Card Room (Rebirth)
chapter-379

Xiao Lou’s entire body stiffened when he saw this scene. Fortunately, Yu Hanjiang reacted in time or else his neck would have been tightly strangled by these tongues and he would’ve suffocated to death.

The tongues hanging on the left and right walls were apparently taken from the evil spirits who had been punished in the hell of tongue ripping. Xiao Lou thought that it had just been a scene deliberately arranged by the keeper to scare them. Unexpectedly, the keeper even had the tongues become weapons to attack them?! He still didn’t know how the mechanism was triggered.

Tang Ci previously had the two ants scout the way in this room and there were no abnormalities when they touched the floor. Obviously, this wasn’t a mechanism triggered by stepping on the ground. Then once they walked in, the tongues on the wall started a fierce offensive! Maybe this room was voice controlled? Did the sound of their footsteps activate the mechanism?

Since the six people couldn’t talk, the entire room was extremely quiet and the sound of their footsteps was really clear. It was reasonable to infer that the control mechanism was based on sound.

Before Xiao Lou had time to think about it, Yu Hanjiang turned fiercely in the air. He flew to the wall along with Xiao Lou and took out a sharp knife, aiming it at the tongues on the wall and slashing down hard!

The man’s eyes were deep and full of hostility as he attacked. The visual effect of the room full of tongues might be horrible and disgusting but Yu Hanjiang didn’t shake at all when he saw these things. In the blink of an eye, half a wall of tongues was actually cut off by him! As he slashed, the tongues on the wall seemed enraged and stretched out several times.

Yu Hanjiang moved through the air, using the tongues as landing points for the light footwork card. His left hand held tightly to Xiao Lou’s waist while the knife in his right hand danced around him. He protected his front, back, left and right sides tightly. The knife shone and countless tongues were cut by him. For a time, no tongue could get near him.

They couldn’t speak but Yu Hanjiang was using action to tell his teammates that he was opening the way for everyone.

The severed tongues fell like a heavy snowfall and the amount of blood on the scene made people want to vomit. However, they had been through so many secret rooms and everyone’s psychological quality had improved. Apart from the big men who were embarrassed to vomit, Liu Qiao also resisted the urge.

Lu Jiuchuan waved his hand and made the ‘go quickly’ gesture. Immediately afterward, he lowered his head to look at Tang Ci, worried that he would accidentally drop him if he moved quickly. He gently stuffed Tang Ci deeper into his pocket.

Tang Ci was stuffed deep into the pocket and could no longer see what happened outside. He wanted to climb out but… now they had encountered the hell mechanisms. Brother Jiu would definitely be distracted taking care of him. He couldn’t fall and get stepped on by his teammates, messing things up.

Tang Ci thought about it and decided to stay quietly in Brother Jiu’s pocket. The next moment, Lu Jiuchuan jumped fiercely. Tang Ci felt like he was sitting on a roller coaster and was stunned.

Lu Jiuchuan kicked away the tongue attacking him and pulled out a weapon card. Most of his cards were for summoning beasts but he had also drawn an S-grade weapon called the Cold Ice Sword. This sword was slim, sharp and had a very thin blade. It also had a light blue handle and matching scabbard. It looked like a martial arts sword but the moment it was drawn from the scabbard, a strong wind wrapped around the sword. It was as if the sword was made of ice and snow.

This sword came with a freezing function.

Yu Hanjiang opened the way with his knife while Lu Jiuchuan followed closely behind with his Cold Ice Sword.

The tongues didn’t have time to touch their bodies. They were either cut off mercilessly by Yu Hanjiang or frozen by Lu Jiuchuan. The two brothers quickly resolved the surrounding tongues. Old Mo and Liu Qiao weren’t idiots and immediately followed behind them.

It wasn’t known how long this ‘wall covered with tongues’ was. Yu Hanjiang and Lu Jiuchuan ran forward quickly while fighting with the flexible tongues. There was Lu Jiuchuan’s Cold Ice Sword that froze the tongues along the way and the entire passage almost turned into an ice cellar. The frozen tongues looked like stalactites in a cave.

Five minutes later, the six people passed through the tongues smoothly and arrived at an empty space. Xiao Lou sighed with relief. Both Yu Hanjiang and Lu Jiuchuan had reacted swiftly and their fighting abilities were good. The cooperation of these two brothers meant the hell of tongue ripping wasn’t too much of a threat. His concern was that they were walking the path of the hell realm. What hell would they encounter next?

Xiao Lou opened his mouth. “The hell of tongue ripping has passed. We should be able to speak?”

His voice was heard.

Lu Jiuchuan couldn’t help cursing. “Fuck, those tongues are really disgusting. The hell of tongue ripping actually used tongues as a mechanism. The Diamonds loli looks cute but her heart is actually so perverted.”

Tang Ci stuck out his head from the edge of the pocket and spoke calmly. “You better not scold the keeper in the secret room in case she deliberately makes things more difficult for us after she hears it.”

Lu Jiuchuan smiled. “Did I scold her? I was just praising her for being super cute. I have never seen such a cute loli. She wore that dress and looked like a porcelain doll.”

Everyone, “……”

Brother Jiu’s desire to survive was quite strong. It just wasn’t known if the keeper could hear it. After regaining his speaking function, Xiao Lou saw that Yu Hanjiang was covered in blood and hurriedly grabbed his hand in a worried manner. “Are you okay? There is so much blood…”

Yu Hanjiang smiled slightly at the concern and whispered, “It’s fine. The blood is from cutting those things, I’m not injured. This labyrinth is very strange. Do you think the hell of tongue ripping just now was an illusion?”

Xiao Lou couldn’t explain it clearly. In a normal tomb, there wouldn’t be such strange mechanisms. However, this was a tomb labyrinth arranged by the keeper. It wouldn’t be unusual if strange things appeared. He took a deep breath and stared at the dark passage ahead. “Whether it is an illusion or not, there might be 17 more levels of hell waiting for us next. Please be careful.”

Liu Qiao might’ve felt nausea from the disgusting tongues but her face remained calm as she asked, “Professor Xiao should know the order of the 18 hells? What will the next level be?”

“The hell of scissors.”

The group was silent for a moment before Yu Hanjiang waved. “Let’s go.”

It was only then that he discovered he was still holding Xiao Lou’s waist and the two of them were very close. Just now, he had carried Xiao Lou in an anxious manner and forgot to let go. The team members must’ve seen it but no one said anything. Yu Hanjiang calmly retracted his hand and pretended that nothing happened while Xiao Lou’s ears turned red.

The group continued to walk forward. They found and descended another short flight of stairs before entering a wide rectangular passage. According to the rules of the punishment, those who instigated discord, slandered and harmed others would be sent to the hell of tongue ripping after death and have their tongues pulled out by ghosts. Meanwhile, those who were sent to the hell of scissors would have their ten fingers cut off. It was said that the ten fingers were connected and the pain of having one finger cut off was a torture that ordinary people couldn’t bear.

Xiao Lou looked at the dense formation of scissors ahead of him with an ugly expression. These scissors weren’t the ordinary scissors for household use. They were huge scissors that were 1 meter wide and 1.5 meters long. Forget cutting off fingers, they could cut a person at the waist when they opened and closed!

In addition, the scissors were all over the space. It was impossible to fly through, above or below them with the light footwork card. Moreover, the scissors opened and closed extremely quickly. There was the constant sound of ‘click click’ in their ears. If they accidentally touched the sharp blades then they might have their legs, arms or even their head cut off!

Lu Jiuchuan endured the urge to curse the keeper and spoke in a low voice, “I can only freeze people and animals with my sword. These scissors are all iron and can’t be frozen. How do we pass through them?”

Crawling, jumping and running weren’t feasible. Freezing, chaos, being fixed in place, drowsiness and other controls were targeted at living creatures. The scissors were a mechanism and a tool and weren’t affected by those card skills.

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged looks. Just then, Liu Qiao suggested, “I can become smaller and go and take a look.”

Her Thumbelina card had two skills. One was to make herself smaller and the other was to make other people smaller. For the scissors in the formation, the closest distance to the ground was 10 cm. Liu Qiao’s height would only be 5cm when she shrank and she could go straight past them.

Xiao Lou looked at Liu Qiao. “Be careful.”

Liu Qiao nodded and decisively turned herself smaller before walking through the scissors. She didn’t simply walk past. As she walked, she raised her head and carefully observed the rules of the scissors.

Soon, Liu Qiao found that for every meter, there were 10 scissors distributed in the air. Although the distribution was disorderly and the scissors moved back and forth, these ten were linked when opening and closing. In other words, the scissors in one row would follow certain rules of opening and closing. If they passed through while it was closed then there was no need to be afraid of being cut by the sharp blades.

The second row followed another rule. The third row…

After 18 rows, Liu Qiao finally left the scissors formation and saw an empty space in front of her.

She immediately told Xiao Lou, “Professor Xiao, the scissors formation has 18 rows of scissors and each row has their own rule of opening and closing. The fastest frequency is one second while the slowest one is around three to four seconds. There is nothing over four seconds. If everyone’s reaction is fast enough, you can move through the gap while the scissors are closed. There is no lethality as long as the scissors are closed.”

Liu Qiao’s approach was actually quite dangerous. For example, the first row of scissors was closed so they entered the scissors formation, only to find that the second row was opened. Once this row closed, wouldn’t everybody’s bodies be directly cut in half?

However, no one could think of a better way. There were so many scissors densely packed together that they couldn’t use the light footwork card. The scissors weren’t affected by control skills so they could only bite the bullet.

Xiao Lou carefully observed the changes in the scissors formation. There were many scissors and the sharp blades were constantly opening and closing, giving people huge pressure… but in the final analysis, this was the same as any mechanism in a game. There was always a way for players to pass. It just depended on whether they could grasp it or not.

There were two ways to pass through this type of mechanism.

The first method was to look at the timing to avoid all the scissors and pass through the formation. The second method was to walk and stop, passing one row at a time. They had a relatively large number of people so it was easy to make a mistake when charging through the formation all at once. It would be safer to pass through one row at a time. Xiao Lou thought up to here and called out to Liu Qiao, “Xiao Liu, please come back and lead everyone.”

They couldn’t see the entire formation clearly but Liu Qiao had become smaller and passed through it. She was naturally more familiar with the rules than them. The 5 cm tall Liu Qiao came back and said, “I’ll lead the way.”

Once she re-entered the scissors formation, Xiao Lou and the others stood there, ready to run at any time. The moment the scissors closed, Liu Qiao yelled, “Go, three rows at once!”

The four people moved quickly through three rows. Sure enough, these three rows of scissors were closed and had no lethality. Meanwhile, the fourth row of scissors was open and floating back and forth. If they took half a step forward then the moment the scissors closed… they would be cut in half. The sharp blades of the scissors were frightening.

Liu Qiao looked up at the scissors formation. The opening and closing frequencies of the back rows were different. The fourth row opened and closed every two seconds, the fifth row opened and closed every three seconds, the sixth row was every four seconds and the seventh row was every second.

According to the principles of mathematics, one could find the most common multiple. In other words, every 12 seconds, these four rows of scissors would be closed at the same time.

Liu Qiao silently counted 12 seconds in her heart and said, “Go to the seventh row!”

Xiao Lou saw Liu Qiao’s calculation logic and couldn’t help admiring her more in his heart. The key to this scissors formation was to see the rhythm and pattern of opening and closing from a god’s perspective. Then find out how many rows were simultaneously closed and sprint through them. It was a rhythm based on the ‘most common multiple’.

Under Liu Qiao’s guidance, everyone passed through the scissors formation without any danger. Lu Jiuchuan looked back at the rows of scissors and shook his head. He sighed with relief and smiled at the thumb-sized Liu Qiao on the ground. “Little girl, you are really good and bold.”

Liu Qiao wasn’t modest and calmly explained, “I learned science and found some rules when I passed through the scissors.” Then she looked up in Mo Xuemin’s direction. “Uncle Mo, can you carry me? The Thumbelina skill has a cooldown. Once I change back then I can’t become smaller again. If you need me to be smaller again later then I can help.”

Old Mo naturally had no objections. He picked up the little girl and put her in his pocket.

The six person team became a 4 + 2 team. Lu Jiuchuan had Tang Ci in his pocket and Old Mo had Liu Qiao in his pocket. The group took a short rest before continuing to move on.

Proofreader: Paranoid Kitten & Fictional Reality