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墨書 Inktalez
The newcomer was sweating profusely and repeatedly stated, "They lost contact after crossing the cliff. There are fierce beasts in that jungle, and my subordinates are now worried that they might have..."
Upon hearing this, the Man Under the Silver Mask suddenly turned around, a cold glint flashing in his deep, indifferent eyes. "You know how important that woman is to us, yet you come here so easily to report?"
"Yes, yes, I was foolish! I deserve to die!" The newcomer felt a jolt of fear. "That woman is missing; surely the Emperor of the Great Qin Empire must be anxious as well. I thought we could..."
"Idiot!" The Man Under the Silver Mask finally lost his temper. He raised his sleeve and slapped the newcomer across the face.
The slap was quite forceful, causing blood to spurt from the newcomer's nose, but he stood firm and did not dare to move.
The eyes of the Silver Mask revealed a ruthless coldness, his voice as hard as iron. "Since when did you learn to work behind others' backs? If others can find them, why do you think you can take action? Get lost!"
The newcomer crawled away in a hurry. The Man Under the Silver Mask waved his hand to summon another hidden subordinate. "Guard the important passage. Once you see them, you know what to do."
After giving his orders, he remained silent for a moment before turning to leave.
Meanwhile, Mei Shuang had been gone for quite some time when Anriyan arrived and saw several people silently keeping watch.
Seeing him approach, Mei Shuang said, "What we ate earlier should have grown between the rock walls; it shouldn't have been dug up from the ground. There must be something unusual going on; we should go take a look."
After tidying up a bit, several people followed Coach Brothers to where they had dug up the stem.
As expected from what the coachman said, they found that where it connected to the roots of a large tree, the rocky cliff rose high with dense green vines intertwined with the branches of ancient trees. If one did not look closely, it was impossible to see that the green vines behind the ancient tree were growing on the stone wall.
"This area has a good growth of Mantis; it's just really strange."
Cong Fei pointed upwards and saw that among the dense vines, various sizes of Mantis were hanging on the branches—plump and quite pleasing to see. The vines followed the direction of the ground and held many Mantises.
Kato had a big appetite and clearly wasn't satisfied with what he had eaten earlier. Unable to resist, he took out his knife and cut off a few more pieces, dividing them into portions for everyone to share.
Only Mei Shuang was thoughtfully examining the soil layer beneath the stone wall.
The others were puzzled about what Mei Shuang was thinking, wondering what was so interesting about the Mantis on the ground when they could be eating the fresh ones above.
Mei Shuang instructed Cong Yue, "Can you dig here?"
Although Cong Yue found Mei Shuang's behavior strange, he still drew his waist knife and began to dig down in the direction Mei Shuang pointed.
As he dug, Cong Yue sensed something unusual. Having spent years traversing jungles, he had some understanding of soil types. When his knife struck, he felt that the soil was unusually loose.
Hearing him exclaim, Mei Shuang immediately confirmed her suspicion and urged everyone to help dig.
Though they didn't understand why, the others sensed that Mei Shuang had discovered something significant. They discarded the Mantises they were nibbling on and began to excavate along the roots of the Mantises on the ground.
Everyone shared the same feeling; the soil was loose. As they dug down along the stone wall, they soon unearthed a hole over a meter deep but found nothing new.
Cong Fei pressed his ear against the stone wall while Cong Yue took out a small iron tool and tapped it against the wall three times. Cong Fei held his breath, listening intently.
After a moment, following Cong Fei's direction, Cong Yue scraped along the stone wall with his small iron tool.
Before long, Cong Fei stood up from the ground, brushed off the dirt from his knees, and said, "You're right; Miss Lin's estimation is correct. The inside of this stone wall is hollow. If we dig down along this area for about ten feet, we might find something."
The group fell silent as various tools came into play. In no time, dirt flew everywhere. When they had dug sufficiently deep, Coach Brothers instructed everyone to bring over some branches of varying lengths to place on top. Then he asked everyone to step back. With a leap, he landed in the center of the branches, and with a loud crash like an earthquake, the ground collapsed beneath him, causing surrounding soil to sink as well.
The others stared in shock at this scene as they watched Cong Fei disappear into the hole. They hurried forward to check on him.
No one expected that Cong Fei's jump would create a gaping pit nearly ten square meters wide. Peering into it revealed darkness; only by moonlight could they see broken tree roots that had once intertwined but were now severed around the opening.
With no light penetrating inside, Anriyan ignited Firestarter and poured some oil onto a branch. After lighting it, he shone it into the hole. The flames illuminated a depth of at least two yards; scattered on the ground were various branches they had just laid down, but there was no sign of Cong Fei. Next to the deep pit was a dark hole about two meters deep. Perhaps due to years of being unventilated, now that it was opened above, a gust of wind rushed up from within, carrying an unpleasant odor.
"Brother, where are you?" Cong Yue panicked. How could someone disappear in the blink of an eye? Even if they entered the cave, they should have said something!
"Cong Fei, are you there?" The anxious voices echoed at the cave entrance, but no response from Cong Fei could be heard.
Everyone's heart sank.
Cong Yue was about to rush into the cave when Shijieyu stopped him. "Calm down. The person disappeared right under our noses; there must be something strange going on. Let's wait a bit longer."
They all gathered at the edge of the cave, listening to the howling wind inside, trying to catch any sign of Cong Fei's response, but after a while, no one heard anything.
Suddenly, a faint sound came from behind them, accompanied by a foul smell carried by the wind.
Mei Shuang looked up in fright and exclaimed, "There’s a wolf!"
Almost simultaneously, a pair of green eyes began to flicker behind them.
Perhaps due to the torches, the wolves did not charge forward recklessly. However, with more than ten wolves forming a circle around them, escape was nearly impossible.
The wolf pack seemed unhurried as they crouched down quietly, preparing to pounce on their prey.
Breaking through was unrealistic; their only way out was through the cave entrance in front of them.
"Jump!"
At Anriyan's command, he threw his torch towards the wolf pack. Startled by the flames, the wolves retreated. Seizing this opportunity, several people jumped into the cave. When they rolled and got back on their feet, they found the cave entrance surrounded by wolves that dared not leap down but could only circle above and howl.
Once they landed, they noticed the ground was dry. Holding their torches, they approached where Cong Fei had landed. The ground was covered with thick soil and scattered branches.
Suddenly, Anriyan stepped forward and pushed aside the branches and soil, revealing a stone slab. Some branches were wedged against its edges. Upon closer inspection, they realized it was a trapdoor that would flip automatically when stepped on. Clearly, Cong Fei had been trapped below by this mechanism.
Several people were overjoyed and quickly worked together to clean up the area around the mechanism. They noticed that the stone slab beneath their feet was about two square meters in size and connected to the surrounding slabs.
Cong Yue wasted no time and took out a crowbar to insert into the gap of the stone slab. After several people worked together to pry it, the slab did not budge at all.
Cong Yue could only strike the stone slab hard with the crowbar, thinking that if Cong Fei was trapped inside, he would definitely hear it. After a while, an echo came from the stone slab.
"There must be a switch if there's a mechanism," Anriyan decisively stood up. After several people began to examine the area around the cave, they ultimately suggested checking inside the cave.
The entrance was irregular, as if it were a space forced out by colliding rocks, high enough for a person to pass through. The presence of a mechanism indicated that someone had once set foot here.
Kato raised a torch and stood at the entrance, peering inside. The light from the torch was limited, illuminating only a few meters ahead; beyond that was pitch black. Upon entering, he felt a cold breeze brush past his face. Walking a few meters into the cave, it was just wide enough for two or three people to walk side by side. The walls of the cave were chiseled and covered in moss.
Eager to rescue Cong Fei, they groped along the walls for quite some time but found no sign of any mechanism.
Outside, Shijieyu and Cong Yue were still searching in place, but after clearing the surrounding stone slabs, they discovered nothing.
Cong Yue thought about his brother falling onto the stone slab and wondered what kind of danger might lie within the mechanism. He occasionally knocked on the stone slab and felt reassured when he heard a response.
Anriyan and Kato returned after exploring inside for a while and said, "We didn't see any mechanisms inside. This cave seems to extend quite deep; we don't know if it leads to the other side."
Cong Yue sat in front of the stone slab, staring blankly. "My brother is skilled in caves, but now he's down there. What should we do?"
The group sat down again and began brainstorming solutions.
"This mechanism has not existed for just one day; what purpose does it serve being here?" Mei Shuang asked.
Looking up at the ceiling, she couldn't help but sigh. Who would have thought that beneath their feet lay another world? This meant that their current position was likely at the roots of a large tree, with its trunk twisted and gnarled over time, forming this hollow space. Mei Shuang even discovered peculiar growths of Mantis nearby, suggesting that this cave had been excavated as a result.
But how could they rescue Cong Fei now?
As the sound of striking the stone slab seemed to grow weaker, Cong Yue became anxious and raised the tongs in her hand to smash down hard, intending to break the slab. However, she was stopped by Kato, who said, "What if you break the slab and hurt your brother?"
Suddenly, a familiar voice echoed from within the cave, "Why are you all down here?"
The group turned around to see Cong Fei.
Cong Yue was exceptionally delighted and hurried forward, "Brother, where have you been? We searched everywhere for you."
Surrounding the dirt-covered Cong Fei, the others were somewhat excited. "We thought you were trapped under the slab."
Cong Fei approached to take a look at the stone slab, his expression changing as he asked Cong Yue, who still held the iron tongs, "Are you trying to break the slab?"
Seeing Cong Fei's unusual expression, everyone froze. "What's wrong?"
"Yes, if it's not you down there, then what is it?"
"And brother, how did you get into the cave? We didn't see you when we went in," Cong Yue also wondered.
Cong Fei shook his head. "Did you think that the mechanism of this stone slab is to prevent outsiders from entering? In fact, it's to prevent whatever is inside from getting out."
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