Jiaohua

Chapter 1671 Topographic Map

Back in the Yuanhe Sect, the young Shen Lie had met Master Banjiu a few times.

At that time, Shen Lie was already taller than average. A few years later, Shen Lie grew even taller, and his facial features became more defined and clear.

Master Banjiu dismounted from his disciple's back, placed one hand on his disciple's shoulder, and stared in amazement as Shen Lie approached. He exclaimed in surprise, "Young Master Shen, it really is you!"

Liu Jia and his men immediately raised their hands in a fist salute: "Young Master Shen!!"

Shen Lie briefly recounted what had happened, and then mentioned the corpse.

When he and Wu Shaoning came down, the body was completely buried by the continuously collapsing sand and gravel, and only a few corners of clothing could be vaguely seen.

Master Banjiu said, "That corpse is Bei Xingze, but he did not die at our hands."

Because of the pain, Master Banjiu spoke weakly, so Liu Jia continued his story, telling Shen Lie what had happened between them and his speculation about Bei Xingze appearing at the entrance.

Upon further investigation, the two sides discovered that the stench of Bei Xingze's corpse had significantly worsened after Shen Lie and Wu Shaoning arrived.

Furthermore, the identity of the murderer remains unknown regarding the two corpses in the passageway.

Besides excluding them, we can also exclude Lü Wuwei and his companions.

The old man from Liling can also be ruled out. The cause of death of those two corpses was a sharp blade. Master Banjiu said that the old man from Liling rarely carried a knife.

The remaining possibilities are Feng Qingang, Elder Gu, and Mu Tingyu.

Shen Lie then thought that since Tang Xiangsi's forces, represented by Lü Wuwei, had arrived, what about "those people"? Could their people also be in this tunnel?

However, since Master Banjiu is currently seriously injured, his immediate priority is to find an exit and protect them as they leave the underground palace before he returns to find Wu Shaoning.

So Shen Lie followed them along the candlelit passage that Liu Jia had just seen.

But leaving this underground palace was much more difficult than he had imagined. The further into the village they went, the more identical the tunnels became. Even the cracks in the corners that seemed like memory spots were deliberately designed to look old. They encountered at least six identical cracks.

Liu Jia, unable to contain himself any longer, said, "That damned Feng Qingang, wouldn't he get lost walking around here by himself?"

Shen Lie suddenly said, "Bei Xingze made the right choice."

His words were a wake-up call for everyone.

Master Banjiu said, "That's right... Bei Xingze rarely leaves Yeshan. Even if he has left Yeshan a few times, he couldn't possibly come to Zhuzhou every time. He must have come to this underground labyrinth very few times. However, the fact that he was able to escape from Feng Qingang and then from us shows that he understands the terrain here."

Liu Jia nodded: "Moreover, the location of his body was right at the exit. If this place hadn't been so ancient and the exit hadn't become necrotic, and he hadn't been poisoned, he should have already escaped by now."

The disciple of the Half-Nine Immortal Master said thoughtfully, "That exit is completely ruined; it would shatter at the slightest touch. If Bei Xingze had been there, he should know that the exit is untouchable. This shows that he hadn't scouted the location beforehand, yet he knew it was there..."

Master Banjiu immediately looked at Shen Lie: "Young Master Shen, I understand what you mean. He has never been there before, yet he can find it very skillfully. Do you think he has a map on him?!"

Shen Lie said, "If we really can't find a way out, let's go back the way we came."

Master Banjiu sighed, "That's all we can do."

Feng Qingang was thinking about this as he walked.

To prevent himself from getting lost, he carved the year and month directly on the wall, but after walking for half an hour, the carved year and month reappeared.

Feng Qingang frowned and added two more strokes to the wall with his dagger.

Turning his head to look at the desolate road ahead, Feng Qingang couldn't understand where Bei Xingze had gotten the map of the underground palace.

He himself didn't even know this thing existed.

Thinking of this, his biggest worry now was whether someone else would find Bei Xingze's body before him. If these people went to search Bei Xingze's body, they would definitely find this map on his corpse—

This made Feng Qingang extremely uncomfortable.

Although he rarely returned to this underground palace, he always felt a sense of belonging and warmth towards it.

Without him, there would be no underground palace. This underground palace is Feng Qingang's most private territory for hundreds of years.

Wei Xingchuan has Hengxiang's Zhengmeng Pagoda and the forests and springs in Yuntian Mountain; Tang Xiangsi has Ningsi's Huyan Township and Xizhou's Yuetang Temple; but what about Feng Qingang? The Qianxue Bone Cave in the Ruan family was broken into and destroyed by the Xia family army. Now, will he also be unable to defend this underground palace in Xinchun County, Zhuzhou?

Why can Wei Xingchuan and Tang Xiangsi get along peacefully, but he can't?

Oh……

Not entirely. Wei Xingchuan has lost many of his men over the years.

Tang Xiangsi's Zisu Villa in Hengxiang was also destroyed.

Feng Qingang's tense expression finally softened a little.

Just then, Feng Qingang suddenly heard a very light but very clear sound of the stone door moving.

He stopped immediately and looked toward the source of the sound. His two men behind him also held their breath.

A man's voice came from behind: "There really is a way here. I never expected that the door could be hidden in the wall. It's really well hidden."

Feng Qingang frowned slightly, wondering which group this man belonged to. Then he heard another man say, "There are no traps in these places. Even if there were, would they be like the traps we saw on the way here, all of them malfunctioning?"

The third man said, "You two, keep your voices down, or the walls might be overhearing you."

Feng Qingang raised his hand and pinched his ear.

The walls have ears; that's exactly who they're talking about.

There was a brief silence, but soon the man who had spoken first broke it again: "An hour has passed, why are we the only ones here? Weren't Fang Xiyu and Nie Long's men supposed to be the most punctual?"

The second man said, "Perhaps something happened that caused a delay. It seems that a lot has happened here in the past few days."

The first man to speak said, "It seems we've come at the worst possible time. That beast Feng Qingang never has a moment's peace; he deserves to die."

As Feng Qingang listened to their conversation, he pondered how to deal with them.

The group then began to feel around on the wall.

From what they said, there was a hidden door in the wall that one could pass through directly.

Feng Qingang was completely unaware of this.

However, he didn't find it strange.

Perhaps when they were digging the tunnel and building the stone wall, those craftsmen were afraid of him and secretly left themselves a way out.

These escape routes were obviously useless, because all the craftsmen were killed after the project was completed.

He counted the bodies and compared their faces to confirm that they were all dead.

Right now, these people seem to have a topographical map, and this map has helped them get here successfully.

This thing came at just the right time.