Chapter 254: Exposed?
Standing by the water pool where white foam churned, Zuo Yanqing narrowed his slender eyes and coldly surveyed the surroundings.
Lu Yun stood slightly behind Zuo Yanqing, the place where Kou Xianzhi had ascended to immortality was just a dozen steps away to their left. Seeing his scrutinizing gaze repeatedly sweep over that area, Lu Yun couldn’t help but secretly break out in a cold sweat, fearing that this eunuch old spymaster would notice something amiss.
To divert Zuo Yanqing’s attention, Lu Yun pointed at the water pool and said to Zuo Yanqing, “Old eunuch, the cave entrance is right below, about two miles long, and then it goes no further inside; we’ll need to find a way to break through.”
“You can hold out underwater for so long?” Zuo Yanqing was indeed drawn by Lu Yun’s words, turned his head, and looked at him with that chilling scrutinizing gaze.
“This junior studied under my master for half a year, and my internal breath has progressed rapidly.” Lu Yun’s heart skipped a beat—how had he forgotten this? He hurriedly explained, “But when this junior went down, I actually didn’t know the passage would end so abruptly; I thought it would continue straight to the next section of the Luo River like before…” As he spoke, he put on a face of lingering fear. “When this junior desperately swam back, I had already lost consciousness. Luckily, the Taiping Dao saintess came down to rescue me and dragged me ashore.”
“Oh, no wonder you’re protecting her.” Zuo Yanqing nodded slightly and said, “But as a direct lineage of the seven valves, it’s best if you don’t get too involved with Taiping Dao.”
“The old eunuch is right.” Lu Yun’s heart settled a bit, and he hurriedly expressed his agreement enthusiastically. “Being trapped underground right now is truly out of necessity. Once we escape to the surface, this junior and she will naturally part ways, each taking the great road.”
“That would be best.” Zuo Yanqing chuckled with a half-smile and said to Lu Yun, “Our house can go down alone.”
Lu Yun was just about to respond when Zuo Yanqing suddenly dropped a bombshell. “What is your relationship with the Empress Dowager?”
This out-of-the-blue question hit like a bolt from the blue, making Lu Yun’s ears ring, his whole body as if his blood had frozen solid. For a moment, he was utterly flustered and didn’t know what to do. Only his remaining rationality drove his mouth to reflexively respond, “Why do you say that, old eunuch?”
But he knew very well that the hint of panic in his tone absolutely couldn’t fool this eunuch old spymaster’s ears.
Fortunately, Zuo Yanqing didn’t wait for him to answer; without even turning his head, he flashed into the water, barely making a splash…
Lu Yun stared fixedly at Zuo Yanqing underwater, and seeing him disappear without a trace in an instant, his mind gradually recovered.
‘Why did Zuo Yanqing suddenly blurt out such a question?’ Lu Yun stood by the pool’s edge. Once his thoughts recovered, a thousand ideas surged through his mind in an instant, and his body involuntarily began trembling slightly.
‘How did he discover my relationship with the Empress Dowager?’
‘Why did he ask about my relationship with the Empress Dowager, rather than with the father emperor or mother empress?’
‘How long has he been watching me?’
‘How much does he know about me?’
‘Why did he choose this way to tell me?’
‘What exactly does he want to do?’
‘…’
Lu Yun hadn’t failed to consider that he might give himself away; he knew that as he advanced his plan step by step, the risk of exposure would grow greater. But he never imagined that before he could even truly begin his revenge, he had already been noticed by the old monster from the Investigative Bureau!
This was truly the greatest irony, truly a catastrophic disaster!
Moreover, though the opponent was over sixty, he still possessed the strength of a grandmaster; Lu Yun had no chance at all even if he wanted to silence him.
Once he fully realized his situation, Lu Yun instead calmed down. Since he had no ability to take the initiative or prevent trouble before it arose, he could only wait and see what medicine this old eunuch was selling in his gourd…
Thinking it over carefully, Zuo Yanqing’s casual attitude was worth pondering; whether it was danger or opportunity was hard to say…
.
When Zuo Yanqing leaped out of the water, he saw Lu Yun standing by the shore as if nothing had happened.
As soon as he saw him come up, Lu Yun hurried forward and said, “The old eunuch is back so quickly!”
Zuo Yanqing saw that Lu Yun’s aura was stable and undisturbed, a glint of admiration flashed in his eyes, as if he had completely forgotten the earlier question. “Mm, just as you said—from that cave entrance, go two miles and it reaches the end.” He paused, then carefully scanned the surroundings again, saying incredulously, “Moreover, this passage wasn’t purely formed naturally; it was forcibly carved out by a Heavenly Rank grandmaster using supreme divine skill, with knife and axe.”
“Ah?” Lu Yun looked shocked and exclaimed, “Is what the old eunuch says true? Does a Heavenly Rank grandmaster truly have such divine might?”
“You couldn’t tell at all?” Zuo Yanqing chuckled mockingly.
“This junior did notice some signs of human work, but I really didn’t dare believe that human power could reach such a level.” Lu Yun hurriedly answered honestly, “So I went back to invite all the grandmasters to come investigate.”
“This passage is quite strange.” Zuo Yanqing nodded noncommittally, as if talking to himself, “I don’t know what kind of expert it was who, like us, ended up trapped in these underground depths…”
Half a day later, a group of grandmasters had all been summoned, including even Pei Bang and his nephew, who came together to study this underwater passage…
“Clearly, that senior dug halfway and then died of exhaustion.” After pondering for a moment, Xie Ding was the first to speak in his deep voice.
“What about the corpse?” Cui Dingzhi countered.
“After so many years, it might have been eaten by fish.” Xie Ding guessed somewhat irrelevantly.
“…” Everyone fell silent at his words. With just those tiny silver fish, even if they could eat that great expert’s flesh, they wouldn’t swallow the bones too, right?
“Maybe he dug halfway and then returned to the tomb.” Unable to think of any explanation, Pei Yuqiu said irritably, “Whatever the damn reason. Since he could carve open the passage, we can do it too!”
“That’s true!” Several grandmasters nodded one after another, but Wei Yang said with some doubt, “Even if following that cave will definitely lead to the Luo River, how much further do we need to dig? Does anyone have an idea?”
“…” The grandmasters looked at each other. Who could know that?
Some grandmasters looked toward the saintess, hoping this crafty demoness could come up with a plan. But Su Yingxiu was equally baffled. She was just about to make up some nonsense to boost these grandmasters’ morale when she heard Lu Yun say in a deep voice from beside her:
“I know— at most another mile!”
“Oh?” The grandmasters’ eyes lit up at his words, and they all turned to Lu Yun, though somewhat skeptical. “What makes you say that?”
“There is.” As Lu Yun spoke, he calmly extended his hand toward Su Yingxiu.
The tacit understanding built between them over these days meant Su Yingxiu knew what he wanted even before he spoke.
That luminous pearl emitting a hazy glow was handed by Su Yingxiu to Lu Yun.
This scene was truly a bit strange; at least, an odd feeling arose in Lu Yun’s heart. He looked guiltily at the group of grandmasters and saw them all waiting for his explanation—no one cared about this trivial matter between him and Su Yingxiu.
Lu Yun secretly breathed a sigh of relief, held up the luminous pearl in his left hand, and with the hairpin in his right, simply drew a few strokes on the ground, displaying a map of their current location’s terrain to everyone.
“We are now under Mount Mang, roughly level with the ground.” Lu Yun drew the map while explaining fluently, “On a flat plane, the tomb’s position is no more than three miles from the Luo River. By the Pythagorean Theorem, even if the river winds, at most four miles and we’ll reach the Luo River.”
“Mm.” The grandmasters listened in a fog—what the hell was the Pythagorean Theorem? But due to pride, no one admitted they didn’t understand, and they nodded one after another, looking as if they deeply agreed.
