One thing was certain: the deeper they explored the cave, the more dangerous it would become.
But no one backed down.
The rewards for sacrifice were simply too great.
"Don’t let my delicate appearance fool you. My Summoned Pets pack a real punch. I’ve participated in defensive battles and expeditions, you know," Yu Ziyuan said with a smile. This was her first time exploring a cave, but as a Warlock, she was in a relatively safer position.
"Let’s go."
Su Chen didn’t delay. He led the group down to a platform in the cave and proceeded deeper inside.
Soon, that familiar sensation of passing through a barrier surfaced once again.
It was as if they had passed through an invisible film, and the surrounding air suddenly grew heavy and sluggish.
This sensation signaled that they had officially entered the Hunter’s Path. The beams of their high-powered flashlights pierced the darkness ahead. The arrival of the Bright Unicorn, in particular, bathed the surrounding area in light, its body shrouded in a sacred, radiant glow.
WHOOSH!
High on the cave wall, a lurking cave dweller spontaneously burst into eerie blue flames from the inside out, without any warning.
It didn’t even have time to activate its glandular spray. It felt its head go empty as a shadowflame incinerated its skull into a translucent, charred husk. It froze for a moment before crashing to the ground.
At the same time, a faint light glimmered in Yan Ruoruo’s eyes. With a soft hum of her bowstring, a silent and invisible Wind Split Arrow shot through the air, accurately piercing another cave dweller between the eyes. The arrowhead emerged from the back of its skull, trailing greyish-white brain matter.
In the next instant, Su Chen leaped forward like a phantom, closing in on the third enemy and silently twisting its neck into a spiral.
This was clearly another killing move he had developed himself using Telekinesis.
The inspiration came from the Dual Vector Force Field characteristic of the Gravity Skill.
As an extension of that principle, he used Strong Thought Imprisonment to restrain the target’s torso while a separate, invisible force rapidly twisted its neck. Thanks to the cave dweller’s tough muscle structure, its neck didn’t snap, but was instead wrung into a grotesque spiral.
’A complete corpse. Perfect for a sacrifice.’
In less than the span of a single breath, all three of the ordinary cave dwellers in the Hunter’s Path were eliminated.
"We haven’t been here for two days, and they’ve already crept up from the bottom of the cave."
This was merely an insignificant appetizer, certainly nothing to be complacent about.
Yan Ruoruo’s gaze fell upon the corpse of a Forest Wolf at the side of the cave. Its blood had long since congealed and turned black. Most of its abdomen and limbs had been gnawed away, revealing ghastly white ribs.
"Is the Rune Essence missing?" Yan Ziqian suddenly asked.
"Mhm." Ruoruo nodded.
At the very least, the Rune in its skull had vanished.
"They might have accidentally swallowed it, but they can’t absorb it. The other possibility is that they’re intentionally collecting and taking away the Elemental Rune Essence," Yan Ziqian said. He had found fresh corpses on both his first and second trips into the cave.
The problem was, he never found any Rune Essence in them.
None of the cave dwellers they’d slaughtered along the way had dropped any from their remains, nor had they found any lost Runes in other parts of the cave.
"Don’t tell me they have some kind of ’sacrificial’ ritual too? Or maybe they’re being used as consumables," Pang Peng said, catching on instantly. He looked a bit surprised.
’Oh, they most certainly do...’ Su Chen remained silent. His family’s heirloom Jade Pendant, a potential relic from a previous civilization, could indeed convert and utilize Rune Essence to strengthen his own body.
Even if it wasn’t the same thing, the two were definitely related.
The difference was, unlike the cave dwellers who suffered from degeneration and fading intelligence, he had remained perfectly fine. If the Bloodthirsty Fungus knew the truth, it would probably have a complete mental breakdown.
"Also," Yu Ziyuan said, unearthing a new question, "the cave dwellers clearly need to eat nutritious food. But they can’t leave the cave, and just waiting for prey to wander in shouldn’t be enough to feed them, right?"
"We’ll find out as we explore deeper."
Su Chen was also very interested in these two topics.
The group didn’t linger. After briefly burying the corpses, they pushed through the choke point ahead in an instant and successfully entered the Hunting Hall.
For eight minutes, neither the released Soul-devouring Dog nor Yu Ziyuan’s four summoned creatures could find any sign of cave dwellers within the vast cavernous hall.
The place was empty and deathly silent.
Soon, Su Chen took the lead, descending through a vertical corridor and into the Jade Bamboo Hall. A Lighting Skill cast from a short staff illuminated the area, the light spreading like ripples in water to every corner.
Stalactites hung densely from the ceiling like a forest of swords. Under the effects of Elemental Resonance, the silhouette of a cave dweller hiding on a stone platform was outlined.
WHOOSH!
Su Chen used his Strong Will to summon the Bronze Spear from his mountaineering pack. The moment it was in his hand, he threw it. There was no trace of him gathering power; the throw relied entirely on the precise feel born from his muscle coordination.
PFFT!
In an instant, the Bronze Spear, accelerated by Telekinesis, pierced the cave dweller’s left shoulder, tore diagonally through its chest cavity, and viciously pinned it to the rock wall behind.
’Missed by a little.’
Su Chen estimated the distance to be about seventy meters. His strike, aimed at the heart, had been slightly off. He had no choice but to finish it off with a Strong Thought Burst.
Yan Ruoruo followed close behind, floating down from the opening above in the next second.
Not long after, without any delay, she flew off to the right and fired an Echo Arrow into the Wailing Corridor.
Invisible Spiritual Fluctuations rippled through the enclosed stone corridor, repeatedly reflecting and amplifying, projecting a perfectly detailed image of every inch of the space into the minds of Ruoruo and Su Chen.
"Two of them. They just woke up," she said calmly.
An arrow left her string. Aided by the Cyan Nether Bow’s innate acceleration, the Wind Split Arrow created not a single ripple in the air as it accurately pierced the skull of a cave dweller from an extreme distance.
At almost the same instant, a black shadow surged like mist from the depths of the darkness. It summoned a Soul-devouring Dog doppelganger, which pounced on the other enemy and tore it to death.
All of this was just minor skirmishing.
The group officially returned to the deepest area they had previously explored. Yan Ziqian took out his phone and informed everyone of the thirteen resource locations marked on his rough map.
The Jade Bamboo Hall and the Wailing Corridor still had a good amount of Nether Sand Ore Crystals and Ashen Bud Flowers. Last time, they were overburdened and couldn’t carry so many resources, so they had to leave them to be dealt with on this trip.
Considering they would be heading deeper down along the underground river next, gathering everything in one place first was a good choice to ensure this part of the trip wasn’t for naught.
After a 20-minute stop, Su Chen held the Water-Splitting Pearl and took the lead, slowly floating down along the river’s course.

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