At a single glance, it was clear that the little demon had been stimulated by the evil energy.
The three martial brothers exchanged glances. Just now they had still felt it might be a misjudgement, that it might not be evil energy. Now, upon looking again, they found they had been right. It was indeed evil energy.
Only the three of them were somewhat confused…
Yu Qing looked at his two martial brothers, slowly taking a deep breath with raised brows.
Nan Zhu looked at his two martial brothers, also slowly taking a deep breath with his large belly puffed out.
Mu Aotie simply opened his mouth as well, slowly taking a deep breath.
The three martial brothers didn’t utter a sound, yet they were of one mind, all demonstrating to the other two that they were truly breathing without any problem.
This was strange. The three of them turned to look again at the trembling little demon, not understanding why the three of them were fine, yet only that little demon was affected.
Was that little demon acting, or did this evil energy only target demon cultivators?
If it was acting, then the acting skills were indeed decent. It felt like all the demons, including Liu Piaopiao, were cooperating in the performance.
If one said the evil energy only targeted demon cultivators, that also didn’t make sense. In this regard, demons should be more resistant than humans.
The group of demons was watching that little demon. No one went over to help, because once one lent a hand, it would be consuming one’s own breath, lowering one’s own chances of survival.
Most importantly, it was only a minor demon.
That little demon could only rely on himself to resolve it. Fortunately, he had only tried to inhale a small mouthful. The amount inhaled wasn’t much, and he quickly used his cultivation to force out the evil energy, gradually recovering his calm again.
However, the little demon’s expression was not calm. He knew that this ordeal had exhausted that breath of his almost completely. He couldn’t hold on any longer. There was panic in his eyes.
Subsequently, the gazes of the group of demons all turned toward the three martial brothers.
Liu Piaopiao shouted, “Why are the three of you fine?”
Yu Qing hesitated, “We also don’t know what’s going on. Could it be that this targets you demon cultivators?”
Liu Piaopiao hesitated. It wasn’t impossible, but she somewhat suspected whether this was one of the things the three of them were relying on to dare enter the ancient tomb. However, it was inconvenient to question them now. They still needed these three to do the work. She immediately shouted, “Why aren’t you digging faster?”
Mu Aotie directly tossed the axe in his hand to Yu Qing, waving his hand to signal. The meaning was obvious: it was his turn.
Yu Qing, who had subconsciously caught the axe, was speechless. Just now they had been martial brothers who would live and die together, yet in the blink of an eye, he had turned against him?
He couldn’t say anything in front of the group of demons, so he had no choice but to carry the axe and crawl into the diagonally dug hole, hacking away with the axe at the end, blow after blow.
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie were outside the hole clearing away the stones that had slid down from inside.
Liu Piaopiao looked up at the evil energy still pouring in from the holes above, realising the scheme of the mastermind behind the scenes. Killing them was secondary. It seemed they wanted to refine them all into evil creatures.
Suddenly, the little demon who had inhaled the evil energy earlier made a noise again.
Everyone looked over. They saw that the little demon had already lowered his head, breathing heavily and laboriously. Clearly, this was the consequence of that breath being exhausted.
Later, the little demon became completely quiet, slowly raising his head. Both his eyes had turned blood-red, looking terrifying.
Swish! A flash of cold light passed by, directly sending his head flying. Clang! A sword was thrust into the stone wall.
The one who struck was Liu Piaopiao.
To kill one of her own, she had no choice. As the chief guard of Jianyuan Mountain, she had to consider the lives of the majority of her brothers. She couldn’t allow a brother who had been afflicted by evil to act up and disturb the rhythm of everyone’s breath consumption.
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie turned to look together, watching the little demon’s corpse slowly transform into a wolf.
Liu Piaopiao had already flashed to the entrance of the excavation, shouting inside, “Too slow! Faster! If you keep dawdling, don’t blame me for being impolite!”
Yu Qing inside, who had intentionally slowed his pace, had no choice. He had to muster the vigour of splitting mountains, hacking away with great force.
After enduring for a while longer, other demon cultivators with insufficient cultivation began to be unable to withstand it, falling victim one after another.
In order not to implicate the others, Liu Piaopiao had no choice but to kill.
She killed until Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie didn’t dare to breathe heavily, afraid of arousing the jealousy of the group of demons.
The two of them worked diligently without complaint, honestly burying their heads in the work.
Afterwards, demon cultivators fell from time to time.
And Liu Piaopiao also sent people into the hole from time to time to check the excavation situation. Every certain distance, she would force the three Yu Qing brothers to dig horizontally toward the adjacent parallel passage, making small breaches. Finding that the next door was still blocked by stone balls, she would have them continue digging parallel.
The rubble piled up more and more in the space filled with evil energy. The demon cultivators dying by their own people’s hands also grew more and more numerous.
When it was time to switch diggers, Yu Qing would take the chance to mutter a few words to the martial brother taking over.
Just when over seventy demon cultivators had died until only about twenty remained, Mu Aotie, digging horizontally, struck a hollow space with one axe blow. He pulled out a fluorite stone and probed outside the hole, discovering they had already dug through.
Overjoyed, he didn’t dare reveal any sign of it. Following Yu Qing’s instructions, he continued digging, keeping the noise going, expanding the hole.
When the hole was large enough for people to pass through, Mu Aotie finally called out the signal, “The axe is blunt. Bring a more suitable tool.”
The two people below clearing rubble at the sliding stone hole entrance perked up. They exchanged a glance. Yu Qing tilted his head, signalling Nan Zhu to withdraw first. He would cover the retreat.
Nan Zhu, his cheeks taut, picked up another axe and crawled into the hole.
Soon, the excavation noise resumed. Yu Qing observed the group of demons, and while they weren’t paying attention, lightly cat-footed into the hole.
The stones in the sloped hole were still continuing to slide down. This was also a setup based on summarising the situation of the demon cultivators on site, covering the last person’s escape.
Yu Qing darted to the position, crawled into the horizontal passage. The three martial brothers met up, and without another word, quickly crawled out of the hole, fleeing first.
Suddenly it became quiet. Liu Piaopiao, who had been sitting cross-legged in meditation, abruptly opened her eyes. She discovered those three fellows were no longer at the scene. Immediately sensing something was wrong, she flashed into the hole with twin swords in hand.
By the time she crawled out through the escape opening, where could she still see the shadows of the three Yu Qing fellows? She pursued swiftly to a fork in the road, no longer knowing which direction the three fellows had fled.
Before long, the remaining twenty or so subordinates also caught up. Those whose cultivation could hold out until now could be considered elites.
“Damn it, to think those three fellows got away,” a demon cultivator said hatefully. However, the feeling of breathing deeply was indeed not bad.
Having been easily escaped by prisoners, one couldn’t really say they hated them. In that kind of situation, everyone was doing their best to protect themselves, too busy looking after themselves. It was normal for people to exploit a loophole.
To some extent, they also felt fortunate, the fortune of having survived a disaster. If not for those three fellows being able to work continuously like nothing was wrong, relying on themselves to dig an escape passage, their breath wouldn’t have been able to hold out until now.
Crack! Liu Piaopiao, however, slashed her sword against the stone wall, bringing out a spray of sparks. There was quite a bit of hatred on her face.
She felt she had been played by those three fellows.
Why weren’t those three fellows afraid of the evil energy? Why did they dare to shake them off and flee?
The question returned to the earliest question: why did those three fellows, with their meagre strength, dare to enter this ancient tomb?
They must have something to rely on!
Those three fellows must have a way to not fear the evil energy. She felt she had been deceived, leading to the pointless deaths of so many subordinates!
The three martial brothers, fleeing wildly through random passages, felt they had run very far, felt they wouldn’t be caught up to anymore, before finally stopping.
Nan Zhu worried, “If we really get caught again, we’re probably done for.”
Yu Qing was disdainful. “Being blocked head-on in the circling passage before, that couldn’t be helped. Now that we’re in this crisscrossing underground palace, wanting to catch us again won’t be so easy. They should be thinking about whether they can leave alive themselves.”
Nan Zhu sighed, “If even they can’t leave alive with their strength, wouldn’t we be in even more danger?”
“Not necessarily.” Yu Qing was quite confident. He pulled out an incense stick from his waist, took out a tinderbox, and lit it.
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie exchanged glances. The same thought flashed through their minds: was he going to invite their ancestral master again?
Under the illumination of the fluorite light, green smoke drifted and curled. After briefly observing, a smile appeared at the corner of Yu Qing’s mouth. It matched his earlier judgement. Zhong Su hadn’t lied. This underground palace was actually ventilated. It was only because the underground palace passages were too winding and long that it wasn’t easily detected.
He turned and headed upwind. “Come, let’s take a stroll around this underground palace.”
Walking against the upwind direction could ensure safety.
If something appeared upwind, it would cause a faint change in the airflow. The effect on the smoke could let him detect it, allowing him to avoid it in advance. Downwind, he had completely no way to judge. This was different from using the Observation Word Technique to catch fire crickets in the smoke-filled underground cavern.
However, they hadn’t walked far before he froze, concentrating on observing the changes in the smoke.
“What is it?” Nan Zhu asked.
“Retreat. There’s someone ahead. Change to another path at the intersection behind.” Yu Qing threw down the words, leading the two to turn and run.
As long as there were people, they were either demon cultivators or evil creatures here. In any case, they definitely weren’t on their side. They definitely had to avoid them.
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie were somewhat alarmed and suspicious, not knowing if it was true. If it was true, could their ancestral master really bless and help them to this extent?
The three had just run near the crossroads they had passed earlier when they urgently braked. They were blocked again head-on. A group of demon cultivators happened to be blocking that crossroads. The one leading them was Liu Piaopiao, staring coldly.
Turning back again, another group of demon cultivators had also arrived behind, cutting off their retreat.
Yu Qing was speechless. To think they could get blocked even like this. How unlucky could they be?
Liu Piaopiao said coldly, “Why don’t you surrender?”
What could the three do? Yu Qing could only smile bitterly and lower his hands. The disparity in strength was too vast. Resisting meant instant death. Surrendering might still leave a path to life.
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie also surrendered and accepted their fate.
Nan Zhu especially shot Yu Qing a resentful glance, discovering that this fellow liked to mess around, liked to make trouble. They had dug out an escape passage and could have been fine, yet he had to run. Now look at this. Even if they didn’t die, they would suffer.
“Didi di…”
Just as the group of demon cultivators approached from front and back, the big head in Yu Qing’s ponytail suddenly let out a resounding chirp again.
Yu Qing was stunned. His gaze swept over the Liu Piaopiao and the others before him, especially fixing on Liu Piaopiao’s long sword. He discovered it was not the original style of Liu Piaopiao’s twin swords. He abruptly startled. Swish! He drew his sword, shouting, “Fake! Cut them!”
He flashed out, sword light flashing repeatedly, green juice splattering.
Yu Qing passed through the middle of the group of demon cultivators like chopping melons and vegetables. When he stopped at the crossroads, “Liu Piaopiao” and the other demon cultivators had already fallen to the ground, revealing their true forms. A group of ghost foetuses.
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie, seeing this situation, also drew their swords and charged at the group of demon cultivators behind them.
The fight ended quickly. The three Yu Qing fellows were still shaken with fear. So close. If they had really surrendered and been stabbed to death at close range by a group of trash with no fighting strength, that would have been a truly unjust death.
It was not suitable to stay long in one place. The three moved forward again. When they rushed to an underground cliff, they all stopped together. On the stone bridge ahead stood a woman in white, seemingly waiting for them long ago.