Chapter 97 The Abyss "Don't worry, there will be a way out."...

Something's not right.

Jiang Yuhuo pointed to the flame trail created by burning talisman paper and said to Li Mengbai, "Look, this line of fire goes downwards."

When there was only one torch, it wasn't noticeable, but now the passageway is illuminated, and the fire lines connect the entire route, clearly indicating that this passageway is not straight, but rather leads downwards.

Strange, on this downhill path, my body doesn't fall down. That's really strange.

Li Mengbai pulled on her sleeve and walked behind her. He looked at the fire line on the cave ceiling, not as surprised as Jiang Yuhuo, and said with a smile, "This means we may be arriving soon."

Sure enough, not long after Li Mengbai finished speaking, the firelight extending along the tunnel reached its end.

Outside the passageway, in the deep darkness, the burning talisman paper could only be considered a faint glow, unable to illuminate this world.

Jiang Yu Huo controlled the talisman paper to continue forward.

She had just taken a step forward when Li Mengbai suddenly grabbed her waist and pulled her back. "Watch out!"

This sudden change caused the talisman to lose control and fall straight down, the faint sparks of light endlessly plummeting into the darkness.

Jiang Yuhuo took several steps back, watching the talisman fall in front of her. Only then did she realize that what lay ahead had turned into a bottomless abyss. If she continued to walk forward, she would fall into the abyss without any warning, just like the talisman.

A cold sweat broke out on Jiang Yuhuo's back. She turned to Li Mengbai and asked, "Which way do we go now?"

Li Mengbai patted her shoulder gently, "Don't worry, there will be a way out."

Jiang Yuhuo let out a sigh of relief, unable to think of any other way out for the moment.

Li Mengbai took the torch from her hand.

He had already scouted out the situation inside beforehand, so he wasn't surprised to encounter a dead end. He simply lit a torch and carefully observed the stone wall.

While searching for something, he casually struck up a conversation with Jiang Yuhuo.

"Speaking of which, what's with the fire element in your body? Last time during the competition, I saw you use your blood to ignite your opponent's Five Elements Array, and today you set the stone wall ablaze. I remember Kunlun doesn't seem to practice this kind of thing, so you could be considered to have learned this unorthodox method from somewhere else." He paused for a moment. "Why did you learn these things? Do you think the sword techniques you learned in Kunlun weren't enough for you?"

Jiang Yuhuo leaned against the other side of the stone wall, his gaze fixed on the abyss at the end. The pure darkness had a kind of magic, making people want to sink into it.

That's far from enough.

She hasn't found Jia Qianyang yet, and she hasn't killed all the culprits one by one. Her people are all dead, so why are they still alive?

For seven years, this person seemed to have vanished from the world.

Jiang Yuhuo knew that he was able to survive by residing in the clan leader's body back then, and he could now completely change his appearance.

While cultivating in Kunlun, Jiang Yuhuo thought countless times what if Jia Qianyang passed by her one day and she didn't recognize him, thus letting her enemy go? What if she could never find Jia Qianyang?

Whenever fear and anxiety arose, she could only practice her swordsmanship even more desperately.

Fortunately, she now has the Spirit-Summoning Wood.

She kept the piece of wood in her pocket, so she could sense other spirit trees nearby wherever she went. Aside from the Netherworld Waters where it grew, there weren't many spirit trees left in existence. Once her senior brother's eyes had healed, she would search for them one by one, and kill Jia Qianyang before her body completely gave out.

Whether she breaks the Kunlun oath or is engulfed in flames, all she needs to do is outlive Jia Qianyang by one more breath.

As Li Mengbai spoke, his gaze swept across the stone wall. Since the person behind him still didn't answer his question, he continued talking to himself, "However, although this thing is indeed very powerful, wouldn't it be uncomfortable to have such intense fire inside one's body?"

"..."

"Oh, I remember now, that piece of cold jade on your forehead was used to suppress the fire element in your body, right? It's a real pity that it was shattered by that person's arrow." He suddenly smiled. "But judging from that, his archery skills weren't that great, were they?"

Jiang Yuhuo glanced at Li Mengbai and said, "He did it on purpose."

Li Mengbai smiled, pursing his lips, as he faced the stone wall, quite satisfied with the answer. Suddenly, he saw something and exclaimed in surprise.

"Ah, I found it."

Jiang Yuhuo quickly looked over and saw Li Mengbai shining a torch on a spot. He tapped it with his hand, and the sound was clearly hollow. With another harder tap, the surface of the stone wall shattered, revealing a small niche inside.

Inside the niche was a frog-shaped statue. The statue was small, about the same size as an ordinary frog, but what made it unusual was its material; it was smooth and white as jade.

Li Mengbai reached in and turned the white jade frog clockwise a few times.

Soon, a rumbling sound came from outside the cave, as if the rocks were breaking apart.

Li Mengbai looked into the depths of darkness, where a stone bridge stretched out from the darkness and was precisely wedged at the end of the cave.

"Just as I thought." He curled his lips, brushed the dust off his palms, strode onto the stone bridge, turned back and extended his hand to Jiang Yuhuo, "Come on."

Jiang Yuhuo did not respond to him.

This place is different from outside. If Li Mengbai continues to scheme against her, she will find it difficult to defend herself. Moreover, his thoughts are unpredictable, sometimes good and sometimes bad. Jiang Yuhuo cannot fathom them, and she never knows when he will pull a trick on her. It's better to stay away from him.

Jiang Yuhuo only asked him for a talisman, and then burned a ribbon of flame on the stone bridge in the same way. In this way, he could see the path under his feet.

But the firelight still couldn't illuminate this deep space. There was no top or bottom in sight; all that could be seen was the direction of the stone bridge and a closed stone door at the end.

Seeing that she didn't agree, Li Mengbai wasn't angry. He awkwardly withdrew his hand and continued walking ahead.

The two arrived at the stone gate one after the other.

Jiang Yuhuo manipulated the talisman paper, and the flames swirled around the tall door, causing him to pause in surprise.

In the desolate and secluded grotto, this stone door was meticulously carved, not only in the shape of a palace gate, but also with many images of gods painstakingly carved out. However, unlike the temple in Falling Moon City, there were no Four Gods here, only the Feather God.

Above the doorway is a statue of a feathered god with eyes fixed on the visitors; the carving is exquisite and lifelike.

Jiang Yuhuo had not seen a statue of the Feather God worshipped alone for a long time. Since leaving Liyue Village, he had never seen any believers of the Feather God in the mortal world.

At this moment, a sense of intimacy arose involuntarily.

Jiang Yuhuo wasn't the only one who felt familiar with this; Li Mengbai also stared at the statue for a while before a hint of disdain flashed in his eyes.

"So, the people of Tianque also worship this thing."

Jiang Yuhu frowned upon hearing this. Li Mengbai's tone was full of contempt for the Feather God, which was completely contrary to the education she had received since childhood. Although she did not believe in gods, she still found it unpleasant to hear.

What's your opinion on Feather God?

Li Mengbai narrowed his eyes. "It's not really an opinion, just pure disgust."

Jiang Yuhuo said no more to him.

The two stone doors were tightly sealed, obscuring the view inside.

Li Mengbai tried pushing the stone door, but it didn't budge. He cast a spell, attaching the seal to the stone door to check its key points.

The first time it didn't work, the second time, the third time...

Li Mengbai finally discovered that the stone door seemed to be solid and had no mechanisms or traps set up.

Therefore, his methods of unlocking secrets are useless.

Seeing that he had been busy for a while without making any progress, Jiang Yuhuo simply took matters into her own hands and pushed the door. It was indeed very heavy, but not entirely impossible to move. She channeled her spiritual energy; thanks to the considerable amount of cultivation Mo Sheng had taught her recently, she now had an inexhaustible supply.

The massive stone door rumbled and shifted, loosening slightly at first, but the rest was easier. Jiang Yuhuo pressed on, forcefully pushing half the door open, creating a gap large enough for a person to pass through.

Li Mengbai stared in disbelief. "Good heavens, where did you get such strength? What does Kunlun feed you every day?"

Jiang Yuhuo glanced at him and said, "It's none of your business."

Li Mengbai snorted in dissatisfaction, but then peered into the crack.

The burning talisman spun around inside, and only a vague image of a deity statue could be seen inside. Seeing nothing unusual, the two of them squeezed through the gap.

As soon as she entered the house, Jiang Yuhuo smelled a strange fragrance, extremely faint but strangely familiar to her.

"Did you smell anything?" she asked Li Mengbai.

Upon hearing this, Li Mengbai sniffed and immediately covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve. "There is a strange smell. Don't inhale too much. If you can be in a ghostly place that no one has entered for eight hundred years, be careful that it's poisonous."

Jiang Yuhu wrinkled her nose and unconsciously took two more breaths, feeling as if she had smelled it somewhere before.

The next moment, Li Mengbai stuffed a silk handkerchief into her face.

Her nostrils were instantly filled with the incense from the handkerchief. The rich, delicate fragrance made her feel a little dizzy. For a moment, Jiang Yuhuo couldn't tell which scent was poisonous.

She could vaguely smell the scent of oil, so she manipulated the talisman to search and found the lamp carved into the wall. The lamp oil inside was still there. She lit the talisman along the way, and the space inside the door gradually became brighter.

A huge statue of the Feathered God appeared before the visitors.

The moment Li Mengbai saw it, he curled his lip and said, "What's wrong with the people of Tianque? Why are they building a temple here?"

"It's not a temple."

Jiang Yuhuo approached the statue, looking down. This place was more like a tower than a temple. The mountain was hollow, with the Feather God statue running through it. From their position, they could see the different levels of the tower below. Jiang Yuhuo counted them; including their level, there were nine levels in total.

It is somewhat similar to the Linggu Pagoda in Tianque.

Jiang Yuhuo said, "Could what you're looking for be down there?"

An underground palace was carved beneath the Linggu Pagoda to store treasures. If the Heavenly Pillar Marrow that Li Mengbai mentioned is really here, it should also be placed beneath the pagoda according to convention.

Li Mengbai had the same thought. He peered down and saw that the ground beneath the statue seemed to be covered with a layer of white stones. He didn't see anything else, so he asked Jiang Yuhuo to probe the burning talisman downwards.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn't stone at all; it was all bones!

Before Wei Jiangyu Huo could notice, Li Mengbai pulled her back, saying, "Stop looking."

Jiang Yuhuo felt confused, but since she was on his behalf, she decided to bear with it and get the items as soon as possible.

She lit up the top of this tower, making it brightly lit, but the lower levels remained pitch black. Without going down, one would never know whether the so-called "Marrow of the Heavenly Pillar" was real or not.

Jiang Yuhu put away the talisman and found the entrance to the steps leading down. "Let's go down. We've come this far, if we don't go down..."

Li Mengbai did not move, but listened intently to the distant fishing lights on the river.

"Don't move, listen..."

Jiang Yuhuo pondered for a moment, then his expression darkened.

She doesn't need to go down; something has come up.