Chapter 54 Password

I felt very puzzled. I couldn’t think of any reason why I would write this down. I looked at the last few numbers, which were familiar to me and embedded in my memory.

02200059

This was the password for opening the box containing the copper fish, which was said to have been translated from a silk book. I still didn’t know what use it was, and it had only appeared a few times. I sometimes thought about those things and whether they were very important. But as Xiuxiu had said, it was like reading a novel from back to front. I didn’t know the cause and effect of these numbers.

But the most important thing was that at the moment I lost consciousness, I wasn’t thinking about these numbers at all. I was wondering if I should write something to Xiao Hua, but it definitely wasn’t this.

Was there something wrong with my brain? I felt very strange and uncomfortable.

After I stood up, Xiao Hua discovered the injury on my back. He shook his head and bandaged me silently, while the Sichuan guy opposite us said, “It seems that Granny Huo will have to wait a few more days while Young Master Three takes care of his injuries.”

“No,” I said. “I can stand it. It’ll just leave a few scars at most.” I wasn’t sure why I suddenly said that. I felt like I didn’t want to stop and recuperate so that I could hurry up and face the things I had written down. I knew that if I thought it over carefully, I’d definitely learn something I didn’t want to.

Before Xiao Hua could argue with me, I moved my hands and feet and felt that my body wasn’t seriously affected. I limped to the bottom of the rope-way to see how strong it was.

“Are you alright?” Xiao Hua felt like something was wrong with me, and gave me a strange look

I didn’t answer him but merely gave him a perfunctory smile. 

“It won’t be a big problem to go in,” he said, “but there might be snakes falling from above, so you have to be careful.”

“There won’t be many snakes here, otherwise we’d be dead. Don’t you have medicine?” I remembered that sulfur had also been used in the Queen of the West’s city to repel the poisonous snakes. “Wiping it all along the rope is very effective for this kind of snake.”

Xiao Hua felt even more puzzled but didn’t ask again. He immediately started teaching me how to use the rope.

This kind of rope-way was very difficult to climb. In fact, there were only two ways to go about it: walk on it like a steel wire or hang upside down on it. Obviously, we could only choose the second option.

We had mountaineering equipment, so we could buckle ourselves to the rope and save our strength. If we wanted to rest, we could let our hands go and let the equipment bear our weight.

Xiao Hua went first because he was the lightest. He moved very quickly as he smeared the snake-repellent medicine on the rope.

Ten minutes later, he dropped down on the other side and waved his flashlight twice.

I stepped on the burned corpse’s hairy body and climbed onto the bearing while Xiao Hua’s buddy helped me fasten the mountaineering buckle to the rope.

The wound on my back was burning, but the herbs Xiao Hua gave me contained an anesthetic so the pain wasn’t intolerable. I clenched my teeth, composed myself, and then started climbing.

Climbing took less effort than I expected, but the main problem was the rope shaking. If I made slightly bigger movements, the rope would start shaking to a large extent, so I couldn’t move forward in a continuous motion. I could only go a few steps, stop, go a few more steps, stop, and wait for the shaking to stop.

The flashlight was gripped in my teeth and shone on the feldspar hanging above the gap. The ancient stones were solidified there, and even though I couldn’t see any higher, I could faintly feel the old chains. 

I tried not to think about anything.

No snakes fell down, and I quickly climbed to the place where Xiao Hua had found something strange earlier.

When I focused the flashlight’s beam and looked at it, I found that there was a place in the middle of the crevice where the feldspar didn’t hang down, but many leather-like things did. I had been to a leather processing factory before, so after looking at the color, I was almost sure that those skins were air-dried and very old.

I didn’t stay too long but continued to move forward. More than ten minutes later, I saw Xiao Hua’s flashlight shining at me from a very close distance. “Be careful when you come down.” He said to me.

When I turned to look at him, I saw him standing at the crevice’s exit. The flashlight’s beam swept under him and I found that his feet seemed to be wet.

After carefully unhooking and jumping off the rope, I immediately slipped and fell into the water. It turned out that the end of the crevice had a pool.

When Xiao Hua helped me up, I discovered that the water didn’t even reach my knees. The ground wasn’t flat, and the whole area was actually a funnel-shaped slope. I could see that the ground in the center of this stone chamber was very deep, while the surrounding area was very shallow. At the same time, I also noticed that there was something huge under the water in the center of the stone chamber.

The water was very clear but frighteningly cold, and I had to grit my teeth to endure the piercing sensation. I waded down carefully until the water reached my waist and I could get a clear look at the thing.

It was really an indescribable object. I could only be certain that it was made of bronze, but it looked like a huge hornet’s nest at first glance.

The irregular surface not only had ancient detailed patterns but also had numerous holes, all of which were connected by iron chains that led to underwater holes in the rock walls. The iron chains that were connected to the bearing were also connected to several holes in this strange nest.

“Shit,” I couldn’t believe my eyes, “this is an old password module.”

<Chapter 53> <Table of Contents><Chapter 55>

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Updated 11/24/2020