Card Room

【Chapter 375, Yin-Yang Mirror】

Xiao Lou's words made the other five people feel puzzled, and they all leaned over to look at the mirror.

It was also the first time for Yu Hanjiang to hear the term "yin and yang mirror". He looked carefully at the bronze mirror in Xiao Lou's hand, and soon discovered that the reason why his appearance in the mirror was distorted was because the bronze mirror made his appearance flipped.

This effect is a bit like a "distorting mirror" in the park. In principle, it should distort and deform the image in the mirror to a certain extent based on the refraction of light and the unevenness of the mirror surface.

Xiao Lou explained: "In legend, the yin-yang mirror has yin and yang sides, the yin side is death, and the yang side is life. There is also a saying that the yin-yang mirror can see ghosts from the underworld... However, the mirror we found does not seem to be There is no function of seeing ghosts in the underworld in Xianxia novels? It just reverses the projected portrait."

"Show me." Tang Ci stretched out his hand, and Xiao Lou handed him the bronze mirror.

Tang Ci didn't look at his face in the mirror, but carefully studied whether there was any hidden mechanism in the mirror.

Soon, Tang Ci discovered that there was actually an interlayer in the middle of the bronze mirror, but it was fixed and could not be opened. He frowned and thought for a while, then looked at Xiao Lou and said, "Where's the compass?"

Xiao Lou handed him the compass he had just found in another secret room.

Tang Ci held the yin-yang mirror with one hand, flipped it to the back, and then gently placed the compass on the bronze mirror. To everyone's surprise, the pointer on the compass did not move at all, but at the moment when the compass and the yin-yang mirror lightly touched , the pointer on it suddenly began to spin rapidly.

The pointer rotated several times in a row before finally stabilizing. From the bearing of the compass, the downward direction of the steps should be east.

Lao Mo wondered: "Is this yin and yang mirror used to activate the compass?"

Tang Ci returned the mirror and compass to Xiao Lou, saying: "The ancient compass was made by the attraction of the earth's magnetic field, which is the same as the compass. One side of this yin and yang mirror is a mirror, and the other side looks like ancient bronze, but the material In fact, it is not pure copper, I found out that the copper mirror is actually mixed with magnets, because there are also some magnets in the manufacturing materials of my wheelchair, which will react when it is close to the mirror."

Lu Jiuchuan stroked his chin thoughtfully: "In other words, the magnet in the copper mirror can be used to activate the compass and restore its function. The things found in these two secret rooms can be regarded as props for us to help us get out of the maze. ?”

Xiao Lou looked back at the mechanism of the two secret rooms.

The same as the stone gate encountered when entering the maze, it is to judge the direction of the dance of the men and women in the sacrificial totem, and to open the gate by rotating the ever-burning lamp.

They have experienced so many square secret rooms before, and the opening method of each secret room is different. But now, the opening method of the gate is exactly the same as the opening method of the stone doors of these two small secret rooms. It is impossible for the gatekeepers to be so lazy and set up three organs with the same opening method in a row.

The only explanation is that they haven't really entered the maze yet.

The section of road we just walked is just the entrance to the maze, a "preheating" area leading to the underground maze. The compass and yin and yang mirror have no direct connection with the owner of the ancient tomb, they are just props given to them by the gatekeepers.

Thinking of this, Xiao Lou said: "Brother Jiu is right, what we just walked through should be just the entrance of the maze, just like the props given to the player by the boss when playing the escape room game. The compass and the yin and yang mirror, in the next It may be of great use in breaking through the level."

Xiao Lou handed the compass to Lao Mo, and the Yin-Yang mirror was put away by himself.

Lu Jiuchuan had already started to have a headache. He rubbed his temples and said, "After a long time, three doors were opened. Is this a fucking prelude?"

Tang Ci glanced at him, as if he was used to swearing at him, and said calmly: "According to the statistics of the Intelligence Bureau, Fang Zhou is often different from Fang Xiang's secret room. You can walk out of ordinary Fang Fang's secret room in a few hours. , Square pieces are often notoriously time-consuming. Some teams couldn’t find the exit of the maze for days and nights, and starved to death in the maze.”

When Lao Mo heard this, his face turned pale suddenly, and his fists were clenched tightly by his side.

Under the light of the night pearl, Lao Mo's pale face looked like a ghost. Liu Qiao was the closest to him, and found that something was wrong with him, so he hurriedly asked, "Uncle Mo, what's wrong with you?"

Lao Mo's voice was a little hoarse: "My previous team was wiped out in Fang Zhou, and I was the only one left..."

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang also remembered this incident. When I first formed a team with Lao Mo, Lao Mo once mentioned his previous team-his team was just an inconspicuous one among many challenger teams. Everyone’s score for clearing the secret room was not high, and their hands were not so good. There are many S cards, and his strength is very average, so in a square game, a team of more than ten people died until he was the only one left.

In order to survive, Lao Mo started an "intermediary" business in the main city, introducing hotels and renting houses to new challengers, and also joined a design company as a decoration designer for local residents.

After meeting Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang, he regained his confidence in clearing the secret room and joined Xiao Lou's team.

Xiao Lou walked up to Lao Mo and said, "Old Mo, the weekly meeting you mentioned, if I remember correctly, it was [Rotating Maze]?"

Mo Xuemin nodded with a sullen face: "I was deeply impressed by that week. Every once in a while, the maze would rotate 90 degrees. Many challengers got dizzy in it and couldn't find the exit. Someone accidentally stepped on the labyrinth." They were shot to death by random arrows when they went to the organ; some people were killed by the hunters after encountering them..."

Hunter!

In the previous fixed square maze, there has never been a hunter. But in the week that Lao Mo experienced, there were indeed hunters. It also

It was the key reason why their team suffered heavy casualties that week.

Tang Ci said calmly: "The [Rotating Maze] that Mr. Mo said was about a month ago. The death rate of the challengers according to the statistics of the intelligence agency exceeded 30%. The background of the week is a maze contest. Many challengers They are forced to participate, so hunters will mix in and carry out assassinations in the maze."

Lu Jiuchuan frowned: "As far as I know, it's not as easy for hunters to enter the diamond circle than spades. Diamonds are a closed maze, unlike spades, which is an open world. This time Zhou Chang is an underground tomb, and if they want to get in, they have to open the mechanism themselves."

Tang Ci said: "We have done statistics, and the probability of hunters appearing every week on square pieces is about 2%, that is, out of 100 teams, only 2 or so will be unlucky to encounter hunters. Will we be that one? The 2% unlucky team?"

There was a helpless wry smile on the corner of Lu Jiuchuan's mouth: "My identity has been exposed, if they insist on chasing me... maybe they will track my location and follow me to this ancient underground tomb."

In other words, they played a prelude after tossing around for a long time, and got the yin and yang mirror and compass. At present, they don't know how big the underground tomb is, and how many dangerous organs are inside...

What's more frightening is that there may be hunters coming out from behind at critical moments to stab the knife?

It seems that this week is really dangerous like never before.

Without the interference of hunters, Xiao Lou can solve all kinds of mechanism puzzles, Mr. Gui understands history and archaeology, Tang Ci is familiar with various machines, and Lao Mo is a maze guide with a strong sense of direction. The strength of their team , is definitely one of the best in the entire Challenger team. This week, all teams are ranked together. It is impossible for them to fall to the bottom 20% and be eliminated at the end.

But once there are hunters, that's not necessarily the case.

Xiao Lou couldn't help feeling nervous. He pressed the voice headset in his ear and asked, "Senior, how is your side?"

Mr. Gui's voice quickly rang in everyone's ears: "I found two small secret rooms. The mechanism's solution is the same as the stone gate I saw at the beginning. There is a compass and a mirror in the secret room."

Xiao Lou asked, "What color is the back of the mirror?"

Gui Yuanzhang said: "There are some white totem patterns painted on the bronze."

Xiao Lou turned over the bronze mirror in his hand, and the back of the bronze was painted with black patterns.

—— Yin and Yang mirror, the positive side is white, and the negative side is black. White is life, black is death.

This time, the yin and yang mirrors in the maze should be divided into two. Xiao Lou got the black yin side, and Mr. Gui got the white yang side. That is to say, the direction Mr. Gui is walking is likely to be the gate of life, and the direction Xiao Lou and the others are walking in is likely to be the gate of death.

Mo Xuemin quickly reacted when he heard this: "Judging from the time when we went down the steps and the props that Guilao and the others got, this maze is likely to have a symmetrical structure. The one on their side will be very similar. But which road leads to the exit of the maze, or whether the maze will rotate after opening a certain mechanism, is currently unknown."

Although Xiao Lou is holding a bronze mirror with a dark side that symbolizes the "door of death", as Lao Mo said, after they touch a certain mechanism, will the maze rotate? Or, the paths of life and death in the maze actually intersect?

It doesn't mean that getting the life door will lead to the exit.

Xiao Lou thought for a moment, and said to Gui Yuanzhang: "Senior, we will continue to act in teams. It is still impossible to judge which way is the correct way between the gate of life and the gate of death. You must be careful. This week, it is not ruled out that you will be hunted and killed." possibility."

Gui Yuanzhang whispered: "Okay."

Xiao Lou asked: "Is the compass activated? What direction are you going down the stairs?"

Gui Yuanzhang said: "It has been activated, this side is Xiangxi."

After 24 o'clock in the morning, all card skills have been refreshed.

To be on the safe side, Xiao Lou decided to place a peach blossom garden here. Once he encounters unsolvable troubles, he can at least return to the peach blossom garden for temporary refuge. The Taohuayuan exists for 3 hours, and for the next 3 hours, the entire team is safe.

Xiao Lou summoned Tao Yuanming.

After reading the article for 10 seconds, he set the entrance to Taohuayuan on the landing between the two small secret rooms.

Lu Jiuchuan looked at the ancient man in a long gown in front of him, and asked curiously, "What kind of card is this? Just now, I suddenly pulled me under the peach blossom tree. Is this the skill?"

Xiao Lou said, "Yes, the summoning card Tao Yuanming."

Lu Jiuchuan gave Xiao Lou a strange look: "Can you summon the ancients?"

Yu Hanjiang said lightly: "Xiao Lou can summon many ancient people, including Su Shi, Liu Yong, Li Qingzhao, Qin Guan, Tao Yuanming, Lu Yu, and even Di Renjie who was looking for clues. However, the previous secret room clearance was relatively smooth, and Di Renjie didn't even once came out."

Lu Jiuchuan: "..."

After a moment of silence, he gave Xiao Lou a thumbs up: "Amazing."

Xiao Lou asked curiously, "What brand is Brother Jiu? I haven't seen it yet."

Lu Jiuchuan laughed and said, "I can summon Suzaku. Although it is an ancient beast, Suzaku can't perform in this kind of maze at all. It needs a wide space to fly. There are also some beasts like cheetahs and lions. "

Yu Hanjiang raised his eyebrows: "So, all your cards are summoned beasts?"

Lu Jiuchuan helped his forehead helplessly: "Yes, if necessary, I can run on a lion."

Everyone: "..."

Tang Ci calmly brought the topic back: "Since

Got the compass, let's move on. "

Everyone adjusted their mentality, followed Lao Mo and continued to walk deep into the steps.

Since the compass was handed over to Lao Mo, this time, Lao Mo, who had the best sense of direction, took the lead, Yu Hanjiang protected from the side, and Xiao Lou, Lu Jiuchuan, Tang Ci and Liu Qiao followed closely.

The steps stretched all the way down, and there was still no change around after walking for a while.

There are endless spiral stairs in front of them, and everyone feels a little uneasy.

The dark passage, the endless, downward spiral steps, it feels like leading everyone to the depths of hell.

After walking for 5 minutes, Ye Qi finally couldn't bear it anymore, pressed the voice headset, and complained to all his teammates: "Why are there endless steps, walking up and down are the same, we must not really meet Hit the wall!"

*****

【Chapter 376, Ghost hitting the wall】

The so-called ghost hits the wall, which means walking back and forth in a circle repeatedly.

This is a plot that often appears in ghost movies. For example, in those horror school movies, the protagonist climbs the stairs crazily at night, but no matter how long he climbs, he always stays on a certain floor and can never get out.

Hearing Ye Qi's words, Xiao Lou stopped immediately and asked Lao Mo, "Has the compass changed?"

Mo Xuemin said: "We are walking on spiral steps, and the pointer of the compass keeps going around in circles."

Xiao Lou thought for a moment, then suddenly said: "Could it be circular motion?"

Everyone looked back at him, Xiao Lou explained: "Have you ever heard of an experiment? If you blindfolded human beings and let them walk in a straight line on a wide playground, you will eventually find that what you walk is actually A big circle."

He held down the voice headset to speak, so the words also reached the ears of the six members of the team on the other side.

Ye Qi was stunned: "Is this ghost hitting the wall? Does it really exist in reality?"

"Well." Xiao Lou nodded and said, "Biological research has found that the instinctive movement of any creature is circular motion. The fundamental reason is that there are subtle differences in the body structure of creatures. For example, the length of two legs of a person is actually not the same. Similarly, one leg takes a long step, and the other leg has a short distance, just like a compass with a small difference in outriggers, walking for a long time will draw a circle."

Xiao Lou paused, and added: "Usually, our eyes can find reference objects, and our brains are constantly positioning and correcting, so that we can walk out of a straight line. But once we are blindfolded and walk by feeling, any person will Get out of the circle. The same goes for other animals and birds, if you cover the eyes of the birds and let them fly in the sky, they will also fly out of a circle.”

Ye Qi suddenly realized: "That is to say, we are constantly circling the stairs. This spiral staircase seems to have no end. In fact, it is just an illusion produced by our eyes, causing our two legs to continuously move in a circle? "

Xiao Lou said: "That's right, this should be a labyrinth phantom. Otherwise, we've been walking down for dozens of meters, and the ancients couldn't have dug the tomb so deep."

Lao Mo agreed: "There must be something affecting our vision when the maze phantom appears. In fact, our eyes see the stairs going down, but there are no stairs here at all."

From an architectural point of view, the foundations of modern high-rise buildings will not be dug so deep. The ancients built a tomb, let alone have such a high level of technology, digging directly into the ground to a depth of 100 meters.

Lao Mo picked up the compass. At this time, the pointer of the compass pointed to north.

He remembered that when the compass had just been activated in the secret room, he had checked the direction, and the direction of the stairs going down was east.

Mo Xuemin took the compass and turned 90 degrees on the spot. The pointer on the compass shook for a moment, and Mo Xuemin locked the direction of "East".

He found that there was a wall in front of him.

The wall is no different from the surroundings, the entire wall is covered with blue-gray bricks, and there are some strange cloud pattern decorations on it.

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 collectively——

I saw that Lao Mo's arm actually passed through the wall directly!

A flash of surprise flashed in Mo Xuemin's eyes, he continued to walk forward, his whole body seemed to be sucked in by the wall suddenly, and disappeared without a trace in a blink of an eye!

Yu Hanjiang and the others immediately followed, and the five of them passed through the wall one by one...

Then they were shocked to find that they were actually in a spacious secret room as big as a basketball court!

Xiao Lou hastily notified the other team with a voice headset: "Senior Gui, if I remember correctly, when you found the compass in the secret room, the direction of the steps going down was west, right?"

Gui Yuanzhang said: "Yes."

Xiao Loudao: "Adjust the orientation and use the compass to locate the west, and then pass through the walls—these walls and steps are all illusions."

Hearing Xiao Lou's words, Gui Yuanzhang immediately turned around with the compass, and after locating the west side, he decisively led his teammates through the wall.

His deep voice sounded next to Xiao Lou's ear; "It's a very large secret room."

It seems that Lao Mo's guess is right. The situations encountered by the two teams are basically similar, but now one team is facing east and the other is facing west. The directions are exactly opposite, which also confirms that this is a "symmetrical tomb". reasoning.

Gui Yuanzhang continued: "I see six walls, a pill furnace, and many strange spells here. Is it the same on your side?"

Xiao Lou glanced across the audience——

The tomb chamber of about 100 square meters is spacious and empty.

Different from the dark environment outside, the tomb is brightly lit. The shape of the whole room is like a hexagon, with six permanent lamps hanging on the six corners. At this time, the six lamps are all on, so everyone can see clearly. The scene in the tomb.

In the middle of the tomb was a one-meter-high bronze medicine shed, and a strange blue smoke came out of it.

Everyone immediately covered their mouths and noses vigilantly.

Yu Hanjiang frowned: "Is it poisonous?"

Xiao Lou analyzed: "It shouldn't be poisonous, otherwise, most of the challenger teams who didn't think of the principle of ghost hitting the wall would be poisoned to death by the smoke as they kept going down the stairs. Moreover, we walked up the stairs for 5 minutes, and our body Not uncomfortable."

Yu Hanjiang thought about it too, and he said: "It seems that this misty smoke is the culprit that caused us to have hallucinations."

Just now, they went down a flight of steps and walked into the tomb.

However, due to the influence of the green smoke, they had visual hallucinations.

The way they are actually walking is constantly turning around the secret room, which is why the compass pointer keeps turning around. But what their eyes saw was a spiral staircase leading to the dark hell.

Fortunately, everyone quickly realized that this was an illusion of ghosts hitting the wall, and relied on the correct direction of the compass pointer to break through the confusion.

Tang Ci released the mechanical ants to explore the way, and walked quickly around the house.

The ground was fine, the mechanical ants didn't encounter traps that fell into the pit, and didn't trigger any mechanisms like swords.

Only then did everyone walk to the medicine hut with peace of mind and observe carefully.

There are six spells pasted on the bronze medicine shed, and the surrounding six walls are also covered with spells. There are too many spells, almost covering the entire material, which looks weird.

Xiao Lou didn't understand the meaning of these spells, so he used a voice headset to ask the old senior.

Gui Yuanzhang's response was also: "I don't understand."

It's like a ghost painting.

The medicine house is the most common hexagonal shape, with a different colored charm attached to each side.

The structure of this secret room happened to be hexagonal, with strange ghost symbols pasted on the six walls, and hideous masks painted in colorful colors hung on the roof. The whole room, like a place where religious believers practice rituals, makes people feel creepy.

However, such a layout also easily reminds Xiao Lou of the opening method of the organ.

Xiao Loudao: "Let's first check whether there are hidden mechanisms on the six walls. If there are no hidden compartments on the walls, then the mechanism should be the medicine house in the middle. I guess, rotate the medicine house so that the spells on the medicine house and the six sides Corresponding to the spell on the wall, this secret room can be opened."

After all, the medicine house has six sides, and the secret room has exactly six walls.

There are spells on the medicine house and the wall, and rotating the medicine house corresponds to the spell on the wall, which is the most reasonable mechanism association.

Everyone walked separately; in front of the six walls, they tapped and pressed the bricks with their hands...

Soon, everyone reported the result: "No hidden mechanism was found."

It seems that Yaolu is the answer.

Everyone turned their eyes to the medicine house in the middle.

Liu Qiao carefully inspected the six charms on the medicine hut, and compared the charms on the wall, saying: "The charms on the wall are not the same as those on the medicine hut, and the talismans on the medicine hut have different colors. , What do these spells mean?"

Xiao Lou walked to the wall in the upper left corner.

He found that the strange patterns on the charms on this wall were very similar to some animals, pigs, cows, horses, and sheep. Because they were drawn on yellow paper with blood-red pens and the patterns were distorted, they were densely pasted all over the place. The wall, he couldn't tell for a while.

After a closer look, it was confirmed that this wall was indeed filled with various animals.

On the second wall, there are many evil ghosts with claws and claws.

On the third wall, there are some strange scenes, and a door is drawn on many spells.

The talisman on the fourth wall draws the shapes of men and women. Both women and men are dancing. The dance movements are very similar to those seen on the stone gate, just like a dance that the ancients danced during sacrifices.

The fifth and sixth walls are full of ghostly symbols that cannot be seen.

Xiao Lou stroked his chin thoughtfully.

Six walls, hexagonal alchemy furnace, spells covering the walls...

What do these mean?

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