Book 1: Chapter 208
I was convinced by Fatty''s words, so I helped him get the paragliders sail ready. When he took that leap of faith, I thought I would see an angel with folded wings flying to the opposite side crookedly, but what I really saw was a weight falling straight down with a g streaming behind it.
Fatty screamed and instantly fell into darkness. I cursed in my heart, <em>that idiot fell to his death</em>. As the glow from his shlight disappeared, the sail finally opened and plunged him into the darkness.
We all looked at each other.
ck sses shined his shlight at the ce where Fattys light had disappeared into the darkness. Visually, the distance was very far. We had originally thought that the ce Fatty was aiming for should be the ground, but Fatty''s trajectory just now was obviously headed for more empty space below.
We were silent for a while until we heard Fatty''s quiet call from below, "One of my teeth got knocked out and the opposite side is full of leather figurines. I kicked one down, so does that make me a Maitreya (1)?"
We all breathed a sigh of relief and I called back to him, "Can you be more reliable? If you fall and die here, we can''t collect your ashes."
Fattys only reply was, "Hurry up! Let''s fight back here."
When we shined our shlights down, we couldn''t see Fatty at all. Poker-Face frowned and I immediately knew that it was bad. He obviously didnt realize that this ce was so deep.
I now knew whether Poker-Face had control over the surrounding situation just by looking at the slightest change in his expression. It waspletely different from the past when he had to push me to run away before I even realized that I was going to die. I had been rtively calm the whole way here, thinking that he wasnt particrly nervous about the surrounding situation. But at this time, I found that his facial expression seemed a bit off.
"What did the que on this floor say?" I asked, looking past Poker-Face at the abyss below.
"Tranquil Cmity (2)," ck sses answered.
I calcted it with my fingers and found that it was a very deep level. In fact, it was only a few levels above the smallest unit on the Buddhist measurement system, which was called Nirvanas Tranquility. ording to ancient people, Nirvanas Tranquility was basically equal to negative infinity. In other words, the further down this level went, the closer you were to reaching eternal infinity.
I touched the back of my neck, wondering how long I had been unconscious and how long they had been running during that time. An image of them silently running with my passed-out body slung on their backs suddenly popped into my head, making me feel a little ashamed. I wondered if I had said too much.
While ck sses and I looked at the stone beams, I found that the measurements werent as urate as a real imperial tomb. The stone beams that were inserted into the wall were bothrge and small. ck sses threw the only safety rope he had on his body around a thick stone beam in the middle of the z-shaped steps and then tied himself underneath. To make a long story short, we all decided to try it out. When we finally chose our hiding ces, we turned off our shlights.
It was pitch ck all around. Of course, we couldnt hang like this for long. There was still some time before Boss Jiaos team showed up, so we were lying on the stone beams while we waited. When there were any signs of movement from up above, we would immediately roll under the stone beams and shrink our bodies so that we blended in.
I felt as if I was a bit like that bug that looked like a twig, which was kind of funny. When I noticed that everyone had stopped talking, I asked, "Can I say something now?"
"I didn''t think you were that talkative before," ck sses whispered.
"I just want to know what''s behind the bronze door. I figure if I''m going to die, you can just whisper it in my ear, right?" I said in the direction I hadst seen Poker-Face.
There was no response, so I continued, "If Im going to die, you can just say whatever. That way, Ill at least have peace of mind when I go. Otherwise, even the three pirs of incense wont be enough to send me away."
There was still no reply over there, which I found strange. After listening for a while, I noticed that there was no movement over there. I turned on my shlight to take a look and found that Poker-Face wasnt where I hadst seen him.
I felt my heart jolt, <em>where is he? Did he fall? Or maybe he ran away under the cover of darkness? </em>At this time, I suddenly saw a spot of light falling down like a meteor.
Sure enough, it was a cold firework.
ck sses scolded me softly, "Turn off the shlight!"
All I could do was turn it off immediately, while cursing in my heart. <em>Great, just great. Where''s Poker-Face?</em>
There was a bang from above, and then a re flew down and exploded at a point slightly above our position. <em>Indeed, they really are well-equipped.</em>
Under the huge bright light, I was able to get a full view of the opposite wall for the first time. I saw countless leather figurines stacked upyer byyer. Their skin was covered in sulfur husks and had ckened to such an extent that almost all of the colors had been worn away. There were also various kinds of musical instruments on these leather figurines. Even through the decay, it looked like most of the figurines were ced in one position.
This was a concert hall.
When I looked behind the leather figurines, I saw a huge mountain crevice that extended from above like a lightning strike. It was full of those bronze, scale-like reeds.
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TN Notes:
(1) Maitreya is a bodhisattva who will appear on Earth in the future, achieveplete enlightenment, and teach the pure dharma. ording to scriptures, Maitreya will be a sessor to the present Buddha, Gautama Buddha (also known as kyamuni Buddha). More info here.
(2) Remember that god-awful chapter 191? Tranquil Cmity is 10<sup>-21</sup>. In English, its basically a sextillionth (aka a really freaking tiny number).
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<strong><em>Count yourselves lucky. I was so close to posting an unedited chapter as an April Fool''s joke, but thought that would be too mean/confusing for some people lol. </em></strong>