Upon hearing my words, Nie Guangzhi looked at us with disbelief: "Gu? What Gu? What exactly are you looking for?"
No one answered his question. Song Laosan pulled the knife out of the giant snake's body and glanced sideways, saying, "We can't determine the species of this thing. Does that mean its meat is inedible?"
"We're already facing a life-or-death situation here, there's no need for so many taboos!"
Nie Guangzhi's face hardened: "This young man saved my life. If it weren't for him, I would be dead by now! Since this is risky, I'll eat first. If I'm okay, you two can eat! Whether we can get out of here alive is still unknown. If we're going to die, let's die with our fill!"
Seeing that Nie Guangzhi was willing to test the poison, Song Laosan took up his knife again and began to cut the giant snake's body, while I shone a flashlight to see just how long the snake was.
I walked to the edge of the cliff, shone my flashlight down, and the hairs on my body instantly stood on end: "Come over here and take a look!"
"What's wrong?"
Old Song noticed something was off about my tone and quickly ran over. After seeing what was below the cliff, his eyes widened: "What...what the hell is going on?"
Under the beam of the flashlight, the body of the giant snake lay spread out on the slope at the edge of the cliff.
Except for the lack of scales, its front half of body looks no different from a normal snake.
However, its hindquarters are connected to those vines.
It wasn't that the vines grew on its body; rather, when the snake's body was halfway through, it branched out into many tentacles like an octopus, and these tentacles are the vines that can be seen everywhere in this cave.
Nie Guangzhi stared at the bizarre scene, his eyes wide with horror. He looked around and muttered, "Where have we come to? Are these vines the tails of these giant snakes? If so, how many of these monsters are in this cave?"
"I have to go down and take a look."
I looked at the point where the vines and the giant snake connected, took a deep breath, and said, "I need to figure out what this thing is and what kind of danger we're facing!"
"I'll go."
Song Laosan stopped me: "Your leg was just hit by a rock, so you're not as agile as me."
"No, I need to see it with my own eyes to know what it is."
I refused Song Laosan's suggestion, then took the knife from his hand and plunged it into the giant snake's body.
And so, I used two knives, alternating between them, to stabilize myself like an ice axe, and slowly moved to the point where the snake's body connected to the vines.
The vine is connected to the snake's body.
It looks as if vines are growing from the snake's body, or as if a snake is growing from the end of a vine.
There are four vines in total. The snake's body is like our wrist, and the vines are like fingers, extending outwards.
"Pfft!"
I swung my wrist and slashed at the vines below, causing the green liquid inside to spray out.
Just like the vines I cut before.
This discovery left me completely baffled.
When I first discovered these vines, I thought they were all plants.
These things, however, grew on the giant snake's body, like blood vessels.
Thinking of this, I turned to Song Laosan and asked, "Third Master, what color is the snake's blood?"
Song Laosan shouted from above, "It's red, what's wrong?"
"fine!"
I frowned when I heard Song Laosan's response.
If this isn't a blood vessel, then what is it?
Then, thinking back to Nie Guangzhi's speculation, if the dense vines in this hall are all connected to these giant snakes, then just how many of these monsters are there in this space?
This idea sends chills down my spine.
I looked at the point where the severed snake body connected to the vines, raised my knife and began to cut the snake's body, trying to figure out what this thing was.
"Splash!"
"Splash!"
Just as I was about to make my move, I heard the sound of something crushing a stalagmite again coming from the abyss beside me.
I heard the commotion below and quickly stopped what I was doing and ran up: "There are still those big snakes down there, they're probably coming up again!"
"This way!"
Hearing what I said, Song Laosan waved to me and Nie Guangzhi: "The place I came from has many small caves, only large enough for one person to crawl through. Those monsters can't get in!"
Upon hearing Song Laosan's reply, I quickly followed behind him, supporting each other as Nie Guangzhi, who had a limp, helped him up.
The land beneath our feet was only a few dozen square meters, and strangely enough, we were back on a large net made of vines.
After realizing that these things were not plants, but living organisms, I always felt unsafe as I climbed on them.
Following the path he had come from, Song Laosan quickly led us to a corner of the cave. Pointing to a sunken space ahead, he said, "I came from over there. The caves on that cliff face are interconnected, and I can't find my way back."
"boom!"
Just then, the sound of stalagmites collapsing came from behind again. I waved my hand and said, "There's no other way out. Let's go take a look!"
Just as Song Laosan had said, the mountain wall in front of us was like a horizontally sliced cheese, densely covered with holes.
I squatted down in front of a hole and shone my flashlight inside. I discovered that the cave was naturally formed and had a winding, meandering interior.
Nie Guangzhi, who was standing guard nearby, shone his flashlight behind them and urged, "I can see the shadows of those giant snakes! Let's get out of here quickly!"
"Let's go this way!"
I chose a cave that was relatively flat inside, large enough for an adult to crouch and walk through, and was the first to crawl in. At the same time, I instructed those behind me: "According to Song Laosan, many of these caves are connected. Stay close to me and don't get separated!"
Song Laosan added from behind, "You should think twice before you lead the way. It's very difficult to turn around in this kind of cave. If you end up in a dead end, you'll easily get trapped."
"You make it sound so easy. This isn't a straight road. How am I supposed to know which path leads if I don't try and explore?"
I retorted to Song Laosan, then added after thinking for a moment, "If we come to a fork in the road later, you two stay where you are and wait for me. I'll make sure the road ahead is passable before you follow. This way, at least we can avoid all three of us getting stuck in the cave!"
"boom!"
As I was speaking, the giant snake outside had already caught up with us and was frantically ramming its body against the mountain wall.
Feeling the vibration from the ground, I stopped talking nonsense, tightened my crotch, and quickened my pace.
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