Temple of Truth

Chapter 76

At first the mist was only light and only towards the floor. But that soon changed, as the tunnel had a slight but noticeable downward curve. And pretty much as soon as Wu Xi really noticed it, his mind still somewhat preoccupied with the eerie feeling of being observed, that had just vanished, he was already inside it.

When he finally noticed the mist and the carvings on the walls of the tunnel. They had been made quite artistically, the patterns were somewhat wavy with deep grooves. He decided to not pay those patterns too much attention, as he was sure he would end up studying them if he did.

But he also couldn't stray away from the wall too much in his attempt to ignore it as much as possible – trying to reach Fatty before Zhang could catch up to him. The leading rope was still here and the others would be angry and confused with him if he told them that he got lost in the mist because he didn't want to get distracted by the wall carvings.

No, it was better to stay where he could easily be found in case something did happen. So he continued walking along the rope. He didn't want to fail his own word by getting distracted – even by very fascinating carvings of a rather free and rocky area, he couldn't be too sure with the more wavy lines.

The mist got denser to a level were he would only be able to see about five meters, if it weren't for the sudden curves in the tunnel. The landscape on the wall changed too. From what Wu Xi would call rocky to something with more plants. The groves were still deep and curvy.

He still followed the rope not even stopping when the carvings turned into a forest, neither when a human settlement and a bigger street suddenly appeared. He had seen several animals carved, birds, snakes but before this he had never seen humans.

It was odd, and made him stop to look at it only for a moment. He had already made quite a distance, but hadn't caught up to Fatty just yet. That man, Wu Xi was sure, wouldn't have payed the carvings any attention at all.

With all the curves the tunnel seemed less like a tunnel to Wu Xi and more like a labyrinth. Observing the wall while walking he had already found two secret doors on this side alone, the other side, he couldn't see it in detail, so he couldn't say for sure.

Properly exploring this place and mapping it surely would be interesting. But he was on his way to Fatty he remembered himself yet again. Right now he didn't have the time to neither study nor explore.

Following the slope of the tunnel and the rope he walked on. Only to stop after the next curve. The mumbling of the other part of the team – wasn't mumbling any more.

No, for some reason they were shouting at each other. Those weren't the cries of surprise or frighten people, he noticed – they were aggressive voices, angry once.