Chapter 3: Endless Arrows

  After hearing Wan Guan's words, before anyone could react, the entire stone chamber shook violently. The four giant night pearls that emitted a faint blue glow suddenly didn't seem as resplendent and bright as they had been.

  Seeing no change, the stone room didn't have that monster from before either. A warrior patted his chest "Damn it, Old Wan you scared us for nothing? What's going on..."

  Before the warrior could finish speaking, a sudden change occurred. The huge night pearls standing at the four corners suddenly had countless small holes appear on three of their sides facing outward. These small holes were invisible unless viewed closely from a short distance.

  Suddenly, the four huge night pearls shot out arrow-like objects in several intersecting directions, and six soldiers close to the four huge night pearls were immediately turned into targets.

  Looking at this scene, Han Geng quickly rolled to the left and dodged to a place that was not affected by those sharp arrow-like objects. Han Geng panted heavily "Lao Wan, what the hell is this thing?"

  "It must be that someone among us has triggered a mechanism. I clearly felt movement within the wall when I was observing the tomb structure from this side." At this time, Old Wan hid behind a stone pillar and wiped the sweat from his face, shouting.

  "What the hell is this mechanism, it's so fierce! How can these arrows keep shooting endlessly?" Han Gong shouted. If this mechanism doesn't stop, he won't be able to get back on the ground or move at all. The four huge night pearl mechanisms have already turned the entire stone room into a rain of arrows, with only 4 small triangular spaces left. If they don't find a way out, they'll be stuck here forever. For them, who didn't bring any food, this stone room is a dead end.

  Wan Guan looked at the countless arrows shot out by the four giant night pearls and sighed, "This should be the infinite arrow array. My father said that the arrows in this infinite arrow array mechanism are not infinite, but rather rely on the clever settings within the mechanism to absorb and reflect the arrows shot out by the opposing mechanism, giving people a feeling of countless arrows. This mechanism has been around for a long time, I didn't expect to run into it here, what bad luck."

  "How the hell can this mechanism be stopped?" Han Geng wiped the sweat from his face, in this narrow gap, several times Han Geng felt as if the arrow rain was brushing against his body.

  "Wan Guan looked at the ground under the arrow rain and said, 'The only way is to find the stone brick that triggered this mechanism and push it back to its original position. Otherwise, this mechanism will not stop until it rots internally.'"

  After listening to Wan Guan's words, Han Geng felt a severe headache. To think that in this rain of arrows, he had to find the stone brick that would trigger the mechanism and then return it to its original position - wasn't that equivalent to asking someone to go die? First, turn himself into a target for the arrows, and then return the stone brick to let others escape? The two fell into silence.

  "Team Zhang, Team Zhang you're injured." At this time, Hu Bang supported Zhang Zhen and sat down on the earthen path. The two were originally at the edge of the earthen path entrance, which was the closest distance from the entrance, but even so, Zhang Zhen was still shot by an arrow.

  "Damn it, I was hiding so quickly but still got shot. Alas, my brothers... it's all because of me." Zhang Zhen covered his left arm where the arrow had hit and cursed.

  The warriors who were shot as targets had purple-black skin on their faces, necks, and hands, wherever the skin was exposed outside of their clothes. It was clear that they had been poisoned by a highly toxic substance. The arrow alone would not have been enough to kill someone so quickly; only the potent poison on the arrowhead could spread through the bloodstream and reach the heart in such a short time, causing death.

  "Zhang Dage, that arrow has poison! All the brothers were poisoned to death by the poison on that arrow!" Han Geng shouted at Zhang Zhen, pointing strictly at the place where the soldiers fell.

  Zhang Chen looked at the warriors' dark purple skin and swallowed a mouthful of saliva. After all, he had also been shot, although it was only one arrow, but that arrow would still make him die within a certain period of time. No matter who it was, no one wanted to die like this, even if he was a soldier, even if he was a seasoned warrior who had shed blood and sacrificed his life, he still didn't want to die like this.

  "Laozi may not be a saint, but I still know what it means for death to be lighter than a feather or heavier than Mount Tai. Lao Wan, you just said that the arrow rain was triggered by someone touching the mechanism, right?" After a brief silence, Zhang Zhen let out a soft sigh and asked.

  Wan Guan nodded "Yes, that's right. Someone must have touched something to trigger this mechanism. The thing that triggered the mechanism should be a stone brick, because there is nothing else in this stone room except for the stone bricks."

  "Zhang, don't be foolish, once you escape, you'll be saved, the military doctor will cure you." Upon hearing Zhang Zhen and Wan Guan's words, Han Geng knew that Zhang Zhen was aware that he had already been poisoned severely and wanted to sacrifice himself to stop the machine so everyone could escape.

  "Little Han, listen to me. The military doctor was just shot dead. Where do you want me to find a doctor? Even if we can get out of here, we're in the middle of this godforsaken mountain. It'll take at least two hours to go down the mountain and find a doctor. I've only been hit by one arrow, but I feel like I won't last two hours. Why don't you let me die alone to save the three of you? Anyway, I'm going to die." As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Zhen's face tightened, and he spat out a mouthful of blood that was slightly blackish-red.

  After hearing Zhang Zhen's words, Han Geng was deeply grieved in his heart. If he had persuaded Zhang Zhen not to bring the army to rob the tomb earlier, so many things would not have happened. The gold and silver treasures were not seen, and 40 brothers died. Just seeing the Night Pearl, it turned out to be a beautiful lie, and six more people died.

  "Alas, I'm truly unworthy of Director Zhang's painstaking cultivation of me, and also unworthy of the affection from so many brothers." Zhang Zhen lit the last cigarette in the box, taking a slow drag.

  "Brothers, don't say anything more. My mind is made up. I am destined to die. I don't want to drag you brothers who still have hope of survival down with me, a dead man." Seeing Han Geng, Yu, and Wan's eager-to-speak expressions, Zhang Zhen waved his hand to signal them not to speak.

  "Lao Wan, you said that the starting mechanism is a stone brick, right?" Zhang Zhen asked, looking at Wan Guan who was leaning against the stone pier.

  Wan Guande looked at Zhang Zhen deeply and said, "Yes, Captain Zhang. This stone room, apart from the four night pearl mechanisms, only has a brick floor left. I just observed those four night pearls and didn't find any protruding or recessed areas."

  After listening to Wan Guan's description, Zhang Zhen cast his gaze towards the ground under the arrow rain. Due to the arrow rain, the ground in front of him seemed to have many small insects moving back and forth. Zhang Zhen looked at one stone slab after another, and suddenly he found a protruding small stone slab. That stone slab was right under the nearest Night Pearl, connected to the base of the Night Pearl's pedestal.

  "Brothers, I saw that brick, Old Wan, is it the one?" As he spoke, Zhang Zhen stretched out his hand and pointed to the brick connected to the base of the night pearl stone pedestal.

  Along where Zhang Zhen pointed, Wan Guan looked over and nodded "Yes, it's that stone brick."

  Han Geng lowered his head, and at this moment, Han Geng's heart was filled with a mix of emotions - grief, anger, and helplessness. His best brother, the best captain, was about to sacrifice his own life for the sake of everyone else's lives, but he couldn't stop it, nor could he prevent it. What kind of despair was this?

  "Xiao Hu, Lao Wan, you two must help and take care of my younger brother after I leave, got it?" Zhang Zhen said with a smile.

  When Zhang Zhen, the former majestic captain, heard this, Hu Bang nodded vigorously with an unusual glint in his eyes. "Captain Zhang, I will." Upon hearing Hu Bang's words, Zhang Zhen nodded and looked towards Wan Guan in the distance.

  But Wan Guan, who was far away, wanted to stand up and give Zhang Zhen a military salute, but unfortunately his head hit the stone slab on the top. Seeing Wan Guan's appearance, Zhang Zhen burst out laughing "I know, brothers, I'll open the way for you now, you must get out alive." After that, with a half-smoked cigarette in his mouth, he quickly ran to the edge of the night pearl and stepped down on the protruding stone brick.

  At this distance, Zhang Chen's body was constantly shot with poisonous arrows, but Zhang Chen did not fall to the ground, instead he continued to run towards the stone brick that activated the mechanism in big strides.

  Looking at the returning stone brick, Zhang Chen showed a firm smile, but then he fell heavily to the ground, along with the half-root of slowly falling cigarette.

  Han Geng stared at Zhang Zhen, who was constantly convulsing and vomiting purple-black blood from his mouth, and couldn't help but burst into tears. Along with the sound of his sobbing, the four giant night pearls also stopped shooting arrows. The mechanism that had been stopped by the four giant night pearls now looked no different from an ordinary glowing night pearl, but who would have thought that just a moment ago it was still a deadly killing machine that could take many lives?

  Hu Bang and Wan Guan walked to Han Geng Yan's side and helped him up. The three of them saluted Zhang Zhen and the deceased brothers with a military salute. "I just found a mechanism under the stone pedestal I was hiding behind, which should be used to open the passage. According to my family's legend, it is called 'Shi Dun Dao', or 'Stone Pedestal Hidden Passage'. Let's go now, everyone's body has been infected with the toxin and soon the entire chamber will fill with toxic air. If we don't leave, we'll also be poisoned to death, and Zhang Zhen's efforts would have been in vain." Wan Guan patted Han Geng Yan on the shoulder and said.

  Hearing Wan Guan's words, Han Gengyan looked at Zhang Zhen's body and then at the bodies of the soldiers. He sighed, thinking that just a day ago, they were brothers who fought side by side, and now because of an order from their superiors to dig up graves and find treasure to make up for military expenses, they had become dead men left behind here.

  At this moment, the three of them arrived at the stone pier where Wan Guan had hidden before. They saw that Wan Guan's five fingers were claw-like and firmly grasped a stone protrusion on the lower part of the stone pier, which was shaped like a screw head. He twisted it several times with force.

  In a short while, the stone slab beside the stone pier was pushed aside by some force between objects. Underneath the original stone slab, a staircase made of stone bricks appeared, with strange patterns on it that seemed to have life, as if they were about to come alive.

  Looking at the emerging passage, Hu Bang rubbed his hands and said, "There should be good things down there, let's go down." After that, he took the lead and went down, while Wan Guan looked at the pattern on the stone brick and walked down thoughtfully.

  Han Gengyan thought of Hu Bang's greedy appearance earlier, and his heart couldn't help but feel a wave of disgust. However, he had no experience in this regard, so he could only swallow his anger and remain silent. He glanced back at the dead Zhang Zhen and the soldiers, then walked into that dark passageway...