The white-haired old man ignored Song Wen.
He increasingly felt that Song Wen was nothing but dead weight.
If not for the possibility that Song Wen might prove useful later, he would likely have struck and gotten rid of him long ago.
"Fellow Daoist Kong Jin, in your view, how should we break this deadlock?" the white-haired old man asked the scholar.
The scholar replied, "At present, our only option is to level all these small earthen mounds. If this truly is a natural formation, then once these mounds collapse, the formation will collapse without being attacked."
The white-haired old man frowned slightly and said with some concern.
"If we destroy these mounds, the disturbance will surely alert the demonic beasts and poisonous insects in the valley. We may then find ourselves in grave danger."
The scholar said, "We are already in grave danger. If we cannot leave this area, sooner or later the miasmic poison will enter our bodies, and we will die."
For a moment, the white-haired old man could not make up his mind and turned an inquiring gaze toward the dwarf.
The dwarf said, "We'll do as Fellow Daoist Kong Jin suggests."
Seeing the dwarf say so, the white-haired old man voiced no further objection.
To minimize the disturbance, after discussing it among themselves, the three decided to have the dwarf, who was skilled in water-element spells, take action.
As for Song Wen, he had not participated in their discussion from beginning to end. No one cared about his opinion; he was simply overlooked.
The dwarf opened his mouth and spat out a walnut-sized bead. It flew from his mouth, suspended in midair, and emitted a faint blue glow.
As the dwarf formed hand seals, rings of water slowly appeared around the bead.
The streams flowed