Ninety-three hammer strikes. Four feet.
Zhu Bajie set down the Copper Hammer and silently gestured to Chu Yang.
Done.
Chu Yang walked over to inspect it. The crack had been widened to four feet, enough for two people to pass through side by side. The chiseled surfaces were rough but even, with no loose rubble left behind.
He peered into the crack.
Black.
Pure, featureless black.
He took the glowstone from his Storage Bag, held it in his hand, and raised it toward the gap. The faint green glow barely illuminated two or three feet ahead—stone walls, wet stone walls, covered in a layer of black, sticky substance like congealed Serpent Saliva.
The fishy stench in the air was more than ten times stronger than before.
Sun Wukong walked to the crack and shrank the Golden Staff into a three-foot cudgel, gripping it in his hand.
"I'm going in."
Chu Yang grabbed his arm.
"Brother Monkey, something just occurred to me—if you find the Serpent Demon still sleeping after you go in, don't rush to attack. Use the end of the Golden Staff to test the hardness of its scales and look for weak points. A snake's weak spots are usually its belly, lower jaw, and the base of its tail. If its back scales are so hard that even the Golden Staff cannot break them, focus your attacks on its belly."
Sun Wukong snorted.
"You think I, Old Sun, can't smash through a snake's scales with my Golden Staff?"
"I'm just saying, in case. Just in case. There's no harm in being prepared."
Sun Wukong rolled his eyes, stopped arguing, and squeezed sideways into the crack.
His figure was quickly swallowed by the darkness.
Chu Yang and Zhu Bajie stood guard outside the crack.
The wait began.
The silence