The path on the left continues downward, with a steeper slope, while the path on the right seems relatively gentle.

Everyone paused at the fork in the road, momentarily unsure of which way to go.

"Master Qin, which way should we go?" Qi Yun looked at Qin Sizhi.

Qin Sizhi carefully examined the two passages, furrowing his brows, seemingly indecisive.

He walked to the entrance of the left passage, shone his flashlight inside, and touched the slickness of the rock wall.

Then he walked to the entrance of the right passage and did the same action.

This time, he lingered longer at the edge of the cave entrance, his nose slightly twitching, as if carefully discerning the smell in the air.

Finally, Qin Sizhi stood up straight and said, somewhat uncertainly, "The wind in the left passage is stronger, which implies that the space inside might be more open, with a source of air circulation."

"Let’s take the left path; I feel the possibility is greater."

Next to him, Yao Yuzhong squatted down, staring at a few inconspicuous droplets of bat droppings on the ground, and made a deduction based on these subtle traces: "The bats we encountered earlier went this way too, so the right side is likely a dead end."

Qi Yun thought for a moment, agreeing with their judgment, "Alright, let’s go left. Niu Da, An Zai, clear the path."

The group turned to the steeper path on the left.

As soon as they entered, they indeed felt the wind intensify, with cold air continuously flowing from the depths, mixed with the pungent smell left by bats.

The passage, initially spacious, became increasingly constricted as they descended, with the rock walls on both sides pressing inward until, in many places, it was only half as wide as the entrance.

The ground became more slippery too, as if covered with an unidentified slimy substance, feeling the same as stepping on cow dung, sticking to their feet and making them nauseous.

They continued for another half hour, and the slope gradually leveled out, and the passage became wide open again.

Although they had been walking for a while, the path was so winding that they actually hadn’t covered much distance.

Finally, the darkness ahead was interrupted, with faint sunlight streaming down from an unknown source onto the ground.

"Is that light?" An Zai said uncertainly.

"Let’s go find out."

They all quickened their pace, and after rounding a corner, the sight opened up.

A massive natural cavern appeared before them.

The cave ceiling had multiple cracks, allowing sunlight to penetrate and form several slanting beams of light that illuminated parts of the cave.

The cave was extremely spacious, with a height of over twenty meters, and the area was as large as a football field.

"Oh my God, there’s such a big cave hidden inside the mountain..." An Zai exclaimed in amazement.

Everyone else gazed curiously at the cave, momentarily lost in thought.

Suddenly, a dense "rustling" sound echoed around the cave, as if something was rushing toward them!

"Watch out!" Brother Quan immediately warned, turning to locate the source of the noise.

In the beams of light, a massive black wave was surging toward them from all directions, and upon closer inspection, that black wave was actually a swarm of palm-sized, glossy-shelled giant scorpions! 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

They arched their cold, gleaming stingers, moving with astonishing speed like a tide!

The scene before them was hair-raising!

Even Qi Yun, who had seen many big scenes, felt his legs go a bit weak...

It was terrifying as hell.

"Fire!" Brother Quan shouted, as the gun barrels spat flames.

"Ratatata——!"

Gunshots echoed in the cave, the sound reverberating deafeningly.

Niu Da, An Zai, and the others opened fire simultaneously, bullets sweeping through, shattering the large scorpions into pieces, fragments of shells and viscous fluid flying everywhere.

But there were too many of them. As those in the front rows fell, more scurried up, utterly fearless of death.

The rifle bullets ran out quickly, but they couldn’t stop the momentum of the giant scorpions surging forward, and Brother Quan and the others couldn’t reload fast enough.

Niu Da had already taken out the QJY-201 general-purpose machine gun from his back, quickly loading the ammunition belt, filling the gap in firepower.

"Tatatata——!!!"

The machine gun roared viciously, spewing long flames, and shell casings littered the ground.

Bullets rained down like a metal storm, where they passed, giant scorpions were either blasted apart or shredded to fragments, their shell remnants flying and forcefully tearing a path through the black wave of scorpions!

"Go!"

He shouted, covering the group as they rushed back toward the way they came.

But soon, their advance was forcibly halted because large numbers of scorpions were pouring out from the fissures in the rock walls near the cave entrance, instantly blocking the road ahead.

No one knew where these creatures came from, emerging densely in numbers.

"Get down!"

Seeing no way to stop their advance, Brother Quan quickly pulled out two grenades, hurling them with force toward the densest parts of the scorpion swarm on the left and right sides!

"Boom! Boom——!"

The two almost consecutive explosions detonated at the entrance, firelight engulfing a large number of giant scorpions; the shockwave and blast created two gaps in the scorpion wave through the explosion, with debris and scorpion bodies flying everywhere.

However, it only temporarily slowed the scorpion surge down.

More giant scorpions emerged from the depths of darkness, making eerie sounds, quickly filling the gaps and closing in again!

In an instant, everyone seemed trapped in a dead end.

Qi Yun wiped the cold sweat from his eyelashes, which was about to drip into his eyes, forcing himself to remain calm, his gaze scanning for a way out.

Suddenly, his gaze stopped, fixated on the scorpion wave ahead.

He sharply noticed that, in the middle of the scorpion wave, there were a few very small empty areas!

It was like a black picture with a few white dots.

Those white dots... seemed to resemble footprints?

Why would the scorpion wave avoid the footprints?

A flash of insight hit him; he immediately raised his foot to expose the ground his shoe sole had stepped on.

It was that sticky stuff! The passage’s cow dung-like disgusting slime!

No time to think more in this emergency, Qi Yun took off one of his hiking shoes, throwing it directly at the nearest few giant scorpions ahead.

Indeed, as he had guessed!

As the shoe hit the ground, the scorpions charging in a straight line reacted as if scalded by hot water, frantically retreating in all directions!

"The slime! These scorpions are afraid of the smell of the slime!" Qi Yun shouted, validating his hypothesis.

Although they didn’t know exactly what was in the slime, it was clear the scorpion swarm was terrified of its scent.

"Quick! Apply the slime on your bodies!"

Following Qi Yun’s shout, everyone ignored the disgust, hastily smearing the slime-covered shoe soles over their pants, arms, and even their faces.

The intense, nauseating smell immediately spread over them.

The effect was instantaneous!

The scorpion swarm, which was about to reach them, seemed to have encountered something terrifying; they emitted strange hissing sounds, no longer daring to advance, and instead circled anxiously around.

"Quick! Back to the path!"

Seeing the acrid smell take effect, Qi Yun immediately directed everyone to retreat along the original path.

As they moved, the giant scorpions automatically retreated, clearing the way ahead.

They returned to the passage unscathed.

And the scorpion swarm, seemingly losing its target, receded like a tide back into the darkness, disappearing.

At the passage entrance, everyone panted in a fright, no longer minding the disgusting smell of the slime.

"The scorpions are afraid of this stuff?" Niu Da skeptically looked at the pale green, fibrous slime in his hand.

"I’ve never seen such large scorpions, but I have encountered scorpion swarms when tomb raiding in the past."

Qin Sizhi pondered as he explained, "Scorpions have a keen sense of smell. This slime might contain some substance the scorpions dislike."

Among the group, the most educated was Qi Yun, who had a college diploma. In simple terms, they had no real academic background, unable to understand the chemical composition of the slime.

There didn’t seem to be anything special about the cave; after a brief rest, they discussed their subsequent actions.

"I noticed earlier there seems to be another passage on that side of the cave. Let’s apply more of this stuff on us and check out that passage." Qi Yun pointed to the other side of the cave.

No one objected.

They applied more of the slime on themselves and cautiously stepped back into the cave.