Bai Qingcheng looked confused: "What's wrong? Why aren't you fighting anymore?"
I recounted the events.
Bai Qingcheng said, "Don't worry, I'll contact Governor Lin immediately."
As soon as the call ended, Shao Chen, who was walking ahead, stepped on another mechanism. The mechanism itself was minor, but it trapped all of us in a completely sealed space. All the doors around the hall slammed shut, heavy iron gates. My first instinct was to look up.
This time, no sulfuric acid flowed down, but we were truly trapped. Those iron gates looked thick and unmovable, and the other walls were made of stone.
Diana tried to push the iron gate, but it was no use.
"What do we do now?" the fox spirit asked.
As soon as he spoke, a rumbling sound came from the ceiling. The stone portion of the entire ceiling began to slowly descend!
"Is it trying to crush us?" Diana chuckled.
"You can still laugh?" I frowned. The situation was more dire than before.
It was clear that this was a trap that seemed mild but was actually more dangerous than the previous one.
We were all unable to escape. Was our fate to be like that insignificant grunt?
The women were still trying to push the iron gate, to no avail. If only Yao Yao were here, perhaps she could have used the Five Elements technique to stop the stone slab from descending.
Just as despair was setting in, suddenly, two adjacent doors opened!
As I was about to rush over, one of the doors had a "waterfall" written above it, and the other door had flames rising from within.
The Water and Fire Gates? What did this mean?
I approached the doorway and quickly tested the "waterfall" with the back of my hand. I smelled it; it wasn't sulfuric acid. I boldly collected some water and smelled it carefully. It was water. I even tasted it; it was sweet, clear spring water.
"Go this way?" Shao Chen asked me.
"No!" I frowned. This was clearly another trap. If we just jumped in, there would undoubtedly be more mechanisms.
At this point, the stone slab was pressing down on my head and accelerating. There was no other option. I could only crouch, concentrate my energy, and form a qi blast, shooting it towards the flames.
Fire, in its essence, is also qi. The two qis clashed, and the intensity of the fire was diluted. I directly stood under the "waterfall," got soaked, and then plunged into the fire door – was this the solution?
Upon entering the door, I discovered it wasn't just a fire door but a fire tunnel, over ten meters long!
Fortunately, I was wet. I squinted, held my breath, and ran through the tunnel as fast as I could. On the other side was a large pool of water. I quickly jumped in, splashing. The flames on my clothes were all extinguished.
Following my lead, the others also rushed through. Because they were skilled in martial arts and moved quickly, their clothes were not burned much, and I suffered the worst.
"How did you know we had to jump into the fire?" Shao Chen asked, confused.
"It was a guess, a fifty-fifty chance," I replied.
"Your thought process is truly bizarre!" Xu Ran laughed.
"Bizarre my foot," I said. "The trap we encountered earlier was the same principle as the one in the passage, just more complex."
"Complex, yet you broke through it so easily?" Shao Chen asked.
"How is this complex? I used qi to disperse the flames, but the materials of those traps were unusual. We couldn't force our way out."
"Our abilities are useless here. We're fighting alone, unable to withstand the trap crisis. Chi You has tied up so many of our experts without losing a single soldier. It seems this enemy is extraordinary. The situation on the tunnel side must be even more severe."
I took out my phone. It wasn't damaged and still had a signal. I called Bai Qingcheng. She said she had ordered a halt to the attack on the tunnel side, but dozens of special forces members had already been lost.
"All due to traps, right?"
"Yes, we didn't encounter any of Chi You's organization!" Bai Qingcheng said. After a pause, she asked, "Do you have any other good ideas?"
"We also encountered traps earlier. I've thought of a one-time solution," I said, looking at a nearby ventilation shaft where light was filtering through. We could crawl out there and escape. "I don't know if you have the authority."
"Tell me."