Chapter 70: Rendezvous
Jiang Ce narrowed his eyes and surveyed the surroundings.
They were now standing atop a circular abyss, with a diameter of about a hundred meters.
Both Xuan Qing and his companion, as well as Jiang Ce and his companion, were located on a protruding cliff.
There were eight such cliffs in total, each corresponding to eight tunnels, and at the end of each cliff hung a chain as thick as an arm, looking somewhat decayed, but Jiang Ce tugged at it and found it quite sturdy.
Jiang Ce couldn’t help but guess that the eight secret doors in the stone chamber earlier all led here, but the labyrinth that he and Liang Zhi Che had passed through was fraught with dangers, almost a death sentence for ordinary people, and he didn’t know what the other passages were like.
The abyss below was pitch black, and the light from Xuan Qing’s fly whisk penetrated only a short distance before vanishing, as if swallowed by the darkness, with no bottom in sight, and no one knew the exact situation.
“Can’t get across.”
Jiang Ce looked at Xuan Qing and his companion in the distance, somewhat troubled; the span between the cliffs was too great, with no connecting paths, making it nearly impossible for them to cross at their realm.
He could only shout loudly, “Martial Uncle Xuan Qing, where are the others?”
Xuan Qing sighed, “All scattered, they haven’t come out yet, their lives unknown.”
“Should we go down? Or wait here a bit first?”
Xuan Qing was silent for a moment, “Let’s wait, they should make it out. By the way, we encountered some water ghosts on the way, but they were only eighth or ninth rank. Did you face any threats?”
Jiang Ce nodded, “We encountered a labyrinth full of traps, and some sneaky zombies hiding in coffins. One jumped out as soon as I opened the coffin, also eighth or ninth rank, not much threat to us, but for ordinary people, it would be almost certain death.”
Xuan Qing was slightly surprised, “Are all eight doors death gates?”
Liang Zhi Zhou heard none of their conversation; from start to finish, he stared at Liang Zhi Che with wide eyes in confusion.
What exactly happened while I was gone?!
Why was his own younger brother calling someone else Big Brother?
And why did he suddenly show such hostility toward him?
Seeing Liang Zhi Che’s clothes torn all over, Xuan Qing frowned, “Zhi Che, are you injured?”
Liang Zhi Che first shook his head, then smugly looked at Liang Zhi Zhou and grinned distortedly with exaggerated facial expressions, “No, I luckily advanced to seventh rank, fought my way through those zombies, so I’m a bit disheveled, but no major issues.”
Xuan Qing’s gaze sharpened slightly, and Liang Zhi Zhou was even more shocked upon hearing this.
“Seventh rank?!”
“That’s right.” This was exactly the effect Liang Zhi Che wanted, but he had no intention of sharing the valuable experience he got from Jiang Ce with Liang Zhi Zhou, so he said to him pretentiously:
“My foolish brother, you might not know, but from now on, my Confucian Path surpasses yours!”
After saying that, Liang Zhi Che felt extremely satisfied.
His grudge against Liang Zhi Zhou wasn’t from just one or two days; from his perspective, ever since this brother’s cultivation and status surpassed his own, the man had become arrogant, even more controlling than their father, always nitpicking this and that, denying everything he said, all while claiming it was for his own good.
Before, he was no match and lacked confidence, at most sniping back with veiled barbs, but now it was different—they were on the same starting line, and his own Confucian Path was even more profound than the other’s.
Sorry then, my wings are hardened, and I’m setting sail tonight!
“What nonsense are you spouting?” Liang Zhi Zhou was dumbfounded.
His younger brother advancing after years of no progress should have been a joyous occasion, but for some reason, he just couldn’t feel happy.
Jiang Ce watched with amusement, feeling a bit itchy, so he stirred the pot, “Hey, second brother, no matter what, he is still blood-related to you. How can you be so rude? It wouldn’t be good if I, an outsider, ruined your brothers’ relationship.”
“Big Brother, what are you talking about.” Liang Zhi Che waved his hand grandly, “This is called abandoning darkness for light.”
“Abandoning darkness for light.” Liang Zhi Zhou’s eyes were lifeless, the sparkle gone, mechanically repeating the phrase.
Seeing this, Jiang Ce felt secretly thrilled and gained a new realization—
This was probably the legendary case where childhood sweetheart loses to the one dropped from the sky.
Throughout the whole process, Xuan Qing watched with a furrowed brow.
Although he was a Daoist cultivator and didn’t know much about the Confucian Path, he knew that it required not only righteousness toward the outside world but also filial piety to parents and brotherly respect internally, which was only natural. But why, after advancing to seventh rank, was Liang Zhi Che treating his own brother with this attitude?
He didn’t know what had happened, but he was greatly shocked.
He silently stared at the smirking, somewhat deranged-looking Jiang Ce, feeling that the current situation was inseparable from this guy.
At that moment, a burly figure slowly emerged from another tunnel.
Qin Shen Bo was covered in blood, but his gaze was firm and sharp until he saw the group already waiting here, then it softened slightly.
“As long as everyone is safe.”
Jiang Ce looked at his wounds and felt moved; even in this state, he was still concerned about others—this was probably the legendary saint.
“Shen Bo, are you alright?” Xuan Qing asked with concern.
Qin Shen Bo waved his hand, “No problem, I encountered some eerie mechanical puppets—clearly lifeless objects, yet infused with ghosts and monsters’ evil energy. They ambushed me while I was dealing with falling rocks, but luckily I had protective energy guarding my body and narrowly escaped.”
He spoke lightly, but only he knew how perilous it had been.
Qin Shen Bo looked around, “Where are Gongyang Dan and Lu Xing?”
Xuan Qing shook his head, “Don’t know, haven’t come out yet, but since we’ve all regrouped here, they should make it too.”
Qin Shen Bo nodded, then silently sat cross-legged to regulate his injuries.
Soon after, Gongyang Dan and Lu Xing supported each other as they emerged from one of the tunnels.
Their condition looked even worse than Qin Shen Bo’s, with hardly a intact spot on their bodies; Gongyang Dan was clutching a glowing white talisman, doing his best to stabilize his injuries.
“You all…” Xuan Qing’s expression was extremely grim; no matter how you looked at it, failing to protect these followers on the training expedition was his dereliction of duty—not to mention whether Xiao Lin would blame him, he himself couldn’t get past this hurdle in his heart.
Gongyang Dan forced a smile, “Nearly died in there. We just crawled across a chain of unknown length, finally reached the other side, and right when we were exhausted, a bunch of stone gargoyles jumped out. If Lu Xing hadn’t shielded me with his body, giving me a chance to burn my physical energy and use a forbidden technique, we would have been in grave danger.”
Lu Xing was also covered in wounds, but his physical energy seemed relatively plentiful; only upon seeing Xuan Qing did he relax, then anxiously shouted, “Martial Uncle Xuan Qing, quickly save Gongyang Dan—he’s probably injured his foundation!”
Qin Shen Bo opened his eyes, frowned, and let out a heavy sigh.
Liang Zhi Che stopped fooling around and solemnly watched the barely breathing Gongyang Dan.
Jiang Ce’s mood was also heavy; he hadn’t expected what he thought was a casual outing to nearly result in deaths.
I must do something.
He thought to himself.
So, to lighten the mood, Jiang Ce asked:
“Don’t panic first. You just said you crawled across a chain of unknown length, right?”
“Yeah.” Lu Xing nodded blankly, unsure why Jiang Ce brought it up.
Jiang Ce pointed downward, “Bad news is you’ll have to crawl it again soon. Good news is we’ll all crawl it together.”
Laughing to death, wrote my thesis proposal today, no drafts saved from yesterday lol!
