Chapter 242
Chapter 242
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 242
>Chapter Title: Exit
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Chapter 242: Exit
Because he was being dragged along the ground nonstop, Li Huowang’s clothes were completely worn through. His eyes flicked slightly toward those pursuing lion dancers.
Through the white light on their bodies, he vaguely saw even larger things behind that group of lion dancers.
Li Huowang didn’t know what kind of sect the Lion Dance Palace was, but one thing he could be sure of was that their strengths definitely varied—strong and weak. The two he’d dealt with before were probably just small fry among them.
“Ershen! Run faster! Those lion dancers are just the little ones! There are big ones behind them!”
Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao ran even harder. She wasn’t running blindly but heading toward the drum sounds as much as possible.
Suddenly, Li Huowang spotted something. He slapped her body with his hand. “East! Go east! Listen to me, east!”
Bai Lingmiao pushed hard against the ground with her limbs and leaped onto the left wall. After changing direction on the wall, she rushed toward the side Li Huowang had indicated.
They didn’t run far before arriving, in the darkness, at a “forest”—a forest formed by corpses with ropes yanking on their necks. And that was the thing Li Huowang had spotted.
Stared at by that special vision, Li Huowang instantly felt his thoughts slowing down. This was Rope Son’s turf. Rope Son was lying on the ceiling right now, staring down at him!
The thing was watching him, but Li Huowang didn’t care. He knew that compared to their two lone and powerless little figures, that massive group of lion dancers glowing with white light was obviously far more appealing to it.
Sure enough, just as Li Huowang had predicted, as the huge commotion approached, all those suspended corpses completely ignored them and slowly turned instead, drifting toward the lion dancers.
With Rope Son’s obstruction, the white lights and the dense footsteps behind Li Huowang finally faded away.
Free of pursuers, Li Huowang and the other two followed the drum sounds. They regrouped with the others beside a rock wall.
The others, who had been trembling in fear, finally found their pillar of strength. They rushed up at once, surrounding Li Huowang and chattering questions all at once.
“Don’t panic, everyone. That Han Fu punk is nothing to worry about. In a straight-up fight, he can’t beat us. We just need to watch out for ambushes!” Li Huowang bolstered their spirits with full confidence.
“But... Senior Brother Li, which way do we go next? We don’t even know where we are.” Chun Xiaoman looked at the fuzzy darkness around them and painfully described their current predicament.
Though they had just beaten Han Fu and escaped the lion dancer horde, forget how this damned place seemed able to confuse people—even without that, with no landmarks and everywhere looking the same, they still couldn’t get out.
As long as they couldn’t escape, they’d run into those two things again sooner or later.
Li Huowang looked around and lowered his head to the bell at Chun Xiaoman’s waist. “Give me the bell. Can a living person really hold it in until they burst? Maybe the Wandering Lord can help us find the way out!”
Only now did Chun Xiaoman realize the Wandering Lords could do something like that. She was just about to hand over the bell when she pulled it back.
“Senior Brother Li, I’m young with plenty of lifespan left. Let me use the bell to help you.” Without waiting for Li Huowang’s reply, Chun Xiaoman quickly started shaking the bell.
As several Wandering Lords flew out, Li Huowang had the vague feeling that their sizes had grown a bit.
In this oppressive environment, a quarter-hour passed, then half an hour, but those Wandering Lords still hadn’t returned.
This situation made the confidence the others had just regained sink back down.
“Those Wandering Lords won’t have been treated as snacks by the evils in the darkness, right?” Gouwa voiced a very grim guess, scared out of his wits.
Seeing their current plight, Li Huowang’s brows knitted tightly together.
Never mind the threat of Han Fu lurking in the darkness—even if those lion dancers finished off Rope Son and came after them again, they’d be done for. They had to get out of this hellhole right away.
He began recalling the various rituals from the Great Thousand Records, which he’d long since memorized perfectly. But after quickly running through them in his mind, it was all for nothing.
The Great Thousand Records, as an essential for Sitting and Scenery Cult followers, only recorded ways to cause yourself pain or make others feel pain. It was utterly useless in a situation like this.
Just as Li Huowang turned to ask Bai Lingmiao if jumping big god could help in this regard, he saw the big lunkhead Jian Dun holding up his own thumb stiffly in the air, his expression extremely grave.
Clutching his wounds, Li Huowang looked up at him and asked, “What are you doing?”
For once, Jian Dun didn’t answer right away. Instead, with a grave expression, he solemnly put his thumb back in his mouth, sucked on it, and raised it high again.
A flash of insight struck Li Huowang’s mind, and he brightened up. He understood what the other was doing. “Using your finger to sense the wind direction? There’s wind? You found the exit?”
Jian Dun quickly pulled his finger back, nodded at Li Huowang, and pointed westward with his hand. “Th-this... this... way.”
“Jian Dun~! Good job!” The thrilled Li Huowang walked over and slapped him heavily on the shoulder before leading the others to charge in the direction he’d pointed.
The direction the wind indicated wasn’t a straight line. They kept threading through karsts and caves, sometimes rising, sometimes dropping.
As they hurried along, Li Huowang reappraised the tall man in front of him.
To think of a way to find the exit in a situation like this made Li Huowang view Jian Dun in a new light. This wasn’t something a normal simpleton could come up with. He must have quite a story in his past.
But at this critical moment, there was no time to probe his background.
“Heads down, the rock ceiling ahead is low.” Everyone bent at the waist and kept pushing forward.
The passage kept narrowing. Just as it was getting so tight even the tallest Jian Dun could barely squeeze through, it started widening. A wailing, howling sound came from the distance.
Hearing this, Li Huowang’s heart leaped with joy. That wasn’t real ghosts crying—it was the whistling of wind blowing through narrow karsts.
Jian Dun hadn’t picked the wrong spot! There was an exit here!!
The others realized it too. Though they’d been running and terrified for so long in this place, utterly exhausted, they still squeezed out their last bit of energy and rushed ahead.
After passing through another twisting karst tunnel, light suddenly brightened ahead. A slanted opening appeared in the ceiling of the rock cave—the wind was blowing in from there.
The light spilling from it wasn’t the bright light from the Lion Dance Palace before but pale silvery moonlight. Unnoticed, night had already fallen outside.
They arrived under that patch of silver light, staring up at the starry specks overhead like frogs at the bottom of a well.
It clearly wasn’t the exit they’d come in through, but it was undoubtedly an exit all the same.
(This chapter is finished)