Inside the narrow, cramped cat-ear hole, as I watched the surging, hairless rats, two thoughts crossed my mind.

The first point is that since something similar to the Golden Rooster Cave has appeared in this place, it is very likely that it is the Golden Ox Cave we are looking for, because these hairless rats are not natural creatures, but rather Gu creatures cultivated by the village people.

The second scene is of the tomb raiders in Jinji Cave, who were eaten by these Gu creatures and turned into a pile of white bones.

We're doomed!

In this cramped environment, we didn't even have a chance to turn around and run away, but these Gu creatures could move nimbly thanks to their tiny size.

"Thump!"

Seeing the Gu creatures attacking, I instinctively straightened up, bumping my head on a raised area. I then shone my flashlight on them and shouted, "Monsters ahead! Back up, quick!"

Back in Jinji Cave, the Jiang family used their powerful flashlights with 100,000 lumens to drive away these monsters, but now, when faced with my flashlight beam, they only retreated for a moment before charging forward again.

As Song Laosan backed away, he shouted to me, "Xiao Duan, do you recognize these things?"

"ah!!"

Before I could answer Song Laosan's question, I let out a scream.

A hairless mouse has already bitten my arm.

A deep, bone-chilling pain suddenly spread from my arm throughout my entire body.

It was an indescribable pain, like someone was cutting my skin and scraping my bones with a knife. The pain was accompanied by numbness. My left hand was out of control, but the pain was getting stronger and stronger.

"Xiao Duan!"

Song Laosan turned on his flashlight from behind and saw a pink rat biting my arm. It then pounced on me and stabbed me in the body.

"Pfft!"

A foul-smelling liquid gushed out from the Gu, splashing all over my face and body, causing me to gag uncontrollably.

"Pfft!"

"Pfft!"

Song Laosan was on top of me, constantly slashing at the Gu creatures in the passage with his knife, but these things were increasing in number, so I could only cover my face with my hands.

In the next few seconds, I felt excruciating pain in my arms, shoulders, and even the top of my head, and I screamed hysterically, "Fire! These things are afraid of fire!"

Song Laosan punched the rats that were biting us and roared, "Nie Guangzhi, take the explosives out of the bag and give them to me!"

Nie Guangzhi was startled by Song Laosan's shout: "Are you crazy! Lighting explosives here would be suicide!"

At this moment, Song Laosan was also bitten by several Gu creatures, and in pain he blurted out a curse: "Fuck your mother! Give me the explosives!!"

Hearing our screams, Nie Guangzhi gritted his teeth and pulled out the explosives, handing them to Song Laosan: "Here!"

These hairless rats are bloodsuckers. After they bit me, my vision went black within five or six seconds, and even the surrounding caves seemed to be spinning.

"Smack!"

Old Song slapped me hard across the head: "Xiao Duan, pull yourself together, step back, I'll hold them off!"

I don't know if it was Song Laosan's slap that had an effect, or if his shouts aroused my will to survive, but I bit my tongue hard and, after regaining consciousness, I started pulling at the Gu on my body.

These venomous creatures have several rows of barbed teeth in their mouths, and these teeth are now embedded in my skin, making it unbearably painful to move.

Even so, I mustered my strength and moved backward.

Song Laosan, who was behind me in line, was now pressing my body down in front of me. After I retreated about half a meter, he used his knife to cut open one side of the explosive and smashed it against the wall. After the yellow mud sealing the explosive fell out, he reached out and pulled the fuse: "Whether it works or not, it's all up to fate!"

I saw Song Laosan throw the explosives into the group of Gu creatures in front of him and then close his eyes.

"Hiss!"

A few seconds later, the leaked explosives, lacking any covering, did not explode. Instead, they shot out a long trail of flame like fireworks, and thick, acrid smoke instantly filled the entire cat-ear tunnel.

"Cough cough!"

I coughed repeatedly from the thick smoke, and the intense heat made my face burn; I felt like my eyebrows and hair were scorched.

The catacombs were poorly ventilated to begin with, and the oxygen consumed by the burning explosives, along with the smoke that replaced it, made it so irritating that I couldn't even open my eyes. After being choked by the smoke, my eyes rolled back, and I felt dizzy.

"Bang! Bang!"

In a daze, I felt myself being kicked twice in the face, which brought me back to my senses. I kicked Nie Guangzhi behind me in the same way, signaling him to back away.

The cat-ear tunnel, which is only a dozen meters long, felt to me like I had been climbing for half a century.

In the end, I didn't even know how I got back to that relatively spacious space.

After Song Laosan came out, he picked up his travel bag and used it to block up the dusty cat-ear hole: "Can you two still hold on?"

At this moment, I was covered in wounds, like a bloody person. I opened my mouth to speak, but my throat felt like it had swallowed a piece of burning coal. Apart from drooling, I couldn't utter a single word.

"My benefactor! My benefactor! Wake up! Don't fall asleep again, or you won't be able to open your eyes again!"

Nie Guangzhi reached out and patted my face, then pointed to the two red-turned Gu worms on my body and said to Song Laosan in horror, "How can we get these things off him? Can we use a knife?"

"No! These things suck blood. Their teeth are like large needles. If you rupture their stomachs, it's like sticking a blood-draining tube into their bodies!"

Old Song pulled out a kerosene lighter: "This thing is afraid of fire, use fire to heat it!"

Upon hearing this, Nie Guangzhi followed suit, taking out a lighter and roasting the Gu creature over it.

Sure enough, as the temperature rose, the two Gu creatures immediately released their mouths. One of them was stabbed by Song Laosan with a knife, spitting blood all over the ground, while the other burrowed into the cat ear hole next to it and disappeared without a trace.

Sitting in the small space, Nie Guangzhi looked at the dark cat-ear cave around him and said in a terrified voice, "Since there was such a monster in the cave just now, does that mean there are also abnormalities in the other caves? Are we trapped and dying in here?"

"Only by taking action can we find a way to survive; shrinking back in fear is a dead end!"

Song Laosan tore his pants apart, disassembled the remaining explosives, and wrapped the gunpowder into small balls with strips of cloth: "Once the smoke and heat dissipate, those disgusting things will rush out soon. We have to move now!"