“Are you sure we can get out from here?”
After wandering around with Ling Yuer for quite a while, they finally returned to the place where they had fallen earlier.
Meng Xiaoyu looked up at the pitch-black hole above, full of surprise in her voice.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Ling Yuer also looked up at the dark hole above.
“Are you crazy?
Never mind whether the entrance above is closed or not, just look at the height and the smoothness of the stone walls around.
There’s not even a place to get a foothold.
Miss Ling Yuer, are you planning to grow wings and fly out?”
Meng Xiaoyu’s tone was on the verge of hysteria.
Ling Yuer was clearly messing with her!
The place was so high, the stone walls were so smooth, and the space was so narrow that even using Light Skill to fly up was impossible.
And Ling Yuer actually said they were going to get out from here.
Wasn’t she just messing with her?
“Hey!
Don’t get mad, listen to me first, okay?”
Ling Yuer used her pinky to dig at her ear, which was faintly aching from Meng Xiaoyu’s shouting.
“I did say we were going to get out from here, but I didn’t say we had to go out from that place,” Ling Yuer said, pointing at the hole above.
“Huh?
You mean there’s another exit?”
Meng Xiaoyu asked with a hint of doubt.
“Of course,” Ling Yuer replied to Meng Xiaoyu’s words.
“Where is it?”
Hearing Ling Yuer’s words, Meng Xiaoyu excitedly hugged Ling Yuer’s arm.
“It’s right there!”
Ling Yuer said, pointing to the wall on her left.
Meng Xiaoyu looked in the direction Ling Yuer pointed, but saw nothing but a stone wall.
“You’re lying again, it’s just a stone wall, how could there be an exit?”
She let go of Ling Yuer’s arm, saying angrily.
“I’m not lying!
The exit is really there,” Ling Yuer said innocently, seeing Meng Xiaoyu glaring at her with a face full of anger.
“…Hmph!
Liar, I’m not talking to you.”
Meng Xiaoyu turned away, no longer looking at Ling Yuer.
“I’m really not lying, come and see for yourself,” Ling Yuer said, pulling Meng Xiaoyu to the stone wall on her left.
She brought the candlestick she had taken from the secret room closer to the wall.
“Look, what’s this?”
Ling Yuer pointed to a protruding stone on the wall.
“A protruding stone, what’s so special about it?”
Meng Xiaoyu glanced at the protruding stone after hearing Ling Yuer’s words.
“It’s a mechanism,” Ling Yuer explained, seeing Meng Xiaoyu’s still slightly angry face.
As soon as Ling Yuer finished speaking, Meng Xiaoyu’s gaze shifted to her, with a hint of surprise in her eyes.
“Are you sure?
That old fox Zhao Tianyu would set the exit mechanism in such an obvious place?”
Meng Xiaoyu was skeptical, recalling their previous experiences.
“Why don’t you try it and see if it’s a mechanism?”
Ling Yuer wasn’t entirely sure either; she was just guessing.
After all, on the smooth walls around, this was the only protruding part, which was suspicious.
But Meng Xiaoyu was right; if it was a mechanism, it was too obvious.
Despite her doubts, Meng Xiaoyu reached out to try.
She pressed hard on the protruding stone, but it didn’t move.
So she used her left hand to grip the stone and twisted it to the left, but it didn’t budge.
Then she twisted it to the right with force.
“Creak, creak,” the sound of gears turning reached Meng Xiaoyu and Ling Yuer’s ears.
Hearing this sound, both Meng Xiaoyu and Ling Yuer were delighted.
Meng Xiaoyu was even more excited, saying, “There’s a way!”
She increased her strength, twisting the stone until it couldn’t move anymore.
“Eh?
Why isn’t there any movement?”
After waiting for a while without seeing any changes around, Meng Xiaoyu looked at Ling Yuer in confusion.
“I’m not sure either,” Ling Yuer was also puzzled.
They had clearly heard the sound of gears turning, so why hadn’t anything happened?
Seeing Ling Yuer’s confused expression, Meng Xiaoyu knew she couldn’t rely on her, so she turned her attention back to the protruding stone.
She gripped the stone and twisted it to the right again, but it didn’t move.
Then she tried to twist it to the left, but to her surprise, the stone wouldn’t twist back.
“What’s going on?”
Meng Xiaoyu was puzzled, but after a moment, she seemed to understand something.
She changed her grip to a press, and sure enough, the stone that couldn’t be pressed down before now moved with a little force.
Then Meng Xiaoyu heard a “boom, boom” sound, and the stone wall beside her slowly rose.
“Looks like watching martial arts dramas isn’t a bad thing after all,” Meng Xiaoyu said to herself, watching the stone wall slowly rise and the staircase revealed behind it.
“Huh?
What did you say?
What drama?”
Ling Yuer asked curiously, hearing Meng Xiaoyu’s self-talk.
“Nothing!
Let’s go up!”
Meng Xiaoyu, not wanting to explain what martial arts novels were to Ling Yuer, pointed to the stone wall that had stopped rising and the passageway that was now exposed.
“Oh!
Okay,” Ling Yuer, though curious about what Meng Xiaoyu meant by drama, didn’t ask since Meng Xiaoyu didn’t want to explain.
She put on her black mask, helped Meng Xiaoyu put hers on, and then took Meng Xiaoyu’s hand, leading her towards the passage.
“Oh hahaha, we’re finally out!”
After walking for nearly 15 minutes, Meng Xiaoyu and Ling Yuer finally returned to the surface.
As soon as she stepped onto the ground and felt the warmth of the sunlight, Meng Xiaoyu couldn’t help but shout happily, completely forgetting that they were still thieves.
Unlike Meng Xiaoyu, as soon as Ling Yuer came out, she began to survey their current location.
However, as she turned her head to look around, her previously slightly upturned lips pressed together, and her eyes became sharp.
“Hahaha, I didn’t expect you two to not get trapped in the maze and even find my secret room to take so many treasures. Truly impressive!”
Zhao Tianyu said, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the snow silk soft armor on Meng Xiaoyu and the Purple Cloud Twin Swords and Millennium Snow Ginseng she held in her arms.
“Wow! Why are there so many people?”
Meng Xiaoyu exclaimed in surprise, suddenly noticing many people around them holding swords and wearing servant uniforms, awakened by Zhao Tianyu’s words.
“Looks like they were waiting for us here all along,” Ling Yuer said, facepalming at Meng Xiaoyu’s belated realization.
“Hahaha, you’re right. We’ve known since you entered the underground passage. We just didn’t expect you wouldn’t get trapped in the maze. You know, that maze is quite large,” a middle-aged man standing to Zhao Tianyu’s left laughed, responding to Ling Yuer’s words.
“Who are you?”
Meng Xiaoyu asked, looking at the middle-aged man standing to Zhao Tianyu’s left.
She recognized Zhao Tianyu but not the two people beside him.
“That man is Zhao Tianyu’s fourth brother, the third master of Lingyu Mountain Villa,” Ling Yuer said calmly.
“Huh? Isn’t it the fourth brother? Why is it the third boss? Did his third brother die?”
Meng Xiaoyu asked curiously.
“He doesn’t have a third brother, only a third sister, who is married to the Iron Fan Sect’s leader, Tie Zhenhu,” someone explained.
“Oh! That’s why the Hero Conference wasn’t held at Lingyu Villa but at the Iron Fan Sect!
So, they’re relatives!
In that case, does Tie Zhenhu know about Zhao Tianyu and them hiding the Xuanfeng Order?”
“I’m not sure about that, but I think he probably knows!”
“Hey, have you two talked enough? If you’re done, hand over everything you stole, or else you’ll taste the power of my Blood-Drinking Sword,” a young man in a crimson robe standing next to Zhao Tianyu said irritably, overhearing Meng Xiaoyu and the other’s conversation.
“No way! Who are you? What does our conversation have to do with you?”
Meng Xiaoyu replied, clearly annoyed at being interrupted.
Without waiting for the man to respond, she continued, “Besides, you want me to hand over these things? I won’t! What can you do about it?”
She made a face at him after speaking.
“You… you… take this!”
The young man, at a loss for words, raised his sword and lunged at Meng Xiaoyu.
Seeing the young man charge at Meng Xiaoyu with his sword, Ling Yuer, who had been on guard, quickly drew the Purple Moon Sword from Meng Xiaoyu’s arms and intercepted him.
She parried his sword and engaged him in combat.
As Meng Xiaoyu watched the two fight, she drew her other sword, the Chasing Cloud Sword, to prevent the surrounding people from attacking them while they were distracted.
She took a defensive stance, keeping an eye on her surroundings.
The fight between Ling Yuer and the young man quickly reached a conclusion.
Ling Yuer spun around, kicked the sword out of the young man’s hand, and infused her energy into the Purple Cloud Soft Sword, aiming it at the young man’s chest.
The young man, unable to dodge, stood frozen.
Just as Ling Yuer’s sword was about to pierce his chest, a middle-aged man with a goatee, who had been standing to Zhao Tianyu’s left, suddenly intervened.
He blocked Ling Yuer’s fierce attack with his own sword and pushed the young man out of the fight.
“Gang’er, are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, Dad,” the young man replied after being pushed out of the fight.
“Good,” the middle-aged man said, relaxing slightly at his son’s words.
He then raised his sword and began to fight Ling Yuer.
