Reborn As Super Heiress

Capítulo 1572: Chapter 1556: No Way Back!

At this moment, staring at the two parallel caves on the path, everyone felt as if they had been doused with cold water, suddenly enlightened, staring at these two openings in bewilderment.

Due to habitual thinking, they hadn’t looked back at the tunnel they came from, missing this small but crucial detail. Now, they were forced to face this severe and fatal problem.

Why was there an extra path? They entered through the left entrance, but when they exited the corridor, which side did they come out from? The left or the right?

They had walked so far and entered so many twin corridors; does this mean they had been wandering in this underground maze for hours like headless flies?

Upon entering the tunnel, everyone was cautious about the surroundings. After the lesson with the crossbow trap when they first entered the mountain, everyone was fearful of triggering something, thus remained vigilant.

But after entering the corridor, they did not encounter a single trap, so they never considered the twin corridor as dangerous, and forgot to look back.

No one noticed that after they walked out of one cave, another entrance appeared beside the underground opening!

Two identical entrances aligned parallel, appearing indistinguishable. Looking back, no one noticed which exit they actually came from; could it have been the right one?

Fujiwara Seiho understood perfectly well by now. This underground maze was the crowning achievement of the designer, with the trap at the entrance and even the poison arrow formation merely serving to confuse and divert their attention.

Because they focused on these mechanisms, they made a fatal oversight during their advance, leading to their complete disorientation.

Several flashlights shone on the forks in the road, the two dark cave mouths appearing to deride their overconfidence.

The flashlight beams were so bright, yet couldn’t illuminate the way they came.

Oil Rat felt uneasy, recalling the recent phone call from Gao Yuyuan, promising him double the commission, filling him with joy. Yet now, lost in this underground corridor, Oil Rat was overwhelmed with regret, wishing he had never received that call from Gao Yuyuan. In his decades-long tomb-raiding career, he had never been this panicked.

Everyone exchanged glances, unsure of what to do.

They had never considered this layer of problem, blindly moving forward, only now realizing the severity upon turning back.

Two indistinguishable underground openings, with both looking like the one they just walked out of.

“Mr. Gao.” Oil Rat’s voice was hoarse, his tone dry, “What should we do now?”

This was a pressing issue. Oil Rat was only here to scout for Fujiwara Seiho and hadn’t planned to gamble everything like Fujiwara Seiho. He never expected to encounter such a situation.

Gao Yuyuan was dumbfounded too. They brought many weapons and ammunition but not enough food to sustain themselves.

If they didn’t find an exit soon, the little food they carried wouldn’t be enough for all in this underground maze filled with stone walls and sand. They might starve to death within these tunnels!

“Master, maybe we should keep trying the right side? Perhaps we came out from the right side earlier, what do you think?”

Gao Yuyuan couldn’t think of any better ideas, and after a long pause, he proposed this suggestion.

He was at his wit’s end, clinging to a last hope to find the way back by following the previous direction.

Fujiwara Seiho didn’t have any better ideas either, lacking even the energy to be forceful, and too tired to threaten Oil Rat and Long Shan Zhang, silently following Gao Yuyuan toward the right entrance.

Oil Rat and Long Shan Zhang exchanged a glance, hesitated for a moment, then gritted their teeth and tightly followed.

This time, they picked up their pace, choosing the right path each time they encountered a fork. Gao Yuyuan marked their way while silently counting.

But the more they walked, the more frightened they became.

After walking for half an hour, they finally realized something.

These forked corridors weren’t all the same; some were wide, some narrow, sometimes inexplicably indented, sometimes slightly inclined, or winding.

Seeing these features alarmed not only Gao Yuyuan but also confused Oil Rat.

As a tomb-raiding expert, particularly good at digging tunnels, Oil Rat understood the design principle of this underground palace upon seeing these corridor features.

The owner of this underground palace used the subtle angles of these corridors to design a circular maze. They had been ignoring these minute details, assuming they had been heading north.

In reality, they had been circling within this maze for hours without exiting the mountain!

This was a terrifying design of an underground palace; they believed they had been walking in a single passage without noticing the extra corridor opening behind them.

If any one of them had looked back and noticed this discrepancy, marked their entry when they entered the caves, returning to the original entrance mechanism wouldn’t be difficult now.

But this seemingly simple wish had turned into an incredibly arduous task for them.

After another half hour of walking, they finally stopped, abandoning Gao Yuyuan’s suggestion of continuously taking the right corridors.

“Oil Rat, look again, which path should we take?”

This time, Fujiwara Seiho no longer spoke with the previous authoritative and cold emphasis; his voice was tense, almost pleading when looking at Oil Rat, clearly lowering his stature, ready to compromise.

Gao Yuyuan also realized the seriousness of their situation, grimly understanding the unpromising predicament they were in.

Slowly approaching the cave entrance, Gao Yuyuan felt bitterness in his mouth and a looming sense of impending doom, realizing they had probably sealed their fate. Having backtracked for so long without spotting the exit, they had been thoroughly lost!