Chapter 1 Night Rush

I was confused for about a minute and just looked at him, but Poker-Face didn’t stop at all. He grabbed my neck, pushed me to the side to avoid a claw, and then used the knife in his other hand to slash at the things behind him.

When compared to an ordinary knife, that black-gold knife was like a completely different weapon in his hands. I saw a black person get their entire shoulder cut off, the stench of blood instantly exploding in the air. But more black figures immediately surged up and I woke up from my confused state. The black figures were rushing up from under the stone temple like a black tide, and the first batch was already piling up in front of me like black waves. A dozen claws with long nails reached up to scratch my face.

Since the light was dim and they were very dark, it was hard to make out their human-like forms. But their claws were white, so at first glance, it seemed as if countless claws were scrambling to grab me.

But I had finally come to my senses at this time, so I quickly retreated backwards. This retreat was basically done by leaning back and twisting from side to side, but the black tide rushed to the top of the temple like countless exploding claws. I used up all of my strength to avoid them, but they were barely a millimeter away from me. I turned to the edge of the temple’s rooftop right as that black tide surged over it.

Poker-Face pulled me over, and the two of us leaped into the air. As we jumped from the top of the temple, we ended up jumping right towards that black spot and the void.

Fatty’s flares were still high up in the air, and it was in that moment that I knew why he had set so many of them off.

It seemed that everything in the world’s second most valuable tomb had woken up, including the corpses. Poker-Face must have rushed to my side through the gaps in these surging black waves and countless claws. There was absolutely no room for mistakes, and even a moment’s hesitation would have found him swallowed up by the black tide. It didn’t matter whether he was highly skilled or the best of the best, with such a large number of opponents, he’d absolutely end up dead.⁽¹⁾

That was why there was a need for so much light.

This temple was so tall that I couldn’t see the bottom of it, but I could sense that the darkness below was full of those figures and claws. Black Glasses had told me that when people were extremely nervous, time seemed to slow down, and that was exactly what was happening to me right now.

I looked at Poker-Face with what I knew was a crazy expression on my face, but he was still indifferent and focused despite being so high up in the air. All he did was look at that giant black spot in front of him.

In that slowed-down situation, the black spot was particularly clear, and I found that we were very close to it.

But even though it was close, it wasn’t enough to jump over and grab onto anything, and I quickly felt myself starting to fall. I didn’t know about Poker-Face, but if I fell here, I’d probably end up seriously injured and paralyzed.

At this time, Poker-Face gave me a really hard push from behind, which launched me directly towards the black spot. Everything sped back up again as I rushed towards the black spot at a very fast speed. Then, I hit it.

My hands and feet scrambled for purchase as I fell down six or seven meters, but in the end, I finally managed to grab hold of a gap. The cost of this great perseverance, however, was that I dislocated my wrist.

I immediately looked back at Poker-Face and saw a flaming man rushing through the darkness below us. It was Fatty. I didn’t know what that flaming thing tied to his body was, but I saw him break away from those human figures and rush to meet Poker-Face.

Yes! They’ve planned everything out.

Since the light enabled me to better perceive how high up we were, I felt that Poker-Face should be able to land safely. Feeling a little relieved now, I turned my head to look at my own situation and suddenly felt a sharp pain. I looked at the black spot’s dark surface and found that I was so close to it that there wasn’t any distance at all.

I looked at that black surface reflecting my face and suddenly saw my expression twist.

At this time, I heard some strange sounds coming from the dark spot, as if someone was muttering to himself.

<Introduction 2><Table of Contents><Chapter 2>

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TN Notes:

(1) I had to take some liberties with this one because Wu Xie makes a pun on Poker-Face’s nickname. The raw said something like “whether he was a stuffy oil bottle or a top grade stuffy oil bottle”, so I used “whether he was highly skilled or the best of the best” instead. It’s my fault for calling him Poker-Face instead of Stuffy Oil Bottle (aka menyouping), but I will go down with this ship because Stuffy Oil Bottle sounds stupid in English lol.