The Lost Tomb Vol. 3

Chapter 14: Enter the Shaft

We had been standing at the mouth of the hole for a long time, discussing its purpose, when Chen Pi Ah Si suddenly died and then miraculously came back to life. We were all completely baffled, but it seemed like Chen Pi Ah Si didn't want to talk about it, so we had no other choice but to turn our attention back to the strange hole.

We gathered around the edge of the hole again and started to discuss the specific issues of going down. Even though we all had experience with cave exploration, that was in the plains and low mountains, which was very different from what we were seeing here. So, we needed to ensure that we took everything into account.

The hole initially went down at a forty-degree-angle and was very deep, so it wouldn't be easy to walk. When Fatty and Pan Zi were down there just now, it could have been very dangerous—if they couldn't control the position of their bodies, they might have rolled end over end to the bottom and cracked their skulls open.

Pan Zi threw a glow stick down and watched as the yellow light quickly rolled down, bounced a few times in the distance, and then disappeared.

If Monk Hua's theory was correct and I was remembering the trend between our two mountains right, then this shaft must be shaped like a "V"— it went all the way down and then back up. Since the two mountains belonged to the same mountain range, the valley between the two peaks was also at a high altitude, and the distance of this "V" route should be no more than five kilometers.

Of course, there was nothing we could do if the craftsmen at that time liked to dig their tunnels in a "Z" shape, but it seemed so unreasonable that it wasn't worth considering.

The shaft was man-made, so there was no need to worry about any problems with the air. After discussing it, we decided to let Pan Zi go in first to check out the situation. This time, he had his weapon at the ready so if the corpse fetus was still inside, he could kill it on the spot.

He was feeling very embarrassed after getting dragged into the hole by the corpse fetus, so he wanted to redeem himself. He pulled out a climbing rope and tied one end around Fatty's waist before dropping the other end into the hole. Then, he spat on his hands and climbed down. After about five minutes, we heard him give the all-clear.

We took turns climbing into the hole. The tunnel itself was very rough, with rocks sticking out here and there that hurt my butt as I slid down. As I slowly descended, I examined the rocks on the side and found that they were basalts that had gushed out during a volcanic eruption. I could see a lot of air bubbles on their surface, but I knew that the density of these rocks was usually very unstable anyways—some were as hard as iron, while others were as soft as tofu. I couldn't help but wonder what it was like when the craftsmen first started excavating here.

We went down one by one, with Fatty bringing up the rear. Now there was suddenly a group of people crowded at the bottom of the rocky slope, panting heavily. We could see a lot of black liquid on the ground, which must have come from the corpse fetus, but there was no sign of it anywhere so I assumed it went deeper into the tunnel.

This narrow tunnel under the ice slanted downward until it reached the turning point below, and then it sloped upward and became long and narrow. As we continued moving deeper, the height of the tunnel seemed to increase, and the space suddenly seemed much larger, but the darkness was too thick for the flashlights to pierce through it.

At first, I thought it was because the craftsmen deliberately created a wider tunnel when they were digging. After all, this was also something grave robbers did when digging tunnels. It was usually called a "pigeonhole", and it was used to store air and soil that had been dug out. Of course, it was difficult to dig a pigeonhole because you had to dig a space large enough for two people to turn around in without making it noticeable to those on the surface. It was a very clever trick that required some skill to pull off.