The battlefield ahead had indeed drawn most of the Inner Clan members away. Wu Tianzhen and Fatty, seizing the opportunity, managed to sneak behind the peak under the cover of their allies.
"I wonder if Xiao Hua and the others will succeed..." Wu Tianzhen helped Fatty set up the explosives, still feeling a bit worried.
"Ah, Tianzhen, you can rest a thousand percent assured!" Fatty, with his backside sticking out, was digging a snow cave, aiming to bury the explosives deeper. "Do you really think your childhood friend is someone to be trifled with? Fatty here saw it clearly. That Hua Ye is nothing but a fox."
"Besides, didn't we send reinforcements for Hua Ye? It's all stable!"
"As for us, we just need to focus on rescuing Xiao Ge. Don't think about anything else."
Fatty's quick tongue, speaking before his brain could catch up, had already blurted it out. Now, both of them fell silent as they thought of Zhang Qiling, whose fate was unknown.
Zhang Haike had said that the sacred land was complex, and more people meant more danger. Moreover, the clan leader was eerily powerful. If Zhang Qiling hadn't been at that level, they would have died upon first contact.
Wu Tianzhen and Fatty discussed it. This was originally a Wu Shan Ju family matter, and there was no need to drag others to their deaths. Thus, they went alone, bringing only a batch of firearms. Fatty had also carefully brought the Faqiu Seal.
But honestly, neither Wu Tianzhen nor Fatty believed these guns could do any significant damage to those clan leader anomalies. In Fatty's words, bullets could probably only tickle them.
As for the Faqiu Seal... that was a single-target combat tool. It could only immobilize one anomaly, while the other lively anomalies could even dance the plaza dance there.
They were just gambling, betting on some favorable sudden situation occurring after they entered that would aid their escape.
"Damn it, this kind of thing is really not worth gambling on," Fatty lit the fuse, muttering curses, but a smile still played on his lips. "With Young Master Tianzhen's luck, he wouldn't even win the lottery. Let alone this kind of life-or-death situation."
"? Why are you boosting others' morale while crushing our own?" Wu Tianzhen covered his ears, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it would jump out of his throat, but he still retorted, "I admit, I am a bit of a gambler."
"But isn't this damned place also strange? Maybe the two of us will cancel each other out, like negative times negative equals positive!"
Fatty laughed loudly.
And amidst this joyless laughter, the explosives detonated fiercely, and a dark opening was blasted into the mountainside!
The residual snow on the wall crackled and fell. Wu Tianzhen and Fatty, fearing the snow might block the opening later, plunged in without much thought, not even bothering to thoroughly assess the danger of the revealed tunnel.
...However, in reality, whether it was dangerous or not, they were definitely going in, so it didn't matter if they studied it or not, and it saved them the worry.
Turning on their flashlights, Wu Tianzhen cautiously surveyed the surroundings and found that it was indeed just an empty, ordinary tunnel, with no decorations. Its cross-section was square, appearing very safe.
"According to the map, this tunnel should lead to a burial area, and from that burial area, we can reach the altar."
Wu Tianzhen consulted the map, oriented himself, and began to move forward. Fatty followed closely beside him and whispered, "Good heavens, a burial area. Is it the burial area that Fatty understands? The place where dead people lie in rows?"
"Then we're done for. When you go in there, won't those dead people all sit up and applaud to welcome us?"
"There's no other way." Wu Tianzhen said coldly and ruthlessly, his tone one of utter resignation. "There's no other path. Even if they all recite 'Is it not a joy to have friends coming from afar?', we still have to go through there."
"...Hoo, then applause would be better." Fatty exclaimed in surprise and began rummaging through his explosive inventory. "But it's actually fine. Although the remaining explosives I have can't blow up this entire unlucky mountain, they're more than enough to blow up a few rows of dead people."
"And then we'll blow ourselves up with them?" Wu Tianzhen found it a bit absurd.
"Isn't that perfect?" Fatty, however, was quite pleased. "Our brotherhood can strive to be resurrected after death and be able to be chopped by Xiao Ge when we enter, relieving his boredom."
"If Xiao Ge can't hold on and leaves first, then the three of us brothers can lie together. Then when Hua Ye comes looking for us, it won't be too much trouble; one mat can roll us all up, hahaha!"
Hearing this, Wu Tianzhen thought about it and actually found it to be a good idea, so he also started laughing. "Come on, with your tonnage, you alone would need three mats. If Xiao Ge and I were with you, we'd be squeezed into a pancake."
Fatty then complained a few times in jest.
Then silence fell again in the tunnel.
Although they bantered back and forth, like a crosstalk performance, they both knew this was just a way to escape their thoughts.
They simply couldn't accept the possibility that Zhang Qiling had truly died alone in this inexplicable place. But once they quieted down, such scenes would repeatedly play in their minds like slides.
And in this silence, Wu Tianzhen suddenly stopped.
He stared intently at a faint light appearing ahead, his face showing disbelief. "...Fatty, what do you see over there?"
Actually, he didn't need to ask. It was clearly the opening they had just blasted.
At this moment, the opening stood there glaringly, as if mocking their psychological preparations all the way.
...They had walked back.
"No, this is impossible." Wu Tianzhen quickly took out the map. "The map clearly shows that if we follow the tunnel forward, we'll see the entrance to the burial area. Why isn't it here?!"
"Even if we missed it while chatting, there's no way we could have walked back? This is a one-way tunnel, not a loop built around the mountain. How could we have come back?!"
"Calm down, Tianzhen." Fatty looked at the entrance outside. The rumbling sounds and the situation of battle proved this wasn't an illusion.
"This must be some kind of mechanism, one we just didn't notice. Let's go again."
Exchanging a look, the two made up their minds, put away the map, and re-entered the tunnel.
This time, neither of them was distracted at all, examining almost every corner on both sides of the tunnel.
But after more than ten minutes, the familiar opening still appeared.
"...Fatty," Wu Tianzhen stared fixedly into the darkness at the end of the tunnel, his expression growing cold. "You stay here. I'll go around again. You observe my condition and calculate how long it takes for me to return."
"I suspect this path is constantly changing, and its length is not consistent."
Fatty agreed.
Wu Tianzhen ventured into the darkness alone, and when he saw the tunnel again—
Fatty, who should have been waiting there, was gone.