Chapter 62: The Mysterious Stone Seam

  Under the stone stage, the underground water flows slowly from north to south, but beneath its calm surface lies a hidden undercurrent. My recent near-drowning experience makes me shudder at the sight of it.

  I shifted back a bit, looked up at both ends of the river, and couldn't see where it started or ended. The water's two heads were all a vast expanse of white mist.

  At this moment, I really have a feeling of being reborn from the ashes. My legs are still trembling unconsciously. I looked at Tie Yi and found that he was acting as if nothing had happened, calmly organizing his backpack.

  It's as if the life-and-death experience just now had nothing to do with him at all. I looked at him curiously, wondering if this guy was slow-witted or what?

  As I was shaking off the water from my clothes, which had just been soaked in the torrential downpour and were now gradually drying off, I was sneezing while quickly putting on my clothes. At this moment, the water flow at the breach suddenly started to swirl violently downwards, and a loud rumbling sound came from the water.

  The entire space shook, and I guessed that the coal wall of the underground coal mining face had been breached. Looking at the clear groundwater in front of me, it was likely that it had already become a paradise for the ferro-ant, and if the ferro-ants surrounding the coal wall outside had not retreated, then the underground river in front of me was now a deadly river filled with strong acid.

  I stood on the stone pedestal, which was located on the west side of the underground river that flowed from north to south. At this moment, the water flowing under the pedestal had probably been corroded by the acid of the golden centipede. The rocky bodies on both sides of the pedestal were smooth as mirrors, emitting a white glow, and I was lamenting that it was another dead end.

  "Cui Ming, come quick and see, there's a stone seam here! I don't know where it leads to!" Upon hearing Tie Yi's words, I suddenly felt a surge of excitement, like the thrill of being reborn in a desperate situation.

  I hastened my pace and rushed to Iron Clothes' side.

  As expected, we were busy admiring the view and drying our clothes, probably due to the angle of refraction from the glowing rock face. If we hadn't gone forward to take a closer look, we wouldn't have noticed this crack in the stone at all!

  The stone seam in front of me is about 1.6 or 1.7 meters high and just wide enough to accommodate a slightly chubby person.

  I analyzed the situation in front of me, if I say that the white light on this rock is due to part of the rock body being close to the ground causing light storage refraction, then adding my previous observation, perhaps this stone seam is a lifeline, and there's wind and light means that it's not far from the ground.

  "How about it? Want to give it a try?" asked Tie Yi, looking at me inquiringly.

  I looked at Tie Yi and said: "Is there any other choice besides waiting for death? Do you still need to ask such a simple question? Of course, we have to go in!"

  Tieyi smiled and pulled out some military biscuits, canned carp, and two bottles of mineral water from his backpack. I was also amazed by the treasure chest-like luggage!

  Did this guy have a premonition? Did he know that the journey would be fraught with difficulties? If not, why did he bring food like it was a spring outing picnic? I looked in the bag and aside from chocolate bars, there didn't seem to be any other food.

  "It's not bad to have this iron lump by my side." As I thought about it, I didn't hesitate and picked up the crackers and opened a can of food to eat. At this time, food could stabilize my mood, maintain physical energy, and keep me full of fighting spirit!

  We sat on the stone platform before entering the rock crevice, eating and admiring the rare underground scenery. To be honest, the white bright rocks and clear ice water, with stalactites above our heads, had a unique charm when examined closely!

  Unfortunately, we don't have the mood for appreciating the view and expressing our emotions now!

  After a hearty meal and drink, Tieyi quickly packed up his luggage, while I stood leaning against the rock, gazing far into the distance, with a rather heroic and stirring feeling.

  "Ready! How about you?" Tieyi said, shouldering his backpack and looking at me.

  I nodded and said, "Let's go!"

  After unifying our opinions, Tieyi took the lead and walked into the stone crevice first. Fortunately, both of us are slender, if it were a fat person, they could only starve for ten days or half a month outside the cave to lose weight before considering entering the cave. It seems that maintaining a good figure has many benefits! Not only is it handsome, but also lifesaving!

  Tieyi leads the way in front, and we follow closely behind him, hugging the rock wall as we enter.

  When this hand touches the rock, a cool and refreshing feeling is very comfortable. The ground is also this pure white rock, walking on it is a bit slippery, so the speed of progress is not very fast.

  As the saying goes, since we're here, let's make ourselves at home. At this moment, I'm no longer as fearful as before. Following Tie Yi's footsteps, I slowly move forward. The height of the cave is only 1.6 or 1.7 meters, and for us two 1.8-meter-tall men, we have to lower our heads to proceed, feeling very cramped.

  And this width is sometimes wide and sometimes narrow, we need to squeeze through from time to time, but fortunately there are no traps or hidden weapons, walking is quite pleasant!

  We walked in a line for about an hour or so, because the terrain may have stopped due to magnetic field reasons. This time is completely estimated based on my usual pace, and I have some mild obsessive-compulsive disorder, so I'm relatively sensitive to this time.

  During this time, I felt that my body had finally returned to its normal temperature and was much more comfortable. Even a slight sweat had begun to seep out of my pores.

  I leaned against the wall and shouted: "Tie Tui, this road seems to have no end, let's rest for a while before continuing", Tie Yi stopped in her tracks, without saying a word.

  I was about to take out my water bottle, with my hand on the rock wall, when suddenly something scratched my index finger and a drop of blood appeared on the rock. I muttered to myself as I took out a band-aid, just as I was opening the package.

  A strange scene occurred.

  I suddenly saw the entire rock wall, after coming into contact with a drop of my index finger, instantly had a red line that flew and swam on both sides of the rock wall, outlining a series of neatly arranged pictures.

  Tie Yi stared at me in shock, "Cui Ming, what have you just done? What is this red thing?"

  I shook my head in confusion! Indicating complete ignorance, I put on an expression that had nothing to do with me.

  Just as we were wondering, the blood-painted scene gradually disappeared into the distance.

  I walked forward slowly with Tie Yi, looking at those pictures that appeared out of thin air.

  On the first picture on the left, there is a treasure sword and many swimming fish. It's completely incomprehensible what the painting is about, but below it is a line of small words that read: Vast heaven and earth, unknown where to stop, sun and moon circulating, cycling back and forth.

  The second picture on the opposite side depicts a small figure similar to Nezha holding two fireballs with the words "day" and "month", below which are the words "accumulated achievements, unknown in number, one fruit, one benevolence, new and old".

  As I read the words above, I always feel very familiar, as if I had heard them somewhere before.

  Tieyi was holding a three-proof camera and taking pictures of the patterns on the rock.

  Suddenly I remembered that my ancestors in the underworld had mentioned it to me before, this should be the original version of "Tui Bei Tu", no doubt it is "Tui Bei Tu".

  Looking at the blood-stained finger after suddenly appearing "Tui Bei Tu", I called out to Tie Yi, "This is the content of 'Tui Bei Tu', the original version of Tui Bei Tu. My ancestors once mentioned it to me. The existing Tui Bei Tu in the world was modified by the monarchs of successive dynasties after the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and this is the most original version."

  I remember my ancestors saying that the Tui Bei Tu has sixty pictures, with each picture named after one of the sixty Jia Zi and a corresponding hexagram. Each picture has a riddle written below it, and this sixty-first picture is the key to unlocking the curse of the Ten Thousand Souls.

  At that time, Li Chunfeng's reason for deducing this push-back diagram was to unravel the curse of the Cui family's ten thousand souls.

  I excitedly shouted at Tie Yi: "Let's see how many pictures are in this painting!"

  With a goal in mind, our pace picked up noticeably. I counted them and there were exactly thirty paintings, adding up to sixty. As for the location of the sixty-first painting, there was only an empty frame.

  This discovery makes me very disappointed!

  I thought that perhaps through this sixty-first rubbing, I could find a clue to lift the curse of the Ten Souls. But there was nothing. Just as I sighed, Tieyi, who had been looking at photos in the camera, casually touched the position of the sixty-first picture and suddenly disappeared without a trace.

  I stared at the iron clothes that were just in front of me, and with a "whoosh", they suddenly disappeared. I was so shocked that my mouth dropped open and couldn't close. The iron clothes seemed to have vanished into thin air. With curiosity and trepidation, I stood in the spot where the iron clothes had been.

  As I hesitated whether to wait for Tie Yi's return or follow his footsteps, a voice came from the stone wall in front of me. "Cui Ming, come on in. The reason you see this stone wall is probably due to light refraction." I slowly moved my feet forward, first stretching out my hand, and indeed, the seemingly hard-as-steel stone wall felt like air without any tactile sensation. I put my mind at ease, closed my eyes, and then walked through the wall.

  As I passed through the rock, when I opened my eyes, I found that the world in front of me was completely different from the one before entering the wall.

  The stone seam passage, which was still as bright as daylight just now, suddenly turned pitch black in an instant. The fluorescent quartz rocks that were emitting light around me had disappeared, replaced by a kind of black rock body that I had never seen before. From the perspective of a coal mine technician, I tried my best to search through my memory and confirmed that I had never seen anything like this before.

  Following the light of the wolf-toothed flashlight on the iron clothes, I saw the iron clothes in front of me not far away.

  The light emitted by the quartz stones behind me seemed to be cut off by that intangible wall, and I couldn't see a single ray of light. It was as if one step away was the difference between day and night, leaving me bewildered.

  But after all the strange experiences, I no longer dwell on the problems in front of me. We just walk forward step by step, on this road that leads to who-knows-where.

  I don't know how long it took, but I vaguely felt a heavy sound, like the feeling of slowly closing a very heavy door. The iron clothes stopped moving at the same time as the sound appeared, and I didn't unexpectedly bump into the iron clothes again. With my back against Tie Yi's, I looked around with the wolf teeth in my hand and found that this sound should be coming from the rock walls on both sides.

  At this time, we found that the walls on both sides were slowly approaching each other. Although the speed was extremely slow, it was indeed getting closer. This discovery made me break out in a cold sweat. "Damn, Tie Yi, did you see that? The rock wall is slowly closing in. If it continues like this, the two of us will definitely be squeezed into human pancakes."

  I quickly turned back, wanting to return the way I came, but bumped my head on the rock face. The rock that had seemed like air just a moment before had suddenly become solid stone. I touched the bump on my head and thought, "This is not good!"