Chapter 490: The Passage Is Underwater

I immediately jumped into the water. It was only waist-deep, and I felt around slowly until I soon found an opening in the wall along the edge of the moat surrounding the coffin.

At the bottom of the water lay a corpse that had rotted away, making the water smell terrible. Shining my flashlight around the opening, I touched the wall a few times near the entrance, then quickly shone the light back at the corpse's position, afraid it might float over to me.

Fatty came down to help too. After he felt the opening, he stood up and said to me, "No doubt about it—they came out through this hole. Looks like the structure here is pretty similar to the one at Xisha."

All the techniques seemed to originate from Wang Zanghai. It appeared that the Zhang family had a lot of connections with him, passing down many skills and knowledge between them.

Fatty dived to the bottom, fumbled around for a while, and then crawled into the hole. I watched the flashlight beam go deeper little by little, then slowly come back out.

"It's spacious inside—a few meters in, there are steps going up!" Fatty surfaced. "But I think it's a water route. No idea what lies ahead, but if we want to get out, this might be our only shot."

I felt a bit more at ease.

We climbed out of the moat and went back the way we came, preparing to carry Poker-face over again.

But after going up, just as I had hoisted Poker-face onto my back, I took only a few steps before something felt wrong—my throat was really uncomfortable.

Fatty's respiratory system seemed already damaged; he was even more uncomfortable than me. After just a few steps, he covered his mouth and nose, twisting his face in pain.

I found it strange—how could we both be having this reaction? Fatty's face was turning blue. He suddenly made a gesture for me to stop, then turned and ran back toward the secret passage we'd come from. He was practically stumbling and rolling as he went.

I put down Poker-face and followed him, but before I even reached the entrance of the passage, I saw a thick fog drifting in. Breathing even a little of it caused intense burning pain, from the back of my nose all the way down to my lungs.

"Damn, the mechanism's been triggered?" I panicked.

Fatty nodded desperately beside me: "Move it!"

We scrambled back, stumbling and rolling. I cursed under my breath—how insidious, triggering the mechanism without any sound or warning.

When we reached where Poker-face was, I picked him up, Fatty grabbed the backpack we'd dropped, and then we ran desperately back toward the moat.

At the edge, we jumped in without hesitation. We quickly found the hole and swam underwater. After less than ten meters, Fatty grabbed my arm; carrying Poker-face, I floated up while feeling ahead wildly. Soon I found steps there. We climbed up step by step and quickly surfaced completely.

We shone our flashlights around and saw that this was a passageway, with water only up to our knees. Looking ahead along it, we could see the exit about seven or eight meters away.

Is that the toxic gas cave full of ponds? If so, we've made it out safely after all. I didn't expect it to go so smoothly. If I really get out of here, I'll definitely find some deity to thank.

Ecstatic, I waded straight toward it, with Fatty running ahead. But just as I reached the entrance, Fatty stopped abruptly. I crashed into his bear-like back before I could react, and he started backing up. "What's going on?" I asked. Fatty said, "Damn, this is trouble. The three of us are in deep shit."

Looking over Fatty's shoulder, I saw something very strange at the entrance ahead—lots of thread-like things hanging horizontally across the passage, with many fruit-like objects suspended on them.

How do I describe the structure of this cave? It's really hard to put into words.

It was a roughly circular cave, with a pool at the bottom ankle-deep. I could see a single-log bridge made of chains extending underwater to the opposite side, where there was another opening. And at the entrance of the cave, countless wire-like or thread-like things—I couldn't tell the material—were strung across, so dense it looked like the Spider Cave. On those threads were the fruit-like things I'd seen before, something that had terrified me for a long time—six-sided bells. I saw countless six-sided bells hanging there. Was this what Fatty meant by "deep shit"? If even one thread was disturbed, all the bells would ring at once. If that happened, we'd lose all control—no telling what would happen. I sucked in a cold breath, wondering how Poker-face and the others had gotten through. But I figured everyone's situation then was terrible; if Poker-face carried them one by one, with his skill and steadiness, it might have been possible.

"This is an anti-theft system," Fatty said, pointing to some dragon-mouth-shaped openings on the cave walls. "When the Zhang family passed through here, they must have poured water in through those openings, flooding all the bells, then swam through underwater."

There was no way we could trigger the mechanism. I looked up at the threads—if we could go over the top of the cave, that might work. But as I looked, I saw a lot of bells above too.

"Go underwater?" I asked Fatty. He shook his head: "Look, the cave is about thirty meters wide but only half a palm deep. We can't swim across underwater. Unless we turn into cockroaches."

"Or turtles," I said. Fatty replied, "But at least we're safe for now. Don't rush, let's rest and figure something out."

I sat down on the ground, thinking how hard it was to find a place to rest peacefully on this journey. Then I looked at Xiao Ge. I saw his eyes flutter open. I said to him, "We're out. Don't worry, we'll be safe soon." Poker-face was very weak; he closed his eyes again immediately. I said, "Get some rest." Then I saw his lips move.

I thought he was trying to say something. I waited, and sure enough, his lips moved again. I was sure he wanted to speak, so I leaned my ear close and heard him say, "Kuaizou."

"Kuaizou"? What does that mean? Some computer brand? I said, "Okay, sure, I'll buy you one when we get out." Fatty turned his head, already a bit delirious, and asked, "Buy what?"

I told Fatty to listen. He listened and then frowned, "No, Xiao Ge said 'fast cook porridge.' He wants some porridge."

Porridge? I thought, since when is Xiao Ge so unreliable? Suddenly Fatty slapped his thigh, "Not porridge—he's telling us to hurry up and go!"

"Hurry up and go? What does that mean? Is there danger here too?" I asked.

Fatty looked around the dark passage, took a few steps back, and immediately cursed, "Holy shit, hurry up and go!"

"What's wrong?"

"The fog!" I looked over too and saw two small holes in the wall of the passage we came from, releasing white caustic fog that seemed alive. It spread slowly in the air, very thick.

It seemed this poison gas insecticide system had no blind spots—every passage would be flooded with gas!