Chapter 73: Death! _1
Translator: 549690339
A drizzle was falling down.
Wang Ba cautiously made his way to the mouth of a drywell in an abandoned yard of Nanhu Village. Here was the entrance to the underground tunnel dug by Gou Mu, the Ratheaded.
Instilling mana into his eyes and ears, he carefully felt around for a while before he cautiously descended into the dry well.
To his relief, the power of the Yin God, which he had been continuously deploying, didn’t spin at all throughout the process.
This implied that the cultivators here had more than likely all gone.
Being cautious, he didn’t retract the power of the Yin God but kept maintaining it. As long as no one saw him, there would be no loss.
The drywell was both deep and narrow. If it hadn’t been for his Qi refining, Wang Ba might not have dared to go inside.
But with the empowerment of mana, his senses were sharper than ever, thus slightly bolstering his courage.
He kept going down, falling for dozens of feet before finally hitting upon a narrow crevice that was just big enough for a person to walk through.
“It seems the rumor is true. Before using the tunnel, Gou Mu would leave it intact. Once he had used it, he would quickly destroy it.”
Wang Ba immediately slid sideways into the narrow crevice. After walking for a while, he began to descend again.
He could detect an increasingly damp and musty smell from the surrounding soil, and sometimes, he could hear the sound of gurgling water outside the cave wall.
Next came a series of complicated movements: left turns, right turns, and ups and downs…
What was terrifying was that these tunnels led everywhere, with other branching paths.
If he hadn’t memorized the map in Gou Mu’s mind, let alone rehearsed it countless times, he might have already lost his way deep underground.
Even so, he vaguely felt that he had probably gone several hundred feet deep into the ground.
At such a depth, even a true Golden Core might not detect anything unless they looked carefully.
He didn’t know how Gou Mu was able to dig such a masterful tunnel that didn’t seem to show any trace of carving or drilling.
Comparing the route continuously with the one in his memory and making timely adjustments and corrections, he finally managed to reach the tunnel exit smoothly.
According to the map, the exit was a slope from the ground and the passage was narrow. People had to climb it diagonally.
Wang Ba held his breath and felt for a while. Once he was sure there was no activity, he carefully started to climb the diagonal upward slope.
His movements were minimal. Under the concealment of the power of the Yin God, even if someone was watching from the side, they wouldn’t notice Wang Ba’s presence or movements.
After a long crawl, Wang Ba finally approached the surface.
He could see it was a small open-air hole.
From his angle, he could feel raindrops falling on his face, and even smell the earthy scent of the wind.
It was the smell of the outside world he had longed for.
However, at that moment, Wang Ba, who was about to make a final effort to crawl out, suddenly froze.
A clean, round face suddenly peered into the hole, gazing straight into his eyes!
But soon, that face looked away with a look of surprise, sweeping a circle before disappearing from Wang Ba’s view.
“Strange…! feel like there’s someone…”
From outside the hole, a faint mutter was heard.
Then another voice sounded:
“Be careful, senior brother. Don’t capsize in the gutter. Should I go take a look with you?”
“No need, I’ll go myself…sigh, it’s a pity that the kid Gou Mu was taken away. We have to find another reliable one…troublesome…”
Hearing the conversation outside the hole, Wang Ba’s heart was filled with an unbelievable thought, as the power of the Yin God spun rapidly.
Someone was waiting outside, expecting him to come out.
And he was probably that expected one!
As he lay less than a foot below the hole, Wang Ba’s teeth clenched unconsciously.
Having come this far, he couldn’t just give up. He was in a narrow path now and it was impossible to hide.
What’s more, that face had reappeared at the hole.
Wang Ba quietly clutched his Spirit Beast Bag at his waist while touching the Jade Pendant. He held his breath subconsciously and waited patiently… As soon as the person descended into the hole, he would immediately activate the Jade Pendant and summon Jia 7!
What gave him slight relief was when another voice suddenly rang out:
“Senior Brother, wait for me. Let’s go back together. With today’s weather, I doubt any menial workers would dare to leave the sect. We’re just wasting our time here.”
The face above the cave entrance turned away upon hearing this.
“All right, hurry up.”
“Okay, don’t worry. My little treasure will be finished eating soon…”
Wang Ba felt a bit more relaxed. After assessing the situation, he carefully began to move downwards.
However, going up in this position was easy, but going down was not, and he had not moved more than a few feet when he saw the face reappear at the cave entrance:
“I keep feeling like there’s movement…”
“Soon, soon. We will be able to leave soon!”
Wang Ba’s sense of urgency rose once again, but he did not dare to move, waiting until the face turned away again before he carefully continued downwards.
One foot, two feet…
Suddenly, his vision was stark, as if it were daylight!
Even though he instinctively lowered his head, he was momentarily blinded!
“There are signs of crawling, there indeed is a little rat down there!”
“Shadows… So that’s where it’s hiding! It even managed to bypass my five senses, is it not a menial worker, could it be a Spirit Beast?”
At the cave entrance, the voice of the round-faced man went from joking to puzzled.
Wang Ba’s heart nearly stopped. He instantly clutched his jade pendant and tried hard to recover his vision.
“Hehe, let’s see. If it’s a Spirit Beast… Who is that?!”
The round-faced man’s voice was initially relaxed, but then he seemed to have noticed something and abruptly left the cave entrance.
Confused, Wang Ba hurriedly seized the opportunity to move down; however, he then froze in place.
“Senior Brother, be careful!”
“Who… who are you?! This is East Saint Sect!”
The voice was filled with shock, fear, and panic!
Accompanied by three muffled sounds outside the cave entrance, Wang Ba only felt three bouts of mana fluctuations burst open like fireworks, then instantly vanish.
After that, there was dead silence.
Those two cultivators… are they dead?
Wang Ba was terrified!
What on earth happened outside?
He held his breath, trying his utmost to lie flat on the muddy slope, daring not to make any noise.
Wang Ba had no idea how much time had passed.
Just as he couldn’t help but carefully move down a bit, he suddenly heard a deep and magnetic voice from outside:
“Bai Yu, bury that tunnel.”
Wang Ba couldn’t help but feel startled!
If the tunnel was buried, how would he escape?
“The tunnel?”
This time, a stranger’s voice ‘Bai Yu’ sounded.
The deep voice calmly said:
“This was dug by an Earth-Drilling Armored Lizard, specifically to trap those of the East Saint Sect who had intentions of sneaking away… Heh, these two worked for so long without getting caught, it seems Qin Heng really is getting old.”
“But that has nothing to do with us. Bury it. Don’t let anyone escape from here.”
“Yes, Chief!”