Chapter 116: Searching for the Underground Palace
In the long night, the mountain is like a sleeping monster, lurking in a corner of the mortal world. Having devoured the blood and essence of many people in the dark night, the whole mountain is filled with a murderous atmosphere.
When you reach the top of the mountain, a Taoist temple comes into view.
Many of the people behind him are disciples of the Zongxun Sect. I wonder how they ended up in such a small Taoist temple.
A stream of light flashed by and came towards the top of the mountain. Jiaoran had no idea what that flickering light was in the dark night.
She stretched out her hand, and one of the streaks of light stopped in her palm. As she walked forward, the streak of light gradually gathered into a river of light like silver silk.
Seeing this scene, Fenghuang Chu and Zhou Zhi both stopped where they were.
Jiaoran didn't know what this was, and was about to ask Zhou Zhi and Fenghuang Chu when the streak of light suddenly pierced through Jiaoran's body like a sharp sword.
Mei Wan'er cried out, "Jiao Ran!"
He stepped forward and tried to grab Jiaoran and separate her from the flowing light. Yuan Jianlu was afraid that she would get hurt, so he quickly pulled her back and said, "Don't be impulsive. Let's take a look first."
Zhou Zhi's eyes gradually widened, and after a moment, her eyelids slowly closed, filled with relief.
The light just passed through her body. Jiaoran rubbed her chest and found no wound at all. The moment the light penetrated her, her body became extremely light, as if it had been washed.
"What is that?" Jiaoran looked in the direction where Liuguang left and asked Zhou Zhi.
She shook her head and said nothing, but her eyes followed the direction where Liuguang left.
Phoenix Chick said, "We're almost there, keep going forward."
The crowd circled on the top of the mountain for a while and then walked into the Taoist temple.
The disciples, in an orderly manner, like soldiers, entered the cave one by one through the holes under the statues enshrined in the Taoist temple.
The statue, still covered in dust, seemed to have been sitting in this courtyard for a very long time.
After a series of "creaking" sounds, the base of the statue automatically moved away, revealing a large hole that was only wide enough for one person to pass through.
Zhou Zhi took the lead in leading his disciples into the cave.
Following closely behind was the Phoenix chick, and then Yuan Jianlu and others.
Jiaoran walked down the stone steps until he reached the bottom of the earth. He didn't know how deep the cave was. They stopped on a huge platform. Mei Wan'er covered her mouth, surprise flowing from her eyes, "There's another world."
As he spoke, he couldn't help but move to the side, wanting to see what the boundary of the platform was.
After walking a few steps, Yuan Jianlu hurriedly grabbed her arm. Several pieces of gravel slipped from under her feet, and there was a deep abyss underneath.
His expression was the most fierce she had ever seen. "Why are you running around? This place is full of traps!"
He spoke as if he knew this place very well. Mei Wan'er pulled her arm away and said, "You've never been here, how do you know..."
"I--" Yuan Jianlu said one word and then fell silent. He grabbed her arm again, took out a short rope from somewhere, and tied her arm to his hand so that she could not be too far away from him.
Mei Wan'er was extremely angry, "What are you doing! Where are you tying up the dog?"
Yuan Jianlu didn't care whether she was happy or not. He followed them, pulling the rope in his hand. Every time he pulled, Mei Wan'er had to follow his pace.
Mei Wan'er was extremely frustrated and glanced at Jiaoran beside her, "Look at him, what's wrong with him!"
Jiaoran was worried that Yuan Jianlu would hurt Mei Wan'er, so he quickly calmed her anger, "Oh, it's dark in here. If there are really traps everywhere, we have to get closer. Who knows if Phoenix Chick brought us here to annihilate us here." As he said that, he looked at Yuan Jianlu meaningfully.
His eyes were cold and threatening. Mei Wan'er took a few steps closer and leaned close to Jiaoran, saying in a voice only the two of them could hear, "That makes sense. Don't stay too far away from us. If he really wants to attack, we can still cooperate with each other."
Zhou Zhi reached out and pushed open a stone door carved with a divine dragon.
The person behind him extinguished the torch.
As they stepped into the stone gate, a long corridor appeared in front of Jiaoran. It led to nowhere and was bottomless.
The corridor reminded Jiaoran of the secret room in the Governor's Mansion. The area under the Governor's Mansion was just like the secret passage on the top of the mountain, like a maze.
The corridor was paved with white stones, and the walls were made of translucent glazed tiles, and there seemed to be the sound of flowing water inside.
Jiaoran looked for a few seconds and saw flowing mercury through the wall.
Greatly shocked, Cainvtan.
How come there is also a Cajun Lake here?
Could it be that the secret room under the Governor's Mansion is also closely related to the Phoenix Chick, just like this one?
Every few steps, there is a lamp holder on the top of the wall. There is no bright lamp or candle in the lamp holder. Instead, there is a pearl the size of a baby's fist. The light emitted by the pearl illuminates the road ahead very clearly.
So grand.
This looks like a palace wall, but even if it is the imperial palace in Chang'an, it would not use so many luminous pearls to illuminate the path.
Jiaoran measured with his feet, and found a bright pearl every ten steps.
Mei Wan'er's old habit came back. After admiring the pearl, she marveled, "A pearl like this must have been very expensive to make. It's also been soaked in a special potion called Thousand Year Retention. The more days it's left in the sun, the more light it will absorb. Even in the dark night, it will shine forever."
Jiaoran also became interested. "So, how much silver do you think one can sell for?"
"This number." Mei Wan'er stretched out three fingers.
"Three hundred taels of silver?"
Mei Wan'er rolled her eyes. "Three hundred taels, what the hell? In a jewelry store, they'd sell for at least three thousand taels of silver. Look, they're perfectly round, with almost no flaws. They're truly the finest of the finest."
Such a luxurious underground palace was hidden under an inconspicuous Taoist temple.
Who would have thought that there were countless tunnels underground, and that just one tunnel contained dozens of pearls.
This is definitely not a fortune that ordinary people can possess.
Mei Wan'er whispered, "Let's go out later. You're good at fighting, so remember to steal a few and give me one."
Yuan Jianlu beside him sneered.
"What are you laughing at?" Mei Wan'er said dissatisfiedly, "If you don't steal the good stuff when you have it, you're wasting your brains. Besides, there are so many of them, they wouldn't even notice if we stole one."
Yuan Jianlu said, "No need."
"Hey, you don't need to. If you keep spending my money every day, you'll end up squandering all our wealth sooner or later."
Yuan Jianlu was hit so hard that he held his head. "Alright, alright, I'll pay you back ten or a hundred times what you spent, okay?"
"You can't even give me three times as much, a hundred times as much. Stop bragging and pretending. You're even more greedy than me. And at the rate you're spending your hidden money, we'll both be begging sooner or later."
…
Jiaoran cleaned his ears and felt a little more at peace. He walked faster and caught up with Fenghuangchu and the others.
"Hey, Jiaoran, why did you leave? Wait for me." Mei Wan'er hurriedly followed in small steps.
At the end of this tunnel is another stone gate.
This stone gate not only has dragon patterns on it, but also countless stone pillars, and the door is uneven.
At this moment, except for the first row of disciples who followed Zhou Zhi, all the disciples of Zongxun Sect turned around at the same time. Jiaoran was stunned for a moment, and seeing the Phoenix Chick staring at her, she had to turn around, but Shou Jiao was ready to be summoned at any time, fearing that he would stab her from behind.
Zhou Zhi stood in front of the door, stretched out his hand and pressed the stone pillar several times. No matter which buttons he pressed, the door slowly opened into a small window in the middle.
There is a person behind the small window.
Seeing that it was Zhou Zhi, he smiled and said, "Master, you are back."
Jiaoran heard the familiar voice and couldn't help but turn around. It was Shunguang.
Shunguang grinned, "I'm opening the door."
After saying that, the stone door slowly opened.
Zhou Zhi walked in and heard Shunguang say, "When can I go down the mountain to play?"
Zhou Zhi scolded, "You bastard, you have the easiest job, yet you still want to go out and play every day."
The people from the Zongxun Sect walked in one by one, heading in two directions respectively. Jiaoran turned his head to look and saw seven or eight stone chambers suspended in the air side by side. Each stone chamber could accommodate a hundred people. With the operation of the stone chamber in the middle in a flash, the stone chamber slowly slid down along a thick rope made of twisted steel above, and no one knew where it slid to.
Seeing that the next person coming up was a phoenix chick, he immediately clasped his fists and saluted.
Jiaoran and others also walked in.
At first, Shunguang didn't see clearly that it was Jiaoran, but when he saw her, he couldn't hide the surprise in his eyes. However, because of the phoenix chick, he immediately retracted the smile on his face, but his eyes kept looking at Jiaoran.
It seems... I've grown a little taller.
He pressed a key, and with a crackling sound, the stone chamber where Jiaoran and the phoenix chick were sank into the ground.
Shunguang actually became the gatekeeper here.
Jiao Ran asked, "Where are the other brothers?"
Shunguang glanced at the phoenix chick and didn't dare to speak.
Until Phoenix Chick said, "You two brothers and sisters, just say a few words to each other, can I still cover your mouth?"
The people of Zongxun Sect actually gave such an important responsibility of guarding the gate to the disciples of Huiying Sect.
Jiaoran thought that Huiyingmen might not be called Huiyingmen anymore, as it had become a part of Zongxun Sect.
"It's all here, Jiaoran, are you...are you okay these days?"
Jiaoran nodded and said nothing else.
Mei Wan'er saw that Jiaoran was sad, so she reached out and held her hand, wanting to comfort her. The fellow disciples were in such a situation of opposition, and when they met again they could only exchange pleasantries but not open their hearts. She must be sad.
Jiaoran looked carefully and found that Shunguang was much whiter than before in Xiutu. It should be because he had been here for many years and had not been exposed to the sun much, so his face was pale and not as strong as before.
"How are you guys?"
Shunguang uttered a grunt, "It's just three meals a day, so there's nothing missing to eat, but you can't go out--" He looked at the phoenix chick and didn't continue.
"Oh, there are a lot of poisonous insects in the underground palace recently. Be careful not to get bitten."
"poisonous insect?"
Before Shunguang could say anything, the stone chamber had already stopped.
Shunguang patted Jiaoran on the shoulder and said, "Go ahead, be careful."
After leaving the stone chamber, walking forward you will see several bronze doors.
The phoenix chick led the way, and the bronze doors opened one by one.
Jiaoran walked forward, looking around constantly, but still couldn't see Mu Jin.
"What are you looking for?"
Jiao Ran said, "You brought Mu Jin in, so naturally I went to look for him."
Phoenix Chick said, "Don't think too much, he's not in the underground palace."
But he clearly walked out of the Taoist temple that day, and Jiaoran saw it with his own eyes.
"When you captured him, didn't you bring him here?"
"Do you think Mu Jin is someone I can manipulate?"
Jiaoran was wondering whether he knew that Mu Jin was hiding here disguised as someone else.
Thinking about his own plan to sneak into the martial arts conference, he realized that Mu Jin was also plotting the same thing. "Then where did he go? You tricked me into coming here, and now you say Mu Jin isn't here?"
In front of me was a hexagonal stone chamber with a pillar in the middle that almost reached the sky.
The surroundings were so empty that it looked like a martial arts training ground.
Going in six directions, the ground pattern in each direction is different.
Jiaoran felt that they looked very familiar, as if he had seen these strange patterns in the underground palace of the Governor's Mansion.
There is a stone door in each direction, open, and no one knows where it leads to.
Phoenix Chick said, "Miss Mei, I have something to say to Jiao Ran. If you are tired, you can choose any room to rest."
Mei Wan'er didn't want to leave Jiaoran here alone. "No, how could I be tired? I only walked such a short distance."
Yuan Jianlu dozed off, stretched his waist and said, "I'm quite tired. Let's go back to the room and rest for a while."
Mei Wan'er was dissatisfied, "Then go to sleep by yourself."
As soon as he pulled the rope, Mei Wan'er moved forward involuntarily and was pulled away by him.
"Jiao Ran!"
Jiao Ran said, "It's okay, you go first, I'll come find you later, don't worry."
They went their separate ways.
The Phoenix Chick took her in another direction.
"You really don't know where Mu Jin is?" Jiaoran asked.
"If you really want to find him, then after you help me, I will find a way to find him and return him to you."
Jiao Ran asked, "Zhou Zhi doesn't know where he is either?"
"We did catch him, but unfortunately he escaped. Otherwise, I wouldn't have to lie and say he was here."
As we continued walking further in, the corridor became wider.
The road was covered with a soft blanket, very different from the path outside.
It wasn't long. When they reached one end, the young phoenix opened another stone door. The two of them went down to a place. When the stone door below opened, a gust of cold wind blew towards Jiaoran's face.
A strong light made Jiaoran squint his eyes slightly.
At this moment, a red and black centipede fell from the stone wall beside him. Phoenix Chick frowned, waved his sleeves, crushed the poisonous insect, wrapped it in a handkerchief, put it aside, and did not bring it inside.
Jiaoran followed him into the stone gate, which revealed a luxurious yet lifeless ice palace.
Jiaoran's eyes moved, and he saw that the path outside the Ice Palace was frequently patrolled by people, and the defense was very tight.
Continuing to follow the phoenix chick inside, Jiaoran saw a white jade bed.
The white jade bed was placed on four or five stone steps, with gauze hanging all around, and frost and snow had formed on the gauze due to the cold.
Jiaoran followed him up the stone steps and walked to the white jade bed.
I saw a woman lying on her back with her eyes closed and her hands clasped.
When the Phoenix Chick saw her, he sat beside the couch and only had eyes for her.
"who is she?"
The Phoenix Chick didn't dare to touch her, fearing that she would disappear. "My mother."
"What?!" Jiaoran thought that this young woman was his lover, but he didn't expect that this woman who looked only seventeen or eighteen years old was his mother.
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