Yue Qi was right; Yan Qing was indeed trying to send a message out. However, the person she originally wanted to find was not Yue Qi.
To be honest, she was just as shocked as the other person when she saw Yue Qi and her older brother at the Zhang family's old house.
The fact that these two have arrived here must mean they received an invitation from Zhang Nana. This invitation is clearly a suicide mission; how could Yan Qing not be worried!
In desperation, she could only secretly leave behind the geomantic map, hoping that they would discover Sun Ning and his group inside the cave and realize the trap of the Zhang family's old house.
At the same time, it was also to save their lives.
Before Yan Qing was locked up, she had secretly experimented with it. These outside adventurers simply couldn't unlock the "Zhang Family Old House Dungeon" on their own.
The only group of adventurers who managed to open the instance did so because someone had contacted him. Therefore, if Yue Qi and his group could obtain the geomantic map he left behind, they could also open the instance and temporarily escape the death formation of the fake Zhang family mansion.
Furthermore, the geomantic map could guide them to find Sun Ning and his group in the cave. This would greatly increase their chances of survival.
She confirmed that, so far, the elders of the Zhang family mansion believed that all the adventurers had perished. Therefore, they were temporarily focusing their attention on the upcoming Sacred Fire Festival.
Then, she and the remaining three women in red were placed under guard by the Grand Elder's men. The man guarding them was a handsome young man named Chu Jiang.
However, this "Chu Jiang" was not the person she knew. According to Youming Jinli's speculation, this person should be a strange person. Moreover, it seems that he holds a fairly high position in the Zhang family's old mansion.
Yan Qing felt a pang of regret. She hadn't noticed a memorial tablet for someone named "Chu Jiang" in the ancestral hall. Therefore, she had to be extremely careful around this person.
Unexpectedly, these past two days, apart from being laid down on the ice bed by Chu Jiang every night, Yan Qing has been walking a fixed route in the fake Zhang family old house while holding flowers.
This route starts from the ancestral hall, goes along the courtyard of Luohua Cave Girl to the artificial hill, and then returns to the ancestral hall from the other side of the artificial hill along the corridor, forming almost a perfect circular loop.
Throughout the entire process, Chu Jiang didn't say a single word to them; on the contrary, he seemed to be avoiding them at all costs.
The next day, Yan Qing finally realized something was wrong. Her body seemed to be getting weaker and weaker.
Every day after returning from the fake Zhang family old house, she felt as if all her strength had been drained, and she would fall asleep as soon as she got back.
This state is clearly abnormal.
Not only that, according to Lingxi's judgment, her face had become extremely pale, as if all the blood in her body had almost drained away. In Lingxi's words, her master's pleasant scent was gone.
All of this made her wary, so on the third night, when she was taken to that underwater chamber again, she drank two bottles of golden water beforehand to conserve her strength.
Before she set off, she specifically instructed Lingxi to settle things with Zhang Xinxin. Whether she was the real Luohua Cave girl or not, the fifteenth was approaching, and she didn't have time to waste with her.
Sure enough, not long after "Chu Jiang" led the four of them to the underwater chamber, sharp whistles echoed throughout the Zhang family's old house, and everyone about to enter the ice bed became terrified.
The three women in red who were traveling with her huddled together and trembled with fear upon hearing the whistle.
"Oh no! Something's happened to the Flower Cave Maiden! The Cave God is about to unleash his fury again! What do we do?!"
"What? Something happened to the Flower Cave Maiden?" Yan Qing's question came at just the right moment. "How is that possible?!"
Chu Jiang's expression turned venomous. He looked at Yan Qing and the other three with the eyes of someone looking at a dead man, his back teeth clenching so hard they made a clanging sound.
Yan Qing noticed that something was off about this person!
"You all stay here and don't go anywhere!" Chu Jiang said, then ran off without looking back.
Yan Qing was no fool; at a time like this, not running away would be tantamount to courting death!
She turned and ran out of the dark room. The terrain here was very simple, with only one path from top to bottom.
As soon as I stepped outside, I saw the huge stone platform. It was shrouded in mist, with white steam rising from it, making it almost impossible to see the platform's shadow clearly.
Behind the stone platform is a long, winding path that seems to have no end.
She had never traveled this path before, but today she was determined to explore it. She couldn't miss such a golden opportunity!
Yan Qing released Lingxi to scout ahead. Lingxi initially appeared to be feeling unwell, but as they descended, it became increasingly energetic. By the end, it seemed to have received a stimulant, its spirits instantly soaring.
"Master, I feel like I'm about to fly!" Lingxi seemed a little lightheaded.
Yan Qing's heart skipped a beat. Lingxi was a strange creature! What she found comfortable might not be a good thing for her.
Sure enough, the further she walked, the dizzier she became.
This feeling of drowsiness seemed to come from the depths of my soul, and even drinking the golden water couldn't help.
Left with no other choice, Yan Qing simply pulled out a small knife from her pocket, intending to use the sharp pain to keep herself awake.
"No, Master, please don't!" The voice of the Netherworld Brocade Fox echoed in his mind. "Master's blood is a great tonic for this place, please don't take it!"
Yan Qing instantly woke up and immediately put away the knife. At the same time, the dice on her wrist began to spin rapidly, eventually flying to the top of her head.
A hazy yellow light shot out from the dice, and Yan Qing finally felt relieved.
As she continued walking, her feet were already faintly touching the water.
Yan Qing looked up and stared straight ahead, only to find that there was no path at all. Before her lay a vast lake, with shimmering blue light reflecting off its surface in the distance.
At this moment, she was left with only two choices: go down or not go down.
The water gradually rose to her ankles, even though she had been standing still the whole time.
The water is still alive?
As if to confirm her suspicions, the blue lake water suddenly surged upwards, reaching up to her calves.
It was only a short while before she was completely submerged. Yan Qing finally hardened her heart and began rummaging through her ring for diving gear.
The lake water rose steadily, as if it had been planned. The moment she was fully armed, the blue lake water completely submerged her head.
Yan Qing began to swim towards the water with all her might, but less than a meter behind her, the lake water seemed to be cut off, forming a dry-wet separation zone in mid-air.
Behind her was still the same path she had come from, clean and spotless, without a trace of moisture.
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