Chapter 123: Mysterious Passage

The darkness around seemed to have turned into gas, thick enough to fill every corner.
Even in an endless darkness, Hua Xinyu could sense Lin Qing's anxiety.
Anyway, she couldn't see anything, so pretending not to know would avoid more embarrassment. With this in mind, she pretended not to know what had happened before and coughed softly twice.
What she didn't expect was that although her cough was very light, the sound was very loud because this was an underground space, and even small sounds would appear especially loud and echoing after being reflected by obstacles on all sides.
After hearing Hua Xinyu's coughing, Lin Qing's hanging heart finally let go. She asked in a somewhat urgent tone, "Are you awake? Are you injured?"
Hua Xinyu concealed her embarrassment, slowly sat up, and weakly replied, "I'm fine."
Because he was too anxious before, Lin Qing didn't have time to deal with the water on his hair and clothes. Now that Hua Xinyu wakes up, he finally has time to tidy up the water that hasn't dried up on his hair. It's not clear whether it's from the pond or sweat, but it doesn't matter anymore. He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's all good."
Just as Lin Qing finished speaking, there was a sudden "clatter" sound, which sounded particularly eerie in the dark environment.
The originally silent place now had other sounds besides them, but they still could not see what was making the sound.
As soon as they heard the sound, the two of them immediately quieted down, closed their mouths and listened carefully to the movement around them.
After the noise subsided, there was a period of silence. But just as they relaxed their guard, a rustling sound started, which sounded like something crawling on the ground.
"The sound of rustling became louder and denser, as if the devil was grinding his teeth and preparing to devour everything in this dark space."
Hearing this strange sound, Lin Qing quickly pulled Hua Xinyu up and retreated a few steps. Because he couldn't see anything around him and his phone had fallen into the water, he didn't know what was approaching.
For the unknown things, people often have a strong desire to explore, but in the current situation where everything is dark and there is a risk of life at any time, there is no room for exploration. Self-preservation is more important.
There was no choice but for Lin Qing to pull Hua Xinyu back constantly while thinking.
Since they still hadn't encountered any issues until now, without suffocation or anything, it meant that there was air in this place and there wasn't any toxic gas. If there was toxic gas, they would have started feeling uncomfortable after staying here for so long.
Since there is air here, it proves that there must be a space that leads to the outside. As long as there is a space that connects to the outside, there will definitely be light coming in.
As long as they find a place with light, maybe they can find the exit.
The two people supported each other and slowly retreated, as they moved back, they found that the ground under their feet was slowly becoming dryer. From the beginning sticky clay, it gradually turned into dry soil that no longer stuck to their feet, and it became easier to walk.
Although both of them did not know the direction, they knew they had to go in the opposite direction from where the sound came. They walked faster and faster until the "rustling" sound became smaller, and then they slowed down.
It is fortunate that they have not encountered any obstacles after walking for so long, which gives them room to avoid obstacles. This indirectly indicates that the space inside is very large, otherwise they would have collided with obstacles earlier.
"How come there's so much space down here and what was that sound we just heard?" asked Huaxinyu with fear in her voice.
Facing such a dark and unfamiliar environment, anyone would feel afraid, and Huaxinyu was no exception, but with Lin Qing by her side, her fear was greatly reduced.
She couldn't help but worry about Shu Jing. She didn't know how Shu Jing was doing at the moment. Thinking about this, her mood became incredibly low. Even with Lin Qing by her side, she was still afraid, let alone Shu Jing who was alone.
They walked all the way to the center of the village but couldn't find Shu Jing. If Shu Jing fell into this space too, she would be alone and scared, and since the space is so deep, it's highly likely that she would faint in the water if she fell, and without anyone to rescue her, it would definitely be a dangerous situation.
I hope Shu Jing won't get near this altar again. It's all dark now, and with those eerie rustling sounds, they can't go back to check out the pond. Even if they went back, it wouldn't reveal anything.
"Are you stupid? It's pitch black down there and I don't have night vision. How am I supposed to know what that sound was just now? And as for the space down there, I can't see the surroundings clearly now, so I don't know if it's formed naturally or if it's man-made."
"Then how do we get out?"
"We'll have to take it one step at a time and search for an exit."
Linqing took Hua Xinyu's hand, to prevent them from getting separated or to be able to help each other in case of danger. After walking for some time, they finally encountered an obstacle.
Since they couldn't see anything with their eyes, they had to rely on their hands to feel for obstacles.
After some groping, they were surprised to find that the obstacle in front of them was actually a stone door.
"This stone door is polished very smoothly, it seems that there are traces of artificial carving, perhaps this space was created by humans."
"But why did they dig out such a large space?"
After some thought, Lin Qing said, "You should have already guessed it, it's probably a tomb down here."
After Lin Qing finished speaking, Hua Xinyu felt a chill rising and her body was covered in goosebumps.
"Could it really be a tomb? Will there be zombies here?" Hua Xinyu asked fearfully.
After hearing what Hua Xinyu said, Lin Qing suddenly laughed and said, "Maybe you've watched too many zombie movies and got scared by them. Anyway, I have never seen any zombies."
"Even in this situation, you still have the heart to scare people, and can you not always talk about me? Don't you know how to comfort a girl?" Hua Xinyu was a little unhappy. Although Lin Qing makes her feel very safe, sometimes she feels that Lin Qing is also quite annoying.
They argued back and forth, which relieved the tense atmosphere to some extent.
The two of them searched for the way to open the stone door while talking. After some exploration, Lin Qing finally found the mechanism to open the door. Through touch, Lin Qing could feel that the mechanism was a stone-carved wolf head. He distinctly touched the sharp fangs inside the wolf's mouth and fortunately did not accidentally touch the tips; otherwise, he would have been injured.
The reason why he knows that this is the mechanism for opening the stone gate is also because he accidentally touched the wolf’s mouth and found that it can be moved. When he moved it halfway, the stone gate also began to move with the movement of the wolf’s mouth.
The stone gate slowly rose, and dim light radiated from the gate. Lin Qing put some effort into opening the jaws of the wolf to their maximum, and the gate rose slowly to the top.
Once the gate was fully raised, the two stepped inside, but they were surprised to find that the space inside was not very large. Upon entering the gate, the two found that the gate led only to a passage the same size as the gate, with an arch shape.
Although the corridor is also very dark, this kind of darkness is not as complete as outside, and the visual perception of the surroundings can still be faintly seen. Although it is still a bit blurry, it does not affect walking, and the deeper it goes into the corridor, the brighter it becomes.
This situation made the two slightly reassured, as long as they kept moving forward, they would definitely find a way out, both thought so.
Since it was possible to find a way out, they were also a little impatient. They didn't want to stay in this ghost place for a moment longer, thinking about this, the two of them walked towards the inside. However, just a few meters after they walked, the stone door behind them "thundered" and closed the entire passage, which scared the already nervous two.
At that moment, in their minds, they saw countless iron arrows flying out of the rocky walls, and they thought they were about to be pierced by a thousand arrows. It wasn't until a moment later that they were able to breathe a sigh of relief, realizing that they hadn't been shot after all.
After taking a deep breath, they turned back to look at the black stone door and exclaimed: "It seems like we've watched too many TV dramas and been influenced to think that underground structures always have many traps, like flying darts and poison arrows. It feels like they are indispensable, otherwise we wouldn't have had such a thought subconsciously."
It may also be because there is a mechanism on the altar that caused them to fall, and the mechanism on the stone door earlier made them wary of mechanisms.
But now they don't know what's underneath, and being cautious is better than being unprepared. Perhaps being cautious can save their lives.
At this point, they walked more cautiously, and eventually returned to the stone gate. After some exploration, they discovered that the stone gate functioned as a one-way switch, only allowing entry but not exit. There was simply no mechanism for opening the gate from the inside.
"Since that's the case, we can only continue to walk inwards."
After saying that, the two slowly walked inwards for more than two hours, but they found that they hadn't reached the end yet. Moreover, the light wasn't as they had initially thought - it got brighter the further they went.
For some reason, as they walked, the light sometimes became brighter and sometimes darker. A few times, they felt like they had already walked through the same place before, but there was only one pathway, so how could they have returned to their starting point?
As they walked, the two of them became increasingly suspicious, so they made a mark on the wall to test the validity of their suspicions.