Chapter Sixteen: The Endless Void Tunnel

  After a close examination, I found that the surface of this bronze lump is extremely rough and does not have the texture typical of metal.

  I opened my eyes wide and looked into the most concerned hole, it was pitch black, and I could see that almost all of the holes were filled with thick black fog. "Is the black fog outside coming from these holes?" I couldn't help but wonder, but I didn't know if this fog was toxic or not, so after hesitating for a moment, I decided to ignore this strange phenomenon.

  Both legs tightly clamped the iron chain, in front of me were numerous holes of various sizes. I chose one that was fist-sized and stretched out my hand to explore inside.

  "Heaven preserve me, let me feel my way to it!" My prayer was of no avail, the hole was deeper than I thought, and nearly all my arm went in before I felt anything. This bronze lump is nearly five meters long, if the hole goes into its interior, with only the length of my hand I can't get what's inside.

  "No wonder one has to rely on the pangolin to get treasure, in some ways humans are really not as agile as animals." Thinking of this, I decisively gave up on the small holes and instead targeted those large holes, big enough for me to crawl through entirely.

  Upon counting, there are a total of nine target holes, which exactly correspond to the number of coffins. Moreover, the suspension chains of the coffins extend into the interior of the holes. The larger coffin holes also correspond to the larger points, and similarly, the smaller coffins correspond to the smaller holes.

  I turned my head and looked at those large coffins, as if in thought. Would these nine largest tunnels be prepared for the nine coffins? At this time, the sound of the zongzi scraping against the inside of the large iron coffin gradually weakened, as if the zongzi inside were tired from scratching and the noise was getting smaller and smaller. My eyebrows moved, and I thought of a possibility. The large coffins had large zongzi, the large zongzi crawled through the large tunnels, could it be that these tunnels were prepared for the things inside the coffins? But what did the zongzi do when they crawled into the bronze bumps? Could it be that there was a large round table inside and they planned to gather together to gamble and play cards against humans? Of course, it couldn't rule out the possibility of 9p either.

  I couldn't help but be amused by my own wild imagination, but I immediately shook my head. Now is not the time to let our guard down. Licking my lips, staring at the nearest hole, it's you!

  "One, two, three!" I exerted myself and quickly crawled into the hole along the iron chain. As soon as I entered, the thick black fog inside immediately blinded my eyes, and I could no longer see the faint green glow of the wax scattered outside.

  Almost at the same time, the movement of the big iron coffin completely disappeared.

  I seem to be 'lost' in a darkness that is as real as substance, and I can't even see my own hand in front of me.

  I'm a bit nervous, who knows what's inside the cave. Taking advantage of my lower body not being completely in yet, I fumbled through my pocket and grabbed the half-empty matchbox, relying on touch to strike it several times in the darkness, until suddenly there was a spark and it lit up.

  "It's really deep." I muttered to myself, the match didn't give off much light, only illuminating a distance of thirty centimeters, and beyond that, it seemed even darker against the glow. But fortunately, I didn't see anything dirty. At this point, I couldn't turn back, and could only crawl inside with my head down, thinking about one thing at a time.

  Creeping along the iron chain step by step, time passed minute by minute. Five minutes later, I found something unusual. Why can't I reach the end? This bronze lump is at most five meters in diameter, and it should take me only one minute to circle around it, but now I've been crawling for so long without any sign of reaching the bottom.

  I broke out in a cold sweat. I hastily lit another match, and in the light of the flame, there was nothing unusual to be seen. I gritted my teeth and crawled on for another ten minutes, but this time the result was exactly the same as before - it seemed that I had thoroughly lost myself in the tunnel.

  My complexion was not good, so I decided to try again. This time, I paid special attention and guessed that the mechanism inside the bronze bumps might have curved the entire passageway into a loop, covering the entrance in a special way to create an illusion of infinite circulation that would never reach the bottom. I left a handkerchief at the place where I climbed, tightly wrapped around the iron chain. If my hypothesis was correct, then within the limited internal space of the bronze bumps, the total distance of the passageway would be so short that it wouldn't take five minutes to walk through, and I would definitely return to this place again, with the handkerchief as proof.

  But ten minutes have passed, and there is no shadow of a handkerchief on the chain. What makes me even more desperate is that during the climbing process, there was no obvious curved surface bending, which means that if I was walking in a straight line, I would have been walking for thirty minutes!

  I hesitated whether to continue moving forward. The current situation seems to be no life-threatening, but it's actually extremely dangerous. If I'm trapped here and can't escape, won't I starve to death? Hmm, I suddenly thought of the two pangolins from before, they entered the cave last night and only came out today, did they walk for a whole day?!

  "What the hell is this thing!" I couldn't help but curse, those with the surname Sheng and those with the surname Shi said it was easy to take things, and they even said it would be a quick battle, but I'm going out to 'beat' him to death.

  I don't know how to crack this situation in front of me. I'm a special agent, not an experienced tomb raider, it's like being from different walks of life, what I've learned is not applicable here. The dead eunuch might still be able to come up with something, but I'm alone and don't even have anyone to talk to.

  "What to do?" I had a flash of inspiration, why not crawl backwards, at least I can get out. Hmm, no, can I really get out? My confidence suddenly drained by half. I was never an atheist anyway, what if crawling backwards doesn't work either, then I'll really have to wait for death on the spot.

  No matter what, I still have to give it a try. With the last straw of hope, I quickly crawled backwards as fast as I could. The instinct for survival drove me forward, and my speed was much faster than before.

  Gasping for breath, I held back and crawled backwards with all my might.

  However, half an hour later, I stopped.

  It's all over; retreat and advance are both impossible!

  At this moment, I was terrified to the extreme in my heart.

  I've been stuck in this bronze statue for a whole hour now.

  The cave was silent and dark, cut off from everything outside. I shouted several times, but got no response at all.

  I was completely isolated, and I even suspected whether I was still in the original space. If it weren't for the professional quality of the special agent supporting me, ordinary people would have collapsed long ago. Even so, I didn't feel good either, no one wants to die in such a suffocating way.

  I stopped and racked my brains over the current situation, but no matter how hard I thought, I was still at a loss.

  I'm so annoyed I could die. My brain is numb and at this moment, my mouth feels a bit dry.

  "Ah, how annoying. Let me calm down with a cigarette first." I habitually reached out to touch the cigarettes, still that pack of Meili brand cigarettes, only three left, perhaps my last three before I die.

  He shook a cigarette out of the box, lit it with a match, and inhaled greedily. The smoke irritated his throat, and he coughed loudly several times, patted his chest, and finally looked like a human being.

  A burst of cloud swallowing and fog spitting, the nicotine fit couldn't be stopped, and I 'fished' out another one to smoke. This time, I had to slowly smoke it, burning one less at a time. My mind became much clearer, but I still couldn't think of a way to get out. A few minutes later, my hands moved again towards the last one, but this time, I discovered something unusual.

  This cigarette is stuck to the inner lining of the cigarette box, there were other cigarettes before and I didn't notice. Now there's only this one left, it was very natural to discover something unusual.

  Stick with it, as long as it's a cigarette. But when I opened it and took it in my hand, I immediately discovered that the weight was off - this isn't a cigarette!

  I was shocked and hastily felt in the dark to check, only to discover that what I had in my hand was actually a small paper stick rolled into a rod!

  "A note!" I almost shouted out loud. As a qualified spy, the most important thing is association, and as soon as I thought of the keyword "note", I immediately thought of the same thing I had received before.

  I didn't dare be vague, so I immediately took out a match and, by the light of the flame, carefully unfolded the paper strip.

  As the paper slowly unfolded, I breathed more and more tightly, until finally I didn't dare to breathe out.

  On the note, a line of small characters was written, with handwriting identical to that on the previous note received.

  "Recite the third article of the Military Intelligence Agency's survival code - Special 0901."

  "It's really him, Special 0901!" I'm 'excited' and my whole body is trembling. After a whole day, he gave me another instruction. But immediately, I was full of doubts again. Why would the note appear in the cigarette box? Or what does this instruction mean?

  The third rule of the Military Intelligence Agency's survival code is: "Even if you're extremely tough, a single 'flower' grain of rice will keep you honest."

  The meaning of this sentence is that once you encounter a problem that can't be solved by ordinary means, using a gun will definitely work. In fact, the so-called "military unification survival law" is just something made up by some idle people in the organization, and no one takes it seriously. After all, the military unification doesn't exist anymore, now it's the era of the Security Bureau. However, since Special 0901 said so on the note, it can't be a joke, and I'm not capable of making such jokes either.

  Thinking of this, I felt for it at my waist and the left-handed revolver was still there.

  "Take a shot and make a way out." With the gun in my hand, the ferocity hidden in my heart burst out. I licked my lips, didn't aim, and fired at the dark hole without thinking. The muzzle flash flashed by.

  In an instant, a thick smell of gunpowder spread out.

  "Huh, doesn't work after all." I muttered to myself, shaking my head and striking a match. The moment the flame lit up, at an arm's length away, a face made only of human skin silently appeared before my eyes.