To put it into perspective, if the distance from the top of one's head to the cave entrance was about one meter upon entering, the distance from the top of one's head to the ceiling now was at least one and a half to two meters.
“What's going on? I didn't even notice this.”
Staring at the cave ceiling illuminated by the magic lantern, Li Huai fell into a deep state of self-doubt.
“It's normal. This cave has been expanding by millimeters ever since the entrance. At that rate, people gradually stop noticing anything is wrong.”
“A cognitive bias?”
“Who knows? Anyway, if I hadn't checked the cave walls just now, I wouldn't have noticed it either.”
Li Huai nodded at Li Wufeng’s logical explanation, then stepped forward to continue walking.
It made sense.
In such pitch-black darkness, who would think about the size of the tunnel unless they specifically brought a light source close to inspect it?
The most striking part was how regular the expansion was.
“Wait!”
Just then, the petite and cute Lisara, who was wearing glasses, suddenly called out to Li Huai and the others as they prepared to move forward.
“What is it? Is there a situation?”
An hour had been enough for Li Huai to get a feel for the composition of this temporary exploration team.
He was even clearly aware of the person trailing about a hundred meters behind them. So, when Lisara called for a halt, he reacted immediately.
“Yes, there seems to be something moving ahead. It’s very slow, and it’s massive.”
Lisara leaned one hand against the cave wall, closing her eyes and whispering through beads of sweat.
“Can you tell its approximate location and size?”
“About a thousand meters away. That's the limit of my sensing. It's not coming toward us; it seems to be going deeper inside.”
“As for its size... it feels like a wall, completely blocking the entire cave.”
A thousand meters away, and that large.
Li Huai's slightly furrowed brow gradually relaxed.
After walking for over an hour, they had finally encountered something interesting.
“Then let's go up and take a look. Everyone, take your potions and stay behind me. If anything goes wrong, we'll retreat immediately.”
Li Huai looked at Li Wufeng and offered his suggestion.
After all, Li Wufeng was technically the leader of this squad, while Li Huai was at least responsible for acting as the muscle and bodyguard.
For him, as long as there was a fight, everything else was secondary.
Even the twenty percent share of the spoils promised by Shang Chuan wasn't as important as a good battle in his eyes.
“That works.”
Li Wufeng agreed without a second thought.
It was a joke—the other man was volunteering to take point; why would he refuse? To do so would be incredibly tactless.
And so, following Li Huai's arrangement, the group silently fell in behind him and slowly continued their advance.
After all, they hadn't encountered a single monster for so long. Now that one had suddenly appeared, they couldn't afford not to be careful.
A thousand meters wasn't a very long distance for them. Ten minutes later, they reached the position of the 'wall' Lisara had described.
Through the faint yellow glow of the magic lantern, they saw a creature covered in long, grey fur.
However, because the creature was slowly crawling away from them with its back turned, they couldn't tell exactly what it looked like.
“I'll go up and check.”
Even though they were standing only ten meters behind the creature, it didn't even turn its head to look at them, which Li Huai found incredible.
To a battle maniac like him, the monsters of this world were extremely aggressive.
Forget ten meters—even if you were standing a hundred meters away, as long as you were spotted, those monsters would travel miles just to take a couple of bites out of you.
So, he decided to go up and see what was going on.
He stepped forward while Li Wufeng and the others watched nervously from behind.
After all, it would be a lie to say they weren't afraid of something large enough to block the entire cave.
Sure enough.
Just as Li Huai got within a meter of it, the grey fur suddenly stood on end, stabbing toward him like sharp blades.
Fortunately, Li Huai was prepared. The moment he sensed something was wrong, he flew backward.
Even so, he was still a step too late.
His chin and chest were slashed by a strand of fur, and blood began to flow uncontrollably.
Seeing this, Li Wufeng immediately stepped forward with Zhao Dulay to catch Li Huai and drag him back ten meters before stopping.
Meanwhile, Lisara and Kam each pulled out a healing potion—one was sprinkled on the wounds, while the other was fed to Li Huai.
“Hiss—I didn't expect it to have such fast reactions despite looking so clumsy.”
Having recovered his breath, Li Huai let out a sharp intake of air.
He had clearly been prepared, yet he had still been injured by the fur. It was somewhat unbelievable.
After more than a month of combat, while he wouldn't claim to be a master, he shouldn't have been injured while on guard.
But this big guy had managed it.
That could only mean one thing: this creature's grade was higher than any monster he had encountered before.
At that thought, Li Huai's eyes lit up.
“Li Huai, are you alright?”
Li Wufeng asked, noticing Li Huai's strange expression.
“I'm fine.”
Li Huai waved his hand and stood up from the ground.
“I think I need to take back my previous assessment.”
Seeing that Li Huai was okay, Li Wufeng looked at the creature, which was now covered in bristling spikes.
“The assessment about it being a mine?”
“Yes.”
Li Wufeng nodded.
“Looking at it now, this cave isn't a passage leading somewhere, nor is it a mine dug by people. It’s very likely not even dug by an intelligent being.”
“Are you saying this tunnel was probably made by this big guy?”
Li Huai looked at Li Wufeng and frowned slightly.
“Yes.”
Li Wufeng nodded seriously, then tilted his chin toward the creature's back.
“The fur on this thing might not look like much at a glance, but given how it just slashed you, it must be extremely sharp. That means the marks on the walls that looked like 'excavation' were likely caused by this thing's fur rubbing against the cave walls. This theory is even more likely considering the creature didn't even turn around to check after realizing someone was behind it.”
“You're saying this guy can only move forward and can't retreat or turn its head?”
“That’s the most likely scenario. After all, even if it wanted to turn around or move its head, there's no space for it.”
As he spoke, Li Wufeng raised the magic lantern in his hand as high as possible to illuminate the entire cave.
Seeing this, Kam, who was also holding a lantern, raised his hand as well.
Now, everyone could see the full view of the cave clearly and directly.
It was true.
The creature's body was flush with the cave walls, fitting so tightly that there was absolutely no room to maneuver.
“That makes a lot of sense, but I have one question.”
Watching the big guy's wriggling back and its now-receded fur, Li Huai began to ask.
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