Let You Die Knowing

"It seems I'll have to cultivate some sort of night-vision eye or similar technique from now on. I'm starting to feel like I have some inescapable connection to digging through caves."

Wei Suo looked at the maze-like underground palace before him with a feeling of wanting to cry but having no tears. In the past, Wei Suo disliked fighting demonic beasts in caves where it was difficult to escape, but ever since that incident with Lin Daoyi in a cave last time, followed by the Stone Maggot Cave, and now the Green Wind Mausoleum's underground palace, it's been one cave after another.

The entire underground palace was like a city that had been thrown into chaos by an earthquake and then buried underground. Now, Wei Suo stood on a dilapidated stone staircase, with collapsed stone pillars and sculptures on both sides. Further ahead, he saw palaces half-collapsed or completely ruined, shrouded in darkness. The most common sights were half-finished statues and various broken stone pillars that once supported the palaces, with scattered dry bones within.

A crack, about a person's height, ran across the cave ceiling seven or eight zhang above Wei Suo's head. The underground palace beneath the Green Wind Mausoleum was now riddled with holes like a broken house. Wei Suo had entered this underground palace through that crack. However, Wei Suo's Wind Cloud Boots could only allow him to soar five or six zhang. Now that he had fallen, he would have to find another way out.

After looking around for a while, Wei Suo turned to the Green Robe Old Man and said, "Old man, you have to keep an eye out for me. If I accidentally trigger a restriction or get ambushed by some demonic beast and die here, in this godforsaken, filthy place, it might take you tens of thousands of years before anyone discovers you again."

"Stop your nonsense. I'm watching out for you," the Green Robe Old Man snorted unhappily. "Even if you die, don't you worry about it. My lifespan isn't that long anyway."

Wei Suo nodded repeatedly, blinking hard. He didn't dare to take out his night-shining pearl. After his eyes had slightly adjusted to the darkness, he floated towards the direction of the sound.

The environment inside the underground palace was very harsh, and Wei Suo was terrified.

There were collapsed rocks everywhere, it was pitch black, with various branching paths. There wasn't a single intact road, let alone anything good. Many of the palaces they passed were precarious. Sometimes, a dilapidated palace roof would slant off a half-standing wall, causing Wei Suo, who was passing through with a pounding heart, to worry that he might be crushed to death if he was unlucky enough.

There were also paths that looked perfectly fine, but as he walked forward, he discovered they were broken bridges, with bottomless abysses beneath his feet. When there was no path, he could only turn back, forcing Wei Suo to constantly change his markers, fearing he would get completely lost inside.

Even more frustrating was that after walking towards the source of the sound for a while, the sound disappeared. Instead, from another direction, seemingly very far away, the sound of someone casting a spell could be heard again.

"Nangong Yuqing, my beautiful lady, where are you? At least give me a hint."

It was certain that Nangong Yuqing was somewhere within this underground palace, which spanned hundreds of miles. Moreover, she was definitely within three hundred miles of Wei Suo, because just a moment ago, the message jade slip in Wei Suo's hand was still glowing. However, the message jade slip was a low-grade item; it could only indicate that Nangong Yuqing was inside and was likely fine for now, but it couldn't transmit any additional information.

Wei Suo, now in a dilemma, stood before a narrow passage.

This narrow passage could only accommodate one person. However, the top had completely split open with a crack of almost the same size, extending upwards. Some faint light refracted in, making the entire passage like a sliver of sky.

Listening to the sound from another direction in the distance, Wei Suo gritted his teeth and walked into the narrow passage.

After all, that place was too far from his current location. If he managed to get halfway there and the sound disappeared again, it would be a waste of effort. It would be better to go and check out the place where he had heard the sound earlier.

Because there was less room for maneuver in such narrow, sliver-of-sky passages, Wei Suo was extra cautious, his nerves taut.

Suddenly, the Green Robe Old Man's voice sounded in his ear, "Be careful, there's a cultivator ahead!"

At the end of the sliver of sky passage was another area of collapsed palace buildings.

A stone staircase passed through this ruin. Beside this dilapidated stone staircase, in a half-collapsed palace, a middle-aged cultivator dressed in a black cloak was ambushing in a corner, his eyes vigilantly watching the stone staircase ahead.

This middle-aged cultivator had a long, narrow face and a pair of triangular eyes. His appearance was somewhat sinister, comparable to the red-robed cultivator Wei Suo had fought for the Earth Fire Furnace room.

Suddenly, without any warning, this cultivator sensed something and abruptly turned around.

Not far to his left, by the ruins of a palace, Wei Suo, dressed in green, was looking at him with a serious expression.

"It's you!"

The cultivator in the black cloak's face changed drastically. A pair of dark lights shot out from his hand. This pair of dark lights was a pair of shining, bird-claw-shaped Magic Treasures.

"What's going on!"

The two dark lights struck Wei Suo's chest almost without any delay. However, the cultivator did not see the scene of Wei Suo's chest spewing blood as he had imagined. The two dark lights, like heavy claws, penetrated Wei Suo's body without any obstruction. Wei Suo's body merely rippled with a layer of transparent, water-like waves.

Almost simultaneously, a bucket-sized bronze ring suddenly encircled him. Then, before he could make any sound, amidst a howling wind, over a dozen terrifying black skull heads and a streak of dark light attacked him from behind.

The cultivator's head flew off directly, and his body was riddled with holes by the power of the black skull heads.

"A cultivator at the Divine Ability Realm Fifth Level."

Wei Suo, emerging from the darkness behind him, let out a sigh of relief.

Wei Suo, dressed in gray, quickly stripped the cultivator of all his clothes, rolled them up, and swiftly entered the vast expanse of collapsed buildings, which resembled a stone forest, along the stone staircase.

Meanwhile, the "green-clothed Wei Suo" that had been standing motionlessly to the left of the cultivator's corpse slowly faded and dissipated into the air after a considerable amount of time.

Suddenly, all sounds within the underground palace temporarily ceased, and the entire underground palace fell into a deathly silence.

Now, Wei Suo didn't know whether to feel relieved or more tense.

Thirty to forty feet in front of him lay a bottomless abyss. A stone arch bridge spanned the two ends of the abyss. Apart from some thick cracks, it still appeared to be intact.

Near Wei Suo's side of the bridgehead, amidst a pile of rough-hewn square stones that seemed to have been brought in but not yet carved, another cultivator was ambushing. The magic robe worn by this cultivator was made of some unknown material. Like the Gray Rock Snake, it could change color according to its surroundings. At this moment, his magic robe was the exact same grayish-white color as the square stones. If not for the Green Robe Old Man's warning, even if Wei Suo walked close to him in this extreme darkness, he might not have been able to detect him.

Wei Suo used the Qi Gazing Art to look. This cultivator, whose face was indistinguishable, was a Divine Ability Realm Fifth Level cultivator, just like the cultivator he had previously lured with the Illusionary Light Talisman and ambushed to death.

It seemed that not all of the Yellow Robe Cultivator's group were terrifying Circulation Realm cultivators.

But it was clear that the Yellow Robe Cultivator's group was not small in number. They also seemed familiar with the environment of this underground palace, having stationed personnel in many places. They appeared to be secretly monitoring Tie Ce's movements, waiting for the opportune moment to strike and launch a large-scale encirclement and annihilation.

Wei Suo held his breath and watched for a moment, then took another Illusionary Light Talisman into his hand. Just like before, he stealthily approached the cultivator ambushing near the bridgehead.

Including the one in his hand, Wei Suo had a total of four Illusionary Light Talismans. However, one of them was the Big White Pig Illusionary Light Talisman. Wei Suo felt that in this situation, it would be better to use an Illusionary Light Talisman that projected his own image. After all, like before, it would be possible to distinguish friend from foe immediately, preventing him from misjudging and accidentally killing Tie Ce's people.

"What, trying to ambush me?"

However, what made Wei Suo freeze and nearly lose his soul was that when he was still at least twenty zhang away from the cultivator, this cultivator suddenly turned around abruptly.

This cultivator appeared to be in his thirties, with a gaunt face and high cheekbones. Most notably, he had lost an eye and wore a black eyepatch, making him a one-eyed man. Currently, he was staring at Wei Suo with his single eye, his hands clasped behind his back, a cold smile playing on his lips.

Wei Suo, while frantically taking out a Fireball Talisman, exclaimed in disbelief, "How is this possible? How did you discover me?"

"What, you think a mere First-Order Fireball Talisman can deal with me?" the one-eyed cultivator looked at Wei Suo with utter disdain. He reached out and pointed, and a dark iron shield floated in front of him.

"Forget it. It's my bad luck to run into a high-level cultivator like you. I finally managed to sneak my way here, and I didn't encounter Tie Ce's people, but I still ran into you guys." Wei Suo said with a look of despair, lowering the Fireball Talisman. "I just can't figure out how you discovered me so easily."

The one-eyed cultivator smiled smugly. "It's fine to let you die knowing why." After speaking, he waved his hand, and a small, silver-black shadow suddenly darted up from beneath him and into his hand. It was a rat with silver-black stripes on its body.

"Silver Devouring Rat, so it's Beast Taming Art." Wei Suo was stunned for a moment and immediately understood.

"Why are you stuffing the Fireball Talisman into your pocket? I'll have to take it out again later." Seeing Wei Suo nod and dejectedly tuck the Fireball Talisman back into his pocket, the one-eyed cultivator couldn't help but laugh heartily.

"What are you doing? Mystic Tortoise Shield?" But what made him suddenly widen his eyes was that after Wei Suo stuffed the Fireball Talisman into his pocket, he waved his hand and produced a shield resembling a black tortoise shell, which floated in front of him.