Chapter 6 Everything Starts from This Moment

Lin Xi and the others were advancing in a secret passage. As they went further, the tunnel became narrower, forcing them to stoop. They felt a bit tired and the smell wasn't pleasant either. Lin Xi even started to regret coming down here.

However, most of them were driven by a spirit of adventure. They had never experienced a real secret room outside of TV dramas. Who hasn't changed their lives and reached their peak by entering a secret room?

They didn't know how long they had been slowly moving forward, probably about five minutes, when suddenly they saw a light ahead. It was Du Jun and the others who had reached earlier, showing them the way.

When everyone came out of the tunnel, they arrived in a secret room of about thirty square meters. The fourteen people in the room didn't feel crowded. However, it seemed quite empty, with nothing notable in sight.

A male student couldn't help but complain, "Are you kidding me? After all that effort, we found nothing. What kind of a secret room is this? Isn't it supposed to be a great place to hide treasures?"

Someone nodded in agreement: "We didn't come here for nothing. I believe this room must have had some purpose. There might even be hidden compartments. The valuable things might be hidden here. Let's search separately."

Lin Xi couldn't help laughing: "You guys really think that you are on a treasure hunt. We're lucky that we didn't encounter a ghost. Don't overthink."

Hearing these words, a timid girl immediately became anxious, "Please, Lin Xi, don't jinx us. If you actually call a ghost, you will be responsible!"

"Okay, okay, I'll take responsibility. If a ghost appears, let it catch me, and you guys run." Lin Xi finished speaking with a laugh and stuck out her tongue playfully. Suddenly, she exclaimed, "Look at this."

Lin Xi's flashlight was pointing towards the ground, illuminating something interesting, which drew everyone's attention over. They saw that the room wasn't empty after all; they just hadn't noticed anything in the poor lighting.

Fine lines were drawn on the floor, not with a pen, but etched with some tool. If you didn't examine it closely, you wouldn't notice it at all. These patterns covered the floor of the secret room, yet no one could tell what they were.

Someone said, "This feels like when I used to randomly scratch the walls with a stone as a kid."

Hearing these words, everyone started to realize that these fine lines indeed resembled scratches drawn on the wall with a stone. But the question was: Who would go to all the effort of scratching up the floor of this secret room with a stone? Wasn't that exhausting?

"Maybe this was once a secret studio of a painter?" Someone speculated, but was quickly countered, "Which painter likes to paint in complete darkness?"

Just when everyone started to laugh, suddenly somebody said to Lin Xi, "Why is such a beautiful lady like you standing on an ugly character? It's so inappropriate and discordant."

Hearing these words, Lin Xi, Du Jun, and the others were surprised. Looking down, they found that the lines under Lin Xi's feet formed the character "Chou". It looked a bit off, but it was indeed a character.

Someone couldn't resist a joke: "That 'Chou' really is as ugly as sin." Everyone agreed with this statement.

"Let's see if there are other characters." As Lin Xi spoke, she began to look for them, staring closely at those strange patterns. The lines were so fine that she had to squint to see them clearly.

At this moment, Du Jun also made a discovery - something that seemed like the character "Shen".

"Strange, did someone practice calligraphy instead of painting here?" With curiosity and doubt, they carefully searched for a while and found twelve characters in total: Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai.

Someone couldn't help but exclaim, "Aren't these the twelve earthly branches?"

Lin Xi further noticed that the twelve characters were arranged in a circle. In addition to them, there were other lines as well, hard to decipher what they represented.

Then, someone noticed an incongruity. The room's floor was smooth, except for a slightly protruding spot in the middle. The protrusion looked peculiar, somewhat like a crescent moon, but not symmetrical. One end of it was round, and the other sharp. Adding to the confusion, a small circle was drawn on it.

Du Jun suddenly thought of something and yelled, "Everyone, look for another circle."

Everyone began to search again, straining their eyes because of the limited flashlight light. True to Du Jun's words, they did find another circle. But there seemed to be nothing special about it - it was just a circle.

"Just as I thought!" Du Jun, discovering something, couldn't help but laugh. Piquing everyone's curiosity, they unanimously asked him to tell what he found.

Pointing at the protrusion, Du Jun said, "Look at it, doesn't this resemble a part of a Tai Chi diagram? And those two circles as well."

Upon hearing this, everyone was surprised. Lowering their heads, they found that it indeed resembled Tai Chi. They wondered if these markings represented some profound concepts related to the Five Elements and the Eight Trigrams.

Just then, Du Jun stepped on the protruding part and it surprisingly sank down, producing a 'click' sound, as if something had been activated. Everyone jumped, fearing Du Jun had triggered some device.

The rattling sound came from above, and everyone started, all looking up together. There was an opening in the ceiling of the secret chamber, in fact, a ventilation duct leading straight to the top of the mountain.

Pure moonlight shone down through this opening, illuminating the secret chamber, with the moon's gleam falling just right onto the Tai Chi diagram in the chamber's center.

Lin Xi looked at the moonlight above the vent and couldn't help but wonder, "There wasn't a moon when we were climbing the mountain. How come it's suddenly appeared now?"

"Maybe it was obscured by the clouds before." Du Jun had just finished speaking when his face changed. The Tai Chi on the ground was glowing like the moon. Its fine lines became more pronounced because of the glow.

"What exactly is going on here?" Everyone was puzzled, their hearts filled with fear of the unknown.

Gradually, all of the patterns on the floor of the secret chamber were illuminated, presenting an enigmatic picture. The center was the Tai Chi diagram, surrounded by the twelve earthly branches of Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai; the rest were hard to understand.

Someone, overcome with fear, couldn't help but say, "We haven't unwittingly tampered with something we shouldn't have, have we?"

Everyone looked tense and frightened, some even eyeing the path we had come from, ready to flee at the first sign of danger.

Suddenly, the pattern on the ground that was radiating the moon's glow flashed brightly, blinding everyone. At the same time, something seemed to touch a deeply buried part of them, sending a chill through their bodies. Then, the glow disappeared, and the moon in the sky was again blocked by clouds.

All was quiet again, but everyone was still fearful and uneasy. The intense flash of light from before, the feeling as if something had touched the depths of their souls, gave them a bad feeling.

A timid girl couldn't help but say, "Should we go back?" As she finished saying this, a thumping sound from the ventilation shaft above was heard, as if something had fallen.

The sound of the fall made everyone jump with fear, but it looked like a rock, so no one paid much attention. However, when they shone their flashlights on it, they couldn't help but gasp. It wasn't a stone at all – it was a skull.

Some people couldn't bear it any longer. The timid girl screamed and fled in terror. The atmosphere was suffused with fear, and everyone turned to flee, not wanting to linger in the room any longer.

By the time Lin Xi and Du Jun staggered out of the secret chamber, they saw other people running down the mountain like a flock of frightened birds, wanting to get as far away as possible from this nightmarish place.

Gu Fan and Lu Yi had just reached halfway up the mountain when they saw the members of the dance society running down in a panic. They immediately knew something was wrong.

Just as Gu Fan was worrying about Lin Xi, Lin Xi also ran down. The two exchanged a glance. Gu Fan breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Lin Xi was unharmed, and Lin Xi felt safe knowing why Gu Fan had appeared.

Ignoring their surroundings, Gu Fan really wanted to go hug Lin Xi and take her away. But he ended up just clutching Lin Xi's hand tightly, eager to leave this creepy place.

After they returned to the ancient town at the foot of the mountain, many people swore they would never go on any more adventures, especially in these deep, old mountains.

After returning, Du Jun remained silent, deliberately keeping his distance from Gu Fan. He remembered how he had mocked Gu Fan for being a coward and scared to climb at night, and was afraid that Gu Fan would return the jest.

However, Du Jun was overly worried. Gu Fan only cared for Lin Xi's safety and had no appetite for a tit-for-tat with Du Jun.

Returning to their inn, Lin Xi and Gu Fan shared their experience on the mountain. Gu Fan was stunned, wondering if all the dance society members were bewitched. It was too strange.

When Lin Xi mentioned the skull in the secret chamber, Gu Fan and Lu Yi both felt a cold chill. They had seen it before, maybe it was a coincidence, but they couldn't help but feel creeped out.

It was late, everyone was tired, and they said goodnight, each returning to their respective rooms. No matter what, everyone had safely returned.

The moment Gu Fan got back to his room, he collapsed. The prior shoutings from the mountain had actually scared him, leaving him on edge. Now that everyone was safe, he could finally relax and sleep. Within five minutes, he had drifted off.

The next day, before Lin Xi could fully wake up, she heard urgent knocks on her door. She thought it was Gu Fan, but to her surprise, it was Du Jun's voice.

Rubbing her eyes sleepily, yawning, she reluctantly opened the door for Du Jun and lazily asked, "What's going on, bro? What time is it? We don't have class today, do we?"

Du Jun was a picture of terror. "We have a problem. We're one person short."

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