Chapter 85 Trap

On the dimly lit staircase, as the stone door slammed shut, Shen Edai turned sharply and was the first to notice something was amiss. She immediately extended her spiritual sense to investigate, but was gently yet decisively blocked by the restriction.

Lu Kewei noticed Shen Edai's expression slowly darken from her pretentious cuteness, and he couldn't help but pause. One of the other inner disciples squeezed out of the crowd, his face solemn. "Sir, there's something wrong with this underground palace. It seemed like spiritual energy suddenly activated just now. It must be a mechanism that's been triggered."

The last girl in the crowd also timidly spoke: "The stone door is closed and cannot be opened!"

Shen Edai made a quick decision: "Xiaolu, use your chess beast to leave here."

Her decisiveness shook the crowd behind her. Even Qiao Yangrui, who had just stepped out to stand beside Shen Edai, couldn't help but hold his breath and stare at her in disbelief. Lu Kewei couldn't accept it the most: "Sir, are you going to regret this?"

"Sir, the identities and bodies we need to change before we leave are all in the hands of Daoist Brother Lu. I'm afraid..."

"Hmph, you're still talking about this now." Shen Edai made hand gestures to try to contact the outside world, while showing a mocking smile, "I'm here to leave the road to survival. Anyone who wants to die can stay here! Don't you idiots feel the immense spiritual power of this underground palace!"

"Xiaolu, I think you'd better give up, otherwise you'll end up here too. I don't think Xiaoqi will survive long in this damn place, so you might as well give up."

At this point, a rare flicker of fear crossed her eyes, and she sighed inwardly. While the restriction that could completely lock down a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator was certainly terrifying, Shen Edai still had confidence in her survival. However, she feared the person who activated the underground palace's mechanism.

A crypt of this level couldn't be activated by whoever obtained it first. One must be incredibly powerful to surpass the divine imprint left by the previous crypt's owner. The mere presence of a living cultivator with the intent to kill them was truly terrifying.

Luo Xuanyi didn't know Shen Edai's thoughts. If she knew, she would be in a state of confusion. Because she was still a young cultivator who wanted to cultivate ghosts and was still in the Qi training stage. She was able to use the underground palace only because it was a gift from a good friend.

But it was true that she wanted to kill them. Luo Xuanyi didn't know how powerful a Nascent Soul cultivator truly was, so to capture Shen Edai and the others, she completely opened the barrier. Fortunately, the ancient barrier used spiritual energy gathered directly from heaven and earth as a loss, so there was no need to worry about excessive consumption.

Locking away spiritual consciousness, even great supernatural powers were rendered incapable of use. Luo Xuanyi suppressed the mist that drifted through the dome of the underground palace. The ancient spiritual energy was like a gradually corrosive poison to everyone. Coupled with the great restrictions, the spiritual energy used could not be replenished and would only become increasingly weaker.

Looking at the Qimingzhe in the mirror who was trapped in the alchemy room and was beaten badly by the fake "Future Qimingzhe" who appeared in the alchemy room, Luo Xuanyi couldn't help but feel more cheerful.

Shen Edai's quick reaction to leave surprised Luo Xuanyi in the room. She was glad for her own caution and felt a strong curiosity about their conversation. Like watching a show, she removed the stone slab and cast her eyes leisurely at Lu Kewei, curious about how he could leave directly.

Lu Kewei faced the crowd's gazes, gritting his teeth. He absolutely didn't want to let Qi Mingzhe go. Furthermore, with his cultivation only at the Golden Core stage, he couldn't intuitively sense the terrifying nature of the underground palace like Shen Edai did, and his emotions quickly wavered.

He had long ago extracted from Qi Mingzhe something that the Third Elder and Feng Wutong were seeking to obtain privately: a map of a crucial relic. Even Qi Mingzhe had no idea what lay within. He only knew that for the Third Elder, it was a treasure that could allow him to directly break through to the Spiritual Transformation Stage. Therefore, they even went so far as to go against the Dao Leader's wishes and allow Qi Mingzhe to act privately.

The Third Elder wanted to kill the Dao Chief and ascend to the position himself, even at the cost of sacrificing a Qiming Master. Lu Kewei, seeing this, sought to obtain the map and kill Qiming Master, the closest and only Qiming Master who truly respected the Third Elder, and replace him. Once the Third Elder achieved a breakthrough, he would undoubtedly attain a higher position.

But looking at Shen Edai's solemn face, Lu Kewei felt like a bucket of cold water was poured over his head.

"I, I understand."

Shen Edai smiled. "That's right. Xiaolu, consider it as a favor to you. If you need anything in the future, just come to me and I will definitely do my best to help you. So, please drop us off at Longchengzhou first."

Lu Kewei had no choice but to take out the chess beast again, but he soon realized that something was wrong - although the chess beast was still biting each other with its bloody mouth open, the link between them was madly transmitting the feeling of "pain" to him.

"No, even Chess Beast can't open the passage!"

At this point, Lu Kewei didn't dare even think about killing Qiming. The Chess-piercing Beast was a unique beast that parasitized the veil between the sky and the sea. No one knew how that barrier came into being, but it was known that the various strange flesh and blood growing on it had different functions, some quite useless, while others were priceless. These flesh and blood would retain their function upon reincarnation, becoming a living being.

The Chess Beast could easily travel through space, even to a place he had never been to, as long as he knew a vague place name. This was his means of survival and also the channel for him to conduct private transactions with many people. He had always believed that he could escape no matter what he encountered, but this time it was completely unsuccessful.

Everyone immediately realized the seriousness of the matter.

Luo Xuanyi wouldn't let them dwell on this. She was surprised that the barrier had even slightly trembled when the chess beast had attempted to leave. This was definitely a treasure, and it would also allow Luo Xuanyi to leave immediately, preventing the sect from learning of her opportunity. If she stayed in the sect, she would either be poisoned to death by Hua Shen Daoist, or they would likely discover her and besiege her to seize her opportunity.

Now that they have used the chess-piercing beast to escape, with so many people disappearing at once, the sect cannot confirm who exactly escaped, and Luo Xuanyi will definitely be much safer.

Luo Xuanyi's eyes were fixed on the chess beast in Lu Kewei's arms, and she gently made gestures with her hands to switch.

Shen Edai hadn't expected that even the legendary beast wouldn't work. Her transmission talisman had also failed. As she pondered what to do next, she suddenly spotted that object beneath the dimly lit staircase.

"That's... me?"

I'm going to change the map. I'll open the sect map when I come back for revenge~

I hope there will be more comments! I am really grateful to the readers who gave me feedback~ I am very happy to see it hehe