Chapter 1669: Chapter 1670: Asking for the Time in the Underworld
The sky outside the ancient banyan tree was chaotic, though visibility was low, the light still allowed people to see things within a range of thousands of meters, like the mountains currently unfolding before you all.
Seeing you standing still, Du Yanan walked up behind you and nudged your back with her fist, asking, "Hey, what should we do next?"
"I don’t know." You said bluntly.
Du Yanan immediately slapped your shoulder heavily: "Aren’t you a walking encyclopedia? Why are you acting scared now?"
You rolled your eyes at Du Yanan with slight annoyance: "Big sister, that’s just bits and pieces I read from old books in the library when I was bored. It’s already impressive that I remember these. Besides, there isn’t even a detailed explanation of the Underworld, let alone knowing if we’re actually in it. Maybe all this is just a horror experience project at Yuhang Amusement Park."
Du Yanan hadn’t opened her mouth yet when Wei Yingyue’s voice reached over: "Several girls from my office have been to the Ghost City at Yuhang Amusement Park. According to their description, the old Ghost City wasn’t like this. It wasn’t as lifelike as what we’re seeing now. And I think you all know that the amusement park’s Ghost City couldn’t be this big."
"Alright, talking too much doesn’t help." At this moment, you took out your phone from your pocket only to find no signal, and asked everyone around, "Do any of your phones have signals?"
"No." The response was unanimous.
Xu Mingjie added: "Even a compass is useless here."
"What time is it?" You asked a seemingly unrelated question.
"Why are you asking that?" Du Yanan questioned.
Wei Yingyue glanced at her phone and sighed slightly: "Strange, all the apps in the phone seem to have lost their functions, even the clock has stopped. The time is stuck at when we came in."
You added: "What’s even stranger is, since we came in until now, at least three hours have passed, but does anyone feel tired? Thirsty? Hungry? Drowsy?"
Your words brought everyone to realization, and as they heard it, a chilling sensation spread across everyone’s body.
"Could it be that we’ve really..."
"Puh-puh, nonsense from a kid!" Du Yanan interrupted Xu Mingjie’s words, saying to you, "No matter what, we must keep moving forward until we find a way out of this spooky, oh no, this bizarre place."
You smiled, looking up at the rocky path ahead. You stood at the entrance of a valley that appeared small, with vegetation densely overgrown on both sides. Even the shrubs were taller than a person. Once you stepped inside, you couldn’t see ahead clearly, and the rocky path was the only way into the valley.
"Let’s go, sticking to the original ’卜’ shape formation." Saying that, you put away your unknown-brand mobile phone and said to Du Yanan beside you, "Old Du, turn on the flashlight feature of your phone, let’s see if it still works."
"The light is so good up front, what do you need a flashlight for..." Du Yanan’s words were cut short, as everything instantly turned pitch black, black to the extent of blinding Du Yanan immediately!
"Ah—Little Jie, Little Jie!" The sudden loss of light made Deng Fang scream immediately.
"Fangfang, don’t be scared, I’m holding you!" Xu Mingjie was right next to Deng Fang, hugging her tightly at the first moment of darkness, constantly talking to distract her attention and encouraging her, "Fangfang, it’s okay, it’s just suddenly dark. I’m here by your side, I’ll always be by your side."
Soon, Du Yanan’s phone emitted light; her phone was different from normal ones, being a military product and very durable!
The light source came from Du Yanan’s phone screen, she quickly tuned to the flashlight app, and the bright light source shone out from the lens at the top of her phone’s back.
"Whew, luckily this thing works."
You smiled and said: "I suspect now it’s probably the only thing that works. Alright, everyone get in formation, and stow your phones in your pockets ready at any time, as we don’t know how long the path is ahead. Once Old Du’s phone’s battery runs out, we’ll use them one by one."
"Let’s move." Du Yanan took a deep breath and started to walk.
The light source from the phone covered roughly only three meters, and the environment beyond three meters was in pitch darkness.
Before entering the valley, you suddenly turned to Wei Yingyue, who was at the back of the formation, and asked, "Sister Wei, are you okay?"
"Mm, I’m fine."
Actually, compared to Du Yanan holding the flashlight, the pressure was larger on Wei Yingyue at the back. On one hand, she had to care for Liang Xinyue; on the other, behind her was endless darkness. In such a situation where even hands pressed against one’s face were invisible, it’s normal to feel afraid.
You asked Wei Yingyue to distract her attention, not letting her overthink.
People fear darkness mainly due to a lack of sense of direction, and inability to see things. In such an environment, imagination becomes the biggest enemy.
Xu Mingjie tightly holding Deng Fang’s hand asked you standing beside him, "Brother Mu Yun, why aren’t you afraid?"
"Afraid?" You chuckled, "What’s there to be afraid of, since we’re already here, we should enjoy the experience. You probably don’t know, when I was little, I was often bullied, many people said I was a coward. Of course, back then, I was indeed weak."
You revealed your own scarred past primarily to divert everyone’s attention, knowing that only this way could they keep moving forward.
"I have an elder sister who cared a lot about me. When I was little and often bullied, she always stood up for me." Saying this, you couldn’t help but smile, "Later, due to some incidents, I intentionally trained to boost my courage. I remember when I was in junior high, to train my courage, I had my grandfather take me into the Armed Police Troops’ Courage Training Camp."
"Whoa, didn’t expect you’d dare enter such a place!" Du Yanan remarked from the front of the formation, rarely complimenting you.
Wei Yingyue also added: "The Armed Police Troops’ Courage Training Base isn’t well-known, only insiders know of it. I once heard many robust armed police officers got scared and cried inside, some even lost control of their bowels."
"Is it really that extreme?" Deng Fang finally spoke up softly.
"Don’t underestimate the Courage Camp. When I first entered the base, I was so scared that I couldn’t get up from the ground." You laughed.