Chapter 62: The Formation of Bricks

"Is everything ready?"
Seeing the two nod, Ye Pei smiled faintly, extended the tip of his spear, and gently tapped the first two-foot-square floor tile, inscribed with the character for "Jue."
With a loud "bang," the tile split open down the middle, revealing a dark pit more than ten feet deep, with two sharp blades crossing and slashing wildly within.
Ye Pei glanced at the other two without speaking, then moved his spear past the "Jue" tile to tap the adjacent tile, marked "Ling."
As the tile was struck, a strange sound, reminiscent of a discordant zither, began to echo through the tomb chamber. The melody was anything but pleasant—harsh and jarring to the ear.
"If that's the mechanism for the 'Ling' tile..." Chen Mo rubbed his nose. "It's certainly unique."
Ye Pei replied, "This 'Ling' tile should be safe now. I'll go ahead and test the others."
Stepping onto the "Ling" tile, Ye Pei paused to think, then reached out with his spear to probe another "Ling" tile, two tiles away diagonally.
Immediately, another discordant zither passage sounded—no less grating than the previous one.
"In that case, each tile might correspond to a different trap," Huang Jifeng quickly remarked.
Chen Mo said, "Not necessarily. Don't forget, there's no pattern to this ancient tomb. We need to wait until Brother Ye has tested each type of tile more than twice before we can be sixty percent sure that each trap matches a tile one-to-one."
Ye Pei agreed, "Indeed, we can't be certain that what I've found is the rule of this floor. I'll go ahead; you can step on the 'Ling' tiles I've walked over."
After nearly half an hour of persistent effort, Ye Pei had more or less figured out the pattern of the traps here—though he couldn't be absolutely sure, he was at least fairly confident.
Of the other two kinds, striking a "Yu" tile would cause a dozen steel spikes to shoot up from beneath, enough to shred one's feet to ribbons; while stepping on a "Yu" (Rain) tile, fittingly, would unleash a barrage of arrows from the side.
As they proceeded, Ye Pei tested nearly twenty tiles and felt that, more or less, it was safe to follow this rule. However, he seemed to have forgotten the tomb owner's penchant for mischief.
When avoiding the spikes from a "Yu" tile, Ye Pei instinctively used a pole-vaulting motion to land on a nearby "Ling" tile—after all, a burst of noise was no big deal.
Faced with the next "Yu" tile, Ye Pei did the same, but something unexpected happened.
As he examined the "Yu" character, something seemed off, but it was indeed the character for "Yu." He braced himself with his spear and leapt forward, but just as he reached midair—his momentum spent and new force yet to come—the tile below suddenly split open, and, caught off guard, Ye Pei fell straight down.
This sudden turn startled Huang Jifeng and Chen Mo behind him, who cried out, but with the tiles ahead all booby-trapped, they dared not rush to the rescue.
Ye Pei reacted instantly as he began to fall, swinging his spear sideways to brace himself between a "Ling" tile and a "Yu" tile.
As he dropped into the pit, he finally saw why the "Yu" character had felt wrong—it was marred by two faint scratches, and in the lower right corner, a small, neat "Jue" character had been added.
With the "Ling" tile's cacophony and the whistle of arrows from the "Yu" tile, a thousand curses rushed through Ye Pei's mind. He suddenly remembered the two blades waiting for him at the bottom...
Thinking quickly, Ye Pei pulled himself up with all his strength, narrowly dodging the blades, then scrambled out and landed on the "Ling" tile.

"Let me say it again," Ye Pei spat out venomously once he'd steadied himself, "If I ever meet the owner of this tomb, I swear I'll skin him alive—a hundred times!"
Chen Mo asked in confusion, "Brother Ye, does this mean all our probing was for nothing? The trap didn't match the tile at all."
Ye Pei replied angrily, "No, there is a pattern. Just now... the 'Yu' tile had been lightly scratched and altered with a small 'Jue' character."
Chen Mo fell silent, realizing his hopes of quickly understanding the tomb owner's thinking were hopelessly naive.
Thus, even though the three had more or less figured out the rules, they proceeded with even greater caution, wary of falling into another of the tomb owner's snares.
The corridor was not long—just over thirty feet—but it took them two full hours to cross, though fortunately, none of them was harmed.
At last, they reached the final tile, and ahead lay the steps to the circular platform. Ye Pei let out a long breath and leapt lightly onto the first step.
"Be careful, Brother Ye!" Chen Mo called out anxiously from behind, fearing a trap.
Ye Pei turned and smiled, "It's fine, just look at the tile I just stepped on."
Chen Mo looked closely—the penultimate tile had no trace of the four special characters, but rather a different inscription:
"The first step is trap-free."
While he read, Ye Pei added, "For all his tricks, the tomb owner hasn't lied in any of these inscriptions so far."
Chen Mo couldn't help but laugh, stepping towards the first stair without noticing that Ye Pei had leapt over the final tile altogether...
No sooner had Chen Mo set foot on that last tile than the hidden mechanisms in the stone walls activated with a mechanical clatter, and a hail of arrows shot toward him.
"Damn—!" Ye Pei cursed incoherently in the heat of the moment, and as the arrows flew, he thrust his spear between Chen Mo's legs, flipping him up onto the steps. Despite Ye Pei's quick reflexes, one of the arrows still lodged in Chen Mo's arm.
Huang Jifeng quickly jumped to join them.
When they saw the arrow, Ye Pei and Huang Jifeng's faces darkened. They'd previously examined one of these arrows and knew it to be tipped with deadly poison.
Now, Chen Mo lay on the ground, one uninjured hand clutching the spot where Ye Pei's spear had struck him, the other gripping his wounded arm, wailing in misery—utterly disheveled.
Ye Pei's eyes flickered, and his spear transformed into a blade as he approached Chen Mo. "I'm only trying to save your life. Please don't blame me."
Chen Mo watched Ye Pei crouch beside him, voice trembling, "What are you going to do?"
Ye Pei raised the black blade. "Now, only the sacrifice of your arm can save you."
Chen Mo's face fell, but he understood that if the poison was not removed, he would die for certain in this place, with no antidote at hand.
He closed his eyes, body trembling, accepting his fate.

Off to the side, Huang Jifeng couldn't bear to watch—they had known each other for six or seven years. Powerless to help, he turned away.
Ye Pei took a deep breath and shouted, and Chen Mo squeezed his eyes tighter, so tense that he felt pain at his shoulder even before the blade touched him—a sensation familiar to all who've ever waited for an expected blow, the anticipation sending pain signals before any real impact.
Time dragged on, but the imagined chill of steel and the rush of blood never came. Chen Mo grew anxious, "Brother Ye! Just do it! Don't drag it out!"
Still, the blade did not fall. Desperate, Chen Mo opened his eyes, ready to urge Ye Pei to get it over with—only to see Ye Pei looking past him with an odd mix of annoyance and amusement.
Puzzled, Chen Mo turned to look, and once again saw that familiar, bold script on the floor...
"In fact, the last tile should have had the 'Rain' character, but I forgot. As compensation, the arrows from the last tile are not poisoned. Please enjoy at your leisure."
Chen Mo didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Because there was no inscription, he had been shot, but now he learned the arrows carried no poison. Such are the cruel twists of fate.

Let us return to the still-wandering young miss.
"Sir, that will be five copper coins."
The young miss, apron tied around her waist, timidly addressed a burly man in a conical hat.
The man downed his bowl of wine in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and handed five coins to Ye Feilan with a smile. "Little girl, why aren't you at home at your age? Why are you out working?"
She forced an awkward smile. "Oh, it's nothing, really..."
The man didn't press further, laughing as he mounted his horse and rode away.
In the distance, Ni Manxiu and San Hu sat in a tree, watching the little tavern at the village edge, gnawing on roasted meat. (And don't tell me tigers can't climb trees.)
"You see," Ni Manxiu said, mouth full, "people really have untapped potential."
San Hu replied, "Mm... She's eating brown rice every day down there, but here you are, feasting on roast meat."
"Hah!" Ni Manxiu tossed aside a bone. "I hunted this with my own skill. What's the problem?"
San Hu sighed, "Weren't you trying to court that girl?"
Ni Manxiu replied, "It's too soon. She has solved her food problem and isn't in any danger. No need for us to show ourselves. Besides, she's new here and still dirty—you can't even tell what she looks like. I hear there's a local bully in this village. When she's cleaned up and the bully comes to cause trouble, that's when we'll step in."
After a pause, Ni Manxiu added, "And rid the people of a scourge while we're at it."