The sound of the mechanism turning grew louder and louder, and everyone looked up towards the sound.
They saw countless crossbows appearing on the cliffs on both sides of the valley. They didn't know when they had been placed there.
As the mechanism turned, these crossbows were slowly drawn back by the gears.
“Whoosh, whoosh!”
Countless piercing sounds followed.
Countless crossbows fired simultaneously.
Countless arrows flew madly towards the broken ship.
At the same time, a new round of drawing began. It was clearly a chain reaction mechanism.
“Retreat!”
Zhang Hai Ke's pupils constricted as he shouted.
Their reaction speed was very strong, even if the other party had a gun.
As long as they could judge the direction of the gun barrel and the opponent's action of pulling the trigger, they could dodge the bullets accurately.
But now, these arrows were as dense as a rainstorm, and even with their best reaction speed, they couldn't dodge them all.
“Clang, clang!”
However, it was almost impossible for them to escape now.
Zhang Bei drew his weapons, a knife in each hand, as if he were juggling.
He frantically cut down the arrows that were shot at them.
Seeing this, the others didn't care about anything else. They hurriedly picked up weapons from the ground and began to defend themselves.
Fortunately, everyone's skills were excellent, and they easily defended against the first round of arrows.
But the rain of arrows didn't give them any time to breathe.
“The broken part!” Xiao Ge clearly understood the situation and shouted.
Now, these arrows were coming from all directions, and they had nowhere to hide.
The only place they could dodge was where the ship was broken.
The group of people ran to the broken part in a flurry.
Zhang Nian and Zhang Jiu Ri fell directly from above.
Zhang Bei and Xiao Ge, after resisting a round, jumped down with them.
“Whoosh, whoosh!”
Above their heads, the terrifying arrows launched another round.
But strangely, after they left the broken ship, the mechanism stopped automatically.
“Bang!”
After falling from the broken part of the ship, the group of people collided with the broken planks.
This ship was too old, and some of the planks were broken by the impact.
“Ouch! I'm going to die of pain.”
Zhang Nian clutched his shoulder and wailed.
Zhang Hai Xing went over to take a look and found it was only a scratch.
“A big man like you, don't be so embarrassing. It's just a scratch. What are you screaming for?”
Zhang Hai Xing said unceremoniously.
Zhang Nian was a little depressed. He was really in pain.
“It should be a balancing mechanism. The mechanism automatically reset after we left.” Xiao Ge said.
Zhang Bei said, “Let's not talk about it now, what should we do?”
“Wait! Look, there's a hole under the ship.” At this moment, Zhang Jiu Ri suddenly said.
It turned out that after Zhang Jiu Ri helped Zhang Nian up, he discovered that the place where Zhang Nian hit was actually empty.
He shone the lantern down, but couldn't see anything, and it looked very deep.
“Torch!” Zhang Hai Ke immediately said.
Zhang Hai Xing nodded and was about to light the torch with her mouth, but Xiao Ge stopped her.
“Don't do anything rash. The smell down there is wrong. It's like gunpowder.” Xiao Ge said.
Everyone was startled. If one of them lit the torch, it could easily cause an explosion.
They might not even have a chance to escape.
“I'll go down first.” Zhang Bei said.
As he spoke, Zhang Bei immediately expanded the hole.
Soon, a large hole appeared before them.
Zhang Bei took the lantern from Zhang Hai Xing's hands. The lantern was a type of lamp commonly used by ships at sea.
It was almost completely sealed, but there were also special vents.
It could effectively prevent shaking and wind blowing.
When Zhang Bei jumped directly into the hole, he discovered that the hole was at least ten meters deep.
Because of this, Zhang Bei could only use the walls of the hole as a foothold to cushion the impact of his descent.
“You'll need a rope to get down.” Zhang Bei reminded them after he landed.
Ten meters high, an ordinary person would either die or be crippled if they fell from that height.
Even though they were all members of the Zhang family, each with excellent jumping skills, it wasn't easy to fall from that height.
“Is there a path below?” Zhang Hai Xing asked.
Zhang Bei nodded and shouted, “There's a path!”
Hearing this, the others didn't hesitate any longer. They immediately lowered the rope and came down from above.
At the bottom of the hole, there were many boxes scattered around, some of which were already rotten beyond recognition.
Some books had turned to dust. The place was relatively damp.
Many things couldn't be preserved for long. Zhang Bei felt a little regretful looking at all this.
He hadn't had time to look at those secret manuals before.
He had been hoping to find some useful secret manuals, maybe they would be helpful in the future.
But who knew that he would trigger the mechanism. Now, he only had one book, the Mighty Vajra Palm.
“This place is very deep. Everyone be careful.” Xiao Ge reminded them.
Earlier, Xiao Ge had said that there was the smell of gunpowder, so everyone was using lanterns.
Those who didn't have lanterns dared not light a fire. Who knows where it might ignite?
If they accidentally ignited the gunpowder, they would all be finished.
The bottom of the hole was an underground passage that looked like it had been dug by humans.
Combined with the scattered boxes, it was likely that someone had dug this passage specifically.
The broken ship on top was probably just a decoy. So the Heavenly Staff was most likely here.
They slowly walked along the passage towards the depths, discovering boxes everywhere.
“The path is blocked.”
However, the passage wasn't very long, and it was blocked by several boxes at the end.
Xiao Ge walked over, inserted two fingers into the box, and pulled it with force. The box was pulled out.
Zhang Bei went over to take a look at the scattered boxes. Inside was only an ancient book, not a secret manual.
After kicking the remaining boxes over, the group walked through the door.
As soon as they entered, they froze. It was a small hole inside.
There was an exit in the hole, but what was strange was.
There were several corpses in the hole, and they had already turned into skeletons.
The key was that the skeletons were in strange positions.
They were all lying on top of boxes, their hands still in a pushing position.
It looked like they were trying to block the exit.
“These skeletons are wrong! There's not a single dry corpse.” Zhang Hai Ke said.
Zhang Nian said, “This place is so damp, maybe that's why?”
“That shouldn't be the case.” Zhang Hai Ke frowned, but didn't say anything.
He always felt that these skeletons were strange.
“It's the posture that's wrong. It looks like they're trying to block the hole, and it's certain that they were consciously trying to block the hole.”
Zhang Jiu Ri looked at the skeletons and spoke his thoughts.
“Also, this place seems even colder.” Zhang Hai Xing said.
They had already felt cold when they came to the valley.
They didn't expect it to be even colder here, which was suspicious.
“These are all our ancestors from the Zhang family. They must have blocked the hole for a reason.” Zhang Hai Ke said.
Zhang Bei spoke.
“We still need to act quickly.” Zhang Nian said.
Xiao Ge turned and looked at the other three holes, then said, “Let's split up.”
Everyone nodded, and immediately separated into pairs and walked towards the three holes.
……