She covered her nose and mouth, looked at me with a disgusted expression, and said, "Did you fall into a latrine? Why do you smell so bad?"

I forced a smile. "I just crawled out of a pile of dead people."

Zoe's mood improved a lot after seeing me, and her emotions were no longer so low.

Seeing that Zoe was alone, I asked, "What about Fatty and Han Yu?"

Zoe then told me what had happened.

It turned out that everything was normal when the four of us came out of that long tunnel. Fatty and Han Yu were studying the route by comparing the map with the holes around the room, Zoe was looking around, and I was squatting on the ground observing the downward-extending holes.

In an instant, a huge black shadow suddenly appeared on the roof, crawling quickly. Before Zoe could react, the black shadow attacked us at an extremely fast speed.

Zoe screamed in terror.

Fatty reacted quickly and pulled Zoe and Han Yu behind him. I was unlucky and was hit by the black shadow into the hole. However, it was obviously accidental, and the black shadow was clearly going for Zoe and Han Yu.

Fatty took out a flashlight and threw it at the black shadow with all his might. After hitting the black shadow, Fatty immediately pulled Zoe and Han Yu into a nearby hole and ran away without looking back.

The black shadow kept chasing after them. During the escape, Zoe accidentally fell and tumbled into a hole in the ground, eventually rolling into this room.

"I don't know how Fatty and Han Yu are doing," Zoe said worriedly.

I was used to relying on Han Yu, and my mind had become lazy. This sudden attack scattered the four of us, so I had to think about the next steps.

Zoe and I discussed finding Fatty and Han Yu first, and secondly, trying to avoid attacks from unknown creatures.

I led the way, with Zoe following behind. We climbed up the hole from which we had fallen. After climbing to the upper level, Zoe and I were deeply shocked by the scene before us.

Above the hole was no longer a small room, but a space about twenty meters high and half the size of a football field. In the center of this space was a huge building, almost occupying three-quarters of the entire space. The light source was sufficient, much brighter than an ordinary room.

From the outside, the building looked like a Southeast Asian-style temple.

Building such a magnificent religious building deep underground, consuming a lot of manpower and material resources, was enough to show that the rulers had put a lot of effort into controlling the people's minds.

This easily reminds people of the ancient rulers' obsession with religion. The *Old Book of Tang* recorded that there were more than 5,000 registered temples during the Tang Dynasty.

However, the temple's gray-black exterior made me feel very uncomfortable, because traditional religious temples would give people a sense of brightness and guidance, while the gray-black architectural style only made people feel constrained and depressed. Looking from a distance, the yellow and white interior layout could be glimpsed, perhaps because of the locally sourced materials. The black and gray exterior was not intentional by the designers and builders.

Zoe and I walked towards the temple. As we approached, we realized that the temple was built entirely of black granite and gneiss, which is why the exterior appeared gray-black.

With trepidation, we entered the temple.

As soon as she stepped into the temple's stone gate, Zoe was so frightened that she screamed "Ah!" and covered her eyes.

A horrifying scene was hidden under the guise of a bright and warm yellow-white facade.

The so-called "white" in the main hall of the temple was actually made up of gruesome human skulls and tibias (thigh bones). The skulls were connected one by one with tibias, serving as decorations around a huge cyan stone platform. Above the stone platform was an even larger yellow-black statue.

I've seen people worship immortals, worship Buddhas, and in the West, Jesus and Allah. I've also seen extremists who like to worship demons, evil gods, or Satan.

But this was the first time I had seen such a terrifying, ugly, and disgusting "Alien" statue set up for people to worship in such a magnificent temple.

The "Alien" was more than two meters tall. The actual torso was less than one meter, and it was a large oval shape, but it had six long legs, each with three joints, and the ends of the legs were shaped like palms. The most terrifying thing was its head. The upper half of the head was densely packed with eye-like things, and the lower half was a huge mouthpart, with jagged sharp teeth all around the edge of the mouthpart.

I am absolutely certain that "Aliens" have never existed on Earth. I strongly suspect that the "Alien" is a creature imagined by the rulers or religious administrators here.

I patted Zoe on the shoulder and comforted her, "It's just a statue, don't be afraid."

With my comfort, Zoe slowly opened her eyes and slowly adapted to everything discordant in front of her.

What really helped Zoe overcome her fear were the rows of graphics on the temple walls.

Zoe was immediately attracted to the graphics carved on the walls on both sides of the temple, which she had seen in the underground base before. She looked at them obsessively, as if she had been hypnotized, completely forgetting her previous fear.

I wanted to ask her what she had discovered, but as soon as a syllable came out of my throat, she interrupted me with a gesture to be quiet.

Zoe was completely absorbed in the graphics on the wall. I felt that we wouldn't be able to leave for a while, so I began to look around the temple.

Judging from the use of skulls as decorations, the people living in the underground palace lived a life similar to that of a primitive tribe, with worship of unknown creatures and pursuit of things representing death.

I stood in front of the "Alien" statue and observed this strange chimera. As I got closer, I suddenly felt that this statue was a bit strange. I picked up a bone stick from the ground and poked the statue.

The statue shook a little.

I increased my strength and stabbed it hard with the bone stick again. As a result, I poked a hole in the statue.

Looking at this hole, I suddenly thought of something, so I went around to the back of the statue. After scanning it from top to bottom, I found a half-meter-long obvious gap in the back of the statue.

In the process of growth, arthropods cannot continue to expand after the exoskeleton hardens, which restricts the growth of tissues and organs in the arthropod body. Therefore, arthropods shed their skin during growth and development.

A sense of fear suddenly surged into my heart. This—this is a molted shell of the "Alien."

I swung the bone stick and smashed it at the "Alien" molted shell, smashing it to pieces. The molted shell fell on the ground and gradually turned into black water, gathering into the skull. Flesh and blood slowly grew on the skull. When I saw that things were going badly, I quickly shouted for Zoe to leave the temple. No matter how I shouted, Zoe didn't move, as if she didn't hear me, standing there fixedly.

It was too late.

So I grabbed Zoe's hand and ran out, but I couldn't pull her. Instead, I was pulled back by a huge force.

I shook Zoe's shoulder. "What's wrong, Zoe? Run!"

Zoe slowly turned her head to face me. Her two eyeballs had been gouged out, leaving only two bloody holes in the eye sockets. Dark blood flowed down her eye corners, but she was smiling.