Shi Rusong hoped to locate a cavern—one both spacious and uncluttered, free from excessive stalactites and protruding stone branches—where he could establish a defensive line and hold out for reinforcements. As if answering his silent plea, they stumbled upon such a space after advancing five hundred meters. However, this so-called chamber turned out to be a honeycomb-like warren of cramped alcoves. After considerable effort, they finally reached its center—an area barely exceeding a hundred square meters. The labyrinthine terrain made Shi Rusong's scalp prickle with unease. He immediately ordered the advance to continue. The pathfinding duty still fell to Squad Five. Their lead scout, nicknamed "Beef Offal," was utterly disoriented. Ordered to head east, he veered north; when told south, he wandered eastward instead. "Beef Offal, are you so lovesick you've lost all sense of direction?" someone mocked. "Pig Intestine, d*mn it, if you're so capable, then get your *ss up here and lead!" Beef Offal barked back. "Fine, moron! Watch how a real man finds a way out of this hellhole!" Pig Intestine snapped in reply.
He stepped forward a few paces, sweeping the area with his tactical flashlight before glancing down at his compass. "D*mn it all! We're retracing our steps!"
The squad leader checked and confirmed they had indeed backtracked. With no better option, he reported upward. Pi Qiangjun gave a bitter smile and ordered the rear unit to become the vanguard, reversing course toward the chamber.
Beef Offal, now relegated to the rear guard, spat in frustration. Just as he turned to leave, a flash of silver sliced through the air and struck him square in the chest. Though his body armor absorbed part of the impact, his breastbone shattered, blood gushed forth, and he exhaled his last breath without another inhalation.
Pig Intestine bolted, shrieking as he ran, "The monster's here! The monster's here!"
"Stop him!" Pi Qiangjun barked.
Cao Minsheng intercepted him without hesitation, striking his thigh with the butt of his rifle. Pig Intestine crashed to the ground. Pi Qiangjun promptly ordered his weapons confiscated and his limbs bound with a belt. The panic sparked by Pig Intestine's outburst quickly spread—shots rang out blindly before the men hastily evacuated with Beef Offal's body.
Shi Rusong gathered the four squad leaders for an emergency meeting. Pi Qiangjun vehemently advocated for a counterassault, and the others concurred. Yet Shi Rusong, wary of Li Zhui's lethality, hesitated.
Before a decision could be made, chaos erupted. The security troops suddenly descended into madness—some fled in terror, others wept and thrashed on the ground, still more fired their weapons wildly.
The cause was She Yaoyao. This time, she attacked from above, dropping into a small cavern and lashing her massive tail in a feint.
Of the seven guards inside, five shrieked and bolted immediately, while the remaining two were paralyzed by fear, incapable of even flinching.
After several ambushes, She Yaoyao had come to a valuable conclusion: fear was a far more potent weapon than force.
Her greatest asset was her serpentine body; the mere sight of it left most adversaries stunned with horror.
She chased the fleeing soldiers into a second chamber, amplifying the panic—only to meet a steely-nerved foe who raised his rifle and fired without hesitation.
She Yaoyao sprang behind two nearby guards. Her pursuer, showing no regard for his comrades, continued shooting, riddling them with bullets.
With a twist of her serpentine body, She Yaoyao whipped out a steel chain—formerly her restraint, now her weapon, forged from ultra-hardened chromium-molybdenum steel. The chain's head flew straight at her attacker, narrowly grazing his face and shattering the wall behind him. Shards of stone sliced his cheek open, leaving half his face drenched in blood.
She spun again. Her left hand gripped the opposite end of the chain, and with a flick of her wrist, crack—she shattered both his shinbones.
Still unsatisfied, she continued her deadly dance. With a graceful sweep of her body, she soared forward, grabbed the steel lock with her right hand, and brought it down like a meteor on his nose bridge. The fist-sized lock embedded itself deep in his face, a grotesque, brutal end to a defiant stand.
After felling her resilient foe, She Yaoyao still found her wrath unquenched. Though his erratic gunfire had failed to claim her life, it had carved three bloody gashes into her serpentine hide. The searing pain only served to further awaken the beast within her. With a sudden lunge, she opened her jaws wide and sank her teeth into the man's throat, drinking deeply from the torrent of blood that surged forth. At that very moment, Pi Qiangjun arrived with two officers in tow, only to witness the grisly spectacle. He raised his rifle without hesitation and fired, but She Yaoyao vanished into the shadows like a spring-loaded phantom. "After her!" Pi Qiangjun roared. "I swear, if I don't kill that monster today, I'll change my d*mn name!" He charged ahead, only to realize some distance later that just a lone sergeant followed him. Cao Minsheng was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Sergeant Cao? Is he injured?" "Bah! That coward didn't even bother to follow," the sergeant spat with disdain. "Then you go back. Now! Turn around!" Pi Qiangjun said bitterly. "But Captain, you—" "She's marked me. I won't make it back. Go! Don't waste time!" he snapped. The sergeant turned on his heel and sprinted away. Pi Qiangjun sighed quietly. Regret gnawed at him—he should never have acted so brashly. But he was, after all, a man of blood and spirit. How could he not be inflamed at the sight of his comrades butchered? "Come out! I don't care if you're beast or demon—if you've got guts, show yourself!" he bellowed into the dark. Before his echo faded, She Yaoyao emerged ten meters away, astonishingly holding an automatic rifle aimed directly at him. The sight shook him to the core. A half-beast, wielding a firearm? "Brother," he said cautiously, "why don't we fight like men? Drop the guns, and settle this with our fists." To his amazement, She Yaoyao nodded. He had meant it only as a distraction—never imagining she would understand, let alone agree. A chill raced down Pi Qiangjun's spine, but there was no turning back now. With deliberate calm, he dropped his rifle and unbuckled his holstered pistol. She Yaoyao followed suit, casting her rifle aside. Then her serpent body rippled like a tide, rising and falling until she was upon him. With a sudden aerial twist, she unleashed a full-force whip of her tail in a crushing downward arc. The strike came too fast to dodge. Pi Qiangjun let out a roar and raised his right arm to block. If he could endure the blow, her body would fall within his reach, and he would seize the chance to grapple and subdue her. A seasoned close-combat expert, standing at 182 centimeters and weighing nearly 90 kilograms, he believed that once in his grasp, he could capture her—turning the tide of battle. But he misjudged her strength. The force of that descending strike was three times more powerful than he had imagined.
With a sharp crack, the bone in his arm snapped, yet the force of the serpent's tail, though diminished by a third, still carried with it two-thirds of its brutal strength—enough to land squarely on Pi Qiangjun's left shoulder with devastating impact.
He was flung violently to the ground. The blow exceeded five hundred tg in sheer force—far beyond what any man could withstand.
What a d*mn fool I've been… Pi Qiangjun struggled to form a faint smile, but blood surged from his mouth in torrents, gushing until his heart gave its final, stuttering beat.
Meanwhile, Shi Rusong and the three squad leaders had completely lost control of their men. Some soldiers even turned their guns on their own officers, firing without provocation.
Chaos swiftly descended into outright mutiny. The guards, unable to distinguish friend from foe, attacked indiscriminately in a frenzied melee.
"To hell with this unit! I'm going home to raise pigs!" Shi Rusong cursed bitterly.
Without another word, he and a handful of loyal officers quietly slipped away. After the captain of the seventh squad was gunned down by friendly fire, the remaining two leaders also vanished with their closest followers, leaving no trace behind.
The rest of the soldiers continued to battle in madness for over half an hour. When their rage was finally spent, calm gradually returned. A few surviving officers rallied the remaining troops—but their numbers had dwindled to fewer than a hundred.
Even among these officers, there was no consensus. In the end, they each led their factions off in different directions—scattering to the southeast, northwest, and beyond.
While chaos raged above, Li Zhui remained trapped beneath a pile of stone, desperate for a way out. He had tried to heave a large slab aside, only to cause the others above it to tumble down, making the space even tighter.
Something hard pressed against his back. Reaching behind, he drew out a mountaineering pickaxe—something he'd picked up while scavenging for grenades and tucked into his belt without thinking.
He flipped the activation switch; the chisel sprang out. Pressing it against the stone, he struck the pick's hammerhead with his palm. The tip embedded itself deep into the rock, and with a twist of the handle, he cleaved a sizeable chunk free.
He continued chipping away, stone by stone, not knowing when—or if—a passage would finally open. As frustration mounted, a distant voice reached his ears.
"Over here! Help me pry this rock loose!"
"Hey Yongzi, you think if we rescue an officer, they'll make us soldiers too?"
"I say they're all scum. Let's just save our own hides."
Ma Yongxian ignored their chatter. He clambered atop the stone heap and called out, "Hey, you down there—if you can hear me, give a shout!"
In response, Li Zhui banged the hammer end of his pickaxe against the rock with deliberate rhythm. Ma Yongxian followed the sound and shouted, "Hang in there, brother! We're getting you out!"
For over half an hour, Ma Yongxian and his comrades toiled, until at last they unearthed Li Zhui.
Something felt off. One of the workers muttered, "Yongzi… is this really a guard officer?"
"He's the fugitive! Ma Yongxian, are you trying to get us all killed?"
Unfazed, Ma Yongxian calmly recounted how Li Zhui had warned him of the escape path. Yet not a single voice rose in support.
"He's the one who got us into this mess! And now we're supposed to be grateful he saved us?" "That's right! We need to hand him over to the guards before we all end up in prison!" "Tie him up first—then we'll talk!" Ma Yongxian calmly removed the mountaineering crossbow from his back and pressed it against the chest of the speaker. "Wuchun, step back. We've worked side by side—I don't want to see blood spilled." "Alright, alright… I don't want trouble either," Wuchun said with a placating smile, slowly retreating a step, then turning his back—only to throw a series of furtive glances at one of the others. In a sudden motion, he spun around and lunged for the crossbow, grappling with Ma Yongxian. The tall, lanky worker immediately darted to Ma's flank, raising a mountaineering pick to strike—but just as he brought it down, a rock smashed against his face. The stone shattered, and so did his features, bursting like crushed tomatoes. Ma Yongxian took the chance to kick Wuchun to the ground. "You… you'd seriously kill me over this sh*t?" "No! No! It's a misunderstanding! I just… I just… come on, think this through—this could land you in prison!" "Brother," Li Zhui interjected with a smile, "thanks—but I'll handle this." "Sir, let him go," Ma Yongxian urged. "He was just scared—for his people." Li Zhui shook his head lightly. "If he escapes, your family will suffer for it—unless, of course, you have no family." Hearing this, Wuchun gritted his teeth, snatched up a stone, and hurled it at Li Zhui. In the same breath, he sprang to his feet and bolted toward the great fissure. "I'm sorry, brother," Li Zhui murmured coldly. "But they must all die." The words struck like thunder. Every face among the dozen or so workers turned deathly pale; a few trembled so violently, it was as though their bones were chattering. Without a word, Ma Yongxian raised his crossbow and fired. The stone-piercing bolt hissed through the air, punching clean through Wuchun's chest. "Brother," Ma said calmly, "allow me to speak. If you spare them, it may prove advantageous." "Oh?" Li Zhui raised a brow. "Let's hear it." "If I'm right, at least some of the guards managed to break through the caves. They'll either call for reinforcements or lay explosives at the entrance. If we want to make it out alive, we'll have to carve out our own escape route." Li Zhui casually tore a jagged stone shard from his flesh, as effortlessly as plucking a weed. "Fine. They're yours now." And Ma Yongxian was right. Shi Rusong may have failed as a warrior, but when it came to fleeing for his life, he was unmatched. The cave system was buried in the northwestern foothills of Mount Yueping, and the true exit didn't lie east or south—it pointed north. They had entered from the west, so everyone naturally assumed the exit must lie to the east. How Shi Rusong discovered the northern route? That was anyone's guess.