Chapter 10: Collapsed

The conversation shifted abruptly, but Wu Jinliang quickly understood, his eyes lighting up instantly. "He has abandoned his cultivation. In this wild, remote area, even if he wanted to silence someone, he wouldn't be without protection. You're dreaming. But either way, they won't let us go. If there's a chance, we must try. What if we succeed?"

Clearly, he was a desperate man who wouldn't easily miss an opportunity to gamble everything.

"They've already sent word. Unless something unexpected happens, reinforcements will arrive soon. Let's go around," Shi Chun said, pointing to the canyon exit and gesturing to bypass it from the outside. As he spoke, he moved to the edge of the opening and peered out.

Wu Jinliang ripped off the cloth from around his neck and haphazardly stuffed it into his backpack. He glanced at the corpses on the ground, then ran to Shi Chun, saber in hand, complaining, "You say you're going back, so why bother taking their lives? Aren't you tired of this?"

"Their deaths here will make it seem more convincing that we escaped," Shi Chun replied, then darted off to continue their journey.

Wu Jinliang paused, startled. He considered it and realized it made sense: only by making others believe they had escaped could they return more safely. Even if there was no opportunity to act, they could still slip away more securely.

He chuckled, then darted off to follow.

The two did not take the path they had come from. Shi Chun led the way, relying on the positions of the lurking personnel he had seen in the strange vision from his right eye, and found another route back. Their main concern was encountering enemy reinforcements who had received the message and were rushing to the scene.

In fact, the enemy reinforcements arrived very quickly, having already reached the ambush point where the two dead men had been.

Leading them was a powerfully built masked man, fully clothed and even wearing boots, followed by more than a dozen masked figures.

Seeing no one at the scene, they looked around and spotted the glowing fingerprint marks. The group immediately rushed off in pursuit.

The murder scene was actually not far from there. The crucial detail was that Shi Chun, fearing complications from prolonged delay, had acted quickly and nearby.

The dozen or so masked men quickly arrived at the canyon where the incident occurred. They paused briefly, smelling blood, then discovered the bodies.

The masked man pulled a delicate fire starter from his waist and blew it alight. He personally removed the masks from the two heads, revealing the faces of the deceased, and exhaled deeply. After examining the scene of the fight, he walked out of the canyon and gazed at the undulating wilderness in the night for a long time.

Not knowing the killer's whereabouts, and realizing a blind chase would be pointless, he turned, left a single instruction — "You handle the aftermath" — and walked away alone.

He sped along, going nowhere else, heading directly to the mining area.

A bright moon was already shining brilliantly in the night sky, its cold, clear light spilling like mercury.

On a lounge chair outside the mine shaft, Qi Ziru rested with closed eyes, guarded by two palanquin bearers on either side. Seven or eight overseers blocked and guarded the entrance to the shaft.

Shen Youkun was not present; his uncle, who was outside the mine, had sent him inside to personally supervise.

A figure leaped directly from the mountain into the valley. The guards at the entrance all looked, and one shouted, "Who's there?"

The guards drew their weapons. Qi Ziru also opened his eyes and saw a powerfully built masked man approaching unhurriedly. He immediately spoke to reassure those around him, "It's nothing; he's one of us."

The masked man did not approach further, stopping several yards away and nodding slightly to Qi Ziru.

Qi Ziru propped himself up and stood, declining the palanquin bearers' help and preventing them from following. He walked over alone, and without stopping when he reached the masked man, the latter immediately followed him.

The guards at the entrance exchanged glances, feeling the immense power of Shen Youkun's faction and surprised that they still had additional personnel.

After walking to a position where they could avoid being overheard, Qi Ziru finally stopped, remaining silent and waiting.

The masked man leaned in and reported in a low voice, "Someone broke through our outer perimeter and killed two of our men."

"I thought you were here with good news," Qi Ziru said, his face instantly darkening as he turned to look at him. "Even what I gave you couldn't subdue them?"

The masked man replied, "It wasn't used. Their attack speed was too fast, unusually so. I rushed to the scene as fast as I could, but it was still too late; I didn't see who the killer was, or how many there were. Judging by the location of the incident, our men were discovered not long after they caught up with the perpetrator, and there wasn't even a trace of extra struggle at the scene, indicating the fight ended very quickly. From the manner of death, both men were likely killed by the same person, one of whom didn't even have time to draw his weapon. So, either the killer was too strong, leaving our men no chance to fight back or escape, or it was a sneak attack. Either way, this killer is not simple. Was it someone who escaped from here?"

After speaking, he waited silently.

Qi Ziru's expression was grim. He naturally knew who was responsible, but he hadn't expected his carefully laid outer perimeter to be so vulnerable, nor that the fellow would escape so easily. It made both him and his nephew look quite ridiculous.

He had worried beforehand that their subsequent measures might not be sufficient, and indeed, someone had slipped through the net. It seemed this matter could only be reported to the family.

He had previously considered concealing it, but then he thought of the insider and the escaped boss. Who knew what they had done after taking the treasure, or if it would be exposed one day? After weighing his options, he abandoned the idea of concealing it.

After a few breaths to calm his emotions, he slowly said, "Things here are almost done. Gather your men and have them wait for orders nearby."

"Understood," the masked man replied with a slight nod. He immediately turned and left, disappearing by leaping onto the mountaintop in a few swift bounds.

Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang, hidden in a nearby mountain hollow, clung to the shadows, afraid to move, as they watched the masked man's retreating figure.

They had only just arrived.

Indeed, those who had started earlier still arrived later than the masked man. He dared to run directly at full speed, while they had to be more cautious.

By the time they quietly crept to the edge of the valley and could see the situation inside and at the mine shaft entrance, Qi Ziru had already returned to his chair and lay down.

"Why does it feel like all the guards on this mountain are gone? They couldn't have been silenced so quickly, could they?" Wu Jinliang whispered curiously.

Shi Chun made a shushing gesture to him. Although they were hiding quite far away, it was better to be cautious.

What followed was a long wait. While observing, Shi Chun also secretly cast spells to examine his own body. He finally had time to ponder the strange transformation caused by the sparkling purple nebula entering him.

The stars shifted, and the bright moon gradually moved to the other side. As time approached the latter half of the night, Wu Jinliang, about to yawn, suddenly opened his eyes and lightly nudged Shi Chun with his elbow.

Shi Chun saw it without being prompted: Shen Youkun emerged from inside the mine shaft, seemingly holding something glowing in his hand.

It was a burning incense stick. Shen Youkun walked to the lounge chair and said, "Uncle, it's done. Everything has been excavated."

Qi Ziru glanced at the incense stick in Shen Youkun's hand and asked, "Are they all lit?"

Shen Youkun nodded, then subtly glanced at the guards at the entrance.

Qi Ziru said to a palanquin bearer beside him, "Call people to carry the things."

Soon, a signaling flare shot out with a bang from a palanquin bearer's hand, then exploded into fireworks in the air with another bang.

Lying in the dark shadows on the mountain, Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang looked up.

Not long after, a group of masked figures, nearly three hundred strong, rushed down from the mountain on one side of the mine shaft.

Wu Jinliang grimaced at the sight, nudged Shi Chun, and gestured that they had no chance.

The masked man leading the group approached Qi Ziru for orders. Qi Ziru took a small black cloth pouch from his sleeve and handed it to him, saying, "If it's hard to fit, take it apart and pack it. Don't let a single bone go missing; pack everything."

Most of the local natives didn't recognize this small black cloth pouch, but Shen Youkun's eyes lit up. Others might not recognize it, but he did: this was a "Cosmic Pouch," a magical treasure with a considerable internal space. He had never actually used a treasure of this caliber. He hadn't expected them to bring in such a treasure; now he finally understood how they planned to remove such a large skeleton.

The masked man took the pouch, nodded, and waved to signal his men, leading them straight into the mine shaft.

As the group moved past the seven or eight guards at the entrance, a flurry of cold light and chaotic shadows flashed, and several screams simultaneously erupted.

Having already entered the shaft and leading with large strides, the masked man shouted, "Remember, leave no one alive!"

Behind him, there was an immediate rustling sound of weapons being drawn.

After the large contingent had all entered the shaft, seven or eight corpses lay at the entrance.

Shen Youkun looked at his uncle resting with closed eyes on the lounge chair, then at the corpses in the pool of blood. Smelling the strong scent of blood, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch. There was a good reason why he feared this uncle.

Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang, quietly hidden in the darkness, exchanged glances. The latter whispered, "It's really starting!"

The mine shaft was filled with a smoky atmosphere, faint smoke drifting, and unburnt incense sticks could still be seen stuck in the cave walls.

Upon reaching the depths of the mine shaft, they found more and more people fallen dead on the ground as they advanced.

Someone squatted down to examine them. Seeing their faces purple and eyes wide open, he asked in surprise, "Is this poison?"

No sooner had he spoken than someone else leaned against the wall, gasping for breath, "No, boss, the smoke in this cave is problematic."

Similar reactions began to appear one after another, and the scene immediately descended into chaos.

"Boss, retreat quickly, it's poisoned!"

The masked man leading them, however, ignored it and continued forward. As he moved further away, he lightly responded, "It's too late. You've been consuming it for over a month; the catalyst has already activated."

The chaotic crowd didn't hear him clearly, as people were already falling down one after another.

Some people rushed towards the cave entrance, but none could escape, collapsing halfway.

At the T-junction at the end of the mine shaft, the masked man saw the dragon skeleton stretching across, and he shook open the Cosmic Pouch in his hand...

When he reappeared outside the cave, he was the only one. From the mine shaft behind him, a violent rumbling sound emerged.

Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang, lying on the ground, exchanged bewildered glances. They could feel violent tremors coming from the ground, one after another, unsure what was happening.

Boom! Amidst the booming, a massive plume of dust and smoke shot out from within the mine shaft, clearly visible under the moonlight. The masked man, who had emerged alone, allowed his back to take the impact, his entire body engulfed by the thick smoke and dust.

The two palanquin bearers had already moved Qi Ziru further away, and pulled Shen Youkun along with them.

Shi Chun, his face full of surprise and doubt, muttered to himself, "It collapsed!"

Wu Jinliang felt the same. He wondered what method these people had used to collapse the mine shaft, and why only one person had emerged.

Both were quite shaken. They had originally thought the plan was just to silence the existing people in the mine. When they saw the subsequent 300 people act, they had even thought their trip was in vain, having lost their chance to intervene. They hadn't expected the other party to eliminate those 300 people as well.

Not long after, the masked man emerged from the rolling dust and smoke again and presented the Cosmic Pouch to Qi Ziru.

Qi Ziru inspected it and nodded with satisfaction, then said, "Let's go."

The two palanquin bearers lifted him and turned. The masked man, meanwhile, took Shen Youkun's arm, and together they sped towards a nearby mountaintop.

A fierce look flashed across Shi Chun's face as he lay hidden in the dark. He grabbed Wu Jinliang's shoulder and said in a deep voice, "If we take out those three, the other two are useless. Two against three—are you game?"

"Heh heh, my great saber has long been itching for a fight!" Wu Jinliang said with a grim smile, then sprang up and rushed towards their target, dragging his saber behind him.