Chapter 168: The Only Exit

The tomb passage sloped downward, the angle getting steeper. Our flashlights shone straight down but there was no sign of an end; the far end was always a deep, pitch-black void.

I started to panic. We had already walked a long way down, deep into the interior of the Changbai Mountains. If we kept going like this, where would we end up? The center of the earth?

But even if it were the center of the earth, we had to keep going, because the direction markers left by Poker-face clearly indicated that he had gone this way. Every step we took brought us closer to the truth.

Fatty said to me, "Xiao Wu, have you noticed it's getting warmer in this tomb passage?"

I nodded and said, "Maybe our destination is near a volcanic stratum where there's lava or hot springs, so the temperature is gradually rising. Where exactly did Wang Zanghai dig back then?"

No one could answer that question; they all remained silent.

After walking a bit further, Fatty suddenly turned back and asked me, "Tell me honestly, what special relationship do you have with that Poker-face?"

I choked at Fatty's question, not knowing how to answer. Then it occurred to me that I had misunderstood; he wasn't asking about that kind of relationship.

The series of events just now had happened too quickly; I hadn't fully reacted myself. Thinking back, Fatty didn't know that my blood had already shown the same phenomenon as the old Poker-face's blood in the Qinling Mountains. Seeing it for the first time, how could he not be surprised? But probably to avoid losing face in front of A Ning, he hadn't asked then. Now that it was just the two of us, he naturally wanted to ask. However, given his personality, it was impossible for him to ask seriously. His question about my relationship with Poker-face was likely just wondering why my blood could also "repel insects."

According to what Teacher Liang said, the strange ability of my blood should be related to having eaten the fumigated corpse's Kirin blood. But I really couldn't remember if I had ever eaten such a thing, and I knew nothing about Kirin blood, so I couldn't give him a definitive answer. Besides, my action just now was an accident, completely unconscious; I couldn't simply conclude that it was my blood that had worked.

When Fatty saw that I didn't answer, he thought I agreed with his idea and said, "He might be your long-lost brother or cousin or something, or your father's illegitimate son. Your family has inherited this special ability."

I cursed, "Don't talk nonsense. My father only has me as his son. If a scholar like him had an illegitimate son, then there would be no reliable men left in the world."

Fatty still insisted there was definitely something fishy. I really didn't want to discuss it with him, so I changed the subject.

We walked for a long time until the tomb passage finally ended. As we stepped out of the passage, a warm breeze suddenly blew, refreshing my spirits. I quickly turned on my flashlight and looked around. I found a corridor platform built on a cliff, just like the sacrificial altar of the fake spirit palace we had seen in the ice dome earlier. The floor beneath our feet was supported by pillars overhanging the cliff. In the middle of the platform stood a huge black cauldron, one of its legs already sunk into the stone floor, tilting as if about to fall. Clearly, we had to be careful when moving on this platform, as the stones below were all aged.

The edges of the platform were all cliffs, and above was also pitch black, with no ceiling in sight.

Fatty grumbled, "How come it's... a dead end again? No road, and still no coffin. Where the hell is the Wan Slave King hiding?" I said, "That's not the weirdest part. We followed that Poker-face's marks, and there were very clear clues along the way. But look, there's no one here. Could it be that these people found a dead end and all went back? Or..." I looked into the darkness, "flew away?"

Fatty said, "Maybe we can go down the cliff here." As he spoke, he pulled out a flare gun, loaded a flare, and fired one ahead.

We walked to the edge of the platform. The flare suddenly ignited high in the air, like a small sun in this utterly dark space, instantly illuminating the scene before us.

By the magnesium light of the flare, I saw that this was actually a huge mountain crack. The platform we were on was built on one side of the crack's cliff, and about two hundred meters opposite us was the cliff on the other side of the giant crack, facing us from afar. It felt like being on a cliff in a huge African rift valley. We all couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

The flare gradually descended, falling below the platform and illuminating the situation beneath us. Another shocking scene appeared before our eyes: in the bottomless dark rift valley below, countless bronze chains as thick as a bowl's mouth spanned across both sides, connecting the

Following the falling light source, from just twenty meters below the corridor platform to the depths of a chaotic rift valley, I couldn't tell how many such chains were suspended there, with almost no sparse spots visible. On the chains deep below, there were also densely hanging many objects, like countless bells, but they were too far away to see clearly.

At that moment, Fatty found a climbing rope at one end of the corridor platform. It hung down from one end of the platform, reaching down to above the nearest bronze chain below, tied there.

Fatty frowned and said, "Tough luck. That guy is really persistent. Looks like he climbed down. Do we have to follow and act like monkeys too?"

I said, "Judging by how dense the chains are below, it shouldn't be too hard to climb. But what kind of place is this? Why would there be such a strange setup? Could it be that Wan Nu Wang's coffin is down in this rift valley? Have you considered how they could have transported that huge coffin down here back then?"

Fatty said, "It's possible. But the ancients always had their own clever methods. Should we go up and tell those foreigners, or should we go down ourselves first?"

I said, "We don't know if we can get back up after going down. There's no need for us to be their pathfinder dogs. Call them down—they have better gear and skills, and it'll benefit us. Besides, Panzi is still up there. Since Third Uncle has been found, spending a little more time won't hurt."

Fatty, remembering Kirk's muscular build, agreed with me. We went back the same way. Knowing the road was long, we unconsciously quickened our pace.

A Ning and the others had been waiting anxiously, thinking something had happened to us. They breathed a sigh of relief when they saw us return. I took Panzi's water, took a drink, and told them what I had seen. As soon as they heard about the horizontal bronze chains below, A Ning quickly took out the photos she had taken from the underwater tomb and pointed to one of them. In the photo, the mural showed many Dongxia warriors carrying bows and arrows, climbing on a steep cliff, with a background of countless chain-like objects. Clearly, it depicted the Dongxia people exploring the giant underground rift valley.

I said, "It seems those chains weren't set up by the Dongxia people either. They must have been curious back then about what was under the rift valley sealed by these chains."

Fatty said, "Could these iron chains be some kind of defensive measure by the ancient builders to prevent something from climbing up from below? Like the giant black soft-bodied thing depicted in the murals?"

I nodded and said, "Possible." Then I asked A Ning, "Which mural is this one? What comes next?"

A Ning said, "According to the general sequence of narrative murals, this should be the sixth from the last. There are five more after it, in order..."

A Ning spread out the last five photos. I saw that the next mural showed many Dongxia warriors drawing their bows and shooting arrows, as if in a brutal battle, but no enemy was visible in the mural. I couldn't tell what they were fighting. I thought of those strange birds that were invisible in flight, and my heart tightened. Could there be such things down there too?

The one after that showed many evil spirits emerging from the rocks.

There didn't seem to be much plot connection between the murals, but they gave rise to endless associations, with a stream-of-consciousness feel.

A Ning asked me, "Have you spotted something tricky again, Wu Superman?"

I smiled self-deprecatingly. "Not really. Look, after the mural of climbing the cliff comes a battle scene. I feel it might be telling us what dangers we'll encounter after descending into the rift valley. Those with weapons should prepare them."

I didn't want A Ning to know that I had the two copper fish with me, so I couldn't explain everything clearly.

The others all looked to me as their spiritual leader. Whatever I said went. Kirk quickly picked up his gun and made a gesture indicating he'd handle it. We packed our gear and walked toward the tomb passage that cut deep into the Changbai Mountains.

I stayed at the back of the line to check on Third Uncle, but he was still unconscious. I didn't know what terrifying thing he had seen here. Panzi told me not to worry; he said he would drag Third Uncle out of this damn place even if he had to crawl.

Walking in the tomb passage, watching the nervous crowd ahead, I felt a strange sensation. With Chenpi A'si and Third Uncle both absent, I had no choice but to take on the role of leader for these people. This was a feeling I had never experienced before, a kind of inexplicable pleasure. But were my thoughts and decisions really correct? Could it be that I was pushing all these people toward death? Thinking this, I felt myself becoming hesitant again.

Soon everyone arrived at the viewing platform. Fatty fired another flare so everyone could see the spectacular scenery around the rift valley. Panzi and I took out ropes to prepare. Climbing down from here still seemed like an extremely risky decision, but our path forward was completely blocked, and there was no other choice.

I didn't know what the situation was like down below. A Ning and her crew were not the type to be trusted. After I untied the ropes, I pulled Fatty over and told him to be careful. For now, we were all in trouble, so everyone seemed cooperative. But once we found a way out down there, we had to watch out for that bitch turning hostile and showing her true colors.

Fatty patted me on the shoulder and gave me a look, meaning he had already prepared a backup plan. Afraid I wouldn't rest easy, he pulled open a corner of his shirt to show me the remaining ten detonators tied around his waist.

We tested it. Poker-face's rope was very strong. Panzi still took the lead, climbing down first. After he reached the chain, he hung his body like a gymnast on the horizontal bar and easily jumped to another chain below. Repeating this five or six times, he had already descended more than ten meters. He gave me an OK gesture.

A Ning's team had much better equipment than us. Kirk put on a diffused guiding headlamp, turning himself into a moving lightbulb, and climbed down second. Using Kirk's head as a guide, we each climbed down from the platform one by one, entering the world of hanging chains.

The sensation wasn't very strong on the platform, but on the chains, the wind blowing up from the bottom of the valley felt especially intense. Standing on the chains, I felt as if I were pulling a sail on a sailing boat—the boat was moving, the sail was moving, and it was very unsettling.

However, the chains were quite densely arranged, making climbing very convenient. Whatever the original purpose of these bronze chains being set up here, they at least provided a convenient ladder for people like us. After climbing for a while, we became proficient in various movements and picked up some tricks, feeling almost like Spider-Man reborn.

Like spiders, the dozen or so of us slowly descended. Nothing unexpected happened along the way, and the sturdiness of the chains amazed us. After four hours, the platform above us had become very small. We entered the depths of the rift valley, beyond the range visible from above. Those chains that had been unclear from above, hanging like giant bells, came into my view.

To be cautious, I blew a bat whistle to signal Kirk and Panzi at the bottom to stop. Using A Ning's night-vision binoculars, I looked down. In the eerie green field of view, I saw that the things hanging on the chains were actually dead people who had been hanged there. A black, hair-like thread extended from the back of their necks and was attached to the chains. Looking at the numbers, the chains below were densely packed, almost countless.

Wang Zanghai's dragon-fish cipher text revealed that the strange human-headed birds we encountered—which were invisible while flying and only appeared when landing—liked to hang their prey on branches to dry for later use. With so many corpses here, could the area below actually be their nest?

No wonder Poker-face had warned us never to go down. But now we had no other way out. If we didn't go down and take a gamble, wouldn't we still die? Suppressing the fear in my heart, I made a hand gesture signaling everyone to be on guard and continue descending.

Having come this far, even if it's hell below, we have to steel ourselves and go down.