Checking the equipment they had, Li Mu realized that all they had was a rucksack with two torches, a sleeping bag, five packs of compressed biscuits, three packs of solid fuel, plus a set of ropes, two entrenching tools, and a dozen slabs of chocolate.

They were seriously lacking resources. And with so many people, this number of items they had was simply not enough. Most importantly, they had no water or any container to fill water with.

Seeing him in a dilemma, Mrs. Hong spoke up and asked, “What's wrong?”

Li Mu briefly described the situation and Mrs. Hong smiled and said, “Don't worry about this. I have a solution to get us clean water.”

Li Mu was delighted at her words and looked at her curiously.

“Turn around, will you? Don't stare at me!” Mrs. Hong said a little shyly.

Li Mu didn't move at all and continued to stare at her.

"It's just the cultivation technique! I’ve seen enough of it these days. Mrs. Hong, go ahead! I’ll watch and learn!”

“I'm uncomfortable with you staring at me. So turn around! You can look afterward!”

“That won't do. It's no fun after you’ve done the trick. Ignore my existence and pretend that I don't exist.”

Mrs. Hong had no choice and shook her head helplessly.

“Alright then. But let me warn you in advance that you were the one who insisted to see! Don’t blame me if you end up dying of thirst!”

With that, she pressed her hand against her abdomen and vomited a few times. Two small worms with the size of grasshoppers and the shape of leeches came out of her tummy, which wriggled and crawled towards the waters.

When the worms entered the waters, their bodies swelled up rapidly and rose to the size of a watermelon and was round like a ball.

Mrs. Hong walked over, fished two of the ball-shaped worms out of the water, and brought them to Li Mu.

“Li Mu, have a sip?”

Li Mu waved his hand repeatedly and insisted firmly that he was not thirsty.

“Xiaoyu, how about you?”

“Uh!”

Mrs. Hong said with a grin: “Fine then! Don't underestimate them. These are called Water Purifying Worms and can purify all types of dirty and filthy water into clean water. You might find it disgusting but in fact, the water inside their stomachs is cleaner than any water out here.”

With that, she lifted one of the round-shaped worms and drank from it.

Li Mu couldn't help but ask, “Mrs. Hong, is this a maggot or a roundworm?”

Mrs. Hong choked and spurted a mouthful of water, followed by a violent cough.

Lin Wan gently reprimanded him from the side.

“Don’t talk nonsense. This is a Water Purifying Worm. Don’t make it sound so disgusting.”

“Is there anything like that inside your stomach?” Li Mu asked uneasily.

“No. No. There's only your son inside my stomach. There are no bugs or whatsoever!” Lin Wan replied dishonestly.

“That’s great then. Don’t ever put stuff like this in your stomach! How disgusting!”

“Alright. I’ll listen to you!”

Mrs. Hong finally caught her breath after choking and shot an annoyed glance at Li Mu angrily.

“Hey, Li Mu. What's your next plan? Come up with something!”

Li Mu called Shen Zixing over and asked her, “Where is the entrance to your family's gold mine? It can't be here, right? I don’t see any gold?”

“Li Mu, you're really something else huh. You're still thinking about gold at this very moment? It seems like you’re prioritizing money over your own life!”

“Mrs. Hong, you’ve misunderstood me. I won’t touch a single piece of gold. All I wanted to do is to find out if there are any other exits!”

Of course Li Mu wasn’t after the gold! The original plan was to get the gold for smuggling purposes. But with their plan ruined, he could care less about the gold. Besides that, his wife was filthy rich and he wouldn't be short of money at all in the future. So why should he try to offend the Shen Family by doing so?

“Brother Mu, this is not the only exit of the gold mine. There is another exit to leave the gold mine. We can escape through that one!” Shen Zixing explained to all of them.

They had no choice then. Entering the mine became the only option. Otherwise, they would be trapped here alive.

“Zixing, where is the entrance to the gold mine?” Li Mu asked.

“It's underneath!” Shen Zixing said, pointing to the pool of water.

Li Mu crouched down to inspect the pool of water. It was too dimly lit inside the cave so he could not see the bottom of the water from where he was, nor could he estimate its depth.

He could not swim. And Shen Zixing was the one who helped him out after he plopped into the waters. Upon hearing that he had to go into the waters again, he could not help but feel a little scared.

Lin Wan, who had been following him all this while saw his bewilderment and immediately knew what was on his mind. She asked Shen Zixing, “Zixing, how deep is this pool?”

“Big Sister, it's sloping down in shape and can be about a hundred meters deep.”

“A hundred meters?” Li Mu shouted in surprise, “I can't swim. I'll die when I’m just two meters down there! A hundred meters and I'll be long dead!”

“It's okay, honey. Let’s swim together! Just hold onto me tight.”

“Miss Lin, let me do it instead!” Lin Kun said from the side, “You're pregnant. I'll take Brother together with me!”

This was a good idea. Lin Wan readily agreed.

After their divorce, it was the first time Lin Kun called him Brother. He had always respected the strong. And now Li Mu was already held in high regard by him. He finally thought that Li Mu was a good match for Miss Lin.

He Xiaoyu was surprised and said, “How can you say that so easily? The limit of human diving is less than two hundred meters. Even if you are different from normal people, the length of this waterway is a hundred meters! Are you so sure you’ll make it?”

Mrs. Hong explained with a smile, “Silly girl. Of course we can't swim across under normal circumstances. But with some help, this 100-meter waterway is really nothing.”

“What help?”

“It's the same kind of maggots Li Mu mentioned to you earlier. Disgusting, isn't it? Something even more disgusting is coming soon. We’re going to let it eat our heads.”

He Xiaoyu said in horror, “Mrs. Hong, what are you talking about? Are we supposed to chop off our heads and feed them to the worms?"

“You're exactly the same as Li Mu. Both of you are full of nonsense! You’ll die if I cut off your head. What's the point of swimming then? We’re letting it swallow us alive, not cut our heads off!”

“And?”

“The Water Purifying Worm has two stomach sacs, one to purify water and the other to digest food. It needs a lot of oxygen when digesting food. So we should let it swallow our heads first. When it goes underwater, it will extract oxygen from the water and send it to the stomach sac so we can safely dive underwater.”

Miss He was so frightened that she could no longer speak.

Li Mu was also frightened and said in horror, “In that case, our heads have already been digested. What’s the use of being able to dive safely when we are going to be dead upon reaching the shore? Mrs. Hong, you must be joking!”

“Don't talk nonsense if you don't know anything about it. The digestion process of the Water Purifying Worm is extremely slow. And it takes no more than three minutes to dive a hundred meters at most. Your head will be fine in such a short period of time.”

“And what if we get lost in there?”

“Any time within nine days would be alright. After that, you'll really have to hop on shore dead.” Mrs. Hong couldn't help but giggle to herself when she finished.

Shen Zixing echoed, ‘Brother Mu, you won't get lost. There's only one path under the water pool. All we need to do is just keep swimming.”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of then.” Mrs. Hong said cheerfully, “Li Mu, you go first!”

“After you. Ladies first!”

Mrs. Hong didn’t mind and spat out three Water Purifying Worms from her stomach and said to Lin Wan, “I only have three left. How many more do you have with you?”

“Don’t worry. I have enough!” Lin Wan replied in a small voice while stealing a few glances at Li Mu.

Li Mu poked her head and said somewhat helplessly, “You’re still a fan of lying huh. Why do you even keep those things? Don’t you find it disgusting?”

“It doesn’t matter. They are all tamed Gu worms and are of great benefit to their host. We will need their help in many distressful situations out there in the future. One example would be this waterway. We can only stand and stare helplessly without the help of these worms.”

“Big sister, I don't need the help of Gu worms. I can swim there while holding my breath!” Shen Zixing said somewhat proudly.

“Me too!” Shen Ming’er immediately echoed.

“Really? The two of you are quite good! You can take the lead later then!” Lin Wan said with a smile.

“No problem, big sister. All you need to do is to follow and swim along with us! We'll lead the way!” Shen Zixing agreed without hesitation.

The two sisters didn't need any extra help. And all they needed was two more Water Purifying Worms. Lin Wan spat out two worms. One was for her, and the other was for Li Mu.

Holding back the tingling sensation, Li Mu pinched a worm up and asked her, “How do you do this? Put it directly on my head and let it swallow me alive?”

“It's not that simple!” Mrs. Hong said as she pulled out a small leather pouch from her pocket and rummaged through it. She fished out a small iron box.

A strange smell drifted out immediately after she opened the lid. It was hard to describe it exactly. But the main point was that it didn’t smell good. The worms squirmed with excitement as if it was some sort of delicacy.

Li Mu took a curious glance at the iron box, which contained something similar to yellow wax. This was the source of the strange smell.

“What is this?”

“Don't ask. You'll feel sick again if I told you.” Mrs. Hong warned him out of good intentions.

After saying that, she dipped her finger in the yellow wax and drew a circle around Li Mu's neck. She then tapped him several times on his face and head.

Immediately afterward, she did the same thing to Lin Wan and the others. Finally, she told Li Mu and He Xiaoyu, “Before you go into the waters, put the worm on your head and wait until you can breathe freely. Then you’re free to dive!”

With everyone packed and ready to go, the two sisters were the first to jump into the water. Li Mu and He Xiaoyu stared at the other three, wanting to see how they did it before imitating them.

Lin Wan and the others placed the worms on the top of their heads, which immediately swelled up. It then slowly wrapped their heads like a melting jelly without crossing the line around their necks.

Lin Wan waved at Li Mu and He Xiaoyu, gesturing for them to not be afraid and just follow suit.

They looked at each other, gritted their teeth, and placed the worm on their heads as well.

He realized that he could still breathe with his head wrapped. Though his vision was somewhat affected, it wasn’t much of a problem. It was just that it smelt awful, rancid, and disgusting, like stinky gum after a hangover.

Li Mu hurriedly ran towards the waters. All he wanted to do was to cross this section of the waterway as soon as possible and take off this smelly mask immediately. He was afraid that he would throw up if he wore it any longer.

The two sisters who saw him get into the water immediately helped him to swim towards the bottom at an unbelievable speed. Though they didn’t say anything, they still helped Li Mu out of habit without Lin Kun even standing a chance.

Lin Wan stomped her feet and hurried after him, with the others all following suit and going into the water.