Eleventh Uncle chid in from the side, "Mrs. Qin speaks with reason! Master, we need to think about where we might have missed the true location."
"Alright, let’s search again."
Old Xue gritted his teeth and, dragging his ailing body, continued the search.
Su Pan’er, on the other hand, stopped her movents and began to carefully recall the terrain of this place. She gradually constructed a three-dinsional map in her mind, delineating the location of this cave within the valley.
Upon closer examination, this place was located at the rear of the valley, right at the edge of the entrance as one enters deeper into the valley.
The edge of the entrance...
What a strategic location!
Exactly within the blind spot of people’s vision!
Normally, when people enter the valley, they would rush headlong into its depths, instead neglecting to observe the valley entrance and thus missing this cave.
Could it then be possible that the hidden passage would follow this sa logic?
Su Pan’er’s eyebrows lifted, and in her eyes flashed a mont of realization, truly a case of "not seeing the real appearance because one is within the mountain itself!"
"I know where the hidden passage is! Old Xue, follow quickly."
Su Pan’er took Yan Yan’s hand and walked briskly toward the paved passageway they had co from. Old Xue, though unclear about what Su Pan’er had discovered, followed quickly with the support of Eleventh Uncle.
The combat at the entrance of the cave had clearly reached a fever pitch!
Two personal soldiers, one on the left and one on the right, guarded the entrance, fending off the relentless attacks from the nurous bandits outside.
Seeing Su Pan’er leading Little Yanyan out, they were sowhat surprised.
"Madam."
"You must hold on!"
Looking at the two bloodied n before her, Su Pan’er gritted her teeth and spoke, then quickly began tapping on the mountain wall again.
Old Xue and the other followed them out.
This ti, Su Pan’er only gently tapped a few tis on the mountain wall before halting her movents, turning back to where she had previously tapped and tapped again a few tis.
Different from the previous muffled tapping sounds, the sounds here had a slight hollow echo. Others might not notice the difference, but to Su Pan’er’s ears, the disparity was enormous!
"It’s here!"
Su Pan’er felt a surge of excitent and began to search around the area where the hollow echo had co from, soon feeling a protrusion.
"Found it!"
As Su Pan’er spoke, a large rock on the side began to sink slowly, soon revealing an opening just big enough to allow an adult to pass through!
Everyone’s heart leaped with joy!
Old Xue was so excited that his entire body trembled, "The Great Master did not deceive us! Quick, let’s leave."
Eleventh Uncle, however, stopped them, "Given the looks of this cave, it seems to have been unused for quite so ti. It’s better that I go first. If there’s any danger, I can be on guard."
The people here were old, young, sick, and injured. By now, Eleventh Uncle was the only one who remained unhard — it made sense for him to lead the way.
After Eleventh Uncle jumped into the opening, Old Xue followed imdiately, then Little Yanyan.
When only Su Pan’er was left at the scene, her gaze swept over the two personal soldiers. After briefly pondering, she carefully inspected the chanism of the cave entrance, leaned into the cave for a good while to examine it, and then made up her mind.
Su Pan’er casually picked up a few stones and suddenly let out a loud yell!
"Watch out for the Thunderbolt Bomb, move away quickly!"
As she threw the stones outside, she reached out and pulled the two personal soldiers with her, dragging them further inside.
The thieves outside, who were engaging fervently in battle, were startled when they heard the words "Thunderbolt Bomb," and instinctively dodged backward in panic.
The two who had charged to the front were hit by stones imbued with Su Pan’er’s Inner Strength, emitting a gurgling sound from their throats before slowly collapsing to the ground.
By the ti the thieves outside realized they had been duped and charged into the cave, there was no one left inside—only an empty echoing cavern remained.
Filled with rage, the thieves stord into the cavern, but the group inside had mysteriously vanished without a trace!
At this mont, Su Pan’er and the others had already entered the depths of the cave, moving away from the entrance.
Before leaving, Su Pan’er also sabotaged the chanism for entering the cave. Those thieves outside surely wouldn’t find the cave so easily, and even if they did, the chanism was already destroyed. By the ti they might manage to forcefully disassemble it, her group would have already been far away!
The entrance to the cave, though small, opened into a more spacious area inside, but adults still had to hunch their backs to walk through. However, Yan Yan walked comfortably within.
The group didn’t dare stop. They continued onward, and along the way, aside from effortlessly killing a few large snakes hibernating in the cave, as well as so porcupines and yellow mongooses, they encountered no danger.
In the darkness, losing track of ti and direction, they traveled the cave for quite so ti when they suddenly ca upon a fork in the road. The group imdiately halted their steps.
Another fork in the road below, huh!
Su Pan’er narrowed her eyes, feeling an eerie sense of familiarity.
"Which way should we go?"
Old Xue was also a bit confused. His Master hadn’t ntioned this to him back in the day.
Su Pan’er closed her eyes, quietly feeling the surroundings: "Let’s go this way. I think there should be an underground river over here, and once we get there, it should be easier to find an exit."
"How does Mrs. Qin know there is an underground river ahead?" Eleventh Uncle asked curiously.
Su Pan’er glanced at him, "It’s simple, this paved passageway has higher air humidity, and there’s also a faint cold breeze. We’ve walked so long without much air flow. Here, the air has changed, but the other two passageways don’t have this condition. It’s clear that this paved passageway connects to the underground river."
"Since this paved passageway leads to the underground river, that ans it goes downward. Shouldn’t we take another route that goes up?"
Eleventh Uncle voiced his personal opinion again.
Before Su Pan’er could reply, Old Xue nodded in agreent: "Eleventh Uncle is right. Since this one leads downward, we should take the other passageway to leave the underground as soon as possible."
After crawling through the cave for quite so ti, feeling intensely suppressed, everyone was eager to erge. Su Pan’er thought for a mont and amiably decided to take the other pathway.
"Alright, let’s go this way."
Not long after they chose this path, they all noticed the cave walls rising, allowing them to walk upright without stooping. As they progressed, the terrain gradually changed, but instead of finding an exit, they encountered more and more forks in the road, causing everyone’s expression to grow more grim.
When they ca to a fork in the road for the fifth ti, the group stopped together without prior agreent.
"It’s over, it’s over, we seem to be lost!"
Eleventh Uncle’s face was drained of color, muttering to himself.
Old Xue had kept going purely out of sheer determination, but now, seeing no way out, he couldn’t go any further, and slumped onto the ground, panting heavily.
The two personal soldiers, though they had been bandaged up, simply couldn’t go on due to excessive exhaustion and collapsed onto the ground as well.
Little Yanyan, sensing the adults’ panic, quietly tugged at Su Pan’er’s clothes, saying nothing.
Only Su Pan’er was still observing the surroundings—the dense network of passageways resembling spiderwebs... why did they seem so familiar?
Reviews
All reviews (0)