Chapter 223 - Trapped

Everyone couldn’t help but look sideways. Once they saw Young Peak Master Yuan’s gaze that was as gentle as water, they all tacitly understood — hehehe, sure enough, it was as the rumours said. Young Master Yuan had taken a fancy to Young Master Duan, so he kicked away his fiance that he was about to marry within the blink of an eye.

More importantly, Yuan Tianwen even started chasing Duan Yuyang, a hedonistic young master, openly and allowed others to arbitrarily judge him for it. Such that even when tons of people were gesticulating at him, he remained unmoving like a high and mighty mountain, while the saboteur was all happy and complacent as if it was a matter of no concern to him. He didn’t care at all about his reputation.

Together, these two people were truly a marvel to behold!

It’s just that...there were people present who envied Duan Yuyang for getting a good husband that fell from the sky.

Some people thought it was worthwhile to obtain Yuan Tianwen’s undying loyalty, even though there was a lot of gesticulating by many.

After all, although Duan Yuyang’s bad style of conduct in the past was a marvel amongst sons of influential families, his reputation wasn’t all that resounding so not many people knew who he was.

However, after getting wooed by Yuan Tianwen, everyone knew who Duan Yuyang was now.

What did pupils fear the most? Not leaving a mark and becoming someone who wasn’t known by others. Duan Yuyang had taken the chance to make friends with a lot of sons from other influential families, so his network has been greatly expanded, which will be of great benefit to him in the future when he manages the Duan family.

Duan Yuyang rolled his eyes at Yuan Tianwen.

“Everything was perfectly fine, why would it get triggered...” Shen Rubing muttered to herself, but before she finished, she realised that she had said too much and immediately shut her mouth, pretending as if she said nothing.

Lin Xuanzhi had intended to pull Yan Tianhen to his side, but he didn’t expect Yan Tianhen to be like a little rabbit as he carefully nudged to his side step by step.

Yan Tianhen extended a hand, stealthily hooking onto Lin Xuanzhi’s drooping left finger like he was expressing his goodwill. He whispered, “Shall we make peace? Dage.”

This one ‘Dage’ of his was uttered with a heavy coquettish connotation, making Lin Xuanzhi’s heart turn calm and numb. Any dissatisfaction and unspeakable bitterness transformed into honey at this moment.

“Okay.” Lin Xuanzhi hooked his finger as well and tugged Yan Tianhen’s small hand.

So Yan Tianhen smiled. Although he wasn’t beautiful, his eyes would curve when he smiles, revealing a lovely expression that made people not help but want to smile along with him.

The two of them were set on not mentioning the embarrassing thing that had happened before and just dismissed it with one smile.

“Then, Dage, I’ll tell you something, but you can’t yell at me or get angry.” Yan Tianhen blinked, looking very innocent.

Lin Xuanzhi, “...”

When facing Yan Tianhen, what else could he say?

Lin Xuanzhi smiled slightly. “What disaster has Ah Hen caused again?”

Yan Tianhen leaned on Lin Xuanzhi and hooked one arm around Lin Xuanzhi’s neck, signaling for him to lower himself.

Lin Xuanzhi went along with him and lamented to himself that Ah Hen actually wasn’t trying to keep a distance from him after his frivolous act but instead acted as intimate with him as ever without the slightest bit of guard against him. He felt very gratified because of that.

Yan Tianhen said, “Just now, I squatted outside and pulled out a tuft of grass. But who would’ve thought that underneath that tuft of grass would be a hidden mechanism.”

After speaking, Yan Tianhen waited for Lin Xuanzhi to scold him.

However, after Lin Xuanzhi’s initial shock, he rubbed Yan Tianhen’s head and suppressed his voice, “Got it. Dage will keep Ah Hen’s secret for you.”

Yan Tianhen was stunned, then looked up at Lin Xuanzhi.

There seemed to be the resplendent glow of stars in Lin Xuanzhi’s eyes, which glistened brightly.

In the eyes of others, they would only see them as brothers who were very close to each other. No one would’ve been able to tell that they had parted ways before this.

Someone said enviously to Lin Zezhi, “Craftsman Lin and his younger brother have a really good relationship. Are they like that in the Lin family too?”

Lin Zezhi nodded. “They do have a good relationship, it has always been so.”

Naturally, there were also people who thought that even between brothers, hooking around the other’s neck and hugging waists was a bit too intimate, so they couldn’t help their thoughts from running in a crooked direction. However, looking at Yan Tianhen’s face and his lame foot, they couldn’t help but dispel that unrealistic idea. The current trouble was of vital importance, it was more imperative to find out what the tremor from just now came from.

Someone said, “That may have been a precursor to an earthquake. We should get out of here as soon as possible ba.”

There was also someone who said, “There may be another mystery inside.”

One faction wanted to leave, while the other wanted to go in and explore.

In the end, it was the people in power who made the decision.

Shen Rubing said, “We’re already here anyway, there’s no reason to leave. I’m guessing that this may be some kind of sign, so why don’t we go in and have a look at the situation first?”

After that, she even turned to look specifically at Lin Xuanzhi to ask, “What does Xuanzhi think?”

Lin Xuanzhi nodded. “Since Young Sect Master Shen wants to go in to take a look, I naturally will not retreat.”

Shen Rubing’s expression eased. The discontent and discomfort that was aroused because of Lin Xuanzhi nursing Yan Tianhen from beginning to end also dispersed quite a bit.

Yuan Tianwen said, “Yangyang and I will go in as well.”

Duan Yuyang rolled his eyes. “Don’t address me so intimately, am I that familiar with you?”

Yuan Tianwen didn’t retort and just looked at Duan Yuyang with a pampering expression.

Since they had decided where to go, everyone went deep into the cave together.

Shortly after leaving, someone exclaimed, “Everybody, look here, there are traces of mechanisms!”

On the dark and steep mountain walls, there were vague traces of mechanisms. This cave had evidently been tampered with by someone before.

“Someone probably triggered a mechanism just now.” Shen Rubing frowned. “Don’t tell me...someone has already entered the cave?”

This conjecture made people’s blood run cold.

They had already been here for one day and one night and clearly didn’t even see a fly go in, let alone a human.

Yan Tianhen, the chief culprit, stuck his tongue out and even blinked at Lin Xuanzhi mischievously to signal his innocence.

Everyone was on edge as they continued walking for a while longer. Only the Firefly Stone emitted a faint yellowish light within the dark cave.

Soon after, things took a new turn as an even bigger cave appeared in front of everyone.

The cave was ten feet tall and its walls were strangely smooth — they had clearly been polished with tools before. There were even all sorts of totems and sculptures engraved on the walls. Lit eternal lamps were positioned at intervals, making the place look extremely luxurious.

In the middle of the cave stood a sarcophagus. The coffin was carved out of white jade, with a slightly transparent and moist texture — it was clearly not anything ordinary.

To reach the coffin, one would have to cross a silver river surrounding the coffin that looked like a jade belt. There were eight unimpeded pontoon bridges above the river.

Everyone was stunned by this shocking scene.

This was obviously a burial ground.

Lin Xuanzhi thought that this place did coincidence with the memory of his past life.

“What’s all this?”

“This is the Pill Limit Mysterious Land, so the one who can be buried here should only be that alchemist who has already ascended.”

“But the alchemist has already ascended, so who’s the one in this?”

Everyone started discussing, while Lin Xuanzhi looked up at the entrance of this cave, only to see a stone gate of an unknown weight slowly slide downwards.

“Everybody watch out!” Lin Xuanzhi called out, then pulled Yan Tianhen and went down the steps first.

Although everyone was puzzled, they blindly followed the crowd and rushed down as well.

With a loud “bang”, the tremor from just now started up again; the mountains shook, as if the mountain god had been angered.

Giant stone statues fell from above and were about to crush the people below. Everyone started shrieking while avoiding them, and there were some who wanted to rush onto the pontoon bridges to run to the coffin where it seemed safe.

Yuan Tianwen drew his broad sword straight away, and with a few whooshes, crushed the giant statues into powder. Lin Xuanzhi threw a magic tool out that enveloped himself and Yan Tianhen in it.

Wan Linghua was a doctor, it was naturally nothing difficult for her to make some incapacitating drugs or others usually. But this stone wasn’t human, so there was no way for her to make use of her skills for a moment. Fortunately, her little Shimei Jin Fangfei was a powerful elemental cultivator. With her petite body, she stood in front of Wan Linghua to shield her, wielded two swords in both hands, and with a few whooshes, she sent the stone pieces that were bigger than her body flying.

When Lin Xuanzhi noticed that there were people running toward the pontoon bridges, he immediately shouted, “Don’t get on the bridges!”

However, before he finished speaking, a Cloud Jade Sect disciple stepped onto a bridge.

The bridge shattered with a blast and that female cultivator shrieked as she fell into the silver river; her skin and flesh boiled in an instant as they peeled off from her skeleton, and she turned into a pile of white bones.

Her white bones melted in the water at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Upon seeing this scene, people couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat. The people who had wanted to cross the bridge to take a look at the coffin couldn’t remain standing anymore and fell to their knees with a thud.

Too terrifying...this was truly too terrifying!

What on earth was that water?

This falling rock attack stopped shortly after. Aside from five pupils whose arms were injured from being struck, the others didn’t even get a scratch. There were just a few who suffered psychologically.

Shen Rubing stared at the jade coffin, an ambitious glint flashing through her eyes.

It was a mess in the cave. The road back was sealed off by the giant stone gate. Yuan Tianwen tried using his Qi and sharp blade to hit the stone gate away, but all it did was scratch out a deep mark on it that didn’t move the stone gate in the slightest.

This stone was evidently nothing ordinary.

“We’re stuck here.”

“There’s no way out.”

“I already crushed my transportation ball just now.” Someone trembled, “But I didn’t leave this place.”

As soon as these words were said, it caused another panic.

Some people tried pinching their transportation balls as well, but without exception, not one worked.

Lin Xuanzhi said lightly, “There’s no need to try anymore. There’s another mystery in this cave — all transportation balls have lost their effectiveness.”

“What?”

“Then what should we do? We can’t get out, and people outside can’t come in either, wuwuwu...”

“And there’s that weird water too, what on earth is it?”

“Let’s find a way out first ba.” Yuan Tianwen said in a low voice.

Senseless panic and fear would only waste time and distract people.

When everyone heard this, they quickly stuck to the walls and made one round, probing around carefully as they were afraid that they would miss an imperceptible mechanism button if they weren’t careful.

However, they made rounds and rounds without discovering any sort of mechanism. There were even people who didn’t believe in the abnormality who patted around everywhere but were disappointed to find that this mountain wall was solid everywhere, there wasn’t a single hollow place. It was clearly unlikely for there to be a hidden mystery within.

For a while, the atmosphere turned downcast again, and everyone kept quiet out of fear.

On the other hand, Shen Rubing’s expression remained unchanged without the slightest sign of panic, as if everything that was happening had no effect on her.

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