"Brother! Brother, where are you?"
At the entrance of a cave shrouded in thick fog, a panting figure suddenly rushed out in a weird posture, and fell into the cave after staggering a few times.
"Hoo, ho, I'm so exhausted...Brother! Huh?"
Duan Qing, who twisted his body and sat on the ground, glanced back and forth inside the cave, but did not see the familiar figure of the big man in black armor.
"You can't wait in the cave..."
"If it were me, I would never wait inside." In a flash of blue light, a black figure appeared again in the thick fog behind, accompanied by the voice of Xue Ling Huan Bing: "Don't forget , and there’s a body inside.”
"I hope he really goes in and waits."
After confirming the surrounding situation and finding that there was indeed no sign of human activity, Duan Qing slowly got up from the ground: "If he is not here, then it is possible that... he is really looking for us. "
"With the way he looked seriously injured...this was no fun at all."
Art, who was at the back, finally passed through the clouds and mist with a weird gesture, and fell to the ground like Duan Qing before. The woman in the black cloak put away the water stone in her hand and followed Duan Qing's footsteps. into the cave where they first appeared. But before she could check the situation here, a burst of white light suddenly lit up next to a stone pillar at the entrance of the cave.
"Hey, you're back."
Art fell to the ground and involuntarily covered his eyes because of the bright light. Only after the white light faded did he see the familiar figure belonging to the big man in black armor behind the stone pillar.
"It's so scary!" Duan Qing, who had already reached the front, immediately turned around and shouted: "I thought you were teleported too, brother..."
"The labor and management are not stupid! The labor and management are just offline... No, they are hiding behind the rocks to rest for a while." The big man in black armor, who maintained a sitting position, grinned carelessly and said: "I even ate some in the meantime. Things, and even went to the toilet..."
"Stop, stop, stop...how are your injuries?"
"It should be almost done." After checking the system prompts, Nan Tieshan muttered in a low voice: "Why is it not healed yet... What time is it now?"
"How do we know, this kind of ghost place... It should be during the day anyway."
"By the way, why did it take you so long to come back? What have you done?"
"I had a fight with others down there, chatted with old friends for a while, and then started walking through this maze..." Pointing to the thick clouds and mist outside the cave, Duan Qing sighed and said: "Holy shit, you I don’t know how abnormal this fog is. Those rays of light that I dare not touch are passing through the air, just like sewing clothes, which makes my waist hurt even now..."
In the incomprehensible look in the big man's eyes, several people briefly explained some of the things that happened at the mountain pass during the previous period, which made the big man who regarded himself as a son of the river and lake couldn't help but sigh.
"I didn't expect that the fight that happened in the dark would have something to say." The big man looked unhappy. He didn't know whether he was angry because the other party came to his door, or he was disappointed because he didn't catch up with the fight: "They actually He will also seek revenge...but after hearing what you said, I am very interested in their captain."
"There's a guy I met in Novice Village, a very nice guy." After looking at the other person's appearance, Duan Qing suppressed his smile: "You two... should get along very well."
"Really?" The big man touched his chin: "Since you admire him so much, you should bring him to our Iron Fist Gang if you have the chance..."
"Impossible, I am now a member of Dawn Glory." Xue Ling Huan Bing said coldly from the side.
"I'm so afraid. A real man is not afraid of death, let alone poaching a corner..."
"He is one of the more active members of the Glory Guild. If you dig it out so blatantly, aren't you afraid of being tortured?" The woman said with some humor: "That's the Glory Guild."
"Glory of Dawn? This name sounds familiar..."
"It's the glory before, the one who later split up." Duan Qing explained: "Brother can check it out if you have the chance, but don't think about these things now."
He walked to the entrance of the cave: "It's getting late, should we set off?"
"Departure? Where to go?"
"Of course..." Duan Qing pointed at the top of his head: "Let's go up."
"You...have figured out the secret of this cloud?" the big man asked in surprise.
"Otherwise, how would we come back?" Duan Qing pointed to the woman in black cloak beside him: "In the end, we have to thank the mysterious businessman. The stone she sold to her played a big role, so... ..”
"She's the boss now."
"What do you mean?" Nan Tieshan stood up impatiently, and then grinned for a while because of the pain in his body: "Which stone? Please explain to me..."
"...The situation is very complicated. You'd better go out and see for yourself."
Watching the two people walking outside one after another, and watching the sky gradually darken, Duan Qing shook his head helplessly, and then patted Art on the shoulder.
"Did you see it? This is what an adventurer looks like."
****************
The road leading to the top of the mountain is getting narrower and narrower. This is also the result of seeing the real scene after Duan Qing and his group found a way to dispel the fog. As they move forward, the two sides of the road begin to converge towards the middle. , and with the flow of clouds and mist, the scenes on both sides are gradually revealed.
There is no view of the scene below...the cliff.
The few people who didn't want to try what it would be like to fall from here just checked the width of the mountain road before retracting their bodies, and then continued to focus on safely passing through the barriers left by the magic lines. As the area shrinks, the thorns formed by these strange magic patterns become more complex and more difficult for people to pass. Faint rays of light swept across the path they passed like infrared rays, and some were even constantly refracting and twisting, forming an insurmountable three-dimensional scene. Moreover, they had to always pay attention to their feet while crawling slowly. Duan Qing even noticed a small dot in the open space in front of him while climbing over the light.
"Pay attention." Then he pointed to the area: "Don't step on this point."
"Can such a small thing trigger a mechanism?" Since he didn't know much about the so-called principle, the big man in black armor simply called these magic patterns as a mechanism: "Have you ever tried what the reaction would be if you touched it? "
"We have only tried it with objects." He retracted his weird sumo-like posture, and Duan Qing, who had already turned over, measured the distance between the lights in front of him, and then began to assume the next suitable posture: "Although it is possible , not every one of these rays will work, but... no one can be sure of that."
"We don't have magicians and can't understand these things, so we have to use this stupid method." He slowly stretched out his right foot: "A method that does not touch any magic patterns."
"You are really stupid." Nan Tieshan looked around him up and down: "Especially for someone as tall as me..."
"Pfft."
The woman behind couldn't help laughing: "You can consider... losing weight."
"What's the point of losing weight? These are all muscles!" Nan Tieshan yelled bitterly, and then bent down again with a black face: "It's a pity that Labor and Capital practiced internal martial arts, and this body can't bend... ...Ouch.”
Enduring the pain still in his body, he carefully climbed over the warning zone that Duan Qing had just climbed over, and then stopped again: "This kind of work is really difficult for me... ugh ?”
He leaned over and looked at his feet: "Didn't you...didn't you notice that thing?"
"What?" Duan Qing in front looked back at Nantieshan, and then followed his gaze and found a crack on the mountain on the left: "Well, isn't it normal for some stone cracks to appear on the mountain? Things..."
"Have you forgotten the crack on the cliff when we came here? This is probably another secret entrance!"
"The possibility is already very low." Duan Qing shook his head: "We have been climbing up in circles. Now not only the road has become narrower and narrower, but the road we have taken around has also become shorter and shorter."
He looked at the other people, a light flashing in his eyes: "This shows... that we are very close to the end."
Others looked at Duan Qing with hope in their eyes.
"We have been circling counterclockwise. Judging from the current situation, 80% of the right side is a cliff. Although it cannot be confirmed, I think no one wants to really give it a try." Duan Qing continued to explore the road. , turned back and started looking for the next foothold: "And the mountain on our left should be much smaller now than the place we climbed up before. Don't forget that we also took an elevator, and we don't know how much it has risen in the middle... ..."
He leaned down on the ground, carefully avoiding the carvings on both sides, and then crawled under a line of light: "So those cracks are probably just ordinary cracks, so don't worry about it. If you have to guess, If so, you might as well think about... where that body came from."
The other three people reacted for a while before they understood what Duan Qing was referring to. Xueling Huanbing held the sword in his hand and said in a low voice: "Yes, if this fog has this structure, the people of Yat..."
"How did you die in that cave?"
"Or how he got to this place." Nan Tieshan continued the woman's words: "We have ruled out the possibility of an elevator before, and..."
He looked at Art, who looked sad: "I don't believe you people know how to get through this fog."
"me......"
The young people of the Nosir tribe waved their hands somewhat helplessly - along the way, Art had obviously become much less talkative than before. Probably because he was stimulated by witnessing the death of his clan members, he was no longer interested in asking about the series of things that Duan Qing and Xue Ling Huan Bing took him through later, and just followed the crowd silently. When he was suddenly asked at this moment, he still looked disappointed and depressed: "I, I don't know..."
"It's normal for guys like the Nosier people who live in the deep mountains and old forests to know nothing."
Nan Tieshan shook his head: "Boy, study hard. If you become an adventurer in the future... you will definitely be better than your tribe."
The young man lowered his head and did not answer, but Duan Qing in front suddenly shouted: "Hey, there's something going on here."
The rest of the people looked around, but what they saw was the figure of the man still lying on the ground: "What's wrong?"
"There's...something down here."
Duan Qing was seen lying on a gap in the ground in front of him, stretching his head to look inside. The people behind him hurriedly crossed the rays of light and finally came to Duan Qing's side: "Say, tell me, what's inside?"
"It looks like...a corpse." Duan Qing clapped his hands and stood up slowly.
"There are also dead people in this place?" Xueling Huanbing and Nan Tieshan looked at Art at the same time: "Another person from the Nosier tribe?"
"have no idea."
Before Art could respond, Duan Qing, who lowered his head and thought, explained: "I guess he won't be able to identify anything, because..."
"Only the bones are left - to put it bluntly, this is a human remains."
"A corpse from a long time ago?" Xue Ling Huan Bing asked: "How long? Could it be a thousand years ago..."
"Hey, I'm not a forensic doctor, how could I possibly tell... But I can still be sure that someone came here a long time ago."
"It seems that someone got there before us." Nan Tieshan looked unhappy again: "There is one here, and there may be more ahead."
"Don't worry, even if there are people who have done it first, they are definitely not just...adventurers."
Giving the other two people a look that both you and I understand, Duan Qing continued to climb the stairs: "Whether it is the remains from a thousand years ago or the people of Ate, it is meaningless to us. As for why there are remains here... ....”
"When we get to the top of the mountain... we might figure it out."
As they moved forward, everyone became silent. In addition to being affected by these previous discoveries, they were also oppressed by the surrounding environment - the clouds and mist surrounding them seemed to become heavier and heavier. , the flow of the air seemed to become slower, and due to the time, the light passing through the clouds began to become dim, which was a sign that the sun was about to set. But none of this was a reason for them to become silent - not long after, the first exposed skeleton appeared in front of them.
The road has become even narrower, and several people cannot even pass side by side. They hold on to the rock wall on the side of the mountain and carefully avoid the cliff on the right and the bones on the ground. Duan Qing, who is walking in the front, frowns and carefully identifies There were scattered bones scattered on the ground that were no longer human.
"You..." The question still lingered in his mind: "How did you get here?"
His left hand was empty.
The rock mass that he had been holding on to seemed to have reached the end on his left. Duan Qing slowly raised his head and looked upward. Except for the surrounding clouds and mist, the mountain wall had disappeared before his eyes, and was replaced by a flat landscape. ground.
Due to the scope of the water stone, Duan Qing was unable to confirm how wide the ground was, but a thought in the dark told him that this black ground covered with magic patterns could very well be this road. The end.
"There's no way..." he muttered, then turned back.
"Here we are."
