The boss of a foreign organization called the police, claiming that he was defrauded by me

Given the current season and weather, it's impossible for lotus flowers to bloom, let alone bloom so profusely.

Meng Yu frowned, lost in thought: "What exactly is going on?"

Looking at the unfamiliar surroundings, Gu Xiaowu didn't dare to act rashly and asked, "Are we still inside the tomb?"

Meng Yu wasn't entirely sure either, but they hadn't left the tomb from beginning to end, and he couldn't think of a better explanation.

Meanwhile, in another cave, Yang Xia and his companions were also trapped.

They finally found the exit, but faced with this unfamiliar environment, they had no idea where to start.

The cave was filled with glittering fireflies, which illuminated the entire cave.

The dense clustering of fireflies would be a deadly disaster for someone with trypophobia.

Looking at the insects, Yang Xia felt a chill and dared not enter rashly.

It wasn't that he had trypophobia, but rather that he had a vague feeling that these insects weren't so simple.

Yuan Feng examined them carefully and said, "These insects look scary, but they are not actually aggressive. It's just that there are so many of them that they seem terrifying."

Meng Yin nodded in agreement, saying, "I agree with you. It's just that there are a lot of them. In real life, they're just insignificant little bugs. We can just walk right past them."

Although everything in the cave had a strange feel to it, they couldn't be afraid of everything, or they didn't know when they would reach the middle.

After the two finished speaking, they started walking forward. Before Yang Xia could stop them, he watched them walk ahead.

Yuan Feng didn't take these insects seriously at all. It wasn't that he was arrogant, but rather that he felt these insects posed no threat whatsoever.

He walked to the very center of the cave, where the insects flew around him, but showed no sign of attacking him.

Moreover, in his view, these insects were indeed not capable of attacking; they were just ordinary insects.

Yang Xia shouted anxiously, "Come back quickly! These insects are not so simple. Think about it, there are still several checkpoints ahead in this sealed cave. These insects definitely can't get out. So how do they survive?"

The thought of it is chilling. How incredibly resilient these insects must be to survive without any food source!

Meng Yin also felt something was amiss, but since he was standing in the very center and the insects didn't attack him, and even seemed quite "friendly," he said, "These insects don't attack people. Maybe there are places we can't get out of, but they can, which is why they can survive here."

Insects are small, but they can squeeze through any small hole, which is something humans can't compare to.

There are definitely many ways to get out of here.

Besides, fireflies are creatures that naturally prefer cold and damp places, so it's not surprising that they're here.

Yuan Feng chimed in, "Your Majesty, we have already tested it ourselves. These insects will not attack us. You can come over without worry."

Upon hearing their words, the Imperial Guards and Attendants immediately stepped inside.

The insects did not show any aggressive posture. Yang Xia frowned slightly, wondering if he was overthinking things.

Perhaps I underestimated the situation here, which is why I kept running into obstacles.

Yang Xia raised his foot, ready to step in, when he heard a series of screams from them.

The sounds rose and fell, each one more mournful than the last, sending chills down one's spine.

Yuan Feng quickly covered his head with his clothes and ran away from that place as if his life depended on it. He was in so much pain that he covered his face with his hands, wishing he could replace all the skin on his face.

The others weren't much better off; the insects only stopped attacking when they moved out of their original positions.

Mengyin was at the very front, so it was bitten the most, and its entire face was covered in bite wounds.

Especially those hands, because they were instinctively trying to block the view, they were covered in red bumps, which looked both frightening and disgusting.

He himself hadn't recovered yet, and his voice was trembling, clearly terrified: "It hurts so much! These little bugs bite more painfully than a wasp sting."

Wasps are poisonous, but these insects also seem to be poisonous; wherever they bite, red bumps will appear on your hands.

Moreover, these bumps are unbearably itchy if you don't scratch them, but if you do scratch them, the skin will break immediately, making the situation worse than before.

So they couldn't grab them, but many people didn't have the same willpower and couldn't resist reaching out to grab those red bumps.

Yang Xia said sternly, "Everyone, try to bear with it. If you scratch your skin, the situation will only get worse."

"I think Your Majesty is right. I just scratched my hand and it turned completely black. Everyone, please don't scratch it, just bear with it and it will pass."...

Yuan Feng noticed his hands had turned black, and a chill ran through him. They didn't have much medical equipment with them to begin with, and if anything unexpected happened here, the chances of them dying would increase dramatically.

Meng Yin slumped to the ground, saying weakly, "This is my fault for not thinking things through, which has put everyone in such a dangerous situation."

If only they had listened to the king more, they wouldn't have rushed in so recklessly. These seemingly harmless insects, however, inflicted fatal damage on them.

Whether it's their hands or their face, any skin exposed to the air is completely mangled by them.

Yuan Feng sighed helplessly, realizing they had indeed been too reckless. But what's done is done, and blaming anyone now was pointless. The most urgent thing was to figure out how to get out of there.

Simply blaming and complaining here won't get you anywhere; it might just make things worse.

Yang Xia didn't blame them. After all, they had been trapped there for several days, and he could understand their desire to leave as soon as possible.

There's a saying that goes, "Haste makes waste." The more you want to leave here quickly, the more likely you are to run into trouble.

The fireflies originally emitted a faint green glow from their tails, but now, after sucking human blood, the light from their tails has turned red.

Yang Xia pointed at the fireflies and said, "Look, the fireflies have changed color."

Yuan Feng turned around and was so frightened that his legs went weak. Those red fireflies were filled with their blood. And this was only a small portion of the fireflies that had sucked their blood. If all the fireflies had eaten their fill, they would have become dried-up corpses.

The number of fireflies was so great that it could only be described as "densely packed".

Some fireflies couldn't fly, so they just landed on the wall, illuminating the entire space. Every firefly in the corners and every other corner could be seen clearly.

Yang Xia said, "Have you noticed that these fireflies only attack people who rush in, but they don't seem to bother us when we're sitting outside?"

Fireflies are just insects; they have no sense of territory and won't kill intruders like other fierce wild animals.

When Meng Yin opened his eyes, he felt that the bite on his eyelid had made his entire eye swell up, turning his once big eyes into squinty ones.

Even so, he still struggled to open his eyes, looked at the spot under his feet, then looked over there, and said, "They probably saw that there was nowhere left to bite us, so they just gave up."

Everyone who rushed in, except for the king, was bitten so badly they were covered in wounds, with nowhere left to bite. The fireflies probably saw there was nowhere to suck blood and stopped flying over.

Of course, this is just his guess.

Yang Xia smiled helplessly and said, "You're completely defenseless against them now. Why don't you go inside and see if they'll still bite you?"

He was just joking, but Meng Yin didn't even think. He quickly got up and crawled inside, followed by another painful howl.

After being bitten, he ran back in a disheveled state, clutching his face which was swollen like a steamed bun, grimacing in pain. He thought for a moment that he was going to die there.

Meng Yin couldn't help but curse: "Damn it, this is just too much! I'm covered in bruises, and they still won't let me go. It's outrageous!"

Yang Xia couldn't help but burst out laughing.

He knew that what he was doing was not very ethical, but he still comforted them by saying, "So no matter if you have anything to eat on you or not, as long as you get close to them, they will not hesitate to give you a few bites."

These fireflies don't care what you look like; as long as there's food, they'll go crazy and won't care if you live or die.

Yang Xia was also very curious. This place wasn't open to just anyone. So, how did these fireflies survive before they arrived?

Meng Yin chuckled. Although he didn't turn around, he could feel the gazes from those behind him. However, he didn't feel embarrassed, since they were all his own people.

He said, "There are so many fireflies here, they can't possibly live on air alone. There must be something to eat nearby for them to survive."

If these fireflies didn't bite them, they might not eat anything at all and would really only live on a little water.

But now they've bitten people and drunk their blood, which is enough to prove that these fireflies are different from the ordinary ones outside.

The group was trapped here and dared not leave rashly. They could only wait in place and try to stabilize their injuries.

Yang Xia did a quick count and found that the two people who rushed in first were the most seriously injured, while the people who went in later mostly had injuries to their hands, face and neck.

They kept scratching the red and swollen areas, hoping to relieve the itching, but the more they scratched, the itchier it became, and the skin broke, and the pain intensified.

Yang Xia said, "You are very susceptible to infection if you do this. I'll emphasize it again: don't scratch the red and swollen areas on your body. Just bear with it and it will pass."

That being said, these people simply cannot control themselves.

He still unconsciously kept scratching, but the consequence of doing so was that his whole body was covered in skin ulcers.

Yuan Feng forced himself not to scratch the broken skin on his wound. It felt like a million ants were gnawing at his heart. The more he tried not to care, the stronger the feeling became, and it subconsciously swept through his brain, making him unable to resist the urge to scratch the red and swollen areas.

"boom!"

Yuan Feng could no longer bear it and punched a nearby rock.

He hoped to relieve the pain by doing this, but after smashing it, he found that his hand didn't seem to hurt as much.

He took his hand and saw that it was covered in green liquid. Wherever the liquid touched, it felt like being soothed by ice and snow in a raging fire. The feeling was so comfortable that it made him feel so immersed in it that he didn't want to return to reality.

Yuan Feng seemed to have discovered something extraordinary, and shouted to the people around him, "The liquid from fireflies can help relieve our pain. Let's quickly get some on our hands so we don't have to suffer like this."

Mengyin caught a firefly, crushed it, and smeared it on his hands. The agonizing discomfort gradually subsided as he applied the mixture.

He let out a long breath, like an addict who had gotten what he wanted. Then he reached out and grabbed some other fireflies, smearing their liquid on his hands.

The liquid not only relieved the pain, but also stopped the bleeding from the scratches. He said with some surprise, "This might be a very good medicinal material. If we make good use of it, it might be able to contribute to the Great Zhou Dynasty in the future."

Yang Xia also noticed this strange phenomenon and immediately caught a firefly. The firefly didn't have any other strange smell; it just felt cool and refreshing when rubbed on his hands.

Because he had never been bitten, he didn't know what it would feel like to apply it.

At Yuan Feng's strong recommendation, all the soldiers began to capture fireflies.

However, they dared not get too close, because these fireflies were like madmen; once they stepped in, the fireflies would tear at their bodies like wild beasts.

Don't underestimate these tiny fireflies. When thousands of fireflies chase and bite a person, the pain is indescribable, like ants biting an elephant.

Many of them were injured, but they could only catch a few fireflies.

Trying to penetrate deep enough to capture them is clearly unrealistic. Even setting aside the fact that these fireflies can fly, given their current injured state, they probably wouldn't even be able to touch a firefly's wing, let alone capture it.

But if they don't catch these fireflies, the bites on the soldiers' bodies won't heal, and they can't find any other way until they get out.

All we can do now is lure all these fireflies over, and it would be good if we could catch some of them.

Yuan Feng stepped forward voluntarily. He felt that his physical condition was still okay, at least he still had the strength to run away after being bitten.

He said, "Let me lure those fireflies. Once I've lured them over here, you can find a chance to capture some for medicinal use."

Meng Yin stopped him, feeling the method was too risky: "No, it's too dangerous for you to go alone. I'll go with you!" (End of Chapter)