I thought Zhou Niannian would be extremely disappointed upon hearing this news, but unexpectedly, Zhou Niannian didn't seem to have any strong reaction. She merely nodded slightly, appearing unfazed.
Jiang Fan found this hard to believe at first, but after a moment's thought, he understood Zhou Niannian's usual demeanor.
As long as there was no immediate danger, Zhou Niannian would never panic. Her optimistic attitude wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
In fact, having a positive mindset could greatly boost the team's confidence when facing difficulties.
However, this was also partly because the team's main combat strength didn't lie with Zhou Niannian.
Therefore, Zhou Niannian felt relatively relaxed and unburdened.
After eating and drinking their fill, Yao suggested taking a day to rest and resuming their exploration the following day.
After all, even though it was just the two girls who had rested for a whole day, Jiang Fan and Yao were still quite exhausted.
Jiang Fan readily agreed with Yao's suggestion without any objection.
"Alright, let's rest here for a day. Tomorrow morning, we'll find our direction again."
Zhou Niannian and Dai Xiaomei had no objections, while Gun Gun completely ignored their conversation.
It simply buried its head and devoured the remaining fish.
Jiang Fan had no demands regarding Gun Gun.
After all, Gun Gun possessed immense combat power, and there was nothing about it that Jiang Fan found unacceptable.
Keeping it in the team would provide formidable combat strength, so why not?
Once their discussion concluded, the group prepared to sleep and rest.
This time, Gun Gun was unusually energetic and seemed unable to sleep. Jiang Fan assigned it the role of sentry, to keep watch over everyone.
Upon receiving the task, Gun Gun took it very seriously, sitting beside everyone and guarding them as they slept.
However, this was merely what Jiang Fan saw before he fell asleep.
When he woke up the next day, Gun Gun was already fast asleep, leaning against his side.
Fortunately, nothing unusual happened during the night, and everyone was still there, safe from any danger.
As Jiang Fan sat up, he suddenly saw a ray of sunlight directly entering his eyes.
For sunlight to shine directly like this, there had to be an opening at eye level with the sun.
This meant that passage from above was possible, or at the very least, there was a gap that allowed them to observe what was on the second level.
Upon realizing this, Jiang Fan immediately stood up. His movement startled Yao awake.
"What's wrong? Jiang Fan, what happened?"
Yao's alertness was remarkable. The slightest sound from Jiang Fan's movement woke him up immediately.
Even if there had been any danger yesterday, he would have reacted swiftly and alerted everyone to deal with it.
Seeing how reliable Yao was, Jiang Fan felt a sense of relief. However, the immediate priority was to verify his hypothesis.
If the sunlight was merely being refracted within the pyramid, then its intensity would change.
The intensity of light refracted through different channels would vary.
Therefore, Jiang Fan only needed to place two reflective mirror pieces in two different beams of sunlight and observe their intensity to infer whether the sunlight was directly from the sun above.
If the refractive indices were the same, it would prove that both beams of light were directly from the sun and not refracted.
If the refractive indices were different, it would indicate that the sunlight had hit an opening in the pyramid and then reflected multiple times to reach this level.
In that case, the light might have only been refracted within the same level as Jiang Fan.
Of course, measuring the refractive index of sunlight couldn't be done by direct observation with the eyes.
Jiang Fan procured two mirror pieces and placed them on the ground, reflecting the two beams of light to a nearby area.
He then picked up some dust from the ground and tossed it towards the two beams of light.
The dust instantly turned into a cloud of smoke, and the sunlight within the smoke exhibited Brownian motion.
Clearly, there was no difference in the refractive indices of the two beams of sunlight, proving that they were both directly from the sun. This meant there was definitely an exit passage above.
With this realization, Jiang Fan followed the direction of the light.
Indeed, he soon found an opening.
However, the opening was a bit too high.
It would be impossible to climb up with human strength alone.
"This opening is too high. If we want to climb up, it'll probably be..."
Before he could finish, Yao's body had already appeared above Jiang Fan.
"Never mind what I said..."
Without a doubt, Yao simply leaped, then used the wall for leverage a couple of times, and effortlessly ascended to the second level.
This meant that Jiang Fan now only needed to wake up the other companions, prepare a vine, and toss it up to Yao, who could then find a secure place to tie it. That way, they could all ascend.
Without delay, Jiang Fan, along with Yao who had descended, returned to their camp and woke everyone else up.
Because the environment was too peaceful and comfortable, Zhou Niannian and Dai Xiaomei were sleeping very soundly.
It took them quite a while to wake up after being called.
Dai Xiaomei rubbed her eyes and let out a soft groan.
"Waa waah! (What's wrong? Have you found the exit?)"
However, Jiang Fan couldn't understand her and was quite bewildered.
At the same time, Zhou Niannian slowly sat up, mimicking Dai Xiaomei by rubbing her eyes.
"What's wrong? Have we found the exit? Are we leaving now?"
Hearing this, Jiang Fan felt a pang of envy for Zhou Niannian and Dai Xiaomei.
They didn't need to worry about anything, just wait for good news.
Jiang Fan nodded decisively and said to them,
"Yes, the exit has been found. Let's move quickly."
After waking up the nearby Gun Gun, the group gathered their supplies and immediately headed towards the opening.