Song Xi smiled and said, "Then let's not waste any more time and go in quickly!"

After saying that, Song Xiwei led the way into the secret passage.

Ao Qian followed closely behind.

Song Xiwei was on high alert, fearing that there might be a trap in the secret passage.

She had been to many dangerous places to hone her skills, so these traps and mechanisms were nothing to her.

But she was carrying Aoqian with her, and she still had to rescue Xiaozhuang and Yuanqi without alerting the enemy.

Furthermore, the fact that Xiao Zhuang was quite strong, yet didn't even have the chance to send her a telepathic message, made her even more wary.

"Watch out!" As they were walking, Song Xiwei suddenly grabbed Aoqian's waist and made him jump.

Aoqian looked at her, puzzled.

Song Xiwei shook her head and said, "There's a bunch of dead rats."

Ao Qian remained expressionless. "You dislike killing the living, but you want to leave the dead with a whole corpse?"

Song Xi was taken aback, not expecting Ao Qian to retort. She shook her head and released Ao Qian's waist. "I didn't think that much about it. I just felt that stepping on a dead rat's foot would be sticky, and I was afraid you would find it dirty."

Song Xiwei's words made Aoqian suddenly stop in his tracks. His calm heart was like a lake that had been hit by a stone, creating ripples that did not subside for a long time.

"Why did you stop?" Noticing that Aoqian had stopped, Song Xi turned around and looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Ao Qian's expression seemed to have changed slightly compared to his previous blank expression. He said in an ambiguous tone, "Where am I being so sentimental! I've fought my way through piles of dead bodies, what haven't I seen! But still..." Ao Qian didn't say the words "thank you, Song Xiwei."

But the inner turmoil still lingers.

Song Xiwei always made him feel inexplicably lost and disoriented.

He was cold-blooded, ruthless, cruel, and rational...

Ironically, she could touch the depths of his heart with her nonchalant and unexpected actions, simply by helping him avoid a few dead rats.

He was somewhat confused, wondering what was going on with him.

It's just a dead rat, so what if I stepped on it? He doesn't like having sticky things under his feet, but he's not so fussy as to not be able to stand it at all.

But Song Xiwei's action of helping him avoid it seemed to be telling him that there really was someone who cared about such a small thing and would take care of his insignificant little emotions.

Although he probably doesn't care that much about these little emotions.

But Song Xiwei did just that, and it even gave him a strange, inexplicable feeling of being moved by her.

Aoqian didn't want to admit it at all, and he swallowed back the words "thank you".

"But what?" Song Xiwei looked completely bewildered as she listened to Aoqian's hesitant words.

Aoqian shook his head. "What I mean is, aren't we in a hurry to save people? Is it necessary to waste time in a place like this?"

Upon hearing this, Song Xiwei looked troubled. "It's urgent to save someone! But I'm worried that if we rush things, you won't have the strength!"

Aoqian blurted out, "Don't worry about me! I can handle it!"

Although he was a young ruler, he had a strong will and had been tempered and honed since childhood.

They are not the kind of people who are pampered in a greenhouse and cannot endure any hardship.

"Oh my god!" As they were walking, this time it was Song Xiwei's turn to stop.

Aoqian didn't ask Song Xiwei anything because he wasn't blind and could see what the situation was.

The secret passage ahead was filled with the corpses of dead snakes, as were the edges and ceilings of the passage.

The scene of all sorts of dead snakes didn't frighten Song Xiwei; instead, it disgusted her.