Yang Qing was rather surprised to see the portrait turn into a heap of ashes in the blink of an eye.
Had Jiangli brought him here just to look at this portrait?
Once he had seen it, it was destroyed.
Jiangli waited until the heap of ashes had gone completely cold, then suddenly pounced into it.
It was a truly ferocious dive.
Its entire little body buried itself in the ashes.
It gave Yang Qing quite a fright.
What was Jiangli trying to do?
But after diving in, Jiangli soon came back out.
Its once reasonably clean, white fur had been stained by the ashes, turning it into a dusty gray ball.
Jiangli ran out and waved a paw at Yang Qing.
Yang Qing had not noticed its gesture at first, but then it suddenly scrambled up the hem of his robe and climbed onto his chest.
That paw remained raised high, as though it were showing something off.
Yang Qing looked closely. There, fitted over the little creature's paw, was a dull, lusterless Thumb Ring.
Having been scorched by the fire, it was pitch-black, making it impossible to tell what material it was made from.
Yang Qing took the Thumb Ring off Jiangli's paw. Jiangli then dropped back to the ground and led him outside.
After walking for a while, Yang Qing suddenly heard Bu Er and the others calling for him.
Had he come back out?
Yang Qing took a closer look and found that he had indeed emerged through the opening in the ruins.
Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou had found a well behind the ruins, but there was no water below.
The two had climbed down through the mouth of the well and removed several bricks from its wall before water began seeping out.
There was