The remaining people, apart from Yu Qing and the others, briefly met to discuss, and soon had a method to collect the mirage ants.
The method was simple too. It was nothing more than finding something to contain the mirage ants. Since nobody had suitable tools at hand, they simply dug out stone blocks and hollowed them out. For speed and convenience, one sword thrust into the stone wall, circulating power to stir a circle, directly excavating a hollow barrel tube first. Cutting grooves at both ends, inserting two stone slabs to seal both ends, and a simple, convenient container was made.
At the same time, to avoid the clanging and chiseling sounds being heard from outside, the group simply jumped into the deep pit to excavate…
Before the “Forbidden Ground” stone inscription, a group from Rift Valley Estate armed with weapons guarded the passage entrance and exit.
Second Estate Master Wu Xieshan stood alone in front, hands behind his back, walking back and forth, looking toward the pitch black end of the passage from time to time.
Suddenly footsteps approached. The crowd parted to make way. Great Estate Master Wu Dao and Second Estate Master Wu Xieshan arrived.
The three estate masters gathered together. After Wu Dao gave a look first, Wu Xieshan waved his hand to signal the guards outside to withdraw.
With no outsiders present, Wu Dao then asked, “Did everyone go in?”
Wu Xieshan: “Ten people. Not one more, not one less. All went in. I watched them go in with my own eyes.”
Wu Dao: “How long since they went in?”
Wu Xieshan: “They went in one after another. Starting from the first woman, it has been nearly an hour now. By rights, they should have reached the ‘White Bone Tomb’ by now. They should have fallen into the trap. I was just preparing to go in and check.”
Wu Dao raised his hand to stop him. “The situation is unclear. This lot are not good people. Going in rashly now would likely be inappropriate. In short, there is no need to rush in. In any case, there are no other exits inside. First lower the gate to block the way out. If they break through the gate, we will naturally detect it. Also have everyone prick up their ears. If they try to dig an exit inside the stone mountain, that noise cannot escape our notice. Regardless of whether they live or die, seal it up for a few days first.”
Wu Xieshan nodded at these words. Thinking about it, that was true.
Wu Heyun at the side frowned with other worries. “By rights, from when they broke in until now, they should all be bones. That is what they asked for. What I am worried about now is the people behind them. If the news really did spread from the Little Cloud Realm, and these people perish here without showing themselves, we will likely face some terrifying existences immediately.”
Wu Dao: “Since matters have reached this point, rather than guessing uncertainly, it is better to see the truth. From the moment the news leaked, we had no choice.” After saying this, he turned and left.
Soon, deep in the passage, at the area where the spiral steps descended straight down, a heavy stone door slowly descended. Finally, with a muffled rumbling sound, it blocked the path in and out.
Wu Xieshan led a team in. Standing before the fallen stone door, he patted it with his own hands. Turning to face the ten men behind him, he said, “You will guard here. If you discover any abnormality, report to me immediately!”
“Yes.” The ten men acknowledged the order.
After Wu Xieshan left with large strides, the ten men also assumed their respective positions.
On the other side of the stone door, Zhu Kuanzhen, who had heard the noise, slowly crept up to investigate. He discovered the exit was blocked. Pressing his hand against the stone door to sense it, he then turned around, took out a fire starter, and this time directly lit an open flame for illumination. He jumped down from the hollow space of the spiral staircase.
After landing, he went straight to where the group was busy…
Deep in the pit, Yu Qing and the others also jumped down to watch the excitement.
Yu Qing was truly impressed by those few. He watched with his own eyes as those people wildly swept the provoked mirage ants into stone barrels one by one. He estimated that the entire Rift Valley Estate never dreamed that intruding outsiders would actually do such a thing.
Once the mirage ants’ illusion power became ineffective, facing this group of Xuan level cultivators, their fate truly was like ants. Facing the sweeping gale of circulated power, they were sucked into the stone barrels like a gust of wind. In the end, a group of mirage ants was frightened and somewhat dared not come out.
As they say, where there is an ant nest, there must be a queen ant.
This was something Lu Xingyun suddenly said. Nobody knew why she suddenly thought of this. In any case, everyone could see the grief and indignation in this woman’s heart. She clearly held a fierce determination to take revenge.
Later, she really did find it. Just as everyone was busy collecting the provoked mirage ants, she forcibly dug the queen ant out from an artificial nest underground.
Ordinary mirage ants were only the size of mung beans. The queen ant, however, was a white fat creature the size of a fist. Its head was wrinkled very much like an old woman’s face. The whole thing looked disgusting. Yet Lu Xingyun grabbed it directly with one hand to show everyone, then threw it into the stone barrel.
With the queen ant captured, the entire ant colony instantly went mad. They surged out crazily to besiege the group.
The outcome was imaginable. They were swept away like wind scattering clouds. They filled more than ten stone barrels. Few escaped the net, scurrying in panic among the bones.
Just as everyone returned above, making small holes in the sealing stone slabs to prevent suffocating the ant colony, Zhu Kuanzhen arrived. Seeing everyone, he immediately informed them, “The exit is blocked.”
The group was slightly startled. Nie Pinlan urgently asked, “Is it sealed completely?”
Zhu Kuanzhen: “They just lowered a stone gate to block it. It probably cannot be completely sealed. It should be possible to force it open.”
Hearing this, the group was not particularly afraid. As long as they did not intend to collapse the entire mountain to bury them, with their cultivation levels, a mere stone cave could hardly trap them. With their cultivation, they could completely dig their way out.
But they clearly did not want to stop here. Since they had even captured the mirage ants, how could they be willing not to test them out.
After brief discussion, they said they would do it and did it. The group carried a pile of stone barrels and went.
Yu Qing and the other onlookers, although it was not their affair, seeing that the others’ hands were too full carrying things, could only silently hold fluorescent stones to illuminate for them.
When passing the position with the osmanthus fragrance, the mirage ants in the stone barrels were clearly very agitated. But they had no choice in retreating. They were forcibly taken away.
The group soon arrived at the exit position. They all investigated the blocked stone door. They felt forcing it open should not be difficult. But they did not do so.
It was Lu Xingyun who stopped everyone. She touched the white flower at her temple and said, “There should be guards outside. Try not to beat the grass and startle the snake.”
She immediately half knelt before the stone door. Circulating power to investigate the bottom of the stone door, she confirmed it was the same as their previous guess. The flatness at the bottom could not achieve absolute conformity. There were still barely detectable gaps.
For her, this was enough for her to execute her plan.
Everyone could see her obsession with revenge. In any case, as long as it was not unreasonable, whatever she said to do, everyone would follow her.
At her signal, everyone helped quietly pile the ends of the stone barrels with holes at the door entrance.
Under the fluorescent stone light, one could see the mist emerging from the holes of the stone barrels filled with mirage ants. Lu Xingyun circulated power and used techniques to control that mist, forcing it to slowly seep through the bottom of the stone door to the other side, continuously and without stop.
Yu Qing observed. He found that this woman was usually very dignified in appearance, and her speech was also very gentle. This upbringing seemed to have become her instinct. But at this moment, she was speaking gentle words while doing vicious things.
From when this woman insisted on revenge, she gave people a very strong sense of contrast. Especially since she still carried Lou Yushu’s skeletal remains on her back.
After a moment, the ten men guarding the passage outside all showed abnormalities. First, their faces gradually showed strange smiling reactions. Slowly they became dull and foolish. One after another, they turned and walked toward the blocked stone door.
Arriving before the stone door and being blocked, unable to enter, they began to push and squeeze. Dully, they used their bodies to bump and push against it.
Inside the stone door, hearing the faint noise coming from the stone door, Lu Xingyun pressed her ear against the stone door to listen briefly. She turned her head and said to everyone, “There are indeed guards outside. They should all have fallen into the trap.” She waved her hand to signal everyone to help move the stone barrels away. Then she borrowed a sword from Nie Pinlan.
She thrust the sword into the stone door. Circulating power and using techniques, she cut in a wedge shape from left to right all the way to the bottom. Although the sound was very grating, she was already trying her best to minimize the noise.
Soon, a large triangular stone slab was pried down by her. The group of guards blocked outside immediately stumbled in through the gap like walking corpses.
Ahead was the spiral staircase. If one did not take the spiral staircase, it was an abyss. That group of guards had clearly lost the ability to distinguish this. However, they were rushing toward the stone barrels. So Lu Xingyun sent them on their way.
Slitting throats. One sword each. Plus a kick. She kicked the ten men down one after another.
Actually, falling from such a height, without the protection of techniques, there was basically no chance of survival. But Lu Xingyun still drew blood.
She then returned the sword to Nie Pinlan. She herself was the first to crawl out through the gap in the stone door.
The others subsequently carried out the pile of tools.
A section of the dark passage ahead was already cleared. The group walked nearly to the end. Lu Xingyun and Shen Qingcheng began to join hands, circulating power and using techniques. Constantly using wind force to disperse the mist from the stone barrels outward. Clearly, they intended to clear the path ahead, whether visible or not.
Yu Qing frowned without speaking. It was evident that this woman was clearly going to unleash a massacre. She truly intended to have the entire Rift Valley Estate buried with her.
He did not know whether the person who founded Rift Valley Estate, or the person who laid down the mirage ant killing move, had ever thought they would suffer such backlash.
He slowly moved to Ning Chaoyi’s side. In a low voice, he said, “This place is a forbidden ground. Ordinary Rift Valley Estate personnel probably do not know the secrets of the forbidden ground. Those who know the secret likely know the method to break it. They should have a way to move through the mirage ant illusion barrier. Elder Sister Lu’s method may not be effective against those who know.”
Ning Chaoyi turned his head to look at him, waiting for what followed.
Yu Qing had nothing to follow up with. He did not know what he meant by suddenly saying this to the other person. On one side, he felt a catastrophe was about to descend upon Rift Valley Estate. On the other side, he also felt that if Lu Xingyun’s method could truly overturn the entire Rift Valley Estate, it should also be beneficial to his money making plan.
After holding it in for a while, he changed his words. “Mr. Ning, what exactly did you come to Rift Valley Estate to do?”
The arrival of these people had stirred this place up completely. They played entirely outside normal rules. It made him utterly confused.
But Ning Chaoyi lightly asked in return, “What did you come to Rift Valley Estate to do?” Without waiting for Yu Qing’s reply, he added, “However you answer me, I will answer you the same way.”
Yu Qing was immediately speechless. His purpose in coming could not be said.
After a moment, Ning Chaoyi again fixed his gaze on Qiao Qie’er, who was silently looking this way. He asked, “You should have also been hit before, right?”
Yu Qing and his two martial brothers were surprised. They did not know how he guessed.
Qiao Qie’er remained silent and did not reply. She neither said yes nor no.
Ning Chaoyi slowly turned his head back to look at Yu Qing. “Why did you save us?”
Once these words came out, the Thief Mandarin Duck couple turned their heads to look over. Even Lu Xingyun and Shen Qingcheng also turned their heads to glance.