Chapter 257: Never would have thought
Everyone had thought the white-robed man was aiming for the poison beast and kidnapped Han Yunxi to help him, but they were all mistaken. After the white-robed man had led them here, he’d left them without so much as a goodbye. That streak of white back then had to be him because of the speed. He had to be the one who opened the Xuan gold door as well. Long Feiye was still knowledgable about the Shadow Clan’s speed. Just then, the white-robed man had displayed speed far above the normal realms of his clan. He was certain that the man had given him all to accomplish it. If not for that speed, they would’ve all been eaten alive by the rats. Though he didn’t know how the man had managed to open the door, there was no doubt that it was his doing.
But what did that have to do with Han Yunxi?
Long Feiye looked at Han Yunxi’s bleeding fingers, his eyes flickering between darkness and light. His thoughts were impossible to read. Han Yunxi herself was lost in a fog as well. Something seemed to have scraped her fingers. The cuts were very tiny, but kept bleeding and causing her pain. She wasn’t sure whether she’d hurt her own fingers by accident, or whether the white-robed man had injured them on purpose.
“Linger, do you have any blood staunching medicine?” Gu Qishao asked urgently. Mu Linger looked at Han Yunxi with a complicated gaze but didn’t reply.
“Linger!” Gu Qishao grew impatient. Only then did Mu Linger recover her senses. She was about to take out medicine when Long Feiye tugged on Han Yunxi’s hand and placed her finger in his mouth in front of everyone!
In an instant, the befuddled Han Yunxi felt as if she’d been electrocuted. Her entire body trembled before it turned taut. Meanwhile, Long Feiye not only claimed her finger, but started lightly sucking on it as well! His lips were cold, but her blood was hot. Han Yunxi could even feel his warm tongue pressing against her skin. This felt exceedingly like a kiss. Heavens, it was almost unbearable! In an instant, everyone had turned to look over. Han Yunxi’s face was as red as a ripe apple, while Long Feiye’s gentle actions were completely out of character!
It was a long while before Long Feiye relinquished Han Yunxi’s finger, but he quickly moved onto the next one with that same gentle sucking. Heaven knows how Han Yunxi endured it all, but Long Feiye went through all five of her fingers one by one, sucking until the bleeding stopped. By the end, her entire body was practically paralyzed. Actually, it was very normal to suck on one’s fingers to stop their bleeding. But if she had trouble even taking this, then what if in the future she…
Han Yunxi didn’t dare to finish that thought. She realized that she really was thinking too much! Long Feiye examined her hand while she lowered her head without daring to face him, her cheeks still red. By now, Tang Li’s jaw had nearly hit the floor. Although he’d witnessed Long Feiye forcefully kissing Han Yunxi before, he still found such an intimate scene nearly unbelievable. This elder cousin of his had been obsessed with cleanliness since he was young. Leaving aside females, he even avoided bumping elbows with any males. Of course, Gu Qishao found the entire scene extremely offensive to the eyes.
“The flesh-eating rats dispersed,” he reminded them loudly, breaking the ambiguous atmosphere. Sadly, Long Feiye ignored him completely. That was just the type of person he was–his actions gentle when caring for her fingers, but his voice cold and devoid of care at all. He looked down at Han Yunxi, who was still bowing her head, and said icily, “Does it still hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” Han Yunxi said prudently as she withdrew her fingers from his grasp. This was her first time feeling like they were husband and wife, and her first time feeling that she actually belonged to him. Long Feiye didn’t ask any more, but looked out the door to see that the flesh-eating rats had completely scattered as if they’d never shown up at all. Whether or not they were dissatisfied or simply respectful, the fact remained that they couldn’t enter the secret room. Had the white-robed man known this fact?
There was no sign of the trapped poison beast anywhere in the gigantic secret chamber. Even Jun Yixie and Duanmu Yao, who had just been present before, were gone. Here was the lowest point of the Sky Pit and the location of the poison beast. Truthfully speaking, it was its most dangerous area.
“Be careful,” Long Feiye said in a low voice. The group formed a circle with their backs together, heightening their guard. Tang Li looked around them and quickly found something wrong.
“This Xuan gold door isn’t even the main entrance! The front door’s over there!” Everyone looked where he was pointing and saw a movable stone door that didn’t look half as tightly sealed as the Xuan gold door. It had just caved in a bit, but that wouldn’t prevent anyone from going in or out.
“It looks like it was Jun Yixie and company who triggered the Sky Pit Death Trap,” Gu Qishao was convinced. Once it was activated, the victims would fall directly to the Sky Pit’s lowest point. Most likely the trigger had caused the main door of the secret chamber to cave in as well. If the white-robed man had a map, it should’ve clearly marked the location of the front door. Despite this, he had intentionally taken them to the Xuan gold door instead.
“Could it be that they’ve taken away the poison beast?” Tang Li asked doubtfully.
There wasn’t a single person in the secret chamber now that Jun Yixie and Duanmu Yao had left. This was the only explanation.
“Impossible, Jun Yixie doesn’t have the skills!” Gu Qishao immediately refuted. Even if he came, he had to bring over Duanmu Yao for help. Jun Yixie had formidable poison skills, but he’d never be able to control the poison beast, much less Duanmu Yao.
“Let’s take a look outside,” Long Feiye said mildly. But before they even reached the exit, they saw tremendous Xuan gold chains lying on the ground. Shackles of that size could only be for tying up the poison beast.
“Did they really steal it away?” Han Yunxi was astonished, too. Long Feiye knelt down to carefully inspect the chains, only to see that they were very intact. It didn’t seem like anyone had broken them. The two shackles were completely unharmed as well and still locked. Gu Qishao followed the shackles to their ends and saw that they were still attached to the walls as an unbroken whole.
Strange!
The shackles were perfectly fine, but the poison beast had vanished into thin air?
“What does the poison beast even look like?” Han Yunxi asked seriously. Unfortunately, nobody could answer her question. Even Gu Qishao, who was intimately familiar with the Sky Pit, had never seen the poison beast’s true form.
“At the very least, it’s not small.”
Judging by the size of these chains, the Gu Shu had to be at least the size of a black bear. But it was impossible to imagine what kind of Shu (鼠) could grow to such a size. If it really was a rat (老鼠), wouldn’t that be too disgusting?
“Check outside.”
There were only two doors in the secret chamber. Both the Gu Shu and Jun Yixie plus Duanmu Yao could only leave through the main stone door. Long Feiye and Han Yunxi walked shoulder-to-shoulder at the front of the group. After some hesitation, Han Yunxi still spoke up. “Duanmu Yao and Jun Yixie are working together…”
Before she finished, Long Feiye had already cut her off. “Mm, I heard from the snake den.”
Urk…
Han Yunxi suddenly didn’t know what to say at all. He said that he’d heard, but had he heard Duanmu Yao and Jun Yixie’s voices, or her own claiming that she’d tattle? Actually, she wanted to ask whether Western Zhou and Northern Li were working together now. Long Feiye’s skills were definitely enough to know if this did happen. In any case, now that he said that, she wasn’t sure how to keep questioning him. Moreover, what she really wanted to ask was how he felt about the entire thing. Would he tell everyone publicly?
When they walked out of the stone door, it was to see a little stone path beyond it covered in rocks. Long Feiye halted for a long look before moving forward. Han Yunxi was still debating whether she should continue the topic just then when a succession of soft sounds suddenly started up, growing louder and louder as if something was drawing closer.
“What a familiar sound,” Tang Li murmured to himself.
“Rats! Those rats are coming again!” Mu Linger suddenly shrieked! Everyone turned to high alert in response to her words. These sounds were precisely the rats they’d heard before. Now that it was getting closer, should they move forward, or retreat? Were the rats simply waiting outside for them to show up? As they hesitated, they saw two figures fleeing from the dark tunnel in front of them. They were none other than Jun Yixie and Duanmu Yao! Behind them was the flock of flesh-eating rats!
Jun Yixie and Duanmu Yao were fleeing for their lives. Even when they caught sight of Long Feiye and the rest, they didn’t stop, but kept up their insane pace.
“Retreat!” Long Feiye decided promptly as he pulled Han Yunxi back with him. Everyone else backed away as well. Gu Qishao immediately rushed forward to shut the stone door.
“Heheh, we can open the door to get their corpses later!” So speaking, he was about to pull it shut when Long Feiye suddenly cried out.
“Wait!”
Gu Qishao glanced around to make sure everyone was there before asking unhappily, “Wait for whom?”
Long Feiye didn’t answer, but let go of Han Yunxi’s hand, jammed open the door with his sword, and flew against everyone’s expectations!
“Long Feiye!” Han Yunxi blurted out, unable to believe her eyes. Was he crazy? What was he going to do out there? Seek death? She was about to follow him when Gu Qishao held her back.
“Poison lass, are you looking to die?”
“Move aside!” Han Yunxi was anxious. This wasn’t something to joke about, but a matter of life and death! They’d just escaped from the gates of Hell! But soon enough, she quieted down even without Gu Qishao holding her back.
Outside the door, Long Feiye had already taken Duanmu Yao into his arms and was flying back. Jun Yixie chased behind them, refusing to let them off. Behind him was the equally adamant swarm of terrifying flesh-eating mice.
So that was the reason.
He actually risked his life to save Duanmu Yao!
Han Yunxi furrowed her eyebrows, suddenly losing all her ability to think. Long Feiye had refused this princess’s hand in marriage, but she also happened to be his only younger martial sister from Celestial Mountain Sword Sect. Han Yunxi had never forgotten how Long Feiye had watched her fall from a tree while facing the poison python on their first trip out. Back then, he had rescued without hesitation the little martial sister who went to intentionally provoke the poison python, Duanmu Yao!
As Long Feiye came closer and closer, so did the swarm of flesh-eating mice. Han Yunxi was still standing there stunned when Mu Linger suddenly moved forward and viciously pushed her out. “There’s no need for you to act like a hypocrite, I hate you!”
Not expecting this, Han Yunxi tumbled out and fell to the ground. No one thought that this would happen. Long Feiye was flying too fast to stop. At the same time he rushed inside the door with Duanmu Yao, the Jun Yixie following behind him dragged Han Yunxi upright and closed a hand around her throat…