Climbing stairs proved far easier than traversing mountain paths. Although we'd walked nearly halfway around the mountain and were somewhat fatigued, these steps were child's play, feeling as effortless as a tourist excursion.

We ascended steadily, reaching the halfway point without incident, yet none of us dared let our guard down, knowing full well this mission wouldn't be so simple.

Sure enough, as we continued upward, Old Fourth, who was bringing up the rear, suddenly shouted, "Hey! Look! The drawbridge we came in on, it's..."

At his alarm, we quickly looked back, only to see that the drawbridge, whose chains our leader, Gu Tianle, had severed, had somehow silently closed again.

Such a massive structure, if it were to close, would surely have made a considerable noise, yet it had closed completely without a sound while we were climbing—a fact that sent a collective chill down everyone's spine.

After a moment of shock, Daxiong looked at me, sweat beading on his face, and said meaningfully, "The gate's shut..."

I caught the cue with a flash of inspiration and finished, "Release the hounds!"

What we meant was that now the way was sealed, danger was imminent. Of course, the "hounds" weren't meant for us, but if...

The instant I finished speaking, the ground began to tremble slightly, and something heavy started rolling toward us.

Xie Yuting’s face turned ashen. "Not good, falling rocks!"

Just as he spoke, with a resounding boom, a boulder nearly two people tall came tumbling down the stairs from the platform above.

Faced with such a massive rock, we exchanged bewildered glances, unsure what to do.

Then Xie Yuting’s voice thundered in our ears, "Jump onto the rock walls on either side, now!"

Startled by his shout, I looked back to see the giant stone roaring closer. Disregarding everything else, I scrambled up the nearby cliff face using both hands and feet.

But before my hands could even grip the rock wall, I heard Daxiong curse, "Damn it, who oiled the walls up here!"

I watched as his hands slipped repeatedly while gripping the protrusions on the stone; he couldn't get a purchase, and the others were in the same predicament, despair beginning to set in.

It was then that the shadow of the stone consumed the light above us, threatening to crush us into pulp.

Seeing the sheer mass of the rock, I nearly fainted from terror, thinking, It's over. Instinctively, I crouched down and squeezed my eyes shut.

A second after I closed my eyes, I heard a loud thud, and my heart leaped into my throat.

But I felt no sensation of crushing bones or flattening flesh; the stone seemed to have stopped.

I opened my eyes in confusion to see our Second Brother, Guanxi Ge, completely flushed, veins bulging, somehow bracing the rolling boulder in what looked like a tui na posture.

However, this massive thousand-pound stone possessed terrifying momentum. Even with his hard-body skill protecting him, blood was already oozing from his hands.

Seeing us stare at him, pale with shock, Guanxi Ge turned his head with difficulty and gasped, "You... still watching... Hurry and get past! I can't hold... much longer..."

Xie Yuting panicked. "What about you if we pass? You'll be crushed to death."

Guanxi Ge struggled to say, "I... I'm fine, my technique protects me... Let the stone... roll over..."

Seeing that he truly couldn't hold on much longer, we stopped debating.

Because the stone was round, there were triangular spaces on the lower left and right sides where a person could potentially squeeze through. Furthermore, there was a gap between the stone and the cliff face, enough for someone slender to slip through.

But given the immediate danger, none of us dared attempt such a risky maneuver. If we had tried to climb down the cliff face alongside the stone, we might have avoided it, but who could say if a hand or foot would have been broken?

Some of us squeezed through the gaps, others crawled underneath, and Xie Yuting simply leaped onto the top of the boulder and jumped clear over.

Daxiong, however, required a great deal of effort from the rest of us to pull him across.

Once we were safe on the other side, we couldn't see Guanxi Ge, but the stone began to roll again.

When the boulder finally passed, we saw Guanxi Ge lying sprawled beneath the step where he had been, his clothes completely shredded.

Several of us rushed to help him up, and relief washed over us when we saw he was still alive.

Though alive, Guanxi Ge was gasping like a broken bellows and couldn't stand without support. Even martial arts mastery couldn't make flesh and blood as hard as stone.

We were immensely grateful to Guanxi Ge; without him, we would have died right there.

The giant stone continued to tumble downward until it smashed into the drawbridge, shattering it completely before plummeting into the moat below.

But then, we witnessed a bizarre sight.

As the drawbridge was crushed, it suddenly snapped upward again.

Xie Yuting frowned at the sight. "It's a mechanism. Besides the chain and axle, there are other traps on this gate. We need to be careful; there might be more ahead."

We all nodded in agreement.

Although the passage exuded an aura of danger, we could only proceed slowly due to Guanxi Ge’s exhaustion.

Daxiong took the lead, but his weight made his feet constantly slip.

He kept one hand on the wall and muttered, "Who the hell poured all this oil here? It feels like we were set up."

"Oil!" Xie Yuting’s expression changed suddenly as if he’d realized something. He urgently called back to us, "Quick! We need to retreat!"

I found this strange because such massive rocks are incredibly difficult to move; once triggered, they are meant to be fatal, and there wouldn't be a second one. The oil on the walls was clearly meant to stop us from climbing, but now that the stone had passed, the oil shouldn't pose a threat.

I thought this because I had always assumed this shrine was uninhabited. But if no one lived here, who had poured the oil?

So, I was utterly stunned when several rockets, whistling as they tore through the air, shot toward us.

Fire combined with oil—we were certainly about to meet our end!

Before I could react, there was a whoosh, and the wall and ground in front of us erupted in flames.

The flames shot up over a meter high and raced toward us rapidly.

Having faced death twice in quick succession, I nearly broke down, instinctively fleeing backward as fast as I could.

Just then, a voice shouted from the side, "Don't run around! Get over here! Do you think you can outrun fire?"

I turned to see Old Third, who had been at the very back of our group. He pulled a large bag of earth from his pack and scattered it on the ground around us, creating a firebreak circle.

Some of us were already on fire and frantically jumped into the circle, rolling repeatedly to smother the flames.

Daxiong grumbled as he sat down hard to put out the fire on his backside, "Good thing we have a tough guy and someone who digs pits. Otherwise, we'd be dead today."

Old Third, drenched in sweat, managed a weak smile. "Good thing I needed soil to cover my traps when digging, otherwise we’d have had to rely on our water pouches."

Our faces were as black as charcoal as we watched the surrounding flames spread, turning the area around us into a sea of fire.

Some flames licked over the firebreak, igniting the oil within the circle, which we stomped out while enduring the heat wave.

The surrounding temperature was incredibly high; we felt like meat roasting on a grill, our sweat seeping out and sizzling like fat under the scrutiny of the flames.

Fortunately, there wasn't an excessive amount of oil, and after burning for a little over ten seconds, the flames began to subside. We all coughed until we felt we might vomit blood.

Only when the flames finally died down did we collectively breathe a sigh of relief. Looking around, almost everyone was charred black, and some had even blistered where their masks had been.

Because so much sweat had rendered the adhesive useless, after getting Xie Yuting's consent, we all ripped off our masks and tossed them aside.

Looking at each other’s faces then, I could barely recognize anyone.

However, wearing masks required a certain level of compatibility—for instance, if you were impersonating Xie Tingfeng, your facial structure needed to be similar. Thus, beneath the soot, these men were actually quite handsome—young, sharp, and full of vigor.

Once we recognized everyone, we decided to maintain our established order of address: Leader to Fourth. The names Tianle Ge, Guanxi Ge, Wenle Ge, and Tingfeng Ge remained unchanged.