"Withdraw."
Daoist Chi Song sat on the ground, his breathing not yet fully steady, but an unquestionable resolve showed on his deathly pale face.
He did not get up. Still sitting cross-legged, he pointed at the bronze sluice gate that had been blasted to pieces. "That made too much noise.
"The foreigners' methods of listening underground are no worse than ours. A large force is probably already heading this way."
"It's cramped down here. If they trap us in the Underground River and squeeze us from both ends, we'll be turtles in a jar. No matter how capable we are, they'll blast us to rubble."
Everyone's heart tightened.
True, that last fight had been exhilarating, but danger had lurked at every turn.
If the foreigners brought in a few of those rapid-firing little steel cannons, or a few more fate cultivators like the ones they had just fought, their chances in this exposed river passage would be anyone's guess.
"Move smartly!"
Zhao Yuanji came from the Mo School and understood the dangers of these mechanism-filled strongholds best. He was the first to jump up, tuck the Compass into his robes, and direct everyone to clean up the battlefield.
Tiger Cub grinned broadly, kicked aside the fat food cultivator whose skull Qin Geng had split open, and bent down to strip the large gold ring from his hand.
"Good grief, this must weigh two taels!"
Tiger Cub clicked his tongue as he tugged it off. "These foreign devils are really rolling in fat. Good food, good clothes-even the rings they wear are pure gold."
"That's all you aspire to."
Xia Jingyi wiped her long saber on the tall, skinny way cultivator's clothes and sheathed it.
She bent down and picked up a Western stabbing blade from the ground. It was forged