Chapter 264: The Toad In The Darkness
Fang Mu crawled up from the ground. Although his body was groaning in pain, he felt a sense of relief and joy as if he had survived a disaster.
He looked up at the cave entrance, which offered no handholds to climb out. Thick mist, like a wall, shrouded the area above. Although he couldn’t see the distance, he knew he had fallen from a height that could have killed him. He was lucky to have touched a buffer in the mist, thus surviving.
Leaning against a nearby rock face, Fang Mu sat down to rest and take stock of his remaining supplies.
Most of his belongings were gone. His backpack was tattered and unusable, but fortunately, not everything inside was lost. Including what he had on him, he now had a bottle of mineral water, three energy bars, a small knife, and a lighter.
It was a shame that both his flashlight and mobile phone were broken. The flashlight bulb and the phone screen were shattered, rendering them useless. Otherwise, he might have had a more suitable lighting tool than the lighter.
After hesitating for a few minutes, Fang Mu chose an energy bar with severely damaged packaging. He broke it in half and, regardless of whether it had dirt on it or how sweet it tasted, he forced himself to swallow it. Finally, he took a sip of water, barely alleviating the choking discomfort.
Fang Mu sighed and glanced to his left and right. The cave was dark, leading in two directions, left and right.
Although he couldn’t be 100% sure, he believed he had likely arrived at the caves of Nong Mountain. The cave mentioned in that diary should be somewhere connected to this place.
Both the left and right directions were undoubtedly extremely dangerous for Fang Mu.
“I’ll go left,” Fang Mu thought, making a choice that went against his own inclination.
This was Fang Mu’s usual way of thinking: when he faced a dilemma, he would act contrary to his own preferences.
The reason he was in such a predicament was simply that he was unlucky enough. Since he was so unlucky, he might as well not follow his own instincts.
This was the experience he had accumulated since childhood, after countless times of choosing his own preferred path when in a dilemma, only to become even more unlucky.
Inside the cave, it grew darker the deeper he went, forcing Fang Mu to take out his lighter for illumination.
The flame was hot to the touch, but the illuminated area was very limited. Fang Mu could at most see about half a meter in front of him; beyond that, it became increasingly unclear, with nothing but darkness and the unknown.
*Croak…*
The croaking of a toad frog echoed in the darkness, seemingly nearby. Fang Mu’s heart immediately tensed. He forcefully turned his body to face the direction of the sound, holding his breath as he slowly walked forward. Finally, he saw a palm-sized toad crouching on a stone.
The toad was covered in large, dense, irregularly spaced bumps. Its skin bore a camouflage pattern that almost perfectly matched the rocky environment.
Fang Mu had never seen this species of toad before. Its slowly inflating and deflating belly made it look like a leisurely old man. Its eyes, with their cross-shaped pupils, were dark and seemed to regard him with an ancient weariness.
It was as if… as if this toad possessed intelligence?
Fang Mu felt a pang of unease and hastily shook his head, trying to dislodge the absurd thought from his somewhat irrational brain.
*Croak…*
Fang Mu heard the croaking of a toad from another direction in the darkness. He immediately turned the lighter’s flame that way and indeed found another toad. It was slightly smaller than the one he had seen earlier, but it exuded no less of a strange aura. He could still feel a sense of scrutiny and appraisal from its eyes.
Suddenly, whether he had let go of the lighter, or it was the draft in the cave, or… something unseen in the darkness had blown out the lighter’s flame, Fang Mu was plunged into terrifying darkness. A chorus of undulating toad frog cries erupted around him.
In mere moments of darkness, Fang Mu felt fear nearly consume all his reason. His instinct kicked in, and he rapidly flicked the lighter’s switch, relighting it.
When the flame brightened again, Fang Mu couldn’t help but let out a low, rapid gasp, because he discovered that the toad that had been crouching before him had disappeared. Trembling, he turned the flame back to where the larger toad had been, only to feel his scalp tingle as he found that toad had also vanished.
*Whoosh!*
A strong, distinct puff of air sounded. Fang Mu only caught a brief glimpse of a large, flat head darting past his eyes, extinguishing the lighter’s flame.
Fang Mu could now be completely certain that the flame on his lighter had not been accidentally extinguished, nor had it been blown out by a draft in the cave. Instead, a group of toads seemed to be deliberately toying with him, blowing out his flame and destroying his hope.
Fang Mu let out a small yelp. As he retreated and relit his lighter, his right heel was tripped by something thick, causing him to fall flat on his rear. Accompanied by a shrill scream, he sat on something that suddenly burst with soft flesh, and the sound of cracking bones and bursting internal organs transmitted to his mind through his skin.
Trembling all over, the panicked man held up his relit lighter and looked at his surroundings illuminated by the flame.
A group… a group of toads were staring at him with eerie gazes, their cross-shaped pupils looking at him coldly.
Beneath him lay the corpse of an unfortunate toad he had sat upon and burst. It was cold and slimy, yet it pierced his heart like needles, and his soul felt as if it were being ripped away.
Faintly, a giant frog leg appeared within the scope of the flickering flame. A vaguely discernible toad frog human face was slowly passing through the region of his reason.
Fang Mu shrieked and scrambled to his feet, roaring as he ran. He felt like he had stepped on many toads blocking his path along the way.
As if hearing some command, a group of toads suddenly erupted in screams that were not toad calls. They became agitated in the darkness, where Fang Mu couldn’t see them, chasing the man running through the cave.
Fang Mu heard short, powerful sounds of bare feet running. Something agile and large was rapidly moving on the ground, walls, and ceiling. They were pursuing him.
Fang Mu, whose spirit was on the verge of collapse, was helpless. He could only keep running. If he slowed down even slightly, he might die in this unknown, dark cave, with no future.
Just as Fang Mu was in despair, he found himself stepping over an unknown boundary. The part of his body that passed through felt an unprecedented lightness. When his head passed through, the air instantly purified, becoming fresh and tranquil, making him want to greedily take more breaths.
His vision suddenly opened up. Although it wasn’t very bright, it felt much brighter than when he had entered the misty forest and the dark cave.
There was mist here too, but it was perfectly thin, hazy, and enchanting.
He seemed to have escaped the dark cave and entered another forest…
