Wu Xi felt a warmth wash over him. It was really a nice feeling – knowing that Zhang cared. That he had noticed that he wasn't really as relaxed as he should be, as someone who had as much experience as he had.
Wu Xi has just about to tell Zhang that he was fine, just having a weird feeling of having missed something important, that he just couldn't shake. But with Zhang looking at him like this, he couldn't get a single word out.
Only after he stood there with a half open moth he finally managed to swallow the blockage enough to finally get something out. It was no probably weird expectation of his behaviour, instead managed to croak a quiet "thank you" and at least tried to give him a thankful smile.
Wu Xi probably would have kept staring at Zhang for a while longer if it weren't for Fatty. Who had apparently just reached the bottom of the broken and collapsed staircase. He was calling out to Wu Xi to finally get going.
Apparently it was finally his turn to go get down that rope and into the temple.
While he moved into the dark crack he called out to Fatty, telling him that he was on his way. The stone was cold and rough it was easy to get some of his gear caught on some edges if he he wasn't careful enough.
After squeezing through a narrow curve like part he finally arrived at what looked like a partly collapsed and rather tiny entrance hall. The light from out side didn't reach this place. Where he stood at the moment was just barely brighter then the rest of the room. He could only barely make out the boundaries of the place he stood in before turning his light on.
After that he could finally see again. And just as he had thought like before, the room was really quite small and that was not the only thing that was somewhat surprising to him. The other thing was the complete lack of decoration.
This should be the entrance of the very core of the temple? He could understand if the objects that had been used as decoration were missing – probably stolen years if not even aeons before he was even born. But the wall decorations, paintings and carvings that were usual for the ancient times were also completely missing.
Those weren't things that could be easily stolen – and he couldn't even see marks of chipped stone. The complete opposite was even the case, the walls were completely flat as if they would have been really smooth if not for the corrosion of the stone over time. Considering this it would mean that there had never been decorations like that in the first place.
He even felt like the corrosion to the level he could see at the moment was somewhat odd. Of course the air was somewhat stuffy but there was no wind and the way it should have been build it should be dry too.
"Wu Xi hurry up" he could hear Fatty call.
"Your uncle has already walked ahead, there isn't much room here. If you keep loitering around up there we might not manage to catch up to him. "
Fatty told him, even though they had agreed on placing a leading rope – in order not to get lost and finding the exit if something were to happen – there were some doors and such that prevented this tactic from being used.
"Sorry" Wu Xi called back, "You go ahead and wait if they use some secret doors or tunnels."
After that he finally made his way through to the rope that was leading into the darkness.