After a while, Zhou Xuan finally calmed his breathing, and the icy energy in his pills recovered to about 60-70%. He quickly urged Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoqing to leave. Wei Haihong, needless to say, would have been devoured by the corpse worms in the passage if Zhou Xuan hadn't desperately turned back to pull him up. However, Wei Haihong didn't have a chance to turn around and see the moment Zhou Xuan transformed the corpse worms into golden worms. Wei Xiaoqing and Fu Ying did see it when they turned around, but their attention was focused on Zhou Xuan and the fallen Wei Haihong. They noticed that some of the corpse worms looked somewhat golden, but they didn't think of anything else. Even if these strange creatures they had never seen before turned into even stranger colors, they wouldn't find it strange.
After rushing into the third passage, Zhou Xuan was at the very back. He didn't use his ice energy to probe further, as it was depleted and could no longer probe beyond fifteen meters. Besides, the people ahead were already more than fifteen meters away. Using more ice energy would be a waste; he needed to conserve his strength for when he needed to save his life.
Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoqing kept looking back at Wei Haihong and Zhou Xuan as they ran, and only felt relieved when they saw that the two of them were following behind.
Hearing a soft rustling sound behind him, Zhou Xuan cried out, "Run! The corpse worms are coming!"
Apart from two elderly professors who were running a little slower, everyone else was far ahead.
Li Jinlong was at the front, running fast, but he was still quite careful. If a rock suddenly sank into the ground and a bunch of strange things came out, it would be fatal.
Fortunately, that scene did not occur beneath his feet. Li Jinlong looked behind him and saw the Wang brothers, Wang Qiang and Wang Sheng, as well as his nephew Li Quan and nephew-in-law Wang Dagui. These people were all experienced tomb raiders.
Li Jinlong couldn't help but chuckle. He had been robbing graves for so many years and had encountered many dangerous things, but he never expected to be in such a sorry state today, and to see so many unimaginable, deadly strange things. In the past, he had only heard about such things in the legends of the old people.
As Li Jinlong thought this through, he shone the flashlight ahead and ran quickly. Suddenly, Li Quan beside him shouted, "Third Uncle, there's a stone chamber ahead!"
Li Jinlong slowed down and shone the lamp ahead. Two meters ahead of the entrance to the passage was a stone chamber. He couldn't see what was on either side of the chamber, but there was a stone wall opposite, with no way out.
Upon reaching the entrance of the stone chamber, Li Jinlong peered inside. The chamber was about fifty or sixty square meters in size, and apart from the passageway where he was standing, there were no other exits.
Li Jinlong paused for a moment, then turned around to look. The people behind him came one after another, with Zhou Xuan and his group at the very back.
Li Jinlong's face turned ashen, and he hurriedly said to the Blue Rank executive who had followed him, "Blue Rank executive, this is bad. This is a dead end, there's only one stone chamber. Let's quickly turn back and go the other way."
Lan Gaofeng, Li Yong, and Fang Jianjun all peeked into the stone chamber, frowned, and turned to look at the passageway they had come from. They saw Zhou Xuan and the others running over, panting.
Before the Blue executives could even ask a question, Zhou Xuan hurriedly said, "Hurry up and leave, the corpse worms are crossing the wax."
Li Jinlong and the Lan executives both had drastic changes in expression!
Li Jinlong said with a bitter face, "There's no road here, just a stone chamber."
Zhou Xuan was taken aback. He didn't have time to think about it and quickly said, "Everyone, get into the stone chamber! Quick!" He ran to the entrance of the stone chamber and then used his ice energy to explore the stone chamber, mainly checking the ground. After finding no traps, he shouted, "Come in quickly!"
After everyone entered the stone chamber, Zhou Xuan called out again, "Does anyone have anything that can be burned in their backpacks? If so, take it out. Also, take out any extra clothes."
After Zhou Xuan finished speaking, he took out his cotton-padded coat and threw it at the entrance of the stone chamber passage. The Blue High-Rank immediately understood that Zhou Xuan wanted to use fire to stop the corpse worms. Although they knew that this would not be a long-term solution, it was the only way to buy some time before they came out!
Without a second thought, the Blue executive said, "Everyone, bring out any extra clothes and anything that can be burned!"
Everyone who came down into the cave was wearing warm cotton-padded clothes, but the cold air inside the cave was coming from another entrance, and the cave we came in from wasn't cold, so the warm clothes weren't really that useful. So when the higher-ups in the blue cave called out, everyone quickly took them out. Wang Dagui even took out two plastic bottles of premium liquor. He liked liquor and thought that if it got too cold in this deep, cold cave, drinking some liquor would give him courage and warmth, but he never expected it to come in such a useful way.
Zhou Xuan placed the cotton-padded coats in a horizontal line at the entrance of the passage, blocking it.
Wang Dagui opened the premium bottle of liquor, took a big gulp, smacked his lips, and then handed the bottle to Zhou Xuan.
Zhou Xuan smeared the wine on his cotton coat at the entrance of the passage. The wine contained a lot of alcohol, which was good for starting a fire. Then he used the lighter.
Wang Dagui and Li Quan both handed over their lighters. Zhou Xuan casually took one, tried it, and after it lit, he looked ahead at the entrance of the passage.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on the entrance to the passage, and no one dared to make a sound. In the quiet scene, a rustling sound could be clearly heard. Then, a large swarm of black corpse beetles emerged from the passage about twenty meters away. Those in front ran desperately towards this side, while those behind continued to emerge in an endless stream, as if there was no end in sight.
Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoqing's hearts were pounding!
Fu Ying had witnessed the ferocity of the underwater monster with Zhou Xuan in the United States. Although this corpse beetle was large, its numbers were enormous, and its threat was no less than that of the monster, and perhaps even greater. At least the monster couldn't fit through the small opening inside, giving people some breathing room. But this corpse beetle was omnipresent; it could go through any passable area, making it even more dangerous than the monster.
When the corpse beetles were only five or six meters away from the cotton-padded coat, Zhou Xuan lit a lighter and set the coat on fire. Then he poured the remaining wine from the bottle onto it, and flames shot up instantly!
The carrion beetles that rushed to the front were pushed onto the fire, and the stench immediately filled the air. The people of Shishifeng covered their mouths and noses, not to mention the stench, the smoke was also unbearable.
Looking at the endless swarms of corpse worms at the other end of the passage, the people in the stone chamber couldn't help but show fear. The cotton clothes would eventually be burned to ashes. Even if all the clothes and things that could be burned in the stone chamber were taken out, it would only add a little more time. When everything was burned to ashes, that would be the end of everyone in the stone chamber. In the end, everyone would turn into a skeleton!
Zhou Xuan called to Li Quan and Wang Sheng, who were nearby, and said, "You two help guard this place. When the fire gets weaker, put on your cotton-padded clothes and go in to burn. If anyone climbs onto the wall, beat them down with something. Right now, the fire isn't strong enough and the temperature on both sides of the wall is high, so I guess they won't be able to climb over for a while. Do you have any handy tools?"
"Yes!" Li Quan said as he went into the stone chamber, opened his backpack, took out a folding shovel, unfolded it, and patted it against the stone wall, making a crisp clanging sound.
Wang Sheng also took out his own shovel, which was more advanced than Li Quan's, and the two of them stood guard at the entrance of the passage, one on the left and one on the right.
With the two of them guarding the entrance, Zhou Xuan felt a little more at ease. He retreated into the stone chamber and said to Senior Lan, "Senior Lan, we're all trapped in this stone chamber now. Our only options are to try our best to guard the entrance and buy time with the fire, while we search for an exit within this chamber to see if there's another passageway."
After Zhou Xuan said this, everyone in the stone chamber understood their current situation and circumstances without needing any further mobilization. They found their tools and those without tools tapped the walls to listen for hollow walls.
Zhou Xuan had already tested the ground beneath his feet and found no way out. Next, he pretended to tap the wall lightly, secretly releasing his icy energy to probe behind it. However, after circling the stone chamber, he still couldn't find any other exit or passage. He became anxious, as the stone chamber was a dead room with no way out!
He was so anxious that he broke out in a cold sweat. He couldn't help but think, "Am I really going to be buried in this abyss and become one of the thousands of corpses?"
He glanced at the others in the stone chamber; they were all tapping on the walls, searching for a chance to survive.
At the entrance to the passage, only two cotton-padded coats remained on the ground. The fire was gradually weakening, and Li Quan and Wang Sheng dared not fan the flames too much. On the other side, the corpses of the beetles had piled up in a thick layer, burning and smelling terrible.
Zhou Xuan was so anxious that he kept scratching his head. Once the cotton-padded clothes burned out and the fire went out, how many more corpse worms could his ice energy ability transform? Even if his ice energy were ten times stronger, it still wouldn't be able to withstand the endless corpse worms!
The people in the stone chamber were still banging on the walls. Only Zhou Xuan understood that there was no way out behind the walls; all that awaited them was death!
Li Quan threw the last two cotton-padded coats into the fire. The fire weakened, and many corpse beetles crawled up the stone wall towards them. Some of them couldn't withstand the heat of the flames below and fell down, sizzling in the fire. Li Quan and Wang Sheng each used folding shovels to pound on the stone wall. The corpse beetles that were killed or knocked down fell into the fire, but a few still managed to dart out.
Zhou Xuan said urgently, "Quickly grab the things and go help."
Even if Zhou Xuan hadn't said anything, Wang Qiang, Wang Dagui, and Li Jinlong had already seen it. Without saying a word, they all picked up shovels and rushed to the side of the passage to pat it down.
Li Quan was banging on the wall when he suddenly cried out "Ouch!" He threw down the shovel, clutched his right foot, and screamed. Zhou Xuan saw that blood was flowing down his foot, clearly from being bitten by corpse worms.
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Volume One: The Lotus Buds Just Begin to Emerge, Chapter 106: A Narrow Escape
Yue Shang quickly used his ice-making skills to probe inside Li Quan's body. A corpse beetle had burrowed into Li Quan's right foot. Zhou Xuan clearly saw the corpse beetle destroying the muscles in his calf, but he was helpless. He couldn't transform the corpse beetle into gold because it was still inside Li Quan's leg, nor did he dare to transform Li Quan's calf into gold to stop the corpse beetle, as that would cause Li Quan to suffer from gold poisoning.