Jiang Qiao hesitated no longer.
He turned and sprinted deeper into the tomb passage.
Dragon Tiger Daoist followed close behind. Though the bloody tears on his face had stopped, the redness and swelling around his eyes remained a shocking sight.
He panted heavily as he ran.
Clearly, those rounds just now had taken quite a toll on him.
"Benefactor Jiang."
"Are we just leaving that tombstone there?"
"Why the hell would we deal with it?" Jiang Qiao didn't look back. "That thing's a door, and whatever's behind it is determined to come through. I can't break it right now, so all we can do is run."
"It won't chase after us?"
"Not for now." Jiang Qiao's feet never slowed, but his tone carried a measure of certainty.
Dragon Tiger Daoist let out a sigh of relief.
Yet he did not dare relax his pace in the slightest.
The two raced one after the other through the dim tomb passage.
The farther in they went, the more obvious the changes in the passage became.
At first, there were only fine cracks in the stone walls, like the dry, chapped skin on an old man's hands. But as they pushed deeper, the cracks became more numerous and deeper, some wide enough to fit a finger into.
The chisel marks on the walls also grew blurred.
As if something had worn them smooth.
In some places, large sections had even flaked away, revealing the layer of broken stone beneath.
"This passage... seems older than the one before?"
Dragon Tiger Daoist surveyed the surroundings as he ran. "It feels like construction from two different eras. Something drastic seems to have happened in this middle section."
"Mm."
Jiang Qiao nodded, his gaze sweeping rapidly over the surroundings. "Something really is off. The earlier section of