Facing an Ancient God for a Year

Chapter 2148: Chapter 2143: Solitary Confinement (17)

As expected, everyone has their limitations, Brother Tantou still didn’t pay enough attention to the details.

”Is it growing from the inside? What’s going on, is that guy crazy?”

Fortunately, he still had some insight. After Fu Qian revealed the hidden world behind the painting, he finally grasped the true meaning of the artwork and further expressed his inability to understand.

”Have you ever been inside?”

To this, Fu Qian merely studied the layout of the passage carefully and asked casually.

”I never even knew there was such a thing...”

However, this action seemed to frighten people a bit. As Brother Tantou answered, his voice grew increasingly quiet, his eyes flickered, as if vaguely foreseeing his own fate.

”Well, this time you have the chance to appreciate this masterpiece.”

Sure enough, the next moment Fu Qian pointed inside the hole, signaling him to crawl in.

Under the guard tower, the discovery of a hidden passage was certainly not something to be missed.

After all, ever since two young men came inside and hadn’t seen this affair, it seemed to provide some explanation.

And even if they didn’t get lost underneath, finding the whereabouts of Brother Yiven who might have had contact with them seemed quite worthwhile.

Not to mention this work of his, which seemed like one of the rare things worth seeing in this ’Art Prison’.

”...Shouldn’t we go back and get some lighting equipment first?”

Fu Qian had already put away his gun, yet the deterrence did not reduce even a bit.

Brother Tantou opened his mouth, successfully resisting the urge to refuse, even trying to suggest an idea.

”There’s one right next to you.”

Fu Qian just kept pointing.

...

There really is one.

Instinctively turning around, he saw that just inside the passageway, there was indeed a lamp thrown in the shadow.

There were even things to ignite it with, seemingly left by the creator.

Amazed at the other’s observation skills, at this point, he finally lost any reason for delay. Brother Tantou finally accepted the suggestion like accepting his fate and bent down to enter this strange place.

Fortunately, though initially extremely narrow, after walking a few steps it suddenly opened up.

In the blink of an eye, the inside of the passage was wide enough for a person to stand and walk upright, and although the lamp in his hand was dim, it was sufficient to light the path beneath his feet.

”...What exactly are we looking for?”

Of course, this doesn’t mean it was not oppressive, especially since it differed from the expected tunnel, completely able to discover the sense of going all the way down, feeling increasingly far from the ground.

Soon, this discomfort brought on by this led Brother Tantou to suppress the urge to confirm something.

”Find whatever there is.”

Unfortunately, Fu Qian did respond quickly, but the answer was so open-ended, bringing only a surge of confusion.

Soon, the two found themselves one behind the other, already at a depth almost as if they could mine underground water, yet the passage seemingly had not ended.

Not only that, branch paths even started to appear.

”Really looks like tree roots, but how could it...”

Stopping at a certain moment to look at the fork ahead, Brother Tantou seemed to have lost the courage to advance.

On the journey, there were definitely traces of human activity, yet undeniably the primal wild feeling was stronger.

And now in front of them, the angle between the two forked paths was even irregular, although they were even equipped with vermilion doors, they still bore a striking resemblance to forked tree roots.

It is indeed interesting...

Up until now, neither missing persons nor Yiven had been seen, but that didn’t mean there were no gains.

At least, such a scene was something most people had not seen.

This time Fu Qian did not urge, instead stepping past Brother Tantou himself and directly choosing one of the paths.

Male overcoat suggests the physique should be somewhat thin.

The next moment, he squatted down and picked something up from behind the door.

It still looked quite new, with not much dirt rubbed on it, but it was thrown in a spot that was not easily noticeable.

Moreover, the style was a bit youthful, indicating a smaller chance of belonging to that artist.

A fourteen-year-old boy came here? This possibility indeed seemed bigger—click!

And amidst this scrutiny, another sound unexpectedly came, even from behind.

Accompanied by the sudden extinguishing of light.

”Hahaha... You’ll just have to find out what’s down here yourself.”

Along with a familiar laugh.

”Friendly reminder, I won’t be calling the police, and you can’t be heard shouting from down here. Hope you’re satisfied with this fun.”

...

The door was locked.

There was no doubt it belonged to Brother Tantou’s voice, and when Fu Qian turned around, he easily discovered a strip of light revealed from beneath the vermilion wooden door.

The lamp had not been extinguished, just during his own inspection of findings, he had been locked behind here.

The entire process was silent, and the door appeared quite solid.

Most importantly, before the light disappeared, Fu Qian could see clearly, the door was locked from the opposite side.

Brother Tantou chose a very opportune moment, setting things right for the villain once and for all.

If not planning to use the somewhat weak police gunfire, attempting to break through and destroy the lock in the dark, it appeared he could only consider following the path to find a way out, still with the absence of light.

”So, do you have the key to this place?”

Seemingly trapped in a bad situation, Fu Qian wasn’t very angry, merely confirming through the strip of flashing light.

The lock wasn’t just installed on the other side, it obviously needed a key to lock, while there was clearly nothing empty above earlier.

”Yes... so what?”

His reaction seemed not very satisfying to the other, Brother Tantou hesitated a moment, the light indeed did not rush away.

”How did you get it?”

Fu Qian’s tone remained calm, even guided and encouraged.

”Why should I tell you?”

And at this moment Brother Tantou seemed to finally realize something, acknowledging he was no longer under threat.

”In short—”

Bam!

Unfortunately, his supplementary explanation was interrupted by a loud noise in the next moment.

”Sounds from below can’t be heard above.”

Shooting at the door, Fu Qian repeated a phrase from earlier while watching the swaying light.

...

Though it didn’t go out, the lamp undoubtedly fell on the ground. Based on the changes in light and dark, it was easy to affirm this.

And earlier, relying on such a judgment, combined with sound location in two dimensions, he locked onto Brother Tantou’s head within an acceptable error range.

From the sound of collapsing post-gunshot, the error was also completely bearable, only—

”You... this lunatic, you actually dare to shoot.”

Just seconds later, Brother Tantou’s somewhat indistinct voice surprisingly resumed, even able to hear thick disbelief within it.

Of course, such emotional expressions didn’t have much content. The key was the change in voice height almost made it possible to imagine the process of him slowly crawling up from the ground step by step.

Still shaky.