Chapter 255

Chapter 255

The answer remains elusive.

Following behind the beast-headed humans, everyone entered the square entrance of the underground temple. Due to their eye makeup, they saw nothing terrifying and effortlessly passed through the narrow stone passage, arriving inside the temple.

They watched as the beast-headed individuals walked to the center of the temple to a square pool, picked up carved stones, and began to construct a makeshift staircase at a broken section.

But the broken section was over twenty meters off the ground. With each of the twelve participants carving seven stones, resulting in over eighty square stones, they only managed to construct about three meters in height, equivalent to a single story of a seven-story building.

Xin Yuechun's face changed, and she exclaimed with a grim expression, "We're not expected to carve seven stones every day... for an entire week, are we?"

"Don't even ask, it's obvious," Zhan Meng sank to the ground, covering his face in despair. "How else would we get up? The distance and height are clear."

"How can we possibly achieve this?!"

Yao Xiaoguo, with horror in her eyes, pointed at the departing beast-headed humans and said desperately, "They don't plan on feeding us!"

With such a massive workload, the chances of them completing it even with sufficient food and water are slim, let alone now when they have neither, nor the assurance of rest.

After yelling, Yao Xiaoguo calmed down and sat with a resigned demeanor, coldly saying, "By the end of the day, we'll be dehydrated. Before we die of hunger or thirst, our organs will fail due to dehydration."

Li Chanyi ignored her and focused on the temple murals, noting, "Today's paintings are different from yesterday's."

Cici looked up, "What's depicted today?"

The murals on the walls indeed differ from yesterday's. While they still depict participants retrieving and processing stones, today's mural adds a new narrative—the consequences of failing the task.

In the mural, a person who managed to carve only six stones before the dawn of the third day is surrounded by the humanoid-beast creatures. They pin his limbs and insert long tweezers into his nostrils, stirring forcefully until his brain turns to mush. Then they drain the contents from his head through a hose. In the end, his lifeless body is kicked into the central pool of the temple, disappearing into its bottomless darkness.

Lv Shuo sighed, "Great, another clue: fail to complete the carving and face death."

"For all of us today, this is an impossible task," Cici murmured, licking her dry lips, "The heat is intense. We might get dehydrated halfway through the carving."

With sheer willpower, they might manage to complete seven stones, but there are limits to what their bodies can endure.

After observing today's mural and then glancing at the central pool, it seemed to them as if it led straight to hell. Or perhaps, its bottom was laden with countless lifeless bodies, piled up so densely that all one saw when looking down was the lifeless hue of decay and death.

After a moment of reflection, Chen Yun suggested, "Let's wipe off the eyeshadow and eyeliner and look again. There might be other clues."

"Might as well give it a shot," Lv Shuo jested, albeit darkly, "While we still have the strength to run."

Yesterday, they had checked the murals after completing the seven stones. But today, they weren't even sure if they'd have the stamina to finish, let alone escape any threats.

"Let's do it." Without waiting for a response, Chen Yun started wiping off her makeup.

Lv Shuo and Xiao Siyu immediately followed her lead, and seeing no better alternative, the rest joined in. Soon, they were presented with a new mural.

The mural depicted the same main characters: the participants and the humanoid-beast creatures. But the scene was eerie—the creatures had sliced open the bellies of the participants.

They took out the organs from each participant, weighing them on one side of a balance. On the other side lay feathers. When the weight of the organs matched the feathers, the creatures would gift the participant a blue lotus.

The blue lotus had a lifespan. It bloomed during the day and closed at sunset, withering after two days.

If a participant returned to the underground temple with a blue lotus, it would pacify the mummified creatures from the pool, preventing them from attacking.

With the lotus in hand, what the participants could retrieve from the pool wasn't stones anymore but blocks of gold. Offering gold to the humanoid-beast creatures could get food in exchange. But if given to the mummies, they might help with the task—at least, carving stones.

As Jian Meng observed, he grew more puzzled, "Wait... so we're now gold miners? We just have to dig for gold?"

"Not exactly," Li Chanyi warned, squinting at the mural, "Some mummies aren't reliable. Even if you pay them gold, they might not do the work."

Chen Yun added, "So the safest approach is: we retrieve the gold, trade with the humanoid-beast creatures for food and water. Once we're satiated, we can carve the stones ourselves. If anyone wants to risk it, try giving gold to the mummies and see if they can be persuaded to work for us. If not, we continue on our own."

Glancing at the mummies emerging from the pool, Jian Meng urged, "What are we waiting for? Let's go back and get to it!"

The group immediately dashed towards the inner courtyard garden, passing through a narrow path lined with withered arms. Tu Wencai, Yao Xiaoguo, and Xin Yuechun had a few more bug bites on them. The others were fortunate to escape unharmed. However, this time, upon reaching the ground, it was Yao Xiaoguo who let out agonizing screams.

With the bug bite swelling on his face, Tu Wencai looked at Yao Xiaoguo with a shadowed gaze, a smirk barely evident on his lips.

"Why is it your turn to scream now?" Zhan Meng, oblivious to the reason, kindly squatted down, offering, "Come, I'll carry you back."

Yao Xiaoguo, enduring the pain, managed to thank Zhan Meng, "...Thank you."

Zhan Meng responded heartily, "No need for thanks."

Once they reached the inner garden courtyard, Yao Xiaoguo's cries echoed Tu Wencai's from the day before. After the lion-headed human removed the bugs from her, she, like Tu Wencai the day before, murmured a strange name unfamiliar to everyone. She was lost in a daze, fear evident in her eyes, and it took her a long time to calm down.

Xin Yuechun became even more puzzled, "After the bugs were removed from my face, I still don't know their name. Why do both of you, after being bitten, know the name of the bug's host?"

Moreover, she had the most bugs attached to her among the participants. Over two days, she had five. Yet, none of them burrowed into her stomach to eat her organs. In contrast, both Tu Wencai and Yao Xiaoguo, each with fewer bugs, had their organs gnawed on, turning a perfectly healthy liver into something that resembled a sieve.

Yao Xiaoguo's face, despite being smeared with a brown hue, was visibly pale. She remained silent in response to Xin Yuechun's question.

Tu Wencai replied, "When you feel the pain, you'll understand."

"Doesn't sound good," Xin Yuechun immediately retorted, "I don't want to feel that pain."

"You might not have a choice..." Yao Xiaoguo murmured, touching her stomach. She seemed distant, repeating, "So that's how it is... so that's how it is..."

Yao Xiaoguo and Tu Wencai refused to divulge the reason for their abdominal pain. So, Xin Yuechun and the others lay flat on the ground, waiting for the humanoid creatures to disembowel them.

This process was painless.

None of the participants screamed.

Even without pain, the sensation of having one's organs removed was quite peculiar. They could watch as their abdomens were slit open, and as the creatures sifted through their intestines, extracted their livers, and severed the connecting blood vessels and nerves.

Zhan Meng, feeling faint, mumbled in astonishment, "Unbelievable... I'm still alive without my liver."

"There's something very wrong with our bodies," Qixi said, furrowing her brow, "No blood spills when we're cut open. Where has all the blood gone?"

Ming Sheng interjected, "It's good there's no blood... I get dizzy at the sight of blood. I can't handle it."

Xin Yuechun asked him, "Your family's in the funeral business, and you're faint-hearted at the sight of blood?"

Ming Sheng responded, "Exactly. Dealing with death and seeing blood daily is why I can't stand it. Thankfully, once this challenge ends, I can retire."

As everyone conversed, the half-human, half-beast figures proceeded to extract their livers one by one, sealing the incisions on their abdomens. They then brought out a small balance scale, placing a feather on the left pan and the extracted livers on the right.

As Zhan Meng had explained earlier, in ancient Egyptian mythology, the object weighed against the feather of truth was the heart. The weight of the heart symbolized the virtues and sins that one carried in their life.

But now, it wasn't the heart that was being weighed, but the liver. Everyone held their breath, anxiously awaiting the result.

Three seconds later, the outcome was revealed—

A perfectly intact liver, weighing the same as the feather of truth.

However, the tattered, hole-ridden livers of Yao Xiaoguo and Tu Wenc'ai weighed more than the feather.

"You two..."

Zhan Meng looked at Yao Xiaoguo and Tu Wenc'ai in shock. While Tu Wenc'ai remained expressionless, revealing a steady composure, Yao Xiaoguo was visibly shaken, trembling and barely able to stand.

The lion-headed woman who had extracted Yao Xiaoguo's liver gently steadied her, wiping away the cold sweat from her forehead. Yet, without hesitation, she consumed Yao Xiaoguo's damaged liver. The frog-headed woman who had extracted Tu Wenc'ai's liver did the same.

As for the other half-human, half-beast figures, they stored the participants' livers in canopic jars with human faces.

Lv Shuo, observing the jar, remarked, "Is that... a Canopic jar?"

Xin Yuechun asked, "What kind of jar?"

Xiao Siyu explained, "In ancient Egypt, when mummifying the dead, they used Canopic jars to store the deceased's internal organs. There are four jars: one each for the liver, stomach, intestines, and lungs. Each organ is protected by a specific deity, all sons of Horus. The jar with a jackal's head stores the stomach, the jar with a falcon's head stores the intestines, the baboon-headed jar stores the lungs, and the jar they're using for our livers has a human's face."

"So much to consider?" Zhan Meng muttered, just as he was handed a blue lotus.

Looking at the blue lotus in his hand and then glancing at Tu Wenc'ai and Yao Xiaoguo, he inquired, "Didn't they receive flowers?"

Evidently, they hadn't.

Those whose livers were successfully stored in the human-faced Canopic jars were each given a blue lotus. Only Tu Wenc'ai and Yao Xiaoguo were left empty-handed.

Yao Xiaoguo remained silent, clasping her hands together.

After a pause, Tu Wenc'ai lay back down and said to the frog-headed woman, "Take my intestines."

The frog-headed woman complied, reopening Tu Wenc'ai's abdominal cavity. Once the intestines were stored in the falcon-headed jar, she handed him a blue lotus.

With the blue lotus in hand, Tu Wenc'ai didn't wait for the others, saving time by immediately departing.

Yao Xiaoguo snapped back to her senses and, imitating him, allowed the woman with a lion's head and human body to extract her intestines in exchange for a blue lotus.

This time, the participants didn't reapply their eyeshadow or eyeliner. If they had, they wouldn't have been able to see the mummies, nor the gold in the temple's pool.

With the blue lotus in hand, as they passed through the narrow stone pathways, the desiccated arms of the mummies inside no longer tried to grab them.

Chen Yun recited softly, “Ancient Egyptians believed that the blue lotus had the power to pacify the deceased. It was a sacred flower, often used in their rituals. Its presence is also frequently seen in reliefs and murals of their temples and other structures."

Li Chanyi looked at the still-standing mummies around the pool and in the temple and remarked, "No wonder it can quiet these mummies."

"While they are quiet, my heart isn't. Ever since you mentioned the Canopic jar, I've felt uneasy," Xin Yuechun asked the group. "You said it's used to hold the mummy's organs... Does that mean once our liver, intestines, lungs, and stomach are removed, we'll be turned into mummies?"

Xie Yinxue assured Xin Yuechun, “No.”

Ever since he confidently stated that there wouldn't be any water by the bathing pool, Xin Yuechun found his words to be highly trustworthy. Upon hearing his assurance, she let out a sigh of relief: "Oh."

But before she could finish exhaling, Xie Yinxue's next words made her gasp, "We don't need to wait until our liver, intestines, lungs, and stomach are all removed to become mummies. The moment we entered this replica and the bathing pool, we began the process."

Yao Xiaoguo, who had been downcast for a while, perked up and asked, “Mr. Xie, could you elaborate?”

“Lu Shuo said he tasted the bathing water from the pool, and it was salty. That water is likely soda or saltwater, used to clean the body, which is the first step in mummification,” Xie Yinxue explained, showing off their honey-brown painted bodies. "The balm we applied afterward is probably resin, which is used for preservation."

Zhan Meng held his forehead and said, "I knew I smelled pine when we applied that substance."

Ming Sheng spread his hands, looking at the lines on his palms, “Does this mean we're all ‘dead’ now?”

Precisely because they were dead, their bodies wouldn’t bleed when cut, and even without their liver, they could still move freely.

Yet, Xie Yinxue smiled and retorted, "Who said only the dead can be turned into mummies?"

The young man's words sent chills down everyone's spine.

"I think I've figured out a way to clear this level,” Chen Yun declared, raising his head to gaze at the patch of blue overhead. “We’re not dead, but we are being turned into mummies. The blue sky we see when we look up is the real sky outside. So, we need to keep chiseling stones to build a staircase to climb up. That's how we can return to the real world and clear this stage."

Suddenly, Tu Wen interjected, “Then we must ensure everyone stays alive.”

As everyone looked at him, he pointed to the partially constructed staircase from this morning, "With twelve people working together, we can stack over three meters in a day. If more people die, can the remaining few manage that height?"

"I see,” Xin Yuechun said, understanding Tu Wen’s intentions, “You fear that your organs will deteriorate too quickly and you might need a replacement. You want to find another participant who can 'donate' their organs to get you another blue lotus, right?"

Perhaps Tu Wen didn't expect Xin Yuechun to be so blunt, but after a brief pause, he admitted, "...Yes."

Xin Yuechun scoffed, "Amusing. Just say it outright; we're all aware of your character. No need for subtleties."

Tu Wencai's scheming was evident, annoying many. Still, most kept their disgust hidden, save for the occasional sarcasm from people like Xin Yuechun. They didn't have a choice.

Bian Yuchen remarked, "If cooperation is truly key to getting out of this, and I happen to have extra organs, I'll offer them for your flower."

Xin Yuechun, who had previously mocked Tu Wencai, lazily raised a hand in agreement, "I would too."

Tu Wencai nodded briefly, "Thanks."

"If building a stairway is the way out of this place, how do we advance to the immortal stage?" Li Chanyi looked up at the square blue sky above, voicing her query, "Is it by allowing ourselves to be turned into mummies?"

Ancient Egyptians believed mummification led to resurrection and eternal life in the afterworld. In this scenario, by ignoring the blue sky above and letting the half-human, half-beast creatures remove their organs to become mummies, could this be the key to immortality?

"It's a gamble," Xiao Siyu commented, "Win, and you live. Lose, and you die."

Zhan Meng reminded her, "Before any of that, you'd still need to help build the stairway, or they'll extract your brain."

Li Chanyi pondered, "But isn't brain extraction also a part of mummification?"

Lu Shuo cautioned her, "What if this specific mummification process doesn't require it?"

Li Chanyi approached Xie Yinxue, looking intently into his eyes, "Mr. Xie, I'd like to hear your thoughts."