There was a creaking sound from the innermost room.
Xiaolan and Baomu took a few steps forward.
"What's the noise?" Jie Yan asked in a weak voice.
Xiaolan didn't answer, but moved closer and looked towards the end of the dark corridor.
"Take the beads."
After listening to Xiaolan's words, Jie Yan immediately grabbed the orb and held it tightly in his hand.
The three of them walked into the corridor together.
Qin Sicong's back gradually appeared in front of them. He stood there blankly, looking up at the wall in front of him.
"Qin Sicong?" Xiaolan asked.
Qin Sicong turned his head stiffly, his eyes full of surprise.
Then he raised his hand and pointed forward.
A dark thing was hanging by the wall.
The thing was as long as a person and was spindle-shaped. Its dark surface was covered with rough lines. A long rope hung the thing, causing it to hang in mid-air and slowly rotate in circles.
"What is this?" Jie Yan's eyes widened, "Like...a huge chrysalis."
"Mother's body!" Xiaolan shouted softly, and quickly stretched out her hands to grab Qin Sicong's sleeves, "Run! This is the mother's body!"
Xiaolan did not pull Qin Sicong's body. He shook his head with trembling lips, his voice choked, "It...is my face."
Several people looked at the giant pupa together, and its body was still spinning. Finally, a piece of white stuff was exposed in front of them, which was the face of the man they saw during the day.
The man's face was serious, his eyes were closed, and his face was wrapped under a black pupa shell, making it look extremely pale.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes.
The four people shook their heads together.
The thick black eyes oozed blood, and the men's eyes cut through their bodies like daggers.
The creaking sound became louder.
With a stabbing sound, a crack suddenly appeared in the black pupa, revealing the white stuff on the inside.
Several black dots squeezed out from the gap, and a buzzing sound rang in the ears of the four people.
"Run!" Jie Yan no longer lowered his voice, but shouted loudly, "It's a poisonous bee!"
Xiaolan picked up Qin Sicong and ran away.
"But...my face..."
"I've got my face, run away!"
As soon as Xiaolan finished speaking, the cracks in the giant pupa opened wider, and more poisonous bees flew out from the pupa and pounced on the four people who hurriedly escaped.
Jie Yan kicked the door open and the four people ran out quickly.
The black swarm of bees was like a dark cloud, following closely behind them, and one or two faster poisonous bees could even be seen passing by their ears.
The four people ran fiercely on the path, and the swarm gradually approached.
"What should we do?!" Jie Yan waved away a poisonous bee from his face with his sleeve and shouted loudly, "This thing won't let us go! Otherwise, throw away the beads..."
"No!" Xiaolan retorted immediately.
"Water!..." Qin Sicong shouted while panting heavily, "Bees are afraid of water..."
By the way, water!
"Let's go to the pond behind the village quickly!"
Xiaolan shouted and led the four people to turn to the right. The pond was not far away from them. After bypassing a house, the calm lotus pond appeared in front of them.
The swarm seemed to know what they wanted to do and moved faster.
A black swarm of bees was about to loom over their heads.
There was still half a step away from the pond, but Xiaolan suddenly felt a stab of pain on the back of her hand. Before she could even raise her right hand to see what happened, her vision went dark and she fell straight towards the water.
It was like having a long, long dream.
In her dream, Xiaolan remembered that she had not rested for so many days.
In the dream there is only endless floating and relaxation.
There are also a few... faces that flash by from time to time.
Faces, faces everywhere.
I don’t understand and I don’t want to think about it.
If it weren't for the sudden earthquake in the dream world, Xiaolan wouldn't even want to wake up.
Therefore, when she opened her eyes, Xiaolan sat up with bared teeth, as if someone with severe anger had been disturbed from a clear dream.
"Xiaolan!" Baomu in front of him hugged himself with tears in his eyes.
Xiaolan put away her fangs and stared blankly at the people in front of her.
Three men's faces.
Xiaolan looked at the man with the precious wood face hugging her. It took him a while to react, and then he pushed him away, "What are you doing?!"
"Xiaolan, we have all changed back," Baomu sniffed aggrievedly, "If you don't believe me, just touch your face."
Xiaolan looked at the three people, then looked down at herself.
"If you don't believe me, look into the water. There is a pool over there." Jie Yan crossed his arms and pointed behind Xiaolan.
"I've changed back..." Xiaolan touched her face in disbelief, "Is... is this level over? Have we cleared it?"
The three people shook their heads.
"Not yet," Baomu helped Xiaolan up, "but we finally understand the content of the fourth page."
"The fourth page..." Everything about the book in the coffin slowly returned to Xiaolan's mind, "What is it?"
"It's the lotus leaf." Jie Yan took out the painting and pointed at the irregular circles on it.
"Lotus leaf?"
"Yes, what is painted in this painting is the lotus leaves in this pond, which refers to the pond. We jumped into the pond crookedly and got here."
After listening to Baomu's words, Xiaolan looked around her.
They were at the end of a long and narrow tunnel. There was a deep pool beside the four of them. The tunnel was so deep that it was impossible to see what was at the other end. Only the orange wall lamps that occasionally appeared on the rock wall provided a glimmer of light.
"This is... the space under the pond?" Xiaolan asked in disbelief.
The three of them nodded.
"You were stung by a poisonous bee, but it doesn't seem to be a big problem," Qin Sicong pointed to Xiaolan's hand, "I just slept a little longer."
Xiaolan nodded, "That book..."
Jie Yan quickly unfolded the book and took out a few wet sheets of paper, and the four of them gathered together to read.
"Since the fourth picture is a lotus leaf, it points us to the space under the pond, so does the fifth picture mean..."
Everyone looked at the long and narrow tunnel in front of them.
"What's inside?" Xiaolan asked.
Baomu shook his head, "We tried to walk forward, but we couldn't reach the end, so we thought of coming back here first. After all, you are still fainting and may need water."
"Thank you."
Xiaolan smiled and realized that she was indeed thirsty. After drinking enough, she wiped her mouth and looked towards the tunnel.
"What do you mean you can't reach the end? Is this tunnel very long?"
"It's not that simple..."
The three of them stood up straight and looked into the depths of the dark tunnel together.
"Let's walk you through it once. You'll know after you walk through it once."
The four people were walking in the tunnel. Xiaolan looked at the side wall of the tunnel according to the fifth page of the book in the coffin.
"This is it."
"There's nothing to deny," Jie Yan said lazily, "but the problem is, hey, you'll understand later."
The four people walked for about ten minutes.
Jie Yan snorted, "That's almost it."
Xiaolan looked at them curiously.
"It should be almost done," Qin Sicong turned around, "Let's go back."
"Look back?"
"Well, look back."
Xiaolan turned around and walked a few steps behind the three of them. The sight in front of her eyes suddenly became wider.
They are back again.
"Look, that's it," Jie Yan pointed helplessly at the tunnel, "No matter how long we walk, we can't reach the end, and as soon as we turn around, we'll be back where we started."
"We suspect...we have never walked in at all," Qin Sicong said.
"What do you mean, we've been hanging around the entrance of the cave?" Xiaolan concluded.
The three of them nodded.
"Could it be that only nine people are here before we can..." Qin Sicong said softly.
The four of them were silent for a while.
"You mean we just give up?" Jie Yan said angrily.
"I didn't mean that..."
"Then you have always been there with nine people, and now there are only four of us left. Is there any use in saying that?"
"I'm just proposing an idea."
"That's very nice to say..."
The tall and powerful Qin Sicong was so angry at Jie Yan that his face turned red. It was Xiaolan and Baomu who interrupted their quarrel, and the atmosphere finally eased.
"By the way," Xiaolan suddenly stood up from the ground, "Now that we have changed back to our original appearance, where is the bead? Is the bead still there?"
"It wasn't there when I woke up," Jie Yan shrugged, "Maybe it turned into his face."
He pointed at Qin Sicong.
"Oops," Xiaolan frowned, "We haven't seen clearly what was drawn in the last picture."
The others seemed to have just remembered this and looked at Xiaolan blankly.
"Do you still remember the paintings you saw on the beads?" Xiaolan asked, looking at Bao Mu and Xie Yan.
"I remember a few wavy curves," Baomu gestured with his fingers, "but I didn't see the details clearly."
"Me too." Jie Yan said quickly.
Not to mention Qin Sicong, who was having sex with the giant pupa at that time and didn't even see what the beads looked like.
The three people squatted on the ground and randomly drew some strange things from memory. They couldn't figure out the reason, but there were so many things they didn't understand, and this was not the least of them.
After checking the contents of the book in the coffin, everyone looked towards the tunnel again.
How on earth are we going to go through this tunnel and find the place with the nine doors in the book in the coffin?
"Why don't you try walking a little further this time?" Jie Yan asked.
So everyone really left again.
The three men walked until their footsteps became tired. When they turned around, they saw the familiar pond again.
"How about walking backwards once?"
The three of them started walking backwards, watching themselves getting further and further away from the entrance of the tunnel.
"Is it done this time?" Jie Yan said, turning around.
The others followed him and turned around.
They are back again.
The four people squatted dejectedly by the pool, looking desperately at the four faces that finally returned to their own bodies.
Jie Yan looked irritably at the blank book in the coffin and the several paintings they had copied.
Xiaolan and Baomu stood back to back, thinking intently.
Qin Sicong sat cross-legged on the side of the tunnel and sighed boredly. Then he reached into his front and groped a few times and took out something.
As soon as Xiaolan saw the thing, he stood up immediately, causing Baomu to almost lie down.
"The mask is still there?!"
What Qin Sicong held in his hand was the completely black wooden mask.
Qin Sicong looked at the three people who suddenly came over and let out an "arrogant" sound.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier that this thing was still there?!" Jie Yan opened his mouth and complained.
Qin Sicong handed out the mask at a loss, "I...I don't know what this has to do with..."
"What if the clue is on the mask? Are you responsible?..." Jie Yan complained cursingly.
"But when we were walking through the tunnel just now, this mask was always on me," Qin Sicong argued, "aren't we still not going out?"
"Since it is a mask," Xiaolan handed the mask back to Qin Sicong, "You can try it on your face."
"Wear it on your face?"
"Uh-huh."
Qin Sicong awkwardly picked up the mask and put it up to his face. When his eyes looked at them through the two holes in the mask, the three of them shuddered involuntarily.
Qin Sicong's shy and friendly eyes, after passing through the two diamond-shaped holes, actually gave people a cold and cold fear like a thorn in the back.
"What's wrong?" Qin Sicong said and took off the mask.
"No, don't take it off," Xiaolan held him down, "Just keep it on, turn around, let's enter the tunnel and move forward."
The three of them followed the incomprehensible Qin Sicong, step by step, and slowly entered the tunnel.
Four people passed a wall lamp.
With a cry, a warm breeze seemed to blow by, and the surrounding area suddenly became brighter.
The weak flame in the wall lamp suddenly grew larger, illuminating this dark area.
Qin Sicong was startled by the flames and almost took the mask away, but was grabbed by Xiaolan and Baomu.
"Don't be afraid, just keep going forward." Xiaolan half-pushed Qin Sicong and said.
Baomu also nodded, "We may have already walked in."
The four of them walked to the second wall lamp, and with another shout, the second wall lamp was also lit.
Jie Yan mustered up his courage, turned around, looked around, and said excitedly, "Finally there's no longer a pool behind!"
Behind him is a tunnel that has become brightly lit.
The ninth lamp was also lit.
A reddish-brown curved wooden door appeared in front of them.
"Why is there only one door?" Jie Yan looked at the door and then at the sixth picture in his hand.
"Do you want to open it?" Qin Sicong held up the mask and lowered his head to ask Xiang Xiaolan.
Xiaolan stretched out her hand. The brass door handle was not cold, but had a faint warmth, as if someone had used it not long ago.
twist.
The wooden door opened silently, revealing the world behind it.
It was a wide semi-arc space with nine doors lined up one by one, appearing opposite them.
Jie Yan looked at it for a long time and asked, "Aren't you going in?"
No one had the intention to go in first.
"Give me the mask and I'll go in first." Jie Yan stretched out his hand towards Qin Sicong.
Before Qin Sicong could react, Jie Yan directly grabbed his mask. The two of them were fighting for each other by the narrow door, staggering. Xiaolan looked at the two of them and pretended to touch them. The two of them fell in neatly.