Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 117 Chance Encounter
Tang Xiaoyu looked at the Ice Crystal Banshee and whispered, "Thank you."

The Ice Crystal Banshee's mouth parted into a strange arc, seemingly mimicking a human smile, but it was extremely stiff.

"Don't believe everything a demon says."

After saying that, the Ice Crystal Banshee turned around and slowly floated away.

Tang Xiaoyu quickly called out, "Hey, wait a minute! You still haven't told me how to get to the next floor!"

"There's a teleportation array in the southeast (巽) position. Demons will be kept out, but humans can go in. Go find it yourself!"

The Ice Crystal Banshee didn't turn around when she spoke, but she seemed to hesitate for a moment before adding, "If it's convenient, could you help me find someone? His name is Mingjiang."

Tang Xiaoyu nodded: "Mingjiang? I understand!"

Tang Xiaoyu watched the Ice Crystal Banshee disappear before returning to the red wall where Lu Lin was hiding.

Tang Xiaoyu tugged at Lu Lin's sleeve and said, "Did you hear that? She said the trial is about breaking through the Demon Locking Tower!"

Lu Lin nodded: "I heard you..."

Tang Xiaoyu thought for a moment and asked, "Do you think what she said is true or false?"

Lu Lin countered with, "What do you think?"

Tang Xiaoyu rolled her eyes: "How would I know!"

But then she sighed and said, "Since we're already here, we can only take it one step at a time. Let's go check out the southeast that she mentioned... But which way is southeast?"

As she spoke, Tang Xiaoyu looked at Lu Lin, trying to find the answer on his face.

Unfortunately, Lu Lin shook his head blankly and said, "I can't tell the difference!"

Tang Xiaoyu was also stunned when she heard this.

……

Meanwhile, things went very smoothly for Zhu Ye.

"Looking from here, the layout over there seems similar to this one, roughly east to west, with the Blood Pool as its base, facing south... Look, the red wall in the southwest has two paths running through it, clearly representing the Qian trigram, which symbolizes heaven. The two paths in the northwest pass through the middle of the wall, with no red walls in front or behind, which represents the Kun trigram, which symbolizes earth. In this light, the Gen trigram in the southeast represents a mountain, which is the gate of life, and should be the exit!"

Zhu Ye looked around at the stone walls on the stone platform and analyzed, "Since it's a trial realm, it's just to trap us here. As long as we get out of this strange place, we'll eventually find out what's going on."

Lu Lin looked at Zhu Ye with admiration and said, "Mr. Zhu is right. Shall we go down now?"

"and many more!"

Huang Wu shouted and took out a hemp rope from his pocket. He then pulled out a small hammer about the size of a palm and a few iron nails from somewhere. He hammered the nails into the stone platform little by little, and finally tied the hemp rope to the nails. He then draped the rope down the side of the stone platform, just above the ground.

"If we ever want to come back and visit again, we won't be afraid of not being able to get back up!"

Huang Wu grinned proudly, revealing a row of large yellow teeth.

"Actually... I can..."

Zhu Ye wanted to say something, but after glancing at Huang Wu's smug face, he swallowed his words and forced himself to say, "Brother Huang is indeed very thoughtful."

Lu Lin twitched his lips and was the first to jump off the stone platform.

Huang Wu was stunned: "You, you, you, you are also a martial artist?"

Zhu Ye sighed and said, "Brother Huang, let me help you down!" Then he shouted again, "Brother Lu, catch it—"

He struck out with a palm towards Huang Wu, the powerful internal energy slamming the unsuspecting Huang Wu off the stone platform.

Lu Lin, who was below the stone platform, understood immediately and also released an invisible burst of energy to catch Huang Wu, while Zhu Ye withdrew the true energy he had just released.

The two worked together quite well, and Huang Wu only stumbled slightly before inexplicably descending from the stone platform.

He watched Zhu Ye leap down afterward and said regretfully, "If only I hadn't wasted that rope! Mr. Zhu, why don't you... take me up again, and I'll pry out the rope and nails. Maybe we'll need them later?"

Zhu Ye sighed helplessly, and just as she was about to do something, Lu Lin said from the side, "There's no need for such trouble, let me come down."

As he spoke, Lu Lin unleashed a move that Zhu Ye had never seen before. It was strange and seemed like he was drunk and just making random moves. But an invisible gust of wind shot up onto the stone platform, uprooted the iron nail, and caused the hemp rope to fall down.

The nails just disappeared somewhere.

"Brother Lu, your kung fu is truly superb, but..."

Zhu Ye looked at Lu Lin with a curious expression, waving his fan and said, "But Brother Lu's true energy doesn't have the slightest trace of the five elements, it's completely invisible, how interesting."

Lu Lin was taken aback when he heard this, and quickly replied, "Yes! It has colors!"

As he spoke, he struck the stone platform with his palm again. A nearly invisible, pale golden gust of wind rushed toward the stone platform and then dissipated.

Zhu Ye looked with interest at the spot where the protective energy had just dissipated, and casually said, "I see. I must have been mistaken."

Huang Wu had absolutely no knowledge of true qi or martial arts. He hurriedly picked up the hemp rope, scratched his head, looked at Zhu Ye, then at Lu Lin, and simply said, "What are you two talking about? Why don't we just go find those things like Qiankun or Shengmen and get out of here?"

"Brother Huang is absolutely right."

Zhu Ye nodded and led the way.

None of the three spoke again, but after walking for a while, they suddenly heard voices and stopped in their tracks.

Huang Wu stared wide-eyed, about to say something, but when he turned his head and saw Zhu Ye making a gesture, he immediately covered his mouth and pointed to the place where the sound came from.

Zhu Ye nodded slightly, signaling the two to be quiet, and then listened intently to the conversation coming from not far away next door.

"Bai Shan Zhalo, can we believe what that monster says?"

"The northeast (Gen) position is the Gate of Life, which is probably correct. Anyway, let's go and take a look first."

"Zaruo, why don't you take some men and go check it out? We'll wait here and be there to help if anything happens."

"Heshilie Tudi! What do you mean? If you are afraid of death, why did you submit this memorial? How can you be worthy of the Emperor's boundless grace? The Great Xiao Kingdom has no cowards like you!"

"Zaruo, don't judge others by your own standards! I just don't want the people from the Imperial Academy to follow you to your deaths!"

"What did you say? You coward! You are a disgrace to the Heshilie family!"

"Say what you will, but the people from the Imperial Academy will not go with you!"

After listening to the argument for a while, Huang Wu finally realized who was arguing. He turned to Zhu Ye, who was frowning, and whispered, "Mr. Zhu, they said they are from the Imperial Academy!"

Although Huang Wu lowered his voice, he didn't expect that several martial artists on the other side of the wall were quite skilled and had heard everything he said. The students from the Imperial Academy and the National Academy immediately stopped talking and rushed around the wall to ask:
"Who's there!?"

"Sneaking around like that, is that the behavior of a gentleman?!"

(End of this chapter)