An Honghan seemed oblivious, never uttering a sound of cold from beginning to end.
Soon, three intersections appeared in the tunnel.
Xi Xizhi and An Honghan exchanged glances, and in the end, An Honghan made the decision to swim towards the middle tunnel.
The tunnel was winding and twisting, as if it were built on purpose to make people dizzy. Before long, Xi Xizhi couldn't even tell which way was north, south, east, or west.
The opening that appeared between Qingyuan Pond definitely showed signs of human construction. However, the further you went in, the smoother the stone walls on both sides of the tunnel became. How could humans have such ingenious craftsmanship!
Not long after, three more forks appeared.
An Honghan still chose the middle road, but after walking for a while, another fork in the road appeared, and some intersections even had five roads.
Xi Xizhi couldn't help but curse inwardly, "Who the hell has all this free time? To build this kind of tunnel, it's clearly a maze!"
No, it's even more disorienting than a maze.
This tunnel constantly tempts you to make choices.
Moreover, this tunnel is underwater, and if an ordinary person doesn't know the maze's route, they will eventually suffocate from lack of air.
The only way is to memorize the correct route of the maze and complete the entire route in the shortest possible time to reach the final destination.
Xi Xizhi finally understood... why emperors of all generations built Qingyuan Pool, yet no one had ever actually gone inside to explore its secrets!
Putting aside the fact that the water in this pool is as cold as ice, which is unbearable for ordinary people, no one can hold their breath underwater.
Just as this thought came to mind, Xi Xi subconsciously looked at An Honghan.
As expected, An Honghan's face turned completely red from holding his breath.
Xi Xizhi was about to grab An Honghan's hand and persuade him to go back and come again next time.
Before she could express her meaning, An Honghan had already grabbed her shoulders and pressed his lips against hers.
The moment their lips touched, only one word popped into Xi Xizhi's mind—cold.
After staying in the water for a long time, An Honghan's whole body was stiff with cold, and even his lips felt like they were frozen.
Xi Xizhi's temperature was about the same as when she was on the shore, still warm. This made An Honghan feel as if he had touched a warm stove the moment he touched her, and he didn't want to let go once he hugged her.
Their lips met, and An Honghan's tongue quickly slipped into Xi Xizhi's mouth.
To give An Honghan some air, Xi Xizhi not only didn't refuse, but also cooperated fully, slowly wrapping her arms around An Honghan, wanting to transfer her warmth to him.
Upon noticing the child's intentions, An Honghan's eyes flickered, and he pushed the little boy away.
Xi Xizhi is able to swim in the water only by relying on spiritual power. However, if someone transfers their own body heat to him, Xi Xizhi will become afraid of the cold.
An Honghan would rather be cold himself than let a certain child suffer from the cold.
Taking the child's hand, An Honghan bent his index finger and wrote in her palm: "I know the connection between the tunnel and that blueprint."
If he hadn't come in, An Honghan would never have known that the parchment contained the entire contents of the tunnel.
Yes, that drawing is a map.
The routes on the map alone are complicated and difficult to understand.
Especially in some places, many routes intersect, and if you are not careful, you may go astray.
An Honghan wrote down his guesses on Xi Xizhi's palm.
Xi Xizhi was deeply moved by An Honghan's trust in her and his complete honesty.
Remembering the familiar feeling I had every time I saw kraft paper, a flash of inspiration struck me, and I suddenly remembered... a formation.
When I was cultivating immortality with my master in the deep mountains and forests, my master always liked to study those formations, especially in his study, where 70% of the books were about formations.
“Take the paper out and let me see.” Xi Xizhi also grasped An Honghan’s palm and wrote.
An Honghan took out a piece of brown paper from his pocket and spread it out in his palm.
The paper on this kraft paper is very special; it will not be soaked in water and will not disintegrate. The ink used to mark the lines is even more difficult to find; it is made from millennia-old ink and will not fade no matter how much wind and rain it is exposed to.
The blueprints were floating in the water; if An Honghan hadn't been holding them up, they would have been swept away by the current long ago.
Looking at the blueprint, Xi Xizhi felt more and more that some of the lines on the blueprint were quite similar to that formation.
Xi Xizhi's attention was completely focused on the crisscrossing routes. No wonder she hadn't thought of it before. The person who designed this tunnel was really too insidious, deliberately building many side roads to confuse people.
One explanation is that 80% of the tunnels inside were built to fool people...
Only the remaining 20% is the most important part of the tunnel, the part used to support the formation.
Xi Xizhi leaned close to An Honghan, her chubby index finger tracing the lines on the drawing, thinking to herself, "If only I could use a pen to cross out the extra lines."
Having roughly guessed what Xi Xizhi was thinking, An Honghan reached out and pulled a hairpin from her hair bun, writing in her palm: "For routes that cannot be taken, use the hairpin to poke a point."
This will eliminate unnecessary routes.
Xi Xizhi agreed, grasped the hairpin and began to recall the formation, then calmly began to strike the points.
Every now and then, An Honghan would hug Xi Xizhi and breathe into her, causing the blush on Xi Xizhi's face to rise again before it had even faded.
Since she could help An Honghan with his troubles, Xi Xizhi didn't refuse. She thought to herself, "Let's see who dares to say I'm freeloading now! Look, I'm doing something worthwhile too!"
In fact, even An Honghan was quite surprised. He had always thought that Xi Xizhi knew nothing about anything except eating, drinking, and sleeping. Seeing that she didn't even put in the effort to cultivate every day, An Honghan thought of Xi Xizhi as a lazy and gluttonous weasel.
Seeing that she has some knowledge of formations, I feel surprised, delighted, and proud.
Xi Xizhi punched a hole in most of the routes on the blueprints to exclude them, leaving only the necessary routes.
There is only one route, which is the shortest path.
After wasting a lot of time underwater, An Honghan saw that Xi Xizhi had successfully deciphered the route on the blueprint, so he took Xi Xizhi's hand and swam forward together.
Following the correct route, they were no longer as uncertain as before when they encountered forks in the road.
The journey was very smooth and without any problems.
There was only one thing that made Xi Xizhi very dissatisfied: why were the number of times she was transferring her qi to him increasing?
Previously, An Honghan would only kiss him once every incense stick's time.
Later on, almost every quarter of an incense stick's time, An Honghan would pull him into his arms and do it.
This made Xi Xizhi's lips even more swollen and red, and her eyes filled with increasing anger!
Does this count as getting a good deal?!
Xi Xizhi inwardly roared to the sky, wishing she could yell at An Honghan twice.
However, despite her anger at this shameless act of taking advantage of her, Xi Xizhi felt no disgust, nor did she resist.
Xi Xizhi already suspected that she had completely given up, so much so that she was too lazy to resist.
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