Chapter 21

1

"The entrance should be here, at Number 10." Guffy looked around the cliff edge, the only place she remembered from the book fragments she had kept over the past thirty years. Everywhere else was unfamiliar to her.

We stood on the desert ground, looking around, and true to her words, there was not a single blade of grass, nor any small animals. I wondered what these monsters survived on, or perhaps they had devoured every living creature that had entered this place.

"I remember it was under a big rock, but we didn't cover it back then. It's possible that over the past thirty years, the sand has slowly filled it up," Guffy searched along the cliff edge for a long time, but still couldn't find the entrance.

"Sand is fluid, if we dig, it might get blocked from the inside." I reached into the slit on the side of the motorcycle and used particles to form a shovel. I pushed the shovel into the sand pile, and the particles continued to spread out from the motorcycle, attaching themselves to the shovel, extending it for about a meter. I exerted force and lifted the shovel, causing a gust of wind and sand. A large rock was picked up from the ground.

As soon as the rock was lifted, the sand beneath my feet collapsed. After a while, the sand stabilized, and from the collapsed area, I saw the entrance.

"Guffy, I remember you said there was a magic formation at the entrance?"

"Forget it, I already broke that weak magic formation!" Guffy sat on the motorcycle from a distance, showing no intention of coming down to confirm the entrance.

"Qin Yang, stand at the entrance and take a photo."

"Sure!"

Zi Sirou held the camera and stood in front of me, instructing me to pose.

"How should I stand?"

"Turn your back to me and squat at the entrance."

After I followed her instructions, I looked at the deep hole below and asked, "Is this pose too vulgar?"

"It's fine." Just as I heard her response, Zi Sirou kicked me and I fell down into the hole.

"Hey, how deep is it down there, you idiot? You called for a handsome pose and now I'm covered in sand!"

Zi Sirou brushed the sand off her clothes. While she hadn't managed to dodge the collapse, she ended up falling.

"Goodbye!" Guffy waved at Zi Sirou, but before she could react, a silver chain entangled around her waist, instantly pulling her underground.

Below the ground, I had half of my body stuck in the sand pile, holding onto the chain, watching Zi Sirou falling from above. I reached out and caught her in my hands.

"If you wanted to come in this way, you should have just said so!" I held Zi Sirou with both hands, looking at her wide-eyed, staring straight ahead, breathing heavily.

"You... you idiot, do you know how scary you were! You could have scared someone to death!" Zi Sirou snapped out of it and frantically messed up her own hair.

"Let's go, it seems like you don't need a comb."

After putting Zi Sirou back on the ground, I pulled my legs out of the sand pile. Despite Guffy's earlier statement that there were no torches, it was bright in this place.

"Why are you carrying a long sword on your back?" Sijimu looked at the silver long sword behind me.

"When you pushed me down, the particles didn't have time to retract. My ring couldn't contain so many particles, so I solidified them into a long sword. Look how cool it is, I even have two short swords at my waist."

"Did the Headmaster give you a map again?"

I took out a piece of paper from my pocket. It was indeed the map Guffy had given me. However, if what Guffy said about the pyramid being changeable was true, then the map might not be reliable.

Five minutes later, I realized the map matched the path exactly, not a single detail was wrong. I saw the words on the wall, they were indeed the same as Guffy had described, telling the story of the three individuals just as Guffy had remembered. It confirmed that this place didn't change. Guffy's intuition back then about Marutian Matur seemed to have some suspicions of deception, but his enthusiasm for adventure was truly genuine.

"Qin Yang, come over here," Zi Sirou whispered.

I leaned next to Zi Sirou, hiding in the corner against the wall, where there was a spacious passage. The voices of people could be clearly heard from around the corner.

"Is someone there?"

"No," Zi Sirou took out her camera, and she rotated the lens. The lens spun and split into three sections, slowly approaching the source of the voices from the ground and above the corridor.

"This is..."

"A hovering lens, a combination of spy kit, and I'm only missing eighteen lenses."

"I finally understand why I always get captured wherever I go."

The journalist's kit should have more than just these.

Images appeared from Zi Sirou's camera, and she projected them onto the wall. Three lenses clearly showed the figures in the images.

"Three... Anubis statues?"

One of the Anubis statues in the image said:

"Don't speak, listen to what they are saying."

"Two threes."

"Three fives."

"Four eights, bomb, do you have any more?"

"No, you go ahead."

"Double kings, a pair of straight, last card, what about you?"

"Ah, I don't have anymore."

"One Q, the landlord finally takes the lead, haha."

These images left me dumbfounded.

"Anubis statues play Landlord? Are you kidding me?" These divine image guardians are just creations made by humans themselves, like writing programs. Although it's not difficult to make a guardian that can play Landlord, is it necessary for them to be able to play Landlord according to common sense? Their main job should be guarding this place. The strangest thing is that they can talk; it's rare for guardians to start speaking after guarding for a long time.

"It seems like they're having fun." Zi Sirou seemed to be seriously watching the Anubis statues play Landlord.

"Just a few rounds, and it's considered fun? Can you play?"

"For me, anyone who can play Landlord plays well."

More voices came from the images:

"We've played over two hundred rounds, isn't it time to stop playing Landlord? I've lost more than half of my fangs."

"What else can we play, Bridge?"

"There aren't enough people for Bridge. How about calling the Sphinx at the entrance?"

Am I hearing it correctly? Three Anubis statues and the Sphinx are playing cards, and it's Bridge?

"We have four now, why not play Mahjong? Last time, the Sphinx cheated while playing cards with it. Even if I turn back into a statue, I won't play poker with it."

"It cheats at poker, does that mean it won't cheat at Mahjong?"

"Then what are we playing? I really want a few idiots to come and rob the tomb, it's so boring."

"Anyone who comes will first be eaten by the Four Misses outside. Besides playing cards, all we do is play cards, gamble, and chat."

One of the Anubis statues took out a box from the corner of the wall and said, "Why not find the Sphinx at the front door?"

"He says the Sphinx at the front door cheats and won't play with it."

"You guys... oh well, if it cheats you guys won't, let's see who's better at this Mahjong table!"

Suddenly, we heard the sound of four footsteps. One of Zi Sirou's lenses rotated, and a big claw appeared in front of us.

"As soon as we mentioned it, here it comes."

The big claw belonged to the Sphinx and it walked naturally, not at all like a statue.

The Sphinx saw the three Anubis statues sitting on the ground playing poker and asked in a puzzled manner, "A monster outside was killed, aren't you going to go snatch its fangs?"

"Another collision? Those monsters must be really blind." Hearing him say that, it's not the first or second time that those monsters have collided with the pyramid.

"Last time, they crashed into it and broke off a piece of stone, and it still hasn't been fixed!"

"Let's go and see if there's anything salvageable."

"You stay here and wait for us to come back and play Mahjong." The three Anubis-like figures motioned for the sphinx to stay behind, hastily grabbed their staffs, and ran out.

"They're so bored that they have to fight over a monster." Si Rou leaned against the wall and laughed.

"They don't have anything here. Normally, people who play cards like to do what? Gambling. They bet money, but since they don't have any, they bet on the teeth of the monsters. They're just entertaining themselves."

"Why do I feel like they're almost human?"

"They're like highly self-aware statues."

Zi Sirou suddenly picked up a large stone from the ground.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't you see that sphinx sitting there? One stone could knock it out cold."

"Hold on, the premise of knocking someone out is that the other person has a brain, right? Does a statue have a brain?" Usually, knocking someone out involves hitting the cerebellum or causing a concussion. A statue is just a shell, and it could be filled with cement or something else.

"I'll just smash it."

"What if it repairs itself? Let me handle it. It's a product of magic, so use magic to solve it."

I reached down by my feet and picked up a thumb-sized stone and gently tossed it near the sphinx. It immediately reacted, stood up, sniffed the scent of the stone, approached us. When it was close to us and about to turn the corner, I suddenly stuck out my head and locked eyes with it. After a few seconds, it hesitated for a moment.

"Are you two not going to divide the monster's teeth? What are you doing here?"

"We... are repairing the wall."

"It's about time this wall is repaired. It always leaks sand, and my bed is covered in it. It's uncomfortable to sleep in. If you have time, come over and help me fix it."

"Alright, we'll come over later and fix it."

"Don't forget to come!" The sphinx slowly walked back to its original position, still muttering, "These Anubis figures are voluntarily fixing the wall. They really have nothing better to do."

"Did you cast an illusion on it?"

"Yes, now, in its eyes, we appear as Anubis figures."

Watching the sphinx wag its tail and walk away, the two of us continued to follow the map. Guffy hadn't explored the entire pyramid at the beginning, so if we went the wrong way, we would have to rely on ourselves.

However, we didn't find anything suspicious in the areas Guffy had traveled. We were about to enter other areas not marked on the map.

The first thing we were looking for was the tomb chamber where Guffy had entered.

The tomb chamber that was filled with Anubis figures at the time was now empty. This place seemed to have been repaired. If everything was as terrifying and filled with molten lava as Guffy described, it's possible that this place had been sealed off with lava rock, but the reality was that it looked very neat.

In this clean and tidy tomb chamber stood out a scattered deck of cards and a pile of soil next to them. It wasn't only the three from earlier who enjoyed playing cards; the other Anubis figures were also poker players.

"Wow, his hand seems good."

"Based on the number of cards, he's the landlord, and in this round, he might go for a grand victory."

"What does that mean?"

"Siro, you'll play Landlord when we go back to play Dou Dizhu. Let's get serious and help me find and open the mechanisms one by one, following Guffy's map."

Guffy had opened over a hundred mechanisms here, first confirming if there were any changes to the mechanisms on his map, and finally opening the mechanism that Marlton had fallen into.