With a casual flick of its tail, the giant salamander knocked me from the shore into the water.

The powerful impact already made it difficult for me to breathe, and when I choked on some water, I completely lost my balance. The more I tried to float to the surface, the more I sank.

The instinctive coughing that followed the choking caused me to inhale two more mouthfuls of water. The last bit of body heat was completely taken away by the cold current, and my soul seemed to be pulled out of my body in an instant. I could only watch helplessly as my body sank to the bottom of the river.

Those few seconds felt like an eternity to me; as I sank, my thoughts gradually froze in the river water.

When I regained consciousness, I was already floating on the water, and Song Laosan was wrapped in a leather bag and struggling to drag me to the shore.

"Splash!"

The water rippled, and the giant salamander burst out of the water, lunging at us again.

Seeing this, Song Laosan stuffed the leather bag into my arms and then kicked me underwater.

Using the recoil, Song Laosan and I retreated simultaneously, avoiding the angle from which the giant salamander attacked.

As the giant salamander approached, the waves pushed the leather bag in my arms backward, and the giant salamander crashed into the guardrail in the riverbed due to inertia.

"roar!"

The powerful impact twisted the guardrail, and the giant salamander, in pain, roared and charged straight at me.

"Young Master Duan!"

Seeing this, the monkeys on the shore raised their guns and pointed them at me, but hesitated to pull the trigger for fear of hurting me.

Just when I thought I was going to die, a dark shadow suddenly darted out of the water and rode directly on the giant salamander's head.

It turned out to be Zhou Peng, who had disappeared for a long time.

Zhou Peng, who was holding something in his hand, roughly stabbed it into the head of the giant salamander.

"Pfft!"

Blood splattered as the sharp weapon in his hand blinded one of the giant salamander's eyes. Then, he opened his mouth and bit down on a large lump on the salamander's head.

This scene completely stunned me.

This son of a bitch is insane!

Not only did it dare to attack us, but it even charged at this ancient giant salamander with all its might, looking just like a Chihuahua in heat, recklessly challenging a lion.

Seeing this, Song Laosan, who had been washed ashore by the waves, growled at me and shouted, "Xiao Duan, don't just stand there! Come here right now!"

While the giant salamander was stirring in the water, I used all my strength to grab the railing and move towards the riverbank. Song Laosan also swung the rope he had made from his clothes over and dragged me to the shore.

I was dragged ashore by two people and found that the wooden planks blocking the cave had been removed, and the planks were all broken at the same angle. I didn't know if the monkeys smashed them open, or if the giant salamanders attacked the people on the shore when I was sinking and accidentally bumped into the planks.

Zhou Peng's sudden appearance bought us a brief moment to escape. Monkey and Song Laosan grabbed my arms and quickly ran into the cave.

This cave is naturally formed, with obvious traces of human excavation on both sides, and there are grooves on the ground, which were probably originally used to place logs horizontally for dragging supplies.

After walking about twenty or thirty meters, my stomach suddenly churned, and I vomited violently. Song Laosan also started patting my back: "Don't look up, don't let the vomit get stuck in your trachea."

I spat out some water and coughed for a while, patting my chest. "It's okay, I can still manage. Let's keep going. This is the transport route used when the tomb was built. There must be a way inside!"

Seeing that I was unharmed, Song Laosan picked up his hunting rifle and walked at the front.

Before long, we were standing at a crossroads.

Apart from the direction we came from, the other three directions of this intersection were blocked off with wooden planks. Above us was a square skylight, which was probably used to hang building materials.

The monkey walked to a wooden plank and pressed it with its hand: "This passage is too damp, and these planks are rotten. It's not difficult to open it, but which of these three paths should we take?"

"The tomb passage we initially walked through ran north-south. After falling into the water, the river flowed eastward, then turned northward. The landing point was on the west side, meaning the road on our right leads north."

After analyzing everyone's positions, I slammed my rifle butt against the wooden plank and shouted, "Open this passage!"

The wooden planks used to block these passages were all made of high-quality boxwood, and there was an inverted triangular frame at the back for fixation. However, these planks had long been rotten and were easily opened.

Along the way, apart from those ancient giant salamanders, no other traps appeared in the underground river. I don't know if Ashiyi thought that anyone who fell in would have no chance of survival, or if he thought that no one would risk coming to this place.

At the end of this passage, there was another vertical courtyard. The walls around this courtyard were all polished very smooth and were shaped like an inverted funnel, making it impossible for anyone to climb up.

Shining a flashlight upwards, it was at least twenty meters high, and the exit at the top was blocked by a stone slab.

Looking at the pile of broken wood, rusty nails, and stones and two stacks of logs in the corner, Song Laosan rubbed his skin to keep warm: "It seems this really is a cargo passage. But back then, it was all raised and lowered by a winch. After this place was abandoned, all the tools were destroyed, so they only used simple wooden planks to block it up. We don't have any equipment, so it's impossible for us to climb up."

The monkey looked at the space above its head, which resembled an upside-down bowl: "Why don't we turn back and try other passages?"

"If nothing unexpected happens, the other passages here should be in the same situation; we're trapped inside."

At that moment, a strong sense of despair spread through my heart.

Although we hate to admit it, we've already been eliminated from the competition in the Ze Wang Tomb by getting this far.

After a while, I made a decision: "The giant salamander's attack just now deformed the fence in the river channel. Perhaps we can leave here along the underground river."

When the monkey heard about my choice, it looked at me seriously and said, "Young Master Duan, we've put in so much effort to get to this place, are you really going to give up now?"

Despite my deep reluctance, the current situation clearly tells me that leaving now is the only option we can make. Otherwise, the longer we delay, the lower our chances of leaving here alive will be.

Just as I was about to give my final answer, I suddenly heard a rustling sound above my head.

"Squeak! Squeak!"

The sound, like something rubbing against a stone, came from above and was amplified infinitely by the inverted trumpet-shaped room.

Song Laosan shone his flashlight on the sealing stone above his head and cautiously looked around: "Have we triggered some kind of mechanism?"

"No! This sound is too irregular; it's not like a mechanical mechanism!"

I grabbed Song Laosan's hand, which was holding the flashlight, and said in a deep voice, "There are people up there!"