Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 753 Trouble is brewing!
"Actually, we could roughly guess some things based on the level of bronze craftsmanship before we came in."

"The tower was built long before the history of the Golden Boy Sect. The Golden Boy Sect probably only discovered this place later and believed that it contained a great secret and was a place close to immortality."

"It seems that only the highest level, the 'Azure Sun's Final Calamity,' was built by the Golden Boy Sect."

Hu Ming smiled and explained softly.

Is the architecture below an infinitely expanded interpretation of the traditional three periods of calamity?

"In other words, the people who built this place believed that before the earliest Qingyang Calamity, there were countless other calamities to come in this world."

The blind man was the first to realize what was happening, and sighed softly.

Before the final calamity of Qingyang? That is to say, before the era of "Fuxi", and even earlier than the generally accepted beginning of Chinese civilization. If we extrapolate from this, the age of this tower is beyond description.

With Wu Xie's prompting, Fatty learned the meaning of ancient units of measurement and was frowning as he tried to calculate the depth of the tower.

But after calculating more than ten times, he couldn't continue and sighed, "According to you, this tower might have already penetrated deep into the rock strata."

"If we keep walking and stopping like this, who knows how long it will take us to finish?"

"Leaving aside the few of us, can Tianzhen really hold out until then? That damned Lei City, couldn't they have built something a little more considerate?"

As he spoke, the fat man couldn't help but habitually swear.

"If it's supposed to be a miracle that can smooth over all regrets, how can it be obtained so easily?"

Hu Ming said noncommittally.

"According to this algorithm, each layer is twice as tall as the one above. With such a terrifying number of layers, I wouldn't be surprised if this tower has been built deep into the magma."

"Based on the calculations of ancient China, this is absolutely impossible. There's no reason for them to have figured out every single unit of measurement."

Although Fatty was pessimistic, Wu Xie was much more optimistic.

Ultimately, while many things may seem illogical and unscientific, shouldn't we at least adhere to basic laws?
Digging through rock strata to reach underground magma?
If they're so good at digging, why don't they just dig a hole through the Earth and get directly to the other side, America?
No matter how grand the ideals of those who built this place were, they had to bow to reality.

Hu Ming gave Wu Xie an approving look, thinking, "He's definitely got a brain."

It's not as terrible as you might imagine. Those in charge of its construction did indeed have such ambitions at the beginning, but as the project progressed…

People always have to compromise with reality.

After thinking for a moment, Hu Ming said softly, "This is the Sky Tower."

Everyone instinctively looked at Hu Ming, but Hu Ming's eyes flickered, and he was unwilling to reveal any more words.

"Watch your step! The stairs and passageways here are severely rotten. If you slip and fall, you'll probably be used to make dumplings without even needing to chop yourself up!"

Ignoring everyone's doubts, Hu Ming continued walking down, and the young man followed without saying a word.

The blind man scratched his head, but still followed closely behind Hu Ming and the young man, becoming the third person to go down.

"No, Hu Ming, and Xiao Ge, you must know something, right?"

"Please say a few more words. I'm still a child and can't stand being kept in suspense. What exactly is the Heavenly Tower? This damn bronze tower is clearly built downwards, so how can it be the Heavenly Tower?"

The fat man, walking at the back, couldn't help but shout out in curiosity.

The blind man's eyes darted around, and a wicked thought came to him. He fell a few steps behind and whispered something in the fat man's ear.

"Tianjin Egg Tart? You blind bastard, who are you trying to fool? Even if it's called Tianjin Egg Tart, it should be called Jin Ta!" The fat man was stunned for a moment, then glared at the blind man who was chuckling.

Ahead, Hu Ming suddenly rubbed his fingers together on the stone wall. Suddenly, his gaze sharpened, and the black knife pierced through the rock layer, cutting open a hole. He then inserted his two fingers into the hole and rubbed them.

As expected, a slight stinging pain came. Hu Ming pulled out his two fingers and saw that his skin had been torn, and a few beads of blood had seeped out.

"Wow! They're starting here already? That's quite a feat."

Hu Ming clicked his tongue lightly.

Wiping the blood off my finger, I could see the tiny wounds slowly healing.

The young man seemed to understand something, stepped forward, and inserted two fingers into the small opening, realizing what was going on.

"Be quiet, and don't make any loud noises from here on out."

The young man's slightly cold voice interrupted the playful banter between the blind man and the fat man behind him.

"What's the meaning?"

The group exchanged glances, instinctively lowering their voices and asking in hushed tones.

However, Hu Ming and the young man didn't offer any explanation and simply continued walking downhill.

Contrary to previous expectations, each subsequent floor was about four or five meters taller than the previous one, not twice the height previously predicted.

Even so, when we got down to about the tenth floor, it was pitch black underground, and not a single ray of light could reach us from above.

Even the faint sounds from the ground that had been heard earlier had completely disappeared; everything had fallen into dead silence.

Similarly, as they went deeper, the pungent smell of sulfur became increasingly strong, and they could hardly smell any other odors.

Upon arriving here, all the items on each level of the space were covered with a thin, mottled layer of sulfur.

As expected, each plaque on each floor represents a kind of impending doom, and the statues on each floor become increasingly larger.

Perhaps because of its deep immersion and complete isolation from the outside environment, the corrosion on the human skin statue has become increasingly minor.

We descended into the deathly darkness, losing count of how many meters we had gone. In short, eleven hours had passed since we came down.

Due to physical factors, Wu Xie's lung capacity is far less than before, and he was already nearing his limit after eleven hours of activity.

Wiping the large beads of sweat from his forehead and panting heavily, Wu Xie sat down on the stairs with the help of the fat man, letting out a long sigh of relief.

"Trouble is coming..."

While resting and replenishing his water and energy, Hu Ming threw down a few cold flames to illuminate the environment on this floor, and murmured to himself.

This floor is over 100 meters high, and the surrounding buildings are covered with a thick, mottled layer of sulfur.

Below, unlike the countless layers above, the bottom is no longer a monotonous stone slab structure, but instead a pool of water.

Under the illumination of the cold flames, steam still rose from the pool, clearly indicating that it was a hot spring.

Similarly, the spatial structure in this layer is also slightly different.

Unlike the previous floors, which each had three statues, this one only had one floor with statues!