The newly revealed entrance was a downward tunnel, clearly not given much thought by its excavators. The tunnel walls were bare earth, devoid of stone bricks or carvings.
The loose soil on the path shed easily, proving quite unfriendly to clothing.
Fortunately, most of the people entering were well-built handsome young men, maintaining a balance of cleanliness and elegance as they descended.
This excluded the less agile Xiao Wu and the substantial presence of Fatty.
"Damn it..." Fatty took a deep, labored breath, attempting to suck in his protruding belly a little, managing to slide down a bit further.
However, the moment he exhaled and relaxed his stomach, he became firmly stuck again, resembling a peculiar sandwich cookie.
"Is this something a human would design? I've only ever seen earth paths like this in rat holes! This is absurd. Could it be that besides monkey spirits, there are rat spirits here too?!"
Fatty rested for a moment, stuck in the middle of the tunnel. In reality, his physique alone wouldn't have caused him to get stuck so tightly.
The complication arose from the large backpack of explosives he was carrying. These items, packed tightly against his back, effectively hindered Fatty's descent.
Wu Tianzhen, meanwhile, was scrambling down, kicking up dust. A puff of dirt made him cough, and he looked up at Fatty with great concern.
"Whoa... Fatty, take it easy," he swallowed nervously. "Won't that backpack of yours spontaneously explode from friction heat and blow our heads off? That would really test one's psychological resilience."
"The fact that I can still bravely stay beneath you is entirely due to our deep brotherly affection."
"Cut the crap, our fragile brotherhood was already ruined by you dipping it in soy sauce," Fatty scoffed, recalling Xiao Wu's matchmaking efforts for the monkey. "I bet if you weren't afraid of sliding down too fast and stepping on Little Brother's head, you would have already shot down here without a second thought!"
Despite his verbal jabs, Fatty was also on edge. He took a deep breath and slid down a bit further.
The two of them moved inch by agonizing inch, their nerves frayed. Every scrape of Fatty's backpack sounded like a street dance on their fragile nerves.
However, the equipment provided by the patron, Hua, was of good quality. Despite the ordeal, it maintained its integrity, saving their skulls from disaster.
As the stragglers finally reached the bottom, they saw three handsome young men waist-deep in water, staring at them with expressions of exasperation.
Wu Tianzhen: ...
"How are things, you two busy bees? Did your meeting up there solve any world problems?"
Xie Yuchen's white clothes, which he had carefully protected throughout the descent, were now submerged in water of an unknown origin. This clearly did not please him, and his tone carried a hint of danger.
Wu Tianzhen, intimidated by Hua's pressure, dared not look up. But Fatty, whose thick skin was tougher than city walls, was not deterred by such minor matters.
He swaggered forward arrogantly, "Not yet, the discussion is ongoing!"
"We were just discussing the crucial factor of stir-frying heat for the optimal efficiency of excavators according to the L'Hôpital's rule, and the angle at which Martians are using their Zhizi to monitor Earth. After all, this issue concerning Earth's land-to-sea ratio is far too difficult. So, we came down to seek your guidance, Master Hua!"
Fatty spouted a torrent of nonsensical gibberish that even ghosts wouldn't understand. Then, he bypassed the speechless Xie Yuchen and looked towards Zhang Qiling and Hei Yancheng, who were engrossed in some research in the distance.
The two men in black were standing before a wall at the front of the space. Fatty glanced from afar and vaguely saw that the wall seemed to feature numerous roughly carved stone heads protruding from it.
"...Are Little Brother and the others looking for a mechanism?" As Wu Tianzhen descended, he immediately noticed two massive, roaring ape stone carvings protruding from the sides of the space. These carvings were about ten meters high, their gaping mouths filled with sharp teeth, half submerged in the water.
These two carvings were incredibly attention-grabbing. Wu Tianzhen's first thought was that the mechanism must be within these two carvings. He hadn't expected Zhang Qiling to focus his attention on the relatively inconspicuous human heads on the wall.
"No, the exit mechanism has been found," Xie Yuchen contradicted, his expression somewhat solemn. "The mechanism here is obvious; it's within the mouths of the two ape stone carvings you were just looking at."
"Then how—" Wu Tianzhen started to ask but then suddenly realized the problem. He repeated doubtfully, a vague suspicion dawning on him, "Wait, two, within the mouths of the ape stone carvings?"
"Why two? Could it be..."
"That's right, it's exactly what you're thinking," Xie Yuchen looked over. "There are two mechanisms here. We must operate them simultaneously in two separate groups to open the exit door."
"And once we operate the mechanism, the mouths of these ape carvings will close, trapping us all inside."
"This is an overt strategy, forcing us to act separately and enter different passages. And if we use explosives to forcibly break open the closing mouths of the apes, there's a high probability that both exits will self-destruct simultaneously."
"Zhang Qiling is looking for a way to bypass this nearby, which is why he's been exploring since we came down."
At this moment, Zhang Qiling and Hei Yancheng walked over through the water.
Facing the gazes of the others, Zhang Qiling shook his head calmly and then tilted his head slightly, directing his gaze towards the human head stone carvings behind them.
"There's no other way, looks like we'll have to go our separate ways~" Hei Yancheng spread his hands, still sporting his usual roguish grin.
He pushed up his sunglasses and gave Xie Yuchen a look of a greedy pauper, "But boss, don't worry. I, Hei Yancheng, conduct business with integrity. When I say I'll guarantee safety, I'll see it through to the end, quality and quantity assured!"
While speaking grandly, Hei Yancheng gave a stylish head flick. Unbeknownst to them, he had raised his hand, and with a rub of his two slender fingers, his intentions were clear.
Xie Yuchen was too tired to deal with him now and simply said, "Got it. I'll pay you more based on your performance."
"In that case, Hei Yancheng and I will go to the left, and you all go to the right. Perhaps they connect behind, and we'll leave markers along the way."
"It's a shame there's only one device, and we can't communicate via the optical computer," Fatty patted the signal maintenance device on the optical computer. "Zhang Haike really is stingy, not preparing more of these."
"You can take it with you," Zhang Qiling, who had been observing the human heads, caught the name "Zhang Haike" and spoke to Xie Yuchen after a moment's thought.
...After all, if this device were left with them, Fatty would likely use it to play "Good Luck" or "The Great Compassion Mantra." Little Zhang carefully considered it and felt that letting Hua take the item might be more pleasant for their ears.
However, Xie Yuchen smiled and refused.
"Thank you, but I'll pass. While I'm not afraid of Zhang Haike, I don't want to get into trouble with him by taking something he gave you."
To be honest, Zhang Haike's constant muttering about the clan leader during their previous encounter had left Xie Yuchen speechless for a while. If possible, he didn't want to interact with Zhang Haike anytime soon.
The group took a short rest on the spot, planning to decipher the mechanism later.
But Zhang Qiling felt something was amiss.
When they had examined the human head stone carvings earlier, they hadn't found any mechanisms, but they had discovered a suspicious detail—
All the human head stone carvings had their mouths open.
Rows of human heads with gaping mouths lined the wall, creating a chilling sight. Zhang Qiling cautiously reached into their mouths, searching for a hidden switch, but found none.
The depths of these human heads' mouths were sealed with a substance that felt like cement. However, due to age or poor quality, the substance was either chipped or leaking in places, not completely sealing the mouths.
Zhang Qiling felt the area for a moment, detecting no airflow, before moving away from the wall.
...If there was no intended design, why were the human head stone carvings sculpted in such a posture?
As he was lost in thought, a faint cough suddenly came from behind him!
Zhang Qiling instinctively assumed it was Wu Tianzhen, but when he turned around, he saw—
It was Xie Yuchen.