The sound of the wind changed abruptly!
Yang Qing had only just noticed and was about to open his eyes to investigate when he found his body suddenly hanging in midair.
The ground where he had been standing had completely collapsed.
He was falling into the abyss.
Had he failed after all? Yang Qing's heart clenched.
But as he fell, he spotted several utterly familiar figures.
They were Jiang Zhizhou, Bu Er, and Pei Buji, who had suddenly vanished moments earlier.
Yang Qing saw them, and they naturally saw him plummeting as well.
Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou checked their descent in unison, each kicking off the sheer cliff beside them to spring toward Yang Qing from opposite sides.
After several breaths, they finally caught his falling body in midair.
But doing so disrupted their breathing and dragged them downward. Even though they promptly steadied their breaths, they still struck the cliff several times before barely managing to stabilize themselves again.
Amid the chaos, Pei Buji's voice came from some distance away on the other side. "Hold steady! There's a stone ledge less than a few yards from you!"
The ledge was only a little over ten feet wide. If they crashed headfirst into it without noticing, they would surely be badly hurt.
At Pei Buji's warning, Bu Er looked down and indeed saw a small stone ledge jutting abruptly from the cliff.
He and Jiang Zhizhou had been companions for years and had developed a tacit understanding. Exchanging a glance, they carried Yang Qing down onto the ledge, landing one after the other.
Meanwhile, Pei Buji leaped over from the side and landed on the ledge as well.
The four stood facing one another in pairs, filling the ledge completely.
A small cave opened in the cliff adjoining the