Merchant of the Underworld

I used a flashlight and carefully inspected the bones in front and back, and found nothing new, so I leaned against the stone wall to rest for a while.

There are dark holes all around, with so many side roads that it is impossible to tell which one is the real path. Or is it that the mouse hole is a dead end with no way out?

I was a little undecided, whether I should go back the way I came, exit along the rat bone remains, and then brave the sea of ​​snakes with nausea; or continue forward and see if I could get out of this road.

At this moment, I suddenly felt a cool breeze blowing from behind.

wind?

This mouse hole is dense and intricate. I walked for so long without even encountering any wind. Why did a gust of wind suddenly come?

I stretched out my hand to explore a little strangely, not bad!

It was not my imagination, it was indeed the wind.

If the wind blows, it proves that this cave is connected to the outside world, and it is not far from here.

It seems that the exit is nearby.

This sudden discovery made me overjoyed. After a good fight with the human-faced mouse just now, my slightly tired body suddenly felt refreshed.

I stood up and rearranged my backpack. The two iron boxes were no longer useful, so I threw them next to the bones, and followed a hole where the wind sounded stronger.

The hole becomes narrower as you go inside, and you can only crawl through in many places.

Fortunately, those human-faced rats have been frightened and fled away, and will not harass me again...

After crawling for a while, the cool breeze became heavier and heavier, but the entrance of the cave became smaller and smaller, and I couldn't even climb through.

In desperation, I had no choice but to pull out my two swords and continue moving forward while digging for rocks.

After crawling for more than thirty meters with difficulty, a huge boulder appeared in front of us.

There is a hole in the stone the size of a child's head, and the cold wind blows in from here.

I stretched out my arm and touched it. The outside of the boulder was empty. It seemed like this was the end!

Suddenly, something fell on my fingers that were sticking out. I pulled them back and looked with the flashlight, and it turned out to be blood.

Why is there blood here? Where did it fall from?

I lay down behind the boulder and listened for a while, but found no movement, and then continued digging with my knife.

boom!

The boulder was moved and rolled away completely.

I used too much force and jumped out of the hole.

Who would have thought that there was a cliff behind the boulder, and most of my body was already hanging in the air, and I just missed falling into the abyss with the boulder!

I hurriedly moved my legs apart and got stuck on the cave wall behind me. In panic, the flashlight also fell into the darkness along with the boulder.

The light faded away, but the darkness was still deep. The stones became smaller and smaller, falling far away. After a long time, there was still no reply. I really don’t know how deep this dark cliff is!

I shrank back with lingering fear, leaned against the stone wall and breathed for a while, took out a spare flashlight, and shined a light on the top of my head.

The hole I forcibly dug was not far from the top of the cliff, about twenty meters.

The top of the head was also pitch black, but it could be seen that it was a hole big enough for a truck to pass through. There were also traces of manual chiseling on both sides of the cave wall. I must have dug through another passage accidentally.

From the edge of the cliff, blood dripped down from time to time.

There was something hanging precariously on a raised sharp stone.

I tied the flashlight to my shoulder, took out the mechanical flying claw from my backpack, aimed at the cliff and shot it!

These are special ejection claws used by special forces for rock climbing. We brought three of them in total, one for each of Parker, Lina and me. When entering the underwater ruins to lighten the equipment, Jiang Dayu said that leaving one was enough. Lina had already carried it on her shoulders, so I thought about it and brought one with me. Unexpectedly, it actually came in handy.

The flying claws firmly latched onto the stone crevice. I pulled it up and down a few times and climbed up along the rope.

After a while, I saw the thing hanging on the sharp stone and shaking constantly.

It’s also a flying claw, and it’s exactly the same as mine. I’m sure this is the one Lina carries!

It's just that the rope has been broken from it, and only a small half is left. What is going on?

Did Lina and the others fall from here?

I turned my head and looked down. There was no echo from the boulder after it fell for so long. I couldn’t imagine how deep it was! If they really fell from here, it would be very dangerous.

But the question is, how could the rope break?

This is a specially crafted nylon rope, which is enough to lift a car. Even if the three of them are hanging on the rope, nothing will happen.

Moreover, the fracture was very strange. It didn’t look like it had been torn off, nor was it smooth, nor did it look like it had been cut off by something like a knife or axe. However, I seemed to have seen it somewhere, but I just couldn’t remember it for a moment.

The blood continued to drip, so what happened above the cliff?

I cautiously picked up the invisible needle and slowly climbed up.

There was no movement at all above the cliff. There was blood all over the ground, and there was a broken arm not far from the cliff.

Half of the black tights remain on the severed arm, and there is a very strange mark engraved on the wrist - obviously, this arm is not any of us, nor is it Fujita Tsuyoshi.

Then who is it?

boom!

There was a heavy muffled sound from the bottom of the cliff, and the previous boulder had not fallen to the bottom until now.

I was a little shocked and shook the flashlight and looked down again. If they really fell from here, I'm afraid they wouldn't survive long ago!

I cautiously groped forward along the passage and found two more corpses, both wearing identical black tights and with that weird mark carved on their arms.

A head fell to the side, and the chest was almost split in half, with only a little bit of flesh and blood remaining. It seemed that he had been hacked to death by Fan Chong's sword.

There were several thumb-sized holes scattered on the chest of the other head, but they were definitely not penetrated by ordinary bullets. This should have been done by Lina. When dealing with the giant hand Aoi, she once took out a small pistol with a strange shape.

Many square darts and hollow shurikens were scattered on the surrounding walls and even in the pool of blood on the ground.

Judging from the weapons, it should have been done by a Japanese ninja, most likely in the same group as the three ninjas who sneaked onto the ship.

These guys were obviously much more powerful than the previous three, and they were able to push the trio of Lina, Parker, and Fan Chong into the cliff.

So, are these guys the ones who used long swords to pry open the stone door?

Also, although the two corpses on the ground were badly mutilated, their arms were still intact. In addition, these ninjas are used to working in groups of three, which means there is another guy missing!

I glanced at the dripping blood that was gradually disappearing, then I held the invisible needle tightly and chased after him. The blood hadn't dried yet, so the opponent probably hadn't run very far yet.