"Piece of shit!"
With a clear expression of irritation on his face, Shao Tianming strikes at the wall.
"…"
To the side, Wang Yongning had a similar look on his face, but instead of it being mostly irritation, his expression is leaning more towards bitterness, and regret.
Glancing at the two, Yu Ji turns to Li Xue and Qing Yue, and asks—
"…Shall we try again?"
"…Maybe later."
"…We just keep walking forward—only to end up back here again."
Towards Yu Ji's suggestion, Li Xue and Qing Yue shook their heads. Their eyes seem utterly devoid of light—causing them to give off the air of a defeatist.
The area that they are in isn't too large, but it should be more than capable of fitting two semi-trucks without a trailer. And severing as sources of lighting—are the flashlights that littered the edges of the area.
"…Ai."
Raising a sigh, Yu Ji looks to her left.
On this side of the area are five pathways for them to take, while on the other side is the pathway that they had come into this area from.
Turning to Shao Tianming and Wang Yongning, Yu Ji asks—
"Surnamed Shao, surnamed Wang, how long have we been in this place for?"
Taking out his phone, Wang Yongning answers—
"Probably three, or four hours now?"
"It feels like it's been more than that…"
Towards Shao Tianming's remark, Wang Yongning shakes his head, and replies—
"In a place without the sun, it's all too easy to lose track of time."
Despite having attempted to make it to the next area—for reasons unknown, they would always end up emerging from the pathway that they had come into this area from.
Throwing a glance at Shao Tianming, Wang Yongning adds—
"Also… It's just as easy for a person to lose their sense of composure. Smoke a cigarette, or down a can of beer, anything to make yourself feel more comfortable."
"Uh…"
Realizing Wang Yongning's point, Shao Tianming heaves a sigh, and scratches the back of his head.
...…
"Alright, time to move the hell on."
With everything sorted out, and with his mood restored, Long Hua presses a fist to his palm, while Tian Cheng, who is holding onto a flashlight, asks—
"Which path shall we take then, master?"
"Hmm."
Using his divine senses to look as far as possible in both directions, Long Hua presses a hand to his chin.
"Uh?"
Turning his attention towards the pathway to his right, Long Hua sees a humanoid figure walking towards their area. Held in the figure's hand is a flashlight.
"Surnamed Long?"
"Surnamed Ye?"
As the person emerges out of the pathway completely, it is revealed to be Ye Chen, who remarks—
"I guess it's because I leaped in after you—that we ended up relatively close to one another's location?"
Shrugging a shoulder, Long Hua replies—
"Who knows? Well, found anything of interest?"
"Other than you, not much else. Mostly dead ends."
"I see, so this place is built like a labyrinth, then?"
Raising an eye, Ye Chen asks—
"Have you not moved from this spot at all since arriving?"
"Disciplining a certain thing ended up taking some time."
Recalling the odd creature, and seeing the cracks that are on the walls, and grounds of this area, Ye Chen's puts on an expression of understanding, and says—
"I see. Well, what's your plan? The way I came from—for the most part, has been looked over."
"Then the choice should be obvious."
Saying as such, Long Hua takes out his fishing rod, and ties a rock to the end of its line. Forcefully embedding this rock into the wall, he turns to the pathway on his left, and Tian Cheng follows suit—with Ye Chen a few steps behind them.
Taking out a flashlight from his storage pouch, Long Hua asks—
"Did surnamed Shao and knock-off Immortal come in at the end?"
"They probably did. I wasn't looking when I made my leap."
"If you wanted out of this ruin, you could have just asked the guys from the hall. Wouldn't that have saved you the hassle of dealing with more risks?"
"I'd rather deal with the risks than be a dog chained up to a leash."
"Working for the military—without being appreciated, isn't too different though, is it?"
For a brief instance, Ye Chen didn't reply, but eventually, in a cringed tone, he says—
"…Fighting against Immortals is something that I'm doing willingly."
"…"
Towards Long Hua's silence, which seems to be a show of amazement at how Ye Chen was able to say such a cheesy line, the latter awkwardly asks—
"…Not going to ask further?"
"You'd probably say something along the lines of us not being close enough for you to answer that."
"True. But I'm open to making an exchange."
"Hm?"
"Information on the Immortal Sealing Chain."
Shrugging his shoulders, Long Hua replies—
"You'd be better off asking the hall."
"They won't be honest with me even if I asked."
"And you expect me to be honest with you? In the first place, why would I be interested in your life story, surnamed Ye? There's plenty of tragedies out there, what makes yours in particular special? Hell, even my own isn't anything special."
"I wonder about that. Something tells me, yours is quite a different experience, surnamed Long."
"Mine is simply just me committing a mistake—that forced a white-haired man, to send off a black-haired man."
Contemplating for a bit, Long Hua adds—
"Doesn't matter how old we are or get, so long as we keep living, we're bound to make mistakes—since it's just a natural part of living. The important thing is… I guess, to walk out of the shadow of our mistakes? Ah, it all sounds too cliché for me to talk about it with a straight face."
Even now, Long Hua is uncertain of whether or not he, himself has walked out of his own mistakes' shadow, hence—
(…God, I feel like a hypocrite. In the first place, I'm completely unsuited to telling someone words of this nature.)
"…Even if the shadow is a person who refuses to forgive you?"
Towards Ye Chen's question, Long Hua suspects the aforementioned shadow to be Li Xue.
Turning his head to the side, Long Hua asks—
"Surnamed Ye, are you able to forgive yourself first?"
Before Ye Chen can answer the question, Tian Cheng halts her footsteps, while Long Hua places a finger to his lips.
"…"
Catching on quickly, Ye Chen also stops moving.
"…"
Sensing something tugging onto the end of his line, Long Hua tightens his grip on the fishing rod.
"…"
Playing a game of tug-of-war against whatever it is—that is on the other side of the line, Long Hua's expression gradually turns solemn.
An unknown is pulling upon the line at a steady rate without increasing, or decreasing its strength—in other words, it is matching the strength that Long Hua is using to pull with the exact amount needed to maintain an even balance.
Eventually—
*Ping!* the line snaps.
"…"
Looking at the line with a frown, Long Hua gradually retracts it, and upon reaching the ends, where it is cut off—
"Seems like it was grinded off."
Shining a light on the severed end, Ye Chen remarks as such, while Long Hua says—
"Hmm. Doubt it was the people from the hall. If they wanted to kill me, following this line back to me would be the smarter move."
"You think it's something similar to those sand piranhas from the first night?"
"This doesn't look like it was bitten off by some beast. If it was, the line would be more jagged—due to their uneven fangs. It's more like someone just took a blunt edge, and just sawed away at it…"
"So, there's something… I guess worse than those piranhas here?"
Thinking of this, Ye Chen can't help but recall those Sinners and practitioners from before.
Thinking the same, Long Hua cuts off the fishing line's grinded ends, and stores the tool away, and remarks—
"Well, way back is probably impossible to find now, so our only way forward—is forward."
"Hm?"
Seeing an open area up ahead, Long Hua hastens his footsteps, and upon emerging from the cavernous pathway—
"Surnamed Long."
Seeing Long Hua, Shao Tianming's expression immediately turns sour, as he pulls his can of beer away from his lips.
"Oh?"
Emerging from the pathway as well, Ye Chen takes a look around the vicinity.
Other than Shao Tianming and Wang Yongning, it seems like his office is the only group to have come down here, assuming the others—who decided to take a chance, didn't get killed off.
"So, what exactly is happening here? Are you all taking five, or something?"
Asking this, Ye Chen walks over to where Li Xue and the others are.
For some reason, every person in this area had a fatigue-ridden expression on their faces, as they sat on the ground with the air of a defeatist.
"Something like that. Try heading into one of those pathways without turning back."
As Wang Yongning points to the five pathways that are to the front, Ye Chen looks over with a quizzical expression on his face.
Picking a pathway at random, Ye Chen enters it.
Gradually, the figure of Ye Chen's back vanishes into the darkness.
Sometime later—
"…"
Long Hua turns his head to the side, and—
"The hell happened?"
Finding himself behind Long Hua, and remerging from the pathway that they had traveled through, Ye Chen frowns.
Raising a sigh, Yu Ji says—
"We've been trying to figure out which pathway is the correct one to take—only to keep ending up at where we started."
Twitching his lips, Ye Chen mutters—
"…Well, that explains those look on your faces."
Turning towards Long Hua, Shao Tianming, who seems thoroughly fed up with the situation, says—
"We tried heading back the way we came as well, but still ended up here."
(Surnamed Long, you're an Immortal, you must know something about this odd place…)
Thinking of this, there is a slight flicker of hope in Qing Yue's eyes.
"Hmm."
Deciding to try this out for himself, Long Hua turns back the way he came—with Tian Cheng following after him.
"…"
Continuing to move straight without turning, Long Hua keeps his divine senses active, to look for anything unusual.
(…I do sense something, or someone staring at me. But… Not sure where its coming from. Also…)
Taking another step forward, Long Hua feels as if an invisible set of hands had just touched him—causing him to turn his head to the side, and look to Tian Cheng, who is an arm's length away from him.
This isn't the first time he's felt this odd sensation, and—
"…"
Receiving a nod from Tian Cheng, Long Hua confirms that he isn't imagining it.
(This weird sensation of being pushed around while moving… Is it from a teleportation magic array? If it is, it's quite well-hidden. Tch, even my divine senses… They're not able to cover as much distance here…)
Eventually, an exit appears in the far distance, but through his limited divine senses, Long Hua could already tell that it only leads to the area that the others are currently in.
"…"
Emerging from the pathway with a contemplating expression on his face, Long Hua picks up a stone, and ties it to his fishing rod—prior to embedding it into a wall, and heading back into the pathway.
To feel for further hints of abnormalities, he has shrouded the fishing line with his sword Qi.
Upon being far enough away from the others, to not be able to see the area that they are in—
"…"
Once more, the odd sensation of being displaced is felt by Long Hua through his next step, and—
"…"
Detecting something attempting to bend the sword Qi-reinforced fishing line, Long Hua frowns.
"Qie, about those dynamites…"
(Hm?)
Halting his footsteps, Long Hua confirms a few things with the Tai Xuan Emperor, while pressing a hand against the walls, as if to look for any hidden pathways, or unusual markers.
Similarly, the Tai Xuan Emperor has her vessel do the same.
"…"
Waiting for Long Hua to finish his inspection of the pathway, Shao Tianming returns to sipping on his can of beer.
If he has to be honest, Shao Tianming has started to regret coming down here ever since he encountered those odd pathways.
Due to the number of abnormalities that this ruin had already demonstrated, the only other person to have accompanied him was Wang Yongning alone.
At some point—
"…"
Finding nothing unusual, Long Hua returns to the others, with Ye Chen asking—
"Well?"
"I hate this sort of bullshit the most."
Saying this, Long Hua takes out a stack of timed dynamite—that he had acquired from his gacha rolls.
"…!"
"…!"
Almost immediately, the complexion of the others turned pale.
"Surnamed Long, calm down, and put those away."
Towards Wang Yongning's plead, Long Hua answers—
"Sometimes, violence and brute force is the answer to all your problems. I'm personally too lazy to sit down, and use my brain to figure this nonsense out."
"What if you cause a cave-in?"
"Then we all die, I guess?"
Before Shao Tianming can say anything else, Li Xue asks—
"The fact that you can say that without a care, means you have confidence it won't happen, right?"
Despite being somewhat out of it, Li Xue isn't too keen on an early death just yet.
Shrugging a shoulder, Long Hua replies—
"I've already experienced something akin to a dynamite going off when I first arrived here, and as far as I can tell, it didn't cause anything but a tremor."
Recalling the state of the area that he had found Long Hua and Tian Cheng in, Ye Chen feels like it's worth a try, as he says—
"Do it then. Beats starving to death, or going insane."
With everyone looking so fed-up, Ye Chen feels like being overcome by insanity would only be a matter of time. When that happens, bloodshed is all but inevitable.
"…Ai."
Heaving a sigh, and tossing his beer aside, Shao Tianming stands up from the ground, and takes out a tower shield from his storage pouch—showing his consent with using this method.
"Right then, get into position."
As Long Hua gestures to his back, everyone gets up, and moves over—prior to positioning the tower shield directly in front of the group.
"Actually, would one even be enough?"
Towards Shao Tianming's concern, Long Hua chuckles, while starting the timer, and replies—
"Don't underestimate this one stack. It's far more powerful than your standard explosive. In any case, if you don't want to get blown backwards—lean against the shield."
Having confirmed with the Tai Xuan Emperor that these dynamites are also a form of Spirit Armaments, Long Hua is rather excited to see how much damage they'd be able to do.
*Beep. Beep. Beep.* as the timer on the dynamite ticks down, Long Hua tosses it over the tower shield with five seconds remaining, and shouts—
"Happy new year!"
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