Chapter 527 - Trapped in the Stone Chamber
Chapter 527 Trapped in the Stone Chamber
At the mention of this incident, a rare ruthless look appeared in Zuo Qiuyu’s eyes.
“My master was truly superb in his medical skills although he was not an authoritative elder in the pavilion. Nevertheless, he was in no way less reputable than the rest in those days. However, those men had come together and plotted against my master! Somehow they had managed to escape although I tried many times to find the evidence against them. I never imagine my master’s body would be found here.”
At Zuo Qiuyu’s words, Lin Mengya could make out 70-80% of what happened.
Since the Chief Elder had taken her mother, who was the eldest princess, in as his disciple, Master Yuan, who had taken Zuo Qiuyu in as his disciple, was certainly outstanding in his medical skills too.
If she guessed correctly, Master Yuan was the candidate chosen by the Chief Elder to succeed him.
In an attempt to usurp the position of the Chief Elder, Nan Rui had to join hands with the others to plot against Master Yuan.
From this deduction, the Chief Elder and Master Yuan ought to have been here as a result of the selfish and evil ambition of Nan Rui and his accomplices.
“I believe that they are unable to come into the stone chamber. Otherwise, the Chief Elder and Master Yuan would not end up here. I would think that we should not act rashly and alert the enemy. Let’s get out of here first.”
Zuo Qiuyu nodded. Holding in his grief, he collected the remains of the Chief Elder and his master.
“Hush, it sounds like someone is coming from outside.”
Long Tianyu who had been on high alert suddenly blurted out a warning.
The four of them immediately stopped in their tracks when they indeed clearly heard the sound of hurried footsteps.
This was strange. Who would come here at this hour?
The footsteps sounded hurried and anxious, but they were gone all too soon.
Despite straining their ears to listen while staying close to the stone door, they failed to hear any more noises.
It was as if the people had disappeared all of a sudden. Could they be straining their ears to listen while staying close to the stone door, just like them?
Lin Mengya turned to look at Long Tianyu, perplexed, and realized that he had the same expression of puzzlement in his eyes.
It was so quiet that the sound of their breathing was almost audible. Nevertheless, there was still silence on the other side of the stone door.
It appeared that the two parties were having a competition to see which of them could endure for a longer time.
The stone door was like a barricade that separated the two spaces.
“Could you have made a mistake, Elder?”
Finally, a young man from the other side seemed to have lost his patience and broke his silence.
“That’s impossible! This place is out-of-bounds. Someone must have fallen in given that the oil lamps on the two sides had been lit up.”
It was the voice of Duanmu Yang!
Lin Mengya quickly exchanged looks with Long Tianyu. Yu An was carrying the Chief Elder’s remains was behind them. However, out of carelessness, he dropped a section of the leg bone onto the floor.
Instantly, a clear, crispy sound echoed throughout the quiet stone chamber.
Lin Mengya felt as if her heart had gone into her throat. She was sure the people outside had found out about them.
However, she did not hear the expected voices even after a moment.
Lin Mengya and Long Tianyu looked at each other, blinking their eyes at each other as a form of communication.
“Cough, cough, who’s there outside the door?”
Long Tianyu’s spoke with a suspicious tone. He was neither too loud nor too soft.
However, the silence continued and they could only make wild guesses of what was going on.
However, they did not hear any voices.
Testingly, Zuo Qiuyu cursed but still, there was no reaction from outside.
The four of them finally felt relieved. The structure of the stone chamber seemed to be rather special in that the people from outside were not able to hear any sound from within the chamber.
On the other hand, the people inside the chamber were able to hear clearly what was spoken outside.
This made things much easier for them.
The four of them finally relaxed. However, they decided to listen to what the people outside were saying.
They were still arguing over the point that the oil lamps had been lit despite not seeing any human beings around.
Lin Mengya could not help but feel puzzled. Were they not aware that there was a stone chamber here?
At this moment, the voice of the young man outside who spoke at first started speaking once again.
“Elder, could they have entered already?”
As she expected, Duanmu Yang and his company also knew about this stone chamber.
“How could that be? Even if it were that prince and princess who fall into here, they wouldn’t be able to open this door. Perhaps someone came down and forgot to extinguish the oil lamps. Let’s get out of here first. It would be disastrous if someone found out that there are other exits.”
It was the voice of Duanmu Yang speaking and they could tell that Duanmu Yang and his company had walked away.
At this moment, however, Lin Mengya was full of questions in her mind.
It appeared that Duanmu Yang was aware of this secret stone chamber. Otherwise, how could he be so certain that no one could enter the stone chamber?
As for the other exits—
“Quick, let’s get out of here!”
Immediately, Lin Mengya called for Long Tianyu and the rest to leave as she felt anxiety rising in her.
Fortunately, they were prepared. Zuo Qiuyu and Yu An carried a body each and jogged up the steps towards the exit at the top.
However, when they reached the stone door before they could open the door using the mechanism, the smell of burned wood diffused into the chamber through the stone door from outside.
As they expected, Duanmu Yang had been deliberately mystifying the matter!
Their real objective was to use another exit to trap whoever was in the stone chamber.
Needless to say, they knew that the other side of the stone door had been heavily ambushed.
On one hand, they had set fire on the other side of this exit. No matter which exit the people from inside used, they would be captured there and then.
What an evil and ruthless ploy!
Apparently, she had underestimated these brutes from the Pavilion of Herbs.
“What shall we do? How about we go by that stone exit and charge through them?”
There was a savage look in Zuo Qiuyu’s eyes. At this moment, most of the people in the Pavilion of Herbs were beasts in his perspective.
However, Lin Mengya tried to stop him from thinking that way.
Not to mention that they lacked resources, if those people knew that she and Zuo Qiuyu were among the people trapped in here, they would conceive a murderous thought. There was no way those beasts would let them off.
Now that they had yet to be driven up a wall. It was not time to risk their lives.
“Let’s get down there first. Perhaps there’s a third way out.”
The temperature of the surrounding kept rising and the smoke that seeped through the stone wall was getting more suffocating.
Fortunately, it was relatively spacious in the stone chamber. Moreover, the smoke rose upwards. They could still breathe naturally for a while more.
However, those people outside would be more patient than them, knowing that sooner or later, the people inside would die of suffocation.
Lin Mengya scanned the surroundings and suddenly recalled Long Tianyu’s words.
If this stone chamber was a place of refuge for the subsequent generations of people in the Pavilion of Herbs, would they not have a contingency plan for this place when they first built it?
She made her guess known to the rest and soon, the four of them went in different directions to inspect the entire stone chamber for any possible escape route.
Long Tianyu stayed with Lin Mengya while they explore the area closest to the stone door.
However, their effort was in vain.
The burnt smell in the air was already causing discomfort to Lin Mengya’s throat.
She coughed gently, then turned to the other two and shook her head.
It appeared that they had entered into an emergency situation.
If they continue to delay, the four of them would soon turn into smoke sausages.
“What shall we do? Let’s just charge through them. Don’t you be afraid, Mengya. If it means Yu An and I have to sacrifice ourselves, we will still make sure that you and Long Tianyu get out of here.”
They could feel the tragic and heroic spirit in Zuo Qiuyu from his expression.
Lin Mengya patted his face lightly as a serious look appeared in her eyes.
“What are you talking about? There has to be a way out. Since it was my idea that brought us here, I have the responsibility to get you out of here!”
Zuo Qiuyu was generally good in all aspects except that he could sometimes act rashly and foolishly.
At this moment, their greatest enemy would be impulsiveness.
Turning around, Lin Mengya went around the surroundings of the stone chamber once again.
For some reason, she felt that something was amiss about the statue of the king of medicine.
“Long Tianyu, come over to have a look. Do you think there’s something strange-looking about this statue of the king of medicine?”
Imitating her, Long Tianyu turned to look at the statue of the king of medicine.
In reality, it was only strange because the statue was not leaning entirely on the shrine.
On the other hand, it was jutting out a little.
Lin Mengya walked slowly towards it and saw that there was a huge stone wall behind the shrine.
Given the geography of the Nation of Lintian, there were no high mountain peaks within the boundaries, being bounded on three sides by the sea.
Be it the stone door or the stone chamber, they did not appear to be natural.
Lin Mengya climbed to the side of the stone behind the stone statue and with the help of a torch, she had a good look at the dark corners.
Although the wall was uneven with bumps here and there, Lin Mengya could tell some minute differences at some parts.
She would not be able to tell that the wall had been made of pieces of stones interlocked and stacked up together if she did not look at it at close range.
Since the stone chamber had been built by people, they would have prepared for a way of escape.
This was the usual practice of the ancient craftsman. After all, people who worked for the royal family could get murdered whenever they were not cautious.
As time passed, a passageway of direct escape would be built leading from the coffin chamber with a mechanism to the palace.
What was most important at this moment was to find this passageway!
Where could it be?
Doing all she could to calm herself down, Lin Mengya’s eyes scanned every inch of the stone chamber.
Since this place had been excavated by craftsmen, the entrance to the passageway would be somewhere the owner of the stone chamber did not expect.
After scanning the place randomly, Lin Mengya’s eyes finally rested on the statue of the king of medicine.
Given the stone chamber had been renovated for the purpose of making sacrifices, the only place that the owner of the stone chamber would not make any changes would be where the statue of the king of medicine was.
All of a sudden, Long Tianyu’s line vision crossed that of Lin Mengya’s.
Their hearts seemed to beat as one at that moment. Their eyes, filled with fervency, were focused on the statue of the king of medicine.
“Hey… I say, the two of you…”
Zuo Qiuyu gazed at the two people with puzzlement. Given that the two of them were extremely intelligent people, Zuo Qiuyu found that as a regular person, he was not able to understand their actions sometimes.
Noticing that they were both staring at the statue of the king of medicine so intently, Zuo Qiuyu could not help but felt that there was something strange about it.
“We’re running out of time. Let’s give it a try to see if we can move this stone statue!”
Long Tianyu immediately proceeded to carry out Lin Mengya’s suggestion.
“Hey! My dear cousin, what you’re doing is a serious offense towards the ancestors and masters—“