At the entrance to the torture chamber, the Golden-Scaled Little Snake used its old trick again, burrowing into a crack in the ground and opening the mechanism from within.
Lu Bei strode in wearing Clear Water Sect robes, looking so perfectly at home that anyone who didn't know better would have thought he was truly a Clear Water Sect disciple.
Seeing that no one had dealt with the corpses on the ground, Lu Bei felt greatly relieved. He didn't bother checking whether the Demon Cultivator who belonged to the turtle species had left the prison. He picked up a longsword and headed toward the rear hall.
Unable to find the Teleportation Array or an exit, Lu Bei thought, What a nuisance. He reached the two corpses ambushed by the Golden-Scaled Little Snake, activated the mechanism, and entered the stone passage illuminated by Luminous Pearls.
His instincts told him there was a very good chance this path led to an exit—but the greatest possibility was that it went straight to the Clear Water Sect's lair.
This lair differed from the previous traps. He had already felt out the enemy's escape route!
Deep within the underground ruins, a huge stone-carved array covered the ground. Icy-blue spirit veins crisscrossed in every direction, converging along the carved routes from all sides.
At the center, Zhao Xiayang presided over the array. At his orders, the sect disciples activated the Bloodline Mechanisms one after another.
"Master, Commander Wang's whereabouts are unknown. We've searched nearly the entire underground palace, but still haven't found him." A tall, thin disciple hurried forward and knelt halfway down to plead guilty.
"Go look again. The four Bloodline Mechanisms are missing only his fox blood. Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, you must unearth him."
Zhao