Chapter 396 - Breaking the Door

Chapter 396: Chapter 365 Breaking the DoorSikong Lan looked up at the hidden door on the ceiling, hesitated, and said, "Three, right? B, A, B."

"That’s not correct."

Zhang Fulu was about to say "it’s two" when he suddenly realized something.

Reference frame!

If he uses himself as a constant reference frame, when he rode the cloth and ascended to the upper stone chamber, he saw Li Cheng and Sikong Lan magnified 14 times.

Meanwhile, the upper stone chamber also had cloth descending, which from Zhang Fulu’s perspective, was magnified 196 times!

If Zhang Fulu hadn’t returned to the lower stone chamber earlier but had ridden the cloth magnified 196 times to continue ascending, he would have reached the upper-upper stone chamber.

One layer, two layers, three layers, endlessly.

"...it’s infinite."

A glimmer flashed in Zhang Fulu’s eyes, "The stone box’s side length is half a meter, the length of the hidden door at the top is less than a palm, there’s no way to squeeze through,

so the stone box is that A. We are in room B, the upper room is C, and the upper-upper room is D.

ABCD, extending infinitely upward, with a magnification factor of 14 for each layer."

"Hmm?"

Sikong Lan was taken aback but quickly understood.

If humans are used as the reference frame, then one can indeed climb up along the cloth to reach increasingly larger rooms.

"One layer is 14 times, two layers are 196 times, three layers would be 2744 times. In other words, by the fourth stone chamber, the height relative to the three of us might be over five thousand zhang. Higher than the Five Great Mountains stacked together."

Sikong Lan hesitantly said, "If the stone chambers are infinite and expand upwards endlessly, wouldn’t there be no exit forever?"

A magnification factor of 14 is too exaggerated; after stacking a few times, the stone chamber’s height would exceed the Earth-Moon distance.

Even if someone stays in the lower stone chamber using cloth as a transport belt to pull the other two upward, the absurd G-force generated in this process would directly tear the body apart.

"Yes, and no."

Li Cheng smiled and said, "If you consider humans as an unchanging reference frame, it’s easy to think of the stone chambers as an infinite, upward-extending space structure.

But what if you consider the stone box and the stone chamber as two mirrors?"

"Mirrors?" Sikong Lan was momentarily confused, while Zhang Fulu appeared thoughtful.

"Two mirrors facing each other will present infinitely smaller reflections. But the mirrors themselves don’t change."

Li Cheng said, "If earlier Zhang Daoist, after reaching the 14-times magnified upper stone chamber, didn’t return but continued toward the 196-times magnified stone chamber, for him it means arriving at the upper-upper level,

but for the stone box, or us who are with the stone box, he didn’t leave; he simply passed through the hidden door twice, merely reducing by 196 times.

Which means, there don’t exist three or an infinite number of spaces.

From start to end, there are only one or two. The hidden door at the top of this stone chamber is equivalent to the hidden door at the top of the stone box, merely a magnification reducer."

"One or two?..."

Sikong Lan was already bewildered, and Zhang Fulu, who had received Taoist education from the Zhengyi Sect, understood slightly faster, frowned and remained silent.

After a while, he raised his head and asked, "When the straw-cloaked man went up to Dragon Tiger Mountain and sent a letter to the Heavenly Master, he attached a prophetic painting, predicting the scene at this present moment.

In other words, this secret realm created by Divine Shedding is not a dead end with no escape.

The Tu Family should have used Divine Shedding to hide some unspeakable secret. There must be a way out.

Since the stone box’s hidden door is capable of magnifying and reducing, isn’t it possible for us to pass through the hidden door several times, reducing ourselves to the size of ants, or even smaller

and thus find the hidden exit?"

"A great idea, it made my thoughts spin."

Li Cheng genuinely nodded in appreciation, realizing that talent is abundant in the Script World, quickly coming up with possible solutions, "You could try it, but don’t hold too high expectations."

"Uh?" Sikong Lan was ready to look for a crack on the ground, "Why?"

"There are four points; first, stone chamber equals stone box, and the surface of the stone box has no seams, meaning the stone chamber likely also doesn’t have gaps wide enough for us to escape."

Li Cheng said, "Second, the stone box itself is about two fingers thick; even if you shrink yourself enough to squeeze through extremely fine rock crevices, this thickness would be an insurmountable barrier for tiny people.

Third, if it is true magnification and reduction, then Zhang Daoist, as he shrinks in height by 14 times, his muscle fibers should compress tightly, and his strength should inflate by 196 times compared to his size.

Like Ant-Man.

However, this doesn’t happen; therefore, the visual magnification and reduction is still a trick played by the secret realm."

Even if the secret realm is magical, being able to compress the atoms that make up the human body by 14 or 196 times, could it also compress by five hundred thirty-thousand times or more? Directly reaching the Schwarzschild radius, turning the human body into a micro black hole?

In this world, the Great Ming culture is quite open and inclusive, and elite figures like Sikong Lan and Zhang Fulu understand some English, knowing that "Ant-Man" means the Ant-Man.

Sikong Lan couldn’t help but ask, "What about the fourth point?"

"The fourth point is that the dimensions of the square hidden door at the top of the stone chamber are just slightly smaller than the stone box."

Li Cheng pointed overhead, "Without this limitation, we could pass the stone box through the hidden door and exit the cycle.

This structure proves the entire secret realm is indeed designed artificially to trap outsiders who aren’t from the Tu Family here.

As for the way to break it..."

He chuckled lightly, "I’ve already made an agreement with my family maid that if I don’t return within a day, she will break through to the heights, shatter the South Heavenly Gate, and use two fruit knives to tear through the Tu Family.

During this day, would you like to eat swollen wrist skin or foot skin? Or should I mash some leg-staring pills down?"

Can’t we eat something decent?!

Sikong Lan and Zhang Fulu’s eyelids twitched uncontrollably and hurriedly moved forward to stop Li Cheng from taking off his socks.

"Pifu brother, stop joking,"

Zhang Fulu smiled wryly and said, "Seeing your expression, you must have thought of a countermeasure, right."

"A hunch; I don’t know if it’ll work."

Li Cheng said, "If this stone chamber really leads to the hidden secrets of the Tu Family, then surely there are members of the Tu Family who have passed through.

At the same time, there are no keyholes inside or outside the stone chamber nor any mechanisms that can be activated, meaning the way to escape from the stone chamber has to be within the stone chamber.

Moreover, this method must be very simple."

He stepped toward the luminous pearl placed in the corner of the room, picked it up and weighed it, then threw it forcefully toward the hidden door at the top of the stone chamber.

Swoosh!

The luminous pearl passed through the hidden door in the stone chamber and flew out from the top of the stone box, caught by Li Cheng in mid-air.

The pearl’s size... didn’t shrink!

"Step back a bit."

Amidst the surprised looks of the other two, Li Cheng pushed the stone box to the center of the room, held the luminous pearl, and threw it into the top of the stone box.

Swoosh——Swoosh——Swoosh——

The luminous pearl passed through the opening at the top of the stone box, fell from the top of the stone chamber, dropped straight into the opening of the stone box, and then fell from the top of the stone chamber.

Repeating the cycle, its speed became faster and faster, breaking the sound barrier, creating an ear-piercing sonic boom.

Now!

Li Cheng struck swiftly, grabbing the stone box and flipping it forcefully, with the accelerated luminous pearl directly colliding with the side wall of the stone box.

Bang!

Outside the stone chamber, a deafening explosion sounded, and a stone wall collapsed along with the side panel of the box. The other three walls also gradually crumbled.

The light outside was bright, and Li Cheng brushed the dust off his body, strode out of the stone chamber, and found himself in a cave filled with numerous luminous pearls.