Chapter 138: The Fugitive Pigman

Is there a map...

Already exhausted, Qin Fei had no extra strength or energy to memorize the map depicted on the murals. Therefore, he simply asked Xie Nainai to draw the entire map first.

Qin Fei sat on the ground, panting heavily.

After resting for about a minute, Qin Fei forced himself to stand up. Using the same method as before, he stood at a distance and pried open the lid of the ornate treasure chest nearby with his harpoon.

A puff of purple mist spewed out from the chest.

This mist appeared to be some kind of toxic gas. Qin Fei covered his nose and mouth, and without even checking the items inside, he directly stowed the chest into his backpack.

The time remaining for him and Xie Nainai in the secret chamber was actually very limited.

The birth of an Ancient Rhino is usually accompanied by the appearance of a large ornate treasure chest. Apart from sleeping, these rhinos spend their daily lives guarding this chest.

Therefore, the dazed Ancient Rhino outside the secret chamber could return at any moment.

Given his current physical condition, Qin Fei was no longer capable of luring the rhino out of the secret chamber a second time.

After taking the items from the chest, Qin Fei began to carefully examine the entire secret chamber.

There was a huge keyhole on the wall of the secret chamber... Qin Fei took out the Ancient Key from his backpack and held it up against the keyhole in front of him.

The Ancient Key and the keyhole matched together perfectly.

This meant that the wall with the keyhole in front of Qin Fei was presumably the legendary Ancient Gateway.

Right beneath the keyhole lay a strangely shaped red skeleton.

Since the wall before him was the Ancient Gateway, it was not difficult to guess what this skeleton was.

It was none other than the Ancient Fuelweaver, the boss located deep underground in the world of Don't Starve.

The combat power of the Ancient Fuelweaver definitely surpassed all the creatures Qin Fei had encountered before.

Of course, this red skeleton was currently in a sealed state; unless awakened, it would not actively attack the two of them.

The walls on both sides of this Ancient Gateway were engraved with numerous murals.

These murals were presumably carved by the ancients, and their purpose should be to record some rather important events.

However, after examining a few of the murals on the wall, Qin Fei discovered that these so-called 'ancients' were not human at all!

They did not even belong to the category of mammals.

The shapes of these 'ancients' depicted in the murals were simply some kind of bizarrely shaped arthropods!

In other words, bugs.

What surprised Qin Fei even more, however, was that these ancient bugs had not only developed their own civilization but had also learned to use equipment similar to electrical appliances.

Yet murals were murals, not photographs. Due to the blurriness of the content on the murals, Qin Fei was unable to recognize the specific functions of the appliances drawn on them.

Aside from records of daily trivialities, the main content of the murals focused heavily on how they had perished.

Due to the excessive extraction and use of nightmare fuel, the corrosion of consciousness was born, and the civilization of these ancient bugs gradually marched toward destruction.

The history narrated here was largely consistent with the memories Qin Fei had obtained from the 'corrosion of consciousness'.

As for the final mural, it portrayed some very strange scenes.

Judging by the art style, this last mural did not seem to have been drawn by those ancient bugs. Rather, it looked more like something added later by someone else...

Not only that, but the protagonists of this final mural were not the ancient bugs, but a group of pigmen.

Viewed in this light, this last mural must have been carved by the pigmen.

The content of the mural was simple.

First, at the top of the entire painting, a huge circle was carved.

Qin Fei estimated that this circle represented the sun...

Beneath the sun, a group of pigmen was drawn... along with their Pig King.

The Pig King drawn here was not the same individual as the elder pigman living in the swamp.

The difference between the two was quite obvious: the Pig King was fatter and larger, while the swamp pigman elder appeared much more elderly.

To the left of these pigmen, several merm covered in pustules and scales were drawn. As for the right side, it depicted the Ancient Gateway inside the secret chamber.

Seeing this, Qin Fei roughly understood the meaning of the mural: beneath the sun, a group of merm were hunting down these pigmen.

To escape the pursuit, the pigmen, led by the Pig King, opened the Ancient Gateway and left this place through the door.

However, there was one detail in the mural that baffled Qin Fei.

That was the number of merm standing behind these pigmen.

There were clearly only two or three merm in the mural, so how could they have driven those pigmen out of their homeland, forcing them to even leave this world?

Besides, apart from having great strength, merm were practically complete fools...

It was impossible for just a few of them to chase the pigmen away.

Of course, it was also possible that the pigman who painted this was lazy and thus drew fewer merm...

Who knows...

Just as Qin Fei finished examining the murals, Xie Nainai was almost finished drawing the map of the underground world.

Xie Nainai was very patient and paid attention to detail.

Although the underground world recorded on the murals was vast and complex, it took her less than ten minutes to draw the vast majority of the entire map.

Just as the entire map was about to be completed, footsteps echoed from outside the secret chamber.

Judging by the sound, it was caused by the Ancient Rhino outside moving around.

That fellow had returned to the secret chamber!

Having fought their way here all the way from outside the labyrinth, Qin Fei and Xie Nainai had long since exhausted most of their physical strength.

They had no extra energy to continue tangling with this rhino.

Furthermore, they would have to walk back out of this labyrinth later.

Therefore, Qin Fei and Xie Nainai needed to conserve some of their strength... so that they could activate their shadow forms again later and successfully walk out of this labyrinth.

Qin Fei turned his head and glanced at the simplified underground world map copied by Xie Nainai.

At this moment, Xie Nainai had already drawn 80 percent of the map's contents.

Following this map to return to the surface should be completely fine...

As the footsteps outside the secret chamber drew closer, Qin Fei and Xie Nainai exchanged a glance, and both of them transformed into balls of black mist, drilling straight into the wall of the secret chamber.

Relying on the wall-passing ability of the shadow form, Qin Fei and Xie Nainai traversed straight through and quickly emerged from the labyrinth.

They returned to the vicinity of the exit leading to the first underground layer and called over Caesar Pig and Big Nose, who were dozing off there.

Following the route on the map, the two of them soon found the entrance leading to the surface.