Chapter 5: The Maze of Mausoleums (Part 2)

  It had been an unknown amount of time since Xiaoyan woke up from the darkness, and she didn't know whether to be grateful that Fang Shengye used a tranquilizer gun or annoyed about how to get out of her dumpling-like state.

  Yes, zongzi status.

  Literally.

  Xia Yifei's first action after waking up was to touch the wound area that still ached from the anesthetic injection. Heaven knows how Fang Chenye dragged her here, originally she only had some dirt on her body, now she is covered in scratches and scrapes, her right calf probably lost a big piece of skin, burning with pain.

  Then she found herself tightly bound by a hemp rope, because the other party's wicked sense of humor had tied a big bow at her neck.

  Xia Yanfei couldn't help but click her tongue, slightly moving the numb and stiff joints that had been bound for a long time before starting to study how to escape from the complex rope.

  She had been forcibly trained in this skill by her old man when she was a kid, and during that time, her mother would scream every day from the moment she opened the door until she got used to seeing her being tied up in various ways. Thinking of this, she couldn't help but laugh out loud, but her movements didn't slow down or stop because of the memories of the past.

  While paying attention to the relatively quiet but eerie environment for any unusual sounds, Xia Yun struggled with the rope, slowing down her speed. However, it wasn't long before she successfully freed her legs. After recovering a bit of energy, she began to challenge herself to regain freedom for her hands. During the struggle, she even had the leisure to think that fortunately, Fang Chenye used hemp ropes instead of plastic zip ties; otherwise, the short knife hidden in her sleeve wouldn't have been able to cut through the binding device.

  After taking a break halfway, Xiaoyan's hands were finally free. She irritably untied the annoying bow tie at her neck and wanted to throw away the hemp rope. But after thinking about it, she decided to tidy up the rope and hang it on her waist in case of an emergency since all the equipment on her back was lost.

  After stiffening her body and hearing the joints creak like rusty pipes, she sat down on the ground to check what was left on her. The backpack on her back and the weapon at her waist were taken away, which was an expected thing, fortunately Fang Chenyu seemed to have some decency and did not conduct an inhumane search on her, which directly led to the two short knives hidden in her sleeves and the spring knife pistol in her boots escaping disaster.

  Xia Yanyi sighed, even if it was like this, without food and water, how long she could hold on was an unknown number. Drinking blood to quench thirst, a method often used in novels, was obviously unreliable in reality. Blood not only had no effect on quenching thirst but would also make her weak due to blood loss, it was simply a harmful method with no benefits.

  After patting her cheek to make herself more awake, she stood up and decided to find the scattered Lan Ruoxue and Fang Ying as soon as possible. She couldn't determine whether the two were also tied up by Fang Chenhao and thrown somewhere or forced to act together, or even worse...Fang Chenhao used real bullets on them.

  What is Fang Chenye's true purpose after all, and how can he determine that this is the place he wants to find?

  These two questions had been lingering in Xiaoyan's mind since she woke up.

  But the most important question is... why did Fang Chenye say that when it's time for him to take action, what role does he have that's worth bringing himself all the way here?

  Xia Yanfei took out a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and once again felt that Fang Chenye's decision not to search herself was correct and wise. After tearing open the cellophane wrapper, she found a small flashlight inside the cigarette box. She wrapped it around her wrist and turned it on, finally illuminating the darkness that seemed to have been eternal here.

  When she swept the floor, she couldn't help but take a step back.

  How can there be so many snakes?!

  The structure of the small tomb where she was located made people feel extremely incredible - where she stood was a circular platform with a diameter of about two meters, and the surrounding area was deeply recessed like a moat around the central platform, and the recessed space inside was actually filled with slippery snakes!

  Xia Yifei had a strange habit, she was not afraid of anything in the world, but she was afraid of sticky and soft creatures, such as snakes, loaches, and eels. When she was young, when she saw people taking pictures with pythons at the zoo, she would hold her brother's clothes tightly and wouldn't let go. When she saw her own energetic old grandfather using loaches to drink wine, no matter what big things were happening, she would find an excuse to leave until he finished eating before coming back.

  She instinctively turned around and wanted to run, but unfortunately found that she was firmly trapped in the middle of a "moat" filled with snakes, with her activity range limited to this high platform. It is unknown what method was used on both sides of the high platform and the sunken ditch, so that these snakes stayed in their own space without crossing the thunder pool.

  While rebelling against her brain's faithful signals that made her vomit, she ignored an important question - how did these snakes survive.

  After calming down a bit, Xiaoyan began to think about how to get through this ravine. If the grappling hook in her equipment bag was still there, it wouldn't be a difficult task. But now she only had a hemp rope and a small knife on hand. No matter what, Xiaoyan was just a girl, and she didn't have enough strength to throw the small knife at the bluestone bricks and ensure that it could support her own weight.

  She didn't want to climb up the rope and have the knife pulled out, only to free fall into a pile of snakes and be overwhelmed. Although she estimated that there were many venomous snakes inside, even if they didn't kill her with their venom, she would still die from being nauseated by the slippery group of snakes.

  "It's hopeless," Xiaoyan muttered to herself, turning off the flashlight. "I'm down to my last trick... luckily that little brat Fang didn't manage to get this knife away from me..."

  She crouched down and pulled out a peculiar-looking spring knife from the interlayer of her boots, licked her lips, and quickly and accurately cut a small wound on the tip of her right middle finger. Strangely, although the cut was not very deep, blood slowly flowed out, unlike normal cases where only a thin layer of blood would ooze out.

  If it weren't so dark here, there's another strange thing worth noting. The blood flowing from Xiaoyan's fingertips is abnormally bright red, the color is too red and too gorgeous, just like the color of a peony that has just bloomed.

  Xia Yanfei drew a strange pattern on the ground as if she didn't want to waste her own blood, which seemed to be a deformed yin-yang bagua when looked at carefully. As her fingers moved, the snakes seemed to have been stimulated by something and started to move, some even climbed up the wall, but were blocked by an invisible barrier and fell back into the ditch.

  Xia Yanfei finished the last stroke, licked her still bleeding fingers, put away the spring knife, and placed her right hand, which was still bleeding, in the center of the pattern painted with fresh blood. Her middle finger tip perfectly filled in the blank space she had just left. She then began to chant a passage of text that seemed to have been extinguished by time, using an eerie tone.

  As she recited it, the pattern actually gradually emitted a warm white light. The white jade pendant around her neck also seemed to sense something and became warm.

  When Xiaoyan finished reading the last word, a white light almost enveloped the entire tomb, and the snakes reached their peak, with most of them even starting to collide with that invisible barrier.

  At this moment, a low male voice with a smile echoed in the tomb, and the voice accompanied by a large echo was frightening: "Oh, so many years have passed, and there are still people who can use the Lingqi Forbidden Technique. It really opened my eyes."