Those Classmates who Suddenly Disappeared
Chapter 136: There’s Actually a Mechanism

Chapter 136: Chapter 136: There’s Actually a Mechanism

"Hold on, who are you?" The gang was now bound up, utterly helpless. They’d always thought themselves brave, willing to sacrifice themselves for their cause. But when it came to matters of life and death, they realized they lacked such courage.

Hai motioned for his men to stop, then asked, "Tell me, how many of you are there? What is your goal, and how do you plan to achieve it? And why do you keep targeting Gu Fan and his crew?"

The series of questions left the gang baffled, as if they were pondering whether they should spill the beans. Then, they seemed to understand something, smirking in an way that was full of mockery, as if they were saying: I see through your little game.

Seeing their reaction, Hai scratched his head, looking troubled: "I see, you think we were just bluffing, using scare tactics to extract information. You believe we don’t actually have the guts to act." As soon as he finished speaking, Hai snapped his fingers and his men threw one of the captives into the water as fish food.

Before the rest of the gang could react, the second one was thrown into the river, closely followed by the third. Hai demonstrated his threat through his actions, showing them that he was true to his word. If they kept playing dumb, they were asking for a bitter end.

Leng Le, who had been watching for some time, caught the gazes of their pleading victims. Yet he turned away indifferently, sighing, "This is too cruel, I can’t watch it anymore."

Upon hearing this, Hai looked at him with disdain: "Give me a break. Just now, it was you who suggested throwing them into the river!"

"Was it? I just said it for the sake of it. I didn’t think you guys would actually do it. My bad. Next time I give such orders, you guys better use your heads." Leng Le’s response left his subordinates speechless. He was a master at passing the buck.

One of his subordinates asked in a low voice, "What if I think that your order isn’t good, and don’t carry it out?"

Leng Le patted the man’s shoulder, grinning ear to ear: "That’s great. They might be able to survive, but you won’t."

His words were quite intimidating, the subordinate immediately admitted that as an uneducated person, he didn’t have much of a brain to think. So, he would loyally execute whatever Leng Le’s orders were.

Seeing this, Hai shook his head and sighed, "It’s getting more and more unprincipled..."

"Alright, enough, we should set off now. The roles of the mantis and the cicada have reversed, but we’ll always be the yellow bird. Being the yellow bird feels quite good." Leng Le looked at the tracking signal on his phone, knowing that they were now some distance away from Gu Fan and his team. It was time to catch up.

Hai nodded and started to lead his team. Sometimes, he wondered if he had installed a tracking device on Jie’s phone like Leng Le, wouldn’t he have to worry about Jie all the time?

*******

At this time, Gu Fan and his team had entered through the main gate and had been walking up the steps without encountering any danger. After a smooth fifteen-minute walk, they unexpectedly reached a large room.

"My God, where are we?" Lu Yi looked around and saw tons of water barrels everywhere.

Professor Luo speculated that this place could very likely be the source of water for the entire Qianye City. All the water for the city was supplied from here. But the problem was, where would they put this water outlet in Qianye City?

Qin Jia was the first to raise her opinion, if this was the only water outlet, then it definitely would not be located inside a civilian house. If she were Queen Qianye, she would want to control the water supply, which would give her control over the citizens. Hence, this water outlet might be located inside the palace, which meant they had already entered the palace.

Everyone agreed this made sense, especially considering the particularly carved symbols on those old water barrels, which were unlikely to be items found among civilians.

Professor Luo added later, "Remember, Qianye City is buried under sandstorms. That means we’re currently under the sand. Be careful not to get buried in the sand while moving."

After hearing his words, Lu Yi couldn’t help but exclaim, "Goodness, if you hadn’t reminded me, I would have completely forgotten."

"All right, let’s go. No matter what that group is up to, we have to stop them." After saying that, Gu Fan took the lead, striding forward. He was desperate to hurriedly catch up, fearing that he might pass within steps of his twelve classmates.

However, the reality was not that simple. The palace was vast, with several floors up and down, and without a map, they felt like aimless flies buzzing around. It was this very fact which made them even more certain that they were in the palace.

From one room to another, the group had no idea how much they had walked, only to find themselves back at the starting point. They were filled with despair.

Sometimes, they would open a door, and a flurry of sand would rush in, frightening them to the point where it took several people’s combined strength to close the door again.

Now was the time for Ouyang Jin to exhibit his abilities. Using his talent, he would sketch the palace onto a sheet of paper to help everyone avoid detours. However, Ouyang Jin looked rather distressed and complained, "I’ve been doing nothing but physical and mental work lately. The pressure is too much. I have a headache. I need some good news to cheer me up."

"He’s raising his price again!" Gu Fan and Lu Yi slapped their foreheads, feeling helpless against this crafty fox.

This time, Du Jun lost his patience and directly quoted a price of a hundred thousand, asking Ouyang Jin to be responsible till the end. If Ouyang Jin mentioned anything about a price hike in the future, it would render the previously increased prices void.

"Alright, leave it to me – the one who provides honest, reliable, and quality service," Ouyang Jin started drawing the plans on a piece of paper decisively. He drew five levels, based on the underground river layer as the bottommost layer, the rooms everyone had walked out of as the second layer, and so on. It turned out to be an impressive palace.

However, these five layers were incomplete; further exploration was required. But Lu Yi commented, "How can this be? We’ve been here for so long, and we haven’t run into anyone from the ancient town’s group. This shouldn’t be the case."

"Yes, it shouldn’t be." Gu Fan frowned at this reminder. Although the palace was massive, the other team was larger and more noticeable. It was unlikely that they wouldn’t have crossed paths.

At this moment, Lu Yi added, "Do you think there might be traps in here that the ancient town’s group could have fallen into?"

"You can’t help doomsaying, can you?" Gu Fan shook his head, looking helplessly at Lu Yi. However, Lu Yi retorted, "I’m just trying to remind everyone to be cautious."

"Alright, alright, you make a valid point. You’re brilliant." Just as Gu Fan finished speaking, he leaned back against a pillar, accidentally triggering a mechanism. With a click, the floor split open, and he plummeted down.

"You’ve got to be kidding me, Lu Yi, you doomsayer, I hate you." Along with him, Du Jun and Xu Haowen also fell, even the doomsayer Lu Yi himself wasn’t spared.

The four of them slid down like they were on a slide, their speed increasing as they descended. They didn’t know where they would end up, but the rapid speed gave off a sense of danger.

The first thing Lu Yi did was to bring up his shield to shield himself, curling up behind it, hoping that the situation wouldn’t be too severe.

However, at the end of the slide was a row of spearheads facing him. Although the spears had rusted due to age, they were still a threat at their current pace.

With a crisp sound, Lu Yi’s shield efficiently blocked all the spears, sparing his life. But the impact was so massive that Lu Yi could hardly bear it. Worse still, Gu Fan, Du Jun, and Xu Haowen each crashed into him one by one, weighing down on him and nearly breaking him.

Lu Yi hastily begged for mercy, "Please stop, I can’t handle all of you by myself."

"That’s what you get for being a doomsayer." As soon as Gu Fan finished speaking, he shone his flashlight around, discovering several bodies impaled by spears, identifiable as members of the ancient town’s group by their attire. They were not as fortunate as Gu Fan.

Perhaps because the spears couldn’t bear the combined impact of Lu Yi, Gu Fan, and the others, a significant portion of them broke, allowing them to land safely. Once again, Lu Yi felt as if he was about to be crushed to death.

Luckily, Gu Fan and the others quickly rose to their feet and surveyed their surroundings. They found themselves in a small secret chamber with some skeletal remains, presumably victims of the palace’s traps.

Lu Yi, bracing against the pain in his waist, managed to stand up and grumbled, "What was Queen Qianye thinking by installing such dangerous traps in her palace? Was she afraid of grave robbers? Did she set up her mausoleum in this palace?"

Reminded by his words, Gu Fan frowned; it was unheard of for a palace to be rigged with traps. Moreover, the Qianye kingdom disappeared overnight after Queen Qianye’s death—perhaps things were not as simple as they seemed.

"Let’s focus on finding our way out first." Gu Fan looked around the tiny room, feeling here and there, but couldn’t find any switches. He wondered why the trap was so easy to trigger when they inadvertently entered, but finding the way out felt like a game of hide-and-seek.

"What a relief! At least we’re safe for now. There are no additional traps." Just when Lu Yi said this, Gu Fan finally found a switch. He turned it lightly, expecting to find an exit, but to their surprise...

A hole opened at the top of the room, and a torrent of water rushed in. There were other traps, and everyone stared astonishingly at Lu Yi.

Lu Yi was speechless, "What is this? I trigger a trap when I’m pessimistic and when I’m optimistic. Is this a joke questioning my life choices?"