To avoid stirring the grass and startling the snake, Xie Jinhuan had not brought everyone along. Instead, he had Sister Ye lead the main group back toward Missing Moon Manor as a feint, ready to provide support if anything happened.
He and Sister Guo quietly left the group midway and arrived in the wilderness more than seventy li from the valley.
Like Purple Emblem Mountain, the land outside Chi Dragon Cave's sect grounds consisted of lush mountains, wetlands, and great rivers, with spiritual fields, medicinal gardens, and the like used to cultivate medicinal herbs and rear birds and beasts.
The moon rose above the branches as Xie Jinhuan quietly landed in the forest. Ahead lay a stretch of hills, entirely unremarkable and showing nothing unusual, so he turned his gaze underground.
The Goddess of War held the borrowed Nihility Sword. After looking around, she crouched and lightly touched the grass with her palm to sense below. "There doesn't seem to be anything underground. If there is, it might be buried fairly deep."
Xie Jinhuan received information from Coal Ball and A Piao at the same time, confirming that the Rabbit Spirit was hiding below. He asked, "Sister Guo, do you know the Earth-Escape Technique?"
?
Empress Dowager Guo was, after all, one of the Immortal Ascendants. Even if she was no longer what she had once been, she had not fallen so far that she could not go underground. The qi around her stirred slightly, and the earth parted on its own as she sank out of sight.
Xie Jinhuan promptly took out the Mountain-Piercing Nail donated by an unnamed fellow cultivator from inside his robes. Holding it, he plunged headfirst into the ground like a fox pouncing on a rabbit.
Rustle-
Once underground, there was naturally no scenery around