There was something else strange—Hua Cheng was not the kind of person who feared unexpected complications; if they saw what the veil covered, so be it. Xie Lian hadn’t expected him to use that as the reason not to touch them.
“This is the Kingdom of Wuyong, so they’re probably the Crown Prince of Wuyong,” Hua Cheng said dismissively. “Nothing notable.”
Xie Lian countered, “I don’t think so.”
“Oh? What do you mean?” Hua Cheng asked.
Xie Lian gazed at him. “Judging by the murals we saw along the way, the clothing worn by the Crown Prince of Wuyong and the Wuyong people was particularly bright in color. As the country existed two millennia ago, the prevailing style of dress was ancient and coarse—and a little wild. The clothing on these divine statues is quite different, though. I don’t think these statues have anything to do with the Crown Prince of Wuyong; in fact, the sculptor might not have been from Wuyong at all.”
Hua Cheng smiled brightly at him. “Is that right? Gege really has an eye for detail.”
Xie Lian also smiled. “Ah, no. It’s simply that the style of these statues—the sculpting work, the clothing design, and the way details such as the flow of dress are handled—all looks like something from a later period. And it’s one I’m more familiar with too…the style of Xianle.”
Hua Cheng quirked his eyebrows. “It seems gege is also deeply gifted in this topic.”
“Nah, it’s nothing. You’d naturally gain a bit of knowledge after seeing a lot of something, and that includes divine statues,” Xie Lian said.
Although he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, his instincts told him that there was something off with Hua Cheng since he’d awoken. It was only now that he finally realized what was amiss.
There was a subtle sort of nervousness about him.
However, Xie Lian still didn’t pry. He said instead, “Since San Lang thinks it’s best to not inspect them, let’s stay cautious.”
Hua Cheng gave a light nod, and the pair continued onward. Soon they came to another fork in the road, and Hua Cheng headed left without hesitation. Xie Lian paused and didn’t follow.
Hua Cheng looked back. “What is it?”
“San Lang’s never been in this cave before, right?” Xie Lian asked.
“Of course not.”
“Then why are you so sure that we should go left?”
“Not sure, necessarily,” Hua Cheng said. “I’m just choosing blindly.”
“Since you’ve never been here before, how can you charge forward blindly? Shouldn’t we consider which way to go more carefully?”
Hua Cheng smiled. “We should go blindly precisely because I’ve never been here before. No matter how cautious we are, we know nothing about this place’s layout, so we might as well boldly bet on our luck. And my luck has always been better.”
Although that certainly made sense, Hua Cheng had always let Xie Lian choose the way when they went out; it wasn’t often that he took the initiative and led. Xie Lian nodded.
They were just about to enter the tunnel on the left when Xie Lian hastily spoke up. “Wait! San Lang, do you hear that?”
“What?”
“To the right,” Xie Lian said. “There are voices.”
Hua Cheng’s expression changed subtly, and after listening intently for a while, he said, “Gege, I think you’re mistaken. There’s nothing there.”
“There is!” Xie Lian insisted. “Listen closely. It’s a man’s voice!”
Hua Cheng tried listening again and frowned. “I really don’t hear anything.”
Xie Lian was taken aback. Am I hallucinating again? he wondered.
“Your Highness, there’s something fishy about this; there might be tricks afoot,” Hua Cheng said. “I suggest we talk after we get out.”
Xie Lian hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he still declared, “No! It might be Nan Feng and Fu Yao. I must go take a look!”
Then he dashed off down the path while Hua Cheng called after him.
“Gege! Don’t run off!”
But whoever had been shouting must have fallen into an extremely dangerous situation that allowed no delays, and Xie Lian didn’t dare to be careless. He continued to rush down the righthand path. The farther he went down the tunnel, the clearer he could hear a man’s angry roars.
Xie Lian was delighted. It really is Nan Feng and Fu Yao!
Xie Lian didn’t know how long he’d spent hurrying through the winding tunnel, but he finally found the source of the voices in a giant cave. There were no divine statues in this cavern but instead a deep pit—and that pit was precisely where Nan Feng and Fu Yao’s screaming was coming from. It looked like they were both trapped at the bottom, unable to climb up. But they were still yelling passionately at each other, so their lives likely weren’t in danger at the moment.
It was too dark in the depths of the pit to see anything clearly. Xie Lian cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted from above.
“Hey—! What happened to you guys?”
When the two in the pit heard someone up above, they instantly stopped arguing.
Fu Yao’s reply came first. “Your Highness? Is that you?! Hurry and pull us up!”
Nan Feng, on the other hand, didn’t speak. Xie Lian was puzzled.
“You guys can’t climb up on your own? The pit isn’t that deep. What’s happening down there?”
Perhaps it was because he’d been fighting the entire way, but Fu Yao was full of fire. “If we could climb up on our own, we would’ve done it already, duh! Can’t you see for yourself, Your Highness?”
Xie Lian squinted. “Well, I can’t see much right now. Do you still have spiritual power? Can you light a palm torch so I can see what the situation is down there? If you can’t, I’ll throw a fireball down…”
But before he could finish his sentence, the two at the bottom yelled in unison, “Don’t!” Their voices rang with alarm and terror.
“Do not light any fires!” Fu Yao yelled.
If he couldn’t light a fire, he’d have to find another way to illuminate the place. Xie Lian’s first reaction was to look behind him.
“San Lang…”
However, there was no one there—Hua Cheng hadn’t followed him. Xie Lian was surprised; at first he felt slightly uneasy, then confused. There was surely no way Hua Cheng could’ve lost his way, right…?
Hua Cheng had been acting quite strangely ever since they entered the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods, but Xie Lian couldn’t quite put his finger on why. He looked to his left and right, then discovered a tiny silver butterfly resting on his shoulder. He touched it tentatively.
“Hello…?”
The wraith butterfly fluttered at his touch but didn’t fly away—it seemed to want to show him its wings. Over the course of their journey, Hua Cheng had told Xie Lian that his silver butterflies fell into various categories. Xie Lian didn’t know which category this one belonged to or what its duties were, but it could at least shine some light regardless of its purpose.
Thus he asked, “Can you go down and take a look for me?”
Sure enough, the silver butterfly fluttered its wings and flew into the pit. Xie Lian called out his thanks and waited until it reached the bottom. Once the soft silver light illuminated the situation below, Xie Lian couldn’t help but widen his eyes.
The bottom of the dark pit was covered by an eerie field of white. The entire hole was blanketed with a thick bed of silk!
Nan Feng and Fu Yao had been tied up in that silk so thoroughly that they’d been bundled into two cocoons, like two little flies stuck in a spider’s web. Their faces were battered black and blue, and their heads were covered in blood, but they might’ve done that to each other during their earlier fight. Xie Lian couldn’t help but give himself a pat on the back for his caution; the entire pit might’ve been set ablaze had he thrown down a torch.
“What’s going on?” Xie Lian asked. “Is that a spider’s web? Could this be an arachnid spirit’s lair?”
