FI CH 38

Chapter 38: Underground Labyrinth (VIII)

Blindly speculating about the past was meaningless. If they wanted answers, they could only keep moving forward. But at the moment, three of their teammates were still missing, and the previous team remained out of contact.

None of the three could be sure whether continuing onward was the right choice. Yet Bai Hua had a strong feeling that the path Xiao Jiu had pointed out was very important.

If the previous team had also fallen into a mental landscape reflecting the past, like they did, then perhaps they too might have followed the clues and reached this place.

As it turned out, Bai Hua’s hunch was correct. After walking a bit further, they discovered a carving on one of the cave walls. However, the carving was rather odd—it was located about ten centimeters below the surface of the water. If not for Kurosawa’s sharp eyes, they might have easily missed it. But what truly excited Bai Hua wasn’t just the discovery—it was that he recognized the mark as He He’s handwriting.

Kurosawa stared at the spot of the carving and said, “Something’s strange…”

“You suspect…?”

“That’s not it.” Kurosawa shook his head and looked around elsewhere.

“The water level has risen.”

Only after hearing that did Bai Hua notice—what used to only reach their ankles was now already up to their calves. At first, he had assumed it was just because they were going deeper, but now it didn’t seem that way at all. To deliberately carve a mark in such a hard-to-notice location was just asking for it to be missed. He He wouldn’t make such a careless mistake. That meant the most likely explanation was that when he carved this, likely around two weeks ago, the water level had just happened to be at this exact height.

Bai Hua suddenly asked, “Do you think he had already noticed the water was rising back then?”

“Most likely,” Kurosawa agreed.

“If that’s the case, he would’ve definitely left more signs. Let’s keep looking.”

The three of them continued walking while searching for more clues. Sure enough, about ten meters away from the first carving, they found a second one, then a third, a fourth… all spaced at roughly equal intervals. Just as they had suspected, each mark was positioned slightly higher than the last—indicating that the water level was indeed rising.

Bai Hua knew He He’s methods well. Usually, if He He went to the trouble of doing something like this, it meant he had encountered a serious problem.

But a rising water level—was that really that big of a problem? Could it mean that the entire cave might eventually become completely submerged?

As the thought struck him, Bai Hua suddenly stopped and looked upward.

Kurosawa asked, “What’s wrong?”

Bai Hua didn’t look away. Instead, he asked, “Can you see how high the cave ceiling is from here?”

Kurosawa gave him a glance and didn’t ask further, simply saying, “I’ll try.”

He raised his flashlight and shone it upward. Due to the limited range of the light, he had to squint to see clearly. Earlier in their journey, the cave’s ceiling had been extremely high, but now, the ceiling had become flat and even, with no further dips or rises. This meant that if the area flooded, they would all be completely submerged with no space to breathe.

Kurosawa swept the flashlight around for a while, eventually focusing on one spot on the stone wall. His expression grew serious.

“Look at this.”

Bai Hua and An Shi both moved closer.

Above their heads, there were more carvings—in He He’s handwriting again. But this time, not just one. Looking vertically upward from the same spot, there were at least five or six marks, each corresponding to a different water level. Each was higher than the last, and the markings were increasingly erratic, scratched with visible urgency. The reason they hadn’t noticed them earlier was because one wouldn’t normally look up while walking. But the height of these marks—almost like…

An Shi frowned and said, “They were submerged? But the water’s not that high here.”

The three of them fell silent, all confused by the same question.

Kurosawa looked upward a while longer, then ahead, before saying, “…Let’s keep following the markings and see where they stop.”

After they had walked another hundred meters, they found the tenth marking—and no more after that.

Bai Hua knew that if Kurosawa spoke at this point, it meant he had come to some conclusion.

“You figured something out?”

Kurosawa nodded. After organizing his thoughts, he began: “Let’s start with the previous team. I can’t determine how many of them made it here, but at least one person left these markings. Based on the sequence and placement of the carvings, I can only make an educated guess—but it might not be accurate.”

Kurosawa pointed to the lowest marking on the stone wall and said, “This was the last mark he left the first time he reached this point. At that time, there probably weren’t any signs of danger yet, which is why he was able to leave markers along the way. But when he reached the tenth position—here—he must have suddenly realized the water level had risen dramatically.

“I think, just like us, he looked up and saw there was no place to hide above. So he probably decided to go back—head to higher ground. But after turning back, he realized the water was rushing in too fast, and escaping was hopeless. That’s when he frantically carved those messy marks we saw above our heads, indicating the rising water levels.”

“I’m not sure whether he did that purely out of habit, or if it was to warn anyone who came here later. But luckily—we still found them.”

Bai Hua answered in He He’s place, “It was both—habit, and a warning.”

An Shi said, “But we haven’t seen anyone else here—not even a body.”

“Exactly—that’s the strange part,” Kurosawa added.

“But water flows downhill. That fact never changes. My guess is, this underground river was used as a water reservoir for a reason. If the water level rose too high—enough to threaten flooding the underground city—there had to be a drainage system to prevent that.

“Something like a pressure-triggered drainage channel that activates once the water reaches a certain height or pressure—automatically diverting it into the underground tunnels.”

“So…”

“It’s just one possibility. And the area’s too vast for us to find the exact mechanism—unless the place floods again.”

At this point, Bai Hua asked, “Then where’s the water coming from?”

“All this water is seeping down from the cracks in the rocks,” Kurosawa explained.

 “The only likely cause is a heavy downpour.”

“So the rising water level is due to accumulated rainfall?”

Upon hearing that, Kurosawa glanced down at his feet. While they had been talking, the water had silently risen again—now creeping up from their shins, nearing their knees. And it was still rising.

The signs matched exactly what He He had experienced when he left the carvings.

The three fell silent, instinctively focusing all their senses on their surroundings.

Before long, the sound of running water intensified. Bai Hua was the first to hear a low rumble echoing from deep behind them—followed by the roar of rushing water.

Most of Kurosawa’s deductions had been correct. But no one expected that this place wasn’t just a reservoir—it was also part of a drainage system.

Now, water was flooding in all at once. And in this vast cavern, they had nowhere to hide.

The three of them barely had time to hold their breath before a surge of water slammed into them and swept them away.

In the chaos, Bai Hua clung tightly to Kurosawa. As a guide, Kurosawa’s cardiopulmonary capacity wasn’t as strong as a sentinel’s—he wouldn’t be able to hold his breath for long.

Kurosawa understood his own limits and simply let Bai Hua pull him along.

The current was far too swift. Beneath the surface was nothing but churning froth—they couldn’t see a thing, couldn’t tell direction, and were tossed about like rag dolls.

Aside from the two holding onto each other, An Shi had already been swept away somewhere by the flood—they had no idea where he was.

The stone walls were too slick to grip. There was nothing around to hold onto, no objects to break the momentum or cushion the impact.

Some unknown object struck Kurosawa underwater, causing him to grunt faintly. But the slight tremor that passed through his body made Bai Hua misunderstand.

Thinking Kurosawa was running out of breath, Bai Hua didn’t hesitate. He grabbed his face and pressed a kiss to his lips.

Kurosawa opened his eyes to look at him—surprised for a moment, but then quickly calm again. Bai Hua didn’t know why, but he hadn’t closed his eyes either. The two of them just stared at each other like that.

It was the first time they had kissed while looking into each other’s eyes. Though their reasons for the kiss were entirely different, the sensation of kissing with open eyes felt completely different. It seemed to bring a deeper awareness of the intimacy between them.

Only then did Bai Hua realize he had misunderstood—and hastily pulled away.

But Kurosawa grabbed him, and gently kissed him once more.

For some reason, this soft and affectionate gesture felt even more embarrassing than the first.

But this wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

The torrent eventually led them into a broader space where the current finally slowed down. For the first time, they weren’t surrounded by frothing water and could just barely see their surroundings underwater.

Still, they weren’t out of danger—this was merely another passage, wider than the last. There was still no place to surface for air.

But Kurosawa seemed to spot something. He tugged Bai Hua’s hand and pointed toward a spot on the stone wall.

Bai Hua got the message and swam toward it with Kurosawa in tow.

As they neared, Kurosawa suddenly reached up and knocked lightly three times on a spot above their heads. A square-shaped crack opened in the cave wall. Bai Hua pushed upward—and to his surprise, that section of stone gave way.

It was another hidden door.

They immediately climbed up through the opening, finally breaking through the water’s surface. After catching their breath, they pushed the stone panel back into place—to stop more water from flooding through the entrance.

This underground cave system was far more complex than they had imagined. No one had expected that there would be yet another hidden passage here.

Before them, the path split: one way led up, likely toward a certain level of the underground city. The other led down—who knew where it might go?

But they had no choice.

They could only keep moving downward.

Kurosawa had only taken two steps forward when Bai Hua suddenly asked, “Do you smell that? There’s… a scent.”

(To be continued…)