As he fell, Su Xiao immediately threw away the broken rung he had ripped off.
At this time, if his mental quality had been lower, he would have immediately closed his eyes, but Su Xiao forcefully kept his eyes wide open, looking ahead.
Su Xiao kept his hands ahead, as soon as he felt the next rung, he immediately grabbed on.
Crack!
The rung that he managed to grab on to was bent by his weight, and his right arm was in pain from having to hold his weight.
With a thump, Su Xiao's body hit the ladder.
The crisis was over, and Su Xiao rolled his eyes. The rail he had grabbed had actually broken off. How unlucky was he?
As for that being a trap, or sabotage, Su Xiao discarded the thought, because they had not gone too deep into the underground and it was not the time where infighting might break out.
Looking down, he saw that the others had already climbed further down, maybe they had heard the sound, the four of them looked up.
No one said anything, they looked down and continued their climb.
Su Xiao did not care about their attitude. Everyone had their own purpose. It was normal for them to leave when their teammates were in trouble.
However, they would continue to cooperate for a bit longer, they needed each other's strength after all.
A long climb began. Su Xiao had soon forgotten how long he had been climbing down. Half an hour? One hour?
After a long time, the strong flashlight shone up, Takatsuki Sen had arrived at the bottom of the well.
When Su Xiao stepped on the ground, he moved his sore arms, then he took out a flashlight to observe the surroundings.
The bottom of the well was almost empty. Occasionally, they could see small piles of bones sticking out of debris. Those should be from some primitive ghouls who tried climbing up but fell down and died. After that, the top of the well was blown up, some debris dropped and buried the bones.
On the side of the well, a metal door, several meters in diameter, was visible. The metal door was rusted and had four distinct patterns in the center.
A weird fish with a fat head and a thin tail, a snake with an open mouth, an exquisite crown, and a row of English letters: CCE.
Four patterns were carved into the center of the door. Su Xiao went closer and noticed that the four patterns could be moved, there were dozens of small slides under those patterns.
Arima Kisho went forward and moved the crown pattern to the top, CCE below that, followed by the strange fish and the snake at the bottom.
Creak!
The metal door swayed and slowly opened.
Crown, CCE, fish, snake, what did this sequence represent? CCE might have a relationship with CCG, but that was all he knew.
There were too few clues, and he could not connect them.
Entering through the metal door, Su Xiao saw that the place inside of the door was completely different.
A huge cave stretched before him. This cave was at least ten meters high, and he couldn't see its end. At the ceiling of the cave, glowing flowers grew, lighting up the cave.
There was a sparse stone forest ahead, which a large group of primitive ghouls suddenly gathered in.
The sound of the door opening had caused some primitive ghouls to look at the five people. Except for Su Xiao, everyone else raised all kinds of firearms.
The primitive ghouls were shocked, the formed a chain reaction. In the beginning, only a few of the primitive ghouls rushed forward, but their roars attracted the other primitive ghouls' attention, and more and more ghouls started rushing at them.
"Roar!"
Innumerable roars echoed as the primitive ghouls ran at the group. They seemed to be out for violence, judging by their expression and body-language.
The armed ghouls did not hesitate, they pulled their triggers and shot at the coming ghouls. Su Xiao took out a grenade and threw it ahead.
"Boom!"
The explosion rang far in the wide and empty underground space, as some of the primitive ghouls were blown up and hurled through the air.
With strong firepower and the geographical advantage of the narrow passage through the metal door, the group of five stopped the attacks of thousands of primitive ghouls, killing them in large numbers.
The grenade Su Xiao had thrown attracted even those primitive ghouls that were far away.
Gunshots rang continuously, explosions went off one after another. The fight reached the climax even though they just entered the underground space.
Smoke rose, and the smell of gunpowder stimulated their olfactory nerves.
Perhaps they had known that this would happen, as Arima Kisho and the rest had brought a lot of bullets. Their storm of bullets almost formed a barrage.
The continued firing for 5 whole minutes, the primitive ghouls' bodies were already piling up into hills not too far away.
As they were being slaughtered by this kind of firepower, the number of primitive ghouls decreased rapidly, not long after, no new primitive ghouls showed up.
Sure enough, the powerful hot weapons were the best way to deal with ghouls.
Arima Kisho threw away the firearms as their barrels turned red. They were almost out of bullets, and there were only three grenades left in Su Xiao's bag.
"They were really effective, it's fortunate that we came prepared."
Takatsuki Sen also threw away the gun she'd been using. After this battle, they could only rely on their Kagune and Quinque.
As for why she did not carry more bullets or bring other members of Aogiri tree, it was because of the ten meter gap between the slide and the ladder.
The steel passage was not that wide, so large equipment could not be brought down there. Without sufficient strength, a person would not be able to jump over the gap. Even if they managed the jump, they may not be able to catch the ladder.
What's more, during this trip, their insufficient strength may drag the others down.
Arima Kisho led them to walk into the stone forest. He seemed to know the route, as he went straight to the east.
When they passed by a particular column, Su Xiao pressed on the column with one hand, causing some gravel to fall. This place may have existed for many, many years.
"Compared to the last time I went down here, it's going really smooth. Sure enough, the weapons that humans invented are really terrible."
Priest sighed. This old guy had surprisingly come here before, and listening to his tone, he didn't come here as smoothly the last time.
"It's not difficult to pass through here. The next level will be hell, it'll be really hot."
Takatsuki Sen looked serious, as if she recalled some bad memories.
After walking for about ten minutes, they left the stone forest. Su Xiao felt the temperature rise, and he started to sweat.
As they gradually moved forward, Su Xiao found that the glowing vines on the ceiling began to look withered, and their number decreased.
Although the illuminating vines began to be less common, it was not any darker, as a dark red ray came from the far distance.
The temperature was getting higher and higher. Su Xiao started to feel stuffy, so he took off his shirt and threw away the windbreaker, which was by this point covered by rust and moss.
Taking out a bottle of the fresh water, Su Xiao quenched his thirst, when he suddenly noticed that the other people were looking at him.
"I didn't expect you to bring some water. How about sharing with me?"
It seemed that Priest also felt hot, his old face was full of sweat. They carried too many bullets and had no space to bring water.
"I only brought a bottle, and it's already empty."
After that, Su Xiao also threw away the bag he'd been carrying, the temperature around was getting higher and higher. If the grenades in the bag were explode, that would just be ridiculous.
After walking for a few more minutes, the underground space was gradually narrowing, only a few tens of meters were left.
After getting here, Su Xiao finally understood why it was so hot, there was a lake of lava in front of them.
The dark red lava was blinding them, and there were some bubbles popping up from time to time.
Su Xiao was sweating all over his body. If he stayed for a while longer, he would be in danger of dehydration.
The lava lake blocked their way. The meaning of Arima Kisho was obvious. They had to continue to move forward. But how could they pass this lava lake?
Using their Kagune to resist Lava? Don't dream about it, lava could burn Kagune in seconds, ghouls were very weak compared to the great power of nature.
After scanning around, Su Xiao seemed to have found a route.
"We can pass through there, right?"
Su Xiao pointed at a steep cliff beside the lava lake. There was a stone road, about 20 centimeters wide, on the cliff. The stone road was narrow, but looked very neat. It seemed to have been intentionally carved by someone.
A few iron pipes could be seen on the cliff. There should have been a bridge there, some time ago. The bridge should have been eroded by the lava and disappeared, leaving only the 20-centimeter wide stone path and the few iron pipes behind.
"Two years ago, the bridge was still there. It seems that we're unfortunate. The opposite stone platform should be our ultimate goal. I have searched for other locations, but there is no other way."
Arima Kisho pointed to a stone platform a few dozens of meters away. The area of the stone platform was not small, and it looked to be at least a few hundred meters away. Because of the position Su Xiao was in, he could not see what exactly was on the stone platform.
"I'm the leader, let me go first."
Takatsuki Sen climbed up the cliff first, which was a dozen meters high, and stepped on the stone road, which was only 20 centimeters wide. She stood with her back pressed against the wall as she moved forward.
The lava was about ten meters below her, because of the temperature, Takatsuki Sen could hardly open her eyes, and her face immediately reddened.
Arima Kisho was the second person to climb the cliff, after him were Priest and Arata Kirishima, and then it was Su Xiao's turn.
When Su Xiao's back was pressed against the stone wall, and his foot stepped on the narrow pathway, he finally understood what Takatsuki Sen meant as she said it was hot as hell.
If his vitality had been below 10 points, he might have fainted from the temperature alone.
This was more exciting than the slide or the jump across the well, one mistake and he would fall into lava. Su Xiao was sure that the lava could burn him into charcoal in two seconds.