Initially, the plan was to descend the following day, but Professor Zhang grew impatient that very night.
So, after over three hours of preparation, a little past midnight, our group descended into the underground palace.
This time, we were exceptionally well-prepared, carrying power banks and solar lights.
In addition, Zheng Shuxuan and Yang Hanxue had come prepared as well; they had managed to acquire some explosives from somewhere.
For this descent, I didn't let Bai Hanyan accompany us.
Mainly, she was still bothered by Zheng Shuxuan's identity, and I also feared for her safety if she came along.
I told her that Zheng Shuxuan merely resembled An Ying, and was not An Ying herself.
Even I didn't believe this explanation, yet I delivered it with a straight face, citing examples that many people in the world look alike.
Whether she believed my words, I was unsure, but it did manage to keep her up on the surface.
Our group consisted of myself, Fatty, Zheng Shuxuan, Yang Hanxue, Song Bing, Professor Zhang, and Wang Yue—seven people in total.
With the addition of Yang Hanxue and Song Bing, I honestly felt our chances had significantly improved.
With the two of them present, even if we encountered a monster like the one Fatty and I had dealt with by fire, we wouldn't be so in disarray.
Having experienced the descent before, this time we navigated with ease, reaching the suspension bridge in about three hours.
Professor Zhang also took up a considerable amount of time, insisting on taking photos and studying the stone statues and murals he saw along the way.
The others, however, seemed to have no interest in these things at all, hardly pausing throughout the journey.
After crossing the suspension bridge, we soon arrived at the cavern filled with stone pillars.
Wang Yue, using her previous method, quickly located the stone chamber of "Avici Hell."
"Is this Avici Hell?" Song Bing asked curiously, standing at the entrance and peering inside.
I nodded and recounted my previous experience entering it.
"Alright then, let's set up the solar lights we brought to see how much light absorption there is in here," Yang Hanxue said at this point.
We took out the power banks and placed them on the ground, then connected the solar lights.
These solar lights were extremely bright, and we had brought four of them this time.
With the four solar lights illuminated and pointed inside, everything in the stone chamber was soon revealed.
The stone chamber was approximately six hundred square meters, and it was empty. The entrance was relatively flat, but in the middle section, uneven stone blocks began to appear.
Seen from a distance, these stone blocks resembled the templates for movable type printing.
At the very back stood two fierce-looking stone statues, with a stone door between them, leading to an unknown destination.
Having clearly seen the situation inside, I glanced at everyone and asked, "Shall we go in now?"
With no objections from anyone, Fatty and I walked in.
Upon reaching the protruding floor tiles, we quickly discovered Ma Xuejin's severed feet.
The bloodstains on the feet were dried, and in a pit not far from the feet lay Ma Xuejin's corpse.
Fortunately, the temperature in the underground cavern was low; otherwise, the body would have likely begun to rot and emit odor after being left here for so long.
Upon seeing the body, Professor Zhang and Wang Yue began to cry uncontrollably.
Wang Yue even wanted to go and drag the body back, but Yang Hanxue stopped her, saying, "Do you see the blades in those grooves? Rushing over like that is definitely not an option."
Hearing him say this, Wang Yue looked at Professor Zhang, as if seeking his approval.
Professor Zhang looked grief-stricken. After a long while, he recovered and gently tapped the floor tiles with a geological hammer. Then, he returned to the entrance to examine the murals near the entrance.
After about half an hour of this back and forth, Fatty, unable to bear it any longer, asked if he had figured anything out.
Professor Zhang said, "Since this is Avici Hell, the mechanisms of these floor tiles must be related to Avici Hell. Look at the arrangement of the tiles; doesn't it resemble a symbol?"
Upon hearing him say this, we all looked. I didn't see anything, but Zheng Shuxuan spoke up, "The swastika?"
"Wan?" Fatty asked, confused. "Is that the character for 'ten thousand'?"
Zheng Shuxuan replied, "I said the swastika, not 'wan'..."
As he spoke, he drew the "swastika" symbol on the ground. Upon seeing this character, we looked again at the floor tiles not far away.
We found that their arrangement indeed formed a "swastika" symbol.
Professor Zhang glanced at Zheng Shuxuan and said, "Indeed, it is the swastika. The swastika symbol is a very significant emblem in Buddhism."
"And then what?" Fatty asked. "Can this symbol unlock the mechanism?"
Professor Zhang said, "There are three kinds of endless suffering: endless time, endless space, and endless suffering of the recipient. Those who commit the five heinous crimes will fall into this realm eternally and endure the ultimate endless suffering... If we deduce based on this point, then this mechanism cannot be unlocked..."
"Cannot be unlocked?" I was taken aback.
He hesitated and said, "That's what is said, but since this was artificially created, there must be a way to unlock it."
As he spoke, he crouched on the ground and drew a path on the floor with his geological hammer: "Following this route should allow us to pass without triggering the mechanism."
I roughly counted; there were about a hundred protruding floor tiles in front of us, and almost a hundred corresponding pits.
The uneven pattern meant that if even one step was misplaced, the protruding tiles would sink, triggering the mechanism. The only way to retreat would be to jump onto another tile, but if that jump was also wrong, the other tile would sink as well...
In essence, it meant that any wrong step would make every subsequent step a dead end.
Looking at the path Professor Zhang had drawn on the ground, I glanced at everyone, unsure of what to say.
No one knew if this path was correct unless someone tested it.
But who would go?
"I'll go," Yang Hanxue said. Zheng Shuxuan nodded slightly at him, signaling her agreement.
Seeing this, I had nothing else to say and could only say, "Brother Yang, be careful."
He nodded, took off his backpack, retied his hiking boots, stretched his limbs, and stared at Professor Zhang's drawn route map for a long time before taking the first step.
When he stepped onto a protruding floor tile, we all held our breath for him. When we saw that the tile did not sink, we finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, he leaped onto another tile.
It seemed he had memorized Professor Zhang's route map, and every time he moved forward, he would make a mark on the original tile.
In this manner, he walked forward for five or six minutes, reaching the middle section.
Just as he was about to continue forward, Professor Zhang suddenly called out to him, "Wait!"