Ch.211: Forks in the Road; Spirits Alarm the Underground of the Heavenly Capital
RuoYe had already unwrapped itself from his wrist, waiting at the ready, but it retreated and calmed after Xie Lian saw who it was. Xie Lian said, “You… Yin Yu?”
Since who knows when a giant hole that could allow the entry of two persons had appeared, and Yin Yu poked half of himself out from the hole, a sharp shovel in his hands. He let out a breath and wiped away his sweat, “Your Highness, it’s me. Thank goodness I didn’t dig to the wrong spot, let’s get out of here!”
He had actually forgotten there was a holy spiritual device in Yin Yu hands – the Earth Master’s sacred shovel! That this device wasn’t confiscated, it’s a blessing from the heavens! It seemed, sometimes it was a good thing not to have too much sense of a presence, such as when amidst the chaos of battle, the enemy would for sure not go for this person; yet on the flip side, his own troops might injure him by accident. Xie Lian was just about to go to pull him out when his body involuntarily took a step back. Yin Yu was puzzled, “Your Highness? What is it?”
Xie Lian was also puzzled, why would he back away? Then soon after he realized the one who was backing away wasn’t him but Shi Qing Xuan who had moved into his body.
That shovel of the Earth Master was considerably familiar, so it wasn’t hard to think of the ones who had utilized it in the past. An inexplicable wave of terror filled Xie Lian, and it was probably Shi Qing Xuan’s subconscious reaction. Fortunately, Shi Qing Xuan’s reaction wasn’t overly agitated, and quickly returned the body’s control back to Xie Lian. Xie Lian also quickly forgot to ask Hua Cheng who the one they must enlist the help of to ascend the heavens, and hastily jumped down into that hole, dropping into the Heavenly Capital’s underground with Yin Yu.
Above them, it didn’t take long before the hole closed. They crawled inside the dark tunnel for a bit when Xie Lian suddenly realized something, “Yin Yu, can this Earth Master shovel dig through the barrier locking down the Heavenly Capital?”
“I… don’t think so?” Yin Yu replied.
“Huh?”
Shi Qing Xuan spoke up, “Then that means although this sacred shovel is a spiritual device, but digging all around you’d still be in the Heavenly Capital. Doesn’t that make it useless?”
Yin Yu scratched his head, “It’s not entirely useless… A barrier array has been set up outside the palaces of every martial heavenly official to slow the recovery of their injuries. I thought if they continued to remain in their palaces, they wouldn’t be able to recover their fighting powers for years, so why not use the Earth Master shovel to dig out a secret room in the underground somewhere and move all the martial gods there, and after everyone’s mostly recovered we can try to break out?”
“Wait!” Shi Qing Xuan called out, “Hua Chengzhu says you tell those usel… those martial gods to hide themselves and heal on their own; you’d be seeking your own deaths if you try to break out under Jun Wu’s hands.”
Yin Yu was shocked, “Your Highness, you… can communicate with Chengzhu? I thought it’s impossible?”
“No no no,” Xie Lian said, “The one talking to you just now wasn’t me.”
Shi Qing Xuan said, “It’s me! It’s me, Your Highness Yin Yu!”
But no matter how they spoke the words came from one mouth, and Yin Yu was confused, “It’s you, but it’s still you, isn’t it you, Your Highness?”
Shi Qing Xuan said, “Gah, it’s me, me, the Wind Master! Wait, now you should call me the Former Wind Master. I’ve used the Soul Shifting Spell. Sigh, relaying messages is such a pain.”
He entered this side to listen and watched, then returned to his body on the other side to relay everything to Hua Cheng, repeatedly coming in and out, just thinking about it was tiresome. Yin Yu quickly replied, “Oh oh oh, such hard work. So that was it!” And he returned to digging with renewed vigour. The two crawled forward for a while before Yin Yu spoke up again, “Here… should be good! Your Highness, please stay hidden here for now, I’ll go pick up the next heavenly official.”
The tunnel they entered at the beginning was gradually closing, and Xie Lian said, “Huh? By yourself? I’ll go with you.”
“No, it’s alright.” Yin Yu said, “Truth to be told, Your Highness, the bigger the hole the Earth Master shovel digs, the more power it’d use, so it’ll probably be faster if I go by myself. The closest martial god palace near here is…” He seemed to have thought for a moment before he continued, “In any case, I’ll be right back.”
Shi Qing Xuan had been using the Soul Shifting Spell repeatedly, and the exhaustion from the frequent immense use of spiritual powers was also affecting Xie Lian, so he sat on the ground, nodding tiredly, feeling both his head and body were somewhat heavy, and he used his hand to support his head up, “…Alright.”
Thus, Yin Yu opened a new hole by himself and continued to dig forward while Xie Lian laid down on the ground and closed his eyes.
An unknown amount of time had passed before he suddenly jolted awake, “Yin Yu?”
It was pitch black all around, a blanket of dead silence. It was obvious Yin Yu hadn’t yet returned. Shi Qing Xuan spoke up and also verified this fact, “Your Highness, you’re awake? It’s tiring, right? Yin Yu hasn’t returned yet.”
After resting for a bit, Xie Lian regained his energy, “How long has he been gone for? How come he hasn‘t come back yet?”
“It’s almost been two incense time.” Shi Qing Xuan said, “He couldn’t have gotten lost, could he?”
Xie Lian sensed something was wrong and said, “I’ll go look for him.”
Then, he rolled over and crawled towards the tunnel Yin Yu had left in. Since Yin Yu still needed to use this tunnel to return, after the Earth Master shovel had burrowed through it didn’t automatically close up. Xie Lian crawled carefully within it, and a moment later, Shi Qing Xuan spoke up, “Crimson Rain Sought Flower says: “Gege, you best not go”.”
Xie Lian stopped crawling, “Something’s probably not right, right?”
“Yea.” Shi Qing Xuan replied, “Hua Chengzhu’s tone sounds pretty serious.”
“But it’s precisely because it doesn’t seem right that I have to go find him.” Xie Lian said, “Otherwise if Yin Yu ran into trouble…”
Right then, a chill ran down his spine. Xie Lian was startled and whipped his head around.
Shi Qing Xuan also sensed that chill down his back and exclaimed, “My god, what was that? The back shudders!”
Behind him was the empty, pitch black tunnel, and there wasn’t anything. However, Xie Lian stared at it for a long while before he replied, “It’s nothing.”
Shi Qing Xuan instantly shut his mouth and held his breath, because, right after Xie Lian said the words “It’s nothing” out loud, he then soundlessly mouthed, “Don’t make a sound, something’s here!”
There was someone else in this tunnel. They were right behind Xie Lian just now, but the moment he looked back they were gone.
Xie Lian’s gut instinct for danger was never off, so he couldn’t allow the other party to discover he had already noticed, and pretended as if there was nothing going on. However, Shi Qing Xuan hated situations like these the most, and goosebumps popped all over his arms. He mouthed back, “Is it not His Highness Yin Yu?”
“If it was him there wouldn’t be a need to sneak around.” Xie Lian replied.
After a moment’s silence, Xie Lian asked soundlessly, “Has San Lang said anything?”
Shi Qing Xuan replied, “Uuhh, umm, that San Lang of yours looks really scary right now… he said, “Gege, if the situation calls for it, use the Soul Shifting Spell to move into the Wind Master’s body”.”
However, nevermind that he didn’t have enough spiritual powers at the moment to use the Soul Shifting Spell, and even if there was enough, Xie Lian couldn’t possibly just dust off and get the heck out leaving the mess that was the Heavenly Capital behind. Xie Lian replied, “Don’t worry about it, San Lang.”
He hadn’t even specified what not to worry about before he shot his head up to look. Ahead!
That sense of danger earlier had come from behind him, but now it was coming from ahead. Yet when he looked over, it was still pitch black and nothing couldn’t be seen clearly. Shi Qing Xuan mouthed, “Your Highness, what did you notice now? What should we do? Does this mean we should go forward or back?”
After observing intently for a moment, Xie Lian replied, “This means forward or back makes no difference, so whatever!” Then, he crawled forward. He crawled and crawled but then stopped, feeling slightly flabbergasted.
Shi Qing Xuan said in spite of himself, “How could this be?”
What was before ‘them’ was actually a fork in the road. There were two tunnels!
“Um… Could Yin Yu have dug a path and discovered he was going in the wrong direction so he dug another one?” Shi Qing Xuan wondered.
Xie Lian thought inwardly, ‘Yin Yu must be very familiar with the roads of the Heavenly Capital, so how could he have made this mistake? This is probably something worse.’ However, he didn’t say this out loud, and only said, “Qing Xuan, can you help me ask San Lang to pick a path? Left or right?”
A moment later, Shi Qing Xuan said, “Crimson Rain Sought Flower said… He doesn’t recommend any one, “Don’t pick either”.”
Xie Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. While he also figure there were probably bad things waiting for him at the end of either path, he still couldn’t just stay where he was. After some contemplation, he said, “Then Qing Xuan, you pick one.”
“Huh? Me?” Shi Qing Xuan asked.
“Yea.” Xie Lian said, “If you pick, then there’s still a fifty percent chance you’d pick the better route; if I pick, then…” Shi Qing Xuan instantly replied, “Alright, I get it.” After much deliberation, he turned his head to the left.
Xie Lian nodded and crawled over.
The deeper they crawled, the narrower this tunnel became, it was almost suffocating, but still passable. After turning and winding, crawling for a long while before suddenly, they became delighted as they entered a much larger space.
Thank goodness. While they were tense and cautious the entire way, they didn’t actually run into any real danger. Xie Lian looked over the surroundings for a moment and said, “What is this place?”
Shi Qing Xuan said with uncertainty, “I don’t know, I can’t see clearly. But how come it feels a little familiar… HUH?!”
He wasn’t the only one who noticed; Xie Lian noticed too.
It was indeed familiar! Wasn’t this place the secret room where Xie Lian had laid down and rested for a bit to await Yin Yu’s return??
He was absolutely certain. There was also another tunnel, and it was the one Yin Yu had dug out with the Earth Master shovel when he left, and the same one Xie Lian crawled out of to go find him!
Shi Qing Xuan was creeped out, “How did we come back here? Was there… was this path we used to crawl back from here before??”
Of course not! Earlier when they left, there was only one tunnel going out. The path they crawled in to return was one that appeared from nowhere. When they ran into that fork in the road, the path on the left detoured for a big circle and brought them back!
It must not have been Yin Yu who dug this; he wouldn’t have wasted so much effort for such a meaningless act. It appeared he probably also bumped into this peculiar incident. Xie Lian thought he really should have pushed to go with him earlier after all, and without another word, he crawled into the tunnel he used to leave from before, and quickly came to the fork in the road. This time, he chose the right path, and as he crawled, Shi Qing Xuan spoke up, “It looks, it looks like this time my luck wasn’t that great either. I picked the wrong path. I should’ve chosen the right from the beginning!”
However, Xie Lian said, “No, I think your luck is still really good.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Shi Qing Xuan said.
Xie Lian tried to word this delicately, “Hm, how do I say this… because, this path on the right might be even scarier than the one on the left.”
Then, both of them heard. From behind them came the scratching sound of something rapidly crawling and closing in.
Xie Lian unwrapped RuoYe and threw it behind, “RuoYe! Help block it for a moment!” Then he started madly crawling forward, almost a meter per push, and Shi Qing Xuan was losing his mind in panic, “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA HOW EXCITING, EXCITING! EXCITINGEXCITINGEXCITING!”
Xie Lian called out, “The most exciting part hasn’t come yet! Come! Take a look–!”
“WHAT’S THAT NOW?!” Shi Qing Xuan exclaimed.
Xie Lian stopped his mad crawling and exhaled a long breath, and before them was once again another fork in the road!
Shi Qing Xuan cried without thinking, “RIGHT!”
Xie Lian turned right resolutely, but on the following path, endless forks in the road kept appearing. Shi Qing Xuan cried: “LEFT! RIGHT! LEFT! RIGHT!” And had already stopped being conscious of what he was even yelling. And under such dire circumstances, with the situation changing at a moment’s notice, it was even less possible for him to leave Xie Lian’s body to ask Hua Cheng what should be done, because it was very possible that with the next turn at the fork, the situation would change completely. The thing behind them was blocked by RuoYe for a bit, but it was still closing in on them, and the tunnels were also growing more and more narrow, more and more cramped, until finally, they reached the point where arms couldn’t move at all!
Xie Lian’s shoulders were already stuck, and he exclaimed, “I can’t crawl any further!”
“Then what should we do??” Shi Qing Xuan cried, “DO WE HAVE TO BACKTRACK??” The thing pursuing them from behind was going to catch up any time now!
“No fear!” Xie Lian exclaimed, “A man can both charge and withdraw, if moving forward is not an option then we’ll take a step back! If we have to then so be it! COME!” Then he took two steps back, freeing a hand, and was just about to grip for the hilt of Fang Xin and fight that thing behind him to his heart’s content when suddenly, his head stiffened.
Xie Lian’s mind froze too. When he looked up, he hadn’t even seen what the thing was but there seemed to be someone who chuckled in the darkness, and a hand had reached out, placing it on Xie Lian’s head. He widened his eyes and the next moment, he lost consciousness.
It was an unknown amount of time that passed before Xie Lian slowly came to.
It was only after he became conscious that Xie Lian found he was sitting on a chair and his entire body was firmly and securely bound. He struggled a bit and discovered it was RuoYe that was binding him.
Xie Lian was perplexed, “RuoYe, what are you doing?”
RuoYe was aggrieved too, and it drooped, nuzzling against him. Xie Lian then looked closer and found RuoYe was actually tied in a dead knot.
No wonder RuoYe couldn’t fight back; it was scared of being tied into a dead knot the most. In the past, before it wised up it liked to wrap itself around mindlessly to play, and as it played it’d pile itself into a mess of dead knots, and it was Xie Lian who’d exasperatedly untie him every time. Later, it learned to be good, smarter, and had never knotted itself dead again. Feeling helpless, Xie Lian tried to see if he could struggle and break the chair apart directly, but unfortunately, the chair wouldn’t move at all. It seemed, it was cemented by the injection of very strong spiritual powers.
Since he couldn’t move, then he would just observe his surroundings first. Xie Lian scanned around; this place should be the inside of whichever palace, rather new and glamourous, but he didn’t know which one it was. Either way, it wasn’t the Great Martial Hall.
Just as he was thinking this, a hand rested on his shoulder, and from above his head came the gentle voice of someone, “Xian Le, my dear Xian Le, you really are too mischievous.”
Hearing this voice, Xie Lian instantly froze. From behind him, that man came forward and turned around with a hand behind his back. It was indeed Jun Wu.
His other hand was still on Xie Lian’s shoulder, and he spoke with each step, “In the past half year you’ve come back, the Heavenly Capital broke here and there, destroyed all over, so wouldn’t you say you’re quite the mischief? You’re not a little mouse, what are you doing burrowing underground sneaking about? Is it very fun?”
This gentle, kind voice like an elder watching his beloved child mess about was giving Xie Lian chills, making him incredibly unnerved, and he really didn’t know how he should respond. He then suddenly felt a wave of chill by his feet, and when he looked down, he saw it was a bundle of something white that had hugged his boots, watching him with an exceedingly malicious gaze.
It was that fetus spirit.
Xie Lian looked up and had pretty much figured it out. Yin Yu was digging tunnels with the Earth Master shovel but was captured by Jun Wu. Jun Wu then sent some things to stop him in the underground, which was why he went through that terrifying experience earlier.
Xie Lian finally knew what he should say, and after a moment of speechlessness, he said, “…You have such a despicable hobby.”
That chase in the tunnels reminded him of how he was suffocatingly pursued by White No-Face back then, and Xie Lian passed his days in panic and anxiety. If he wanted to capture him, then just capture him directly, why must he rouse such disturbing terror and cause such fright?
However, Jun Wu appeared to be quite cheerful and he smiled, “But Xian Le is now much braver than before.”
He couldn’t continue that line of conversation so he asked instead, “Where’s Yin Yu?”
Jun Wu placed his hands on the back of the chair, and turned Xie Lian’s entire person around, “No rush, you will see. And not just him.”
Xie Lian was turned around and was now facing a mirror. However, what the mirror reflected wasn’t him, but a pale-faced Yin Yu.
And next to his feet laid another person whose head was covered in blood, his face black and blue, completely unconscious. But from that head full of curls, Xie Lian could tell it was Quan Yi Zhen.
Xie Lian was immediately alarmed, “What are you planning?”
———-
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