Xu Qian looked at Yan Jiudu's barely remaining skin and the red light on the other side of the wall, and sighed.
"Just bear with it and it will pass," he said.
The Eight Directions Return to the Origin!
[Yan Jiudu killed!]
[Congratulations, hero! You have successfully captured the wanted man, Yan Jiudu, and are entitled to a generous reward. The reward is 1000 gold, plus a 50 gold processing fee, totaling 950 gold. This is the 950 gold; please check your account.]
[Congratulations, hero! Yan Jiudu, whom you have a bounty on, has been severely wounded by Xu Qian within the time limit. Your grudge has been avenged, how gratifying!]
How wonderful! How wonderful, my ass!
Xu Qian practically gritted his teeth as he accepted the 950 gold coins. This was the ultimate swindler! He even charged me 50 gold coins! That's equivalent to 5600!
Having barely collected his bounty, Xu Qian laid the heavily injured Yan Jiudu down. The person he had seriously injured wouldn't die, he would just be unconscious. He could just switch to his Wanhua account later to collect the corpse. Given Yan Jiudu's current condition, it would be better for him to kill him to survive. Of course, he wouldn't say that he was mainly reluctant to let the 950 gold coins fall into the hands of some extraterrestrial visitor.
The clock on the other side of the wall was still ringing, making people feel annoyed and confused.
Xu Qian frowned, refreshed his meditation buff, picked up his sword, and used a great light footwork technique to enter the red-glowing cave. He wanted to see what kind of thing was inside!
To be honest, aside from that so-called 'Heavenly Dao,' he's never been afraid of anyone in this world! Besides, with the Floating Cloud Technique in hand and the Void Sword Intent, he's invincible!
Well... that's what he said, but once inside, Xu Qian was still very cautious.
The reason is simple: the 'architecture' here is just too incongruous.
The cave is a near-circular structure, with an overall space comparable to a 400-meter running track. The platform he was standing on was the outermost ring at the top, but the standing surface was only about one meter wide; one wrong step and he could fall off. The 'rings' decreased in size from top to bottom, like a giant bowl. Between each pair of rings was a stone staircase about three meters high, serving as a connection between the upper and lower levels.
As for the red light inside the cave...
Xu Qian picked up a red firefly from the damp wall. It was alive. Red fireflies lived on both sides of each floor. These fireflies could glow when they were alive, and they would turn into fluorescent powder when they died. Their whole lives were for the light. An old friend of his used to like raising these little creatures. He never expected that someone else would have the same taste as that guy.
Xu Qian looked down and saw six large bells placed at the bottom of the 'bowl', which were still ringing, though the sound was much quieter than before. However, looking down from here, Xu Qian understood why this place was designed as a 'bowl'. With the bells below, it was practically an enlarged megaphone.
Without much hesitation, Xu Qian used his lightness skill to fly down and soon arrived at the bottom of the 'bowl'. In the center of the six large bells was an open 'lid', and it was clear that Yan Jiudu had climbed up from under that lid.
Wow, that's quite the perseverance. Even bleeding from all seven orifices, he still managed to crawl out. Even Xu Qian was impressed.
Xu Qian opened his friend list. At this point, Meng Liangchen's health bar was in dire straits. If he couldn't find this person soon, he might really be doomed... Oh well, a thousand is a thousand, what if he gets it back? Right?
[The grudges of the martial world are settled in a day; we only hope that heroes will lend a helping hand. Someone is now offering 1000 gold to invite all heroes to launch a bounty for Meng Liangchen. The total bounty has reached 1000 gold; don't miss out!]
Soon, a new character, 'Reward', appeared on his minimap.
Xu Qian moved the 'lid' aside, shone his flashlight inside, and found it pitch black except for a narrow passageway that he could vaguely make out. He put away the flashlight and crawled inside.
As soon as he came down, Xu Qian smelled a very strong stench of blood, followed by a damp, watery smell coming from the other end of the passageway.
The combination of these two smells was truly indescribable. After climbing down for a while, Xu Qian began to regret his decision. "I guess I'm just destined to be stuck with these narrow passages. Why are all the paths so small and cramped? It's ridiculous..."
Fortunately, this time it wasn't like Chang'ai Mountain, and he didn't suffer for so long. After about ten minutes, Xu Qian saw a light, which should be the end of the passage.
The closer you get to the end, the clearer the view becomes.
Before leaving, Xu Qian noticed that the exit was a perfectly round circle. He had previously heard the team leader say that the place they were standing on was related to the ancient kingdom of Danzhu. But now, looking at it this way, Xu Qian felt there were many suspicious points. Based on the various circles he had seen when he came down and the incredibly regular walls in the 'ice cellar', could the ancient kingdom of Danzhu have created such an effect by hand? Was it possible?
Whether it's possible or not, let's leave that aside for now, but at least he knows that things here are definitely not that simple.
Xu Qian braced himself on both sides and leaped out of the tunnel. As soon as he jumped out, he came into contact with an eyeball, or more accurately, a giant python whose eyeball was bigger than his face. It was entirely black. If the python hadn't been able to move, Xu Qian would have liked the color of its pupils, olive green.
"Friend, could you please say hello before you come out? You look rather scary."
Xu Qian leaped into the air with a Cloud Ladder Leap, and in the few seconds he was suspended, he cast a Life Tai Chi spell. Before the Life Tai Chi landed, he immediately followed up with Shattered Star and Devouring Sun and Moon. He intended to unleash his first skill on the giant python, but for some reason, the python didn't move at all, just staring blankly at him, its eyes blinking, and it was even kind of... cute? (Xu Qian: Looks like I've really been single for too long, even a giant python looks kind of cute to me...)
"hiss--"
Just as Xu Qian hesitated whether to fight or not, the giant python moved again, but it... it lay down?
What's going on here? Xu Qian was really confused. He scratched his head and thought for a moment, then decided to get down first. This giant python seemed to be intelligent, so he decided to see what it was up to.
The giant python raised its head again, turned around, and slid behind Xu Qian. At the same time, it turned its head back to look at Xu Qian, as if to tell him to follow it.
Xu Qian glanced at it, then looked at the mini-map, and it was indeed pointing in the same direction as the character '赏' (shǎng, meaning 'reward').
"Hiss—" The giant python coiled up on the spot, truly waiting for him.
“It really is a spirit creature,” Xu Qian followed after it in a few steps. “Since it’s a spirit creature, you should be able to understand me. I have a question for you. Have you seen a teenager with something stuck to his chin…” Before he could finish his question, he was drawn to the layers upon layers of mechanisms in front of him. They were interconnected, leaving no room for error. But this nine-square grid… it looks like it’s been deliberately damaged? Was it those people?
Xu Qian thought for a while and felt it was very likely. After all, those people were capable of even breaking into his tomb. He just didn't know if they were still alive. He hadn't even settled his own score yet; he hoped they weren't all dead...
After several unexpected turns of events, Xu Qian followed the giant python to a stone gate nearly five meters high. Looking up, he saw a crescent moon carved on the stone gate...
Xu Qian was taken aback. "Your master is from the Hidden Moon Sect?"
The giant python did not respond. After a moment, the stone door moved to both sides and opened.
In an instant, dust filled the air, and Xu Qian was choked by the dust, which showed how many years it had been since the door had been opened.
"It really is you. After all these years, you've even lost your sword. How pathetic." A female voice came from inside, ethereal and annoying.
Xu Qian shrugged. Although she wasn't entirely wrong, she still had to retaliate. "I've always wondered how there could be another person in this world with such terrible taste as you."
As soon as he finished speaking, a sword aura was drawn out from within, light and airy.
Xu Qian dodged with a light-footed movement, and grumbled, "Hey, hey, hey, that's going too far! A gentleman uses words, not fists!"
"I am a woman, not a gentleman." With that, the woman stepped forward, dressed in fiery red, her eyes smiling.
"Miss Chu, why didn't you stay at the Hidden Moon Sect? Why did you come to this desolate wilderness? It's completely out of your style!"
Upon hearing this, Chu Qingxia looked at him with a strange expression until he was almost annoyed by her gaze, before saying in a drawn-out tone, "It seems you really don't know."
"Huh? What do you know?" Xu Qian didn't understand for a moment.
Instead of answering, Chu Qingxia asked, "Where were you during the battle between immortals and demons in Hidden God Valley?"
"...Huh?" Xu Qian was even more confused. "When did the fighting start in Hidden God Valley? How come I didn't know?"
Chu Qingxia still didn't answer his question, and continued to say to herself, "In the battle of Hidden God Valley, all the immortal sects and families that participated were buried at the bottom of the valley, without exception."
"Again, without exception?" Just as Xu Qian was about to ask why she was here, he noticed Chu Qingxia's shadow—no, it was her divine sense. Xu Qian looked up at her, "...What do you mean by this?"
"It's all gone, just like you see." Chu Qingxia turned around, and behind her were the longevity lamps of the Hidden Moon Sect, a total of 1,083 lamps, all of which had been extinguished.
“All…gone.” Xu Qian looked at the longevity lamps that had been extinguished, and felt a strange, indescribable feeling, just like the day he failed his tribulation. It was so sudden, leaving him completely unprepared.
"Your sword," Chu Qingxia took out his Crimson Lotus, but did not give it to him directly, "No matter what happened to you back then, or what Master Changliu was hiding, now that you're here, please do me a small favor."
"My master... what exactly do you know? And what does this have to do with my master?"
"Do you want it or not?" Chu Qingxia didn't want to answer him.
Looking at her face, Xu Qian reluctantly agreed with a "yes".
Chu Qingxia tossed the Crimson Lotus to him and said, "If you really want to know, go to Hidden God Valley and find out what she's hiding from you."
Xu Qian finally found his orange weapon, but he wasn't happy at all. He just replied sullenly, "I'll look into it."
Chu Qingxia pointed to the giant python at her feet and said to him, "Xiao Qing, I need you to take care of it and take it out."
Xu Qian lowered his head and glanced at Xiao Qing, not asking why she had evolved from a bamboo viper into a giant python—not only had her species changed, but even her color had changed. He asked her, "And what about you?"
“I,” Chu Qingxia patted Xiaoqing’s ’little head’, her eyes unusually gentle, “I will stay here forever, forever.”
"hiss--"
...
Before leaving, Xu Qian remembered Meng Liangchen's situation and hurriedly asked her, "By the way, what about those people who broke in? They're not dead, are they? Did Xiao Qing eat them?"
"Pah!" Chu Qingxia said with disgust. "You're the one who eats people! Those people are filthy. How could I let Xiaoqing eat them?"
Xu Qian changed his approach, "Then I'll help you take the 'trash' out while I'm at it?"
"what ever."
“Let’s go, Xiaoqing, take me to find the ‘garbage’.”
"hiss--"
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