As soon as the thick stone door opened, it revealed the familiar white staircase, leading straight up to somewhere above.
Wang Yu and Ximen Mei exchanged a glance, then stepped onto the stairs one after the other and headed upward.
After they had walked a little over a hundred meters, an iron plate resembling a lid appeared ahead in the passage, blocking the exit.
At the sight, a crystalline gleam flashed in Wang Yu's eyes. He quietly took a few steps forward and gently pressed his ear against the iron plate.
Without knowing whether anyone was outside, he dared not casually release his divine sense, lest he beat the grass and startle the snake, alerting something.
He held his breath and relied solely on his superhuman hearing in Overclocking mode, listening carefully for any movement beyond the iron plate.
Seeing this, Ximen Mei's expression turned faintly odd, but she made no attempt to stop him.
Only after more than ten breaths did Wang Yu's expression relax. He gestured to Ximen Mei to be careful, then grasped the handle on the iron plate with one hand and silently moved it aside.
He looked at the open exit and waited quietly on the stairs for a moment. Only then, reassured, did he dart upward and leap straight out.
Ximen Mei followed close behind.
"Cough, cough... this is..."
The moment they emerged, their feet landed in a thick layer of dust. Caught off guard, they coughed repeatedly as dust billowed up, then hurriedly held their breath.
Only then did they have time to survey their surroundings, and both looked surprised.
They were in what appeared to be an utterly ordinary side room.
There was a bed, a table and chairs, and even a bookcase standing to one side. The passage they had emerged