Chapter 21 Paradox in the Tunnel

The entire process was almost the same as before, but this time they were even more tired as they searched the rock walls inch by inch. In Fatty’s words, Poker-Face’s two long fingers touched almost every inch of the rock wall but there was no result.

Just when they thought that they would reach the outside of the mountain again, this time, the situation changed—they quickly arrived at a dead end. The tunnel came to an abrupt end and a rock wall appeared in front of them.

After taking part in three talent shows, the prize of this one had really changed to shit.

Poker-Face somehow had a bad feeling, so they immediately turned to leave the tunnel, deciding that they would think about it later. But after only a dozen meters, they found that the prize this time wasn’t only shit, but smelly shit.

They soon returned to the entrance, only to find that everything was all wrong. It wasn’t the entrance they had originally taken, but some strange place.

There was a small cave in front of them that was full of pools of water and various holes.

At first, they thought that they had found the location of the ancient building by mistake and these pools were the key. But after studying them, they found that they weren’t very deep at all. Fatty immediately discovered that there were a large number of bones at the bottom of the pools that were all human. But just as they were wondering what was going on, Granny Huo started to have a reaction.

“It was also because the old woman was weak. We just thought the air was very thin and didn’t think much of it until she suddenly suffered a subcutaneous hemorrhage. That was when we realized that there was something wrong with the air in the cave. It was poisonous, which may have been due to the accumulation of minerals and gases underground. We put on gas masks, but they were useless. The poison gas was very corrosive and was directly absorbed into our skin,” Fatty said. “We immediately retreated to the other side of the tunnel opening and went further back until we got to a place where we could hold on a little.”

At this point, the situation had become very clear: the mechanism in this tunnel only allowed for two mistakes, and on the third one, it would lead everyone to a cave full of poisonous gas.

With modern technology, it wasn’t difficult to create this kind of trap since it only needed a three-way valve. But this phenomenon had occurred after Poker-Face was a hundred percent certain that there couldn’t be any traps here. As a result, both groups began to distrust each other.

In that situation, both Fatty and Granny Huo began to doubt Poker-Face’s judgment, but nobody else had any convincing ideas either. Later, Granny Huo used her authority to control the crisis, but the next few hours were very difficult. They used everything they could find to block the tunnel entrance and prevent the poisonous gas from flowing in too quickly.

It was strange that after walking along the same route twice, the exits were completely different. It led to the question: how was this mechanism built? They figured it had to be a space paradox.

I couldn’t help recalling what happened in the Heavenly Palace at Changbai Mountain and wondered, did the ancients have this kind of technology?

Fatty and the others could only try again and again, but they came out at different exits almost every time. They didn’t know how many there were in this mountain, but the mechanism managed to make them different every single time.

They initially discussed the possibility of a ghost baby causing this phenomenon, but when Fatty burned his rhinoceros horn again, it was completely ineffective.

This kind of feeling of being unable to advance or retreat made them nearly collapse in despair. At that time, the whole team had no idea where they were and even felt that the Zhang family’s ancient building wasn’t in this area, but another. Unfortunately, the passage to that space had not yet been connected to this one.

As I listened, I already knew that Fatty and the others had finally found the Zhang family’s ancient building, and I was relieved that the incorrect password didn’t kill them. Although I wanted to know how Fatty finally escaped, I was anxious to know about the ancient building. In fact, I was even more anxious than usual.

“Don’t tell me the details, just tell me the result,” I said. “How did you finally get into the ancient building?”

Fatty shook his head, “It wasn’t me; it was them. I didn’t go in. I also don’t know how they got in but don’t worry. I’m not going to start from the beginning. Everything I’ve said is meaningful. It’s what happened next that’s the key. I can only tell you what happened and why they must still be alive.”

After a long period of helplessness, they finally stopped and started thinking about the truth of the matter. As they made some assumptions, Fatty listed out his theories:

First, there were ingenious traps in this tunnel that they couldn’t understand. The operation of the mechanism led to this result.

Second, this tunnel really exceeded the limit of time and space.

Third, their minds were affected by something other than a ghost baby that couldn’t be found by burning a rhinoceros horn.

In fact, these were all old observations; that is, they were the possibilities the group had already speculated on before.

They went through and tested and refuted them one by one. After Poker-Face repeatedly confirmed that there wasn’t a mechanism in this tunnel, Fatty used his own method—digging several small holes in the rock wall, placing some explosives in them, and then carrying out small-scale blasting.

To his surprise, the rock here wasn’t as strong as he thought and he ended up blowing a large part of the wall out. A big pit appeared, so he continued bombing inside of it, trying to find evidence that there might be a room behind the rock wall. After doing this several times, the pit became deeper, but it only revealed more rock.

He found several more places to conduct these blasting tests, but the results were all the same.

The mechanism couldn’t be buried too deep behind the rock, so the first theory proved to be impossible.

Fatty didn’t believe the second one at all. He was still angry with the last ghost baby we had encountered and thought that something in the tunnel must have ensnared them. He wanted Poker-Face to sprinkle his blood around to see if it had any effect, but Poker-Face ignored him and suggested the only way to save them at the time.

They would split up and stand at each end of the tunnel. The people at the entrance wouldn’t change, but if the tunnel exit moved, the people walking in the tunnel would come back. After coming through the entrance again, the people guarding the exit might see the truth of the tunnel entrance’s movement.

Since the situation at the tunnel’s exit could be dangerous, Poker-Face was the only suitable candidate. Fatty would stay at the entrance while the others passed through the tunnel as quickly as possible.

Fatty was chosen for the entrance position because only he and Poker-Face had remained considerably mobile among those in Granny Huo’s team at the time. This came from their many strange experiences before, so when everyone else was close to collapsing, both of them were working alone.

At that time, they split up. Poker-Face put on gloves, fastened his sword securely to his back, and entered the cave.

After that, he didn’t appear again.

One of them went out to check on the situation and ran back after only three minutes, saying that Poker-Face had disappeared.

Everyone was devastated. Fatty went out to check one pool of water after another, only to find that Poker-Face really was missing.

This professional missing person really lives up to his reputation, I said to myself.

“A lot of things happened later and the poisoning became worse and worse. Eventually, I passed out,” Fatty said. “When I woke up, I found all the people around me were gone.”

It was thanks to this that Fatty could talk to me now, since the team that entered the tunnel hadn’t returned yet.

He waited until dawn the next day before determining that something was wrong. When he went into the tunnel this time, he found that it had changed. He walked for more than ten minutes before he came out of the passage again, but he didn’t end up outside of the mountain this time. Instead, he had entered a dark place.

He turned on his flashlight and found himself on the edge of a completely different cave pool. It was a very strange pool that was shaped like a gourd, with water gathered at the bottom while the top was completely dry. There was a wooden beam placed in the middle of the water’s surface that led to the opposite side. Fatty walked over and found that it led to a dead end, but he happened to notice something under the water’s surface when he was standing in the middle of the beam.

It was a flat object, but he didn’t know what material it was made of. He reached down to grab a handful of it and found that it was relatively heavy. He went down into the water to get a closer look and found that the object reflected a very dazzling light.

He realized that it was a mirror. It stretched across the whole pool of water, was about two or three feet wide, and sat about a palm’s distance from the surface of the water.

He looked into the mirror and saw a huge reflection of a giant ancient building with carved beams.

Fatty’s first thought was that the building was hanging from the top of the cave. He immediately looked up but was surprised to find that nothing was overhead. He looked back down, but the ancient building in the mirror was clearly under him.

If it wasn’t overhead, then did that mean it wasn’t a mirror, but a piece of glass? This ancient building actually sank in the water?

He shouted several times, but no one answered him. He then walked to the edge of the mirror to see if the building was really underwater, but he knew immediately that it was impossible. It turned out that the pool was extremely shallow and didn’t even come up to his waist. The mirror was right under the water’s surface, so he dove under it and circled around, finding that the bottom of the pool was only so deep. Not to mention hiding the ancient building, it was even difficult for him to float on his stomach.

Then what was going on? Fatty climbed up to the mirror again and began to wonder if the building was just a picture.

The cold cave and strange ancient mirror weren’t enough to scare him, but what he saw when he leaned over the mirror to look at the ancient building again definitely made his hair stand on end.

It was same ancient building as before, but then he suddenly saw Poker-Face and Granny Huo resting in a corridor of that building. Their flashlight beams were shining through the gaps in the corridor.

This was really too weird. Fatty’s head was covered in a cold sweat, as if he were in a plot of some strange novel. He banged on the mirror to attract Poker-face’s attention, but the people below didn’t seem to notice him.

When I heard this, I was completely shocked and asked Fatty, “Do you mean they’re in the mirror?”

Fatty nodded, “Yes. The Zhang family’s ancient building is in a mirror.”

As I wondered how it was possible, I asked him, “Are you sure you saw it? It’s not just your imagination?”

“Master Three, although I’ve not entered as many tombs as you, I’m still very credible among the grave robbers in Beijing. Do you think I can’t tell whether it’s real or not? It’s true that the building is in a mirror and they’re all trapped in it.”

<Chapter 20> <Table of Contents><Chapter 22>

****

Updated 1/19/2021