Chapter 128: Mechanism

Chapter 128: Chapter 128: Mechanism

"Sister Lin, it’s time to rest." Feng He spread some clothes on the sand and called out when she saw Lin Jingjing still staring at the large rock not far away.

Just then, Shi Feng woke up. He looked around and asked, "Where are we?"

"The desert. Go back to sleep." Gu Kaiwen raised a hand and pushed his head back down.

Lin Jingjing walked over, handing them some Nutrient Liquid. "I’m just curious," she said. "After all, this rock formation looks a lot like a stone arch."

"What are you talking about? You’d never find something like that in a huge desert like this." Feng He glanced up, skeptical.

"You think it could be a marker for treasure?" Shi Feng was wide awake now, no longer sleepy or groggy.

"Usually, it’s some ancient kingdom that lived in the desert and got swallowed by the sands. Or it’s the tomb of some super-powerful person, with tons of burial offerings."

"You and your imagination." Lin Jingjing laughed. It suddenly reminded her of a movie she’d seen when she was younger, where they’d hollowed out a massive underground laboratory beneath the desert just to research a zombie virus.

"Maybe it’s a lab for researching mutant beasts," Lin Jingjing said as she lay down. Even though she was in the shade, the heat radiating up from the sand was unbearable.

"Don’t just say things like that." Feng He glanced up at her. "You’ll jinx us."

"If your words come true, we’ll be totally toast."

"If my rambling can come true, it just goes to show how unlucky we are." Lin Jingjing was completely unconcerned. "Besides, it’s not like those kinds of labs are everywhere, right?"

"What happened at the park was just an accident," Lin Jingjing remarked with a sigh.

Shi Feng sat up and leaned back against the rock, grabbing a nearby Nutrient Liquid and starting to drink.

When he finished, he tossed the bottle aside. It was biodegradable.

"We just happened to run into that ’accident’?" Shi Feng said. "Some fantastic luck we have."

As he spoke, he shifted his position and leaned back heavily again. A loud "CRACK" echoed out.

Shi Feng froze. The two men sitting beside him shot daggers at him with their eyes.

Lin Jingjing, who was a short distance away, looked over as well, a frightened expression on her face. "What did you do?!" she asked.

"I... I don’t know!" Shi Feng was terrified now, too.

In the next instant, the ground where they were lying gave way, and they all plunged downward.

The surrounding sand cascaded into the dark hole. After being open for barely half a minute, the hole slowly began to close.

Soon, the sand filled it in completely.

"AHHHHHHHH—"

"HELP!"

They were still plummeting. As they fell, Lin Jingjing released a ball of light, but its glow wasn’t enough to reveal what lay below.

"Why is there a trap here?! Why is there a hole?!"

"Sister Lin, you and your big mouth! Don’t you dare say another word next time!"

"And Shi Feng, you’re the biggest jinx of all!"

They continued to fall. ’How is this pit so deep?’

Lin Jingjing hastily summoned several eagles, which immediately swooped in to catch the group on their backs.

Lying on the eagles’ backs, they let out a deep sigh of relief. "Phew... phew..." Shi Feng exhaled repeatedly, patting his chest to calm his terrified heart.

"Shi Feng, you jinx!" Feng He was about to lose her mind. They had been resting perfectly fine, and then this guy wakes up and gets them all thrown in here.

"You can’t blame me for this!" Shi Feng protested, feeling wronged. "I was just leaning against it!"

"Last time was your fault too, you jinx!" Feng He was furious. She really didn’t want to get involved in these kinds of shady, life-threatening messes.

Shi Feng knelt on the eagle’s back, clasping his hands together and shouting to Feng He on the opposite eagle, "I was wrong! Please forgive me, Sister Feng!"

"I’m a jinx! Please forgive me!" Shi Feng cried out pitifully.

Feng He wasn’t truly trying to blame Shi Feng. It was just a matter of probability. But since he was the one to trigger it every single time, she was still pretty mad.

Lin Jingjing was chuckling to herself off to the side. ’Good thing I only jinx things with my words and don’t have Shi Feng’s physically unlucky constitution.’

The eagles continued their descent, only reaching the ground after more than ten minutes of flying.

They dismounted from the eagles and stepped onto sand. Looking around, they were silent for a moment.

All around them was sand and white skeletons. They must have been desert adventurers who, like them, had accidentally triggered the mechanism and fallen down.

A quick look around revealed a great number of skeletons. There were more skulls than could be counted on two hands.

"I’ve scouted the perimeter. There’s no way out," Gu Kaiwen said as he returned.

"Maybe there’s another mechanism," Lin Jingjing guessed.

The moment they heard the word "mechanism," they all turned their gazes to Shi Feng.

Shi Feng, who was still examining the murals on the wall, flinched when he suddenly found them all staring at him.

"What is it?" Shi Feng asked quietly, looking at them.

Lin Jingjing walked over and casually slung an arm around his shoulder. "Go on, feel around a bit. See if you can find the mechanism."

Shi Feng shook his head, refusing. "I don’t know how! I don’t know anything about this stuff."

"Just go try," Lin Jingjing urged.

In the end, with everyone watching, Shi Feng had no choice but to start randomly feeling his way along the wall.

He mumbled as he went, "I haven’t even finished looking at the murals yet."

"How could there possibly be a mechanism here..."

He felt his way along the wall, his palms getting filthy.

When he reached the end of the wall and turned around, he accidentally tripped over a white human bone. He yelped in fright and stumbled back two steps, bumping right into a stone lion.

Shi Feng hadn’t even had a chance to calm down. With his hand resting on the stone lion, he took a deep breath—only to see a black snake coiled inside a human skull. He let out a bloodcurdling scream.

The hand he had on the stone lion’s paw pushed down hard, pressing a mechanism. The wall covered in murals began to slowly swing open, and combined with his screams, the whole space became deafeningly loud.

The other four covered their ears and frowned. "What are you doing?!"

"SNAKE!" Shi Feng yelled, rushing over and grabbing onto Mo Xuan, who was closest to him.

"You really need some desensitization therapy," Lin Jingjing said dryly.

Gu Kaiwen stared at the open stone door beside them. He opened his mouth, then closed it, holding back what he was about to say. After a long moment, he finally managed a single compliment: "Of course it had to be you."

"The door’s open."

At his words, the others all looked over, then raised their hands and gave Shi Feng a thumbs-up.

’When it comes to finding traps, you really have to rely on Shi Feng.’

The viewers watching the livestream fell silent as well.

The viewers who had been clamoring that he’d never find the mechanism were speechless. They were definitely eating their words, and it stung.

[That guy’s ’jinx’ constitution is something else. He even found a mechanism that hidden. Is there anything he *can’t* find?]

[Oof, my face hurts. I just swore that if he found it, I’d eat my hat.]

[This kid’s got a few tricks up his sleeve.]

[The ’Jinx’ nickname really suits him.]