Chapter 135: Behind You… Someone’s There!
Wu Xie frowned, momentarily unable to understand: “What do you mean by that?”
Lin Yan was also somewhat surprised. If the cousin didn’t exist, didn’t that mean… the one who touched the bronze staff, had a hallucination, and saw shady figures was Lao Yang himself? Then these three years, was he really serving time in prison, or in a mental hospital? He then thought of something even more important—
If what Lao Yang said was true, didn’t that mean Lao Yang’s performance had actually evaded his ability? He surprisingly hadn’t discovered that Lao Yang was lying about this matter before? Was this unique to Lao Yang, or… did his ability have a flaw? Was it because of that bronze tree branch?
Lao Yang smiled bitterly and grimaced, explaining: “The cousin I mentioned is myself. I went down into that tomb, I sawed off the bronze tree branch, I saw the shady figures, and I buried it too—still me.”
He paused, licked his lips, and continued: “I didn’t mean to harm you, it’s—it’s true. What is below, I—I can’t say, but if you succeed in going down, you can get tremendous benefits!”
Wu Xie’s brows furrowed even more. When he heard about seeing shady figures, he instinctively felt Lao Yang was even less reliable: “What benefits?”
Lao Yang shook his head: “I—I can’t say…” He looked at Wu Xie eagerly: “You—you’ll know once you go down!”
Afraid Wu Xie wouldn’t believe him, he glanced at Lin Yan and hurriedly added: “Be—below there are many things like this tree branch, I saw this tree branch seems to be use—useful to Brother Lin? If you go down, it—it’ll be beneficial to him too!”
When the topic turned to Lin Yan, Wu Xie finally showed a moved expression. He knew that the thing on Lin Yan was a hidden danger to him or them, and if it could be solved, it was definitely better to solve it sooner.
Should he go take a look?
Wu Xie quietly looked at Lin Yan, somewhat undecided. Lin Yan was also uncharacteristically silent. It concerned him personally, so he couldn’t help but take it to heart. Lao Yang saw that Wu Xie was already somewhat swayed, and he looked at Lin Yan earnestly. He could tell that if Lin Yan decided to go with him, Wu Xie would definitely follow, and his goal would be achieved.
Lin Yan hesitated for a moment, then suddenly stared intently at Lao Yang and asked: “Are you sure there won’t be any danger?”
Lao Yang was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed: “H—how could I possibly harm you! The path I—I chose is already much easier to traverse. The sealed path is even more dangerous! I—I walked it once, I came out from here, you—you can rest assured!”
Wu Xie rolled his eyes at him. Rest assured my ass! It was precisely because of Lao Yang like this that he wasn’t reassured! But he looked at Lin Yan. If it could solve the problem on Lin Yan, taking a risk wasn’t something he couldn’t accept.
He hadn’t noticed that along the way, his subconscious trust in Lin Yan had gradually surpassed his trust in Lao Yang, though this was also earned through life-and-death experiences with Lin Yan and Wu Xie.
Lin Yan was thinking whether to take this risk. Last time he touched this bronze tree branch, he only remembered being sucked into an independent space similar to outside Earth. What did he see? Why didn’t he remember?
Lin Yan’s brows gradually furrowed tighter. He started to have a headache and couldn’t think further, or he might accidentally alert the thing in his brain…
Looking at Lao Yang’s earnest gaze fixed on him, Lin Yan hesitated, then decided not to give up this opportunity. Previously, Zhang Qiling had inexplicably suppressed the thing on him in the Qinling Mountains, so perhaps in the Qinling Mountains, he could find a way to completely solve this thing.
“Alright, I definitely have to go check out the bronze ancient tree side.”
Lin Yan looked at Wu Xie with an inquiring gaze. Wu Xie nodded at him, then looked at Lao Yang: “Alright, I agree to go too, but this had better be the last time you deceive me, Lao Yang.”
He warned Lao Yang with his gaze, but Lao Yang was overjoyed and turned around to lead the way, completely missing his expression: “Re—rest assured! Trust me, once you’re below, you—you’ll thank me! Mai—mainly, the path below, I—I can’t walk it alone, we need to go together!”
He excitedly turned on his flashlight and went back, yanked open the iron ring below, shone the flashlight downwards: “No problem, just come straight down!” After saying that, he signaled Wu Xie to hold the door, bit the flashlight in his mouth, and climbed down first.
Wu Xie also took a look and saw it seemed fine. He turned to signal Lin Yan to follow. After Lao Yang went down a few meters, he followed downwards.
The stairs built below that door were nearly vertical. Wu Xie managed fifty or sixty steps before he couldn’t go on, only watching Lao Yang continue downwards without slowing. As Lao Yang walked, he noticed no one following behind, quickly looked up at Wu Xie and the others, then lowered his head and continued.
After quickly walking a few steps and jumping to the bottom, Lao Yang took down the flashlight and looked around, breathed a sigh of relief after seeing no changes, looked up at Wu Xie and Lin Yan: “I’ll go ahead and scout the way first, you slowly follow! There’s only one path here, you won’t get lost!”
Wu Xie watched Lao Yang stride ahead effortlessly, turned to Lin Yan who also showed no signs of exertion, and couldn’t help but think to himself: Maybe go back and join a gym to work out?
After catching his breath a few times and seeing Lao Yang’s flashlight light almost disappear, Wu Xie shakily took the next step. Heaven pity him, he had nearly cramped up before! After inching down for over ten minutes, as the slope eased, the stairs gradually became less steep, eventually almost level. Finally able to walk on flat ground, he breathed a sigh of relief.
At that moment, he vaguely heard a harsh sound, like… the iron ring above being pulled open?
Wu Xie grabbed Lin Yan and whispered: “Did you hear that?”
Lin Yan nodded. He was fast and said, “I’ll go up and check first,” then turned off his flashlight and ran back. In less than two minutes, he returned to Wu Xie’s side. Wu Xie had also instinctively turned off his flashlight, only hearing Lin Yan say seriously: “Something’s wrong. Someone followed us down. I saw at least three or four flashlights above, possibly four or five people. Not sure if it’s Uncle Tai’s group.”
Lin Yan turned on his flashlight again, pulling Wu Xie to lighten their steps as they chased towards where Lao Yang disappeared, while quietly telling him what he saw. Remembering the human head in that huchen’s stomach, he felt the situation might not be good… If those people were indeed Uncle Tai’s group, they might have been wandering here for a long time, perhaps discovered them and were waiting in the shadows to follow their lead, or… even worse possibilities.
They might have some understanding of this tomb too. Finding this place meant they had clues Lao Yang didn’t know about. And it seemed… they were all armed with guns.
Thinking Uncle Tai might be an old fox like Wu Sansheng, Lin Yan’s expression grew more serious. If so, besides a few amateurs in their team, there were definitely at least one or two like Panzi. Such people were indeed very tricky for the few of them!
What he and Wu Xie could do now was hurry to find Lao Yang, use his prior experience here to shake off the people behind first! He and Wu Xie plus Lao Yang made only three people. If a conflict occurred, they’d be the ones at a disadvantage!
