Liang Ping couldn't help but sigh, "If Little Fox were here, it would be great. No one is better than Little Fox at this. Ye Tiancheng isn't as good as Little Fox in this regard."
Nie Chongyang was also helpless.
"But now, we can only rely on ourselves. We don't have Little Fox to help."
Liang Ping looked at the contents of the book and said after some thought, "I think the Five Elements and Yin-Yang mentioned in this book, after some rough calculations, I seem to have a slight idea." Kuai Shu Ge
Nie Chongyang's spirits lifted slightly upon hearing Liang Ping's words.
He said, "Then try it quickly. It's better than me having no ideas at all."
Liang Ping, however, was a little hesitant.
He said to Nie Chongyang, "Although I have some ideas, I really don't dare to act on them. I'm afraid this wooden sword might have some important function. If we try this and ruin the wooden sword, and if we need it later, won't we truly be trapped here?"
Nie Chongyang fell silent upon hearing Liang Ping's words.
After thinking for a while, he said to Liang Ping, "Tell me your idea first, and how we should proceed?"
Liang Ping then said to Nie Chongyang, "I've deduced from what the book says. Perhaps we need to use the槐木 (huái mù) as a medium, pass it through the metal ring in the coffin, and then stab it towards the square door panel below."
Nie Chongyang was stunned for a moment.
He grasped Liang Ping's meaning.
If Liang Ping's deduced outcome was like this, then they would only have one chance to try this. What if they got it wrong with this stab, and the wooden sword broke, what would they do then?
Nie Chongyang also found himself in a dilemma.
In this case, he also hesitated to take the gamble.
What if they really broke the wooden sword, but the wooden sword had an indispensable role elsewhere? Wouldn't that be disastrous?
After thinking about it, Nie Chongyang said to Liang Ping, "If this sword breaks, can we find some glue and stick it back together to make do?"
Facing this unreliable suggestion, Liang Ping and Nie Chongyang stared at each other.
Who knew if gluing a wooden sword with glue would work?
Little Fox hadn't said whether something like a magic artifact could be repaired this way.
However, they both felt that this method was too crude and sounded very unreliable. They couldn't possibly take glue to fix it if it broke.
Nie Chongyang thought for a moment and then shook his head vigorously.
He said to Liang Ping, "Why don't you study it again and see if there are any other ideas?"
Liang Ping was helpless and once again focused on the contents of the book.
He read it carefully for a long time, but no matter how he deduced or observed the situation in the tomb, Liang Ping could only say to Nie Chongyang, "I have no other ideas."
This was truly a dilemma.
After thinking for a long time, Nie Chongyang finally made up his mind.
He said to Liang Ping, "Let's gamble. If something goes wrong, at least we'll be buried together. We won't be lonely on the road to the underworld. And even if we die, we should still be able to see Ye Tiancheng and the others. Let's think optimistically. There are so many non-humans now, it doesn't matter if there are two more of us."
Even non-humans were starting to operate openly in the outside world now.
As long as their souls weren't scattered, death wouldn't mean complete disappearance, would it?
Liang Ping was a little speechless.
He said to Nie Chongyang, "What if after we die, we're still trapped in this damned place? And who knows what we'll be buried with here. I don't want that."
"If I can live, I don't want to die."
"Are death and life the same thing? If I weren't at my wit's end, I wouldn't choose that path of death."
Despite saying that, Liang Ping was also inclined to try at this point.
Finally, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping discussed how to proceed.
Nie Chongyang said to Liang Ping, "You should do it. You're at least a bit weaker than me. If the wooden sword really breaks, the damage might be less severe, and it might even be repairable."
Liang Ping was a little speechless but still picked up the wooden sword himself.
However, once he held it, Liang Ping realized that although it was a wooden sword, he could feel that it was indeed made of wood. However, it was surprisingly heavy.
Liang Ping said, "This sword is quite heavy."
Nie Chongyang looked at Liang Ping curiously and asked, "Is this wooden sword very heavy? How heavy do you estimate it to be?"
Liang Ping weighed it and replied to Nie Chongyang, "I estimate it to be about... two or three pounds."
Looking at the size of the wooden sword, Nie Chongyang was also quite surprised.
"Wow! It's really quite heavy. Could it be that something metallic is wrapped inside?"
Liang Ping shook his head and said, "You can't embed metal into a wooden sword out of thin air, can you?"
Nie Chongyang said, "Perhaps it was split in half, hollowed out in the middle, and then put back together. Look at the thick layer of paint on the outside, it might be covering up those traces."
Liang Ping said, "Whatever, that's not the important thing now."
However, knowing the weight of this sword, Liang Ping also felt a little relieved.
Since the sword was so heavy, even if this stab failed, the sword shouldn't be so easily broken, right?
Liang Ping encouraged himself, then gripped the sword with both hands, aimed at the square door below and the metal door ring on it, and then pointed the tip of the sword at the center of the metal door ring and stabbed down fiercely.
Nie Chongyang watched with his heart in his throat and quickly said from the side, "Be gentle, gentler, be careful, try not to damage this sword. It's better to have the original than a repaired one, which is more reliable."
However, Liang Ping seemed to have guessed correctly. With this stab, Liang Ping felt no resistance. The wooden sword seemed to pierce into another dimension and went straight down. The wooden board at the bottom of the coffin showed no signs of being damaged by the wooden sword. The wooden sword, perfectly fitted, pierced into the square door panel.
Nie Chongyang's incessant chatter suddenly stopped.
He looked at the scene before him and murmured, "It really went in? How did it go in?"
As they spoke, there was a sound behind Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping.
They both looked in the direction of the sound. In the corner where a pile of broken wooden pieces had been placed, those broken wooden pieces had actually disappeared. The sound just now should have been the sound of those broken wooden pieces falling.
Beneath the foam pieces, a tunnel entrance appeared, and the stairs leading into it were visible.
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping were both a little speechless.
They thought the exit would either be that stone door or the square door at the bottom of the coffin.
As it turned out, both of those doors were probably fake, meant to trick them. The real exit was actually under a pile of rotten wood.
After recovering, Nie Chongyang said speechlessly to Liang Ping, "I didn't expect the hidden door to be in that location. What do we do now? Let's see if we can still retrieve this sword."
Liang Ping also really didn't expect such a result.
After hearing Nie Chongyang's words, Liang Ping tried to lift the wooden sword. As a result, they heard another new sound from the hidden door. As soon as they lifted the wooden sword a little, the hidden door closed a little.
Liang Ping could only say, "It seems this sword cannot be taken away. If this sword is taken away, that door will definitely close."
Seeing no other option, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping could only take the tattered book and walk towards the hidden door.
Although they couldn't confirm the safety of the tunnel beneath the hidden door, they had no other choice now but to try.
They had nowhere else to go. This was the only exit they had found.
After making some protective preparations, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping walked to the hidden door. They could see that the pile of broken wooden pieces that had covered the hidden door had all fallen onto the stone stairs below the hidden door, looking particularly miserable.
Since the wooden pieces were very rotten, many had turned into wood shavings, not just simply broken from the fall.
It seemed they were indeed severely rotten.
Nie Chongyang probed the secret passage and found no mechanisms. He then took the lead and walked in first. After confirming again, he beckoned Liang Ping to follow.
Liang Ping followed Nie Chongyang into the secret passage and tentatively walked inside.
Upon entering this place, the hidden door did not close behind them as it sometimes did upon entering a secret passage.
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping even walked back a bit to confirm that they could still return to the tomb, and then they went back into the secret passage to proceed further.
The secret passage beneath this hidden door was not very deep.
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping did not walk for long before they arrived at a new place, another tomb chamber. However, the specifications of this tomb chamber were clearly much better than the previous one.
Moreover, this tomb chamber was also sealed, and it actually had three stone doors.
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping were both extremely frustrated.
Looking at the situation, they had to find a new way out again. Did they have to decipher mechanisms or formations again?
Nie Chongyang said to Liang Ping, "Let's go back and see. After entering here, will the hidden door still close? Can we still return to the previous... room?"
Liang Ping nodded and said, "Let's go and see."
It was indeed necessary for them to confirm this, as it would determine their assessment of this place and affect their subsequent actions.
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping walked back and forth in the secret passage again. This secret passage was quite well-made. No matter how Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping wandered around, there was no spatial distortion or sudden closing of doors behind them.
They wouldn't suddenly be trapped in a new place.
However, looking at it now, it wasn't much better.
After all, they were still trapped, merely entering a new predicament. Strictly speaking, they were still sealed here and couldn't get out.
Nie Chongyang resignedly said, "Let's continue searching for new mechanisms. Let's see if those three doors can be opened. This place is too frustrating. I hope it's not too big, otherwise, it would be like nesting dolls, layer after layer. How long will we be trapped here?"
Liang Ping looked at Nie Chongyang and was a little annoyed for a moment.
He felt it was no wonder Little Fox used to argue with Nie Chongyang every day when she was around.
Their captain could be quite infuriating at times.
Liang Ping said helplessly to Nie Chongyang, "Please, Captain Nie, at times like this, say fewer unlucky things. Hurry up and close your crow's mouth. What if it comes true, what will we do?"
They had all heard of Murphy's Law, hadn't they?
They really weren't afraid of the bad things coming true.