"Knock, knock, knock."
It was the sound of someone knocking.
Zhang Yuan's divine sense passed through the rock wall. After seeing who stood outside and considering briefly, he rose with Xie Jingxin and walked to the entrance, withdrawing the defensive and concealing spells and the conceptual image of [Severing Past and Present, Leaving or Staying].
Daylight suddenly flooded in. An old man carrying a turtle shell on his back and leaning on a cane stood at the entrance. When it opened, he did not even look up to see who had opened it, but launched straight into his own speech:
"Brother Flood Dragon, the Heavenly Oracle Glazed Flower has appeared. That old cat claimed an outsider took it, but I don't believe a word of it. Everyone knows that in this Grotto-Heaven, that old cat is the best at using the Human Race's weapons and is a master of swordsmanship. I reckon he's deliberately laying a false trail. He's the one who took the Heavenly Oracle Glazed Flower."
The turtle-shelled old man rattled off a whole torrent of words right from the start. Zhang Yuan and Xie Jingxin understood not a word. They exchanged a glance and saw the bewilderment in each other's eyes, but both were kind by nature. Out of courtesy, they did not interrupt him, simply standing at the entrance and waiting for him to stop or finish.
After talking for a while and receiving no response from "Brother Flood Dragon," the turtle-shelled old man grew puzzled. He looked up, only to discover in astonishment that the people before him were not the Flood Dragon he knew, but two human cultivators.
The campfire was still burning inside. When the turtle-shelled old man saw the leftover roasted snake meat, his pupils abruptly contracted. Then he noticed Xie Jingxin