The term "being trapped in a maze" refers to repeatedly going around in circles.
This is a common trope in horror movies. For example, in those scary school movies, the protagonist frantically climbs the stairs at night, but no matter how long he climbs, he always stays on a certain floor and can never get out.
Upon hearing Ye Qi's words, Xiao Lou immediately stopped and asked Lao Mo, " Has there been any change in Compass?"
Mo Xuemin said, "We were walking on a spiral staircase, and the compass pointer kept going in circles."
After thinking for a moment, Xiao Lou suddenly said, "Could it be circular motion?"
Everyone turned to look at him, and Xiao Lou explained, "Have you ever heard of an experiment? If you blindfold a person and make them walk in a straight line on a wide playground by feeling, you will eventually find that you are actually walking in a very large circle."
He pressed the microphone button to speak, so his words were also heard by the other six members of the squad.
Ye Qi was stunned: "This is what they call being trapped in a maze? Does it really exist in reality?"
"Hmm." Xiao Lou nodded and said, "Biological research has found that the instinctive movement of any living organism is circular motion. The fundamental reason lies in the subtle differences in the body structure of organisms. For example, the two legs of a person are actually not the same length. One leg takes a longer stride, and the other leg takes a shorter stride. It's like a compass with very small differences in the length of its two legs. Over a long period of time, it will draw a circle."
Xiao Lou paused, then added, "Normally, our eyes can find reference points, and our brains constantly locate and correct, which allows us to walk in a straight line. But once we are blindfolded and walk by feeling, anyone will walk out of a circle. Other animals and birds are the same; if you cover a bird's eyes and let it fly in the sky, it will also fly out of a circle."
Ye Qi suddenly realized: "So, we're constantly going around in circles on the stairs. This spiral staircase seems to have no end, but it's actually just an illusion created by our eyes, causing our legs to keep making circular motions?"
Xiao Lou said, "That's right, this should be a maze illusion. Otherwise, we've been going down for dozens of meters, and the ancients couldn't have dug the tomb this deep."
Old Mo agreed, saying, "The appearance of the maze illusion must mean that something is affecting our vision. In fact, our eyes see a staircase that keeps going down, but there is no staircase here at all."
From an architectural perspective, even the foundations for modern high-rise buildings wouldn't be dug this deep. Ancient people building tombs certainly wouldn't have possessed such advanced technology, digging hundreds of meters underground.
Old Mo picked up the compass; at that moment, the compass pointer was pointing north.
He remembered that when Compass was activated in the secret room, he checked the direction and the stairs leading down were to the east.
Mo Xuemin turned 90 degrees on the spot while holding the compass. The pointer on the compass swayed for a moment, and Mo Xuemin locked onto the direction of "east".
He found himself facing a wall.
The walls were no different from the surroundings, the entire wall was made of bluish-gray bricks, decorated with some strange cloud patterns.
Mo Xuemin walked towards the wall.
He reached out and pushed against the wall in front of him.
The next moment, everyone's eyes widened in surprise—
Suddenly, Old Mo's arm passed right through the wall!
A hint of surprise flashed in Mo Xuemin's eyes. He continued walking forward, and his entire body seemed to be suddenly sucked into the wall, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye!
Yu Hanjiang and the others immediately followed, the five of them passing through the wall one after the other...
Then, to their shock, they discovered that they were actually in a spacious, enclosed room, as big as a basketball court!
Xiao Lou hurriedly used his voice headset to notify the other team: "Senior Gui, if I remember correctly, when you found the compass in the escape room, the direction of the downward steps was west, right?"
Gui Yuanzhang said, "Yes."
Xiao Lou said, "Adjust your orientation, use compass to locate the west, and then go through the wall—these walls and steps are all illusions."
Upon hearing Xiao Lou's words, Gui Yuanzhang immediately turned around with his compass, located the west side, and decisively led his teammates through the wall.
Xiao Lou heard his deep voice: "It's a very large secret room."
It seems that Lao Mo guessed correctly. The two teams encountered similar situations, except that one team was heading east and the other west, which is exactly the opposite direction, confirming the reasoning that this is a "symmetrical tomb".
Gui Yuanzhang continued, "I see six walls, a pill furnace, and many strange talismans here. Is it the same over there?"
Xiao Lou's gaze swept across the entire room—
The tomb chamber, about 100 square meters, was spacious and empty.
Unlike the dark environment outside, this tomb chamber was brightly lit. The entire room was hexagonal in shape, with six eternal lamps hanging in the six corners. At this moment, all six lamps were lit, so everyone could clearly see the scene inside the tomb chamber.
In the center of the tomb chamber stood a bronze Herbal Hut, over a meter tall, from which a strange wisp of blue smoke rose.
Everyone immediately covered their mouths and noses in alarm.
Yu Hanjiang frowned: "Is it poisonous?"
Xiao Lou analyzed, "It shouldn't be poisonous. Otherwise, most of the Challenger team members who couldn't figure out the principle of 'ghost wall' would have been poisoned by the smoke while constantly going down the stairs. Besides, we walked up the stairs for 5 minutes and didn't feel uncomfortable."
Yu Hanjiang thought about it and agreed. He said, "It seems that this sleeping gas is the culprit that caused our hallucinations."
Just now, they went down a flight of steps and entered this tomb chamber.
However, due to the influence of the blue smoke, they experienced visual illusions.
The path they were actually taking was one that kept circling around the secret chamber, which was why the compass pointer kept spinning. But what they actually saw was a spiral staircase leading to a dark hell.
Fortunately, everyone quickly realized that this was a hallucination caused by being lost in a maze, and they broke through the illusion by using the correct position of the compass pointer.
Tang Ci sent out a mechanical ant to scout ahead, which quickly circled the house.
The ground was fine; the mechanical ant did not encounter any pitfalls or trigger any sword-like mechanisms.
Only then did everyone feel relieved and walk up to Herbal Hut to examine it carefully.
The bronze Herbal Hut was covered with six talismans, and the six surrounding walls were also covered with talismans. There were so many talismans that they almost completely covered the entire supply area, making it look rather eerie.
Xiao Lou didn't understand the meaning of these talismans, so he asked Old Gui using his voice headset.
Gui Yuanzhang's response was also: "I don't understand."
It looks like scribbles.
Herbal Huts are the most common type, with a different colored symbol on each side.
The room was hexagonal in shape, with strange graffiti covering the six walls and grotesque, brightly colored masks hanging from the ceiling. The entire room resembled a place where religious practitioners performed rituals, giving off a chilling feeling.
However, this layout also easily reminds Xiao Lou of how mechanisms are activated.
Xiao Lou said, "Everyone, first check if there are any hidden mechanisms on the six walls. If there are no hidden compartments on the walls, then the mechanism should be this Herbal Hut in the middle. I guess that by rotating the Herbal Hut so that the talismans on the Herbal Hut correspond to the talismans on the six walls, we can open this secret room."
After all, Herbal Hut has six sides, and the secret room also has exactly six walls.
There are runes on the Herbal Hut and the walls. Rotating the Herbal Hut corresponds to the runes on the walls, which is the most logical association.
The group split up and walked to the six walls, gently tapping and pressing the bricks with their hands...
Soon, everyone reported the results: "No hidden mechanisms were found."
It seems Herbal Hut is the answer.
Everyone turned their attention to Herbal Hut in the center.
Liu Qiao carefully examined the six talismans on the Herbal Hut and compared them with the talismans on the wall. He said, "The talismans on the wall are not similar to those on the Herbal Hut, and the talismans on the Herbal Hut are also different colors. What do these talismans mean?"
Xiao Lou walked to the wall in the upper left corner.
He discovered that the strange patterns on the talismans on the wall resembled some animals: pigs, cows, horses, and sheep. Because they were drawn in blood-red ink on yellow paper, and the patterns were somewhat distorted and densely covered the wall, he couldn't identify them at first.
Upon closer inspection, it became clear that this wall was indeed made up of various animals.
On the second wall, there are many ferocious demons painted.
The third wall depicts some strange scenes, with many talismans painted with doors.
The talismans on the fourth wall depict the shapes of men and women dancing. The dance movements are very similar to those seen on the stone gate, like an ancient dance performed during a sacrificial ceremony.
The fifth and sixth walls were covered with incomprehensible scribbles.
Xiao Lou stroked his chin thoughtfully.
Six walls, a hexagonal alchemy furnace, talismans covering the walls...
What exactly do these things mean?