Chapter 062: The Inescapable Cycle

"Sss... sss... sss..."
The rustling grew denser, gathering closer and closer.
In the hazy mist, Li Tianque could clearly hear the stone horseshoe crabs dropping from all directions, like dumplings tumbling into a pot, then crawling toward the two of them.
Li Tianque kicked away the stone crab he had just electrocuted, his gaze sweeping alertly around.
Fatty Bi gripped his climbing axe, equally tense.
Li Tianque swallowed hard and said,
"Brother Bi, did you notice? Those shadowy figures appear in the mist, and these stone crabs seem to awaken only when touched by the moisture. Looks like all the monsters in this rocky mountain become frenzied as soon as water is involved."
"Yeah, it does seem that way. But knowing this doesn’t help much—we can’t exactly dry out this cave!" Fatty Bi replied helplessly.
"True, we can’t dry it out, but at least this means if we reach somewhere drier, they probably won’t chase us!"
Li Tianque spoke as he clenched his kilovolt gloves, continuing forward.
Fatty Bi followed close by, scanning the surroundings with caution. He’d already suffered once when a stone crab clamped onto his face, so he was painfully aware of their horror. He moved with utmost care.
The creatures seemed to sense the scent left by their slain comrade and lurked within the mist, not attacking again.
Li Tianque and Fatty Bi took this chance to quicken their pace, hoping to dash out of the fog-laden cave in one go.
As the heating pipes beneath their feet grew hotter and redder, the warmth inside the cave rose steadily.
Breathing became difficult in the thick mist; it felt like a narrow sauna, suffocating.
Running through it, the sound from the walls grew louder, and Fatty Bi’s flashlight happened to shine on a patch where the mist was thinner.
Looking closely, they saw three or five stone crabs clustered together, hanging like autumn bugs crowding the corners of a window, revolting to behold.
The flashlight seemed to startle them; several at once leapt forward, suction cups open, lunging at Fatty Bi.
Fatty Bi jumped in fright, dropping his flashlight, and swung his climbing axe down with force.
His blow sent two stone crabs flying, knocked another from the wall, but one managed to land on him.
Its sharp pincers tore into his climbing jacket, the thick fabric ripping audibly, then stuffing scattered everywhere.

Fatty Bi cried out in shock, and Li Tianque quickly activated his kilovolt glove, zapping the stone crab clinging to him.
Electric sparks flashed, fluid burst from the stone crab, filling the air with a foul stench.
Sensing this odor, the stone crabs in the cave seemed to hear a battle trumpet; they surged forward like a tide.
Li Tianque, unable to worry about whether he could handle the glove, cranked the voltage up to 1200 volts. The current forced his arms wide, dazzling blue bolts exploding in an instant.
A terrifying chain of electric dragons tore and twisted through the damp mist.
Li Tianque was thrown back by the shock, and Fatty Bi caught a dose as well, his whole body jolting.
The stone crabs rushing in didn’t fare any better. The first dozen to charge in were all struck by the electric dragon, dropping to the ground with strange cries, their limp pincers trembling at the shell’s edge.
Those behind hesitated briefly, but lacking the intellect to sense danger, they still charged at Li Tianque and Fatty Bi without a second thought.
"Damn, your gadget attacks everything! We might get fried before the monsters do!" Fatty Bi’s lips quivered as he shouted.
"Run! Run!" Li Tianque yelled, ignoring him. "The heating pipes map the terrain—if nothing changes, just follow them and you’ll get out!"
With that, Li Tianque scrambled to his feet and ran along the pipes. Fatty Bi, legs numb, hobbled after him.
Though the pipes were a kind of trap, they also served as a guide.
Since they lay flush with the ground, they shifted with every rise and fall, marking the path. In the mist, they were clear as signposts.
The stone crabs were numerous but not quick.
Some, just awakened by the mist, needed a moment to adjust before seeking targets.
So those newly awakened didn’t pursue right away; it was the ones ahead, already alert, that watched and blocked their way.
As they ran, Li Tianque and Fatty Bi fought off the attacks.
But the stone crabs were simply too many.
Three clung tightly to Li Tianque, while Fatty Bi carried seven or eight.
The dreadful pincers wrapped around them, tearing at their jackets, trying to reach skin and drill inward.
Li Tianque endured the pain, pushing forward, noticing that despite the smooth progress, the stone crabs kept multiplying.
They seemed endless, as if nothing would stop their advance until they’d devoured the two men.

"This is insane! So many monster stones—we’re finished, we’ll never get out..." Fatty Bi stopped, gasping for breath. As the temperature rose, breathing grew harder still.
Li Tianque paused as well, electrocuting five or six stone crabs with labored breaths.
"Damn it, this won’t work!"
He frowned, glancing down, when something strange caught his eye.
He found a coil of rope at his feet and snatched it up.
Under the eerie red glow of the heating pipe, he saw it was the same rope he’d lost earlier when descending into the shaft!
He remembered tossing the broken rope near the cave entrance to lighten his load, yet now he’d found it here again.
What was going on?
More stone crabs pressed in on Fatty Bi. Gritting his teeth, he swung his axe, catching sight of Li Tianque staring at the rope in a daze.
"Hey, help me! I’m surrounded!" Fatty Bi shouted angrily.
Li Tianque snapped back, quickly zapping the attacking stone crabs with the glove.
But after using so much bioelectricity, his whole body felt weak, and a strange pain throbbed in his head—as if the black active iodine sealing the nightmare eyes was draining rapidly...
Damn, could it be that when his stamina failed, he’d burn through that mysterious substance?
A chill ran through Li Tianque, and he said to Fatty Bi,
"Earlier outside, we got caught in a ghost maze. I wandered for ages and ended up back at the shaft. Now it’s happening again—even though we’re following the heating pipes, we’ve returned to the beginning."
"Yeah, so?" Fatty Bi replied weakly.
"If we want to escape, we’ll have to try something different!" Li Tianque said, his tone serious.

End of chapter.