Chapter 1
The cargo well, constructed from flesh and blood, was gently swaying with a subtle rhythm. The walls constantly oozed dark red blood and an intensely rancid, nauseating yellowish-brown liquid.

Even holding his breath, the despairing stench of decay permeated Wu Nian's nostrils and flowed into his lungs.

*I can't die here!*

Wu Nian's eyes widened. His superhuman physique allowed him to climb the hemp rope with the speed of an ape, heading toward the wooden door at the top of the cargo well.

However, that wooden door seemed forever out of reach. No matter how hard Wu Nian tried, he couldn't shorten the distance between them.

The cargo well was shrinking, little by little. The writhing, trembling chunks of flesh were constantly encroaching on the space, determined to completely engulf Wu Nian.

"Ahhh!"

A chill ran down Wu Nian's spine, a cold current sweeping through his entire body. Driven by fear, he wrapped his legs around the hemp rope, straightened his arms, joined them together, and used his thumb-interlocked hands as a blade, chopping toward the approaching wall.

[Skill Name: Re Li Xu Shan (Hot Plow Charged Flash)]

[Type: Combat]

[Effect: Turns the hand into a blade, briefly charges power, and then releases two intersecting blade energies forward.]

[Consumption: 50 Stamina Points]

[Cooldown: 15 minutes]

[Note: Created in the second year of the Hongwu reign of the Great Ming Dynasty by Nie Yuanqing, a conveyor belt worker at the Pingliang Kongtong Mountain Iron and Steel Factory No. 1, formerly of the Kongtong Sect.]

"Break for me!"

Wu Nian roared, his voice cracking. Crimson light bloomed from the palms of his hands. The unstoppable blade energies, like two intertwined crescents, fell toward the wall with unparalleled force.

Boom—

As the crimson blade energies tore through layers of flesh and blood, scarlet blood splattered wildly. In the huge, person-sized gap, Wu Nian clearly saw the stone wall buried beneath the chunks of flesh, which had been corroded with a deep scar.

However, before he could show a hint of joy, the cargo well began to shake violently. The flesh and blood around the huge gap in the wall surged like a tide, quickly covering the cross-shaped opening, healing it as if nothing had happened.

"..."

Wu Nian's mind was consumed by despair. As if angered by his attack, the entire deep well contracted violently, wanting to bury him alive in the flesh and blood.

"You want me to die? Then you won't have an easy time either!"

Wu Nian's face contorted. He retrieved a large amount of chewing gum from his inventory and threw it at the fleshy walls of the cargo well. His fingers trembled as he touched the button on the remote device.

"Recycling, old refrigerators, old televisions, old fans, washing machines..."

The rather brainwashing audio faintly sounded in the distance, and a spark of hope suddenly rose in Wu Nian's heart.

In the narrow space, he raised his head and shouted with all his might, "I'm here! Can you hear me?!"

"Why are you yelling so loud?"

A deep voice sounded from the wooden door directly above. Li Ang lay on the ground, opened the wooden door, glanced at the cargo well, and said indifferently to Wu Nian, "These are all illusions. Cut the rope and jump down, holding onto the rope."

"What?"

Wu Nian shouted, "Pull me up, quickly! I tried it before. The cargo well is getting narrower and narrower below. It's a dead end!"

"Listen to me. Cut the rope and jump down, holding onto the rope."

Li Ang repeated. The Forest Cat's head also appeared beside him. "Trust him. Cut the rope and jump down."

"..."

Wu Nian looked down. The cargo well below was even narrower and more congested than the one above. He couldn't see a single ray of light.

Around him, the walls of flesh wriggled and squelched. Pustules beneath the white fascia spurted out drops of pus, soaking Wu Nian's red suit and corroding holes in it.

There was no other way.

Wu Nian gritted his teeth, raised his head, and stared at Li Ang and the other, tearing the hemp rope with his hands. He grabbed the rope and fell under the pull of gravity, fell.

Bang—

A few seconds later, Wu Nian fell heavily onto the hard ground. Something firmly gripped his ankles, pulling him away from the cargo well.

Although his back was injured from the fall, Wu Nian used his superhuman physique to flip over from the ground and look around vigilantly.

This was probably a utility room, used to store various unused items from the mansion.

The Stonemason, the Forest Cat, and Li Risheng, three teammates, stood in front of him. They were all some distance away from him, seemingly assessing his mental state.

"Everything you saw in the cargo well just now was an illusion." The Stonemason asked, "Are you okay?"

"..." Wu Nian looked down at his body and found that there was no pus on his red suit, only a lot of wall dust.

And the hemp rope in his hand had somehow turned into a six- or seven-meter-long section of intestine.

The two ends of the intestine were withered and dry, gray-brown in color, with a rough, uneven fracture surface at the top.

The part in contact with his palm, however, was full and red, full of life.

"This is..."

Wu Nian tried to release the large intestine, but found that a round mouth full of fangs had grown in the middle of the intestine, like a leech firmly attached to his palm. It was very difficult to pull it off or drag it away.

Under the beam of the flashlight, Wu Nian could clearly see that blood vessels were surging inside the intestine—it had been constantly sucking the blood flowing from his palm.

"Let me do it."

The Stonemason stepped forward, observed for a while, and then gently pressed the two ends of the intestine's mouth with his hands. He gently twisted the already lifeless intestine to both sides and deftly removed the round mouth.

At this time, Wu Nian also felt a burst of dizziness, not only because of blood loss, but also because of the electric, numb sensation coming from the wound on his palm.

He shook his head and looked up, "What I saw just now, was all that an illusion?"

"Yeah." Li Ang nodded and asked Wu Nian to bend over slightly so he could look into the elevator shaft.

Everything was normal inside the well. There were no chunks of flesh spewing pus.

The top of the mansion's cargo well did have a pulley block, and a hemp rope was also hanging from the pulley block—but in addition to the hemp rope, a small section of intestine was also hanging from the pulley block.

Judging by the shape, it was the same one Wu Nian had in his hand.

It seemed that after being teleported to the Heavenly Ladder Well, Wu Nian had been hanging on the intestine.

The large intestine's mouth bit his palm, sucking blood and creating all kinds of lifelike illusions in front of him, with the purpose of trapping him to death in the elevator shaft.

Even the teammates he thought were at the highest point were actually in the utility room at the bottom of the elevator shaft—if he climbed up, he would only touch the stone wall at the top of the mansion. There was only a glimmer of hope if he jumped down.

A wave of lingering fear surged in Wu Nian's heart. If his teammates hadn't arrived in time, he would probably have turned into a dried corpse, hanging alone in the cargo well.

"Come, give me the intestine."

Li Ang naturally took the lifeless intestine from Wu Nian, wrapped it around his waist,

and, accompanied by the system notification sound, climbed quickly along the well wall of the cargo well like a spider.

At the highest point, he also pulled down the remaining section of the intestine.