I started on a rocking horse and relied on watching ads to dominate the highway survival charts.

Huo Yunzhi's foot missed its mark, and she leaned forward. The rope around her waist tightened suddenly to pull her back.

She swayed for a moment in mid-air before regaining her balance. Looking down, she noticed a near-vertical break beneath her feet, and could vaguely see another set of stone steps about three or four meters below.

However, there is no connection between the two sets of steps, and only a few loose stones protrude from the bare rock face.

……

What is this?

Temple escape?

She pulled herself back up the steps by the rope and sat down. Looking at the rope that was almost gone, Huo Yunzhi untied a section from her waist without hesitation and then summoned the red silk ribbon.

The moment Hongling emerged, she tightly wrapped herself around the broken steps.

Immediately afterwards, the red silk began to grow rapidly, as if it was afraid that Huo Yunzhi would be unsafe to take a single route, and it even wove itself into the shape of a ladder, with the other end tightly wrapped around the broken edge of the steps below.

Huo Yunzhi cautiously took two steps forward.

Hongling seemed to sense Huo Yunzhi's distrust and swayed left and right a couple of times in dissatisfaction.

"Is this your divine artifact?" The merman, standing behind Huo Yunzhi, looked strangely at the red silk that had twisted herself into a rope ladder. "Just what level of ghost messenger are you?"

"Prefecture-level city".

Hearing what Huo Yunzhi said, the merman behind her looked even stranger.

Huo Yunzhi did not notice anything unusual about the merman. She stepped onto the rope ladder made of red silk and walked to the other side.

This new set of steps was narrower than the previous one, and the rock walls on both sides began to taper inwards. In some places, she had to squeeze through by turning her shoulder.

The salty, fishy smell in the air grew stronger, starting to mix with a smell like rust and dried seaweed burning together.

After climbing about a hundred more steps, the texture and feel underfoot changed.

It transformed from rough stone into something smooth.

Huo Yunzhi looked down and saw a thin layer of broken seashells paved the way. Stepping on it would produce a soft, crisp sound, each sound amplified several times in the narrow space, the echoes bouncing back slowly.

She unconsciously softened her footsteps, trying to reduce the noise, but it didn't help.

"It's alright," the merman said from behind her. "These shells are very fragile, which is why they make a sound, but their sounds travel very short distances, so no one outside can hear them."

Huo Yunzhi then boldly began to walk briskly.

Soon, Huo Yunzhi felt her vision broaden.

A naturally formed cave appeared at the end of the steps, with a dome about two zhang high and walls that were polished to an abnormally smooth finish.

In the very center of the cave stands a stone pillar, about as thick as two people could hug. Its surface is densely covered with the script of the Merfolk, each stroke embedded in the stone, with some of the recessed areas gleaming with a dark luster.

"I can't go any further from here." The merman stopped. "That stone pillar is the entrance. If I go any further, it will trigger an alarm."

Huo Yunzhi stared intently at the merman before turning and walking towards the stone pillar.

After passing through the stone pillars, a completely new cave appeared before us.

Two paths branch off on either side of the cave. In the middle is a large door with the same inscription as the stone pillar we just saw. The door has a ring of grooves, in which five or six small pearls of varying colors from light gray to dark black are embedded, arranged in a circle.

Huo Yunzhi didn't recognize the characters on it.

She reached out to touch one of the pearls, but before her fingertips could even touch it, all the pearls in the groove suddenly lit up.

Huo Yunzhi withdrew her hand.

The pearl dimmed again.

She reached out again, and the pearl shone brightly once more.

This time she didn't pull back. Her fingertips continued to probe forward, and the instant they touched the surface of the light gray pearl, the pearl suddenly exploded with a white light that blinded her. She was pushed backward by a force, sliding two meters, her feet carving two furrows in the broken seashells.

After the white light dissipated, water began to seep into the inscriptions on the pillar.

Huo Yunzhi immediately recognized that it was not ordinary water, but rather a thick, gel-like non-Newtonian fluid.

They flowed down the lines of the inscription, pooling at the base of the pillar before spreading outwards.

As the mess crawled over the broken seashells, the shells hissed and crackled as they were corroded.

Huo Yunzhi immediately summoned the Karmic Fire Red Lotus.

The karmic fire burned fiercely for a long time, but the pool of liquid seemed completely unaware of anything amiss, and did not cause it any harm whatsoever.

Huo Yunzhi stared in shock.

This was the first time that the Crimson Lotus of Karmic Fire had suffered a setback in terms of offensive power.

Seeing the gelatinous substance getting closer and closer, Huo Yunzhi got up and ran.

The gelatinous thing behind her was much faster than she had imagined, chasing after her like a living creature as it skimmed along the ground.

In the blink of an eye, it had spread to her heels.

Huo Yunzhi gritted her teeth and rushed into the left fork in the road.

The pile of things behind them stopped at the fork in the road, seemed to hesitate for a moment, and then continued to follow.

The fork in the path was narrower than the previous steps, just wide enough for her to stretch out her arms. The rock walls on both sides were covered with a layer of wet secretions that felt sticky to the touch and could be pulled into thin strands when they touched her hands.

She ran while keeping an eye on what was ahead, and then suddenly stopped after turning a corner.

There's a dead end ahead.

A complete stone wall blocked the end, with a dozen or so fist-sized pearl shells embedded in it.

The shell was completely closed, and the pool of gelatinous substance behind her was less than two meters away, bubbling away.

Huo Yunzhi turned around, leaned against the stone wall, and took out a pearl, clutching it in her hand.

The thing stopped half a step away, its edges twitching twice, as if it were "looking" at her.

She suddenly remembered the scene of the pearls on the pillar lighting up earlier, looked down at the pearl in her hand, and then looked at the closed pearl oysters on the stone wall behind her.

Try anything, even if it seems hopeless.

She held up the pearl in her hand and brought it close to the nearest pearl oyster.

The oyster shell moved slightly, opening a tiny slit, through which a faint, firefly-like light shone.

Huo Yunzhi stuffed the pearl into the crevice.

The pearl oyster suddenly snapped shut and swallowed the pearl. The shell began to heat up, and the entire oyster quickly turned from grayish-white to dark red. Then, with a "pop," it detached from the stone wall and fell to her feet.

The gelatinous substance behind them seemed to have seen something terrifying and suddenly shrank back half a step.

Huo Yunzhi immediately reached for the second pearl oyster.

After inserting two pearls in the same way, the second pearl oyster also fell out.

The gelatinous substance shrank to a meter away.

She fed seven pearl oysters in one go, and the fallen shells piled up in a small heap at her feet, clearing a section of the rock wall and revealing a stone door embedded in the rock behind it.

A bluish light peeked through the crack in the door. In the center of the door panel was a narrow, elongated groove, shaped like an elongated fishbone, with a small round hole at the end.

Huo Yunzhi stared at the groove for two seconds, then turned around, took out a handful of pearls from the still-closing pearl oysters, and waved them in front of them.

All the pearl oysters opened at the same time, and tiny tentacles peeked out from the gaps, vying to reach for the pearl in her hand.

She scattered the pearls far away, and the pearl oysters struggled wildly, breaking off from the rock face and rushing to snatch them.

The gelatinous substance behind them was blocked by the pearl oysters and stopped in place.

Taking advantage of this opening, Huo Yunzhi turned around, placed her hands on either side of the stone door, and pushed hard—