Comprehensive Martial Arts: Relying on Pili Martial Arts to Achieve Dimensionality Reduction Attack

Chapter 653: Nine-curve Linked Caves

With someone taking the lead, there is direction.

Under the leadership of Jiang Biehe and his son, the heroes who came to Jiumai Peak began to conduct in-depth investigations in an organized and disciplined manner.

Jiumai Peak does not refer to a single mountain, but an entire mountain range.

Because the mountains are thousands of miles long and the peaks are overlapping, spanning the two major martial arts worlds of the West and the South, connecting the two major countries of the Suzaku Dynasty and the Miaojiang, and the mountain ranges are extremely complex and there are many forks in the mountains, it is named "Jiumai Peak".

In such an environment, a thorough search would require a large number of manpower.

However, there were many chivalrous men who came to Jiumai Peak today, which was more than enough. Therefore, in less than a day, everyone narrowed the search range to a mountain in the center of Jiumai Peak.

"Are you sure this is the place?"

"This is the only place in the entire Jiumai Peak that has not been searched. If Shi Yanwen and Cangjingren are really in Jiumai Peak, the only possible place they could be hiding is here."

The mountain is over 300 feet high and stretches for several kilometers. There are many strange rocks on the mountain. Although it is not as majestic as Tianyun Mountain, it has its own unique flavor of being skinny, lean and beautiful.

Lu Ping was secretly admiring the mountain in front of him when he suddenly saw a man hurrying towards him.

"Everyone, come and look, there is a cave ahead, and there are many footprints outside the cave!"

Everyone followed and saw the cave and footprints.

"Hmm... these footprints are still very new, they must have been left not long ago. It seems that there is really someone in here!"

"So now, who should we send in to search?"

A simple question stumped the heroes present.

There is almost no light in the cave. If you just stand at the entrance, you have no way of judging whether the road inside is winding, how many forks there are, and what kind of dangers are hidden.

One person stood out from the crowd.

"It seems to me that all the heroes should take torches and go in to search together."

"If Shi Yanwen and Zang Jingren are in there, there is absolutely no way for them to survive. We can just catch them in the trap!"

Everyone turned around and saw that the person who spoke was Jiang Yulang, and they all nodded in agreement.

"Yes, yes, yes..."

"Mr. Jiang is right..."

Jiang Yulang was feeling proud when he saw so many people agreeing with him. Suddenly, another person jumped out of the crowd and shouted, "Absolutely not!"

"…Why not?"

The man said calmly, "Shi Yanwen and Cang Jingren have been hiding in the cave for many days. They must have figured out the terrain inside. If we go in together and encounter an ambush, it will easily cause chaos and they will take the opportunity to escape."

After these words were spoken, those who had been complimenting Jiang Yulang fell silent, and after careful consideration, they nodded in agreement again.

"What this young master said is also very reasonable."

"As the saying goes, a trapped beast will still fight. After so many days of siege, Shi Yanwen and Zang Jingren may be injured, but even if they only have one tenth of their strength left, we still cannot defeat them."

"Yeah, yeah... I don't want to die in here by accident..."

For a while, there was constant noise.

Upon seeing this, Jiang's father and son looked at each other from a distance, completing a silent communication.

Jiang Biehe then stopped everyone and looked at the person who was speaking: "Since this brother does not agree with my idea, what is your opinion?"

The man said loudly: "I think we only need to slightly change Mr. Jiang's idea - let some people go in and leave the other half outside."

Upon hearing this, the others echoed it again.

"Yes, yes, yes... Letting some go in and leaving some behind is indeed the safest method."

Seeing that no one was trying to stop him, the man suddenly looked at Jiang Biehe and Jiang Yulang, father and son, and asked with a half-smile, "Master Jiang, Master Jiang, what do you think of my idea?"

"This gentleman is very thoughtful. I am far inferior to him!"

Jiang Yulang, with a look of three parts annoyance and three parts shyness, bowed respectfully to the man.

When he lowered his head, there was resentment in his eyes, but no one noticed.

When he raised his head again, he still had the same humble and learnable attitude as before.

Soon, everyone split into two teams, one team remained outside to guard the exit, and the other team held torches and led everyone into the cave.

Many people came to Jiumai Peak today. Even if a small number were left outside to guard and block the exit, there were still about 300 people who entered the cave to search.

Lu Ping also mixed in with the crowd and entered the cave.

He used the Ruyi method to change his appearance and aura, so no one recognized him. Although many people entered the cave, Lu Ping's eyes were only on the Jiang father and son, and the man who had just spoken.

His intuition told him that these three people were not simple.

Soon, a fork in the road appeared in the cave.

Unexpectedly, there were quite a few forks in the road, five in total, each leading to a different direction, and there were obvious footprints on each fork.

Seeing this, the heroes in the martial arts world became hesitant and had to act separately.

However, as they went further, new forks in the road appeared, and there were also several forks in the road, and there were also footprints on the forks, so the heroes split up again.

But Lu Ping gradually realized that something was wrong.

Sure enough, after walking for about a quarter of an hour, the third fork in the road came into view. Not long after, the fourth and fifth forks appeared...

Seeing this, everyone had to stop and think about the current situation.

"There is another fork in the road. Are we stuck in a dead end?"

The man walking in front to explore the way was already sweating profusely. In the light of the fire, one could see that he was pale and his hands and feet were shaking, as if he was extremely scared.

Fortunately, the next moment, the comfort from others made him calm down a little.

"Don't scare yourself!"

"From the beginning till now, the number, shape and direction of the forks in the road have been different every time. So we are not stuck in a maze, nor are we lost. Instead, the path in this cave is extremely complicated."

The person exploring the way in front of him recalled for several seconds after hearing this. He found that it was indeed the case, and then he breathed a sigh of relief. His expression eased a little: "I didn't know there was such a cave in Jiumai Peak..."

"In fact, I've never heard of it either."

"So what should we do now? Should we continue to divide our forces and move forward?"

"We've come this far, what other choice do we have? Of course, we have to keep going!"

Having said that, after repeated divisions of troops, the initial large team of more than 300 people is now reduced to less than six or seven people.

If we divide it further, someone will definitely have to act alone.

As everyone was hesitating, they suddenly saw a candle light suddenly burst out in the passage in one of the forks in the road ahead.

"What the hell?! Is there someone in front?!"

"Could it be Shi Yanwen or Zang Jingren?"

"If...if this is really them, even if we join forces, we can't defeat them..."

The sudden change startled several people present. When they looked carefully, they saw the candle flame gradually approaching while swaying, like a ghost fire, which was very strange.

When everyone saw this, they all raised their courage to their throats, drew their weapons and became alert.

However, when the candle flame got closer and illuminated the person's face, both parties were stunned at the same time.

"You...why are you coming from the front?"

"That's what I wanted to ask! What's going on?"

The team coming towards them was none other than the other fellow martial artists who had just been separated by a fork in the road!
The two sides compared their experiences with each other and confirmed that both teams had indeed been moving forward.

"Could it be that the fork in the cave is connected by a plan?"

Neither side turned back, and now that they met, it proved that the path in the cave was not a straight path to the end, but was like a maze, winding and complex.

"I see... Is it similar to the legendary Nine-Curved Linked Cave?"

After realizing the current situation, all the people in the martial arts world looked embarrassed and wanted to retreat.

"Now that things have come to this, even if Shi Yanwen and Cang Jingren are really in here, we won't be able to find them with just a few of us. Why don't we retreat the same way we came?"

"good idea!"

"I agree!"

"This cave is so creepy. I've wanted to leave for a long time..."

Having made up their minds, everyone decided to turn back and exit the cave.

However, when they turned around, they were stunned for a moment, at a loss as to what to do.

There was nothing behind him except a stone wall, and there was no passage at all!

"Where is the road?"

(End of this chapter)