a gloomy face.
“I didn’t expect a double room. We need to control her roommate too.”
“After one last job, seal the cave entrance. Our story stays straight—the missing ones all escaped prison.”
“It’s on you, Betty. Use your skills to train her into an obedient little darling who can’t live without your fingers.”
“Don’t worry. A little girl who’s never been touched is super sensitive, not like those worn-out old shells.”
Betty flashed a frivolous, ambiguous smile and reached out to drape her arm over Flora’s slender shoulder. Her height advantage made it easy to control the blonde loli.
Flora had been quietly observing. Though she didn’t know about the thief tunnel or the specifics, she gathered that these guys were after Ashley!
Seizing the moment, she wrenched free from Betty’s grasp and shoved the ponytail girl off balance with all her strength! Then she darted back into the room, slammed the door, and locked it!
The moves flowed seamlessly!
The juvenile delinquents thought they could toy with a petite blonde loli, forgetting she had once been a lead here—their little teacher, the animal keeper who handed out fruit with a basket, and someone who had seen them at their most depraved during prisoner handovers.
“Open the door!”
“You’re dead if you don’t!”
“Did you hear me? Open up!”
Frantic kicks pounded from outside!
Fortunately, the door was sturdy—not some cheap hollow-core plywood, but solid wood.
Flora sat down and braced it with her back to ease the strain on the latch.
“Kill that parrot!”
Someone shouted suddenly from outside.
Flora’s heart jolted. Oh no, she’d forgotten Sasha was still out there!
With the crowd jammed in the hallway amid the chaos, no one had noticed the parrot.
But the next moment, something felt off.
Screams erupted one after another. She had no idea what was happening, but soon, thick, dark crimson blood seeped under the door. It spread across the entire entryway like mercury, forming a mirror-like sheen that reflected the light. The sheer volume was terrifying.
–
The Ashley trapped underground had no idea she’d gained a new charge: keeping a vicious pet that caused severe injuries.
Before entering the water, she hadn’t seen Betty, so she never imagined Sasha would clash with the Four Heavenly Kings. She assumed it would smoothly alert her acquaintances, bring the police to the cave mouth, and all would be well.
Once recovered, the restless Ashley began wandering near the Fluorite Cave, hunting for ancient relics.
She didn’t stray far, and at every new cavern mouth, she placed a fluorite marker to avoid getting lost.
But the gyroscope seemed malfunctioning—the needle spun wildly without settling on a direction.
Damn it… Of all times… Little Black Feet… Giving me shoddy goods, huh? When I get back, I’ll scrub those little feet of yours raw… then slip them into white stockings… so you won’t dare let them touch the ground…
To save fuel, Ashley didn’t light the lantern. Clutching a fluorite chunk, she navigated the caves by the faint glow activating her visual proteins.
Suddenly, she frowned, reached for her waist, and ignited the Black Lantern.
She hadn’t been mistaken. Ahead on the ground lay traces of man-made structures.
Though she hadn’t systematically studied this world’s history as a transmigrator, she’d picked up bits through osmosis.
In the Second Dawn Era, survivors migrating along the great rift to the surface faced dire shortages. Supplies and building materials were hard to haul up vertically, so structures clustered near ancient plank roads, never far off.
These building traces meant she was nearing the main artery called the Sky Road.
No wonder the gyroscope failed—this area’s supernatural traces were too dense for clear readings.
The nearby instruments also malfunctioned.
Though uninterested in this world’s history as a transmigrator, out of courtesy and respect, she schooled her expression and slowed her steps.
At the collapsed rock wall emerged dark greenish bones, crude fired bricks, and a road pieced from shattered stone—ancient and weathered, formless and pragmatic. Anything could serve as filler binder, exuding raw utilitarianism.
The paving bones were from unknown beasts, porcelain-like in texture, dark celadon roughware with a metallic sheen, unyielding after millennia, unlike ordinary animal remains that degrade.
Ashley skirted the collapse and halted abruptly before a sheer cliff like a heavenly moat.
Loose pebbles she kicked tumbled into the turbid mists below, their echoes absent for ages.
The sheer cliff seemed to plummet into the Nine Nethers.
What was this place?
As her gaze dropped, shock filled her heart.
In the drifting turbid fog floated colossal remnants of ancient megafauna. Standing before them, a human would seem an insignificant ant.
Some resembled worms or dragons, their segmented bodies stretching endlessly, faintly visible in the mist, tails splitting into soft vortexes linked to gossamer crystalline limbs.
Others bore irregular beast horns, tough lead-white fibrous tissues extending downward from house-sized twisted horn roots like vast tree roots, coiling around knobby unidentified bones, sprouting dense radial tentacles from the bones. The tentacles were multiply jointed, tapering to hair-thin soft tips— the more she looked, the creepier they seemed, sending shivers down her spine.
Others were flat, spiraling aberrant shells packed with soft tissue, extruding writhing fleshy tendrils from orifices. Some had near-human limbs and longitudinally gaping maws of interlocking fangs, their bodies studded with glossy black tumors…
These nightmarish figments of diseased imagination lay before Ashley in stark reality.
