Chen Wuya turned sideways and squeezed through the gap, barely a foot wide. The rock walls scraped across his shoulders, tearing a hole in his coarse cloth tunic. He did not pause. The moment one knee hit the ground, he rolled with the momentum, avoiding several silver threads as fine as hair stretched across the floor—trigger wires for poisonous mist.
Bai Zhi followed close behind, bracing her sword hilt against the stone wall for leverage before lightly leaping in. Upon landing, she tapped her toes and slid three steps along the base of the wall before slowly straightening. Her gaze swept over the dark passage ahead. "That palm strike of yours loosened more than just the gate."
"I know." Chen Wuya steadied himself, spreading the fingers of his right hand slightly. Misaligned Force circled once in his palm before he pressed it to the ground. His true qi ran backward through his meridians, and the instant it seeped into the soil, a ripple too faint for the naked eye spread through the air. The system silently prompted: Energy disturbance detected. The illusion array node is inside a rock tumor three zhang to the left-front.
He said nothing, merely tipped his chin in that direction.
Understanding at once, Bai Zhi drew her flexible sword half an inch. Sword light rippled like water as it slashed through. The rock tumor split open with a crack, spraying black blood—it had not been stone at all, but some parasitic demon core disguised as a stalactite and hidden on the cavern ceiling. A twisted humanoid monster fell from within, its limbs twitching a few times before it went still.
A rank wind surged from the depths, mixed with low, muffled sobs. The walls on either side of the passage began to tremble faintly, as though