Chapter 182: Internal Strife

He Yu squinted as he leaned in front of me. After observing for a moment, he let out a confused sound. “Huh? That’s not right. This doesn’t look like it was built with stones. Look at that material—how does it look so much like concrete?”

His eyesight had always been excellent, or at least much better than mine. Hearing him say this, I hurriedly leaned into the beam of his flashlight to take a look. Upon closer inspection, I realized He Yu might actually be right this time. The texture of the wall at the end of the tunnel looked far too new. Compared to the truly ancient stone walls on either side, the contrast between the new and the old was jarring.

“It really does look like it.”

Curiosity tempted me to go over and check, but Lu Ayao was blocking the way. I couldn’t see the situation ahead clearly, so in the end, Lu Ayao gripped his blade and went forward to investigate.

I crouched behind him and noticed that the arm embedded in the wall was nearly touching Lu Ayao’s face, yet the man didn’t show even a hint of fear. He used his hand to carefully feel around the wall at the end of the tunnel before turning back to meet my eyes.

My heart sank instantly. Damn it, it really was concrete.

“That’s strange. Why would there be concrete? Logically, these things shouldn’t be from such a recent era,” He Yu turned to ask me. “Xiao Yao, since it’s concrete, do you think the people buried inside are from the 434 Archaeological Team, or someone else?”

“How could the archaeological team have so many people? Since it’s made of concrete, there must have been at least two groups involved, and they had to be enemies. That’s the only way you’d end up with people encased in concrete,” I said.

Tian Xiaoqi had been silent for quite a while now. Whenever this woman went quiet, I instinctively started feeling like something was wrong. So, I looked at her. “What are you thinking about?”

Tian Xiaoqi hadn’t expected me to question her so suddenly. I caught the guilty look in her eyes immediately. I turned to face her fully, adopting a stance that made it clear she had to say something now.

She hesitated for a moment, but under the pressure of my gaze, she finally relented. “I just suddenly remembered something. A while back, Tian Yuqing brought a stack of documents home. I thought they were related to the Old Master, so I slipped into his room and looked at the pages inside the file folder. They were mostly about the serial numbers and basic information for the Nine Rings Project, but that information ended on the penultimate page.”

“And you saw the last page of the file, didn’t you? What was written on it?” I didn’t want to play riddles with anyone right now, so I questioned her bluntly.

Tian Xiaoqi looked up. “The last page recorded the prototype of something called the ‘Corpse Driver Initiative.’ But it only listed the name of the plan and the execution time. There were no specific details, so I don’t know what it actually entails.”

After she finished, He Yu and I both frowned simultaneously. I was mentally weighing this new piece of information. Sometimes, having too much information isn’t a good thing; these scattered, disconnected bits of intel were highly likely to clutter our thoughts.

“I’m starting to find it hard to believe a word you say, lady,” He Yu said, tilting his head back and putting his hands on his hips. He pointed his chin at Tian Xiaoqi, his entire expression screaming ‘I don’t believe a word of it.’

I thought for a moment and asked her, “What was the execution time?”

Tian Xiaoqi said, “20 years.”

I sucked in a breath of cold air. That time span was far too large. Tian Xiaoqi’s words were very specific; that project name didn’t sound like something she’d just made up.

Usually, when someone creates a successful lie, they keep things general and then create a single point of contradiction in the story. The purpose is to draw all the attention to that contradiction, making people overlook the details. This is because the details of almost all lies share a common problem: a lack of logic.

I was still wondering if there was a connection between these things when Lu Ayao suddenly crawled back from the concrete wall. He said decisively, “Stop thinking about it for now. The wall is solid. We need to find another way.”

“Huh?” He Yu cried out. “But… but the Stone Tortoise Mouth is closed behind us. We didn’t see any other forks in the path on our way here. Are we really trapped in this hole?”

“This was once a passage for the Can Tong to crawl through, which proves it definitely leads to the Main Hall. I don’t know why this concrete wall is here now, and I didn’t see any forks just now either. Since a passage was left here, this must be the only way into the Main Hall,” I said, my speaking pace quickening instinctively.

“Hey! The space behind this wall is full of corpses. Can we dig a tunnel through the stone wall here? Dig sideways and go around this section?” He Yu immediately proposed a bold idea.

Tian Xiaoqi countered him directly. “We don’t even know how far we are from the Main Hall. None of us are an Old Chief, and there are no descendants of the Mojin Xiaowei here. We can’t even be sure of our current position, and the compass isn’t working. If you dig a tunnel sideways from here, can you even maintain your direction?”

In less than a second, He Yu’s idea was unconditionally rejected. Digging a tunnel blindly without understanding the situation would undoubtedly only make things harder. If the tunnel veered off course midway, we might end up in an even more troublesome situation.

“Then you tell me! What do we do? We’re really stuck here now. If you ask me, damn it, we would’ve been better off staying in the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces. At least that place was big. We don’t even know where we’ve crawled to. Even if Chen Si sends people down, they might not even find this place.”

He Yu’s mental state was clearly starting to crumble. He irritably threw his backpack onto the ground beside him, kicked the opposite wall, and lay down horizontally in the tunnel. Giving up in despair, he turned his head against the stone wall and sulked. I suspected his anger wasn’t about blaming us, but rather regret that he hadn’t stopped us when we decided to enter the tunnel.

Beside me, Tian Xiaoqi, who had been relatively calm just a moment ago, also began to grow inexplicably agitated. She covered her face and curled up in a corner. “I can’t die. I really can’t die here. I haven’t found Great-Grandfather yet. How can I just die here…”

“Can you shut the hell up with the crying!” He Yu snapped. “What are you acting for now? Weren’t you trying to kill us earlier?”

“Why are you shouting at me! Did we choose to be trapped here?”

The atmosphere in the tunnel turned hostile in an instant. He Yu’s neck turned red after Tian Xiaoqi yelled at him, his temper flaring up. Seeing things taking a turn for the worse, I quickly crawled over to stand between them, hoping to stop He Yu. I hadn’t expected He Yu’s punch to be so fast; as soon as I got there, I took the blow right in the chest.

I didn’t have time to react. The force sent me crashing into the wall behind me, my scalp nearly scraping against the ceiling of the tunnel. I felt like I’d skinned my head. At the same time, a metallic sweetness rose in my throat, and I coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Lu Ayao probably hadn’t expected He Yu to actually get physical. He quickly lunged forward and grabbed He Yu’s wrist, preventing any possibility of a second punch. He Yu’s fist was still suspended in mid-air. When he saw it was me in front of him, his entire body froze. He seemed completely unaware that he had hit me and stood there dazed.

After spitting out that blood, my breathing actually felt a bit smoother. Being hammered by He Yu’s punch had somehow cleared my head.

Seeing the blood on the ground, Tian Xiaoqi hurriedly crawled over, trying to help me catch my breath.

He Yu had clearly snapped out of it. The redness had faded from his face, and he stammered as he reached out to support me. “I… I… I didn’t mean to hit you. Xiao Yao, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

I jerked my hand up, refusing to let anyone touch me.

I could feel blood starting to trickle down my forehead, but I had no intention of dealing with it yet. I turned to glance at Tian Xiaoqi, then looked back at He Yu standing before me. My voice was unnervingly calm as I spoke. “I’m fine. But all of you had better check yourselves. The murals here are silently influencing our emotions.”

“It wants us to turn on each other.”