Chapter 24: Danger

  In front of me, this giant snake was over two meters high, its straight body tightly pressed against the opening above, and its long body swayed back and forth behind it, about six or seven meters long. However, when I took a closer look, I found that this snake had its eyes closed and hadn't opened them at all.

  "Everyone be careful, don't wake up this giant snake at all costs! Let's see if we can sneak past it!" I held my breath in a hurry.

  The enormous snake body almost filled the entire cave, and we several stuck to one side of the cave, back against the wall, moving forward step by step. Every step made our hearts jump with fear. If this giant snake came alive, we would be doomed, its belly could swallow all four of us whole without leaving any bones behind.

  "Be careful, you mustn't touch the snake's body!" I hastily warned them, because my face had just touched the snake's body and felt its skin was surprisingly cool, while the snake seemed to have moved extremely slightly when it touched my face.

  I and Wu Shi Rong were the first to squeeze through, followed by Zhao Yu Er and Zhao Li Li, two skinny girls who also managed to slip through sideways. Finally, there was Du Da Bao. This guy had a fat head and big ears, his belly seemed even bigger than his head, he stuck closely to the wall of the cave, his eyes wide with fear as he stared at the long, massive body in front of him, struggling to move his feet towards us. Just when he was about to squeeze through to my side, something unexpected happened - he got stuck. His belly was wedged by the snake's body and couldn't budge.

  "Come on, Big Treasure Brother, use your strength!" Zhao Lili was anxious and hurried over to slowly pull his arm, but no matter how hard she pulled, she couldn't budge him. I and Zhao Yuer also rushed over, but we still couldn't move him. At this time, Wu Shirong became anxious, he suddenly ran over and grabbed his arm, so the four of us joined forces to grab his arm. Du Dabao's back was almost rubbing against the wall, sparks were about to fly out. With a "whoosh", it finally came out, and he panted heavily, bending his waist and gasping for air.

  "It's all over! I've made a mess, run quickly!" Wu Shi Rong suddenly told us to run, and we were all confused.

  "What's wrong? Let's run what?" We asked him in unison, but he didn't answer and pointed to his foot with his hand.

  I took a closer look and found that Wu Shi Rong had accidentally stepped on the snake's tail when he ran over to pull Du Da Bao's arm earlier. The giant snake's tail was coiled several times behind its body, and the dimly lit cave didn't have enough light for Wu Shi Rong to notice it. He unintentionally trampled the snake's tail to death. As I watched this scene unfold, cold sweat flowed down my back unnoticed, and then I saw the giant snake's body start to move.

  The snake darted forward into the open space, quickly turned its head around, opened its big mouth and stuck out its tongue to pounce on us.

  "Everyone, get out of the way, run quickly!" We several people hurriedly ran up quickly, and the two girls even ran faster while making a series of shrill cries. I saw that their faces were whiter than those who had seen a ghost.

  The cave was extremely dark, and the torches we held in our hands were also flickering. A huge snake was desperately chasing us from behind, and among the five of us, Du Dabao was running the slowest. He was shouting in terror as he ran. The giant snake's body kept colliding with the wall, causing the cave entrance to shake up and down continuously. I hastily lit a talisman and threw it backwards, but the giant snake wasn't afraid of it at all. I was also scared out of my wits and forgot that the talisman had no effect on animals.

  At this time, the giant snake suddenly went crazy and chased us. Du Dabao ran so fast that his pants fell off halfway, revealing half of his buttocks. Perhaps it was because his buttocks were too sexy, the giant snake bit down on them in one mouthful. Just then, Du Dabao seemed to feel something and suddenly turned around to attack the giant snake with the long torch in his hand. The giant snake dodged the flames but still kept trying to bite his buttocks with its big mouth. Zhao Dabao continued running forward, but accidentally tripped on a rock and fell to the ground with a thud. He looked back at the giant snake, which was standing upright, staring at him.

  "Come and save me!" Du Dabao shouted desperately for help, we turned our heads to see that he was face to face with the giant snake, Du Dabao sat on the ground holding a torch trying to scare away the giant snake, but the snake suddenly opened its big mouth and launched an attack.

  Facing the giant snake's big mouth, Du Dabao suddenly became clever. He quickly stood up with a torch to prop up the snake's mouth, but his hands were still too slow. The giant snake swallowed him in one gulp. We were all stunned. The stick was still stuck in the giant snake's mouth, and it kept shaking its head trying to shake it off, but no matter how hard it shook, it couldn't shake it off.

  "Quickly go save my big brother!" Zhao Lili ran over like a madwoman, using the torch in her hand to frantically hit the snake's head. The snake's mouth was being held by a wooden stick and it was suffering, but when it saw someone coming, it went crazy and charged forward, knocking Zhao Lili unconscious with one blow.

  I and Wu Shi Rong rushed over to help, I took the iron sword from my backpack, Wu Shi Rong took an iron hammer from his backpack, we both randomly smashed at the snake's head. The big snake seemed to be in pain after our beating, its head dodged our attacks wildly, accidentally hitting a large stone above with a loud "boom", the stone was surprisingly crushed into powder. The big snake seemed to have hit its brain and suddenly fainted, we rushed over to the snake's head and shouted for Du Da Bao.

  "Du Dabao! Are you still alive? If you are, speak up quickly!" I shouted several times but no one paid attention to me. At this time, Zhao Lili woke up and also got up to help us shout together. However, there was still no movement, and the snake's mouth seemed as deep as a small bus.

  "We're out of options, Du Dabao seems to have fainted, there's no air inside, we have to cut open the snake's belly!" I came up with this plan in a moment of desperation. I took a military dagger and started cutting from the snake's chin downwards, fresh red blood flowed down, our feet were all soaked in the pool of blood. Like slaughtering a pig, our knives quickly cut through the giant snake's body, soon we saw a human shape emerging from its body, I hastily reached in with my hand and grabbed Du Dabao's necklace on his neck, I pulled him out with force, it seemed very slippery inside the snake's belly, as I pulled him out, he came out with a gurgling sound along with the stomach acid from the snake's stomach.

  "Du Dabao is born!" Wu Shirong stood there dazed and muttered a sentence.

  "Hey, Fatty, are you okay?" I touched his nose and he was still breathing, so I quickly pinched the acupuncture point on his forehead. Before long, Du Dabao woke up. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw me first.

  "Nie Yu, is it you who saved me? I'm really grateful to you, if not for you, I would have died today. I just got into the snake's belly and didn't breathe for a moment before fainting." He excitedly grasped my hand.

  "It's nothing, besides we're all in this together. You also risked your life to help me and come with us to this place. I just hope that when I'm in danger, you'll be able to stand up for me too," I said as I took out a tissue to wipe off the sticky substance from his body.

  "Huh? What's this thing?" Du Dabao suddenly let out a cry of surprise, stretching out both hands. In his hands was a pile of round, greenish-blue objects that looked like jade stones. I hastily ran over to take a closer look and found it was the pair of icy jade bracelets, but they were covered in a green, sticky liquid, looking very disgusting.

  "Big Treasure Brother, this is the bracelet we've been looking for. I didn't expect it to be in a snake's belly. How did you find it?" I was a bit incredulous, it was such a coincidence.

  "I don't know how I found it either, just now I was in the snake's belly and randomly used force to grab something, didn't expect to grab a stone-like thing, I was too nervous earlier and didn't let go of my hand, here you are!" Du Dabao said as he handed me the bracelet.

  "Thank you, Big Brother Bao. This bracelet was exchanged for your life, and when I return, I'll treat you to the best food in Miao Village, okay?" I was overjoyed in my heart, having finally found the Ice Jade Bracelet, and there's hope that Little Sister's curse can be lifted.

  "Nie Yu, now that your little sister's bangle has been found, let's go out now. Do we still need to find that Wan Guo Ding?" Wu Shi Rong looked at me with a flustered expression, he seemed to be afraid to the point of being unable to bear it, after all his slender body had determined that his courage wouldn't be too great either.

  "Yes, we've got the ice jade bracelets, but our way back has just been blocked by a giant boulder. How can we move that boulder? Unless we use powerful explosives, it's impossible for us to go back with our bare hands. Let's keep moving forward and see if there's another exit." Now there's no turning back, retreating is no longer an option.

  "Right, Nie Yu, the bracelet is in the snake's belly. Does that mean they haven't passed through here yet? Otherwise, how would it be inside the snake?" Zhao Yuer looked at Zhao Lili, who had bumped her head earlier and now had a big lump on her forehead.

  "I think so, this giant snake seems to be the guardian of the cave, we've killed it now, and this place is no longer suitable for us to stay, let's hurry up and leave, who knows if there are other snakes coming over, we'll be in trouble. I remember my second uncle telling me before that snakes always act together in groups, some of them even take collective action as a whole nest, if one of their companions is attacked, the other snakes will launch an attack to avenge their companion."

  Du Dabao's clothes were all burned by the snake's stomach acid, and we hastily poured water from the canteen on his body to prevent the acid from corroding his skin. He is now walking at the front of the team, perhaps the experience just now was really shocking, he was so scared that he lost his smile and didn't say a word.

  I walked tens of meters forward and suddenly a huge, spacious cavern appeared below the entrance. The space was very high and wide, over ten meters high and wide, with a massive rift in the middle that divided the cave's path. To pass through the cave, I had to jump over the rift. As I leaned down to look, the rift was incredibly wide, over ten meters across, and bottomless. A faint, chilly breeze blew up from below, sending shivers down my spine, and before I knew it, I let out a sneeze.

  "Everyone be careful, there is a huge crack under our feet, don't fall down, see if there's any way to get through," I looked around and found almost no possibility, this crack runs through the entire cave, the ground seems to be cracked all over, unless we can jump over it, there's no better way.

  "Hey, Nie Yu, what's that?" Zhao Yuer pointed at the rattan above the cave.

  I raised my head and lifted the torch, and the firelight shone over, and indeed this crack was filled with thick plants. These plants spiralled upwards, and huge vines twisted upwards like their bodies, I don't know where the passage led to.

  "Alright, let's give it a try. Everyone be careful, if this vine isn't sturdy, we'll all fall into the crevice and get smashed to death."

  Five people went to the side of the rattan, each rattan's thickness and length were different, finally we found a few thicker and longer rattans that might be usable.