El decimonoveno nivel del infierno

Capítulo 16

Ling Li and Tao Rujiu fell silent after entering the main gate. It wasn't that they had nothing to say, but rather that they were pondering the same question.

The underground palace is a large building designed as a maze, with winding passages and mechanisms offering countless hiding places. Finding Wang Baihu and his girlfriend here will be no easy task.

However, perhaps it was a case of "a blessing in disguise," because the annoying rain from the sky turned out to be a great help to them at this time.

"Look." Ling Li slowly pointed the flashlight forward.

In the beam of the flashlight, a puddle of water on the gray cement floor of the underground palace emitted a faint glow. It was rainwater that had dripped from Wang Baihu's umbrella, with two lines of footprints, not yet completely dry, stretching into the unknown darkness of the underground palace.

Tao Rujiu and Ling Li exchanged a glance, then followed the footprints on the ground to the first floor. Judging from the dampness of the water stains, Ling Li felt that Wang Baihu and his companion must have arrived only ten to fifteen minutes earlier than them.

Many times along the way, water droplets dripped behind the wax figures of the monsters. Wang Baihu was clearly trying to scare the girls traveling with him and find an opportunity to take advantage of them.

Finally, beside the group of figures amidst the raging inferno, raindrops dripped from the tip of the umbrella, forming a small, palm-sized patch of water. It seemed that the attempt had finally succeeded, and they had enjoyed a tender moment together.

"That scumbag." Ling Li looked around, searching for where the water stains had gone, and finally couldn't help but curse angrily, "Doesn't he know how worried everyone was about him?!"

"It's not too late to yell after we find them." Tao Rujiu was also searching for the water stains, and so far, he seemed calmer than Ling Li. "The water stains are heading this way."

The two walked and stopped like this, passing through most of the first floor of the underground palace. It wasn't until they stopped in front of a narrow doorway leading to the second floor that Tao Rujiu suddenly realized that Wang Baihu had actually been walking along the route to the vegetable garden.

The underground palace had a complex network of routes, and although the opera troupe members frequently traveled there, they were only familiar with a few familiar paths. Wang Baihu's courage was perhaps limited, so he chose to take the familiar route—which actually made the search easier. Tao Rujiu immediately told Ling Li this guess, and after a moment's thought, the man agreed that it made sense. The two then entered the red coffin inside the small door and went down to the second level.

Sure enough, at the beginning of the Thousand Hands Corridor, Ling Li saw a straight umbrella discarded on the ground.

In the beam of the flashlight that swayed with their breathing, the umbrella lay quietly on the ground in front of Tao Rujiu's feet. Rainwater pooled around it, forming a wet patch like blood. The sharp light revealed that the drawer of the service desk by the wall had been opened; Wang Baihu had obviously taken two electronic torches and continued on his way. He had left the umbrella there, thinking it would be in the way, to take it back on his return journey.

“I bet they’re not far ahead,” Tao Rujiu whispered to Ling Li. “We can catch up in a few steps.”

But the man disagreed with his assumption.

“Listen to the sounds around you,” he said.

Although she didn't understand Ling Li's intentions, Tao Rujiu still calmed down and listened for a while.

It was very quiet around, because it was on the second basement level, so even the sound of rain was blocked out.

"I didn't hear anything," Tao Rujiu honestly stated his thoughts.

“That’s right.” Ling Li’s expression was serious as he shone his flashlight toward the end of the corridor. All that could be seen were pairs of greenish-blue lifelike arms hanging in mid-air on the wall.

"There was no sound, no talking, and no footsteps of Wang Baihu and his men."

These sharp words, like a knife, revealed the crisis beneath the calm surface.

A couple who had arrived just ten to fifteen minutes earlier than them walked and joked, even stopping halfway for a tender moment. Logically, they should have been caught up by Ling Li and Tao Rujiu long ago.

However, the truth was that there was not only no sign of Wang Baihu, but there wasn't even a sound of voices around.

“It’s definitely too quiet.” Tao Rujiu lowered her voice and asked Ling Li, “What do you think will happen?”

"I don't know," the man answered truthfully. "This is the first time I've encountered something like this. It seems those two might really be in trouble. And us..."

At this point, Ling Li paused, then suddenly reached out and grasped Tao Rujiu's hand. This wasn't an ordinary handshake; it was a forceful grip, his five fingers interlocking tightly with Tao Rujiu's, forming a lock-like bond. Tao Rujiu was somewhat surprised and pulled her hand away, but after feeling the warmth of the other's palm, she became enamored with this stable feeling and stopped trying to avoid it.

In the darkness, a sharp voice whispered in his ear:

"We can't stay in the open forever, it's safer to turn off the flashlight now."

Tao Rujiu understood Ling Li's idea: turning off the flashlight and moving forward in the dark might sound scary, but it was actually a safer choice.

So the two of them turned off their flashlights, and the boundless darkness around them immediately gathered like a tide. Tao Rujiu felt like a child swimming for the first time, panicked by the coldness and bitterness of the seawater.

In the cold darkness, only the warmth remained in his hand, clasped tightly with Ling Li's.

Ling Li sensed Tao Rujiu's fear and groped to place his other hand on Tao Rujiu's shoulder as well.

He whispered to him, "You said you wouldn't hold us back, and you said you wouldn't be a coward, right?"

Tao Rujiu nodded in the darkness.

"Nodding isn't enough, prove it to me now..."

As he spoke, Ling Li suddenly raised his hand and touched Tao Rujiu's cheek, then leaned down and made an unexpected move.

He actually bit Tao Rujiu's earlobe hard.

The damp heat and stinging sensation from his earlobe made Tao Rujiu's heart pound wildly. It wasn't that he was afraid of the pain, but rather that this overly intimate act felt like a boulder crashing down on the young man's heart, creating a raging storm.

Fortunately, it was pitch black all around, so Ling Li couldn't see the flush on his face. Tao Rujiu leaned weakly against the wall, and after a long while, he growled angrily, "Are you crazy! Is biting people fun?!"

A sharp laugh came from the darkness, and he replied, "I'll bite you. I'll give you a little bit of my courage as a handout."

The two paused at the beginning of the Thousand Hands Corridor to calm themselves down, especially Tao Rujiu, who repeatedly told himself not to be intimidated again. After a minute or two, with Ling Li leading the way, they began to feel their way forward again.

The underground palace was completely dark, almost pitch black. Only a few skylights in the ceiling led to the first floor, letting in a faint blue light. The two of them had to use both their hands and feet to walk, even though the walls of the Thousand-Hand Corridor were covered with cold, lifelike artificial arms. Being hit by them was still much better than stumbling around on their own two feet.

“If we turn off the flashlights, we can hardly see anything. How are we supposed to find Wang Baihu and the others? We might even walk right past them without them noticing!” Tao Rujiu thought of this question as he walked.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Ling Li replied. “Look up at the sky.”

Tao Rujiu looked up as instructed. The walls of the maze were only about two meters high, and the ceilings above were connected to form a single plane. Between the dark cement and pipes, grayish-white curtains were faintly visible.

There was nothing unusual overhead, but when the young man looked further away, he noticed a faint green light reflected on the ceiling there.

"It's an electronic torch!"

Tao Rujiu cried out, but Ling Li quickly covered his mouth and whispered beside him, "Look at that green light, has it moved?"

Tao Rujiu looked further into the distance, where the green light was about twenty meters away from them. At first glance, it seemed to be still, but after holding their breath and observing for a while, they realized that it was actually two beams of green light from electronic torches, slowly separating. One beam remained still in place, while the other moved southward.

"That moving torch seems to be getting dimmer and dimmer." After observing for a while, Tao Rujiu came to this conclusion. If Wang Baihu was carrying that torch, why would he leave his girlfriend alone? And where was he going?

“That direction leads to the Dragon Scale Blood Pool,” Ling Li said with absolute certainty.

Although Tao Rujiu hadn't explored the entire second level of the underground palace, he had carefully read the information provided by the control room. The Dragon Scale Blood Pool was a long, narrow, and enclosed chamber. A narrow log bridge, only one meter wide, spanned the center of the chamber. Beneath the bridge lay a meter-deep pool of water, simulated by lighting and other props to resemble a deep, blood-red pool. Hidden within the pool were mechanisms that would be activated by sensors concealed on the log bridge, creating a terrifying atmosphere. The "dragon scales" were named because three enormous, ferocious-looking dragons coiled on each of the high walls on either side of the chamber. When open to the public, the walls the dragons clung to would constrict towards the center, causing the dragons to bare their claws and manipulate the blood pool's rise and fall, triggering the mechanisms within. Coupled with sound effects, this created an even more terrifying and horrifying experience.

For Tao Rujiu and Ling Li, the most important thing is that the Dragon Scale Blood Pool is a dead end.

Why would Wang Baihu or his girlfriend choose this dead end?

Although Tao Rujiu didn't understand the reasoning behind it, just thinking about the possibility was enough to send chills down his spine. However, at that moment, another voice that had once unsettled him suddenly appeared in the deathly silent air.

The sound of water.

It was the same sound of water he heard when he first entered the underground palace, only louder and faster. It was as if the water was already flowing to his feet.

“Ling Li, did you hear me…” He held the man’s hand, which had become icy cold, and felt a thin layer of sweat on the other man’s palm.

“The sound of water.” Ling Li confirmed the sound Tao Rujiu had heard. “Perhaps it’s because of the rain that the underground river has overflowed.” However, after a while, he said with some curiosity, “That river is still some distance from the second floor. A day or two of rain definitely won’t cause it to rise to the second floor.”

"Stop talking, it's getting weirder the more you talk about it." Tao Rujiu clenched his sharp hand, stopping him from thinking any further. "In any case, let's go see the person who hasn't moved yet."

Ling Li nodded sharply, and the two walked towards the green light. Perhaps because they both had a bad feeling, their steps quickened in unison. However, not far above their heads, the moving green light was gradually swallowed up by the towering walls of the Dragon Scale Blood Pool. The closer they got to the end of the Thousand Hands Corridor, the more obvious the green light became. It seemed that the electronic torch was placed at the central crossroads on the second floor. It could be seen by simply lifting the last layer of white curtain at the corner of the corridor.

Are you scared?

Tao Rujiu stood on the left, and just as Ling Li was about to lift the curtain, she grasped his hand and asked:

"What do you plan to do if something really happens to Wang Baihu?"

The sharp reply was: "At least wait until we see the situation before deciding on a course of action; don't scare yourself unnecessarily."

As he spoke, he lifted the curtain.

Sure enough, the green light was shining in the open space less than two meters away from them. Green light, green walls, green road signs, and a bluish-green ghost peering up from the ceiling through frosted glass.

But there was no one there.

Ling Li and Tao Rujiu lifted the curtain and walked to the platform at the crossroads. The electronic torch was abandoned under the road sign. Also lying on the ground were a short skirt and a pair of women's underwear that had been torn to a distorted shape.

Immediately realizing what these clothes meant, Tao Rujiu awkwardly turned her face away.

"Wang Baihu is a scumbag. Everyone else is worried sick about him, and he's messing around here!" Ling Li couldn't help but mutter another curse under his breath, but then he realized that something was strange about this.

"That woman's clothes are still here. Is she walking around naked now?"

Just as he raised his question, he turned his attention elsewhere to Tao Rujiu and discovered another strange thing.

“Ling Li, look at the ground…” he whispered, pointing to the ground not far from the green light.

Ling Li looked in the direction he pointed. On the surface of the black cement pool, there was a thin line that shimmered with green light. He composed himself and, ignoring Tao Rujiu's advice, went closer to take a closer look, only to discover that it was actually a thin watermark.

"It seeped in from the underworld marriage area." Ling Li looked along the water trail into the darkness not far away.

The terrain of the second level of the underground palace is high in the middle and low on all sides. The water flowing from the underworld marriage area does not defy the principle of gravity flowing upwards. Both Ling Li and Tao Rujiu found its appearance puzzling.

“And it’s not just there that watermarks…” Tao Rujiu had already followed Ling Li to the center of the crossroads. Observing the surroundings from a different angle, he discovered that there were several other streams of water that were not easily noticed, extending out from the corridor in the direction of the blood pool.

“It’s not just that.” Ling Li stood up and grasped Tao Rujiu’s hand again. “Look where we were just standing.” He pointed to the area below the white curtain of the Thousand Hands Corridor.

Once upon a time, the place where the two stood has been silently submerged by the same current of water.

Whether it was Tao Rujiu's imagination or not, he suddenly felt the temperature drop considerably, and even felt a chilling wind blowing on his face. To be honest, he was indeed afraid, because the unidentified greenish water on the concrete ground in front of him seemed to spread like tentacles, gradually encircling the dry ground and carving out strange and inexplicable patterns.

"Be careful of the water..." he warned, gripping his sharp hand tightly, though he himself didn't understand why he said it. The disappearance of Wang Baihu and his girlfriend was certainly related to this current; Tao Rujiu could even imagine the scene.

Wang Baihu and his girlfriend stripped naked and writh on the ground, oblivious to the gradually clearing sound of running water. Several extremely thin streams of water slowly converged and approached them.

What happened next?

Before Tao Rujiu could make any further connections, the sound of the flowing water on the third level beneath his feet suddenly roared loudly. He and Ling Li were both startled. Upon closer listening, they could even hear the sound of waves crashing against the rock wall and cracking.

Amidst the cacophony of water sounds, the cracking of metal stood out remarkably clearly.

"Not good!" Ling Li shouted, suddenly shaking off Tao Rujiu's hand and running alone towards the Dragon Scale Blood Pool. Tao Rujiu reacted and wanted to follow, but Ling Li turned around and stopped her.

"Stay where you are and avoid the currents! Find the woman if possible!"

After saying this, he disappeared into the dark corridor leading to the Dragon Scale Blood Pool.

There was indeed no path at the end of the blood pool. But there was a door, a bronze door that also led to the third level of the underground palace, sealed shut with iron chains.

Ling Li knew that the dull metallic sound mixed with the rushing water was the sound of the iron lock on the bronze door breaking.

The interior of the Dragon Scale Blood Pool area was filled with the noisy sound of flowing water.

Ling Li felt a fine mist of water spraying towards him. Contrary to his expectations of complete darkness, the end of the blood pool was illuminated by the green light emanating from another electronic torch.

The green light appeared about a meter tall in front of the man, but Ling Li couldn't make out who the person holding the torch was. He could only vaguely see a white outline, slowly moving with the green light.

The man steadied himself and walked forward by the faint light. There were railings on both sides of the log bridge, so he wouldn't lose his balance and fall into the pool of blood. On the towering walls on both sides, six huge and ferocious dragons were bathed in a ghastly green light. The closest they came to Tao Rujiu was that the manes on their backs almost brushed past his head.

The water did indeed seep from the bronze gate, meandering into the blood pool and causing the blood to churn and collide. Ling Li felt the log bridge beneath his feet sway, and he looked down, feeling dizzy, instinctively grabbing the left railing for support. Everything he touched was cold and damp.

The pale green light drifted deeper and deeper into the bronze door.

At this moment, he could no longer care about anything else and shouted sharply into the bronze door, "Wang Baihu! Wang Baihu, come back here!"