"Holy crap!" Fatty, who had been keeping a close eye on Wu Tianzhen's progress, felt a wave of nausea upon seeing the thing. "Why is this damn thing still haunting us?!"
"Wait, Fatty..." Wu Tianzhen restrained Fatty's wild flailing. "The focus of this drawing isn't the bronze door."
He carefully examined the carvings. Besides the prominent bronze door, there was also a strange stone.
This stone was pitted and incredibly ugly, looking as if it had been struck repeatedly by countless hammers. Yet, it was placed alongside the immensely powerful bronze door, highlighting its peculiar nature.
"What is this stone?" Wu Tianzhen stared intently. The drawing's meaning was clear, almost shouting in his ear—this stone came from within the bronze door.
But why?
As his thoughts began to form, he heard the sound of coffins vibrating again.
The moment the sound started, Fatty hurled a stick of dynamite, a seamless transition that spoke of seasoned experience.
The flipping rat instantly lost its life. Wu Tianzhen had just turned to give Fatty a thumbs-up when the ground beneath him began to shake violently!
Suddenly, this mountain of coffins seemed to transform into a turbulent sea. Wu Tianzhen almost lost his footing. He instinctively stuffed the still foul-smelling metal plate into his jacket. Before he could feel disgusted, he witnessed a scene that made his pupils dilate—
The once calm burial ground had, at this moment, turned into a black tide!
Fatty's dynamite seemed to have awakened the hidden rat population within the burial ground. Countless rats, like startled cats, bared their sharp teeth with blood-red eyes and lunged forward!
"Holy hell!" Fatty instantly became a relentless dynamite-throwing machine. The flames from their explosives formed a near-continuous ring around them, yet the rats charged forward fearlessly, one after another!
"Damn it, did I just blow up the darling of these rats with that last throw?!" Fatty was about to curse. He watched his dynamite dwindle, a fierce resolve rising within him.
So, Wu Tianzhen watched as Fatty quickly bound the remaining pile of dynamite together. At first glance, it resembled a shield. Anxious, he was about to voice his objection when an entirely new possibility struck him.
...They had searched for so long without finding an exit. What if the exit wasn't in the visible area at all, but rather, below!!!
With this thought, he barely had time to consider it before a roar escaped his lips—
"Fatty, blow up the area below us!!!"
At that moment, Fatty yanked back a dynamite pack he had just thrown and, with fluid grace, hurled it down fiercely!
Only then did he realize what had just happened, and a common curse erupted from him: "What the hell! Tianzhen, are you insane?!"
"I'm not insane!" Wu Tianzhen no longer looked at the charging rats. He stared intently at the dynamite thrown down, calculating the detonation time in his mind.
"...Two, one, Fatty, get ready!!!"
With a thunderous explosion, Fatty and Wu Tianzhen were almost swept away by the blast wave!
Fatty, quick-witted, grabbed a nearby coffin lid to shield himself, using his arm to protect Wu Tianzhen behind the board!
The rats screamed as they were hit by the splintered wood. Wu Tianzhen and Fatty, amidst the screams, plummeted downward, falling into a hidden black hole beneath the coffins!
...The reason the burial ground and the altar on the map had messy, even overlapping lines was because the two spaces were not arranged parallel to each other, but vertically!
Amidst the chaos, Wu Tianzhen calmly pieced together the clues. Soon, a sharp pain struck him!
They crashed heavily onto an unexpected protrusion, followed by a "crack" of shattering sound!
When Wu Tianzhen and Fatty struggled to their feet, they were covered in bruises and cuts from the fall. The smell of blood lingered in their nostrils, but neither of them paid it any mind at that moment.
...They had reached the altar!
"Xiao Ge!!!" Wu Tianzhen almost instantly shouted at the top of his lungs. Thick smoke billowed around them, and his entire body felt like it had fallen apart, but he couldn't control his anxiety. His voice was hoarse, almost breaking.
Fatty followed closely: "Xiao Ge! Xiao Ge, where are you? Can you hear me? I, Fatty, Tianzhen and I are here to bring you home!"
They shouted loudly, but as the surrounding smoke slowly dissipated, there was still no response.
The surroundings fell into a deathly silence. A barrage of terrifying thoughts flooded Wu Tianzhen's mind, driving him to the brink of madness.
"Xiao Ge? Xiao Ge! Zhang Qiling—!!!"
"Wait, Tianzhen." At this moment, Fatty placed a hand on his shoulder. He slowly reached out and touched the ground, his expression turning grave.
It was then that Wu Tianzhen noticed the sticky substance on the ground. It was all semi-dried blood!
The blood seemed to have been splashed everywhere, like water. In an instant, Wu Tianzhen felt as if his ability to speak had vanished. He slowly leaned in like a machine, using all his faculties to discern.
Then, he let out a sigh of relief.
"This isn't Xiao Ge's," his face was extremely pale, making Fatty think he was already dead. "This blood is dark and greenish, with a pungent odor. It must be from those strange creatures."
He looked up ahead.
The battlefield before them was littered with foul-smelling blood and withered limbs and corpses. More than a dozen dry corpses lay on the ground with their eyes wide open, their bodies almost chopped to pieces.
"These clan chiefs, these strange creatures, were all killed by Xiao Ge," Wu Tianzhen murmured. "Then where is Xiao Ge? Where is Xiao Ge?!"
They searched everywhere, but in this confined space, Zhang Qiling was nowhere to be found.
Just then, a strange "crackling" sound echoed—
The quiet, milky white substance surrounding the space seemed to awaken, growing rapidly and almost instantly closing in on them!
Fatty's dynamite was gone. Gritting his teeth, he fired a burst of bullets, but they were completely useless. The two of them were even nearly hit by the ricocheting rounds.
"We're finished," Fatty exclaimed. "We did all this, didn't find Xiao Ge, and now we're going to die here!"
Wu Tianzhen didn't reply. He was still trying to find Zhang Qiling, his gaze frantically scanning every corner, then suddenly fixed!
For a moment, he was speechless. His lips trembled, and tears streamed down his face.
"Geez, Tianzhen, you don't have to start mourning this early, do you?" Fatty said in shock, but when he met Wu Tianzhen's eyes, he froze.
Although Wu Tianzhen's face was streaked with tears, his expression was smiling.
"...I found Xiao Ge, I found him..."
Wu Tianzhen choked back a sob, pointing to a dim corner—
The milky white substance pressed in on them like a pursuer, but in that direction, a rift had opened, as if something within it instilled fear in them!
Fatty looked over, his throat instantly feeling constricted and uncomfortable.
...On the ground there, patches of blood were scattered, faintly forming a straight line leading to the side wall!
"Xiao Ge knew, he knew we would come to save him. He was afraid we wouldn't find him, he was afraid..." Wu Tianzhen wiped his tears, the stench of corpse water smearing his face.
He paid it no mind, leaping off the platform and rushing towards that corner!
Following the bloodstains, they arrived at an unremarkable wall. There was a blood handprint on it. Wu Tianzhen, suppressing his tears, pressed his hand against it. With a resonant rumble, the mechanism slowly opened, revealing a small, hidden chamber behind it.
The first thing they saw was the Black Gold Ancient Sword lying dropped at the entrance. Then, in the dark corner, where the smell of blood was strongest—
They finally saw Zhang Qiling.