I work as a security guard at a cemetery, and I overhear the dead chatting about getting rich quick.

After the stone slab on the left was marked, the queue slowed down considerably.

No one laughed at Lin Ye's "intuition" anymore.

Luo Xiaohu had been about to make a joke, but now his mouth was shut tighter than a tomb door, and he looked down at his feet every time he took a step.

Xing Shanhe didn't urge him.

He re-established the formation.

Two people scouted ahead, with Master Lai and Lin Ye in the middle. Xiao Man stayed close to Lin Ye's side and rear, while Su Tinglan was protected behind by Chen Jin and Bai Yuan.

Everyone should avoid using their names.

If you want to stop, raise your fist.

If you're going to retreat, press down with your palm.

To give directions, simply point a flashlight at the ground.

Zhao He's move shattered everyone's hopes.

This is no ordinary ancient tomb.

Even the most dangerous ancient tombs always have some kind of trap or mechanism.

Quicksand, falling rocks, poisonous gas, traps—you can always find some pattern.

But it's different here.

It kills people with something invisible.

The passageway behind the stone gate gets lower and lower.

The walls on both sides are rough and black, unlike the tomb passages made of rammed earth and stones in the Warring States period tombs. They look more like they have been scorched by fire, soaked in water, and forcibly sealed for many years.

There was no gold or silver on the wall.

There was no pottery.

There are no bronze items.

There was nothing of value there.

There were only one incomprehensible engraving after another.

A giant stands in the flood.

The broken bones were placed on the stone platform.

A dense crowd of people knelt on the ground, their foreheads pressed against the stone surface.

There are also some patterns that resemble knots, water ripples, and eyes, repeatedly carved on both sides of the passageway.

When the light shines on them, the patterns are sometimes clear and sometimes seem to shrink into the stone.

Luo Xiaohu only glanced at it twice before looking away.

"This place makes my chest feel tight."

He spoke very softly.

Xing Shanhe didn't scold him this time.

Because it's not just Luo Xiaohu.

Several people in the group started to feel unwell.

One of the tomb raiders raised his hand and pressed his ear.

The other's breathing became heavier, and his chest heaved violently.

The technician stared at the instrument, his face paler than the screen.

"The values ​​are correct."

Xing Shanhe glanced at the gas detector.

Oxygen levels are normal.

No alarm was triggered for harmful gas.

The temperature is low.

The humidity is too high.

All of these are within acceptable limits.

But it's just so uncomfortable.

Xing Shanhe's voice turned somber.

"The equipment is fine, that's the real problem."

Luo Xiaohu's lips moved, as if he wanted to say something.

Xing Shanhe glanced at him.

He immediately swallowed his words.

Lin Ye walked in the middle, with a constant rustling sound in his ears.

It wasn't as clear as the previous "not responding to being heard of".

The sounds were broken and fragmented.

Like many people panting against a wall, or like someone gently scraping a stone with their fingernail.

It's so annoying to hear.

But he was actually feeling quite comfortable.

My shoulders don't ache.

My legs aren't heavy.

My mind is even clearer than before.

That's the most disgusting thing.

While others find themselves increasingly distressed as they walk, he and Master Lai find themselves becoming more and more spiritual as they walk.

Xiaoman glanced at him.

"fine?"

Lin Ye nodded.

"It's abnormally good."

Xiaoman lowered her eyebrows.

Don't trust your feelings.

"Um."

"And don't believe everything you hear."

Lin Ye looked at her.

"Then what should I believe in?"

Xiaoman said, "Trust me first."

She spoke very calmly.

Lin Ye hesitated before making the joke he was about to say, and didn't say it.

Just then, the lights in front suddenly went out for a moment.

Not just one lamp.

All the lights looked as if they had been covered with a layer of dust.

The passageway was half-black.

The person's shadow swayed on the wall for a moment, then was pulled back.

Xing Shanhe immediately raised his fist.

The line came to a stop.

No one dared to take an extra step.

After the lights were turned back on, the shadows on the ground became very messy.

They brought quite a few lights, which would naturally create double images.

But this isn't a normal double image.

The shadow on the wall seemed to be a beat slower.

The person stopped, but the shadow continued to sway gently.

Luo Xiaohu stared at his feet, his voice tense.

"Is this... normal?"

No one answered.

Asking such a question is already abnormal.

Old Fang, who was in charge of scouting ahead, suddenly froze.

He didn't say anything, but raised his hand and pointed to the wall to his right.

Lin Ye looked over.

Old Fang stood very steadily.

The headlamp shone forward, while the chest lamp slanted across the ground.

Logically, his shadow should be close to his feet and fall on the right-hand stone wall.

But now, others are standing still.

The shadow, however, seemed not to have reacted and dragged forward half an inch.

Just half an inch.

But in this place, even half an inch is enough to make your scalp tingle.

Old Fang's Adam's apple bobbed, but he didn't dare to speak.

Xing Shanhe lowered his voice.

"Don't move."

Old Fang nodded.

But his face had already turned pale.

The shadow was still slowly sliding forward.

Like a wet cloth, being slowly pulled over from behind the wall.

Lin Ye's ear suddenly hurt.

The old sound squeezed out from the cracks in the rocks and fell against my eardrums.

"A shadow follows you."

"Never leaving his side."

"Shadow goes first..."

Lin Ye's heart tightened.

Don't let your shadow get ahead!

As soon as he spoke, Lao Fang's breathing became visibly erratic.

He wasn't disobeying orders.

When a person is extremely frightened, their instinct is to back away.

Retreat towards where there are people.

Retreat to the light.

His heel shifted slightly.

Just for a moment.

The lights went out again.

The shadow on the wall did not recede.

Instead, it seemed to be pushed by something and suddenly slid forward.

It arrived before Lao Fang himself.

It was pasted onto the darkest shadow on the wall.

The last three words fell into Lin Ye's ears.

"Return yourself to sacrifice."

The next second, Lao Fang lunged forward.

It doesn't feel like your feet are slippery.

It was more like something reached out from the shadows by the wall and grabbed his ankle.

The probe in his hand struck the stone slab with a piercing sound.

"save--"

He only managed to utter half a word.

Xiaoman has already rushed out.

She was closest to Lao Fang.

More importantly, Lao Fang fell right in front of Lin Ye.

Once he gets dragged into it, the path ahead will likely be thrown into chaos.

Xiaoman did not look at the wall.

She only looked at Lao Fang's arm.

He grabbed it tightly.

The fingers lock the joints like pliers.

Chen Jin also moved.

He didn't lunge against the wall, but instead grabbed Lao Fang's seatbelt from the other side.

Xing Shanhe simultaneously tightened the main rope.

The three forces pulled back together.

Old Fang had half his body pressed against the wall.

That dark shadow was unlike any ordinary shadow.

It was like a clump of soaked black mud, sticking to his left shoulder and half his face, slowly swallowing him up.

It wasn't a scene of flying blood and flesh.

It's the edges of the body that start to fade.

Skin, clothes, and light strips were all slowly smoothed out by black.

Xiaoman clenched her teeth, and the veins on the back of her hand bulged out.

"pull."

Chen Jin instinctively tried to brace himself against the wall with his other hand.

Bai Yuan immediately lowered her voice: "Don't touch the wall."

Chen Jin flipped his wrist, forcibly shifting the force to his knee, causing his whole body to sink backward.

I almost got dragged down to my knees.

Su Tinglan stood behind, her face pale.

She tried to move forward, but Bai Yuan blocked her way.

Don't go over there.

Su Tinglan stared ahead.

"Chen Jin is there."

"He's fine," Bai Yuan said in a low voice. "Going over there will just mean delivering one more thing."

Su Tinglan clenched her fists and didn't move.

Lin Ye stood still, his eyes fixed on the shadow at Lao Fang's feet.

The shadow had already pressed itself against the dark shadow on the wall.

The person is still struggling.

The shadow remained still.

It's as if they've already accepted their fate.

Don't look at the shadow!

Lin Ye suddenly shouted.

"Recruit people! Only recruit people! Ignore the shadows!"

That sounds outrageous.

But Xiaoman understood immediately.

She looked away from the wall, focusing instead on the arm in her hand.

Chen Jin also looked away.

Xing Shanhe wrapped the safety rope around his arm, his face frighteningly gloomy.

"Pull again."

Several people exerted their strength at the same time.

Old Fang was finally pulled out a little.

There's only a little bit.

His left side was already embedded in the shadow of the wall.

From shoulders to waist, it felt like being stuck in darkness.

The next second, the patterns on the wall subtly shifted.

It was like a layer of black seeping out from inside a stone.

Xiaoman suddenly felt a lightness in her hand.

She took half a step back.

All that was left in his hand was half a sleeve.

Chen Jin was also swayed by the force.

The seatbelt he was holding onto had slipped.

The buckle is still there.

The person is gone.

It's not that I fell into a pit.

It wasn't that they were dragged into some secret passage.

It was pressed into the shadow of the wall and slowly erased by that patch of darkness.

The passageway was so quiet that only the sound of breathing could be heard.

Half of the sleeve was hanging in Xiaoman's hand.

The broken safety catch hit the ground with a soft sound.

Ding.

Luo Xiaohu's face was as white as paper.

His lips moved, as if he wanted to call out.

Xing Shanhe pressed his hand to his mouth.

"Don't make a sound."

Luo Xiaohu's eyes were bloodshot, and he nodded forcefully.

Xing Shanhe loosened his grip on him.

His hands were shaking.

It's very light.

You can't see it at all unless you look closely.

But Lin Ye saw it.

Xing Shanhe looked down at the safety buckle on the ground and remained silent for two seconds.

Then raise your hand.

"Everyone, squat down."

Nobody asked why.

The group squatted down in unison.

Xing Shanhe gave the order in a low voice.

"The light is fixed in place."

"Don't wander around."

"Watch your step."

"Look at your own shadow."

"There's something wrong with the shadow. Raise your hand. Don't shout or back out."

The technician, with trembling hands, fixed the two lamps to the ground.

Once the light stabilized, the shadows on the wall also became more still.

But this kind of conformity is even more unsettling.

Like a stray dog ​​that has just finished eating, it temporarily lies back in the darkness.

The old voices still lingered in Lin Ye's ears.

"A shadow follows you."

"His body does not follow his shadow."

"The shadow goes first, and the body returns to sacrifice."

He heard it clearly this time.

There is more than one rule for the third level.

Hearing of his name did not elicit a response.

The shadow does not precede the movement.

Each one is simple.

It's as simple as an old man casually scolding a child.

But if you make one mistake, you're gone.

Xiaoman put the half-sleeve on the ground.

Her face was colder than usual.

Lin Ye looked at her.

Are you alright?

Xiaoman flicked her wrist.

"fine."

Did the wall touch you?

"no."

"Sure?"

Xiaoman looked at him.

"You care about me?"

Lin Ye paused for a moment.

"I care about your hand; after all, it's needed to save me."

Xiaoman nodded.

"That means you care about me."

Lin Ye: "..."

At this point, they can still turn the tables.

She's really something.

Chen Jin checked the gloves.

There was a little black stain on the edge.

Bai Yuan asked in a low voice, "How is it?"

Chen Jin shook his head.

"It's not broken."

Bai Yuan looked at that dark spot.

"Stop hitting the wall."

Chen Jin hummed in agreement.

Su Tinglan stood behind, her gaze fixed on the half-sleeve.

Her face turned pale, but she did not move away.

This wasn't the first time she had seen a dead person.

But that moment made her realize for the first time that she might have really underestimated Aoyama.

They brought along tomb raiders.

I brought the equipment.

They brought Master Lai with them.

Lin Ye was also brought along.

But this place doesn't accept that approach at all.

It is not a tomb.

It's a set of rules.

Once you're inside, you can only follow its rules.

Master Lai squatted by the wall without touching the stone wall.

He stared at the man-eating black shadow for a long time.

The excitement on his face faded somewhat.

But the light in his eyes did not go out.

"The rules are the game."

Lin Ye looked at him.

"What?"

Master Lai slowly stood up.

"The mechanism is inanimate. Whether you step on it or not, it's still there."

As he spoke, he looked at the shadowy wall.

"This is not the place."

"It will wait until you break the rules."

Luo Xiaohu's voice trembled.

"Could you put it more bluntly?"

Master Lai looked at him.

"To put it bluntly, what might kill you here isn't the grave."

He paused for a moment.

"It's your own reaction."

Luo Xiaohu's Adam's apple bobbed, but he didn't dare ask any more questions.

Lin Ye stared at Master Lai.

Why didn't you say so earlier?

Master Lai glanced at him.

"I'm not a god either."

That's a rare statement that sounds like something a human would say.

"I can sense something's wrong, but I don't know exactly which rule it is." Master Lai looked at Lin Ye. "You can hear me."

Lin Ye sneered.

"So it's because I'm useful again?"

"You've always been useful."

"Thank you, but that doesn't make me happy."

Xiaoman whispered, "Don't argue with him."

Lin Ye let out a breath.

She's right.

In places like this, winning an argument is useless.

The dead won't be let out just because they're good with words.

Xing Shanhe rearranged the lighting positions.

All lights should be fixed at the back and slightly above the group, so that people's shadows fall behind them and do not extend forward.

It's not necessarily safe.

But at least it's better than just swaying around like that.

He then had everyone check their own shadows.

Luo Xiaohu looked down, not daring to blink.

"Is my shadow a little crooked?"

Xing Shanhe glanced at it.

"You're crooked too."

Luo Xiaohu was stunned for a moment, then quickly stood up straight.

Lin Ye almost burst out laughing.

The smile that had just appeared was suppressed by the coldness of the passageway.

Because he saw that there seemed to be one more kneeling human figures on the stone surface next to the wall that had just swallowed people.

Not obvious.

Very small.

It was mixed in with the original engraving.

It looks like it was just carved on.

Lin Ye didn't say.

He was afraid that if he said it, Luo Xiaohu would break down on the spot.

The group moved forward again.

No one dared to lean against the wall anymore.

They were like a group of people driven onto a narrow bridge, with stone slabs under their feet, dark shadows on their left and right, and a wall that had just swallowed people behind them.

Lin Ye was positioned slightly forward of the center.

He could sense that everyone was waiting for him to speak.

This feeling is awful.

He used to feel like he had cheat codes when he made a fortune by chatting with dead people.

I just realized that there are different types of hanging ornaments.

Some of these scams are paid for.

Some of these hangings are earned with one's life.

After walking another ten meters or so, the passageway made a very gentle turn.

The light followed the movement, and the shadow flickered on the wall.

Everyone stopped at the same time.

This time, no shadow wandered around.

Xing Shanhe raised his hand, signaling to continue.

Lin Ye looked down at his own shadow.

His shadow clung to his feet.

Very normal.

Not a beat too slow.

They didn't run forward.

He had just breathed a sigh of relief when his gaze suddenly fell on Master Lai's feet.

Master Lai stood two steps in front of him.

The person was slightly hunched over, still holding the thermos in their hands.

But his shadow was different.

The light shone from behind, casting a shadow on the stone slab, which should have been slightly hunched over.

But it didn't.

It stood very straight.

Shoulders and back straight, head slightly raised.

It's like something that's more clear-headed, younger, and calmer than Master Lai himself.

Lin Ye felt a chill run down his spine.

He looked up at Master Lai.

Master Lai seemed to notice his gaze and slowly turned his head.

"What's wrong?"

Lin Ye did not answer.

He looked down at the shadow again.

The shadow remained motionless.

They stood steadily at Master Lai's feet.

It's even more stable than a living person.