Chapter Twenty-Three Waterfall

  Ma Si Zhe recalled the time he and his uncle went to the grave, and found that it had a very similar situation with our current encounter. We sorted out the various situations we encountered before, and were surprised to find that they all had a wonderful connection between them.

  Actually, I've had this feeling all along, from the moment we saw the glowing skull, it started to have something to do with Yunnan Province. Later on, everything pointed towards the Hani people. The whole thing got more and more confusing, and the two of us began to lose our way.

  What should I do next? Now I don't know where to go or what to do.

  Ma Si Zhe scratched his head and helplessly said 'Let's take it one step at a time'

  The problem is we don't know which way to go at all.

  Ma Si Zhe suddenly thought of something and pulled me over, rummaging through my bag.

  "What are you looking for?" I looked back, but from this angle, nothing could be seen. After trying hard for half a day, I had to give up. It wasn't until Ma Si Zhe took something out of my bag.

  I took a look and it was my laptop.

  "What are you doing with that?" I turned around to face him. "Help me zip this up." Marx didn't respond, too busy flipping through his notes.

  "Where's the map?" he said anxiously.

  "What map?" I had no choice but to bring my backpack forward and put it on myself.

  The map behind the murals in the White Bone Cave

  I just remembered that we copied the map on the wall in the White Bone Cave before. I flipped through my notes to that page. 'You don't think this is a map of the tomb, do you?'

  Ma Si Zhe looked at it for a while, suddenly enlightened "You didn't say you felt this picture was very familiar, take another look, where is this?" Ma Si Zhe handed the note to me, I looked at the note carefully. Thought for a long time, still couldn't think of where this was, but what's with this inexplicable sense of familiarity?

  "This is the map of your village!"

  Ma Si Zhe finished speaking, and I suddenly realized that the direction of this line, it was clearly the road in the village. Wide and narrow, not one less. There is actually a map of the village in this tomb, which really makes people scratch their heads.

  Several points are marked on the map, directly below, directly in the center, and at the lower left corner. The point marked directly below is larger than the others, making it exceptionally conspicuous, as if to draw special attention.

  "Will there be something special here?" I asked Marx Zhe pointing at that point.

  Can't use this as a standard, what if your hand shakes while drawing, won't it be bigger than other places?

  I glared at Ma Si Zhe with a wicked smile, and Ma Si Zhe cautiously retreated backwards. 'What's wrong? Did that mosquito bite you too?'

  I didn't say a word, just smiled and watched him. Marx was quite frightened, but I suddenly pulled out the camera from my bag.

  You finally got served with your own medicine, and I happened to have my camera with me this time. Sweet revenge, feels so relieving.

  The camera opened, and the photos were flipped one by one to the front. After flipping for a long time, I finally found the mural there. Ma Si Zhe said impatiently, "You really want to hold a photography exhibition, taking so many pictures."

  Finally found what we wanted, I slowly enlarged the photo. Below the map on the mural, there was indeed a red dot bigger than all the others.

  It seems we didn't copy it wrongly, this place is really different from other places.

  "This is not only a map of the village, but also a map of this tomb." Marx Zhe stared at the photo for a long time before saying this. I looked at him in confusion as he pointed out place after place on the map to me.

  "Look at this map, from the starting point, there are small dots at intervals, possibly due to being in a hurry when copying, and only three large dots on the notes were left."

  I watched and nodded, indeed, after enlarging the photo, it was possible to see that many places on the photo had been marked.

  Ma Si Zhe continued, 'Look at the direction of these points, it's exactly the same as when we came down. Mao Er Shan is to the north of the village, so our entrance should be here.' Ma Si Zhe pointed to the top right of the map.

  From the photo, it can be seen that there is a mark not far from the entrance of the cave. Further ahead, there is another one. Behind the two small marks, there is an obvious annotation, which is the part you highlighted in your notes. If we connect this with our route, these three places should refer to the Night Glow Skull, White Bone Cave and Tongtian Hall.

  What Ma Si Zhe said made perfect sense, and it sounded very reasonable. I followed the direction of these three points and found that they coincided with the location of the main road in the village, a surprising match.

  The structure in the tomb was actually built according to the village on the ground! This discovery shocked me.

  "No matter what the reason is for designing it this way, this undoubtedly points out a clear path to us. I took a look at this path and saw countless marked points behind it, making my head ache. If this is real, then every single point on it could be fatal."

  'So we'll just keep going along this map from now on, no other choice?'

  "We should at least know what we want to do" Ma Si Zhe looked at me, and facing this reason, I really couldn't say a word.

  I don't know what we're supposed to do, there's no direction at all. Everything that has happened since we got here is not what I expected. At this point, it can only be said as Marx did, take it one step at a time.

  "Now our only way out is to keep moving forward and see what's at the end. I wonder what kind of story these clues we've found can be linked together to form." I could only nod in agreement.

  Ma Si Zhe turned off the camera and put it in my backpack. Then patted my back 'Let's go'

  I followed behind Ma Si Zhe and continued walking forward.

  There is no scale on the map, and it's hard to estimate how far away the next marked point is. It feels like watching a disaster movie, you know those people are all going to die in the end, but you don't know who will be next.

  "What do you think Uncle Cheng and the others are hiding from us?" I supported myself on the winding path along both sides of the tomb, which was not as flat as before. The ground under my feet was full of stones, making it very difficult to walk.

  "Maybe he and Huo Ying are husband and wife, then Jiang Liu is their child," Ma Si Zhe said calmly.

  "Then their reason for coming here wouldn't be because the marriage certificate was pressed under the hat mountain, would it?"

  "He nodded in agreement."

  "Can you say something serious for once?"

  Ma Si Zhe corrected his tone and said, 'I think Cheng Shu and Huo Ying must know about the existence of that map, and they've discovered something we haven't noticed yet.'

  "So the box Hawking finally got was the key"

  Ma Si Zhe nodded 'En, so we have to find them first, this is one way, they must be in front of us'

  Ma Si Zhe and I quickened our pace, walking in silence all the way.

  I walked for about half an hour, but I still didn't see any sign of Uncle Cheng and the others. Even if they were walking very fast, they should have left some marks behind, but I didn't see any trace of them having passed by. It couldn't help but feel a bit strange.

  The echo in the tomb passage is very loud, and even a slight sniff of my nose can float around for a while. After walking for so long, I still don't feel where this tomb passage leads to. In front of me, it's pitch black, and I still can't see the end.

  As I walked, I heard a very faint sound of water flowing. It sounded like someone was flowing through the pipe, very weak and continuous. I listened quietly, and Marx saw that I had stopped, so he turned back to shout at me.

  What's going on?

  I put my index finger on my mouth, signaling him to be quiet, and Ma Si Zhe listened quietly.

  "What's with the sound of water?"

  The direction of the sound should be above our heads. Flowing slowly by.

  "This can't be a reservoir, can it?" I asked

  "No, we've walked for so long and should have been far away from the reservoir by now. Besides, a reservoir is stagnant water, how can there be any flowing sounds?"

  The two of us were still listening to the source of the water flow when suddenly under our feet it was like a pipe had burst, and a column of water shot up.

  "My god, is there even a drainage pipe in this tomb?" Ma Si Zhe said in shock as he looked at the water flowing out from underground. But what came next was beyond his imagination. Suddenly, it was as if someone had dug a huge hole above the tomb passage, and a massive pillar of water, several times thicker than a person, poured down from the sky and flooded into the tomb passage instantly.

  With this momentum, it's only a matter of time before the tomb passage is flooded. Ma Si and I lost our footing and were swept away by the rushing water in an instant. Ma Si was heavily knocked against the edge of the tomb passage, and I was also knocked down by the rapid current. Everything happened too suddenly, we didn't even have time to react, and before we could get up, we were already being carried forward by the water.

  The water level rose higher and higher, I couldn't touch the bottom at all, so I had to float up and down with the flow of the water. I was washed by the water and couldn't open my eyes, my mouth and nose were filled with a lot of water. This water also had a faintly sour smell, which made me want to vomit.

  Ma Si Zhe is much more miserable than me, this guy is just a duck that can't swim. Although he chose swimming as his university sports elective, he never learned how to do it. Every time I tease him, he says he's destined to be at odds with water. At least I can still struggle a bit, but Ma Si Zhe only has the fate of being drowned.

  I don't know how far I've been dragged, but I started to feel a bit stuck behind me. Occasionally, I could scrape something off. I hastily used my hand to grab it, but it was too slippery and couldn't be grasped at all.

  I suddenly felt a void in my back, and I was free-falling downwards. It turned out to be a waterfall, with water rushing down from my body. I heard the huge sound of hitting the ground, and I was so scared that I almost cried. In the chaos, I grabbed onto a rock at the entrance of the cave. I could clearly feel that the rock wouldn't hold for much longer, and my body was slowly sliding downwards. But my hands didn't loosen their grip, and the joints in my hands had already turned white from exertion. I imagined the current height, and falling would either be fatal or crippling, so I strengthened my grip even more.

  At this time, a huge object floated over. Ma Si Zhe!

  Ma Si Zhe was washed down from above and crashed into my body with great force. I was hit by Ma Si Zhe so hard that I couldn't exert any strength in my hands, and immediately rushed down.