Chapter 45: Main text Chapter Forty-Five Escape

Main text Chapter Forty-Five Escape

Escape

Professor Chen suddenly lashed out, snatched the Prophet's sheepskin codex and flung it to the ground. We tried to reach out to stop him, but it was already too late; we simply didn't have time.

Things happened suddenly; we could only respond with an unexpected move—life or death often hinges on a single thought. I lifted my leg and kicked the sheepskin book that was about to fall vertically to the ground, sending it flying sideways like a leather ball.

The direction I kicked the sheepskin book toward happened to be where Pangzi was standing. Pangzi didn't dare delay either, but the book's flight path was too low; he didn't have time to bend down to catch it, so he had to kick it away with his foot, daring not to let it land.

The tomb chamber was already narrow and low; these two moves resembled a circus act, everyone's hearts leapt to their throats—perhaps due to adrenaline, those few seconds seemed to freeze.

Pangzi's kick sent the sheepskin codex flying upward at an angle, straight toward Shirley Yang's face. Shirley Yang was about to reach out and catch it when Professor Chen suddenly moved swiftly, grabbing the codex before her and about to fling it to the ground again.

At that moment, a broad figure lunged forward and knocked Professor Chen to the ground—it was Pangzi, seeing the situation turn dire, unleashing the forbidden ultimate technique 'Heavy Meat Shield,' which slammed Professor Chen down in one move.

I also rushed forward and snatched the 'time bomb' from Professor Chen's hand; this sheepskin codex that held everyone's fate finally did not fall to the ground.

Shirley Yang shoved Pangzi aside: 'Professor, how old are you? Do you want to smash him to death? If he suffers any mishap, I'll make you pay with your life.' Saying this, she gave the Chen professor, whose face was twisted from being pinned by Pangzi, a push to restore circulation. Pangzi's bulk of flesh very nearly cost the old man his life.

I carefully placed the sheepskin codex into my waist-hung pouch, then said to Shirley Yang and Pangzi: 'Have you noticed how odd this Old Master Chen is? When I listen to him speak, he seems somewhat like Ye Yixin.'

Pangzi said: 'Yeah, maybe that girl's vengeful spirit has latched onto him? She died feeling wronged, afraid we'd all leave with no one to keep her company, so she wants to keep us with her—sounds rather pitiful.'

I cursed: 'Go to hell, the living and the dead walk separate paths. She was our companion in life, now dead yet wants to drag us along as companions—that's a selfish, self-serving notion of a petty woman, not worthy of sympathy; at times like this we must never show womanly compassion.'

Shirley Yang said: 'Don't talk nonsense; there are no ghosts in this world. The professor must have suffered a great shock, his mind is addled, causing his abnormal behavior. If there were ghosts, why wouldn't they possess any of us three? Why single out Professor Chen?'

I said: 'You don't know this, but the situation is urgent and we can't go into detail now. Later I'll tell you about some of my past experiences—I used to be a thorough materialist, but later I discovered many things that can't be explained. The three of us rarely see ghosts because we all carry items that ward off evil: I have a black donkey hoof, Pangzi has one too, you wear an authentic Mogold talisman around your neck, while Professor Chen has none of these, and with his muddled mind and weak inner true fire, he's vulnerable to possession. If you don't believe me, try stuffing my black donkey hoof into his mouth—then you'll see whether it's a wronged spirit possessing him.'

Shirley Yang refused outright: 'Is this something people eat? If you want to eat a black donkey hoof, you eat it yourself.'

I thought, anyway we aren't counting on our wages; the key now is to get out alive. Any oversight is a hidden danger, so we must use the black donkey hoof to test what's really going on with Professor Chen—his earlier behavior certainly wasn't just simple madness.

Ignoring Shirley Yang's obstruction, I forcibly stuffed the black donkey hoof into Professor Chen's mouth. At this point he was no longer wearing his earlier ferocious expression but had reverted to a foolish state; seeing the hoof brought to his lips, he opened his mouth and bit down, grinning foolishly as he chewed.

Shirley Yang snapped: 'Are you trying to torture the professor to death before you'll quit? Quickly take the black donkey hoof away.' I hurriedly removed it, and it seems I was overthinking.

The four of us finally managed to calm down after that frantic ordeal, recalling the Prophet's revelation that it would point us toward an escape route. We gathered around the Prophet's remains, examining them meticulously, fearing to miss even the slightest clue.

After looking it over several times we found nothing—the Prophet's corpse bore no indicative symbols, drawings, or text. Pangzi, unable to wait, rummaged through the Prophet's bones, but still turned up nothing.

The Prophet's remains sat cross-legged, one hand resting on the stone chest, the other laid flat on his knees—even lacking any gestural indication. Aside from his clothes rotted to powder wrapped in a sheepskin, there was nothing else on him.

I searched all around again for any hidden mechanisms or secret passages, but this chamber was hollowed out of the rock mountain; its walls are solid stone, with only tiny cracks in places. Extending a hand, I could feel faint drafts of cool air, indicating the chamber is not far from the mountaintop. The pressure generated earlier by internal tensile stress in the mountain had caused many minute fissures in the chamber, yet without explosives or tools, trying to carve an escape route through the rock is practically as hard as climbing to heaven.

The only entrance to this tomb chamber is the crack we came through—there used to be a stone door there. When we entered we were dodging countless falling debris, never giving the outer passageway a close look. The internal fracturing of the mountain linked our escape fissure with the passageway, but this route has since been blocked by rubble, making it absolutely impossible to retreat and exit via the passageway.

The three of us paced anxiously when suddenly the ground shuddered; we heard a faint cracking sound from within the mountain, which grew louder as the ground trembled more intensely. It seems the blast-induced internal tensile stress, after two rounds of cracking that grew progressively larger, is continuing to build pressure—another major split is imminent. Could the Prophet's revelation correspond to this very spot?

A strong jolt shook the tomb chamber, which cracked open with three large fissures—one on the floor, the other two left and right, perfectly positioned on either side of the chamber, tall or short, wide or narrow enough for a person to pass through.

Pangzi cursed: 'Damn, pick one of three—this brat Prophet is playing us. Let's each take a path; even if only one of us gets out, it's better than all being buried in this mountain.'

Shirley Yang pointed at the Prophet's bones and said: 'The Prophet has already shown us the way!' Her voice trembled, unable to contain her excitement.

I and Pangzi looked down and saw that the large fissure on the floor had sunk the stone chest halfway in, the Prophet's bones lay askew to one side, and the fingers of his right hand happened to point at the large crack that had split open on the left side of the chamber.

We quickly knelt and kowtowed, thanking the Prophet and the sages for their blessing. At that moment, rock fragments falling from the chamber's ceiling grew larger and larger, the rumbling never ceased, and we could no longer keep our footing inside the tomb.

I had Pangzi hoist Professor Chen onto his shoulder, while Shirley Yang and I lifted Ye Yixin, and we slipped into the fissure on the left wall of the tomb chamber. After just a few steps, a blinding white light flared, and the long‑missing sky appeared above our heads.

Here we were only a few meters below the summit, but the mountain shook violently, cracks spiderwebbed across the stone, the ground was nothing but rubble, each step slipped, and finding secure footing was extremely difficult.

Pangzi crouched down; Shirley Yang stepped onto his shoulders and climbed up first, then, imitating the same maneuver, she hauled Professor Chen up as well.

I told Pangzi to go up first, then I threw down a rope so we could pull Ye Yixin's corpse up—we couldn't just leave her buried forever in the mountain. Pangzi's ascent was laborious; I supported him from below while Shirley Yang pulled from above, and only after great effort did he manage to climb up.

At that moment a thunderous bang came from the stone wall behind me, making me jump. Turning around, I saw the mountain mass behind me collapsing backward—Zhagelama Mountain split cleanly in two. The huge arched ceiling of the ghost cavern could not withstand so many cracks and kept crumbling, hurling the stone beams supporting the queen's coffin, together with the corpse‑scented konjac, countless treasures, and the giant‑eyed stone statues into the bottomless ghost pit. Black water poured out of the pit, instantly swallowing anything that fell in. The black mountainside, the pitch‑black cavern, the land behind me seemed like a devil opening its maw of a black hole, devouring everything within the mountain's belly.

The power of the collapsing mountains and earth made my vision swim. I gripped the stone wall with one hand and clutched Ye Yixin's corpse with the other, daring not to move, lest I too be swept down with the collapsing mountain into the ghost pit.

Pangzi shouted from above in desperation: 'Lao Hu, climb up quickly—don't bother with that girl's corpse; we can't worry about the dead right now!'

I had originally intended to bring Ye Yixin's corpse out no matter what, but at this moment the hand holding her corpse went numb and sore; if I didn't let go, I would fall with her. I released my arm—unexpectedly, her arm snagged on my pouch, and her several‑dozen‑catty weight jerked the pouch open, spilling the Prophet's sheepskin revelation rolling out, and it tumbled down the mountain together with Ye Yixin's body.