Lie Mo wakes up with a huge headache. It is completely dark and the floor is hard.

  Did he fall of the bed? That is strange.

  After moving a bit he notices that he is naked.

  No.

  He doesn’t sleep naked. Something different happened.

  And the movements are very sluggish.

  After looking at himself with the breathing technique he does find strange substances in his body. The largest concentration is in the lungs. With his qi he tries to remove those substances from the body. It is working but only slowly.

  After removing most of the substances his movements improve. This was probably some kind of poison.

  The substance on the floor forms a tiny puddle. It smells ugly.

  Whatever happened can’t be good.

  Where even is he?

  Some vague memories are starting to appear. The girl from before and the innkeeper were talking about him. And about a rubbish sword, a used spear and a big amount of money.

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  Even with a heavy headache Lie Mo starts to move.

  He stands up and slowly walks around.

  His limbs loosen up a bit.

  The floor is smooth with a few stones and branches lying around.

  The ceiling is tall enough that he can’t feel it.

  The walls are far enough away that he hasn’t found them jet.

  And it is completely dark.

  One of the stones has a hole in it.

  Lie Mo noticed since his toe stepped into it while walking. He grabs it because stones normally don’t have holes in them. There is not only one hole but two. And teeth. That, that is a skull. After quickly looking for another stone it is obvious. There are a lot of skulls here. And the branches are bones.

  That’s why they sounded off.

  There might be an animal here.

  Probably even a beast.

  Or several.

  Luckily Lie Mo woke up early enough. Now he just has to find the exit and escape.

  One step after another.

  After a while in the dark he finds the wall. Every once in a while he tries out qi vision. But since there are only stones around he sees nothing. At least there are no beasts around.

  After following the wall he seems to be leaving the room and entering a tunnel.

  There is no airflow at all. And the air smells moldy, both in the room as well as in the tunnel.

  The floor is smoot. So there are no scratch marks on the floor. The wall and the ceiling is also just as smooth.

  Caves normally aren’t that smooth. Only polished materials are that smooth.

  Are there any other entries into the cave?

  Lie Mo marks the tunnel with several skulls and follows the wall.

  After a while he arrives at the marked tunnel again. Apparently there aren’t.

  There is only one thing left.

  Lie Mo enters the tunnel.