Chapter 715: Thinking on His Feet

The mountain paths are treacherous after the downpour. Henwell's team is the last to reach the scene.

Solomon watches Henwell's men struggle into their armor. "What happened to your group?"

"We were afraid of being struck by lightning!" Henwell answers. He leans forward to examine the ravine. "What happened here?"

They are standing in a small saddle where Hill No. 4 connects to a neighboring hill.

A hole more than a meter wide has opened in the ravine below.

Rainwater pooled on the mountain is pouring down channels of varying sizes and disappearing into the hole.

Solomon shakes his head. "We aren't sure. The rain may have eroded the ground and opened a karst cavern."

"Or part of the ruins may have collapsed and exposed a passage."

Henwell looks around. "Isn't this Team Five's search area? Where are they?"

Solomon frowns. "We found one unconscious man, but the other five are missing. They must have fallen into the hole!"

Henwell stares at him in disbelief. "That opening is tiny. How did five people fall into it at once? Are they all idiots?"

"Where is the survivor? I'll ask him what happened. We may need to organize a rescue!"

Solomon points to the bandaged survivor who is about to be carried down the mountain. "He's unconscious. How are you going to question him?"

Henwell trudges through the mud. As soon as he reaches the stretcher, he snatches a stone from the ground.

He slams it into the man's injured leg. The stone strikes the open fracture, making everyone nearby wince.

The unconscious man immediately thrashes on the stretcher like a fish flung onto dry land.

Henwell spreads his hands. "See? He isn't unconscious anymore!"

Solomon's expression darkens. "That is one of my men. What do you think you're doing?"

Henwell replies coldly, "Some of my men are in that team too, and they're missing. Of course I need to know what happened!"

"If we carry him down the mountain and wait for him to wake naturally, my people may be dead by then."

"Every minute matters. We need to find out exactly what happened right now!"

Solomon is about to protest again when the Lady of Calamity says, "I think Mr. Adolf has a point."

"The most important thing right now is learning what happened."

Henwell turns toward the injured man, who is cursing and screaming from the pain. "Quiet! Tell us what happened."

"Otherwise, I'll pull the bone right out of your leg. The sooner you talk, the sooner you can receive treatment. Keep wasting time, and that leg will be ruined forever!"

Henwell raises the mud-stained stone again. The man shudders and begins recounting what happened.

After the downpour, Team Five prepared to descend the mountain.

As they passed through this ravine, one member decided to rinse the mud from his shoes in the small stream.

Nothing happened at first. Then a second member stepped into the stream.

The streambed suddenly collapsed beneath them, opening a deep pit, and the two men fell in one after the other.

Worse still, when another teammate instinctively reached out to help, the second falling man caught his arm.

The unlucky third man lost his footing in the mud and was dragged headfirst into the hole.

Three team members vanished in the blink of an eye.

The team leader and his deputy immediately secured ropes to a nearby tree and descended one after the other to rescue them.

The survivor was the man left above. He was about to fire a signal at once.

At that moment, however, the rainwater dislodged part of the rocky slope.

The sharp edges of the falling rocks severed the ropes outside and partially blocked the opening.

The hole had originally been more than two meters wide, but it is now somewhat smaller.

Henwell asks, "Did the falling rocks injure your leg too?"

The survivor looks embarrassed. "I was sheltering against the cliff and stretched out my foot to wash off the mud. Then a rock suddenly fell from above and broke my leg!"

Henwell cannot help rolling his eyes.

What kind of people are these?

Do they really love washing their shoes that much? An entire team has been lost because of muddy shoes, and now only one cripple remains aboveground.

Henwell waves for the wounded man to be carried down the mountain, then looks at Solomon. "What do you plan to do?"

Staring at the hole as water continues pouring into it, Solomon replies, "Rescue them first. We'll keep sending people down on ropes to investigate!"

Henwell has no words.

How can they be this incompetent?

And these people actually dared to raid an ancient tomb?

Henwell immediately begins issuing orders. "Team One, cut down trees."

"Build barriers across the stream, one every ten meters, with at least three barriers in total."

"That will stop more rocks from rolling down. If the opening is blocked completely, we'll have a much bigger problem!"

"Team Two, dig drainage ditches and divert the water coming down the mountain to either side."

"If we let any more water pour into that hole, the people below will end up as waterlogged corpses!"

"Team Three, find solid anchor points nearby for the ropes and build a few simple winches while you're at it."

"Team Four, go down the mountain and bring up supplies. We may have to wait here all night."

"Team Six, secure the surrounding area and watch for wild animals."

"Team Seven, start a fire and dry your clothes. You will descend to conduct the rescue shortly."

"Keep yourselves safe. If something goes wrong, come back up first..."

Henwell finishes issuing orders, and everyone springs into action.

Solomon watches in surprise as every team carries out its task in orderly fashion.

The fat merchant reacts quickly and accounts for every obvious risk. He is no simple man.

Then Solomon remembers that the Qili Guild makes its living from dangerous, questionable ventures. Henwell's reaction no longer seems strange.

An hour later, Team Seven prepares to descend. Its members have changed into leather armor and flexible chainmail.

They carry portable weapons such as short swords, daggers, wrist crossbows, and small shields.

Even now, no one believes the missing members of Team Five are in serious danger.

After all, every team is led by a Battle Knight, and each deputy is at the Knight rank.

Henwell is less optimistic. An underground river or a flooded cavern may lie below.

With no exit and no air, even extraordinary professionals cannot last long.

Sure enough, half an hour later, one of the ropes begins shaking violently. The people above immediately use a makeshift winch to haul the person up.

Only one of the five ropes responds, which is a very bad sign.

The person emerging from the water is not Team Seven's leader or even one of its rescuers, but a member of Team Five who fell into the hole earlier.

They drag him onto solid ground, but he begins convulsing and coughing up bloody foam. His eyes bulge, badly bloodshot.

He soon goes into shock and dies only a few minutes later.

Henwell's expression turns grim. "Decompression sickness!"

Miller and the newly arrived Daisy both look at Henwell in surprise.