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墨書 Inktalez
Zhong Kui's Diary
Sure enough, Qingcheng pondered for a while in front of the door, then recited a spell. With her hands forming a circle, a golden Taiji Bagua Diagram appeared in her arms. This illusionary diagram was the same size as the one on the door, as if Qingcheng had right-clicked on the diagram and pressed Ctrl+V.
After creating this diagram, Qingcheng carefully placed the illusion on the door, aligning it with the Taiji Bagua Diagram on the door. Then, her hands moved rapidly over the eight trigrams in the illusion as if she were playing a piano. Each time she swept over one, a golden trigram floated out from the illusion and hovered in the air.
As Qingcheng's movements grew faster, more symbols filled the air until they nearly surrounded her completely, with only a shadowy figure visible within. At that moment, Qingcheng let out a clear shout, and all the symbols surged toward the Tai Chi pattern on the door.
With a loud rumble, the massive stone door slowly retreated three meters, paused for a moment, then turned left into a groove in the side wall, revealing a dark Faint passageway.
The entrance to the Peach Garden Tomb was finally opened by us.
Without hesitation, I grabbed my shotgun and took out two flashlights, handing one to Qingcheng. We exchanged glances and stepped into the passage.
As soon as we entered, the stone door slammed shut behind us. A shiver ran down my spine, but then I thought to myself, with Qingcheng here, what was there to fear? I relaxed and examined the passage. When I shone my flashlight inside, it felt strangely familiar; this passage resembled that of the Black Mountain Ancient Prison in Mountain City. It was also constructed from large blue stones stacked together, even matching in size—one meter long and forty centimeters high.
Could Liu An's family be in the stone business?
After walking for several minutes, I became increasingly convinced that this passage was built by Liu An. The design of this passage was almost identical to that of the circular passages inside the Black Mountain Ancient Prison; it appeared straight but actually had a slight curve.
"Are we going to see those giant rats here?" I regretted not asking Lou Wei to get me a Gatling Gun—a type of machine gun with six rotating barrels like those seen in American blockbusters—loaded with hundreds of bullets. With that kind of equipment, I wouldn't fear swarms of rats or even packs of tigers in this tomb.
Xiao Qingcheng heard me and scolded playfully, "Stop jinxing us; can’t you say something nicer?"
"Uh, then do you think there will be any Copper Doors in this passage?"
"Definitely!"
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because I've already seen the Copper Door!" Xiao Qingcheng shook the flashlight a few times. I followed her gaze, and sure enough, ahead was a Right Angle. At the corner of the Right Angle was a large Copper Door. As I approached, I noticed that the patterns on it were identical to those of the Black Mountain Ancient Prison, and there were also the words 'Positive and Negative Three Circles, Portal Manifest' at the bottom.
"Stand next to me; I'm going to open the Copper Door. Don't get lost again!" Xiao Qingcheng said as she turned her head to me in front of the Copper Door.
I responded with an "oh" and pressed closely against her side.
"There's no need to stand this close, right?" Qingcheng said with annoyance.
I quickly moved about a foot away, feeling frustrated. It was her who stood close, and it was also her who stood too close. Women are really troublesome. Although I grumbled internally, I asked, "Qingcheng, can I ask you a question? Last time at the Black Mountain Ancient Prison, wasn't it that the Positive and Negative Three Circles caused the Portal to manifest? Why do we always get stuck in the third area?"
"The Positive and Negative Three Circles are correct, but there are different speeds," Xiao Qingcheng replied with a smile.
Wow, there's such a method. No wonder we always get stuck. By the way, let's see how Qingcheng opens this Copper Door.
Xiao Qingcheng placed her palm on the Copper Door and closed her eyes in concentration for about ten seconds. She then opened her eyes and took out a sharp spike about twenty centimeters long, with a ring in the middle resembling a ring. I recognized it; it was called an Emei Spike, one of the self-defense weapons for women.
She slipped the Emei Spike onto her middle finger and inserted it into the groove of the ring in the center. Qingcheng slowly rotated it counterclockwise three times, then reversed it and rotated it clockwise. This time, the movement was exceptionally swift. Amidst a Thunderous Roar, it felt just like in the Black Mountain Ancient Prison. After three or four seconds, when the flashlight's light returned, I realized we had arrived at another passage.
It wasn't that my observation skills were keen; rather, the changes in this passage were too obvious. The walls of the passage were entirely made up of massive ice blocks. Yes, ice blocks that emitted mist. Although I had already consumed a Fire Spirit Pearl, I still felt a chill.
The ice blocks were neither transparent nor white but displayed a light blue color. They looked beautiful yet somewhat eerie.
It was also strange that this passage had only one path leading straight into the depths, with the Copper Door right behind us. Unlike the previous Copper Door passage, which had two paths forming a Right Angle, the Copper Door was at the corner of that Right Angle.
Moreover, except for where we were standing, the passage ahead actually sloped down at about a thirty-degree angle. I really didn't know what Liu An was thinking; this was ice, and ice is very slippery. With such a steep slope, was he planning for us to slide down?
"How about we stick a dagger into the ice and wrap a Rope around it to slide down?" I suggested.
"How many ropes do you have?" Xiao Qingcheng shone her flashlight down the passage and stuck out her tongue. "This slope seems quite long. Sliding down isn't a problem, but I'm worried it might be troublesome to come back."
"I brought two ropes, each one hundred meters long Climbing Rope. Plus, this type of rope is high-tech; it can withstand low temperatures and is fine even at minus one hundred degrees. By the way..." I slapped my forehead in annoyance. "One of them got cut by the Golden Blade while climbing the rock wall, and I left it on the Trunk without picking it up."
"One Rope is enough."
"Oh?"
"I'll use a Spell to stick one end of the Rope to the ice, and then we can climb down using the rope. When we reach one hundred meters, you can carve two grooves with your dagger to stabilize ourselves. Then I'll remove the Spell so that the rope slides down. We can keep doing this step by step no matter how long the passage is. When we come back, it'll be up to you, Zhong the Hero, to use Roping Technique to throw the rope up in segments."
When she mentioned Roping Technique, Qingcheng couldn't help but smile. She must have thought of that popular song "The Man Who Ropes Horses Is Mighty..." The main reason this song became widely known internationally was because of Chinese aunties dancing in public squares.
Following this method, they slid down three times, meaning we descended three hundred meters. Shining our flashlights below, it still seemed bottomless; we had no idea how deep this passage really was.
Just as we were about to continue downward, Qingcheng frowned and said, "Zheng Nan, something feels off."
"What is it?"
"We've gone down three hundred meters, and this flashlight has a maximum range of over two hundred meters. Yet we still can't see an end; that means this passage is at least five hundred meters deep. If it's five hundred meters deep, we should have already exited Shoushan's range, right?" Qingcheng looked at me with flickering eyes.
"Uh, maybe there's a turn just around the corner down there," I could only explain. In an unfamiliar environment, if one person keeps thinking of the worst, the other must think positively; otherwise, both would lose confidence.
Qingcheng remained silent while I shone the flashlight around, noticing some vague shadows beneath the ice on the floor of the passage. It was too blurry to see clearly, and I couldn't tell what it was.
Just as I was about to call Qingcheng's attention to it, a Thunderous Roar came from above in the passage, as if something was rolling down. We exchanged glances, both faces pale with shock, and instinctively pointed our flashlights upward.
The light revealed something that terrified both Qingcheng and me; the Copper Door was rolling down the passage toward us, still about a hundred meters away. What the hell? Isn't the Copper Door supposed to be larger than the passage? How can it roll in here? Scientists, come explain this!
There was no time to complain about science now; we couldn't even think about climbing with ropes. Both of us screamed and tossed our Rope aside, sliding down the passage instead. Earlier we were worried about going too fast; now we feared going too slow.
Behind us was the Copper Door—about two meters in diameter and probably weighing several thousand pounds. If it crushed us, we'd be nothing but meat paste.
Feeling the wind rushing past my ears and due to gravitational acceleration, our sliding speed increased rapidly. However, the Copper Door had even greater mass and acceleration; its rumbling sound shook the ground. Thankfully, it occasionally collided with the walls of the passage, slightly slowing down, which prevented it from catching up to us.
Qingcheng shone her flashlight ahead and suddenly screamed, "Ahead! Ahead!"
I pointed my flashlight forward and felt a chill run down my spine; my hands and feet went cold as if my breath had stopped. Down over a hundred meters below was a dead end—the ice in the passage faintly emitted a blue glow. Liu An, damn you! Do you know what you've done?
"Ah!" Qingcheng let out an extremely sharp scream that echoed through the passage, momentarily drowning out the Thunderous Roar of the Copper Door.
What do we do? What do we do?
Those three words kept spinning in my mind as we slid another ten meters down.
Motherfucker! Liu An must have designed this on purpose; this death passage is a dead end for anyone who enters!
What should we do? What should we do?
In the blink of an eye, we slid down more than ten meters.
At this moment, there were still over fifty meters to the bottom of the passage. If we reached the bottom, the approaching Copper Door would smash us into a pulp.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind. Without considering whether this plan was feasible, I quickly took out my Shotgun and pulled the trigger at the ice above us.
I thought that the power of the Shotgun could blast down a large chunk of ice from above. Although this chunk of ice wouldn't stop the Copper Door, it could at least slow it down. Then I could fire a few more shots; if several large chunks of ice fell, the speed of the Copper Door would decrease. Without speed, what was there to fear about the Copper Door?
Unfortunately, I overlooked one problem: in this extremely cold environment, my Shotgun jammed.
Damn! I hate thermal expansion and contraction!
Qingcheng's screams grew louder, and at this moment, we were less than twenty meters from the bottom of the passage.
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