novelBurial Grounds (I)
| ← Ch.054 | Ch.056 → |
Editor: Kitty
The humid air, filled with the smell of decay, had some sort of scent that was vomit-inducing. He could hear water dripping but did not know where it came from. The sound echoed in his ears. The sound was seemingly transmitted from far away, and yet it seemed to sound right beside his ears.
Luo Jian opened his eyes and found that darkness covered the surroundings in front of him.
No, accurately speaking, there were still specks of light. To be precise, the light source was phosphorescence, which gave off a cold, weak light.
Phosphorus oxidizes slowly in the air. When the heat accumulated on the surface reaches 40˚C, it will spontaneously combust. Part of the energy from the combustion will be released in the form of light energy. This is the reason why phosphorus can emit light in the dark. This is called "phosphorescence."
In ancient times, some people could see weak light specters in tombs and cemeteries and thought it was "will-o'-the-wisp, " but it was actually also a kind of phosphorescence. Similarly, modern people analyzed the necessary conditions and principles of phosphorescence and were also able to use phosphorescent materials to make artificial night pearls.
But this type of light was too weak. Luo Jian's entire body was submerged in pitch-black darkness, so he subconsciously focused his vision on the faint, cold light. He carefully and slowly climbed up from the ground. When he touched the ground, he found it seemed to be covered by small, wet, and smooth rocks. The area he was in was windless, and the air felt extremely thin.
Luo Jian felt that he was probably in a narrow cave because after he stood up and touched the walls on either side of him, he realized he was surrounded by rocks. He calmed down a little and subsequently slowly stepped forward toward the faint and cold light.
Yes, that is right. Luo Jian was now in a secret chamber.
Luo Jian had been living in his uncle's house and monitoring him for 24 hours a day, as per normal. But these days, nothing happened to his uncle. The strange little boy with an umbrella never appeared again. Everything developed toward a good direction. The day when he was supposed to enter the next secret chamber arrived naturally. That night, after Luo Jian made his preparations, he went to sleep.
As soon as he woke up, he appeared in this narrow cave.
The first thing that Luo Jian would do whenever he entered a secret chamber was to look for the printed note. Luo Jian had no night vision, so he could only walk toward somewhere with light. Soon, Luo Jian found that the light source was a small stone on the wall. The stone emitted a weak, blue, cold light and appeared quite beautiful. He could not help but stretch out his hand and dig the stone out from the wall.
After breaking the stone off, Luo Jian found a piece of paper stuck to the stone. It was a printed paper with purple patterns. The contents of the paper were as follows:
[Dear Mr. Luo Jian:]
[Welcome to the "Burial Grounds" secret chamber. This is an ancient tomb that has not been discovered by anyone. Moreover, it is connected to an underground karst cave that has also not yet been discovered. The terrain here is like a labyrinth, and occasionally there are magical 'living creatures' that will make an appearance here. Please be mindful of your personal safety and find your companions as soon as possible. ]
[Similarly, this is also the 'Chaos Chamber Battlefield' prepared for the 'Team Battle. ' If you kill any person from the enemy team, you will get a huge reward. If you are the first to escape from the secret chamber, ahead of the enemy team, your team will win, and all members will receive special rewards. The team that fails will be punished, and the remaining survivors of the failing team will enter a punishment chamber. ]
[in addition, if you destroy the enemy team, you and your team will also be regarded as 'victors, ' but you must escape from the secret chamber to get the rewards. If you cannot escape successfully, all of you will stay here forever. ]
[Due to the special nature of this secret chamber, there will be no time limit for the secret chamber allocated for team battles, and players who cannot escape will stay here forever. Besides that, we cannot provide you with the exact clues and hints regarding the exit. You can only get a quarter of the clues. Maybe killing the enemy players will give you an unexpected surprise. ]
[Hint: Portrait of Tomb Owner]
[PS: The number of members in your team is less than five. For the sake of fairness, the secret chamber has recruited a strong partner for you, whose codename is "The Oracle." Please find your companions as soon as possible because the loners are always the ones being hunted. ]
[With that, the hints are all provided. Good luck. ]
After reading the note, Luo Jian was silent for a long time, and only one sentence echoed in his mind: &#k2018;F*ck, what the heck is happening??!!!'
F*ck, why had it become a team battle?! Even if you wanted to raise the difficulty of the secret chamber, why did the difficulty soar to this level!!! How many times did Lao Tzu escape from the secret chamber in total?! Wasn't it said that the team battle mode would only be unlocked after the team gathered five people and there were two or three senior members who had experienced five or more secret chambers?!
"And obviously our numbers aren't enough!!" Luo Jian wanted to curse."Even if whatever that person's name is has been recruited...... What is his name, Oracle? Ah Lan and I, as well as that unruly Duan Li...... we would only have four members?! It's obvious that the chamber is f*cking with me! Even if it really is f*cking with me, it should at least recruit one more member to gather the minimum of five members for my team. AHHHHH!"
Luo Jian was holding the shimmering stone in one hand and the note in the other. His mind was very confused now. He squatted down since he felt a little numb and sat on the ground with a pale face.
"That's not right. Even if the secret chamber doesn't act according to logic, it wouldn't arrange such a ridiculous team battle. Previously, Duan Li used that contract to force Ah Lan to establish a symbiotic relationship with him, and he became our team member. This made our team grow to three members, and the difficulty of the secret chamber would increase, but it'd be impossible for us to unlock a team battle when we do not have enough members......"
Luo Jian bit his lips and began to think: "Maybe it was due to Duan Li's influence. A large part of what has happened is because of him, but the team member who joined temporarily is also very problematic. The secret chamber only arranged for him to join. Unless... could it be that his strength alone would be equal to the strength of two members? And Oracle, what kind of damned codename is this? Why does this name feel so ominous to me......"
After deliberating about the issue for a long time, Luo Jian still could not figure it out, so he flipped over the note in his hand, turned it around, and continued to read:
[Probably in an era very long ago, there was a group of backward people located in a remote area that believed in a type of god. They believed that their God was attached to the head of their clan. They offered the head of their clan as a sacrifice and built a huge and complex tomb filled with various living offerings, food, cloth, and metal tools. In every generation, the clan head's final destination was the tomb. That was until one day, when the door to the tomb could no longer be opened again. ]
[Thousands of years passed, and the tomb was buried deep in the ground. The entrance and exit have disappeared without trace, and until now, it remains undiscovered. ]
"It is probably a very ancient tomb." It was impossible for Luo Jian to enter the tomb and rob it without any archaeological experience, but things like the tomb sounded bloodcurdling. Luo Jian naturally remembered the resurrecting corpses that he had met before. It seemed that zombies and other similar creatures were unavoidable, and he also did not know whether there would be other monsters.
Luo Jian had seen a series of films...... regarding tomb raiding. A couple more movies were produced after the first as sequels, but it was a pity that Luo Jian didn't even finish the first one. If he had known earlier, he would have watched more of it. Although it only had rudimentary knowledge, at least he would have some practical knowledge.
Luo Jian regretfully felt that nothing could be done regarding that. He put the note into his pocket and began to observe whether there was anything around him that he could use. Although the light emitted by the stone in his hand was weak, it still lit up the area around Luo Jian.
He was in an aisle narrow enough that only one person could walk through. The tomb was not very well built. After all, it was made long ago. There were many cracks in the rock above his head, and it felt like it could fall at any time. After glancing up, Luo Jian felt a little terrified.
He could walk forward or backward in the narrow passage, but there was absolute darkness in both directions. Luo Jian stood in the middle with a stone that did not emit much light. His heart was filled with chills.
"Should I f*cking walk toward the front? Or toward the back?" Luo Jian muttered to himself. His forehead was sweating. This darned place was really too dark. Except for the small stone in his hand, he did not see even a hint of another light source. It was too accurate to say that it was so dark that he could not see his hand in front of his face.
In particular, Luo Jian was not sure if a strange living creature would suddenly pop out from nowhere. That would definitely scare anyone to their death.
"Oh right, is it better to use a flashlight here?" It suddenly occurred to Luo Jian that he still had a 'personal space'...... Ah no, actually it should be called a 'carry-on secret chamber. '
He did not know if it could be used here. Luo Jian had already filled the secret chamber with all kinds of necessities in advance, including medical equipment, food, water, rope, exploration tools, mountaineering tools, a set of clothes to change into, and even tents. Anyway, all kinds of things that Luo Jian could think of had been thrown in.
Now, it was time to try whether the 'carry-on secret chamber' could be used. Therefore, Luo Jian began to search through his pocket, dug out the broken mirror, and read the transmission phrase, and suddenly he felt a bout of dizziness. Luo Jian had appeared in the familiar classroom.
"I succeeded!" Luo Jian cheered and ran to the corner of the classroom, where there were disorderly items piled up as high as a mountain. In the pile, he found a flashlight and two batteries. After brief consideration, he found a bag and stuffed a pack of chocolates into his pocket.
"I'll try to see if it works." Luo Jian read the transmission phrase backwards, and he returned to the dark passageway again. He lowered his head and saw that the flashlight was still in his hand. After touching his pocket, he found that the chocolate was also still there.
"It works!" Luo Jian's mood soared, and he quickly turned on the flashlight. This time, the light became bigger. However, the tunnel was very long, and the light could not shine to the end of the walkway. Luo Jian swallowed his saliva and headed forward.
After walking for a period of time, perhaps about 10 minutes, Luo Jian suddenly felt a bad premonition. How could this narrow passage be so long? After walking for quite a distance, the passageway was still pitch black. There was no sound at all. It was deadly quiet. Luo Jian stopped and looked back. Behind him, everything was pitch black.
At this time, if he heard footsteps behind him...... In such a contained environment, Luo Jian could not help but start to daydream and make blind conjectures to create a horrifying scene. For example, while he was walking, a hand would suddenly touch his back, strange black shadows, and other horrible things he imagined......
Just as Luo Jian was imagining such horrible scenes, it was as if his imagination had become real. There were footsteps in the passageway that sounded from behind him!
When the footsteps sounded, Luo Jian still felt it was a little unbelievable. First, he was given a scare. Cold sweat constantly trickled down his back. He began to think about what to do next. Should he run straight ahead? But what if there was something ahead of him?
But maybe...... Could the footsteps belong to one of his companions? For example, maybe it was Feng YuLan?
No, that is not right! Something is wrong! Luo Jian listened carefully to the 'ta, ta, ta' footsteps that were approaching. It did not sound like the footsteps of a normal human being, but rather, it sounded as if one of his feet was lame and being dragged along by the other. It made an abrupt, strong sound that was shortly followed by the sound caused by the friction of the dragging foot.
Would any of his companions walk like this? After thinking, he finally could not help it, and his fear made him absent-minded. However, he still turned off his flashlight sensibly. He held only the shining stone with one hand and touched the wall with the other. He rapidly forged ahead, only hoping that he remained as far away as possible from the unknown creature behind him.
T/N: This is a very, very, very long arc. To be precise, this is where the main plot unfolds, and the chapters prior to this chapter are all considered the beginning, in my opinion. We'd have many, many chapters regarding the burial grounds (about a quarter of the novel), so please brace yourselves!:3
Also, EIC Ko-Fi goals are opened again! Feel free to support for extra chapters, currently, we have about 10 chapters to offer for Ko-Fi goals.
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