Destroy supplies

"Wenren Rang, why does he appear again and again? What is his intention?" Shangguan Yichen slammed the biography of Wenren Rang shut and muttered to himself.

"All of She Lingzi's disciples are exceptionally talented, serving as advisors and generals to the state. He's been appearing repeatedly in Great Qi. Could it be that he's chosen Qi as a platform to deploy his strategies?" Zhong Yujing pondered. "He's been exchanging letters with King Yao, deliberately provoking Shen Qingci to assassinate you, General. Now, he's teaming up with King Ping to stir up war in the South Pass, plotting rebellion. None of this serves the emperor's purpose, and none of it benefits Great Qi. Every one of them is aimed at Qi. Could he be a spy sent by another nation, with the real goal of destroying Qi?"

Shangguan Yichen's eyes were deep. "I'm afraid his real purpose is not that simple." His expression changed sternly. He quickly placed the biography into the wooden box, put the box back into the groove, reset the stone niche, and said to Zhong Yujing, "We must quickly find a way out of this cave. Wen Renrang is alert and cunning. He often comes and goes here. If he finds us in this maze of traps, I'm afraid we won't be able to escape even if we have wings. We must get out of here before he finds us and capture him in one fell swoop. I want to personally interrogate him and find out what his intentions are!"

So they dragged Zhong Yujing to look for the exit of the mechanism in the cave. They searched the entire cave and did not see any stones of different colors or unusual grooves. When they were at a loss, they returned to the statue of She Lingzi. The legendary old man gazed kindly at the person standing in front of him. Zhong Yujing looked down at the white jade statue of She Lingzi and found a circular pattern in front of his crossed legs. Zhong Yujing and Shangguan Yichen walked closer to look at the pattern. It was composed of two identical layers of Bagua diagrams, with a total of sixteen hexagrams. Shangguan Yichen gently twisted it and found that both the inner and outer layers could be rotated. Zhong Yujing suddenly realized that as long as the inner and outer layers were rotated, and the eight hexagrams on the inner layer were matched one by one with the eight hexagrams on the outer layer, they could form eighty-eight sixty-four hexagrams. This was the mechanism of the cave!

Zhong Yujing concentrated on thinking, which hexagram would She Lingzi use as a mechanism to escape to heaven?

Escape, escape, Tianshan Escape Hexagram!

Yes, it must be this Dun Gua! She rotated the outer Qian Gua to align with the inner Gen Gua. Qian on top, Gen on bottom, Tianshan Dun. With a click, the secret door behind She Lingzi slowly lifted, revealing a broad road before them.

The two of them were overjoyed and walked towards the door. After they walked onto the wide road, the door behind them slowly closed. Zhong Yujing turned around and looked at the flawless white jade statue of She Lingzi. Escape to Tianshan was both an escape and a retreat. "The world has always been full of confusions. Once you look at it lightly, everything becomes nothing. It is better to escape." This was probably the last wish of old She Lingzi after seeing everything in the world.

After setting foot on this path, it became increasingly wider. Initially, some sections of the road were surrounded by dark walls, requiring them to light their lamps again. As they went deeper, they began to see faint sunlight filtering through. Even though the walls weren't made of crystal, they could still see clearly. Suddenly, the path ahead narrowed abruptly, like a girl's tightening waist, barely wide enough for Zhong Yujing and Shangguan Yichen to pass side by side, with no room for a third person. The scene upon entering stunned them both. Above them lay a sheet of transparent crystal, like a vast mirror spread out flat across it. Sunlight filtered through the lake, illuminating the mirror with a dazzling array of colors. The water flowed softly above them, and fish swam freely among the water plants. "That's the lake at the ferry!" Shangguan Yichen said. "The vapor and accumulated water at the cliff cave entrance originate from there."

And just under this lake, the military rations and supplies transported by Yifei filled the entire secret room.

Zhong Yujing and Shangguan Yichen couldn't help but look at each other in shock. Wen Renrang, also known as Wang Qiang, had secretly moved military rations and supplies here without telling anyone.

"No wonder he didn't rush to put out the fire on the night of the arson, but kept looking down at the lake. It turns out the supplies are indeed at the bottom of the lake!" Shangguan Yichen said with his arms crossed. He suddenly curled his lips into a sinister smile. Zhong Yujing knew that he had another plan, but when she saw him looking around, Zhong Yujing knew that he was looking for the exit mechanism again.

This secret room was slightly different from the previous caves. It was circular in shape, but it was dotted with countless columns, all as thick as century-old trees and built of dark brown stone. Shangguan Yichen stopped beside a column whose top didn't reach the lake and said to Zhong Yujing, "When you strike this one, the sound is different. The other columns sound brighter, and the material inside and out is the same, so they must be made of solid stone. This one makes a dull and low sound. Seeing that its top doesn't open to the lake, it's likely that the trees in the forest near the shore are very old, with roots deep in the soil that have spread here. To conceal their presence, they deliberately built several stone pillars to encase the tree's roots, blending them in with the rest, making them difficult to detect. What a deep mind and strategy, to create such an ingenious craftsmanship!"

Zhong Yujing was also amazed. Shangguan Yichen grasped the column with both hands and twisted it in one direction. Sure enough, the door beside the column slowly opened. Shangguan Yichen glanced at Zhong Yujing and said, "Don't move yet. Wait here." Zhong Yujing nodded to him. Shangguan Yichen nodded and smiled, then ran through the open door. A moment later, he ran back and said to Zhong Yujing, "It's just as I expected. Along the way, only this door is a one-way mechanism. The only way out is through this. Unless someone holds the column to prevent it from turning back, once the stone door falls, anyone who exits will be unable to return and will have to go through the cave in the cliff face again. If there is any way to rescue them, they must find the century-old tree wrapped by the column and see if they can turn the mechanism from the outside. But even if they can, the jungle of Nansai is so dense that even Wen Renrang himself might not be able to find the tree."

"In today's world, I'm afraid that She Lingzi is the only one who can come up with such a supernatural plan." Zhong Yujing couldn't help but sigh.

As he spoke, he heard the stone door behind Shangguan Yichen creaking shut. Shangguan Yichen smiled grimly, picked up the lampshade on the ground, lit it, and said to Zhong Yujing, "Burn these military supplies so they can never find them!"

Zhong Yujing understood and was very excited. She picked up the lantern and walked towards the door. The wick was already burning and very long, and there was plenty of oil. Shangguan Yichen held the wick with both hands and slowly turned it. The door behind Zhong Yujing suddenly opened slowly again. Shangguan Yichen ran over quickly and, together with Zhong Yujing, threw the lantern at the wall where the military rations and supplies were leaning against. The lampshade broke into pieces, and the flames instantly ignited the military rations. It spread to the entire secret room at lightning speed, and the fire soon caught fire on all the military rations and supplies.

Shangguan Yichen pulled Zhong Yujing and ran into the secret room behind the door. It was a simple and spacious square underground storage room. If they had not broken through numerous traps along the way, who could have imagined that there would be such a situation not far away.

Shangguan Yichen stood beside an ordinary-sized tree trunk in the corner. This time, he turned it effortlessly, and the lid on the top of the storage room opened wide. At the same time, the door they had just come out of began to slowly fall. Zhong Yujing finally saw that the secret room was engulfed in fire. The flames illuminated the mirror on the ceiling with a bright red. No one knew that under the calm lake, a fire had burned everything to ashes.

Shangguan Yichen climbed onto the ground and pulled Zhong Yujing up with him. The mechanism beneath his feet slowly closed. The ground was bare, looking like a flat, cleared area, perhaps a few days after a fire, leaving some ash and weeds. One would have never guessed there was something else hidden beneath the ground. This was indeed where the Nansai people had camped that day.

Everything flowed smoothly. That day, Wang Qiang, also known as Wen Renrang, set up camp here, shielding the area. They then quietly turned the tree leading to the storage room, unlocking the mechanism. When Yifei and his men arrived with the rations and supplies, they deposited them in the storage room and then departed. To Zhong Yujing and Shangguan Yichen, the rations and supplies vanished as if by magic. Later, Wen Renrang would sneak back into the cave and steal the rations and supplies through the passageway, ensuring that even if Yifei knew the mechanism and could open the storage room himself, he would never find the supplies.

It was already daytime, the sky was bright outside, the air was cool but fresh, Zhong Yujing and Shangguan Yichen finally survived the cliff and escaped from the cave. There were birds singing in the forest, their voices were pleasant to the ears, and they were still alive, and being alive was good.

Zhong Yujing and Shangguan Yichen smiled knowingly. When the sunlight shone on their faces, they realized how good it was to be alive.

Suddenly, a voice in the distance exclaimed, "Deputy General! There are people by the lake!", "Two men!", "The taller one looks like our general!!!"

Yi Shi's voice said, "Come with me and take a look!"

The sound of horse hooves whizzed towards them, and Yi Shi reined in his horse in front of them. He took a closer look, his eyes reddened, and he dismounted, knelt in front of the two men and said, "General! Your subordinates have found you!" He looked up at Zhong Yujing and said, "Inspector Jing, so you are still alive..." He was choked for a moment and couldn't speak.

The soldiers were shocked and looked up, confirming that it was indeed the two of them! They were all surprised and happy.

Shangguan Yichen smiled, "Everyone, please stand up. I'm fine, no need to worry. I was just about to return to camp when I didn't expect you to find me."

Yi Shi stepped forward and said, "General, when you travel alone next time, could you please leave a message for me? Don't make your subordinates worry to death, thinking that something has happened to you..." There was a lot of grievance and complaint in his tone. He had followed Shangguan Yichen since he was a child, and was used to being disrespectful to his elders and subordinates.

Shangguan Yichen laughed and patted Yishi on the shoulder. "Alright, I'm sorry for this. Go back and drink three cups as punishment, okay?"

Yi Shi rubbed his nose and said reluctantly, "I can't drink as much as the general."

Shangguan Yichen laughed out loud again.

Yi Shi looked at Zhong Yujing again, surprised and puzzled, and asked, "Inspector Jing is safe and sound. It's true that good fortune brings blessings. How did you get back?"

Zhong Yujing was slightly stunned. She looked at Shangguan Yichen, not knowing what to say for a moment. The twists and turns and hardships involved were difficult to explain in just a few words. Moreover, there was also the relationship between the two of them...

As he was hesitating and pondering, he suddenly heard Shangguan Yichen say, "It was this general who rescued Inspector Jing. He and I are both safe and sound. You don't have to worry. As long as I'm here, no one in the army will be harmed."

Everyone was relieved and their morale was greatly boosted.

In front of the crowd, with countless pairs of eyes, Zhong Yujing restrained herself from looking at Shangguan Yichen. She just stood there with her eyes lowered, without saying a word.