Chapter 46: Escaping White Mountain (Part 1)

"Brother?" She looked at Kun Shang with large eyes. They both got up and put their ears on the wall of the passageway. "Brother, is that you?"

"Yes," they heard faintly from the other side. "Well, sort of. It's been dark in here ever since you two left. I don't know which body part I have remaining, because two feet are following me."

"It's just me." Another voice that sounded like Chun Yi replied. "He never told me he was afraid of ghosts."

"I said I wasn't!" Silang said out loud and fast, then he returned back to the wall. "By the way, it's been completely dark over here. We also got separated from Xiaogua and Yu Yue, not that that helps, but..."

Kun Shang put his palm on the wall and focused his energy. "You should be receiving a fireball by now."

Xiu'er heard undistinguished high noises echoing through the wall before Silang suddenly chimed, "I just saw Chun Yi's real face!"

"Brother, focus! That's not important right now." Xiu'e sighed before she realized something. "Chun Yi, I'm telling you. If you do anything to hurt my brother, I will never let you off."

Kun Shang put a hand on her shoulder to calm her. He reassured her with a pair of soft eyes. They were telling her that Chun Yi wouldn't do anything as long as he's also here. In the back of his head, he was actually slightly devastated that Silang saw Chun Yi's face before he did. That was the only thing he ever wanted.

"I believe we're all in a maze," Kun Shang spoke to all of them. "Xiaogua and Yu Yue shouldn't be far off. Let's follow each other's voices until we meet."

"Brother, when I meet you, you better have food!"

That was the plan that lasted another hour with no success. They made an assumption that if they followed their voices along the wall, eventually they would meet up. However, there doesn't seem to be a meeting point where Xiu'er's passageway meets with her brother's. They did, however, manage to find Xiaogua and Yu Yue on the other side of the tunnel.

"Impossible," Kun Shang said. "How big is this maze anyways?"

"Well, we are standing inside a mountain," Silang answered the rhetorical question. For the first time, Xiu'er felt kind of bad for Chun Yi to have to spend all those hours with her annoying brother.

"Choose the most dangerous path." Kun Shang scratched his chin as he echoed, trying to figure out what that might be.

"What should we do now, Brother Kun?" Xiaogua exclaimed from the right side.

The stone wall doesn't seem to be that thick, but when Kun Shang tried to break it with a fire kick, it was impenetrable.

"I heard the stones were cemented with a design that allows air to circulate on the inside and vibrate instead of collapsing," Yu Yue commented. "If that's the case, then they'll never break."

Something quickly crossed Kun Shang's mind before he went to the right wall.

"Miss Yu, are you confident there is an exit at the base of the mountain at all?"

She said yes. There had to be because the passageway underneath the mountain was also an escape route for their sect members if ever needed. He asked her how many exits and she said one.

"If that's the case, then listen to me. Here's the plan that will possibly allow us to escape. Xiaogua is going to use his water powers to flood the entire maze with water. Once filled, the water will only have one place to get out and that is the exit at the base of the mountain."

Xiu'er nodded. Xiaogua and Yu Yue replied with an agreement.

"What did you say?" Silang yelled from the other side. Xiu'er rolled her eyes and repeated the plan to the wall on their left.

"Are you telling him to flush us out?" Silang confirmed. Kun Shang nodded his head followed by his silence.

It would be the most dangerous way and it would work. There was still another thing Kun Shang had to be mindful of so he put a hand on his chin and thought out loud.

"But Xiaogua had to do it quickly because there might be a chance of someone drowning. He'll have to put a current on the water to flush us out quickly. I wonder how far we are from the exit. If we're far, we'll have to stay underwater longer, considering the water will need some time to find the exit as well."

"The average human can hold their breath for 45 seconds," Xiu'er suddenly replied. She looked straight at his eyes. There was a hint of spark in the back of her pupils acknowledging her knowledge. "Even trained swimmers can only hold their breath up to two minutes. However, I think that if we use our qi to protect our core and slow the circulation of air in our meridians, we can hold our breath up to five minutes maximum. That includes not struggling and allow the water to travel our body at complete control. I suggest when we are fully submerged in water, we put our feet on the ceiling to protect our heads from coming into contact with anything dangerous. It's to reduce the risk of head trauma."

When she was done talking she gave him a sly smile. Everything she said was right, but strangely her face was showing something different. She was speaking the truth about safety, but it's also like she wanted it to be dangerous so she can play with fire.

He saw the trust in her eyes though, and listened to her words. Maybe being a physician runs in the Shu family. Her uncle was a physician, so perhaps she was in training to become a physician as well. Her explanation implied she knew a lot about the human body. She even helped Sher Tu correctly diagnose his father without seeing him, and she had been taking care of them whenever someone fell ill.

"But why the ceiling?" Kun Shang asked for clarification.

"Think about it. Once the tunnels are filled, we'll float to the top. If we stay upright, our heads will hit the ceiling. But if we are upside down," she tapped her head with her finger, "our heads won't hit anything."