In short, it was far from a moment of despair. I walked forward in the darkness, yet encountered nothing—no fat man appeared to save me, no wooden planks, just the cold stone ground beneath my feet. In some places, loose gravel suddenly appeared, forcing me to crawl carefully over it.
I grew tired of walking and lay down. If it were the old me in such despair, I would have gone insane by now. I curled up in the darkness and began to ponder the first time I was taken away by a key.
It was when I discovered my grandfather’s grave relocation; there was an incident at home, and I received that key during that event. This key led me to the true location of my grandfather’s coffin and unlocked the sealed urn. Thus, I found those arrows.
The ghost seal—I didn’t know whether to feel relieved or not for leaving this thing outside. I was afraid it would be too dangerous to lose if I brought it in, so I let it be transported in with the main group. If the end of this road is that bronze giant door, I really should have carried it with me.
I fell into a deep sleep. I felt very cold but couldn’t resist the drowsiness.
When I woke up, I saw light. I was momentarily stunned to find that my hands and feet were emitting light. Then I suddenly jolted awake; it was the bioluminescence from the millipedes. They were crawling into the wounds on my hands and feet.
I got up, shook off the insects, and looked around. The smell of my blood had attracted many creatures.
My blood had a sporadic effect; I noticed a pattern. When my heart rate increased and my body temperature rose, my blood was effective, but when my body temperature dropped, my blood was just like that of an ordinary person.
I stood up, using all my strength to move my limbs and raise my body temperature. I took off my diving pants, wrapped the legs around my hands like gloves, and broke off the legs and fangs of the millipedes. Then I pulled out the elastic band from the waist of my diving suit and threaded the millipedes through, creating a string of lanterns. Holding one lantern in one hand and the key in the other, I looked around.
In the glow, towering soldiers clad in armor stood orderly around me. Their faces were elongated and did not resemble humans.
I recognized them; it was the first time Zhang Qiling had entered the bronze door wearing their armor. Their eyes, like those of Chen Pi Ah Si, were only whites, with their eyelids cut off, and they were covered in dust.
I had never been to this place; it should be deep within that underground crevice. I looked up, and it was pitch black above.
I had deviated from the direction the key had guided me and navigated among these armored soldiers. Back then, at the Cloud Top Palace, my brother had set off from here. I wandered around, hoping to see some traces. At that moment, something fell on my head. I looked up again and saw, far above, a few tiny beams of flashlight.
I suddenly realized where I was. The last time I entered the Cloud Top Palace, we passed through a massive mountain crevice filled with millions of millipedes, creating a galactic landscape. Now, I was at the bottom of that mountain crevice. Above me, someone was entering the royal tomb along the original route.
The light in my hand was too faint for the people above to see me, but I couldn’t worry too much. I took a deep breath and shouted up: “You are the wind, I am the sand!”
The sound looped upwards, quickly losing its pitch, but the melody remained. It is said that the human brain judges this melody with the utmost clarity. I couldn’t let them think my cries were just the sound of the wind.
After shouting a few times, I kept a close watch on the surrounding shadowy figures while straining to yell.
After four or five calls, a clear whistle sounded from above, a series of short and long notes. I didn’t know if it was Xiaohua or the Fatty, but I was overjoyed. Then, some stones fell from above, and something rolled down the cliff. It was so high that it rolled for a long time before landing to the side—it was a backpack.
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