On the cliff of the dense forest.
Amidst the ruins of a collapsed ancient structure, Swade and his companions, covered in injuries, are struggling to find a way out.
"Are you sure there's sothing here?" Toby asked, dragging his exhausted and aching body, wobbling.
Swade shook his head, "Didn't I say, that's the direction I chose when we were cornered earlier. I'm only sure that the circles I drew marked this place.
But what he intended by drawing circles here, who could know?"
"Maybe he buried a treasure here?" Lisa Lisa shrugged, jokingly.
"Heh, that's actually possible." The old man laughed along.
Zahanu clutched a damaged weapon, searching through the stone piles in the ruins.
"I need a break." Toby, who was the most injured, couldn't hold on any longer, spotted a wall that seed sturdy enough, and slumped down.
The mont he sat down, it seed to trigger so chanism.
"Click!"
"Wait, did I... touch sothing?" Toby's body stiffened like stone.
Yet, before anyone could respond, a hole opened beneath him, leading down.
"Ah!"
The scream echoed.
Swade and Lisa Lisa quickly bent over, firmly grabbing Toby.
"Thanks! Oh heavens, I feel like I shouldn't have co here at all, it's like I've used up all my luck. Am I cursed by sothing?"
Toby was pulled up by the two. The bumps along the way, the tense escape, the fierce fights, and the pain had already exhausted him completely.
This ti, no one mocked him verbally; their eyes simply showed pity.
"Damn it, stop looking at like that. Let's get out of here and think of a way to escape."
Toby couldn't bear their gaze any longer.
Zahanu walked to the edge of the opened hole and looked down.
"There's an excavated tunnel below, not sure where it leads."
"Let's go, no matter where it leads, it's better than staying here. Even if it's a dead end, at least we can rest there."
Swade said, and they quickly cleared the traces around them and entered one after the other. The last one even placed the stone slab back in its original position, making it look seamless.
At least they thought so.
"There's wind." Zahanu, walking ahead, said.
This ant the inner area was at least ventilated.
The group followed the tunnel forward, finding it was much longer than they had imagined.
After at least ten minutes, they finally felt more noticeable breezes, suggesting an exit ahead.
As Zahanu stepped out of the cave, what t his eyes was a pitch-black space, yet the feel indicated it was extrely spacious.
One by one, they crawled out.
Their light touch on the stones as they erged was magnified and echoed in this space.
"How big must this place be?"
"Unsure, it's too dark, can't see anything."
They could only faintly sense the vastness of the place due to the few slits at the top.
It seed to be night outside, with very weak light piercing through.
"Search for torches or sticks; in such a huge space, there should be so lighting devices," the old man said, relying on experience.
They searched around and indeed found oil lamps, torches, and various lighting pillars.
Soon, they ignited the fla.
The light from this oil lamp seemingly triggered so chanism, and subsequently, oil lamps throughout the space lit up one after the other.
"No, sothing's definitely wrong." Lisa Lisa's expression grew tense.
Anyone with clear vision could see the flas from the ignited lamps afar were an unusual color, a blood-red.
The blood-red light cast a sinister horror across the entire space.
Soon, the entire space was lit.
Apart from the few torches beside them, the entire huge underground cavern was completely enveloped in blood-red light.
The clumps of flas, as if burning blood, invoked a strong unease within them.
"Even if more monsters or demons show up, I don't care anymore."
Toby recklessly sat down directly to rest.
"Is this an altar?" Swade asked, sowhat uncertain.
However, evidently, none present could provide a professional answer in this regard.
The entire underground cavern was excavated to be highly spacious. Looking up towards the top, they found the distance to the stone wall above was at least twenty ters.
The space was arc-shaped, and at the far edge, there was an extending underground tunnel, though it looked more like a crevice cliff wall.
Ahead lay a circular stone platform; columns connected the top, supporting the entire space.
And at the center of the stone platform, there was an altar with stairs extending upward.
Following the stairs, they saw a conspicuous altar placed smack in the center of the entire space.
All the flas from the blood-colored torches illuminated it, and even without a torch placed on it, in this blood-red glow, it remained clear, emitting an inexplicable, eerily malicious aura.
"Wait, is there sothing up there?"
Zahanu stepped forward a few steps, squinting and asking.
Following his prompt, the group turned their gaze and finally noticed there was a sacrifice on the altar.
Chains dangled from above; a sacrifice was bound by its hands, suspended about a ter above the altar.
Due to the special lighting arrangent, they hadn't noticed earlier; moving a few steps closer, they found there seemingly was a shadow there.
"Should we... go over?" Lisa Lisa asked, her voice trembling.
Zahanu had already taken a few more steps forward, wanting to see more clearly.
"Hey! He's not right, hold him back!" The old man suddenly shouted.
It was too late when Swade, closest to Zahanu, tried to stop him. Zahanu's steps forward seed to trigger another chanism.
"Boom!"
Accompanied by a rumble, the burning blood-colored flas abruptly exploded in growth, filling the entire space completely with blood-red.
At this mont, the object hanging like a sacrifice beca clear before them.
It was a "person" with pure white skin, fully ford limbs, but devoid of any hair or facial features, like a simplistic humanoid figure crudely molded from white clay.
"Crack, crack!"
The sound of bones colliding echoed throughout the space.
One skeleton after another climbed out from unknown origins.
Above them, spiders, three to four ters long, dangled down along blood-red threads.
Almost in an instant, the area was filled with a mass of creatures.
"Oh heavens, can anything be more unfortunate than this?"
Toby uttered a cry of despair.
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