Chapter 125: Eighteenth Floor Buddhist Pagoda

“We wandered in the maze for a long time. Eventually, we had no choice but to use detonators, hoping to blast our way out bit by bit. We didn’t expect the path we blew open to be covered in saltpeter. The first blast triggered a chain reaction, causing countless explosions. Almost all our people were lost inside. Only a few of us managed to crawl out.”

We stood in the stone passage listening to Han Jian. I suddenly began to understand the message someone in their team had sent me over the walkie-talkie. Could it be that they weren’t saying “Stone first,” but were instead warning us that “Stone” was extremely dangerous and not to approach?

I immediately told Han Jian about hearing the voice on the walkie-talkie. Han Jian frowned and pondered for a moment after hearing this. He didn’t give me an answer, but instead changed the subject and called for his men to get up, saying they had stayed there for too long.

“There are many Buddhist niches and stone figurines on the road ahead. The Main Hall should be just up front. We need to pick up the pace.” Han Jian helped his men up one by one.

We all followed the team forward. I slowly leaned toward He Yu and whispered, “I feel like something isn’t right. You heard what I just said, and that guy Han didn’t answer my question.”

“When exactly did you hear that voice?” He Yu asked me.

I estimated the time and said, “After I fell through the trapdoor, no more than half an hour later. Why?”

He Yu clicked his tongue and sighed. “Then that’s not right, Xiao Yao. Think about it yourself, the timing doesn’t match. When you fell through the trapdoor, the stone cliff hadn’t even sunk yet. Han Jian and the others were still on the opposite cliff face. They hadn’t even seen those Stone Horseshoe Crab Insects yet. Besides, from your position, how could you have possibly connected to Han Jian’s group?”

I felt a chill run through me and rubbed my arms. I wondered what this meant. Had my walkie-talkie connected to outer space? The closest person at that time was Lu Ayao. Could there have been someone else? Did my walkie-talkie connect to a different group?

There was indeed that other group led by Qiao Sangui in this underground palace. If what I heard really was them speaking, would they be kind enough to send me intel over the walkie-talkie? I found that hard to believe.

While I was lost in thought, Chen Canghai suddenly walked over and squeezed my shoulder, signaling me to look ahead.

I looked at him and then raised my head. I saw that the team in front had stopped at some point. The stone passage ahead was blocked by a dense arrangement of stone figurines. Lu Ayao and Han Jian were standing side by side at the front of the line.

He Yu patted me. “Go on. Isn’t it time for our Master Gan to show off his skills?”

I shot him a sharp look, thinking to myself that I wasn’t the type who liked to show off. I grabbed his sleeve and pulled him along to the front of the line. Lu Ayao was standing before the figurines with his eyes cast down. He must have been the one who called the halt.

I recognized these standing figurines at a glance as smiling figurines with hands clasped in greeting, which signified a welcome.

“What should we do?” Han Jian asked. “Should we blow them up?”

“No, these are welcoming figurines. They aren’t meant to drive us away. They were probably standing against the walls on both sides originally, but when the underground palace started up again, they were forced into these positions,” I said immediately, looking at the neatly arranged figurines.

“The stone slabs beneath our feet are very brittle. If we use detonators to force a path, this entire section of the path might collapse,” I said.

He Yu patted Han Jian on the shoulder. “What’s wrong with you, young man? You can’t be so impulsive. You need to stay calm. What kind of hero relies on detonators for everything?”

I glanced sideways at He Yu. Everyone knew he was the poster child for simple and crude methods, yet here he was lecturing others.

I looked up at the standing figurines for a moment before shifting my gaze to the walls on either side. He Yu came trotting up to shine his flashlight for me, and I instantly spotted a lotus-shaped lamp holder an arm’s length away.

This kind of lamp holder was used to hold torches in ancient times. They hadn’t been present in the previous stone passage. I reached out to feel where it connected to the wall. My fingers were quite sensitive, a skill gained from years of picking locks and prying doors.

After feeling around for two minutes, I turned back to Han Jian and said, “The lamp holder has been rotated one hundred and eighty degrees. I need someone else to coordinate with me on the other side. We need to reset the internal axis.”

As soon as I finished speaking, Lu Ayao darted over to the lamp holder on the opposite side. I immediately tossed my flashlight to He Yu in the middle.

He Yu caught the flashlight instantly. Holding one in each hand to illuminate the way for Lu Ayao and me, he said lazily, “Fine, today Little He will serve you two for once. Make it quick! We can’t let that grandson Qiao Sangui beat us to it!”

I gripped the handle of the lamp holder. Across from me, Lu Ayao gave a slight nod. I began to pull hard and shouted, “On my command, pull down first!”

Two thuds echoed as the lamp holders on both sides were pulled down along their grooves.

I let out a breath and relaxed my grip. “Good, now rotate one hundred and eighty degrees counterclockwise to reset!”

With two more creaks, a series of mechanical noises clicked from inside the lamp holders. Once we finished the rotation and stopped, a thunderous boom shook the stone passage, and pebbles began rustling down from the ceiling. Then, row by row from back to front, the stone figurines stepped aside, clearing the path and returning to their original positions against the walls.

He Yu’s eyes widened. “Holy crap! Xiao Yao, you’re awesome!”

Han Jian also stared in a daze as the standing figurines stepped aside one after another to clear a path through the stone passage.

I brushed the dust off my hands and walked back to He Yu’s side from the wall, feeling a massive surge of accomplishment. Leaning in with a proud grin, practically with the words “praise me” written on my forehead, I said, “Well? Was I steady or what?”

“Impressive!” He Yu gave me a big thumbs up.

Over on the side, Han Jian couldn’t help agreeing. “Indeed, impressive.”

I felt as though the validation I received in this moment was the absolute peak of my life. Just then, Lu Ayao walked over from the opposite side. I quickly tried to catch his eye, but he ignored all of us and walked straight into the path cleared by the stone figurines.

“Don’t mind him. He’s just like that. Isn’t being a buzzkill always his specialty?” He Yu pulled at me, telling me not to take it to heart.

I definitely wouldn’t take it to heart, because I’d realized Lu Ayao was like the team’s anchor. He always managed to douse me with a bucket of cold water right when my vanity reached its peak, knocking me flat on my rear.

Just then, Chen Canghai stepped up beside me and gestured toward Lu Ayao ahead: “He found something.”

This time, both He Yu and I understood. We hurried past Han Jian and ran forward. After just a few steps, I realized Lu Ayao really had found a “real prize.”

The stone path ended at a spacious platform suspended in midair. Lu Ayao stood on the platform, drawing the blade from his waist as he looked out at a giant pagoda across from us at least a hundred meters tall. The Buddha’s head almost seemed to burst through the tip of the spire. Below the pagoda lay a pool of stagnant water that spanned the entire Main Hall.

I ran onto the platform. He Yu wanted to strike a cold flare, but Lu Ayao and I restrained him. I motioned for him to look into the pool. When the flashlight beam hit the nearest patch of water, we found massive swarms of stone horseshoe crabs gathered there. At the same time, we saw white, waterlogged infant corpses floating in the water.

He Yu swallowed hard. “Compared to the pagoda we saw before, this one is the ancestor! But I’m not even thinking about treasure anymore. The main problem is that our dry rations are almost gone. How are we supposed to get out of here?”

Lu Ayao didn’t respond. He simply shifted his flashlight beam above the pagoda. The tip of the spire was built almost scraping the ceiling of the cavern. The cavern here was triangular, with raw, natural rock walls on both sides.

Once things quieted down, I heard a deep, rumbling noise from above. The rock wall on the right was very damp, with water dripping down from time to time.

“If I’m not mistaken, this place is right next to the river, and the rock near the top of the pagoda is very thin. We could try blasting a passage open at the top,” Lu Ayao said.

I quickly realized why that wouldn’t work and said, “Haven’t you noticed? The rock quality throughout this underground palace is pretty poor. If we don’t control the charge just right when blasting the passage, it will cause a massive collapse. If we don’t get out in time, we’ll either be buried alive by falling rocks or drowned by the rushing river.”

Both of us fell silent at the same time.