74: I've become a superhero?!

Dàwáng, having swallowed the black stone, lay contentedly beside Ai Yue and passed out.

The entire cave returned to silence as the person and the tiger successively lost consciousness. Only the flashlight, which had fallen to the ground, cast a beam of light onto the three small remaining black stones near Dàwáng's paws.

After an unknown period, under the flashlight's beam, the three black stones shimmered with a halo of starlight, which quickly transformed into golden specks floating around them. This miraculous change in the black stones heralded their extraordinary nature.

In the blink of an eye, they returned to normal, as if the scene that had just occurred was merely an illusion.

Inside the silent cave, it felt as if time had ceased to flow, as if only a moment had passed, yet also a very long time.

Suddenly, Ai Yue woke up with a start. The vigilance cultivated over many years made her instantly spring up from the ground.

She cautiously looked around and found that this was still the cave she had been in, and there was nothing out of the ordinary. Only then did she have time to recall what had just happened.

What had just happened was completely beyond her expectation: Dàwáng scratching her palm, the stone being shoved in, the blood-stained stone flashing and glowing before vanishing, and then her subsequent fainting... All of it was utterly unbelievable.

She raised her right hand and looked at her palm. The wound there had vanished, as if she had never been injured at all.

“What is going on? Where is the wound? Where is the black stone? Where did it go after it disappeared? And Dàwáng...”

Ai Yue looked at Dàwáng lying beside her, reaching out to stroke its soft fur. “Do you know something? Is that why you desperately came here, found this black stone, and even shared half of it with me? This must be an incredible item, Dàwáng, right?”

Dàwáng's soft breathing came steadily.

Ai Yue stroked Dàwáng again, then turned her attention back to herself. After carefully sensing her body, she felt nothing but inexhaustible strength surging within her.

This feeling was very strange; it made her feel light and airy, as if nothing could withstand the force of her palm strike.

Ai Yue flexed her wrist, shook her legs, aimed at a large rock nearby, and kicked it with only one-third of her strength. The large rock whooshed and embedded itself into the cave wall. Ai Yue was truly stunned this time.

“Oh my god, I... I've become a Strongman? Hah, who else could be as strong as me? This is amazing!” Ai Yue marveled beside it for half an hour.

She detected strong power in all other parts of her body. Other than that, she found no other skills or side effects, and would have to wait and practice slowly later.

After kicking countless rocks and smashing countless stones, she finally felt certain that this was real—she had truly gained immense strength.

She had stayed in this cave for a long time and felt she should continue looking for a way out.

But Dàwáng hadn't woken up yet. She understood that it had used the remaining half of the black stone. Unsure how long it would take to wake up, Ai Yue decided to put it into her space and continue searching for the exit herself.

Just as she was about to get up and leave, she suddenly noticed three black stones, each the size of a thumb, on the ground.

Ai Yue's heart leaped with joy. Anything that could upgrade the human body was a treasure! And there were three more! Oh, right, Ai Yue recalled that Dàwáng had dug these out of the pile of broken stones.

Just as she was about to put them into her space, she suddenly realized, 'What if the space swallows them?' Forget it, she decided to keep them on her person instead.

Ai Yue dared not take the gamble. If the space swallowed them, she would surely regret it so much she'd become depressed.

Just as she was about to leave, she suddenly stopped, raising an eyebrow. Such a large cave... Her mindset had completely changed now. When it came to good things, the more the merrier.

Since Dàwáng found so many black stones so easily, it meant there must be plenty of them in this cave.

She hadn't realized yet that only animals like White Tigers could sense these black stones; it was an innate talent.

During the Virus Rain period, on the mountain, Sheng Jiyuan prioritized obtaining Dàwáng over chasing Ai Yue for this very reason.

Ai Yue's eyes lit up, and she transformed into a Prospecting Dog, digging through all the stones in the entire cave. She meticulously checked every spot on the stone walls she could reach.

Just as Ai Yue was busy working fervently, a burst of “bang, bang, bang” gunshots echoed from deep within the cave.

Ai Yue, who had found nothing but was full of energy, was startled. “There are other people here?”

Listening to the gunfire, she felt conflicted. Should she go and check it out?

Although she didn't want to get involved in the mess, the thought of the items she was searching for immediately made her decide to go and see if there was anything left behind she might pick up.

She slowly followed the path.

The gunshots continued, constantly coming from a distance. As she walked, the sound grew louder, and Ai Yue realized she was approaching the site of the battle, so she became even more cautious.

However, the gunshots sounded strange; they seemed to be coming from beneath her—or, more accurately, from a cave below the one she was in.

She cautiously felt her way along the path, not daring to turn on her flashlight. After turning a corner, she saw the exit not far away, and light was spilling out from it.

Ai Yue crouched low and silently reached the opening. She found there was no path outside the opening; below it was an enormous cavern. Her position was about twenty meters above the cavern floor, making it difficult for the people below to easily discover if anyone was hiding above.

Inside the cavern, there was an extremely bright lamp suspended in mid-air, illuminating the entire cave as if it were daylight.

Ai Yue clicked her tongue while looking at the giant lamp. Who was this powerful enough to bring a lamp like that here? This faction must be very wealthy and not lacking in supplies.

Five stone pillars, roughly two meters high and thick enough for two people to embrace, stood scattered throughout the cavern. The ground was covered with palm-sized stones of various shapes and colors, glistening charmingly under the light.

Many people dressed in black were hiding behind the stone pillars. Because the distance was too great, Ai Yue couldn't clearly see what the people below looked like, only that they were fiercely shooting toward the entrance of the cavern below.

Although the firepower was fierce, it looked like they were being suppressed. Fortunately, their geographical location was favorable, allowing them to contend with the people outside the cavern entrance.

To avoid being discovered by the people below, she swiftly lay down on the ground and cautiously poked her head out to observe.

During a lull in the fighting, a male voice came from the dark tunnel:

“Old Man Sheng, didn't expect this, did you? It's me again!” The teasing voice drifted from far away within the dark tunnel.

“Huh, why does that voice sound so familiar?” Ai Yue thought for a moment before realizing—

Whose voice was that? Why was it him?

After thinking for a while, Ai Yue remembered who the owner of the voice was: it was Gu Xiheng's voice, and the people hiding in the tunnel were him and the team he led.