"Master..."
Bai Youyou did not even stop to wipe the tears from her face before staggering to her feet.
She gripped Lin Shisan's wrist. "Shisan, my master... she has two days left... senior sister's last wisp of divine sense wouldn't lie to me."
Lin Shisan turned to the Old Woman.
The Old Woman shuddered, trembling like a leaf in the wind. Leaning on her cane, she hurriedly tottered forward to lead the way. "The underground labyrinth... I know the entrance. The former palace master took me through it once, but Nan Ji's master must have placed restrictions inside..."
"Just lead the way. I'll break the restrictions."
Lin Shisan held the rolled-up Myriad Souls Banner in his left hand and had already brought out the Little Black Cauldron in his right.
The underground palace's stone gate slowly closed behind them, and the glow of the Netherworld Palace's Night-Luminescent Pearls gradually dimmed.
The group passed through three forks and arrived before an unremarkable stone wall.
The Old Woman felt around a spot on the wall for a moment. A mechanism clicked, and the wall silently opened a crack, revealing dark stone steps descending below.
"This is it... thirty feet down is the labyrinth's first level."
Bai Youyou stepped onto the stairs first, with Zi Yuner close behind and Lin Shisan bringing up the rear.
Most of the luminous pearls lining the stairs had long since gone out. The few remaining glimmered like tiny beans of light, too dim to illuminate even three steps ahead.
Thick dust lay beneath their feet. At the bend on the second level, Lin Shisan suddenly stopped.
He had stepped on a slightly raised stone slab whose pattern was almost identical to the surrounding blue bricks.
At the same time, the Little Black Cauldron grew faintly hot in