We returned the way we came, but after an hour and a half, we still hadn't reached the entrance.
This made me feel uneasy. Although the stairs weren't very steep, they were definitely going downwards.
Wang Yang and I had walked slowly, but we'd still been descending for nearly an hour.
Going down for an hour, what kind of concept was that?
I hadn't thought much about it before, and since Wang Yang and I were chatting as we walked down, I hadn't paid much attention.
Now, thinking back, I broke out in a cold sweat.
"Something's wrong..." I said.
Wang Yang turned and looked at me. "It seems we've triggered some kind of mechanism."
"Huh? Mechanism?"
"Exactly. Haven't you noticed our flashlight beams getting weaker?"
With his reminder, I realized it was true.
I shook the flashlight and found that the light, which could previously illuminate a long distance, could now only reach about a meter. All the light sources seemed to be swallowed by something.
Wang Yang crouched down to examine the steps beneath his feet. He took out a dagger and chiseled at the ground a few times, picking up a stone.
The moment the flashlight beam hit the stone, the light was extinguished. This stunned me.
"It's light-absorbing stone," Wang Yang said.
"What is light-absorbing stone?"
He explained, "A special type of stone that can absorb light."
No wonder!
I had been wondering why the flashlight beam kept getting weaker as we walked.
"What do we do now?" I asked.
Wang Yang took down the backpack that Xiao Ding had given us earlier. He rummaged through it and pulled out a night-vision device.
I hadn't expected there to be such a useful item in this bag.
We quickly put on the night-vision goggles, and soon everything around us turned a shade of green.
It was only when we put on the night-vision goggles that I could clearly see the surrounding environment.
The place we were in was a passage formed by countless steps.
Numerous "Z"-shaped staircases crisscrossed, forming a maze.
I finally understood why we couldn't find our way out.
This place was constructed with special stone that absorbed a lot of light sources, making it impossible to see anything more than a meter away. This led anyone who entered to only keep walking down or up the stairs.
The countless "Z"-shaped staircases crisscrossed, and with the extension of the steps, people would endlessly tread back and forth on these steps.
In other words, what we felt was constantly going down or up was actually just moving from one step to another, and then from another step back to the original one.
Having seen everything clearly, I asked Wang Yang, "Is this a maze?"
Wang Yang pondered for a moment and said, "Do you know Escher?"
"What Escher?"
"Escher."
I looked at him with confusion. "What's that?"
Wang Yang sighed. "Escher was a Dutch painter."
"Get to the point," I said impatiently.
"In 1960, Escher painted a work called 'Ascending and Descending.' It features a staircase that is an infinite loop."
"What does this painting have to do with us? Are you suggesting this place was designed based on his painting? That's absurd!" I said.
Wang Yang said, "What I'm trying to say is that the staircase we're on now is similar to that painting – an infinite loop. Once you enter, you can never get out."
He paused. "If this were ancient times, you really couldn't expect to get out once you entered. The cleverness of this mechanism is that it absorbs all light sources. Whether it's torches or other lights, they'll all be absorbed here."
"Then why can we see clearly with the night-vision goggles?" I asked.
Wang Yang replied, "Night-vision goggles can see the outlines of external objects even if they don't emit obvious heat, because objects above absolute zero emit thermal radiation, which are so-called infrared sources."
I was completely bewildered and quickly stopped him. "How do you know so much?"
Wang Yang smiled. "I studied abroad in St. Petersburg before."
"What? You studied abroad?" I stared at Wang Yang incredulously.
He nodded.
"Which of your words are true and which are false?" I asked.
Wang Yang fell silent for a moment. It seemed he didn't want to talk to me anymore.
Looking at him, it seemed the study abroad part was likely true.
We studied the surrounding steps, then started walking sideways, jumping from one step to another. After climbing for less than ten minutes, we found the exit.
When we emerged from that staircase maze, we entered a stone chamber.
The stone chamber had many terracotta figurines, alcoves on the walls, and a stone coffin in the center.
This stone coffin was at least over two meters long and about 1.2 meters wide, quite large.
The lid of the coffin was carved with a bird of unknown species. The bird also had a tail that wound around the stone coffin, as if tying it down like a rope.
The carved pattern was quite exquisite, but the thick layer of dust made many parts unclear.
I walked over, took off my night-vision goggles, and shone my flashlight on it. I didn't find anything special, and there were no signs that the stone coffin had been opened.
Wang Yang leaned in and observed for a while. "This is probably another burial chamber, but more advanced than the place we entered."
I nodded. I wasn't in the mood to study these things. I figured it was more important to find Zhou Yongxiang and the others.
Looking around, I noticed an arched stone platform not far away and walked over to examine it.
This stone platform looked like an altar, with many jars and bottles on it. Several of them were broken.
It was clearly not intentional; it was likely caused by snakes, insects, or rodents crawling on it and knocking over the vessels.
As I picked up a shard, before I could examine it closely, I suddenly heard the sound of stone grinding from behind me. I turned around and saw Wang Yang actually trying to open the coffin!
"What are you doing?" I asked in surprise.
Wang Yang calmly replied, "Of course, I'm opening it to see what's inside."
Seeing him about to pry with the steel shovel in his hand, I quickly stopped him, telling him not to mess around.
He chuckled dismissively. "Don't you want to see what's inside?"
"Even if I want to, we can't just open coffins randomly. What if a zombie jumps out?" I said.
"You're too superstitious," Wang Yang said.
"Superstitious? Haven't we seen enough strange things in the tombs we've explored before?" I countered.
Wang Yang shook his head in resignation and pulled the shovel out of the gap in the coffin lid.
But who knew, at that very moment, the coffin lid began to move on its own.
Watching the coffin lid slowly shift, my heart jumped into my throat.