Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Light Is the Overture to Victory

“Aaaaaah!” Fang Ye saw that face again and damn near lost his mind. “Help! Help me! Save me!”

In the black, something lurked wearing a human face. But the people above the pit were blinded by distance and darkness; all they could see was Fang Ye flailing and screaming while Cao Hong Yi kept firing.

They hesitated—should they climb down?

Feng Ling didn’t.

She jumped.

The flashlight beam cut through the dark and swept over a hulking shape. Feng Ling’s heart kicked hard, fast—an old excitement snapping awake in her veins.

She didn’t even wait to get a clear look.

The instant her boots hit the ground, two bone blades snapped out and slashed.

Face. Shell. Muscle.

The solid resistance—the real feeling of cutting into something that fought back—sent a hot, prickling rush through her. It was intoxicating.

She surged forward to finish it—

And the monster skittered out of the beam, vanishing into the dark like it had never been there.

Feng Ling swept the light in a sharp arc. Nothing but holes—black mouths in black stone.

Back into a tunnel.

She frowned and studied the blood left behind. Not the foul black-green from the bugs.

Bright red.

A heavy thud hit the ground behind her. She turned. Zhou Zhou had jumped down.

Then Xiao Li and Qin Liang slid down on ropes. Last came Huang Fu Miao Miao, inching down carefully behind the Special Assault Team members like a terrified shadow.

Feng Ling stared at them. “Why are you down here too?”

Qin Liang wiped sweat off his face and lifted the black box in his hands. “I checked with the detector. There’s a way to loop out from below.”

Xiao Li added, “And most of our lighting gear is in Old Cao’s pack. Even if we stayed up top, we’d still need enough light to move.”

Zhou Zhou’s gaze went straight to Cao Hong Yi. “How bad is it? Can you walk?”

Cao Hong Yi sat on the ground, gripping his calf, and shook his head. “Can’t. Probably fractured.”

Zhou Zhou’s brow knotted tighter. No signal down here. No calling for help. And the way out was still a long, ugly stretch.

Cao Hong Yi swallowed. “You all go. Don’t worry about me. I can find a small hole and hide. The bugs might not notice—”

“Hide?” Zhou Zhou snapped, voice cutting. “You think hiding means you’re safe? If we can’t clear the polluted entity, worst case they bring in heavy weapons and do an area bombardment. You stay here, you get buried alive.”

Cao Hong Yi’s mouth worked, then stopped. He dropped his gaze.

Every Special Assault Team member treated the mission like it mattered more than their own pulse. Now he was slowing everyone down. It ate at him.

Zhou Zhou seemed to understand that. After a few harsh words, he shut his mouth and simmered.

Xiao Li didn’t waste time. She set down her pack and pulled out the emergency kit to treat Cao Hong Yi’s leg.

Qin Liang set the detector down and started sorting what they had left. “Four flare sticks. Two headlamps. Two small flashlights.”

Zhou Zhou’s jaw tightened. “That’s it?”

Qin Liang answered quietly, “I had more flare sticks… but my backpack fell into that big cave earlier.”

Zhou Zhou’s beast claws sliced the air, pure frustration.

Everything had gone wrong since they entered. How was he supposed to keep this mission on track?

He glanced at Qin Liang again and saw blood still running down his back. That was the last straw.

“Your back is bleeding and you didn’t notice?!” Zhou Zhou barked. “You planning to bleed out and make me haul you out?”

Qin Liang froze. He’d been bitten earlier protecting the detector. It had hurt like hell then—but during the retreat he’d forgotten it. Now he didn’t even feel pain.

Xiao Li tossed him a small spray bottle. “Not feeling pain is worse. Could be a numbing toxin. We don’t have an antidote. Spray disinfectant first.”

Qin Liang’s face hardened. He pulled off his shirt and struggled to angle the spray over the wound.

The polluted entity stayed hidden. Supplies were gone. Two people injured. Morale sank into the mud.

Even Feng Ling felt it—a heaviness settling in. The terrain down here was too perfect for the polluted entity, and the lighting was too awful. If it showed itself again, she wasn’t sure she could end it cleanly.

So what now?

Xiao Li took a slow breath and looked straight at Zhou Zhou. “Deputy Captain, light is the key. Flashlights and headlamps create hard shadows—blind spots. When we move, the glare blooms and smears our vision. It’s bad for fighting.”

She held up the remaining flare sticks. “And we’re critically short on these. In a large cave, we’ll need at least two at once. That means we have, at most, two real fights left.”

Her voice sharpened, steady and grim. “Two chances. After that, we must find an exit, or we’ll be trapped in a hard fight.”

Zhou Zhou scrubbed a claw through the air, restless. “I know. But that thing’s too fast. Even if I catch it, I can’t see it. If we can lure it into the light, I’ll kill it.”

Feng Ling listened, thinking.

The polluted entity had shown itself twice. Once, it bit Chao Qiang Chao to death. The second time, it went for Fang Ye—until she stopped it.

It wasn’t mindless. It picked moments. It baited openings.

“Something doesn’t add up,” Feng Ling said slowly. “Every time the polluted entity appears, it’s alone. Why didn’t it attack while the swarm was on us? Why not strike in the chaos?”

Zhou Zhou frowned, replaying it. “You’re right. When it showed up, the swarm was gone. When the swarm came back, it disappeared. Attacking together would raise its odds. So why attack solo?”

Feng Ling’s eyes narrowed. “And when the swarm came the first time, they almost all went for our lights. I thought it was just insects chasing light. But now… maybe it was deliberate. Break our lighting, force us into the dark. We got turned around because we couldn’t see, and that handed the polluted entity a perfect chance.”

Qin Liang stared. “Are these bugs actually thinking?”

“They’re not normal insects,” Feng Ling said. “They’re the product of gene fusion. Having some intelligence isn’t surprising.”

She paused, hearing the quest prompt again in her head. “Little Skeleton’s quest said, ‘Silence is the prelude to death; light is the overture to victory.’ Light is obvious. Down here, without it, we can’t win. But silence…”

Her thoughts snapped into alignment, pointing toward something sharp and ugly.

She stopped speaking.

Everyone looked at her.