Chapter 112: Reinforcements from the Heavens

I wondered if he was being a bit dramatic. Lu A’yao had only exchanged a few words with Tian Yuqing, so how did they end up being labeled as thick as thieves? Besides, even if he really was in league with Tian Yuqing, the man was still Tian Xiaoqi’s cousin. She couldn’t possibly fly into a murderous rage just because she couldn’t get the answers she wanted, right?

“This is a bit much, isn’t it?” I forced a chuckle.

Baldy waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t be so sure. She really is capable of it. Didn’t you see her trying to kill that guy Lu back in the stone passage? That wasn’t an act.”

I recalled those unpleasant experiences, and a chill ran down my spine. Before we could say anything more, Qiao Sangui asked me to continue leading the way.

He Yu walked beside me, shoulder to shoulder, as I silently counted my steps.

After walking about twenty meters, I noticed He Yu was dying to say something, but since I was still counting, he had to swallow his words. After another twenty meters, I couldn’t take it anymore. I nudged him and told him to spit it out already and stop looking at me with those longing, unrequited eyes.

He Yu acted as if he had been granted a royal pardon, playing the role of a palace eunuch in front of me. “Your Majesty, your servant has a report.”

“Speak,” I said, switching to counting the bricks on the wall.

“I think what that baldy said sounded somewhat true. We need to take it to heart,” He Yu said, tapping my head with his knuckles. “I’m giving you a warning now. Before, you kept making excuses for her because she’s a girl, and look where that got us. We all got played. If you ask me, we should have dislocated her limbs back then.”

I didn’t respond, as I couldn’t really argue with him this time. Once I reached the required number of steps, I stopped. Before us was a wall identical to the previous one, with nearly the same statues. I called the others over to help move them.

As the stone wall opened with a rumble, He Yu started nagging in my ear again.

“Besides, Tian Xiaoqi is a doctor. She knows exactly how the human body works. It’s hard to kill someone instantly, but it’s incredibly easy to torture them. If Lu A’yao falls into that woman’s hands, the consequences will be unthinkable. You need to think about Old Lu.”

I gave him a slight nod. As I glanced back out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly caught sight of a very familiar figure among Qiao Sangui’s men. This person was thinner than everyone else, and he was trailing at the very end of the group. Surprisingly, no one had noticed him.

Qiao Sangui saw that the wall was open but I was still standing there motionless, so he came over. “What’s wrong, Young Master Gan? Is there a problem?”

I reacted immediately, waving my hands. “No problem, no problem. Let’s keep moving.”

Once we entered the new stone passage, He Yu leaned in and asked curiously what I had been looking at.

I glanced at him and waited until we were a safe distance from Qiao Sangui’s group before whispering, “Chen Canghai managed to sneak into the team somehow.”

He Yu was shocked and instinctively started to look back, but I quickly yanked him forward and scolded him. “What are you doing? If you go looking for him now, you’ll just get him caught by Qiao Sangui. Chen Canghai is even younger than me, and I have no idea what he’s planning by sneaking into the group.”

He Yu let out a soft exclamation, his delight impossible to hide. “What else could it be? He’s not friends with Qiao Sangui. He’s definitely here to help us. But he probably doesn’t know how to make a move yet. These people are ruthless and they’re all armed. Breaking away is going to be difficult.”

Qiao Sangui suddenly walked up, so I pinched He Yu to signal him to shut up. The man glanced at us. “Stop muttering to each other and focus on leading the way. Our progress is too slow. If someone else gets to the treasure first, I’ll take your lives.”

I nodded quickly and agreed. Facing the quiet and eerie stone passage, I noticed that the area behind this newly opened wall was becoming more ornate and exquisite. Occasionally, protruding beast heads decorated the walls, and even the corners were filled with various jars and pots.

At that moment, I noticed a massive Taotie beast head. It extended from the wall with its tongue out and claws bared, holding a jade bead in its mouth. The beast head on the opposite wall did not have a bead. This asymmetrical design was strange.

I wanted to step forward and examine it, but doing so out of nowhere would seem too intentional. He Yu saw my hesitation, so he spotted a white porcelain vase on the ground and squatted down.

“Hey! This glaze is quite nice. Third Master, why don’t you come give me your expert opinion? We’ve come all this way and gotten ourselves covered in injuries, we can’t exactly go back empty-handed,” He Yu said, grabbing the vase and heading to the back to haggle with Qiao Sangui.

I quickly stepped forward a few paces and leaned against the wall, pretending to wait impatiently. In reality, I took the opportunity to fiddle with the jade bead in the Taotie’s mouth. The bead was loose and could be removed, but I soon felt that something was connected to the bottom of it.

This was likely a sophisticated mechanical trap. If the jade bead was pulled out, the connected mechanism would be triggered, dropping the trap. However, I didn’t know what the trap would release.

Normally, I would never touch a trap, but in our current situation, its existence might help us escape. I needed to signal Chen Canghai, who was hidden in the middle of the group, and have him trigger it.

After He Yu finished his nonsense, he walked toward me clutching the porcelain vase. I stood up straight, resting a hand on the beast head, and shouted at him, “I told you! This damn bottle isn’t worth a cent, but you wouldn’t listen. You just had to bother Third Master to look at it. Are you happy now?”

After I finished speaking, I naturally patted the beast head twice as a signal. My heart was pounding afterward, wondering if Chen Canghai could fully understand my meaning. In such a strict environment, this was the most I could do.

We pretended to argue for a few more rounds as we continued forward. Eventually, we reached the first right-angle turn in this passage. I stopped before the corner and mentally recited the map I had memorized.

Just then, someone at the back of the group suddenly let out a howl. “Damn it! Something just bit me!”

That single shout caused Qiao Sangui, whose attention had been on me, to turn around. He Yu and I also turned to look. Several flashlights from the team were aimed directly behind us.

It was a terrifying sight. The man who had shouted was jumping around frantically. Behind him, a massive swarm of fiery red ants had appeared out of nowhere. They were sweeping forward like a tide, crawling into his clothes. The sight caused the entire group to recoil several steps.

“Move! Red Fire Ants!!” Qiao Sangui roared.

I turned my head and my ears caught a rustling sound coming from the cracks in the stone walls filled with saltpeter. Within twenty seconds, Red Fire Ants began pouring out of the crevices we thought were sealed, falling into the passage like a flood.

“Damn! They’re in my clothes!”

“Kill them! Kill them!”

Baldy didn’t say a word. He pulled a makeshift shotgun from his waist and fired wildly at the ants on the ground. The entire stone passage descended into chaos.

A person ran quickly from the group to stand before us. He swiftly removed his hat and gave us a push. He Yu immediately bolted toward the corner, and I followed right behind him without looking back. I heard Tian Xiaoqi’s voice screaming from the passage behind us.

“They’re escaping in the chaos!!”

Damn it, I really hate that woman!

The three of us ran incredibly fast through the stone passage, our three flashlights casting blurred shadows everywhere. Another row of beast heads began to appear on both sides. As I ran, I yanked the beads out of their mouths. The beads scattered across the floor, and more and more Red Fire Ants began dropping behind us.

He Yu looked back and cursed, “Damn it! How much did Qiao Sangui pay this woman? She’s chased us all the way here. Is she out of her mind?!”

Hearing this, Chen Canghai skidded to a halt. He ducked and swung a punch backward. I could actually hear the wind from his fist; it was clear he wasn’t holding back. Tian Xiaoqi was no pushover either, reacting instantly by tilting her head to dodge.

To her surprise, Chen Canghai didn’t give her a moment to breathe. His strikes were clean and heavy, landing with solid thuds. After a dozen exchanges, Tian Xiaoqi was barely able to keep up her defense.

Chen Canghai leaped onto the wall for leverage, taking a few steps up before launching a spinning kick that sent Tian Xiaoqi flying several meters. He even managed to snatch a set of tomb-robbing tools from her waist during the scuffle.

On my end, I was desperately trying to pull He Yu back. Once he started running, he was like a wild horse that couldn’t be stopped. We happened to stop right in front of a hidden stone door. This secret entrance blended almost perfectly with the wall, making it nearly invisible in the darkness. If I hadn’t memorized the map, I never would have found it.

The Red Fire Ants in the stone corridor were becoming more numerous by the second, and I’d already been bitten a few times on my lower legs.

I shouted, “Quick! Help me push this stone door open!”

As soon as the words left my mouth, He Yu slammed his shoulder against it. I rushed over and put every ounce of strength I had into pushing. We were both drenched in sweat as we strained against the small double doors. Finally, after two minutes of frantic effort, we managed to force open a narrow crack.

I shoved He Yu inside and turned back to call for Chen Canghai before desperately squeezing myself through the gap.

Chen Canghai stood in the corridor, gun in hand, watching Tian Xiaoqi warily. Clutching her arm, she stood up from the floor with a look of resentment. Her gaze swept over me, but she was still intimidated by Chen Canghai. She quickly turned and ran back to find Qiao Sangui.

Only after seeing her disappear did Chen Canghai slip through the stone door after us. The three of us heaved the door shut and stuffed our discarded jackets into the remaining cracks. Once we were sure the Red Fire Ants couldn’t get in, we collapsed onto the floor to catch our breath.

“These little bastards are eating me alive. Do we have any medicine? I need something for these bites,” He Yu said, rolling up his pant legs to reveal four or five welts.

Chen Canghai took off his backpack and handed it to me. I thanked him, pulled out a tube of anti-inflammatory ointment, and tossed it to He Yu. “Our supplies are limited, so this will have to do for now. The master of this Underground Palace is certainly blunt. If I’d known the trap was just releasing swarms of bugs to bite us, I wouldn’t have gone through with this.”

“Hey, look on the bright side, at least it was just bugs,” He Yu said as he applied the ointment. “In a cramped space like this, anything else would have made our escape a lot harder.”

He flashed a smile at Chen Canghai. “Thanks to you, brother. I didn’t realize before that you were such a badass!”

Two chapters today.