Chapter 65: Little Rat Me, Loves Crawling Through Ducts The Most~
Jiang Ce could hardly imagine that a person who looked so burly would actually carry such an exquisite mirror with him.
Although Qin Shen Bo had extremely strong resolve, facing the gaze of so many eyes still made him feel his face heating up.
“A friend’s.”
Qin Shen Bo clearly wouldn’t lie; he picked the most classic one out of ten thousand reasons.
“I understand.” Justice filled Jiang Ce’s eyes as he nodded affirmatively, then took the mirror.
He raised the mirror and pointed it in different directions, but found nothing.
Liang Zhi Che said dispiritedly: “There’s nothing.”
Jiang Ce put down the mirror and said seriously: “How about we still trouble Martial Uncle Xuan Qing to blast a path? Whoever survives will depend on their capability.”
“It’s not at that point yet.” Lu Xing’s eyelids twitched.
“Maybe the direction is wrong,” Xuan Qing suddenly said.
He looked at the stone chamber’s structure, as if associating it with something: “Don’t you think this place has been polished too smoothly?”
Jiang Ce was stunned and reached out to press the stone wall; it indeed felt very smooth, like it had been scraped with a layer of porcelain powder.
Moreover, the stone chamber contained nothing but those few corpses—not even a speck of dust—making it excessively clean, even abnormally so.
“Martial Uncle, are you saying the so-called mirror is actually this entire stone chamber?” Liang Zhi Zhou asked, puzzled.
No matter how you looked at it, this place had no relation to a mirror.
“I’m not sure either; it’s just that something’s off here. Logically, even a formation would have a formation eye or something similar, but there’s nothing here.” Xuan Qing shook his head, also puzzled by it.
He couldn’t figure out why anyone would build a place like this with no practical use.
But Jiang Ce was inspired by Xuan Qing’s words and looked up.
The stone chamber was not only spacious but also very tall, about three stories high.
Earlier, everyone had been attracted by the corpses, and with nothing special on the stone chamber’s ceiling, there was little difference between top and bottom, so no one had paid special attention.
After staring for a moment, Jiang Ce seemed to discover something. He leaped up with all his strength, and his left hand, empowered by the Golden Bell Shield, plunged straight into the equally smooth stone ceiling, embedding firmly and suspending him there.
“Jiang Ce, what are you…” Xuan Qing looked up, his face puzzled.
Jiang Ce didn’t reply but extended his right hand to cover the stone wall and feel it for a moment, then said joyfully to everyone:
“The stone wall has a interlayer; there’s a secret door in the ceiling!”
Everyone was delighted and followed suit, each using their abilities to climb to the ceiling, soon finding eight secret doors.
The secret doors were designed very ingeniously and could only be pushed up from below, somewhat like a sewer manhole cover, about half a meter square.
At first, there was great resistance when pushing; if not felt carefully, it was easy to mistake them for solid. Once the resistance was overcome, the secret door would rise upward.
If released after opening, it would slowly descend after a while, sealing tightly without a sound.
Liang Zhi Che below suddenly realized: “No wonder it’s called a mirror; the door is actually above, making this stone chamber like an inverted mirror world.”
Back on the ground, Jiang Ce clapped his hands, shaking off the debris from his left hand, calmly accepting the approving gazes from everyone except Liang Zhi Zhou.
But their expressions showed no relaxation.
Because the problem arose again: there were eight secret doors—how to know which one led to where they wanted to go?
Xuan Qing pondered for a moment, then took a turtle shell and several copper coins from his sleeve and began divining on the spot.
Gongyang Dan watched Xuan Qing handle these items enviously and explained to the others: “This is my Taoist divination technique; only those who touch the rules of heaven and earth can cultivate it.”
Soon, Xuan Qing’s perpetually serious expression finally relaxed, and he explained:
“Unexpectedly, this is indeed a formation, conforming to Qi Men Dun Jia techniques, but very rudimentary and easy to crack.
These eight doors correspond to the eight gates. I’ve confirmed the positions of three auspicious gates, but for safety, we shouldn’t split up. Let’s enter the Life Gate together first and see, then plan.”
“Good.”
The others naturally had no objections and followed Xuan Qing into one of the secret doors.
Jiang Ce still lagged at the end.
The inside of the secret door was like a pipe, going straight up.
Due to the pipe’s extreme narrowness, Jiang Ce couldn’t move freely or get a foothold. Without hesitation, he used the Golden Bell Shield to forcibly chisel pits into the stone wall, climbing up like on a ladder.
“How does it feel like I’ve really become a rat crawling in the sewer?”
Jiang Ce couldn’t help but complain.
But after climbing some distance, he sensed something wrong.
Logically, his climbing speed wasn’t slow, and his cultivation was among the highest of those who came together—why hadn’t he caught up to the people ahead despite entering last?
He curiously looked up, but Xuan Qing’s glowing fly whisk from moments ago wasn’t in Jiang Ce’s view.
This suddenly made him uneasy, and he loudly shouted the others’ names.
But in the passage, besides his own echo, he heard nothing.
With no other choice, Jiang Ce planned to speed up and see what was going on above.
Just as he mustered his strength to increase speed, a head poked out from ten-plus meters above: “Jiang Ce?”
Jiang Ce narrowed his eyes, avoiding the glaring glare from the mobile phone in that person’s hand, recognized him, and relaxed.
“Liang Zhi Che? Why didn’t you answer me? I thought you’d gotten lost.”
“Is there a possibility that we really got lost?” Liang Zhi Che’s expression was unnatural, as if something strange had happened.
Jiang Ce maxed out the Golden Bell Shield’s power; except for that oil pot not appearing, the effects were at maximum, making him like a white incandescent bulb. He climbed up in a few moves.
Above was a platform tall enough for one person, with Liang Zhi Che lying on it, peering down.
Seeing Jiang Ce climb up at an absurd speed like some freak using hands and feet, Liang Zhi Che quickly backed up to make space.
“What sorcery is that? How is it so cool?”
Jiang Ce sat on the platform panting heavily, retracting his glow: “Don’t talk nonsense; what happened?”
Liang Zhi Zhou had just explained with a troubled face: “I don’t know what happened. After I entered, I could initially see my brother’s back, but after climbing head-down for a bit and looking up again, there was no one ahead.
I finally climbed here and found the end was this platform, so I crawled in. I’d just rested a moment when I heard your voice. As for the path ahead…”
Jiang Ce looked where he pointed and saw stairs ahead leading downward, then a grand underground labyrinth.
“As you see, not only did we get separated, but this place doesn’t look like anywhere an auspicious gate would lead.”
