The fall left me gasping for air.
I gagged, coughing, as my eyes adjusted to my surroundings.
My back lay against a wet wall, and I slowly got up, pushing my knees against the hard stone floor to do so.
The cave was silent.
Only the sound of dripping water and my ragged breathing could be heard.
... I... need to get out....
... Now.
Luckily, my briefcase was still with me.
Fumbling with the latches, I finally got it open and took out my phone.
The phone couldn't work inside a Zeng Meng, but at least the screen light could illuminate the area a little better.
The dim light just barely lit up my path.
I seemed to be in a small cavern, where in front of me was a tunnel that led deeper into the Zeng Meng.
With no other choice, I squeezed my body through the crawlway.
And just as I'd expected, it led me to another cave.
This time, though, there were multiple tunnels to choose from.
Hah... great... how did this even happen?
A Zeng Meng this big and no authorities in sight is unheard of.
And even so, one in Xue Plains?
Is this the doing of Wei's boss? There has to be outside work involved; this can't happen naturally... but why would Wei's boss do this?
This is at least an A-Rank Zeng Meng... and from what I've seen of Wei's skills, he's definitely not A-Rank, so unless his boss was trying to get him killed, I can't imagine... no...
... I'm getting too sidetracked.
I need to find Wei first.
There's no point in coming up with theories if I die here anyway.
... The tracker, right—I need to see Wei's location.
To my delight, the Stingray still worked inside the Zeng Meng despite needing a phone to be used.
It was a bit wonky, and the screen kept glitching, but it was much better than nothing.
There was no image of the map; instead, the screen just showed Wei and me in a black void, with Wei being over eight hundred meters away from me.
At this point, I was guessing as to which tunnels to go into and which ones to leave out of.
Breathing became more difficult, let alone moving in these tight spaces.
Brief breaks came only when I found myself in a more open chamber inside the cave system.
Ah... I can't just keep guessing which way to go...
Everything looked the same, and I didn't have anything on me to help mark out areas I'd already been in.
Just as I thought that, a slight glow emanated from one of the tunnels.
It was a flashing, light pink shine.
As dangerous as it was to check it out, going the opposite direction could've been worse.
And from my knowledge, no creatures inside Zeng Meng's have an ability like this.
But at this point, is my knowledge even useful anymore?
... It seems like everything's surprising me...
First, I rolled an empty potion bottle towards the tunnel, in which nothing had happened, prompting me to start carefully approaching the light.
As I turned the corner, I finally saw what was glowing.
On the ground lay a brooch with a pink gem embedded in it.
Picking it up, the gem was the true object that was glowing.
Although the silver frame was cracked, the gem seemed completely fine.
I didn't sense any immediate danger from it... But... who could've dropped this?
After all, Wei's wasn't the type of guy to carry around something like this.
I held my phone in one hand and held the brooch in my other, with my briefcase dangling from my arm.
There had to be a reason why this brooch was glowing... it could be some type of Li-Liang device...
As I inspected it further, tiny white particles started to surround it.
The particles then started to drift further into the tunnel, as if signaling me to follow it.
... Hah... well, it's not like I have a better idea...
And so, I followed.
I still wasn't sure what device this was. I've never seen something like this before...
I trailed behind the particles by a couple of feet, making sure to keep my footsteps as silent as possible whilst listening for other things in the Zeng Meng.
Counting in my head, about five minutes had passed.
The particles kept moving, and I'd noticed that the gem was getting brighter with each minute.
At this point, I'd also slowed my pace down by half, almost tiptoeing as I peeked around corners before moving.
My cautiousness had come to fruition, as almost too quickly, the sounds of frantic footsteps echoed through the tunnels.
I caught my breath before trying to pinpoint where the footsteps were coming from.
No doubt about it, they were getting closer to me.
I quickly stuffed everything into my briefcase and started concentrating all my Li-Liang on activating the Mr. Octopus.
Alright... calm down... breathe in... hah... and out... in... out...
Slowly, I could feel the device's effects.
My body felt like it was thinning out of existence, and everything felt lighter.
Opening my eyes... it had really worked...
I was invisible, and so were the items I was holding.
[Mr. Octopus — Rank A]
[Status: Active for approximately ten minutes before user's Li-Liang is insufficient]
A purple screen appeared in front of me, further confirming what I saw before I swiftly swatted it away.
As if right on cue, the footsteps were now right behind me.
I tucked myself as closely as possible to the walls.
A bright light shone onto the walls of the tunnel, blinding me, and the person finally walked out.
I held my hand over my mouth.
... Wei...?
I tucked myself deeper into the walls.
He wore a different outfit. It was less casual: a slick black coat, with emblems mounted in quite a lot of places, and it was of very high quality.
Only a few feet away from me, I could clearly see his complexion.
He looked pale, and his hair was messy.
Sweat covered his face, and his eyes were wide, darting around the chamber as if looking for something.
He staggered around, using his flashlight to illuminate the room.
For a moment, he opened his mouth, looking like he was about to yell something, before shutting it again.
It was like he wanted to say something, but was trying to stay silent.
... I haven't seen him act like this since we fought...
For some reason, he kept circling the chamber, despite it being undeniably empty... and that's when I saw it.
In his other hand, he held a brooch of a similar size to the one I'd found.
A thought then struck me.
I slowly started to shuffle out of the chamber into a tunnel.
Although I'd expected it, it still startled me when Wei suddenly snapped his body around and started heading in my direction.
I kept moving, and so did he, as his hurried footsteps easily covered up mine.
While we walked, I opened my briefcase and took out the pink brooch.
The second I put it down, it would become visible to Wei, and so I placed it just as we entered another chamber.
His gaze immediately locked onto it.
Without a second thought, he grabbed the brooch, but I would soon realize that it wasn't specifically the brooch he was looking for.
Although he now had the brooch, he still looked frantic, checking behind rocks, rechecking rocks he'd already checked.
The brooch wasn't what he was searching for...
... Brooch?
It looks like a woman's brooch.
Wei had started to move out of the chamber we were in, and I quickly followed behind him.
To me, it seemed like not even Wei knew where he was going.
He would walk into new chambers, leave, then come back again, as if going back to the same place would give a different result.
It was also getting risky following Wei for this long.
Not only am I wasting already limited time, but if I ever made any physical contact with Wei, my position would be revealed.
I soon had to make a choice.
Either split up with Wei, risking losing him again, or I could stay following his uncertain decisions.
Although I wanted to split up, there was no way I could leave the Zeng Meng without Wei.
Not because I needed Wei to live, although that was of course a reason, but because all Èmó needed to be wiped out in order to create an exit.
If this Zeng Meng is truly an A-Rank Zeng Meng, then there's no chance of me getting out of here alone.
We wandered further into the winding tunnels.
I had used up half my time already, and I prayed that whatever—or whoever Wei was looking for would show up.
Just as we were entering a tight crawl space, I started to hear sounds.
They were incredibly muffled, but they were definitely people speaking...!
Had a god really heard my prayers—?!
A few seconds later, I could see Wei's expression change, and a glint appeared in his eyes.
He seemed to hear it too.
Wei started rapidly running through the tunnels, stopping every once in a while to listen for the sounds' location.
After several dead ends and twists, we somehow made our way into an actual structure.
The sharp, wet rocks had turned into what seemed to be man-made stone of many different colors.
Different blues and teals lined the walls, cracked and ancient, yet despite that, one could still imagine what it looked like in its prime.
As we went down this tunnel, or a hall of sorts, the voices got louder and louder.
The voices echoed throughout the hall, and it had become much clearer to distinguish what was happening.
It was a girl speaking, close to my age, maybe?
She seemed to be giving orders of sorts.
A door appeared before us.
It was decorated with similar teal tiles as the hall, but had intricate designs that swirled around the perimeter.
Without a moment's hesitation, Wei had already pushed the door open.
On the other side stood a young woman in a similar outfit to the one Wei wore.
Beside her stood three men, but they were dressed in different attire.
In unison, they all turned to face Wei.
In their eyes seemed to be a sense of relief, but also confusion.
Unable to contain himself, Wei had finally spoken for the first time since we entered the Zeng Meng.
"Yin Ai—!"