Fear seeped into his voice. Before he could finish speaking, an unseen, formless force seemed to seize him and drag him down into the ground.
The Holy Shepherd screamed in terror, "To pass through this passage, we still need something! Master Tang has it. You must find it! Save me, save me—"
As he spoke, his whole body stretched like a strand of noodle dough and turned into a long stream of black vapor, drawn bit by bit into the ground.
"Holy Shepherd! Holy Shepherd!" The man left behind cried out in horror. It felt as though heaven and earth had collapsed; he could not believe what he had seen.
He had never imagined that the Holy Shepherd, sent by the great God of Ultimate Care to walk among mortals and spread the truth of the divine in his stead, could be trapped in a place like this.
A chill ran through him. He felt as though something inside him was about to shatter.
Fortunately, a voice forced its way out just then. "Don't worry. He can't keep me suppressed for long. I'll be out soon. Send someone to kill Tang Changsheng. You must take that treasure back—"
Before the voice could finish, it sank away again.
"Yes, yes. I mustn't doubt the True God! As long as I kill Tang Changsheng, kill him and seize the treasure, I can save the Holy Shepherd!"
The remaining black-clad man muttered to himself, growing more agitated with every word.
"What exactly is that treasure?" He tried to guess, thinking himself clever, but his answer did not seem right.
No wonder. In Lufadan, they had paid an enormous price to get their hands on the Silver Mirror.
Yet soon afterward, the Holy Shepherd had ordered them to return the Silver Mirror to Tang