Was Qu Xiangyun already devoured by beasts?!
This sudden realization filled me with a cascade of emotions. Disregarding any further collection, I put away the beast hide and began searching the vicinity for Qu Xiangyun's trace.
Based on the clues I had gathered, Qu Xiangyun's chances of survival were diminishing.
However, a voice in my heart kept telling me that Qu Xiangyun was not dead.
She was waiting for me to save her!
When one door closes, another opens. After searching every inch of the ground, I actually found some traces!
I discovered that from the ambush site of this crocodile-like behemoth, a deep gully extended south, seemingly left by the giant beast's crawl.
I followed this gully southward and soon arrived before a cave.
This cave must be the monster's lair.
I cautiously waited nearby and found no activity inside.
I wondered if Qu Xiangyun might be inside.
I turned on my flashlight and cautiously entered the beast's lair.
Along the way, I saw many animal bones and large amounts of soil. I dared not miss any bone or clue. After a thorough search, I finally made a discovery.
I found a piece of cloth with blood on it.
This cloth was Xiangyun's!
Damn it, could it be that Qu Xiangyun had already been eaten by this behemoth?!
Every moment we had spent together, Qu Xiangyun and I, flashed before my eyes like a slideshow. My heart ached, and I wished I could go back right now and dismember that monster ten thousand times over!
Just as I was overwhelmed by grief, I vaguely saw some residual bloodstains and fabric in a dimly lit, inconspicuous corner of the cave.
Clinging to it like a final lifeline, I lunged forward.
Where there is life, there is hope. I actually discovered a hole in the ground!
The hole sloped downwards, its depth unfathomable.
Could she have jumped down?
I pieced together everything in my mind, then gritted my teeth and leaped into the hole myself.
The hole seemed to have been burrowed by something, its entrance only large enough for one person to pass through.
After descending about ten meters, I reached the bottom.
Upon reaching the bottom, I turned on my flashlight and scanned the surroundings. I found only a path leading deeper, extremely narrow, forcing me to crawl forward.
As I moved, crawling turned into a full prone crawl.
The oppressive atmosphere weighed heavily on my heart. Fortunately, intermittent bloodstains along the way bolstered my resolve to press onward.
Honestly, this was an unbearable experience.
The fine sand and gravel continuously abraded my skin, like a torture. I could barely imagine under what circumstances Qu Xiangyun would choose to crawl into this hole.
Moreover, I had been crawling for at least five minutes, yet the bloodstains beneath me had not ceased.
Given this rate of bleeding, Qu Xiangyun should have already succumbed to blood loss. How could she have possibly sent out a plea for help?
Furthermore, being underground, how could she have thrown a bottle into the river on the surface?
Carrying these questions with me, I crawled onward for an unknown duration. Finally, when the hole became so small I could barely move, I saw a glimmer of light ahead.
Seeing the light gave me renewed strength. I crawled forward with all my might for about thirty to fifty meters. Suddenly, my body felt lighter, and the pressure around me significantly decreased.
A spacious cavern appeared before me.
As I stood up and took a step forward, my foot only half out, I stopped abruptly.
Damn it, it wasn't a path ahead.
There was a large crevice in the cavern!
As pebbles tumbled from beside my feet, human shouts drifted up from below.
"Is anyone up there?"
This voice? It was Qu Xiangyun!
"Xiangyun, don't be afraid, I'm coming to get you!"
I shouted down, then put down my backpack to look for a rope to pull Qu Xiangyun up.
Following my shout, more voices echoed from below, interspersed with English.
There were others underground?
At this point, I had no time to ponder. I took out a rope from my backpack, threw one end down, and tied the other to a sturdy rock beside me.
"Hurry and climb up this rope, I'll help you from above!"
I held the rope tightly in one hand, feeling the tension on the other end.
Then, Qu Xiangyun and the others climbed up one by one.
There were five of them in total: Qu Xiangyun, two women with distinctly European features, and an elderly man. The old man was carrying a young man on his back who was unconscious.
They were all drenched, as if they had been submerged in water for a long time.
Due to the dim light, I only glanced at them briefly and paid them no further mind.
Qu Xiangyun was the last to ascend. Her condition was not good.
I saw that she was shivering uncontrollably from the cold, her lips turning purple. I quickly rummaged through my backpack and found a large piece of beast hide to wrap her in.
Qu Xiangyun wrapped herself in the beast hide and huddled into my embrace.
I stroked her hair and held her tightly, warming her with my body heat.
Once Qu Xiangyun's body temperature returned to normal, she lifted her head from my embrace.
She looked at me with a touch of embarrassment.
"Lu Ziye, it's so good to see you again!"
At this moment, my mind was filled with questions. Qu Xiangyun seemed to sense my unspoken queries and stammered, "These people are members of an expedition team I met on the way. I'll tell you everything else once we're out, okay?"
Seeing Qu Xiangyun's pleading expression, and realizing this wasn't the place for a detailed explanation, I nodded. I then greeted the others.
"Stay close, let's get out of here!"
With that, I led the way and re-entered the small tunnel we had come through, with the others following closely.
After another period of arduous crawling, the six of us finally returned to the behemoth's former lair.
We saw the sun again.
Back on the surface, everyone except me was overjoyed. The two European women embraced each other, cheering repeatedly.
It was only then that I had the leisure to examine the so-called expedition team members Qu Xiangyun had mentioned.
Among the two European women, one was fair-haired with blue eyes, a classic Western European appearance.
The other had slightly darker skin, a hooked nose, and deep-set eyes, suggesting Middle Eastern heritage.
The remaining elder had completely white hair and wore a pair of broken glasses, appearing scholarly.
The man on his back, however, looked quite grim.
Half of his clothing was soaked in blood. The bloodstains I had discovered along the way seemed to be his.
As I silently analyzed their identities, Qu Xiangyun suddenly threw herself into my arms, kissing me passionately.
"Darling, I don't know what to say. Without you, we would have died in that crevice. You are truly my angel!"
I responded to Qu Xiangyun's kiss with equal fervor. This feeling of having her back after believing her lost made me cherish the person before me immensely.
Suddenly, I noticed Qu Xiangyun stop and stare blankly at something behind me.
"What is it?"
I was puzzled. What was behind me? The cave entrance?
"Lu Ziye, run!!!"