I still have internal injuries, and now, at a glance, I nearly spat out a mouthful of blood, startling the others. Panzi and the others had never seen this photo before; although I had mentioned it, they didn’t recognize it upon seeing it, which made them feel puzzled. The fat guy hurriedly helped me with my blood and asked what was going on.

I trembled as I picked up the photo, pointing out the “Menyouping” and “Third Uncle” in the picture to them. Upon seeing it, the others’ faces turned even paler than mine, and no one could say a word.

I could hardly believe this was real. Turning to look at the several corpses nearby, my mind was in chaos. This photo couldn’t have appeared in the hands of unrelated people. Could it be that the mysterious team trapped here ten years ago in Changbai Mountain was actually the same group from the underwater tomb? Were these corpses actually Wen Jin and Li Si Di?

I trembled as I flipped the photo over and saw a line of blurry text: “Xisha Archaeological Team, a memento from Li Si Di.”

It seemed there was no mistake. If it were someone else who brought this photo here, it would be highly unlikely. The person who kept such a commemorative photo must be one of the people involved… No wonder Third Uncle couldn’t find them no matter how hard he looked; they had already died here!

Looking at their clothing, it indeed matched the photo, but why did these people come here? Did they also discover something in the underwater tomb that drew them to Changbai Mountain?

Wait, something’s not right. I suddenly thought of Third Uncle and Menyouping. My God, almost everyone from the underwater tomb is now in Yunding Tiangong. This group arrived ten years ago, while Third Uncle and Menyouping just arrived recently. Why did they have to come here?

The mysteries that I had almost forgotten suddenly revived in my mind, and countless questions surged into my brain. Panzi and the others were unaware of Third Uncle’s past, and their shock upon seeing the photo was even greater than mine. I had no choice but to patiently explain it all again. The others listened in astonishment. The fat guy said, “No way, wait a minute, I just thought of more. It seems that everyone who went to the underwater tomb, including An Ning, has come here too. Is there a curse in the underwater tomb? Anyone who goes there must climb Changbai Mountain… No, that doesn’t seem to make sense?”

The fat guy was obviously talking nonsense, but I felt a chill run down my spine. Some things in my heart became clearer. It seemed that the underwater tomb wasn’t the key; the key was here. The underwater tomb seemed to be just a springboard…

I searched everything I could find on the corpses, but there were no more clues. I couldn’t figure out who was who, and my mind was in a tangle. Dazed, I walked toward the tomb passage without even grabbing my flashlight.

The fat guy hurriedly stopped me and told me to calm down. He said it wouldn’t help to rush; after all, these people were also trapped here. If I died, I could at least ask their souls what was going on, but by then, it would already be too late.

He pulled me down to sit and catch my breath. Gradually, I calmed down, and only one thought remained in my mind: “I must get out of here. I must find Third Uncle and get to the bottom of this. Otherwise, I won’t be able to close my eyes even in death.”

The fat guy said, “But up until now, we haven’t found any clues proving that anyone among them successfully got out. It’s possible that we can’t get out of here at all; it might be a closed space. Even if you close your eyes, it won’t do any good.”

As soon as the胖子 spoke, the others had nothing to say. We originally wanted to find some clues from these corpses, but suddenly we uncovered such a huge secret. It was truly a case of one wave not settling before another rose. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts, and the atmosphere had dropped to an extreme low. My head felt heavy, and I didn’t dare to look at that photo again, fearing that some monster might suck me in. My throat began to itch, and I seemed to have caught a cold, starting to cough, and then I coughed up blood.

Seeing me like this, 潘子 said to us, “Let’s take a break today. Anyway, we can’t get out for the time being. It’s better to get a good sleep so our minds will be clearer. 小三爷, don’t think too much. I know you have a lot of questions in your mind, but figuring them out isn’t something that can be done in a short time.”

I waved my hand, saying that I couldn’t sleep. It was better to keep thinking here. I could only sleep when I was too exhausted to think anymore; otherwise, I would just feel more and more tired. The胖子 didn’t know how many cigarettes he had smoked by now. He was mumbling to himself while smoking, “Actually, I just remembered, if I had known earlier, I wouldn’t have followed that mark. It would have been better to listen to me. One group is trapped, and the other could still find a way… That mark, thinking back, might have been left by these corpses. You see, everything is so coincidental. Maybe they, like I thought, split into teams, and those two actually went to the other side of the tomb passage.”

I shook my head and said it wouldn’t work. If one group was trapped, the other group coming back would be in the same predicament, and it would be even more frustrating. Besides, the side without the mark might be even more dangerous; we didn’t know what awaited us there.

However, thinking deeply was impossible, because since we were already trapped, when the other group returned, the tomb passage would have changed, and they wouldn’t be able to find this burial chamber anymore. Those numbers—were they left by survivors on the other side, marking the spots where our team went missing?

As I thought about this, I suddenly shivered… a flash of lightning struck through my mind… the mark…

I sat up abruptly and said to them, “I just thought of a very strange flaw. This tomb passage is a paradox!”

“What?”

I frowned, trying to think about how to express myself. “I’m afraid you won’t understand. For example, if we walk out, in the darkness, for whatever reason, we must go through a process of turning around, even if we don’t know it at all, right?”

The others nodded. I continued, “For instance, if I’m holding a pen and drawing on the wall while moving forward, then at the exit, there will definitely be a long mark left on the wall following me. When I accidentally turn around at that moment, what do you think you will find?”

The胖子 nearly jumped up: “You would see the marks you made on the wall of the tomb passage ahead!”

“Not just that!” I said. “The key point is that after I turn around, the left and right will change. Then, my hand holding the pen will start marking on the other side of the wall.”

“This!” 潘子 also frowned.

“This is a logical inference,” I said. “In other words, if we explain it logically, there must be a turning point in the middle of the tomb passage! At the turning point, it’s as if we walk into a mirror, moving in a straight line to our opposite direction. Do you all agree?”

Everyone nodded; as long as it was logical, they certainly accepted my reasoning.

I continued, “Alright, think about this: if we walk this way and really encounter that ‘reflective surface’ I mentioned, how thick do you think that surface is?”

“How thick?” A few people were still digesting my earlier words, looking confused.

“Exactly, there must be a thickness. If there’s no thickness, then when your body’s front half passes through, your back half would…”

Panzi instantly understood my meaning, breaking out in a cold sweat, and instinctively interjected, “Overlap with each other!”

“Correct! Because at that point, your front half has already been reflected back, but your back half hasn’t passed through the ‘mirror.’ So if my statement is correct, then as we go through the reflective ‘mirror,’ we would undoubtedly die! We would turn into a monstrous heap! Your face would hit the back of your head!”

“But we’ve walked through so many times without dying,” the fat man said, puzzled.

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to say. This reflective surface must have a thickness much greater than that of a human. There’s an intermediate reflective segment. After we enter this segment, we walk a certain distance inside and then come out from the other end, completing the folding of space.”

Everyone nodded in agreement; this inference was seamless.

“The problem is, we don’t know how long this distance is. Let’s assume it’s only two or three steps. For example, if we walk into that ‘mirror space,’ but the fat man doesn’t go in and stays outside, and the mirror space is only two or three steps wide, where you can see both sides, what do you think will happen?”

Panzi understood the fastest, his throat nearly stiffening. “We… would see another fat man appearing in front and behind us.”

“Good, now here’s a contradiction: when the fat man behind you looks forward, can he see the fat man in front of you? Or if you try to hold one of the fat man’s hands, what would happen?”

Panzi quickly made a stopping gesture: “Don’t… don’t say anymore!”

“What does this imply?” The fat man beside us also turned pale.

“We don’t need to continue experimenting to conclude that this so-called ‘mirror space’ does not exist! Moreover, the logical basis that says we can’t escape this tomb passage also doesn’t exist; the existence of this tomb passage is illogical.” I lowered my voice: “Wang Canghai is not a god; he cannot create physical rules by himself. The mechanisms here have nothing to do with Wang Canghai, and these people did not die because of that. What we are facing now is a special case, a new situation! We misled these corpses, and the only possible cause for our current situation seems to be…”

I carefully pointed to the fourth item written by the fat man and mouthed silently, “There are ghosts around us!”