Xiao Feng sighed in his heart; damn, what you fear always comes true.

Isn't one road enough?

Why does it have to be a choice between two?

However, if Zhao Guo'an knew his thoughts at this moment, he would probably burst out laughing, then mockingly say, "You have your day too!"

Left or right?

This is a question that no one asked but emerged from the depths of everyone's heart.

And the answer to this question only Xiao Feng can provide.

"I'll go up and take a look first."

With that said, Xiao Feng took off his backpack, placed his hands on the walls of the passage, and began climbing upwards.

Unless absolutely necessary, no one wants to split up, so they must try their best to find the right path.

"Be careful, Brother Xiao Feng!" the little girl said, holding up a flashlight for Xiao Feng, her face full of worry.

The expressions of the others were about the same. If anything was discovered, it would be good, but if nothing was found, would they really have to split up?

While thinking, Xiao Feng had already reached the top of the passage, thrust his left foot, and disappeared from everyone's sight.

"Don't worry, there's a lot of space up here. Be on guard; I'll have a look around." Xiao Feng reassured those below, then shone his flashlight around to observe the surroundings.

It was indeed the top of a mountain, uneven underfoot, but there was still a distance to the top.

After looking around, Xiao Feng concluded that most of this underground cave was naturally formed, only the passage was man-made, as no single family could create it like this.

However, the focus now should clearly not be on that, but on following both sides of the passage to see which way is the correct one.

Walking several hundred meters unevenly, Xiao Feng saw a scene that made his skin crawl!

In theory, Xiao Feng's determination far exceeds that of ordinary people, and scenes that give him such a feeling are very rare, but this scene made his scalp tingle.

In the middle of the passage lay five "people," like paper dolls, quietly on the ground, with the shortest distance between them a dozen meters, the longest several tens of meters, looking like they encountered some unexpected event, fled in panic, but ultimately couldn't escape.

In some way, they could no longer be called bodies; if it weren't for the clothes, Xiao Feng wouldn't even be able to determine from the outlines that the five were people.

After calming down, another question emerged: How was this scene caused?

"Was it stepping on a mechanism?" Xiao Feng thought to himself.

To verify this guess, Xiao Feng took out a small telescope from his pocket, put it to his eye, held the flashlight with the other hand, and began to carefully observe below.

The telescope was something the little girl had bought earlier for sightseeing, but since there was no room in the backpack and clothes pockets, it ended up in Xiao Feng's pocket.

He didn't think he would use it, but who would have thought it would come in handy now.

Holding his breath, Xiao Feng's eyes were like scanners, observing the peculiarities of the passage floor inch by inch, the beam of the flashlight following his gaze, slowly yet steadily.

Finally, after five minutes of this observation, Xiao Feng finally noticed something strange about a rock, which should be the key to triggering the mechanism.

Realizing this, Xiao Feng moved a large rock, weighing about fifty pounds, from nearby, aimed at the stone in the middle of the passage, and threw it down forcefully.

"Bang!"

A dull and loud noise occurred, exceptionally clear in this empty underground cave, with even echoes being heard.

Immediately following was a series of "click-clack" sounds, as if gears were interlocking and starting to rotate.

It was then that Xiao Feng suddenly felt the mountain below him begin to move; caught unprepared, he almost couldn't maintain his balance and nearly fell headfirst.

At the same time, everyone waiting a hundred meters away at the "T-junction" was thrown into a brief panic.

"What the hell is going on?"

Zhao Guo'an blew up then and there, shouted, feeling the floor vibrating beneath him and hearing the rumbling noise in his ears.

However, no one could hear him because the rumbling noise was so loud that it made their eardrums hurt, and their ears were filled with a "buzzing" tinnitus that left no room for other sounds.

Besides Zhao Guo'an, the other most panicked one was Uncle Jiu.

He fidgetily took the Compass from his bag, continuously mumbling something, fully epitomizing the word panic.

The ground's vibrations, combined with the loud noises, quickly gave people a dizzy feeling, and everyone began wobbling, bumping around in the narrow passage, and it was inevitable that they would collide occasionally.

Such times often highlight the difference between humans and the natural world.

Like an old saying: "No matter how strong you are, if someone shoots you in the head, won't you die?"

Though not entirely accurate, when a disaster strikes, an individual's strength is remarkably negligible!

This situation continued for two minutes before it stopped.

Everyone in the passage sat on the ground, leaning against the walls, faces covered in dust, out of breath, suppressing the urge to vomit.

"Xiao Feng!"

A moment later, the first one to recover was Lin Zhiyan, who immediately looked up and called out Xiao Feng's name.

However, the only response she got was the echo from far away.

For a moment, everyone's faces turned incredibly grim.

No one present would believe that the unusual, grand phenomenon just now had nothing to do with Xiao Feng because it happened after he went up.

But it is precisely because of this that everyone couldn't help but worry. What exactly did Xiao Feng do, and is he okay now?

The next moment, everyone turned their eyes to Uncle Jiu, as he was undoubtedly the one who had the most experience with underground matters there.

The incident saving Zhao Guo'an's calf further substantiated everyone's belief in his reputation.

"What just happened?" Lin Zhiyan asked, waving away the dust swirling in front of her.

Uncle Jiu replied uncertainly, "It might have activated some kind of mechanism, but it seems odd because logically, a mechanism wouldn't be set in a place that people wouldn't normally reach."

"Perhaps the person who designed the mechanism anticipated that intruders, when losing the path forward, might target the upper levels," Lin Zhiyan speculated.

Zhao Guo'an chimed in, "If that's the case, then old Xiao truly got outsmarted by himself."

As soon as he finished speaking, the little girl grabbed Uncle Jiu by the collar and coldly said, "I don't care about anything else. I just want to know where Brother Xiao Feng is and if he's okay."

"..." Uncle Jiu felt like he wanted to die; are you asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?

But clearly, he couldn't not answer this question because he had a strong feeling that if he didn't answer well, the poised young girl in front of him might really choke him to death.

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