Hathaway chuckled, patting Qu Xiangyun's shoulder.
"Xiangyun, whether this mission succeeds or not depends entirely on you. Don't worry, we'll definitely return safely. Then you and Lu Ziye can be together forever."
I watched from the side, noticing how well Sevil and Hathaway cooperated, one playing the good cop, the other the bad. It was clearly not their first time working together like this.
We were now deep within the palace complex.
The high-tech equipment Sevil and his team had brought was of little use here.
Judging by their words, Qu Xiangyun seemed to know something about the situation inside this deep palace.
I suspected it was related to her missing father, and that he might have recorded this information and passed it to her before his disappearance.
"Take the left path."
After a moment of silence, Qu Xiangyun finally spoke.
Our group continued onward, with me still leading the way.
The left corridor was much narrower than the previous one. Although visually there was no difference, I had a strange feeling that something was amiss with this path.
We hadn't gone far when we encountered another fork in the road.
Just as I was about to ask Qu Xiangyun, Sevil suddenly shouted from behind, telling us to stop.
Had Sevil sensed something?
As we halted, a bizarre scream suddenly pierced our ears.
This scream seemed to be the opening act.
The underground, which should have been silent, was now filled with the sounds of human voices.
Some were laughing wildly, some were cursing, and some were even crying hysterically!
"Something's wrong, this place... Let's go quickly!"
I was familiar with these sounds, having experienced something similar last night while on watch.
But this time it was even more terrifying than yesterday. Countless voices swirled around us, making us feel as if we had fallen into hell!
"This way! Quickly!"
Qu Xiangyun pointed to a small path, urgently urging us on.
We forced ourselves to hurry down that path, but no matter how far we went, the eerie sounds followed, growing louder with time!
It felt like we were... drifting further and further away from the human world.
And in the darkness ahead, something seemed to be wriggling!
I stopped abruptly as I walked forward, and Sevil and the others behind me didn't know what had happened.
"Who's there?!"
In front of me, a figure stood.
I called out a few times, but received no response.
Mustering my courage, I took a few steps forward and shone my flashlight. I saw it was a man.
He was facing us, his head bowed, his messy hair falling down to obscure his face.
He was wearing animal skins, appearing to be one of the island's natives.
How could someone be here?
I looked more closely and realized his build seemed somewhat familiar. He looked like one of the natives who had surrendered to us earlier and then entered the temple.
Sevil also recognized the native and was about to call out to him, but I stopped him with a hand.
At that moment, the native suddenly raised his head.
His face was covered in blood, but a strange smile played on his lips.
He opened his mouth wide and let out a heart-wrenching wail.
And this sound was exactly the same as the voices that had been plaguing us all the way here!
Looking at the strange native before me, a chill ran down my spine.
Had he been possessed?
I had always been a staunch atheist, never believing in ghosts. But since arriving on this island, too many unexplainable things had happened, causing a flicker of doubt to surface in my heart.
Did ghosts truly exist in this world?
Just as my worldview was wavering, an explosion of gunfire suddenly erupted from the darkness.
It was Sevil!
I had to admit, this crazy woman was remarkably reliable in critical moments.
As soon as she saw something was wrong, she fired decisively. Before the native could do anything further, his head exploded like a watermelon from a single shot.
The headless body swayed for a moment before collapsing heavily to the ground.
Dark red blood flowed out like it was free, quickly forming a small pool.
As the blood drained from his body, the entire corridor filled with a foul stench.
But to our surprise, even though the native's head was blown off, a wailing sound still emanated from his throat.
What in the world was going on?
Sevil beside me remained remarkably calm.
He turned and called out to Professor Grugov, who took out tweezers and medical equipment from his backpack and approached.
I watched as he seemed to pick out some reddish-brown objects from the corpse's throat and place them into a bottle.
As the objects were bottled, the wailing stopped.
Grugov handed the bottle to me. I looked inside and saw what appeared to be thumb-sized, reddish-brown worms writhing together.
These worms, clustered together and wriggling, were incredibly disgusting to behold.
"The creatures on this island are truly astonishing. The strange noises we're hearing must be produced by these worms. I don't know what kind of structure they have, but when they gather, they can mimic human voices..."
Professor Grugov explained, his expression one of fervent excitement. If the time and place were different, he would have likely begun studying these worms on the spot.
Understanding the source of the sounds around us, I felt a wave of relief.
These worms were like natural phonographs, truly eye-opening!
But, who had cultivated these worms?
I had never encountered them on the island before. Could it be that these worms could only survive underground?
Suddenly, a realization struck me, and my expression changed!