Xiao Lou froze upon seeing this scene. Fortunately, Yu Hanjiang reacted quickly; otherwise, his neck might have been tightly wrapped by those tongues, suffocating him to death.
The tongues hanging on the walls on both sides were clearly taken from the bodies of evil spirits punished in the "Tongue-Pulling Hell." Xiao Lou initially thought this was just a terrifying scene deliberately set up by the Guardian to scare them, but he never expected the Guardian to go so far, actually using these tongues as mechanical weapons to attack them!
He still doesn't know how the mechanism was triggered.
Tang Ci released two small ants as scouts into the room. The ants showed no unusual behavior when touching the floor tiles; clearly, it wasn't a mechanism triggered by stepping on the floor. But once they were inside, the tongues on the wall suddenly launched a fierce attack!
Perhaps this secret room is voice-activated? Did their footsteps trigger the mechanism?
Since none of the six could speak, the entire chamber was utterly silent, yet the footsteps were indeed very clear. The fact that the Tongue-Pulling Hell is completely silent, relying on sound sensing to control the mechanisms, is a plausible explanation.
Before Xiao Lou could think further, Yu Hanjiang suddenly twisted his waist in mid-air, carrying him diagonally to the wall. He took out a sharp military knife and slashed it down hard at the tongues flying around on the wall!
The man's eyes were deep and filled with malice; his actions were swift and decisive.
Although the sight of tongues filling the room was rather terrifying and disgusting, Yu Hanjiang remained completely unmoved. In the blink of an eye, he actually managed to cut off half of the tongues covering the wall!
As he slashed, the tongue on the wall seemed to be enraged and suddenly stretched several times longer.
Yu Hanjiang is unstoppable, slaying gods and Buddhas alike. He uses Liu Qiao's Lightness Skill card to levitate in the air, using the tongues as landing points. His left hand tightly holds Xiao Lou's waist, while his right hand wields a military knife, creating a sharp circle of light around him. He protects himself from all sides, with flashes of light in the air, slicing down countless tongues. For a time, no tongue could get close to him.
Although no one could speak, Yu Hanjiang was showing his teammates through his actions that he was paving the way for them.
Inside the room, severed tongues fell like snowflakes, the scene so gruesome it made one want to vomit. But after so many trials in the secret chamber, everyone's mental fortitude had improved dramatically. Not only were the grown men too embarrassed to vomit, but Liu Qiao also managed to hold it in.
Lu Jiuchuan waved his hand forward, making a "hurry up" gesture.
Immediately afterwards, he glanced down at the Tang Ci on his chest, worried that he might accidentally drop it while moving quickly, so he gently stuffed the Tang Ci into his pocket with his fingers.
Tang Ci was stuffed entirely into the pocket, and he couldn't see anything.
He wanted to climb out, but... now that he'd encountered a hellish trap, Ninth Brother would be distracted if he had to take care of him. If he accidentally fell in and got trampled to death by his teammates, that would be too unfair. It was better not to cause trouble.
Tang Ci thought for a moment and decided to stay quietly in Ninth Brother's pocket.
The next moment, Lu Jiuchuan suddenly leaped up, and Tang Ci felt as if he were on a roller coaster, being shaken and disoriented.
Lu Jiuchuan kicked away the tongue that was attacking him, and then took out a weapon card.
Most of his cards were summoned beasts, but he also drew an S-rank weapon called [ Ice Sword ]. This sword was slender and sharp, with a thin blade, a light blue tassel, and a matching scabbard, resembling the swords of martial arts heroes. However, the moment it was drawn, a dense chill enveloped the blade, as if the entire sword were forged from ice and snow.
This sword also has a small-area freezing function.
Yu Hanjiang led the way with a military knife, while Lu Jiuchuan followed closely behind with an Ice Sword.
Before those tongues could even touch their bodies, they were either mercilessly severed by Yu Hanjiang or frozen by Lu Jiuchuan's sweeping sword. The two brothers quickly dealt with the surrounding tongues, and Lao Mo and Liu Qiao, not being fools, immediately followed.
The passage, with its walls covered in tongues, was of unknown length. Yu Hanjiang and Lu Jiuchuan ran forward at top speed, battling the agile tongue formations. With Lu Jiuchuan's Ice Sword, the tongues along the way were frozen, turning the entire corridor into an ice cellar.
The frozen tongues look a lot like stalactites in a cave.
Five minutes later, the six people successfully passed through the tongue formation and arrived at an open space.
Xiao Lou breathed a slight sigh of relief. Yu Hanjiang and Lu Jiuchuan reacted quickly and had first-class fighting skills. With the cooperation of these two brothers, the first level of the Tongue-Pulling Hell did not pose much of a threat to them...
His concern was that since they were on the Hell Path, would they encounter other hells next?
Xiao Lou said, "You've already passed the Hell of Tongue-Pulling, you should be able to speak now, right?"
Everyone heard his voice.
Lu Jiuchuan couldn't help but curse, "Damn, those tongues are disgusting. The Tongue-Pulling Hell uses tongues as mechanisms. This little diamond loli looks cute, but she's so twisted inside."
Tang Ci peeked out from under the pocket and said calmly, "You'd better not curse the Guardian in the secret room, lest she hears you and deliberately make things more difficult for us."
Lu Jiuchuan smiled: "Did I scold her? I just praised her for being super cute. I've never seen such a cute little girl before. The cake dress she was wearing was just amazing. She looked like a fair-skinned and beautiful doll."
Everyone: "......"
Ninth Brother's survival instinct is quite strong, but I wonder if Guardian can hear him.
Once she could speak again, Xiao Lou looked at Yu Hanjiang covered in blood and hurriedly grabbed his hand with concern: "Are you alright? You're covered in so much blood..."
Yu Hanjiang, feeling cared for, smiled slightly and said in a low voice, "It's nothing. It was just some splatter from breaking those things. This maze is eerie in every way. Do you think the tongue-pulling hell we just experienced was an illusion?"
Xiao Lou couldn't explain it either.
Such strange mechanisms wouldn't appear in a normal ancient tomb. But this tomb maze is the Guardian's Weekly Routine, so anything could happen. He took a deep breath and looked at the dark passage ahead: "Whether it's an illusion or not, there might be seventeen more levels of hell waiting for us. Everyone, be careful."
Although Liu Qiao had just emerged from a nauseating tongue attack, her expression remained calm as she asked, " Professor Xiao, do you know the order of the Eighteen Levels of Hell? What should the next level be?"
Xiao Lou said, "Scissors Hell."
After a moment of silence, Yu Hanjiang waved his hand and said, "Let's go."
Only then did he realize that he had been holding Xiao Lou's waist the whole time, their bodies very close. In the heat of the moment, he had hugged Xiao Lou to dodge the tongue attack, but after escaping, he forgot to let go. His teammates must have all seen it, but no one said anything.
Yu Hanjiang calmly withdrew his hand, pretending nothing had happened, while Xiao Lou's ears felt slightly hot.
The group continued forward, and ahead was a set of downward steps. Fortunately, the steps were not long, and after only a dozen or so steps, they arrived at a wide rectangular passage.
According to the regional punishment rules, anyone who sows discord, slanders, or harms others will be sent to the Tongue-Pulling Hell after death, where their tongue will be pulled out by demons; while those sent to the Scissors Hell will have all ten of their fingers forcibly cut off.
It is said that the ten fingers are connected to the heart, and the pain of having one finger cut off one by one is naturally a torture that ordinary people cannot bear.
Xiao Lou looked at the dense array of scissors ahead, his face turning somewhat grim.
These scissors are not the small scissors you usually use at home; they are giant scissors that are a full 1 meter wide and 1.5 meters long. Not to mention cutting off fingers, those gleaming white blades can even cut a person in half with a single opening and closing!
What's even more outrageous is that scissors were scattered throughout the entire space.
It's impossible to fly over your feet, legs, waist, or head using Lightness Skill, and it's also impossible to crawl over them. Moreover, the scissors open and close extremely quickly, with a constant "snip, snip" sound in your ears. If you accidentally touch the blade, you might have a leg, an arm, or even your head cut off.
Lu Jiuchuan suppressed the urge to berate the Guardian and said in a deep voice, "My Ice Sword can only freeze people and animals. These scissors are made of iron and cannot be frozen. How are we going to get across?"
Climbing, jumping, and running won't work, and controls like freezing, confusion, immobilization, and sleep are all targeted at living things. Scissors are mechanisms and tools, and are not affected by card control skills.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance. Just then, Liu Qiao suddenly said, "I can shrink down and go take a look."
Her [ Thumbelina ] has two abilities: first, to shrink herself, and second, to shrink others.
The lowest point of the scissors in the trap array ahead is about 10cm from the ground, but after Liu Qiao transforms, her height will shrink to only 5cm, so she can walk directly over it.
Xiao Lou looked at Liu Qiao and cautioned, "Be careful."
Liu Qiao nodded, decisively shrunk herself to the size of a thumb, and slowly walked through the scissor formation.
She didn't just walk over; as she walked, she would stop, raise her head, and carefully observe the pattern of the scissor formation.
Soon, Liu Qiao discovered that there were ten scissors distributed in the air for every meter she walked. Although the distribution was random and the scissors moved back and forth, the opening and closing of these ten scissors were coordinated. In other words, this row of scissors would open and close according to a certain pattern. If you passed through this row at the moment the scissors closed, you would not be afraid of being stabbed by the sharp blade.
The second row follows another pattern; the third row...
After walking through eighteen rows, Liu Qiao finally left the scissor formation and saw an open space ahead.
She immediately said to Xiao Lou, " Professor Xiao, the scissors formation has a total of 18 rows of scissors. Each row of scissors has its own opening and closing pattern. The fastest frequency is about 1 second, and the slower ones are about 3 to 4 seconds. None of them exceed 4 seconds. If everyone reacts quickly enough, they can fly over when the scissors close. Once the scissors close, they have no killing power."
Liu Qiao's method is actually quite dangerous.
For example, if the first row of scissors closes and they rush into the scissor formation, but just as they reach the second row, the scissors open and then close again, wouldn't that cut everyone's body in half?
However, no one could think of a better way.
The scissors were densely packed, Lightness Skill was unusable, and it was unaffected by control skills, so I had no choice but to grit my teeth and force my way through.
Xiao Lou carefully observed the changes in the scissor array. Although the shears were numerous and their sharp blades were constantly opening and closing, creating immense psychological pressure, ultimately, it was just like the traps and passages in a game. It always left the player with a way out; it was up to you to seize it.
There are two methods to utilize this dense array of mechanisms.
The first method is to seize the opportunity, dodge all the scissors, and pass through the trap array in one go; the second method is to move one step at a time, stopping as needed, and proceeding slowly, row by row. Because they now have a large number of people, charging through the array all at once is likely to result in mistakes, so proceeding row by row is preferable.
It would be safer to go through with it. With that in mind, Xiao Lou said to Liu Qiao, "Xiao Liu, could you please come back and guide everyone?"
They couldn't see the entire scissor formation's movements clearly now, but Liu Qiao had passed through the formation once after shrinking, so he was naturally more familiar with its changes than they were.
5cm Liu Qiao Lightness Skill flew back and said, "I'll lead the way."
After saying that, she re-entered the scissors formation. Xiao Lou and her teammates stood side by side, ready to charge at any moment. The shrunken Liu Qiao, seeing the scissors merge, exclaimed, "Let's go, three rows in a row!"
The four people quickly moved forward three rows, and sure enough, the scissors in these three rows were all in a closed state and had no killing power.
But the scissors in the fourth row are open and moving back and forth. If you take even half a step and happen to get caught by one of the scissors... the moment the scissors close, you'll be cut in half.
The sharp blades on the inside of the scissors were terrifying.
Liu Qiao looked up and carefully observed the scissor formation. The opening and closing frequencies of the scissors in the back rows were not the same. The fourth row opened and closed once every 2 seconds; the fifth row once every 3 seconds; the sixth row once every 4 seconds; and the seventh row once every 1 second.
According to mathematical principles, a least common multiple can be found.
In other words, every 12 seconds, these four rows of scissors will briefly enter a closed state simultaneously.
Liu Qiao silently counted to 12 in her mind and said, "Go to the seventh row!"
Xiao Lou also understood Liu Qiao's calculation logic and couldn't help but feel more admiration for Xiao Liu. The key to this scissor formation is to first observe the opening and closing rhythm and pattern of each row of scissors from a god's-eye view, and then find the time point when several rows simultaneously enter the closed state for a sprint—the "least common multiple" of the matching rhythm is this time point.
Guided by Liu Qiao, the group passed through the scissor maze without incident.
Lu Jiuchuan turned back to look at the rows of gleaming scissors that were constantly making a "snip-snip" sound, breathed a slight sigh of relief, looked at Liu Qiao, who was about the size of a thumb on the ground, and smiled: "Not bad, little girl, you've got guts."
Liu Qiao didn't mince words and calmly explained, "I'm a science student. When I shrunk down and walked through the scissor maze just now, I discovered some patterns." She looked up at Mo Xuemin and said, " Uncle Mo, could you help me out? The Thumbelina card has a cooldown period. Once I shrink back, I can't shrink down again. If I need to shrink down to get through the traps later, I can help you."
Old Mo had no objection, so he bent down, grabbed the little girl, and put her in his pocket.
The six-person team became a 4+2 team. Tang Ci was sitting in Lu Jiuchuan's pocket, and Liu Qiao was lying in Lao Mo's pocket. After resting for a while, the group continued to the next level.
******