Chapter 241: Exit

Li Huowang, his clothes shredded from being constantly dragged on the ground, cast a quick glance at the pursuing lion dancers. The white light emanating from them vaguely revealed something much larger lurking behind the group. Li Huowang had no idea what sect the Lion Dance Palace represented, but he was sure that their members varied in strength. The two he had previously encountered might have just been minor figures.

"Er Shen! Run faster! Those lion dancers are just the small ones! There are larger ones behind them!"

Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao quickened her pace. She wasn't running aimlessly; instead, she headed as quickly as possible towards the sound of the drums.

Suddenly, Li Huowang spotted something and slapped Bai Lingmiao. "East! To the east! Listen to me, east!"

Bai Lingmiao pushed off the ground with her limbs, quickly leaped onto the left wall, changed direction, and then darted towards the direction Li Huowang had indicated.

They hadn't run far when they entered a "forest" within the darkness—a grim forest composed of corpses hanging by ropes around their necks. This was what Li Huowang had spotted.

Under the gaze of that unique vision, Li Huowang immediately felt his thoughts begin to slow. This was Rope Son's territory, and Rope Son was currently perched on the ceiling, staring down at him. This entity was watching him, but Li Huowang was unconcerned. He knew that compared to him and Bai Lingmiao, two insignificant and vulnerable individuals, the large group of white-glowing lion dancers would undoubtedly draw its attention more.

Just as Li Huowang predicted, sensing the massive commotion, the suspended corpses completely disregarded them. Instead, they slowly began to turn and drift towards the lion dancers. Thanks to Rope Son's interference, the white light and the dense sounds of footsteps behind Li Huowang finally began to fade.

With no more pursuers, Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao followed the drumbeats and reunited with the others beside a rock wall. The other terrified individuals, finally finding their anchor, rushed forward to surround Li Huowang, barraging him with questions.

"Don't panic," Li Huowang said with full confidence, reassuring the others. "That Han Fu is nothing. He can't beat us in a direct confrontation; we just need to watch out for his sneak attacks!"

"But... Senior Brother Li," Chun Xiaoman struggled to articulate their predicament, gazing into the indistinct darkness around them, "Where do we go next? We don't even know where we are."

Although they had just defeated Han Fu and escaped the lion dancers, this cursed place seemed to possess a disorienting ability. Even if it didn't, with no landmarks and every area looking identical, they still couldn't find their way out. As long as they remained trapped, those two threats would inevitably cross paths with them again.

Li Huowang glanced around, then looked down at the bell on Chun Xiaoman's waist. "Give me the bell. Can a living person really be trapped to death? Perhaps Master You can help us find a way out!"

Chun Xiaoman had just realized that Master You could perform such feats. She reached out to hand over the bell but then pulled her hand back. "Senior Brother Li, I am young and have a longer lifespan. Let me use this bell for you," she said. Without waiting for Li Huowang's reply, Chun Xiaoman quickly began to shake the bell.

As several Master You flew out, Li Huowang noticed, perhaps it was just a trick of his perception, that their figures seemed to have grown slightly larger. In this oppressive environment, fifteen minutes passed, then thirty, but the Master You never returned. This turn of events caused the hearts of the others, who had just regained some confidence, to sink once more.

"Could the evil spirits in the darkness have eaten Master You as a snack?" Gouwa stammered, voicing a dreadful conjecture.

Observing their current predicament, Li Huowang's brows furrowed in concern. Aside from the threat of Han Fu lurking in the darkness, if the lion dancers finished with Rope Son and returned for them, all would be lost. They had to escape this cursed place immediately. He began recalling the various rituals from "The Great Thousand Records," which he had long committed to memory. He quickly ran through them in his mind, but ultimately, it was futile. "The Great Thousand Records," an essential text for Ao Jing sect followers, only detailed methods of inflicting pain upon oneself or others, rendering it utterly useless in their current situation.

Just as Li Huowang turned to ask Bai Lingmiao if "Rope Skipping" could offer any assistance in their predicament, he noticed the large, simple-minded Gao Zhijian holding his thumb rigidly upright in the air, his expression exceptionally solemn.

Clasping his wounds, Li Huowang looked up at him and asked, "What are you doing?"

Uncharacteristically, Gao Zhijian did not immediately answer. Instead, with a grave expression, he put his thumb into his mouth again, sucked on it, and then raised it high once more.

A sudden realization struck Li Huowang, and his heart leaped with excitement. He understood what Gao Zhijian was doing. "Are you sensing the wind's direction with your finger? Is there wind? Have you found an exit?"

Gao Zhijian quickly lowered his hand, nodded at Li Huowang, and pointed west. "H-h-h-here."

"Gao Zhijian! Excellent!" A delighted Li Huowang walked over, clapped him firmly on the shoulder, and led the others, rushing in the direction Gao Zhijian had indicated.

The wind's direction was not a straight path. They continuously traversed through caves and rock caverns, sometimes ascending, sometimes descending. As they hurried along, Li Huowang took another look at the tall man ahead of him. To devise a way to find an exit in such a situation, Li Huowang couldn't help but view Gao Zhijian with newfound admiration. This was not a method a typical simpleton would conceive; he must have a rich past. However, at this critical moment, there was no time to delve into his background.

"Duck down, the rock ceiling ahead is low." Everyone bent at the waist and continued to push forward.

The passage became progressively narrower until even the towering Gao Zhijian could barely squeeze through. Then, the cave began to widen, and from a distance, a wailing sound, like that of ghosts, reached them. Hearing this sound, Li Huowang's heart instantly swelled with joy. It wasn't the wailing of real ghosts, but rather the whistling sound of wind passing through narrow caverns. Gao Zhijian hadn't made a mistake! There was an exit here!

The others also understood this. Despite being exhausted from running and fearing for so long in this place, they squeezed out every last ounce of energy and pressed forward. After navigating another winding cavern, the outside suddenly brightened. A slanted opening appeared on the rock cave's ceiling, and it was from there that the wind was blowing in. The light spilling in wasn't the intense brightness of the Lion Dance Palace, but a soft, silvery moonlight. Without them realizing it, night had fallen outside.

They walked beneath the silvery glow, gazing up at the scattered stars above like frogs at the bottom of a well. Clearly, this was not the same exit they had entered through, but it was, without a doubt, an exit.