Chapter 25: Advance Without Retreat

  After searching for a long time, we found a huge rattan pole. I was the first to climb up onto the rope with force, grasping it tightly with both hands and clamping my feet firmly on the well-tied knot.

  "Big Brother Da Bao, you have the strength to push me over first, and after I've passed, you all come over. I'll go ahead and tie a rope under the rattan, and when you all arrive, I'll pull the rope. Do you understand?" The four of them seemed to understand what I meant. After I climbed up, Big Brother Da Bao exerted himself and I suddenly flew into the air, grabbing onto the rattan and looking down, it was pitch black and bottomless, cold sweat breaking out all over me.

  I stretched out my hand, still quite agile, although I hadn't practiced any martial arts, but at the age of less than twenty, a lively and energetic young man. In an instant, I landed steadily on the ground. I used a torch to take a look, there was no danger, it was still the same cave as before.

  "Hey, come over here, there's nothing special about this side!" As I said that, I tied the rope to a rock at the bottom and threw it with force.

  The second one to come over was Zhao Yu'er, then Zhao Lili, Wu Shirong, and finally Du Dabao. Du Dabao weighed over 180 pounds, and we had to use all our might to pull him over, he jumped onto the rope and it barely moved at all.

  "Thanks to you four, if it weren't for you pulling me, I wouldn't have made it through." Du Dabao panted heavily.

  "Big Treasure Brother, I'm really sorry to trouble you with this. Even if we get the Wan Gui Ding, we still have to let Little Sister examine it. What if you don't get anything out of it?" I brought up the ugly possibility first, and also because we were lucky enough to get the Ding, I was afraid that Du Dabao would turn against us.

  "Alright, I'll make it clear to you all too. If I was just after the tripod, I wouldn't have brought my sister along. I'm really here to help you out. Besides, didn't you say that if we get the tripod, you'd give me a reward for my troubles? And who knows, maybe I, Du Dabao, will get lucky and find something good, haha!" Du Dabao chuckled foolishly and pulled out a piece of cloth to wipe his thick golden necklace.

  "Great brother, I'm really happy with what you just said. Let's go, let's hurry up and move forward, maybe there's a Wan Guo Ding or an exit ahead." After finishing speaking, we walked over together.

  The cave in front is almost the same as when we first came in, with almost the same intensity of light and size of the cave. It seems to be an engineering project without any renovation. Suddenly, while walking, it seems that the cave has already reached its end and there's nothing ahead.

  "Everyone use torches to see if there's a way out around us, it can't end here!" I quickly turned on my flashlight and looked around, but found nothing.

  "Nie Yu, look quickly, there's something under your feet!" Zhao Yuer didn't know why her eyes couldn't leave mine.

  I followed her pointing and looked down at my feet, it was the same switch as before when we encountered the big snake. I signaled everyone to move away and pressed it forcefully. Then the ground made a creaking sound, and soon a massive cloud of dust came pouring in. We quickly covered our heads with our clothes, and after a while, the dust dissipated. When I opened my eyes again, a hole had appeared on the ground, and a stone staircase led down into the depths below. I hastily walked down.

  I slowed down noticeably as I walked ahead, because past experience told me that there must be something guarding here from the start. I waved my hand and everyone dispersed behind me.

  "Look quickly, Nie Yu, what's in front of you?" Zhao Yuer took out her flashlight and shone it forward. I followed the light from her flashlight and was frightened."

  On the ground, there were nine huge pools of water, each in a square shape, with moss all around them. The light seemed to shine into them and there even appeared to be small fish inside. Moreover, beside each pool was a staircase leading down.

  "I went there, where is it? The fish pond?" Zhao Dabao also came over with a flashlight.

  "It doesn't seem to be a fish pond, these don't look like pools either. It's possible that they are entrances leading underground, maybe made by people in ancient times. But after so many years, with rain and floods, it's possible that water seeped in here and the entrance was flooded, resulting in this. My analysis should be correct, who would raise fish here? These small fish probably came in with the river flow."

  "Nie Yu, it seems I underestimated you. Your judgments are completely correct, and I think so too!" Du Dabao and Wu Shirong nodded in agreement.

  "Don't say it's useless anymore, which one of us will go down first? Don't ask the girls, we three old men, who can swim?" I looked at Du Dabao.

  "Nie Yu, look at me like this, I can barely get through the entrance, and with all this fat on me, I'd float up in the water. What about you?" Du Dabao said, exposing his belly and patting it loudly, making slapping sounds.

  "Then you won't just tie a big stone around your body and make yourself heavier?" Wu Shi Rong looked at Du Da Bao with a scornful smile.

  "Why should I tie a stone? My belly isn't going to be pierced by the stone, you stupid idea, are you happy only when I'm dead?" Du Dabao glared at Wu Shi Rong with a fierce gaze.

  I looked at them and shook my head.

  "Never mind, I'll go myself. You two, one is too fat and the other wears high-end glasses, I don't dare to easily use you two, if either of you makes a mistake, I won't be able to take responsibility. It's better for me to go myself." After finishing speaking, I took off my pants and shirt, only wearing shorts, preparing to jump down.

  "Nie Yu, be careful, if you can't get through, hurry back," Zhao Yuer hastily walked over, grasping my hand tightly, her eyes staring at me unblinkingly.

  "Don't worry, I'll be fine. You stay here and behave!" I let go of Zhao Yu'er's hand and walked down the passageway from the water pool.

  The biting cold seeped into my body, the water here never sees sunlight and is extremely cold. I held my breath, dove in headfirst, opened my eyes and turned on the flashlight, fortunately it was waterproof or else I wouldn't be able to see anything.

  I continued walking for over ten meters, and it seemed like another step. I hurriedly walked up along the step. The step led to another place, and I slowly stretched out my head, still not coming out of the water, using the flashlight to shine around, but there was nothing, just emptiness everywhere. This place was very safe. Then I came out of the water, and all around me was exactly the same as before, with no other passageway. Having no choice, I swam back again.

  "It's Nie Yu!" I had just swum back, and Zhao Yuer hastily stretched out her hand to grab mine. Her hand was hot, while mine was cold. I looked up at her, but she didn't let go of my hand; instead, she grasped it with her other hand to warm me up.

  "Thanks, beautiful, I'm fine. Just that entrance we took earlier was a dead end, so we'll have to change our route this time!" I plopped myself down beside the pool, my whole body emitting heat from the sweat evaporating off me.

  "What's it like over there? Is it the same as here?" Wu Shi Rong picked up his flashlight and took a look inside, shaking his head in dismay.

  "Just wait for me here then. Anyway, I've already gone down, and I'll come back to find you once I find a place with an exit!" After saying that, I went down into the second water pool again.

  Like this, I repeatedly searched eight times and didn't find a single entrance. My luck was really bad to the extreme. Only one left, I took a deep breath and hurried down again.

  "Be careful!" they all shouted in unison from behind.

  This time I climbed up the steps again, and through the more than 10 meters long waterway, I dived out again and climbed up the steps. Finally, this cave is different from others, the distant light shining over seems to have a passage, I hurried back to report, they several like dumplings splashing down also jumped down with me to this only passage.

  Everyone took off their clothes, Du Dabao found a few vines in the cave, poured gasoline from his backpack and ignited it. We roasted our clothes by the fire, and putting on these icy clothes would quickly lower our body temperature.

  "I'm going over there to dry clothes with Zhao Lili, none of you are allowed to sneak a peek, if anyone dares to sneak a look, I'll dig out your eyes!" Zhao Yuer said, waving the small knife in her hand.

  "You guys go ahead, don't worry, we're not scumbags who would take advantage of you like that!" Watching the two of them walk away, the three of us shook our heads in dismay.

  "Hey, Nian Yu, you've been busy for half a day and I'm starving. Are we eating at your place or not?" Wu Shi Rong walked over.

  "There are compressed biscuits in my backpack, want some?" I hastily took one out and handed it to him.

  "Alright, now that we're in this situation, what can we eat? We don't even know how many times we can compress these biscuits. If we still can't find a place, we'll starve to death in here." Wu Shirong looked somewhat worried and distressed.

  "Don't worry, we several Jis have our own destiny, we won't starve to death here. Even if we can't find an exit, at worst, we can dig a road back!" Du Dabao smiled and looked at Wu Shirong, thinking in his heart that this bespectacled guy's courage was really too small.

  After half an hour we dried all the clothes on our bodies and put them on. We shouldered our backpacks and continued to move forward. This road seemed much wider than before.

  We walked for about a few hundred meters and now we are both hungry and tired. The flashlight shone forward, seemingly there was something blocking the way ahead, so we quickened our pace to see what it was. Finally, we arrived at a place where the light couldn't shine through. There stood a huge stone gate blocking the path ahead. This massive stone gate was covered with thick moss all around, which seemed to have grown for hundreds of years. The cave entrance was overgrown with long vines that completely blocked the stone gate. I pushed it hard but couldn't budge it.

  The moss in the middle seems to be round and special? Wu Shi Rong's reminder suddenly made me realize, indeed the center of the door is protruding, and there is a circular shape as big as a washbasin.

  I hastily pulled out a fruit knife and cut away the thick moss, revealing a depression about the size of a washbasin.

  "This can't be a mechanism, right? Do I need to fill the groove to open the door?" Zhao Yuer said while touching the moss above with her hand.

  "Big Brother Bao, quickly give me the bracelet!"

  I found that in the middle of the groove there was a smaller circular groove, which seemed to be about the same size as the jade bangle. Da Bao handed it over to me, and I hastily pressed it on, and it fit perfectly into the inside.