The next few days were very similar, with a lot of fighting and doing their best to stay alive.
Every day, their team faced a few beasts, which thankfully were not as sturdy as the Thunder Boar, but every one of them presented a different kind of danger.
Unfortunately, they also found many corpses on their way, and the deeper into the misty ruins they wandered, the more often they encountered some unlucky team or single cultivators, few of whom were even from the upper realms.
-I'm starting to feel like an undertaker.
Ling Li commented when they finished burying the newest batch of corpses they found.
Not that she didn't appreciate all the stuff they got from carrying out the Mercy and Burial custom, but it was starting to get to her, after they buried more than a dozen teams already.
-You are not the only one, princess.
Paul said, not any happier about this whole thing.
-But considering that these corpses helped us avoid ambushes at least half a dozen times, it is the least we can do.
On the other hand, I'm more worried that we were unable to find anything other than a few herbs, beasts, and corpses.
According to the books you lent me, we should be able to locate at least one entrance to the dungeons or treasuries within two or three days, yet we have been here for almost a week, and we have found none.
He changed the topic.
-Well, there were a few times when the teams found no entrances on the outskirts of the ruins, but we should not be too far from the inner part, and according to the reports, there are always some entrances there.
Cai Mei joined the conversation.
-Let's hope that this is the case, because we are definitely not going to the core area.
Paul stated.
All the ladies remembered that he didn't want to go to the core area, which was many times more dangerous than even the inner part of the ruins.
-We can also look on the brighter side of things.
Yan joined the conversation.
-Thanks to the custom, we all gained a lot, and at the very least, we won't go back empty-handed.
-That's true, but we didn't come here to bury people and take their belongings.
Ling Li responded.
-The princess is right.
Paul agreed with her.
-Now, since we are done here, let's move out.
He added and started walking again, and the ladies followed him.
However, they didn't even cover a hundred meters when the ground underneath them suddenly vanished, and before they could even react, all six of them fell into something that looked like a stone shaft, wide enough that they had nothing to catch as they fell.
Luckily for them, the shaft was not that deep, only about twelve meters.
However, what awaited them at the bottom was not anything pleasant, as the floor was made from stone, and all of them landed with a loud thud and the sound of breaking bones in two cases.
Paul landed on his back, and the force of impact pushed all the air from his lungs.
Additionally, he could have sworn that he heard his bones cracking, but right now he was too busy trying to catch a breath to worry about it.
The ladies were no better; all of them now groaning in pain.
As soon as he caught his breath, Paul immediately diagnosed himself to see how bad his state was.
Luckily, he was not badly injured, and it took around five minutes for him to deal with his injuries before he rushed to help the ladies.
The princess was the first in line, and she was not as lucky.
She landed on her side, breaking her arm and a few ribs in the process, along with some minor contusions.
Not wasting time, Paul reset the bones and reconnected them on the spot.
-Stay here and try not to move too much.
He instructed her and went to help the rest of the team
Luckily, the only other team member with broken bones was Rong, who had the bad luck of serving as a landing pillow for Cai Xuan.
The rest of the ladies suffered some injuries, but it was nothing he could not take care of on the spot.
Only then did they all relax a bit and start to look around.
-Next time you want to find a hidden room, dungeon, or whatever, try to find one with stairs.
Cai Xuan said as she got back to her feet.
-Hey, it's not like I wanted to fall into this place.
Paul defended himself.
-We are not getting out of here the same way we came in, that's for sure.
Cai Mei stated, looking up, at the resealed shaft they just fell through.
-Luckily, it seems that there is another room next to this one.
Yan said, pointing at the passage on the far side of the room they were in.
-Since it's our only way out, let's go.
The princess said, and they all went to see what was waiting for them in the next room.
The passage turned out to be a narrow corridor, barely wide enough to fit one person, and so long that they didn't see the end from the entrance.
It took them another half an hour to get to the next room, and during all this time, they didn't find anything.
No notes, no clues, not even a chipped stone on the floor.
However, the moment they entered the next room, they found something, and it was not a sight any of them wanted to see.
-What the heck happened here?
Ling Li asked, entering right after Paul.
The room they entered was as big as a football stadium, and everywhere on the floor, there were skeletons.
-If I'm not mistaken, they all committed suicide.
Paul said, while assessing the nearest skeleton, which still held a dagger in its bony hand.
-The question is, why did they take their lives?
Cai Mei asked, assessing another body.
-Let's look around, maybe we will find out.
The princess said, walking around and looking at the hundreds of skeletons filling the room, and the rest of the team did the same.
-There is nothing, not even a breadcrumb, left.
Ling Li stated that after looking through all the storage rings they found so far, and it was only a few dozen of them.
Her team also looked into every spatial device they found, and the results were the same.
They found a lot of money, clothing, weapons, and other things, but there was nothing that could be eaten in any of them, nor was there any water.
-Just how long were they trapped in here?
Cai Xuan asked, wondering how long it would take for a cultivator of their level to choose suicide over starving to death.
-The better question is, why didn't they try to leave?
Paul asked, pointing at a door on the far side of the room.
The door looked like they were made from some kind of metal, and they were quite large and locked by a strange mechanism, which looked like an ancient version of a combination lock.
Next to the door was a text engraved on the wall.
-Now we know why they didn't leave.
Ling Li said, pointing at a slate above the door and a pile of skeletal hands beneath it.
-It looks like you need to enter the right combination to leave this place, and if you make a mistake, you lose your hand.
The princess stated the obvious.
-And I think this is the riddle that holds the combination.
Cai Mei pointed at the wall, where some symbols she had never seen before were engraved, along with a few lines of text, but she had never seen such language.
-Forgive me, you who fell into this trial room, for my freedom's price is your suffering.
However, if you are from my country, then you may leave this place after you solve all ten equations.
Each result is a part of the code, and they should be entered from top to bottom.
If you make a mistake, the blade from above will take your hand as punishment.
Paul read and translated the text, shocking all the ladies.
-You…
You know this language??
Cai Mei asked once Paul finished reading.
-Yes, it's my native language.
Paul confirmed, only now realizing that the language of this world was something he learned when he was sent here, as did everyone else from Earth, and the same could be said about reading and writing.
However, even if they used the language from the cultivation world, they never forgot their native languages, which came in handy at this moment.
-So do you know how to solve these ten equations?
The princess asked, hoping that this would be the case, as she didn't want to stay trapped in here until her only choice was to kill herself or starve to death.