"There's something ahead!" I drew my short sword and pulled out my pistol with the other hand. Sun Fatty raised his crossbow, aiming it at the space in front of Hao Zhengyi. Even Hugo, after fumbling inside his coat for a while, finally produced his last vial of holy water. His right hand had already reached behind his waist, though the conflicted look on his face showed he was still debating whether to take out what was hidden back there.
All three of us held our breath. If anything so much as twitched in front of Hao Zhengyi, we'd unleash everything we had in that direction.
But Hao remained frozen in place, unmoving. I slowly tilted my head back and whispered into Sun Fatty's ear, "Da Sheng, I'm going over. If anything happens, cover me."
"Don't—" Sun Fatty only got one word out before Hao Zhengyi suddenly wavered. His body lurched, and he grabbed the wall for support before letting out a guttural "Waaagh!" and throwing up everything in his stomach.
The tense atmosphere dissipated instantly.
Sun Fatty curled his lip and muttered, "Really, Director Hao, big brother... if you couldn't hold it, you could've just said so. No one's gonna laugh at you. Don't scare us like that—I thought that damn Soul-Hair had found a shortcut to ambush us again. Wait... you still had something left in your stomach to puke? What'd you sneak off and eat?"
Hao ignored him and kept vomiting until his stomach was empty. His complexion finally looked a bit better. Wiping his mouth, he said nothing and continued walking forward—though his pace had noticeably slowed.
The short delay actually helped the rest of us recover from the dizziness and nausea. We followed behind him, resuming our descent.
But we hadn't gone far when Hao Zhengyi came to a halt again, standing stock-still ahead of us.
Sun Fatty sighed at the sight of his back and grumbled, "Director Hao, big brother, could you please finish throwing up all at once before we go? Not to be rude, but how much did you sneak off and eat?"
Just as he finished complaining, Hao Zhengyi gave a grunt and said, "Looks like we've got a little problem."
His tone didn't sound right, and the three of us—Sun Fatty, Hugo, and I—hurried forward. Sure enough, at Hao's feet was another puddle of fresh vomit. That explained why we'd been smelling that sour stench for so long. This path had slopes and uneven terrain, and we were surrounded by darkness—though we had some faint light, it didn't reach far. The path ahead had felt like we were making progress, but it was all an illusion.
Upon seeing the vomit, both Sun Fatty and Hugo's expressions changed. Almost simultaneously, they pulled out their phones and opened the photo of the fire-oil map we'd taken earlier.
"This path's a dead end! We've been walking in circles the whole time!" Sun Fatty snapped, shooting me and Hugo a glare.
Hao Zhengyi came over and took Hugo's phone, staring at the image of a burning circle. That circle represented the dead-end path. Its lower exit had clearly been severed. We'd originally assumed this spiral-shaped passage would lead to the lower tier and connect with another route, but now it looked like the fire-oil diagram was misleading—like someone had drawn it wrong.
"Still not right," Sun Fatty said, scanning the group with widened eyes. "The path we entered through is gone…"
His comment made me realize something terrifying. When we'd first arrived here, the entrance was part of this circular passage. But we'd circled around so many times and never spotted it again.
No one said anything for a long moment. Finally, Hao Zhengyi looked at Sun Fatty and said, "Little Fatty, let me borrow your gun."
Sun Fatty immediately took a step back, one hand instinctively covering the holster at his waist. He frowned and said, "Director Hao, big brother, no offense—but given the situation between our two sides… do you really think I'd hand you a gun?"
Hao gave a faint smile. The movement made his face contort, the intact and ruptured blisters twisting into something grotesque. It was a familiar expression from Hao, but on this face, at this moment, it had an unnerving effect.
"I should've been more specific," he said calmly. "Just one bullet will do. In this situation, a single round is enough."
Still seeing Sun Fatty hesitate, I stepped forward and pulled out my own pistol. I ejected a single bullet and handed it to Hao Zhengyi. I didn't want to stay here any longer, and I was tired of the bickering.
Hao took the bullet without acknowledging me at all. Under the faint light of the ancient lamp-holder, he carefully examined the rune etched into the tip. Then, to our astonishment, he pressed the bullet against the wall and scraped off one side of the rune.
The three of us stared in confusion. Sun Fatty spoke first: "Director Hao, big brother—what the hell are you doing?"
Still not looking at me, Hao responded to Sun Fatty right away. "I've run into something like this before," he said while continuing to work. "Back then, someone taught me this trick. Of course, that was out in the wild, and the conditions were very different from now. Not sure if it'll work here."
By the time he finished speaking, he had already scraped away one side of the rune. Then he placed the bullet on the ground and, with two fingers, gave it a twist to make it spin.
As I watched the bullet spin, I realized what he was trying to do.
The bullet's rotation gradually slowed… until it stopped, the tip pointing behind us.
Hao narrowed his eyes at the direction the bullet pointed. He jerked his chin that way and said, "We're turning around."
As soon as he finished speaking, Sun Fatty immediately said, "Director Hao's brother, are you sure this is reliable? I'm not saying anything, but isn't this the same as throwing shoes?" Hao Wenming's brother picked up the bullet from the ground and tossed it to me, then turned to Sun Fatty and said, "So do you have a better idea? If you do, I'll follow your plan."
Sun Fatty blinked a few times but couldn't come up with a rebuttal. By then, Hao Wenming's brother had already turned and started walking behind us. Hugo hesitated for a moment but then followed closely. When he reached the side of me and Sun Fatty, he stopped and quietly said, "Follow him. Although Hao doesn't know as much as Yang about what's going on here, he must know things we don't." After that, Director Hugo patted Sun Fatty on the shoulder and continued trailing behind Hao Wenming's brother.
Seeing Sun Fatty still wearing a look of disbelief, I pulled him along to follow Hao Wenming's brother and Hugo. While walking back, I took the opportunity to check the bullets Hao Wenming's brother gave me and discovered that the "Mountain-Breaking Curse" from the Longhu Mountain lineage had been rubbed off. Although I still didn't understand his intention, I vaguely felt that Hao's action might help us find a way out.
Reluctantly, Sun Fatty followed us, pulled along. After walking backward for seven or eight minutes, we suddenly heard Hugo say up front, "This is the secret door we came through." Sun Fatty and I moved closer, and sure enough, it was the spot where we had entered. Sun Fatty glanced at Hao Wenming's brother, who was standing by the secret door with a furrowed brow, and said, "He really guessed right."
Hao Wenming's brother heard Sun Fatty's voice, looked up, and picked up a bullet from the ground. He said to Sun Fatty, "Little Fatty, this is yours, right?" Sun Fatty only chuckled quietly and didn't reply. Hao Wenming's brother didn't press further, looked at Sun Fatty once more, then threw the bullet back where he found it.
Hao Wenming's brother continued forward. Once he walked a bit ahead, Sun Fatty lightly nudged the bullet on the ground with his toe, pointing the bullet's tip in the direction we were heading. We followed behind Hao Wenming's brother again, and after a short time, the winding spiral path suddenly opened into a straight narrow path.
Sun Fatty glanced back at the circular path and said, "I'm just saying, what kind of path is this? Walking forward makes you sick, but walking backward leads out." Hao Wenming's brother always looked down on Sun Fatty slightly. He seemed to have completely forgotten the earlier little incident. He stopped and took a deep breath, then looked back at Sun Fatty and said, "What kind of path? It's just an ordinary ghost trap. Our Heavenly Eyes were blocked, so we fell into it. Normally, you could just shoot anywhere to solve the problem." He paused, glanced around, and continued, "But shooting might scare something inside."
I vaguely guessed what Hao Wenming's brother meant. After he finished, I said to him, "Brother Hao, you're not talking about Zhang Rantian, are you? We all saw him get pulled under the sea just now. Zhang Rantian's life can't be that hard to survive that, right?" "What do you think?" Hao Wenming's brother's gaze shifted from Sun Fatty to me. He said, "You can't say Zhang Rantian is dead just because he hasn't stopped breathing. There are only three corpses under the sea eye outside, and one's definitely missing. You all saw Zhang Rantian's abilities. If he could walk back and forth inside the Yin Convergence Point, he would have already killed all the Xie family members. He wouldn't be waiting until now to make a move."
Hao Wenming's brother was noticeably more talkative now, apparently still affected by the fierce battle with the soul mace earlier. With his gear and subordinates gone, and the road ahead unknown, Brother Hao's attitude finally shifted. I wanted to ask more, but suddenly saw Director Hugo's body stiffen, and then he extended the lamp holder forward. I followed the direction the lamp pointed and saw some clothes scattered about fifteen or sixteen meters in front of Hugo.
At this moment, Hao Wenming's brother and Sun Fatty also noticed Hugo's reaction. Hao Wenming's brother quickly walked toward the clothes, but Hugo was faster and reached them first, picking up the wet clothes. The set included everything from outerwear down to underwear, all soaked as if just pulled from the water. They smelled strongly of the sea.
Hugo held the pile of clothes and kept rummaging inside. Finally, inside a black suit jacket, he found a special employee card. The card's plastic seal was still intact despite soaking for so long; no water seeped inside. The name printed on the card was Zhang Rantian, with a photo attached.
Sun Fatty and I moved closer to look at the photo. As soon as I saw the face, I reflexively glanced around; it was still pitch black, with no other abnormalities. "Lazi, it's useless," Sun Fatty waved his hand at me and said, "I'm just saying, whether Zhang Rantian is dead or not, it's been hours since he got pulled under. He can't have stayed here all this time. He must have taken off his clothes and run when he saw us coming."
At this, Sun Fatty suddenly turned to Hao Wenming's brother and said, "But seriously, where is he going naked like that?" Hao Wenming's brother met his gaze calmly, lifted his chin toward the path's end, and said, "Just keep going forward. As long as this path doesn't branch, we'll meet him sooner or later."
Seeing the pile of clothes revived Hao Wenming's brother's spirit; the burns and other wounds on him didn't seem as painful anymore. Just as he was about to continue forward, Hugo said, "Wait, I think we might have overlooked something." He looked up at Hao Wenming's brother and Sun Fatty and said, "He must have fallen into the sea from the plaza side. The plaza is quite far from here. How did Zhang Rantian get through all these demon apostles along the way?"
Hearing this, Hao Wenming's brother hesitated. Before he could answer, Sun Fatty spoke up, "There should be more than one secret passage here. It's not just me saying it, but Dong Qichao marked this route with a fire oil icon so his friend would see it and know how to get to the Afterlife Platform. So, Brother Hao, do you have anything to add?" Hao Wenming's brother glanced at Sun Fatty, smiled faintly, said nothing, and walked straight toward the end of the path.
We kept walking, and to my surprise, the path wasn't long. After five or six minutes, we finally reached the end and entered a warehouse-like space. This warehouse seemed to be used for storing stone tablets, with hundreds arranged haphazardly in all corners.
We spread out and looked around the warehouse. Besides stone tablets, there was nothing else—no sign of Zhang Rantian. But Hugo found a few useful things in a corner. "Look what I found," he said, holding a large xenon flashlight. He switched it on, and a dazzling beam shot out, lighting up the area. I hadn't seen such bright light in a long time and found it a bit blinding, so I looked down to avoid it.
Maybe intentionally, Hugo shone the light on the stone tablet near my feet and said, "Shen, you wouldn't expect to find this here." "Director Hugo, could you dim the flashlight a bit…" I started to say. Suddenly, I saw red characters carved into the tablet illuminated by the xenon beam. Each character was traced over with red paint, and two big characters stood out especially clearly — "Blood Curse."
"Director Yu, shine it over here!" I pointed at the red characters on the tablet and shouted to Hugo. My voice startled Hao Wenming's brother and Sun Fatty, who also came over. Hao Wenming's brother squatted and tried to lift the stone tablet but grimaced, probably hurting his rib injury. I couldn't stand it and helped him lift it up.
Hao Wenming's brother stared silently at the tablet for a long time. Sun Fatty, never one to hold back, pulled out his phone and took photos of the stone tablet. Then he stopped looking at it and said to Hao Wenming's brother, "Brother Hao, what treasure is this? Looks like you can't pull it out even if you want to. I'm just saying, a quick look is enough, you can't take it with you, and thinking about it just makes you feel bad. Why bother?"