Just as Li Nanzhu was frantically searching for an exit, an inconspicuous crack appeared ahead. She lunged into it without a second thought.
It was a narrow, downward-sloping passage. She slid along the slick stone walls, the protruding rocks scraping painfully against her back.
"Thud!"
She landed heavily in a shallow puddle. Suisui immediately crawled out from her collar, its soul fire emitting only a faint glow. From above came the giant python's angry hiss. Seeing this, Li Nanzhu quickly grabbed a stealth talisman from her storage bag and slapped it onto her chest.
Her spiritual energy fluctuations were instantly shielded, and even the sound of her breathing vanished.
Water droplets from the rock crevices slid down her neck and into her collar. The bone-chilling cold couldn't suppress her racing heart, but the only thing she could do was tightly cover her nose and mouth.
"Sss—"
The sound of the giant python's flickering tongue felt close enough to touch.
Li Nanzhu could feel something lingering at the cave entrance above. The breath exhaled by the giant python almost brushed against the hem of her clothes. Suisui also quickly extinguished its soul fire, turning into a pile of ordinary white bones that rolled to the ground.
Time seemed to freeze.
In the darkness, the sound of scales scraping against the rock moved back and forth.
Twice, the heavy serpentine body pressed directly over the rock crevice where she was hiding, shaking loose a shower of fine gravel.
Li Nanzhu's legs began to go numb, but she didn't dare move.
She could clearly hear her own heartbeat thumping like a drum, terrified that the sound would give away her location. A drop of cold sweat slid down her forehead, caught by Suisui's bone claws just before it could fall.
After an unknown amount of time, the activity outside finally faded away. Li Nanzhu waited for another fifteen minutes, until Suisui reignited its soul fire, before she dared to slowly move her stiff limbs.
"Let's go..." she whispered, moving deeper with light footsteps. The passage was extremely narrow, requiring her to move sideways. The water droplets on the stone walls soaked her clothes, leaving her chilled to the bone.
After a sharp turn, the space suddenly opened up.
Li Nanzhu breathed a long sigh of relief, only then realizing her back was completely soaked. She slumped onto the damp rock, her fingers unconsciously rubbing the communication jade slip.
'Still can't get through...' Li Nanzhu frowned slightly. Her fifth senior sister should be fine, but she was mainly worried about her sixth senior brother. He had been injured when facing the octopus earlier, and she didn't know his current condition.
As for her fourth senior brother, she didn't even have a way to contact him. All her information relied on the other two. Now, she was like a headless fly, unsure of which direction to take.
Ultimately, she decided to leave a message, just in case their signals returned.
"Encountered a giant python. Do not approach the left corridor," she injected the words into the jade slip and added: "There is a gap at the corridor junction for hiding."
Suisui's soul fire suddenly flickered. Li Nanzhu looked up and caught a faint current of air brushing against her cheek—there was wind in this underground cave!
"Where there's wind, there's an exit." She forced herself to stand, the scrapes on her legs still throbbing with pain. The little skeleton hopped onto her shoulder, its soul fire pointing toward the source of the air current.
This new corridor was much wider than the previous one, and there were clear signs of trampling on the moss on the ground.
Li Nanzhu crouched down, her fingertips touching the indentations—there were at least three or four different boot sole patterns. A piece of dried moss was still stuck to the edge of the deepest one.
"It's not Fourth Senior Brother," she said softly. Jiang Yifan had always been a loner, and besides, these tracks looked two or three days old.
Li Nanzhu stared at the messy footprints on the ground, her brow furrowed.
The depths of these tracks varied, making it impossible to tell their origin. Suisui poked her wrist with a bone claw, its soul fire swaying slightly.
Li Nanzhu understood its concern. Following the path of these people might indeed avoid more danger, but she might also run into them.
She bit her lower lip and finally decided to keep moving forward—a two- or three-day gap should be safe enough.
"Let's go a bit further," she whispered. "At least it's safer this way."
The corridor gradually sloped upward, and the sound of the wind grew clearer.
Li Nanzhu suddenly stopped—she hadn't missed the flash of rouge color in a crevice on the rock wall ahead.
She leaned in for a closer look. It was an exquisite Hehuan flower, the carving still fresh.
"Hehuan Sect?" Li Nanzhu blinked in surprise.
She recognized this mark. During her conflict with Cang Dongqing in Qingyun City, the Hehuan Sect female cultivators had this same pattern embroidered on their lapels.
"It seems they are also heading toward the wind." Li Nanzhu touched the newly discovered mark. The moisture at the cross-section of the moss showed it had been left at least a day ago.
Suisui tilted its skull to look at her, its soul fire turning a pale blue of inquiry.
'If Rong Yuying is leading the team...' she muttered to herself, recalling Rong Yuying's smiling face from that day in Qingyun City. 'Even if I run into them, it shouldn't be a big problem.'
But then she frowned again. Although the Hehuan Sect was one of the Eight Sects, suddenly appearing on their exploration route would make anyone suspicious. Moreover, she was currently tattered and covered in blood. They didn't even know she was a disciple of the Five Elements Dao Sect. She looked suspicious no matter how one viewed it.
The only saving grace was that the first rule of the Hehuan Sect regulations was "do not harm innocent women." At least they wouldn't attack her immediately upon meeting.
Suisui scratched the ground with its bone claw, seemingly urging Li Nanzhu to make a decision.
Li Nanzhu bit her lower lip. Continuing to follow the markers might lead her to the Hehuan Sect team, but if she looked for another path and encountered danger again... she wasn't sure if she could make it out safely.
"Let's go," she finally decided. "But stay alert."
Every time she passed a marker, she carved a small pentagram next to it with her fingernail. This way, she wouldn't damage the Hehuan Sect's mark but could still let her senior siblings know her whereabouts.
The corridor became drier, and the sound of the wind grew louder. Li Nanzhu noticed that the footprints on the ground were getting newer.
Her fingertips lightly brushed the latest Hehuan flower marker. The dampness of the moss made her heart tighten.
This mark was too fresh—no more than half a day old. Suisui poked her wrist, the frequency of its soul fire's flickering faster than before.
"They are lingering..." Li Nanzhu whispered. "They must be carefully investigating every fork in the road."
This explained why the two- or three-day gap was closing so rapidly—the people from the Hehuan Sect weren't just traveling; they were conducting a grid search for something.
Suisui's soul fire suddenly flickered violently. Li Nanzhu immediately held her breath and focused her senses. From around the corner ahead came the crisp voice of a woman:
"Senior Sister, the spiritual energy fluctuations are strongest here!"
"Confirm the direction once more..."
Li Nanzhu instinctively took half a step back, her back pressing against the damp, cold rock wall.
It was too late to hide now. The Hehuan Sect's investigation techniques were among the best of the Eight Sects. She took a deep breath, straightened her tattered collar, and quietly slid a thunder talisman into her sleeve.
"Xun position, thirty feet away—there's a living being!"
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