Chapter 4 of Part 1: Secret Passage, Narrow Escape (6)

  That thing was like a blood feud with us, relentlessly pursuing us. Fortunately, the hole on the right side seemed to be more open as we ran deeper, and that thing didn't stop for a moment, jumping very powerfully each time, and landing not far behind us every time. After running for over 20 minutes, suddenly that earth-drilling creature stopped jumping and stayed still in place.

  "Jin Douzi, look at that grandson catching up!" I said with a bent waist and covering my stomach.

  "Why don't you go?" Jin Douzi retorted.

  I slapped him on the head and Jin Douzi rubbed his head while shouting loudly: "Why did you hit me!"

  "Haha, you're not stupid after all!" I said with a laugh, then sat down on the ground, took out the small bag of dried mushrooms that Old Cui had stuffed into my pocket when I left, lit one up, and calmed myself down.

  "You said why didn't that grandson chase after her?" I asked while comfortably smoking.

  Jin Douzi shook his head, a pair of curious eyes staring at the smoke in my mouth, saying: "You're also quite strange."

  "What's wrong with me? What's so strange about me?" I said disdainfully.

  "This thing, Di Gui, usually won't chase people, but I heard from Grandpa that the first time he saw you, he almost got eaten by Di Gui. At that time, I didn't believe it, now looking at you, you really are a very special person!" Jin Douzi's words made my heart skip a beat, remembering Old Jin's expression when he first saw me, I guess I'm really Di Gui's arch-nemesis.

  "Roz哥, I think I heard a sound from up ahead!" Jin Douzi suddenly stopped trembling and whispered. After hearing his words, I leaned my ears forward and listened carefully. Upon listening, the gentle gurgling of water indeed came through, but why hadn't I heard it earlier? I pondered this, thinking that even if we turned back now, it would be a dead end anyway. Might as well go take a look ahead. With that thought, I stood up and pulled Jin Douzi along to continue walking forward.

  Just now, being chased by Di Gui all the way, he didn't notice the trend of this passage. Only now did he realize that this passage was going down all the time, and the farther down he went, the colder his body felt.

  At this moment, I suddenly felt that my foot seemed to be tripped by something. I lit the lighter and took a look, and it turned out to be several large piles of neatly arranged wooden sticks. These wooden sticks were generally long and short, thick and thin, and the texture was very solid. More importantly, these wooden sticks seemed to have been soaked in some special liquid, and they didn't get damp at all. Who put these wooden sticks here? Never mind that now, anyway, Jin Douzi and I had almost frozen to death. I immediately lit one of them, and the wooden stick burned very easily, almost igniting as soon as it touched the flame. After several wooden sticks were burned out, our bodies finally didn't feel so numb anymore. So we continued to walk deeper into the cave.

  After walking for about half an hour, a bright light suddenly appeared in front of us. We were like newborns, and people who stay in the dark for too long will slowly lose their confidence. It turns out that humans also have phototropism. We rushed forward, and the light ahead grew brighter and more intense, which was somewhat dazzling. However, no matter what, we managed to get out, but as soon as I reached the entrance of the cave, I almost fainted.

  Right in front of me was a massive pit, with a diameter of over ten meters. The smooth walls were covered in moss, leaving no place to get a foothold. Below was a precipice of hundreds of feet, fortunately my running speed wasn't too fast just now, otherwise I would have directly rushed out of the cave entrance and fallen into the cliff.

  I and Jin Douzi sat limply at the entrance of the cave like deflated balloons, I thought about taking out a cigarette again, possibly because the damp air in the tunnel was too heavy, after lighting it several times without success, I found that Jin Douzi's eyes were staring straight at the opposite side of the sky pit.

  I followed his gaze and saw that the pit was several hundred meters deep, and we were in a precarious position. On the opposite cliff face of the pit, there was a strange building with a domed roof and a square base, all made of green bricks. From afar, it looked like a Mongolian yurt, but much larger.