Rat-a-Tat-Tat

The Mountain Demon's "esophagus" was broad and slick. Combined with the Mountain Demon's constant swaying, it made walking difficult for the group.

The four of them slowly made their way upward. Pei Xianjue asked about the team's situation, and Ling Feiran answered as they walked.

When Pei Xianjue learned that the fog had spread even farther and that the Quarantine Zone might send a second team into it to search at any moment, she became especially anxious.

"We have to get out of here as soon as possible," Pei Xianjue said grimly.

But things did not go as they wished. The passage ended in a dead end.

They tried every branch passage and found no exit.

Unwilling to give up, Pei Xianjue pressed her hand against the end of the passage. It felt hard and rough. She conjured a ball of fire to see more clearly and discovered that the wall at the end was darker than the surrounding rock, damp and cold, like freshly hardened cement.

"The exit has been blocked." Agitated, Pei Xianjue drew the curved blade at her waist and stabbed it hard into the rock wall!

The blade actually sank about a third of the way in.

Pei Xianjue froze for a moment, then was overjoyed. "There's a hard shell on the outside, but it's soft inside. We can dig through it!"

Without another thought, Pei Xianjue stabbed several more times!

A sharp blade was hardly an ideal digging tool. Anxious, she scraped sideways several times, then reached in to claw at the sand and dirt beneath the hard shell. Her fingers quickly began to bleed, because the dirt was mixed with pebbles, branches, and broken bones.

"Do you have a shovel in your bag?" Pei Xianjue turned and asked Huangfu Miaomiao.

"Who takes a shovel