Daomu Biji Volume 8 Chapter 21

The entire process was almost the same as before, but this time they were even more tired as they searched the stone wall inch by inch. In Fatty's words, Poker-Face's two long fingers touched almost every inch of the rock wall, but there was no result.

Just when they thought they would reach the outside of the mountain again, this time the situation changed—they quickly arrived at a dead end. The tunnel came to an abrupt end, and rock walls appeared in front of them.

After taking part in three selections, the prize of this one really changed to shit.

Somehow, Poker-Face had a bad feeling, so they immediately went back and planned to leave the tunnel and think about it later. After walking only a dozen meters, however, they found that the prize this time was not only shit, but smelly shit.

They soon returned to the entrance, only to find that everything was all wrong. It was not the entrance they originally came in, but a strange place.

In front of them was a small cave, full of pools of water and various holes.

At first, they thought that they had found the location of the ancient building by mistake. If this was the case, then the pools were the key, so they began to study them, only to find that they weren't deep. Fatty immediately discovered that the bottom of the pools contained a large number of bones, all human. Just when they wondered what was going on, Granny Huo began to have a reaction.

“It was also because the old woman was weak. We just felt the air was very thin and didn't think much of it until she suddenly suffered a subcutaneous hemorrhage. That was when we realized that there was something wrong with the air in the cave. It was poisonous, which may have been due to the accumulation of minerals and gases underground. We wore gas masks, but they were useless. The poison gas was very corrosive and was directly absorbed by the skin." Fatty said, “We immediately retreated to the other side of the tunnel opening and went further back where we could hold on a little.”

At this point, the situation had become very clear: the mechanism in this tunnel only allowed for two mistakes, and on the third try, it would lead everyone to a cave full of poisonous gas.

If modern technology was used, it wasn't difficult to realize this trap only needed a three-way valve. However, this phenomenon occurred after Poker-Face was 100% sure that there couldn't be any traps here, and as a result, both groups began to feel distrust.

In that situation, Fatty and Granny Huo both began to doubt Poker-Face's judgment, but nobody else had any convincing ideas either. Later, Granny Huo used her authority to control the crisis but the next few hours were very difficult. They used everything to block the tunnel entrance and prevent the poisonous gas from flowing in too quickly.

It sounded strange that after walking along the same route twice, the exits were completely different. How was this mechanism built? It must be a space paradox.

I couldn't help recalling what happened in the Palace of Heaven at the Changbai Mountains, and wondered, did the ancients have this kind of technology?

They could only try again and again, but almost every time, they came out from different exits. They didn't know how many there were in this mountain, but the mechanism managed to make them different every single time.

They first discussed the possibility of a ghost baby causing this phenomenon. Fatty's rhinoceros horn was burned again, but this time it was completely ineffective.

This kind of feeling of being unable to advance or retreat made them nearly collapse in despair. The whole team had no idea where they were, and at that time, they even felt that the Zhang Jialou was not in this area, but another. Unfortunately, the passage to that space had not yet been connected to this one.

While listening, I already knew Fatty and everyone else had finally found Zhang Jialou, and I was very glad that the wrong password didn't kill them. Although I wanted to know how Fatty finally escaped, I was anxious to know about the ancient building, even more anxious than usual in fact.

“Don't tell me these details, just tell me the result.” I said, “How did you finally get into the ancient building?”

Fatty shook his head: “It wasn't me, it was them. I didn't go in. I also don't know how they got in, but don't worry, I'm not going to start from the beginning. I said that this was meaningful, and what happens next is the key. I can only tell you what happened and why they must still be alive.”

After a long period of helplessness, they finally stopped and began to think about the truth of the matter and make some assumptions. Fatty listed out his theories at this time, and the options were as follows:

First, there were ingenious traps in this tunnel that they couldn't understand. The operation of the mechanism led to this result.

Second, this tunnel really exceeded the limit of time and space.

Third, their minds were affected by something other than a ghost baby, which could not be found by burning the rhinoceros horn.

In fact, these were all platitudes, that is, several possibilities they had previously speculated on.

They tested and refuted each one. After Poker-Face repeatedly confirmed that there could be no mechanism for this tunnel, Fatty used his own method—drilling several small holes in the rock wall, placing some explosives, and then carrying out small-scale blasting.

To his surprise, the stone here wasn't as strong as he thought, and he blew up a large part of the rock wall. A big pit appeared, so he continued to bomb inside it, trying to find evidence that there might be room behind the rock wall. After doing this several times, the pit became deeper, only revealing more stones.

He found several places to do such blasting tests, all with the same result.

The mechanism couldn't be buried too deep behind rock, so the first theory proved impossible.

Fatty didn't believe the second one at all. He was still angry with the last ghost baby we encountered and thought that something in the tunnel must have ensnared them. He wanted Poker-Face to sprinkle his blood around to see if it had any effect, but Poker-Face ignored him and suggested the only way to save them at that time.

They would split up and stand at each end of the tunnel. The people at the entrance wouldn't change, however, if the exit of the tunnel moved, the people walking in the tunnel would come back. After coming through the entrance again, the people guarding the exit of the tunnel may see the truth of the tunnel entrance's movement.

Because the situation at the tunnel's exit may be dangerous, Poker-Face was the only suitable candidate, while Fatty would stay at the entrance and the others would pass through the tunnel as quickly as possible.

Fatty was chosen for the entrance position because only he and Poker-Face had maintained considerable mobility in Granny Huo's team at that time. This came from their many strange experiences before, so when everyone else was close to collapsing, both of them were working alone.

At that time, they split up. Poker-Face put on gloves, fastened his sword securely to his back, and entered the cave.

Since then, he hadn't appeared again.

One of them went out to check on the situation and ran back after only three minutes, saying that Poker-Face had disappeared.

Everyone was devastated. Fatty went out to check one pool of water after another, only to find that Poker-Face was indeed missing.

“This professional missing person really lives up to his reputation.” My heart said.

“A lot of things happened later, and the poisoning became worse and worse, until I passed out.” Fatty said, “When I woke up, I found all the people around me were gone.”

Thanks to this, Fatty could talk to me now, since the team that entered the tunnel hadn't returned yet.

He waited until dawn the next day to determine that something was wrong and walked into the tunnel. This time, he found that it had changed, and after walking for more than ten minutes, he walked out of the passageway again. But this time, he didn't return to the outside of the mountain, but entered a dark place.

He turned on his flashlight and found himself on the edge of a completely different cave pool. It was a very strange pool in the shape of a gourd, with water gathered at the bottom and dry rock on the top. There was a wood beam in the middle of the water's surface leading to the opposite side. Fatty walked over and found that it led to a dead end, but while standing on the middle of the beam, he saw something under the water's surface.

It was a flat object and he didn't know what material it was made of. He reached down to grab a handful of it and found that it was relatively heavy. So he went down into the water to get a closer look and found that the object reflected a very dazzling light.

He found that this was a mirror—one that was two or three feet wide, stretching across the whole surface of the water and palm deep.

In this mirror, he saw a huge reflection of a huge ancient building with carved beams.

Fatty's first reaction was that the building was hanging from the top of the cave, and he immediately looked up but found nothing overhead. He was very surprised and looked back down. The ancient building shown in the mirror was clearly under him.

If it wasn't overhead, was it not a mirror, but a piece of glass? This ancient building actually sank in the water?

He shouted several times, but no one answered him. He walked to the edge of the mirror to see if the building was really underwater, but knew immediately that it was impossible. It turned out that the pool was extremely shallow and didn't even come up to his waist. The mirror was simply right under the water's surface, so he dove under it and circled around, finding that the bottom of the pool was only so deep. Not to mention hiding the ancient building, it was even difficult to float on his stomach.

Then what was going on? Fatty climbed up to the mirror again and began to wonder whether the building was just a picture.

If the cold cave and the strange ancient mirror didn't make him feel fear, then when he leaned over the mirror to look at the ancient building again, what he saw made his hair stand on end.

In the ancient mirror, he saw an ancient building, and in a corridor of that building, he suddenly saw Poker-Face and Granny Huo, who were resting. He saw their flashlights' beams twinkling in the gap in the corridor.

This was really too weird. Fatty's head was dripping with cold sweat, as if he were in the plot of a strange novel. He banged on the mirror to attract Poker-face's attention, but the people below didn't notice his existence.

When I heard this, I was completely shocked and asked Fatty, “Do you mean they're in the mirror?”

Fatty nodded: “Yes, this Zhang Jialou is in a mirror.”

As I wondered how it was possible, I asked him: “Are you sure you saw it, it's not your imagination?”

“Master Three, although I've not fought as much as you, how could I be called the loudest horn (TN note: idk, I couldn't figure it out) in Beijing if I can't tell whether it's real or not? It's true that the building is in a mirror, and they're all trapped in it.”

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Chapter end