Jing Chuan reacted at once and shouted, "Patriarch Wang, open the door!"
Outside, Wang Tong was sweating with anxiety. "I can't open it. I don't know why..."
"Fuck..." Jing Chuan took out a writing brush, ready to send it flying to blast open the outer door.
The little nun, Wunian, suddenly spoke. "You mustn't."
"Hm?" Jing Chuan turned to look at her. The little nun remained perfectly calm. "This place has already fallen under a chaos formation. If you attack, this outer chamber will explode... perhaps we can defend against its power, but the Wang Family's ancestral graves will be destroyed, and the entire Wang Family may suffer heavy casualties."
Jing Chuan was a little speechless. He was already suspecting Wang Tong of setting this whole thing up. As long as they could defend themselves, who cared whether the Wang Family lived or died? Where had this Buddhist bleeding heart come from... oh, right, she was a nun.
The nuns all watched Jing Chuan like tigers eyeing their prey, looking ready to stop him at any moment. Jing Chuan grew even angrier. "So I'm the fucking prisoner now? Are you bald bitches sick in the head? You're the ones who came sticking your noses in for no reason, you're the ones who wanted a fight after one casual bit of provocation, and now you're guarding me like a prisoner! Don't think I won't fuck your ancestors just because you're nuns..."
Qi Yan patted his shoulder. "Calm down, Brother Jing. This doesn't feel like the Wang Family's doing."
Then he turned to ask the little nun, "Since you recognize this formation, Reverend, do you know how to break it?"
The little nun looked at him with wide eyes, feeling somewhat puzzled.
She had heard that this man had even blown up his own ancestral graves and slaughtered his own clansmen... why was he defending the Wang Family instead?
Aloud, she answered, "The formation's core isn't here. We must go deeper inside the main tomb to break it."
Qi Yan turned toward the passage leading to the main tomb. Another stone door blocked the way there. He raised his voice and asked, "Patriarch Wang, where is the mechanism for this inner door?"
Wang Tong's anxious voice came from outside. "The dragon's head carved in the center of the stone door. Press its left eye."
Jing Chuan immediately dashed forward and pressed it. Before Qi Yan could stop him, the door rumbled, and the world suddenly twisted.
Everyone felt heaven and earth spin around them. When they opened their eyes, everyone beside them had vanished.
Qi Yan staggered to a halt and surveyed his surroundings.
It looked like a medicine chamber, with bottles and jars neatly arranged inside. He stepped forward, pulled the stopper from one bottle, and sniffed it. The pills inside had already gone bad.
Qi Yan had a fair idea now. Most cultivators laid out their tombs like their cave abodes, complete with areas for refining medicine, forging artifacts, and so on. Judging by these expired medicines, this should be the medicine chamber in the Wang Family ancestor's tomb.
The little nun had said "chaos formation," not an explosive formation. That button had most likely triggered some kind of chaotic effect, separating everyone so they could be picked off one by one.
That meant whoever was causing trouble in the tomb had no confidence in taking on so many of them, hence all these tricks. When provocation failed, they resorted to picking them off individually.
An explosion came from the distance, followed by a nun's scream. She seemed to have been attacked; there was no telling whether she had died.
Qi Yan swiftly rushed out of the medicine chamber. Whatever the case, hiding in such a cramped room was extremely dangerous. He needed to reach somewhere more open, preferably finding someone to join forces with.
Just as he darted out the door, he saw the pretty little nun dart out from next door as well. She startled at the sight of Qi Yan, then quickly brought out a string of prayer beads, which circled in front of her.
Qi Yan truly did not know whether to laugh or cry. "Why are you guarding against me? Can you still not tell we've walked into a trap? Do you want us to kill each other first?"
The little nun's voice was clear and crisp. "Alone in dangerous territory, I have to be on guard. Besides, you aren't a good person."
"How am I not a good person?" Qi Yan laughed in anger. "Do you know me that well? I bet you don't even know my name!"
The little nun raised her small head. "Your name is Qi Yan."
"Heh... you know quite a lot. So you really did come to investigate us..." Qi Yan scoffed. "Listen, little nun. I don't care what prejudices brought you here or what you came to do. Right now, you and I have to cooperate. Otherwise, once we're picked off one by one, you'll end up dying with me. We might even die in each other's arms."
The little nun jumped back in fright.
Another explosion sounded in the distance, and Jing Chuan's furious shout rang out. "Fuck, are you a fucking idiot, you nun?"
Perhaps Wuzheng and Jing Chuan had started fighting... sure enough, they were not merely being picked off individually; they also deeply distrusted each other. The root of it was that these nuns had come with prejudices. If this continued, they would all be wiped out.
Qi Yan's expression turned grave, and he snapped, "Come with me! We're going to help the others!"
With that, he took the lead and ran deeper into the tomb. The little nun hesitated, then pattered after him.
As she watched Qi Yan's seemingly unguarded back, the little nun's wide eyes filled with confusion.
"Do you understand tomb layouts?" Qi Yan asked from ahead. "If you do, you lead. All these twists and turns don't seem to lead toward Jing Chuan's voice."
The little nun said, "This direction leads straight to the main burial chamber... the layout here is a little strange."
"Hm?"
"Originally, this was an ordinary, peaceful tomb. There was nothing wrong with it, but someone seems to have altered it, possibly causing the center of the burial chamber to absorb the earth veins."
"What would that do? Raise a drought demon?"
"That would still be difficult. The tomb's original occupant was only at Foundation Establishment. Who knows how many years it would take to raise a drought demon? But it could increase the corpse's energy slightly. Could someone be refining a corpse? But I can't sense the sort of evil arts used in corpse refining..."
"Listen to yourself..." Qi Yan said irritably. "What's your cultivation level? At most, you've only just reached Foundation Establishment. What could you possibly sense from this far away?"
The little nun bristled. "I'm very good at sensing things like this!"
"Then why can't you sense that we mean you no harm?"
"...It's not as if you mean no harm." The little nun muttered, "You all have lecherous eyes. Not one of you is a good person, especially you."
Qi Yan nearly stumbled. Another stone door appeared ahead.
This time, to hell with mechanisms. Qi Yan drew his sword and was about to cleave the door when Buddhist light suddenly blazed from the little nun's hands behind him.
Qi Yan whipped his head around and saw the Buddhist light intercept a strange energy, which dispersed like ripples.
“A Witch Incantation...” Others might not recognize that energy, but how could Qi Yan fail to? He was all too familiar with it. It was that medium of Witchcraft supposedly different from Daoist cultivators' “qi,” the obscure character in the ancient texts Little Crybaby had helped translate.
This was the first time he had seen someone detect and intercept a ranged Witch Incantation ambush in advance. Apparently, Witch Incantations did not act directly and without a trace as he had previously assumed; there was still a process before they took effect. And the little nun's claim that she was “very good at sensing things like this” was no idle boast either. She really did seem very good at it.
As the Buddhist light intercepted the Witch Incantation, a black shadow hurtled toward the little nun's back with unparalleled speed.
The little nun gave a sharp cry, formed a hand seal, and spun her prayer beads, seemingly intending to repel the attacker. Yet the instant they clashed, she clearly failed to withstand the opponent's strength. She staggered backward, her little face deathly pale.
The next moment, a streak of sword light swept past her, aimed straight at the shadow's throat.
Qi Yan struck!
The opponent seemed to wield a long spear. Seeing Qi Yan's sword light shoot toward him, he casually parried.
With his strength at peak Foundation Establishment, that casual parry should theoretically have snapped Qi Yan's lousy sword.
With a clang, sword met spear. Not only did the sword remain intact, but a thunderous explosion erupted instead.
Caught off guard, the opponent flew back in disarray. Qi Yan, however, could not withstand his strength either. He coughed up blood and reeled backward.
A delicate hand suddenly pressed against his back, and a gentle energy flowed into him. It quickly settled his surging blood and qi, rapidly restoring his injured internal organs.
A top-tier healer?
In an instant, Qi Yan had recovered most of the way. It was even more miraculous than popping pills.
Before the opponent could regain his bearings amid the explosion, Qi Yan swiftly turned, grabbed the little nun, and cleaved open the stone door ahead with his sword, darting into the main burial chamber. "Go!"
"Fuck..." the ambusher cursed. His figure shot forward like lightning in pursuit.
But suddenly, he felt the blood and qi throughout his body fall into chaos, and his steps stopped short.
Blood-Chaos Curse.
Qi Yan, who had seemingly been fleeing with the little nun, doubled back in an instant and thrust his sword again!
The little nun gave Qi Yan a complicated look, but said nothing. She brought her palms together, sending a brilliant beam of Buddhist light crashing toward the ambusher's chest in concert with Qi Yan's counterattack.
The opponent shifted slightly sideways, avoiding Qi Yan's sword, and thrust his spear swiftly to meet the little nun's Buddhist light.
Clearly, he still considered the little nun stronger because she was at Foundation Establishment and prioritized concentrating his strength against her. That was also why he had attacked her first in the earlier ambush.
Boom! The spear tip pierced the Buddhist light. The little nun clearly failed to withstand it, coughing up a mouthful of blood as she flew several yards backward and crashed heavily to the ground. At the same time, lightning flowed along the sword in Qi Yan's hand as he seemingly passed his opponent, as though drawing something down.
Rumble! Fierce lightning abruptly descended, illuminating the pitch-black corridor.
The ambusher had never expected Qi Yan to switch from a flying sword to curses, then to lightning arts. Caught completely off guard, he took the lightning head-on and screamed. Glancing over to see the prayer beads in the little nun's hands flashing as she lay on the ground, ready to blast him again, he dared not continue fighting. He swiftly retreated and vanished in an instant.
"Fuck..." A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of Qi Yan's mouth as well. His earlier injuries had not completely healed, and he had nearly drained his magical power to use his ultimate move, aggravating them again.
Wiping the blood from his mouth, Qi Yan turned and crouched down with some difficulty to help the little nun. "How are you?"
The little nun instinctively shied away. "No... I'm fine. I-I can get up myself."
Qi Yan irritably withdrew his hand, took out a pill, and swallowed it, watching sidelong as the little nun struggled to rise by herself.
The little nun pushed and pushed, finally managing to prop herself up, only for her legs to suddenly give way. With another "Ow!" she fell onto her bottom.
"Hahahaha..." Qi Yan finally could not hold back his laughter.
The little nun glared at him.
"All right, all right." Qi Yan offered her a pill too. "I'm not a good person. This is an aphrodisiac. Are you taking it or not?"
The little nun could smell the healing medicine from far away. Hesitantly, she did not refuse, allowing Qi Yan to slip the "aphrodisiac" into her mouth.
When his fingers touched her red lips, both of them trembled slightly.
The little nun flushed red all the way to her ears.
Qi Yan tried hard to act as if nothing had happened and reached out to support her arm. "All right, let me help you up. Why stubbornly struggle by yourself?"
The little nun still tried to dodge him when a fierce shout came from the corridor behind them. "Lecher! Let go of Wunian!"
It was Wuzheng, who had been fighting Jing Chuan. Hearing the sounds of battle here, she had hastily stopped fighting and rushed over with Jing Chuan. The first thing she saw was Qi Yan "attempting to take liberties" while the little nun dodged him.
Furious, Wuzheng lunged straight at him with her sword.
Qi Yan was injured and could barely stand straight, but the little nun shoved him aside, then turned sideways, shielding him with her own body. "Senior Sister, stop!"
Wuzheng hastily withdrew her sword. Jing Chuan, rushing furiously after her, also slammed to a halt.
Everyone stared dumbfounded at the little nun standing sideways in front of Qi Yan, her little face flushed red with urgency.