Chapter Forty-Five: Escape (Part Two)

Page 1/3

Endless darkness stretched ahead, without a hint of boundary; even the faintest moonlight would be a luxury here. Yet Guan Qian remained fearless—no matter how steep the mountain of blades, no matter how raging the sea of fire, he was determined to rescue Tang Ruyan safe and sound. Besides, this darkness could never restrain Guan Qian in his White-Eyed state.

He moved as though he were alone in the world, flashing from step to step, precisely navigating the crisscrossing subterranean tunnels in search of Tang Ruyan’s presence. He investigated place after place, but not a single trace of her could be found, and anxiety began to gnaw at his heart.

At last—

“There!” Guan Qian’s senses stirred. His white pupils swept over a crossroad, and in a cold, shadowed corner, he discovered a lone white shoe left on the icy, pitch-black floor. The last remnants of warmth within it were steadily swallowed by the chilling, sinister air, leaving only an eerie, damp coldness in its wake.

Guan Qian crouched, grasping the nearly lifeless white shoe, and his spirit grew cold. This was the sole message Tang Ruyan had left for him. The entrance before him was battered by a vicious, sinister wind, harsher than anywhere else.

The howling wind carried unknown dangers and a restless unease, causing Guan Qian to furrow his brow. He gazed silently at the deep, black tunnel ahead, standing at its threshold, as a powerful sense of horror welled up within him.

The Seer’s formidable perception extended outward, his white pupils casting beams like twin pillars of light. Yet the tunnel ahead was like a bottomless abyss, every clue and all traces of Tang Ruyan shrouded in darkness. No matter how he tried to sense, how he widened his white pupils to scan, nothing revealed itself. Instead, he found himself lost in a fog, nearly swallowed by the dark.

Eerie.

So eerily unimaginable!

Within this abyss-like passage, Guan Qian felt his Seer’s perception and the White-Eyed ability had become useless, mere dead weight.

“Damn it, I’m going for broke!” Time pressed upon him; Guan Qian could not afford hesitation. Tang Ruyan’s life hung by a thread, and if he paused for even a moment, she could be doomed forever.

With a whoosh,

Guan Qian, clutching the white shoe tightly, vanished into the mouth of the abyssal tunnel.

The sinister wind screamed, sharp as blades, stabbing through the air; inside, the temperature plunged far lower than in any other corridor. Ahead, the tunnel stretched narrow and winding, twisting onward without clear direction or end.

Guan Qian’s figure flashed constantly within the passage, his speed reaching its peak. Although the darkness here was deeper and more oppressive than outside, impeding his vision so severely that even his white pupils could not see beyond a hundred meters, Guan Qian pressed on undaunted. He used that range as his boundary, moving in leaps of a hundred meters, exploiting the limits of his vision to the utmost.

Page 2/3

Yet the deeper he ventured, the colder the air became, the sinister wind battering him with such force that it felt as if he had plunged into an icy tomb—its bone-chilling coldness beyond words.

As Guan Qian advanced, the passage grew narrower and narrower, until at last only a single person could squeeze through the pitch-dark tunnel. The constricted space greatly hindered his ability to teleport, so he was forced to feel his way along the jagged walls, creeping forward step by step.

At last, after a fruitless search, Guan Qian discovered another white shoe. Upon careful inspection, he realized that this icy shoe, devoid of any warmth, matched exactly with the one he held, forming a pair.

This confirmed Guan Qian’s suspicions—Tang Ruyan must be just ahead, and he had to find her quickly. The dangers lurking beyond were impossible to predict or sense, so Guan Qian quickened his pace, feeling an ominous foreboding that a bloody confrontation was about to begin.

...

Far off, in another corridor.

“Mo Han, do you think Tang Ruyan’s been possessed by a ghost?” Fang He squinted, feeling around for scattered gold ingots on the ground, his voice lowered to a whisper.

“...”

But the only reply was Mo Han’s heavy breathing; not a single word escaped him.

“Come on, could you at least squeak? This is creepy as hell.” Fang He frowned. Guan Qian and ‘Tang Ruyan’ had been gone for quite some time, and the events they’d witnessed earlier still left a lingering terror deep in their hearts. Unconsciously, both men’s bodies grew tense, even their speech becoming unnaturally stiff.

“I wonder if Guan Qian can handle that banshee. Heaven help us, I sure hope I don’t run into her again...” Fang He rambled on, his tone muddled and grumbling, but his hands kept busy, deftly gathering up the scattered gold ingots with a look of sly expertise, as if he were born for this line of work.

Mo Han leaned against the wall, his whole body aching—being tossed aside by ‘Tang Ruyan’ had nearly cost him half his life. Thankfully, he was tougher than most; otherwise, that throw would have left someone else paralyzed for good, unable even to care for themselves.

Listening to Fang He’s incessant nonsense nearby, Mo Han felt his anger rising. If not for his injuries, he would have slapped Fang He long ago—the guy was truly asking for it.

“Hey, Mo Han, why aren’t you talking? Don’t tell me you’re scared stiff.” Fang He searched every spot he could touch, making sure no gold ingot was left behind, then glanced at Mo Han beside him.

“Hey, why are your eyes so wide?” Fang He exclaimed, startled by the faint glow cast from a broken phosphorescent bone.

Page 3/3

“Hey, why is your jaw trembling so much?” Seeing Mo Han still silent, Fang He leaned in for a closer look.

“Hey, your nose is bleeding.”

“Hey, there’s a hole in your shirt.”

“Hey, what are you hiding under your ass?”

“Hey, so that’s where the missing gold went—you were hiding it underneath you!”

At that moment, Mo Han felt as if a thousand wild horses were stampeding through his heart, a grand and chaotic spectacle that finally drove him to his limit. He exploded in fury: “Get lost!”

Fang He was instantly drenched in the verbal outburst; he wiped his face and retorted righteously, “Ugh! Damn it, it’s salty!”

Mo Han was dumbfounded, stunned by Fang He’s words, his heart tossed about as if a thousand wild horses were overturned.

...

On the other side of the tunnel.

Guan Qian finally emerged from the cramped passage that could barely fit a single person. As he sensed the open space ahead, his white pupils suddenly blazed with brilliance.

What greeted his sight was a vast expanse—filled with a dense mass of coffins!