Tracing Footsteps

"What are you talking about, kid?" Bald Bird froze, unable to stop himself from asking.

Chen Fan kept his gaze on the lava above and said in a low voice, "That Hell Sect's Sect Master is currently on the seventh level."

"What? Didn't you just say he was on the eighth level? The rock wall hasn't even been broken open yet, so you..." Bald Bird looked utterly baffled, while the others also frowned slightly as they looked at Chen Fan.

Chen Fan remained calm and shook his head. "I said that deliberately for him to hear. That Sect Master isn't a fool. He wouldn't go out of his way to create a fake eighth level just to waste our time, even exposing the fact that he was on the eighth level. He did it only to lure us to the eighth level, hoping to use the Nine Nether Soul-Gathering Array to weaken our group."

"Damn it, no wonder! I always felt this wasn't so simple. Kid, when did you become so clever? Could it be that one who stays near vermilion turns red?" Chen Fan's words jolted everyone awake. Bald Bird slapped the back of his own head and said in sudden realization.

The Divine Silkworm Clan's patriarch nodded faintly as well, having understood everything. "So, when we were on the seventh level, you deliberately voiced that guess because you wanted him to think we had fallen for it, preventing him from fleeing?"

Chen Fan shook his head and said gravely, "That was part of it, but more importantly, I wasn't entirely certain. Yet once the Nine Nether Soul-Gathering Array was broken and I saw that rock wall, I became certain. He is on the seventh level."

"Why?"

"Because behind that rock wall, there are only traps." Chen Fan smiled