Chapter 57 - Burial Grounds (III)

Editor: Kitty

Since Feng YuLan had put out the altar lamp, he should be the one to light it. After lighting the lamp, Feng YuLan naturally needed to walk in front as they explored the pathway ahead of them. Regardless of whether they headed forward or backward, the pitch-black pa.s.sageway seemed to stretch on endlessly, causing Feng YuLan to be afraid. From time to time, he had to turn back and look at Luo Jian. After the two people walked for a period of time, Ah Lan finally could not stand it! He suddenly stopped, grabbed one of Luo Jian’s arms, and placed the other’s hand on his left shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Luo Jian did not know why Feng YuLan did that.

“Place your hand on my shoulder and follow me.” Feng YuLan was very serious about this. He raised up the hand holding the altar lamp, which was emitting a dim light.

“Why are you doing this?” Luo Jian was even more confused with Ah Lan’s behaviour.

“Of course, it’s because of you!” Ah Lan raised his eyebrows and complained in dissatisfaction, “Luo Jian, when you walk, you do not make any sound! As I continue walking ahead, I suddenly feel that there is no one behind me. It’s horrifying!”

“Eh?” Luo Jian realized this much later than Feng YuLan and scratched his head, “Is there no sound when I walk? I didn’t realize it myself.”

“No! Wait……” Luo Jian suddenly thought of something. He frowned and said, “Speaking of which, Ah Lan, when you walk, you didn’t make a noise either.”

“I didn’t notice it. That is impossible because I’m not a martial arts expert. How is it possible that I don’t make any sound when walking?” Feng YuLan expressed his doubts and stomped hard on the ground with both feet. After he did that, the two people suddenly discovered a terrible finding at the same time. They froze on the spot! The dim yellow light emitted by the altar lamp shone on two people’s pale faces!

“There is no…… no sound……” Luo Jian shivered and gazed at Feng YuLan, who was as stiff and shocked as he was.

“There are no…… no footsteps……” Feng YuLan replied, following what Luo Jian had said. This time, the two people fell into a terrible silence at the same time.

It seemed that Feng YuLan could not believe it. He stepped on the ground again and even trotted back and forth with the altar lamp. However, after various tests, they had to believe that their footsteps produced no sounds. Even when they walked or ran, the pa.s.sageway stayed very quiet. It was a type of silence that felt like…… it could swallow any noise they made.

“When did the sound of our footsteps disappear?”

“I don’t remember. It seems…… that there were no sounds in the first place.”

“It’s not scientific. If walking doesn’t produce sounds, how can you hear me when I speak?” Feng YuLan was very confused about this.

“Everything in the tomb is very peculiar. Maybe this pa.s.sageway is specially made to swallow the sounds of footsteps?” Luo Jian followed Ah Lan in speculating.

However, Feng YuLan retorted, “But we could all hear it, right? The footsteps of that monster.”

Luo Jian asked suddenly, “Feng YuLan, did you really see what happened clearly? What did that monster look like?”

Feng YuLan began to think about it hard and described the situation in more detail: “I kicked the pot down, and it fell on the ground and shattered. The liquid in it spilled all over the ground, and there was a large ma.s.s that wriggled out from the pot. Since the surrounding environment was very dark, I couldn’t see clearly. I simply thought that it was a human-shaped thing, so I picked up the altar lamp beside me to take a clearer look at it…… After a closer look, I saw the legs of the monster. One was longer, and one was shorter. The shorter one looked like a child’s leg. The long leg was extremely twisted in a spiral-like shape, as if it was a towel that was wrung dry.

“When I wanted to look further up at the monster’s face, it seemed to be frightened by the lamp’s light. At that time, the monster suddenly shifted rapidly and clambered up. It moved at an extremely fast speed! In an instant, it escaped and ran out of my line of sight. Besides that, it also slithered right by my feet. At that time, I was given a shock. I didn’t have a firm grip on the lamp in my hand, and the light was extinguished when it fell on the floor.

“After that, I didn’t light up the lamp, and the monster didn’t react to my actions. But when I made a little noise, I could feel something coming at me, so I tried my best to dodge it. After that, I was in a muddle and fumbled out of the place. When I came out, what appeared before me was the long pa.s.sageway.”

A long time after Luo Jian listened to this, he frowned. He said, “Forget it; I can’t figure out what the monster is. Even if our footsteps don’t make noise, it’s fine this way. Let’s continue moving.”

Thereafter, the two people kept walking, one in front and one at the back. Feng YuLan continued to walk ahead with the altar lamp, and Luo Jian followed after him. As Ah Lan previously requested, he placed his hand on Feng YuLan’s shoulder. They walked for such a long time that their feet were sore. They chatted quietly as they walked to relieve the fear of darkness and the sense of suffocation that the secret chamber brought to them.

“Ah Lan, do you really know where Duan Li is?” Both of them were exhausted and a little tired, so they decided to sit beside the altar lamp and rest. Luo Jian estimated that they had walked for more than an hour! However, what made it horrifying was the fact that even after walking for more than an hour, they were still in this tunnel!

“I can feel his existence, and he’s moving. He’s probably moving in our direction, but somehow, even though I can feel that he’s a short distance away and regardless of how far we walk, it feels as if there’s still quite a distance to go. It’s as if we’ve been making rounds around the same place.”

Luo Jian slapped his thigh and said, “Yes, that’s it. We have been making rounds around in the same place…… What is the colloquial term for it? We’re going around in circles?!”

“Going around in circles?” An idea flashed through Feng YuLan’s mind. He said, “Yes, we are going around in circles!”

“Do you know how to unravel this?” Luo Jian looked at Feng YuLan’s unfathomable expression. It seemed that he had a solution to it.

“There are some spells in my grimoire similar to it,” Feng YuLan said. Out of nowhere, he took his grimoire out and started flipping through it. As he was turning the pages, he said, “It’s like a border. Make a border around a piece of land and set it as an enclosed s.p.a.ce. This land will then be separated from other s.p.a.ces. For this sort of spatial skill, a low-level type would be a trick that deceives the eye, but if one of the highest level is set up, it can separate time and s.p.a.ce. Although it sounded like a very awesome skill, I have yet to even learn even the lowest level.”

“Then will you be able to unravel it?”

“No. Although the s.p.a.ce we are circling around is similar to something like a border, the essence of it is different,” Feng YuLan explained and finally shook his head regretfully.

They were silent for a while. Luo Jian helplessly said, “If we go on this way, we’ll probably have to walk around the tunnel until we die. Therefore, we can employ a violent and direct method.”

“What method?”

“We can just kill that monster.”

“It’s a violent and direct method, but are you sure we can do it?” Feng Yulan calmly began to a.n.a.lyze with Luo Jian, “This secret chamber is a team battle secret chamber. Previously, I asked Duan Li to tell me some relevant information. Therefore, right now…… Are you clear on how much the difficulty of the chamber has been raised?”

“Of course, I am clear on it,” Luo Jian frowned deeply. “There needs to be a team of five. Only when there are two or more seniors who have experienced five games or more will the team battle unlock, and this must be recognized by the secret chamber. In here, we will encounter enemies and creatures of different levels.”

“We have a very low chance of getting rid of it!” Feng YuLan was a little agitated and said, frustrated, “We are not seniors, our bodies are not imbued with great strength, and we don’t even have the most basic knowledge about our enemies! What’s worse is that in this secret chamber, we are trapped with a monster in a place that we have been circling around since the beginning!”

Luo Jian feebly shook his head. “But there is no way out. No one will come and save us! Do you want to be stuck here, waiting for our deaths?”

Feng YuLan was agitated and walked back and forth in the pa.s.sageway. Suddenly, he paused and looked at Luo Jian. “No, someone will come and save us.”

Luo Jian raised his head and gazed at him. “Who?”

“Duan Li.” Feng YuLan smiled: “Since I can feel him, he naturally knows where I am, too…… However, even after being trapped for over an hour, we still don’t see that b.a.s.t.a.r.d coming. Maybe he’s also entangled by something.”

Luo Jian still bore a grudge against Duan Li. He frowned as he looked towards Feng YuLan: “Wouldn’t we be too dependent on outsiders if we wait for others to rescue us? You know that guy’s not a good fellow.”

Feng YuLan returned to where he sat previously, next to Luo Jian. He raised the corner of his mouth and gave a cold sneer: “In this sort of situation, we should use everything at our disposal, and…… he is now a member of our team. He has signed a symbiotic contract with me. He has no other options but to come and save me. Thus, let’s trust him a little.”

“But I still don’t think we should stay here, waiting for our deaths.” Luo Jian reached for his short blade and stroked the tip of it with his fingers: “How about we try it? Killing that d.a.m.n monster. ”

Feng YuLan tilted his head: “Alright, it’s worth a try.”

After that, in order to determine what they should do, Luo Jian and Feng YuLan discussed how to kill the monster. The first step was to determine the division of labour. The main output of the damage could only be dealt by Luo Jian, and Feng YuLan would naturally act as the bait.

Since the division of labor was clear, how should they attract that monster? Feng YuLan thought about it and decided to put out the altar lamp in his hand. He turned on Luo Jian’s flashlight instead. They turned around and went back in the direction where the monster had gone. Along the way, Feng YuLan knocked on the wall with stones that he had picked up from somewhere. Interestingly, although the sound of footsteps disappeared, the sounds of talking and knocking did not.

Soon afterward, they heard footsteps coming from right ahead of them. It was the sound of something dragging. With the accompaniment of that sound, the dark pa.s.sageway gave off a scalp-tingling sensation. Luo Jian and Feng YuLan looked at each other. Luo Jian merely said softly, “Stay where you are and don’t move.”

After he said that, Luo Jian removed all the shining objects on his body and gave them to Feng YuLan. He crept back until his whole body was hidden in the dark. He had already drawn out his knife, and he decided to perfectly unleash the skills obtained in the last secret chamber at this moment. He needed to succeed.

As for Feng YuLan, he did not know when he fell into a state of calmness similar to Luo Jian’s. There were no signs of fear on his face. He had added various defense and ignore spells to Luo Jian. The grimoire floating in his hand radiated a brighter and more intense light. And just in front of them, the prey stepped into the hunters’ trap.

The monster’s footsteps were closing in.

Feng YuLan squatted slowly. He half-knelt on the ground with his grimoire still floating around him. The grimoire automatically flipped through the pages, and big words that no one but him could see appeared on it:

[I’ll initiate the defense net for you, but it’s better for you to not forcefully face it head-on.]

Feng YuLan closed his eyes and did not speak.

As for Luo Jian, he stood quietly in the dark behind Feng YuLan.

T/N: Thank you Miya for the Ko-fi!

Thank you, everyone, for the kind support given and for reading and commenting as well!