Chapter 45: The Heavenly Secret Path

  The two of us big men were being moved forward by a group of people using their mouths to push us, and Ghost Night and I looked at each other's ridiculous appearance, really not knowing whether to be shocked or amused.

  Those golden mouths bit into my back, the pain was almost killing me. I tried to struggle free several times, but all ended in failure. Soon I resigned myself to my fate, unless I could endure the cost of having hundreds of pieces of flesh bitten off, there was no hope of escape.

  I moved with my face up, so all the way I had to lift my head high, and the scalp was bitten, which didn't feel good.

  "You fool, look how clever I am, the bitten area is much smaller." Oni no Tsubasa sneered at me with his head lowered. I looked at him with his hands clasped to his chest, calm and composed, and shook my head in disdain. This guy's two long legs were already split open, let's just focus on saving the inside of his thighs first, where did he get the confidence to mock others?

  I saw the faces of people passing by above my head, with men and women, old and young, as if they were a microcosm of all human faces. The wall of faces was not very long, but we moved for a long time without leaving the range of faces. It wasn't until I saw the familiar pattern of conjoined babies appearing above my head that I realized the wall of faces had been moving with us and had actually left its original location.

  The walls of this passage are probably all alive!

  "Where are we going?" I didn't even have time to ask, when the person's face suddenly stopped.

  The face on top of his head gradually disappeared into the golden wall.

  In just a few breaths, they silently disappeared.

  In the moment of disappearance, I suddenly lit up my eyes and noticed that among many faces, a young woman's face was the most familiar. However, I didn't know where I had seen her before, and it seemed like she looked a bit different. After searching for a long time in my memory, it was like being stuck on something, but I dared to confirm that I must have known her!

  Things happened too fast, I didn't take this detail too seriously, after all, people's faces are likely to be similar. Of course, in the vast sea of people, someone may have come here and left their face behind, and it just so happens that I ran into them outside, which is also possible.

  No time to think much, Oni no Yaiba urged loudly: "Hurry up, the exit may be blocked already."

  I shuddered all over, and he immediately stood up. Although I didn't know what kind of situation it was that those people's faces caught us and then let us go, we didn't have time to think about this nonsense.

  Half a minute later, the golden ground beneath his feet suddenly tilted violently, and with a loud crash, it plummeted down a section.

  My heart also cooled down a lot.

  After more than ten steps, as expected, a muddy wall stretched across the exit, blocking our way tightly.

  "Almost there, just a little more!" I gritted my teeth and used all my might to dig with the big knife and my hands and feet. I quickly moved and swiftly started digging at the lowest part of the passageway's exit. As the pyramid sank down, as long as I could crawl into the hole before it was submerged, there was a chance that I could stay inside and slowly dig my way back up to the surface.

  Unfortunately, my hopes were soon dashed. Every time I dug out a space of less than half a meter, it immediately collapsed, and all my previous efforts were wasted. Not believing in evil omens, I tried again twice, panting with exhaustion, but still ended in failure.

  Oniichan shook his head, saying with certainty: "It's no use, the aftershocks are too strong now. Even if you dig into the ground, you'll still be buried alive by the collapse. And even if you're lucky and don't encounter a cave-in, tell me how you plan to hold your breath while digging through to the surface?"

  I kicked the earth wall fiercely and shouted: "Damn it! I'm not married yet, don't want to die in this godforsaken place!"

  Oni no Ya stretched out his palm and touched the golden brick, furrowing his brow and saying in a low voice: "It's starting to get hot!"

  I really want to curse loudly, won't we be boiled alive in the end! This is a golden pyramid, which means we are surrounded by a huge heat-conductive metal. Once the molten lava spewed out from underground erodes this place, it will instantly turn into a hellish cauldron.

  "We estimate that before we can be burned into slag by the magma, we will first be scorched to become iron plate people." I sighed and lamented, it's really a case of being unable to turn back the clock.

  I feel that at this moment I won't be able to survive no matter what. Fortunately, there's still a gun on me, and if all else fails, I can just shoot myself and save myself from the suffering before death.

  Looking at Gui Ye Jia, he is much calmer than me, with sweat slowly dripping down his handsome face, rubbing his eyebrows and falling into thought. I couldn't help but admire him in my heart, thinking that since he was a tomb raider and had been on the battlefield, he must have gone through many near-death experiences, and his mental strength and endurance were much stronger than mine.

  "Brother Sheng, since we're both going to die anyway. I, Hong Xingdong, don't want to die a fool and be laughed at by the little ghosts in Yan Wang's palace. There's something I've been wanting to ask you, can you honestly tell me?" I asked Ghost Night Demon out of nowhere, seeing him glance at me without responding, I took it as a default, took a deep breath, and asked: "What is your true identity?"

  The corners of Oni no Yaiba's mouth curved into a signature arc of over thirty degrees, and he smiled wickedly, saying in a light tone: "Heh heh, I thought you were going to ask something. Never mind, I'll tell you anyway. I'm the adopted son of the wealthy Shen family in Shanghai. From the moment I was born, I was forced to undergo inhuman training from a group of people. The hardships I endured are beyond your imagination. Ten years ago, I thought about dying many times, but I endured each time. Now, I've become completely numb. Who am I? Even I don't know myself. All I know is that I have a mission to complete, and it may take my entire life, or even the next one." Oni no Yaiba let out a long, mournful sigh: "This is all fate, and no one can change it."

  Throughout the process, I stared at Kuiyasha's eyes. When a person lies, it's hard not to reveal flaws from their gaze. However, Kuiyasha's tone was not only sincere but also had a hint of age-incongruent weariness. Was what he said true? On the contrary, I felt that he spoke a lot of seemingly profound yet actually empty sentiments, with no substantial content except for the Shanghai Sheng family.

  I continued to press for answers, but Oni no Yaiba was as unyielding as before, refusing to reveal any more information about himself, seemingly determined to take the most crucial parts with him to the underworld.

  "It's getting hotter and hotter!" The heat was clearly transmitted from the soles of my feet, and my face was getting uglier.

  Our time of death is getting closer and closer.

  Suddenly, a green light burst out of the passage, as if it were daytime.

  We were greatly shocked, anyway waiting is also death, anyway we are not afraid of heaven and earth, so let's go boldly to take a look at the situation.

  Before long, we returned to the place where the face wall disappeared. The place where we stood was where the faces had taken us before, and above our heads, I and Oniichan stared with wide eyes in shock at a huge conjoined baby pattern that burst out an unbelievably dazzling green light, the entire outline of the pattern clear and shining brightly.

  "What the hell?" I exclaimed with my mouth agape.

  As we gaze at it, the brightness begins to slowly fade away, and the lines of the pattern also start to become finer.

  Oni no Yaiba slapped his thigh: "Ah, those are the glowing insects! They can't stand the high temperature underground and ran into the tunnel."

  "But that's not all, where did the other bugs go... Ah, I get it! They must have crawled into the gaps in the pattern. It's highly likely that there's nothing behind this pattern!" As soon as I thought of this possibility, I realized that the bugs knew exactly where to escape.

  The pattern was three meters above our heads. Oni-ya made a short run-up and jumped up, slamming into the pattern with a loud crash.

  A bright flash of fireflies. I really saw that gold brick tremble for a moment.

  "Ah, just as I thought, it's empty!" Oni no Yaiba exclaimed with glee.

  He immediately took out the remaining bit of explosives, jumped up and stuck it to the pattern with adhesive tape. I hastily dodged, boom! A loud explosion, the other gold bricks were intact, only that one brick was pushed open a little by the huge counter-shock.

  Oni no Yaiba jumped seven or eight times in a row and finally managed to bring down the heavy gold brick.

  I took a closer look and it's more like a gold plate than a brick. The gold plate is engraved with the pattern of a onesie-clad infant.

  "This is a hidden passage leading up to the top of the pyramid!" Oni no Ya pointed upwards, revealing a regular circular opening large enough for three or four people to enter, with an eerie green glow emanating from within that seemed to stretch all the way up to the unseen summit.

  I couldn't help but suspect that the person who bit us and brought us here might actually be helping us escape.

  "Step on my hand!" Oni no Yaiba clapped his two hands together and placed them at my feet. I didn't stand on ceremony, thanking him: "Thanks for the trouble."

  With a loud "Heave ho!" from the oni, I felt myself being propelled upwards like a train.

  As soon as my head entered the cave, under the bright light, I saw a hemp rope hanging on the wall of the cave. Before the upward inertia disappeared, I hastily stretched out my hand to grab it, ouch, it hurt so much, due to my weight not being light, the palm of my hand directly rubbed off several layers of skin, and a lot of fresh blood was wiped out before I barely stabilized myself.

  My face turned bright red as I grabbed the rope with both hands and crawled into the hole with great difficulty.

  "Make way, I'm coming!" Oni no Ya shouted, and with a bound he sprang up and in an instant had scrambled onto my head. His toes tapped the wall of the cave like a swallow skimming the water, and he alighted steadily on my head, grasping the hemp rope with one hand. This feat was quite reminiscent of Yanzi Li San, the legendary acrobat.

  "This rope is a modern product and was added later." Koinosuke said immediately after touching the hemp rope.

  "Could it be Xiao Riben?" I asked, actually there was also a possibility that it was Cai Tuo who carved words on the golden brick.

  "You ask me, who do I ask?" Guǐ Yè Jiāo resumed his usual ugly face, grabbing the hemp rope and climbing up. The insects were concentrated at the top of the tunnel to the sky, but due to the intense light, we couldn't see the specific situation there clearly. However, it's very likely that there is an exit leading outside. In fact, the main thing is that we simply have no other choice.

  I gritted my teeth and followed Guǐ Yèxiā, fortunately my rope climbing skills were still up to par.

  "Huh, what's this..." After a difficult climb of over ten meters, Oni no Ya suddenly stopped and discovered a strange phenomenon. He pointed in shock at a place in the horizontal direction, I followed his gaze and my pupils shrunk instantly, only to see a half-meter diameter hemispherical small hole suddenly appear on the gold wall.

  Inside the small cave, a deformed conjoined infant mummy sat there, baring its teeth and claws, with eyes that had shriveled up like dry wood staring roundly, their sockets deeply sunken, looking very eerie.

  This sudden discovery made me feel a chill in my heart. At this time, the ghostly figure whistled at me and said, "There's more upstairs."

  I looked up carefully and found that the entire passageway was layered upwards, with a small horizontal hole opened on each layer. If nothing unexpected happens, wouldn't it mean that there are a large number of bizarre connected infant mummies placed here?

  "Pyramid, mausoleum...... Could it be said......" The oni's eyes flickered with uncertainty as he spoke in a low, hesitant tone: "The area below the pyramid is a sealed forbidden land, while above... lies a graveyard for suppression?"