Lin Shisan did not hesitate. Taking Zi Yuner's hand, he turned sideways and slipped through the passage. After a hundred or so paces, the passage abruptly narrowed, and a damp breeze carrying the stench of decay and mildew blew from ahead. Zi Yuner suddenly stopped.
Gai Jiuyou's voice emerged from her sea of consciousness, lower than before, like a predator crouching as it approached its prey.
"Lin Shisan, did you notice something just now? When Yue Wushuang shattered the formation's core, the spiritual light in her right palm gathered half a beat slower than you predicted."
Lin Shisan stopped as well. He turned to look at Zi Yuner, the images in his mind rewinding swiftly to the instant Yue Wushuang raised her hand to strike that stone slab. The spiritual light in her palm had indeed been half a beat late.
"She doesn't know where that artifact is either," Gai Jiuyou's voice rose from Zi Yuner's sea of consciousness. "When Yue Wushuang took over Nine Nether Mountain, I had already sealed that artifact deep within the mountain's heart. Even she couldn't find the entrance. She laid this trap not to guard the artifact, but to wait for me to come back and look for it myself."
"So the real artifact is beneath Nine Nether Mountain, and Yue Wushuang herself doesn't know its exact location."
A rekindled spark entered Gai Jiuyou's voice. "When I sealed the artifact away, I left a restriction that only my divine sense could unlock. Even if Yue Wushuang turned Nine Nether Mountain upside down, she wouldn't find that door. She let us go just now because she was betting I would turn back, betting I couldn't bear to abandon that thing."
Lin Shisan fell silent for a moment. "So what we need to do now isn't