Chapter 9 Ancient Carvings

  I lifted my head to find that everyone was staring at me with a puzzled expression, so I continued to explain: "Actually, when the maze was first built, the architect must have planned out the location of the entrance and exit, and drawn up blueprints before starting construction. This means that during the construction process, they worked in two directions, but no matter how they constructed it, they had to follow one premise: there is only one exit. If they were going to follow this premise, they would have to first build the road from the entrance to the exit, of course without any traps at the time. Then, they could set up other deadly trap-filled detours, and finally, design ordinary traps on the exit route."

  Several people listened with a mixture of understanding and confusion, no one dared to interrupt me. I cleared my throat and continued: "Actually, it's very simple. They first repaired the entrance and exit, then they entered from the exit and built other parts with mechanisms. They were building in reverse."

  Su Wei listened for half a day and said: "After talking for half a day, can we get out of here?"

  I nodded and said: "I'll recalculate, but if I walk from the exit to the entrance, it will be slower. However, with a direction, at least I shouldn't make any mistakes."

  The old man said: "Come on, you are our hope."

  I gave him an OK gesture and continued to calculate. Su Yi was obviously very interested, enthusiastically watching me do the calculation on the side, while Wu Feng, Wen Long, and Lao Yezi went to play cards on the other side, I felt like I had entered a wonderful world, without any spare energy to care about others' business.

  This calculation took a very long time, and I didn't even notice that it was already lunchtime. Later, when Su Yu said they had called me to eat, I was like a demon, completely unaware of anything else. At the time, I was fully immersed in my own world. To be honest, this maze, which I had solved incorrectly once at the age of ten, and occasionally thought about again, but always got wrong, made me feel very frustrated. Now, I have discovered that something I previously thought impossible has actually appeared before me, and I have finally found the answer to so many years of thinking. This sense of accomplishment makes me feel extremely excited, so excited that I forgot that I am currently trapped in this Hundred Eyes Heavenly Formation.

  I don't know how long it took, but I finally put down the pen in my hand with satisfaction. Su Yi's voice came: "Have a drink, you've gone without eating or drinking for six hours."

  I went, I almost fainted on the ground. Just now it was a momentary excitement that supported my continuous calculation. Now as soon as I stopped, hunger, thirst, dizziness and all sorts of feelings came back to me at once. I took over the compressed dry food and water handed over by Su Yi, chewing mouthful by mouthful, while thinking about the result of the previous calculation.

  "What's on your mind?"

  I said: "A very interesting situation occurred during my calculation."

  Su Yi said: "What's going on? Is it a good situation or a bad one?"

  I said, "It's hard to say, but during the calculation process, I found that in this underground maze, the space above is a prism shape, with the middle layer being the largest. It should be a place for storing something or a control room for mechanisms. What exactly exists there, I'm very interested."

  Old man, Wu Feng and Wen Long also walked over. Wen Long said: "How is it? No problem now, right? Can leave."

  I nodded and said: "It's found, but there must be a mechanism inside. Let's try using the backpack first to be on the safe side."

  A few people quickly gathered their things, then filled another backpack and tied it up again. They threw it into the hole I specified. "Clang" - we quickly pulled back the backpack, and the mechanism started again. This time, the mechanism was not as thrilling, but it also gave us a big headache, because countless sharp arrows shot towards the position of the previous backpack. The sound of "whooshing" didn't stop for about half a minute.

  Wu Feng looked at me and said: "This is called a non-lethal device."

  I was also stunned, logically speaking, this time should not have any problems, but I did not expect that these ancient people simply did not want to let people out of this cave. They designed all the mechanisms at the entrance of the cave into dead ends.

  "It seems to be different from the one just now."

  Wu Feng said: "How is it different, being cut into pieces by the Dry Sky Circle or shot to death by random arrows? Maybe the Dry Sky Circle is even quicker. If these arrows don't hit your vitals, you'll just wait for your blood to run out."

  Su Yi said at this time: "With this density, I estimate that there's no need to consider whether to harm or not, it's 100% porcupine."

  I scratched my head, and I really didn't know what to do. But Wen Long said: "Haven't you guys noticed that these arrows look fierce, but not one of them hit the backpack? What does this mean?"

  I didn't quite understand, so I asked: "What does it mean?"

  Wen Long said: "It's clear that these arrows are blunt, that is, they have rounded arrowheads and can't penetrate the body at all." As he spoke, he shone his flashlight on them. We looked closely and indeed found that these arrows were all round-headed.

  I couldn't help but let out a deep breath. At least I proved that I was right after all. This was when Wen Long suddenly said loudly, "No way, this is also a repetitive mechanism."

  We looked together in the direction he shone his flashlight and indeed found that those arrows flew back to where they came from, I don't know what principle it is.

  The old man, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up: "The road is right, but can we hold on if we go through like this?" The old man's physical strength was already average, and if he let the arrow strike him a few more times, his bones would probably break.

  We looked at Wen Long together, he should be a specialist in this area. But Wen Long looked at me and said: "Have you calculated it? How long is this passage?"

  I forced a smile and said, "Judging from the speed and time it took for us to come down, we're at least 500-600 meters below now. The height of this space is about 4 meters, so nine floors would be around 36 meters. Assuming there's still 500 meters left, divided into eight segments, each segment would have a straight-line distance of approximately 62.5 meters. Adding the spiral path upwards, I estimate it should be at least ten times the original distance. That means we need to cover at least around 700 meters."

  "My goodness." Su Yi sighed: "Seven hundred meters, this...this is no longer a living target?"

  Wen Long smiled and said: "It's not that there is no way at all, but we need very close cooperation."

  "How can we cooperate?" We couldn't help but ask.

  Wen Long said: "March in step."

  It wasn't until we actually did it that I realized what Wen Long meant by "齐步走" (aligned walking). We first reorganized our backpacks, putting the hard objects on the outside. This could block incoming blunt arrows. Then we lined up in a row with Wen Long at the front, wearing a combat vest that could block some blunt arrows. He also took out a folding shovel and used it as a handheld shield to deflect arrows, while holding a hand-crank flashlight in his other hand. Since we didn't need strong light, we all used this type of flashlight for illumination, which made the lighting time longer. I was behind him, Su Yi was behind me, then Lao Yezi, and finally Wu Feng at the back. We held our backpacks horizontally, two on each side, mainly to protect our heads and faces.

  "Remember, no matter what happens, you must follow my orders and act accordingly. I'll say 'one' for the left foot and 'two' for the right foot. Stop, and we'll all stop together. You must hold onto your backpacks tightly, absolutely cannot drop them. This is the only way to ensure that we can withstand as many blunt arrows as possible."

  Su Wei apparently had no confidence and said: "Let's practice first."

  Wen Long nodded, we raised our backpacks, listened to the command, and circled around the entrance of the cave. After practicing for a while, everyone felt more familiar with it. Wen Long said firmly, "Enter the cave."

  We didn't speak, our nerves were tense, and we tightly grasped our backpacks. I closely followed Wen Long's back, advancing slowly with his "one-two, one-two" voice. The surroundings gradually turned black, and it was clear that I had entered the cave entrance. After walking about ten or twenty meters, I heard a "click" sound, and I immediately became tense. Su Yi behind me seemed to be in the same situation, and I felt her pulling her backpack towards her with force. A "whooshing" sound came, and indeed, those blunt arrows flew out. I heard the "ding-ding-dang-dang" sound of hitting the hand shield and combat vest in front, accompanied by a "puff-puff" sound.

  Wen Long showed his tough side, shouting "one, two" without a hint of trembling. We moved forward with difficulty, following him. Occasionally, an arrow would pierce through the gap in our backpacks and hit us, causing pain each time. Despite this, we could only endure it under these circumstances. We advanced for about a minute, feeling that there were no more arrows being shot at us. Unconsciously, we all let out a sigh of relief and put down our backpacks.

  Wen Long felt the situation behind him and let out a loud roar, "Don't slack off. Advance in this state. Who knows what's ahead."

  We had no choice but to persevere, Wen Long's commands became slightly faster, and we followed suit by increasing our speed. This stretch of distance didn't have any mechanisms, so we walked for about six or seven minutes before Wen Long suddenly shouted "Halt."

  Everyone stopped and looked at Wen Long in confusion. Wen Long said, "I've already seen a bright light ahead, it should be emitted by that plant, we're almost at the entrance of the cave."

  "Finally arrived, let's hurry up!"

  Wen Long shook his head and said: "The closer to the end, the more careful you should be. This is human psychology. In my previous battles, the more I felt I was winning, the more cautious I became."

  The old man said: "What you said is right, what can we do?"

  "Wen Long said: 'Put your backpacks in front of you, squat down. If there's any situation, hide behind the backpacks and I'll go forward to explore first. If everything is fine, then you can come over.'"

  The old man said: "Be careful."

  Wen Long put away his phone and took out a combat shovel from his backpack, which turned into two shields. With the help of the faint light, we saw Wen Long crouching down, carefully moving forward. Every time he advanced a certain distance, he would let us follow him to his position, wait until we were all hidden well, then continue to move forward. This way, they moved forward until they were about 50 meters away from the entrance of the cave.

  Suddenly a crisp "click" sound entered our ears. Indeed, there is a mechanism, I thought secretly in my heart. With a "whoosh", a flash of light shot towards Wen Long. Wen Long's reaction was quick, and he swiftly used his left hand's shield to deflect the flash at an angle, "clang", the flash landed on the ground along with the shield.

  Wu Feng's eyesight was quite good, he took a glance and said loudly: "It's a real arrow, with an arrowhead."

  Wen Long advanced another dozen meters, triggering the mechanism again. Two sharp arrows shot towards him. Wen Long dodged to the left and right, knocking down the arrows before sprinting towards the entrance of the cave while shouting loudly: "Run forward!"

  We immediately grabbed our backpacks and ran forward at the fastest speed. As I was running, I saw Wen Long blocking several sharp arrows with his left and right hands, and he had already walked out of the cave entrance smoothly. We were still about ten or twenty meters away from the entrance. Suddenly, I felt like I stepped on something, and a sharp arrow flew straight towards my face. Instinctively, I raised the backpack in my hand and ducked my head. "Plop" The arrow pierced through the backpack but was blocked by it for a moment, changing its direction and speed, almost grazing my cheek as it shot past me. In my heart, I thanked the skilled workers who made our backpacks. Fortunately, they didn't skimp on materials.

  Although I was frightened out of my wits, we also successfully rushed out of the cave entrance. This is a larger space now. I found that all the glowing plants here are concentrated on the top of our heads and formed ten circles, but there is not one on the surrounding walls. On the surrounding walls, in addition to the eight holes, there are also many carvings. What delights me even more is that in the center of this space, there is actually a small pool, although it's only a two-meter-square small pool, but it still surprises people. Having water is always a good thing.

  Wen Long looked at me and said: "Which hole should we go down next?"

  I took out the compass, adjusted it a bit, and then pointed it at one of the entrances. Wen Long said: "Okay, let's go!"

  "Wait," the old man interrupted, "the carvings here should be of great research value. We'll rest here today. I want to study them carefully. Su Yi, Wu Feng, come with me." He didn't wait for our response and led Su Yi and Wu Feng towards one direction of the carvings.

  Wen Long shrugged and said, "What can you do? He's the commander-in-chief."

  I also helplessly shook my head and said, "Then let's rest." I sat on the ground, picked up the water bottle and "gulp gulp gulp" drank several mouthfuls, happily saying, "Having water is always a blessing."

  "Okay, I'll go boil some water," said Wen Long with a smile.

  "Come quickly." I was just about to lie down comfortably when Su Feng waved at me and said, "The things here are too unbelievable."

  Helpless, I dragged my tired body towards her, and at the same time, my eyes were slowly drawn to that sculpture. The sculptor must have been a master, as he used lines of varying thickness and depth to bring out the three-dimensional feel. Of course, what attracted me was not just the sculptor's technique, but the content itself.