The passage was eerily quiet, broken only by the soft squelch of their feet on the springy floor.
The fungal mat covering the walls gave off a faint phosphorescence, providing a little light. But its sickly green glow only made the place more unsettling. The air was foul, heavy with mildew and a pungent smell like the gastric acid of some creature.
They hadn't gone far when the passage forked ahead. One branch sloped upward, while the other wound downward.
"Which way?" Qu Xuanqing asked.
Yu Xing blinked and carefully sensed the energy fluctuations in the two branches.
The energy in the upward passage was relatively stable, but it carried an unpleasant sense of "digestion," as though it led to some enormous "stomach." The energy in the downward passage was far more chaotic and violent. He could faintly hear liquid gurgling through pipes, along with something else... a low, intermittent moan.
"Down," Yu Xing decided.
In a place like this, the uncontrolled chaos might be the only way out.
They headed downward. The passage grew narrower and steeper, and the fungal mat on the walls grew thicker. In some places, it even writhed faintly like a living thing.
The gurgling water and the moans grew clearer, too.
Suddenly, Yu Xing, who was leading the way, stopped short and raised a hand to signal them.
Embedded in the side wall of the passage just ahead were several half-transparent human shapes!
They weren't alive, but they didn't seem to be the same kind of beings as the shadows.
As they drew closer, the figures came into sharper focus, revealing details that sent a chill down their spines.
The fragments of clothing and hairstyles that hadn't yet been completely swallowed by the fungal mat clearly belonged to the Victorian era—just like the real