As soon as I saw the expression on the face of the Mysterious Oil Bottle, I knew he was definitely not joking. He hadn’t shown this kind of expression even when we encountered the blood corpse in the Lu Wang Palace, so something must be very serious. However, I couldn’t ask him what was wrong at that moment, so I just agreed and prepared to call the others to run.

I thought I had followed Mysterious Oil Bottle’s instructions thoroughly, but when I turned around, I found that Ye Cheng and the Fatty had already dashed into the corridor. Without a second thought, I hurriedly followed them.

After rushing through the corridor and bursting through the jade door into the main hall, the ‘sparse’ sounds only intensified. At this point, it was obvious that the sounds were coming from all directions above us, as if countless feet were scraping against the beams overhead, sending chills down my spine.

However, when I looked up, all I saw was endless, cotton-like darkness, and I couldn’t make out anything, let alone what was producing the sounds. Standing under such darkness and unease felt like sitting on pins and needles; I wanted nothing more than to leave this place immediately, so we ran as if our lives depended on it.

I believe everyone has experienced the feeling of encountering something terrifying in the dark and wanting to escape alone. You can’t run very far before you stop, but if everyone runs together, it becomes uncontrollable, and your imagination and fear of being alone won’t let you stop.

However, people run at different speeds. Ye Cheng was so frightened that he ran faster than a rabbit, and the Fatty was not far behind. The two of them took off at the highest speed, and we could hardly keep up. In the darkness, it was almost impossible to distinguish who was who from their silhouettes, and soon we were spread out over a distance. I was struggling to keep up, relying on the beam of my flashlight to find my way.

I don’t know how long we ran, but I was almost out of strength, and my pace involuntarily slowed down. I looked at the few flashlight beams in front of me, and they gradually slowed down as well, as if the destination was near, allowing us to relax a bit. I felt relieved that my stamina had improved significantly compared to before; otherwise, I would have definitely fallen behind.

As I ran closer, I saw that the few people in front had stopped, leaning on their knees and gasping for breath. However, there was still no sight of the stone door leading outside; it was still a sea of darkness ahead.

I asked what was going on and why they had stopped running. Ye Cheng was out of breath, and the veins on his forehead were starting to bulge. He said, “Something’s not right… I just noticed that the main hall is a total of five hundred steps. My stride is one meter. At this speed of sprinting a hundred meters, I should have reached it in less than two minutes. But now, I’m sure I’ve run far beyond that time; I should have at least seen the jade door, but there’s still nothing ahead. There’s a problem!”

The Fatty said, “Could it be that you counted wrong? No one’s stride is exactly one meter every time!”

Ye Cheng smiled proudly, “That’s absolutely impossible! My stride is exactly one meter, with no more than a centimeter of error. If you don’t believe me, we can bet on it. By now, I’ve already run nearly a thousand meters; there’s definitely something wrong.”

The people behind us caught up, and seeing that we had stopped running, they slowed down and came to a halt beside us. Several of them were carrying heavy gear and thick clothing, and after all that running, they were panting heavily and nearly collapsing. The monk Hua gasped, “Why have we stopped? We need to run! Let’s push through and rest once we get out.”

Ye Cheng quickly explained the situation in one breath. Hua’s expression changed as he wiped the sweat from his forehead, saying, “What’s going on? We didn’t take any wrong turns when we came in, so why can’t we find our way back now?”

I thought for a moment and realized that we had definitely fallen into a trap; some unknown means must have been employed here. I told them, “It seems that the younger brother was right; Wang Canghai never intended for us to get out.”

“What should we do?” the胖子 (Fatty) asked. “Let’s change direction and run to the left!”

I looked around and shook my head. “No, since we can’t go back the same way, running in any direction will likely lead us to some dead end, and we’ll never find our way out. It would be a waste of effort.”

Ye Cheng exclaimed, “Damn, does that mean we’re going to be trapped here?”

Having experienced the power of these mechanisms in the underwater tomb, I had also figured out some of their workings. I reassured Ye Cheng, “That’s not going to happen. We have enough people here, and as long as we pool our ideas, we’ll find a way out. After all, Wang Canghai can only operate within his capabilities; no matter how intricate the traps are, there must be weaknesses. The real concern is that trapping us might not be his intention; it’s the strange sounds coming from above that we should worry about.”

I looked up again; the sound of the ‘sparse’ noise had become dense to the point of making one itch, and I felt a surge of dread. Ye Cheng swept his flashlight around, revealing a grayish haze above, with only faint outlines of painted beams visible, driving us nearly to madness.

Hua suggested, “Staying here isn’t a solution. How about we split into four teams and run in two directions? At least one team should be able to get out first, so we won’t all be wiped out.”

The胖子 shouted, “Look around! Not everyone is here yet. We only have a few people; how can we split into four teams?”

As everyone listened, they quickly glanced around and counted the flashlights. Indeed, several people suddenly looked confused.

Men Youping, Chen Pi A Si, and Lang Feng, who was carrying Shun Zi, along with Pan Zi, hadn’t made it. I realized that half of our group was missing, and I had thought they were all around us.

During the earlier chaotic running, I hadn’t paid attention to when they fell behind. Now, looking back, there wasn’t a single beam of light around; there was no way to find out where they had gone. Could it be that during the earlier rush, they had taken a wrong turn and ended up lost in this darkness? That would be troublesome; getting separated in this situation was practically a death sentence.

I pinched my eyebrows and carefully recalled the details from before. We hadn’t been the last ones running; those people, like Pan Zi, had a habit of being at the back, a trait developed from his time in the military, allowing him to monitor everyone’s actions. Chen Pi A Si was older and had also been behind us. Lang Feng, carrying someone, couldn’t move quickly, and Men Youping was a professional at disappearing suddenly; it was quite normal for him to fall behind and then suddenly vanish in critical situations.

“These people are all behind us. Clearly, they weren’t far from us when they went missing; we were running so frantically just now that we didn’t notice at all. The monk and the others suddenly lost their heads, not knowing what to do. The fat guy shouted at the top of his lungs, ‘Old Pan! Where are you?’ As soon as his voice fell, we suddenly heard Lang Feng’s voice from the side. The direction of the sound was impossible to discern, but it was extremely loud. Lang Feng shouted, ‘Damn it, monk! Turn off the flashlight! Look above!’”