At first, life in the underground cave was still manageable.
With Xiao Hei’s blue flames, cooking didn’t even require firewood—she only needed to hold its head and give repeated instructions, teaching it how to control the temperature of the flames to avoid melting her pot into a lump of scrap iron.
As for sleeping, she simply had to find a flat spot, step onto the wide, self-heating snake body, and cover herself with a down quilt—it was just like sleeping on an electric blanket.
Even washing up wasn’t an issue. Boiling the underground pool water made simple cleansing possible.
Su Su rode on a python, wandering through the underground cave for seven days before finally realizing she had underestimated the problem.
This mountain range stretched endlessly, and she and Xiao Hei were trapped at an unknown depth of several hundred meters underground. In every direction were tunnels carved out by the now-dead giant python, forming a vast and intricate maze.
Some passageways were too narrow for Xiao Hei’s massive body to pass through. Some tunnels were flooded, and after swimming several hundred meters, they would find a dead-end cliff, forcing them to turn back. Even after painstakingly searching for light sources, every potential exit was either sealed by rocks and snow or had cracks too narrow and walls too thick to squeeze through.
Xiao Hei had tried several times, but after losing over a dozen scales from crashing into rock walls, Su Su was unwilling to let it continue.
“Xiao Hei, I think we might be trapped here.”
She lay weakly on the black snake’s back, for the countless time feeling grateful that Xiao Hei had expanded its size just in time—if she had to walk on her own, she would have never made it out of this underground labyrinth.
“Hiss~”
The snake’s tongue flicked out, gently licking the corner of her lips in reassurance.
After all, as a cold-blooded creature, it thrived in this dark, damp environment like a fish in water.
But it could clearly sense—Su Su’s mental state was deteriorating. She was zoning out more often, her reactions had become noticeably sluggish.
No one wanted to leave this place faster than the black snake.
Retracting its tongue, it silently slithered forward, squeezing through a narrow passage filled with swirling underground water.
Splash, splash.
The flashlight’s battery was running low, so most of the time, it remained off to conserve power. But even without seeing, Su Su could already predict where they were—another water-filled tunnel, with water levels reaching about halfway up Xiao Hei’s body. Ahead, there would either be a solid rock wall blocking the way or another steep cliff plunging into a large underground pool.
Sure enough! The sound of rushing water grew louder—another cliff!
“Xiao Hei, let’s turn back—ah!”
Before she could finish speaking, the snake’s tail coiled around her waist, wrapping her entire body in its grasp.
“Xiao Hei?”
The massive python didn’t respond. Instead, it continued slithering forward, not stopping even at the cliff’s edge. In the next moment, it plunged straight down.
Thud! Bang! Splash!
Enclosed within the coils of the snake’s body, Su Su felt as if she had boarded a high-speed raft ride, the splashing water repeatedly slapping against her face.
One tunnel after another, each filled with sharp turns—until the sound of rushing water faded. The snake’s body finally swam up onto a shallow shore, and the underground cavern suddenly opened into a vast, spacious chamber.
“Hiss—!”
The black snake suddenly rubbed its head against Su Su, as if trying to say something.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
Su Su immediately turned on the flashlight in alarm, sweeping it over Xiao Hei’s body several times, only to realize it wasn’t injured—it wanted her to look ahead.
The bright beam casually flicked forward, landing on two damaged stone doors.
“Huh?”
The obvious signs of artificial construction made Su Su instantly sit up.
“This…” Her imagination ran wild, and she immediately grabbed onto Xiao Hei’s tail. “Could this be… a tomb?”
She examined the two doors again… They didn’t seem to have deteriorated naturally. Instead, they looked like they had been blasted open!
Su Su became even more convinced of her guess. “Xiao Hei, I think we might have accidentally intruded on someone else’s territory… Xiao Hei—!”
Boom!
The damaged stone doors were smashed apart without a shred of courtesy by the massive snake body. It didn’t even hesitate or wait for instructions—it slithered straight into what was clearly someone’s burial chamber.
At this moment, Su Su no longer minded being tightly coiled by its tail. In fact, she clung to it even tighter!
Her flashlight darted nervously around the surroundings.
This was an extremely spacious tomb chamber, completely empty—except for a skeletal corpse lying in a corner… Su Su immediately moved the flashlight away.
“Xiao Hei, where are you trying to go?”
“Hiss!”
After its evolution, the black snake’s hearing had become extraordinarily sharp. It vaguely caught the sound of wind.
Although they couldn’t communicate fluently, Su Su quickly understood—if someone had entered this tomb before, then there must be an exit!
Her spirits lifted instantly, and she watched expectantly as Xiao Hei slithered forward, passing through three or four desolate chambers before finally gliding into the largest one—the main burial chamber.
The flashlight beam swept across—a coffin!
And it was open! The lid was only halfway covering it!
Su Su held her breath at once, her fingers trembling as she clutched the tip of Xiao Hei’s tail. “Xiao Hei, do you think… there might be a ‘zongzi1“zongzi” (粽子) is a slang term used in Chinese horror fiction to refer to hopping corpses (僵尸, jiāngshī), a type of undead creature from folklore, similar to vampires or zombies. The term originates from the fact that traditional Chinese zongzi, which are sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves, resemble how stiff, bound corpses were traditionally wrapped in burial shrouds.’ inside?”
What is a ‘zongzi’?
The black snake, whose intelligence had evolved through several rounds, showed a hint of confusion in its vertical pupils.
“A ‘zongzi’ is…” Su Su hesitated. “Just think of it as a different kind of zombie.”
But she had already killed so many zombies—so even if there really was a ‘zongzi,’ what was there to be afraid of?
Just as she was trying to convince herself, the flashlight’s beam suddenly landed in the southwest corner—where a shadowy figure stood!
Su Su’s heartbeat shot straight to her throat, and her psychological preparation collapsed in an instant.
“W-what is that?”
Her voice was not loud, yet it seemed to startle the shadowy figure. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared from view.
Damn it!
An “unknown entity” vanishing into the darkness was far more terrifying than one staying in sight!
Su Su suppressed her panic and swept the flashlight around in a frantic search.
The empty burial chamber revealed no further trace of the black shadow. But when her peripheral vision caught sight of the coffin, she suddenly froze.
The coffin lid, which had been resting atop just moments ago, had somehow been lifted and was now standing upright beside the coffin.
Could that black shadow… have crawled into the coffin?
Xiao Hei, seemingly unaware of any abnormalities, continued slithering forward at a steady pace. As it passed by the coffin, Su Su, from her elevated position, mustered the courage to take a peek inside.
Thankfully, it was empty.
The main burial chamber was soon left behind, and Su Su kept her full attention on her surroundings, but she never saw that black shadow again.
Then, suddenly, an opening appeared ahead.
Long-lost sunlight streamed in.
The black snake, carrying her, excitedly slid forward, its body surging toward the exit.
Just as Su Su’s lips curved into a smile—disaster struck!
With a deafening crash, the rock at the cave’s entrance collapsed!
In an instant, most of Xiao Hei’s massive body was buried under the falling rubble, and crimson blood seeped out, mingling with the scattered stones.
“Xiao Hei!!!”
Su Su immediately pried apart the snake’s tail, leaping down from its body and rushing toward the collapsed pile of rocks.
“Xiao Hei, are you okay?! Can you get out?!”
But the black snake, trapped beneath the debris, gave no response. Blood continued to trickle out, staining the ground.
Su Su’s voice trembled. “Xiao Hei, don’t scare me like this…”
She wrapped her arms around its enormous body, desperately trying to pull it free, but no matter how much strength she exerted, she couldn’t budge it even an inch.
Roar!!!
A gust of wind swept past from behind!
Su Su’s instincts screamed at her, and she dodged sideways just in time.
The attacker missed.
When she turned her head, what came into view was a bloated, pallid corpse!
Its lips had long since rotted away, exposing bluish-green fangs in full view.
It didn’t look like a zombie—it looked exactly like the ‘zongzi’ she had imagined!
Fear surged through Su Su as she stumbled backward, her foot landing in a pool of sticky, warm blood.
She swallowed her grief and tears, shouting, “Don’t come any closer!”
A burst of white energy pulsed outward, pushing the zongzi several meters away.
It remained stiffly frozen for over ten seconds.
But before Su Su could grab a weapon—
Snap!
The zongzi broke free from the force!
Roar!!!
It lunged at her again, its bluish-green claws, five or six centimeters long, aiming straight for her heart!
Behind her was the collapsed cave entrance. To the side was Xiao Hei’s unmoving body. There was nowhere to run!
Su Su gritted her teeth and poured every ounce of her ability forward, barely holding the creature at bay half a meter away.
The grotesque face loomed unbearably close.
With her free hand, she reached into her backpack—
Before the apocalypse, blade regulations had been strict. She had scoured multiple supermarkets and general stores, but the only thing she could find was this narrow, elongated pig-slaughtering knife.
Fortunately, she had been cautious enough to have Xiao Hei retrieve it and hide it in her bag beforehand.
But Xiao Hei…
She bit back her tears, gripping the knife with all her might, and with a fierce swing—
The zongzi’s head was severed!
Putrid, rancid fluids sprayed all over her body.
The “Zongzi” was truly dead.
Su Su dropped the knife and tried to continue pulling Xiao Hei free… But when she turned around, she was stunned to find that there was no collapsed cave, no blood pooling at her feet—only a half-open coffin with a skeletal corpse inside.
Looking around, she realized she was still in the same main burial chamber they had entered earlier!
As for the “zongzi” she had just killed—it wasn’t actually a zongzi at all, but a Tier 4 zombie wearing an orange expedition suit!
Boom!
Su Su was jolted awake. She turned her head just in time to see Xiao Hei violently ramming into the tomb walls, its dark green vertical pupils filled with madness.
“Xiao Hei!”
At the sound of her voice, the black snake whipped its head around in disbelief. The moment it saw her, its tail instantly coiled around her, wrapping her up tightly.
“Hiss!!”
Its massive head leaned in dangerously close, as if scrutinizing her—why wasn’t she dead?
Yes, just moments ago, it had clearly seen her crushed beneath the collapsing rubble, blood spreading all over the ground.
Still shaken, Su Su wrapped her arms around Xiao Hei’s neck, her gaze drifting toward the dismembered zombie corpse on the ground. Based on her past-life experience, a hypothesis began forming in her mind.
“This was a psychic-type zombie.”
From the moment they had stepped into the main tomb chamber, they had been trapped in an illusion, forced to witness their deepest fears.
The result of watching too many horror films… At the end of the day, she needed to trust science.
After steadying herself, Su Su finally gave an instruction: “Check its head for a crystal.”
The black snake’s tail slammed down fiercely on the decayed skull.
A yellow Grade 4 crystal rolled onto the ground, and with a flick of its slender tail tip, Xiao Hei lifted it and carefully placed it into Su Su’s palm.
She was slightly surprised.
This was the same possessive Xiao Hei, yet it was handing over a crystal for the first time.
“Hiss!”
The snake tail nudged her hand, as if urging her to swallow it immediately.
Su Su stared into its vertical pupils, faintly seeing traces of fear and worry. It couldn’t express itself in words, but she could clearly feel—it wanted her to become stronger, at least strong enough not to die so easily.
What had Xiao Hei seen in the illusion?
Without hesitation, Su Su cleaned and sterilized the Grade 4 crystal before swallowing it.
An endless surge of energy flowed into her body… The familiar process no longer needed detailed narration. Once she had completely absorbed the psychic crystal, she immediately felt an improvement in her abilities.
The subtle premonition she had occasionally experienced before had now become sharply distinct.
Unfortunately, there was no test subject available at the moment…
Su Su turned her gaze to Xiao Hei, who was nervously licking her as if to soothe itself. She suddenly said—
“Stop licking.”
“Hiss?”
The black snake, which had been using licking as a coping mechanism, immediately froze. Its scarlet forked tongue, which had already reached the corner of her lips, was now suspended mid-air, as if forcibly halted against its will.
Su Su issued another command: “Shake your tail for me.”
Hiss.
By now, Xiao Hei had grown into a massive snake—how could it possibly perform such a childish action?
And yet… its tail betrayed its mind and obediently swayed twice beside her.
The black snake’s vertical pupils widened in utter shock: “!!!!!!”
Su Su grinned.
Then, she tested further: “Put me down.”
This time, the command failed.
The black snake had already raised its guard, refusing to follow any further instructions.
A Tier 5 python had developed a will of its own, while Su Su was still at Tier 4—no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t force it to obey anymore.
But that didn’t matter.
She had confirmed the new function of her ability.
Excited, Su Su threw her arms around the black snake and planted a firm kiss on its giant head.
“Xiao Hei, from now on, if we run into other animals that have absorbed crystals, I can fight alongside you!”
Her ability was no longer limited to zombies—she could now influence animals as well!
“Let’s go! We’re finding that exit!”