Chapter 82: The Candle Flame Does Not Extinguish

Li Musheng's gaze shifted slightly; he glanced at the woman in palace robes and let Li Yuanling pull him onto the wooden boat.

He had to admit, the scene of this underground iron-chain wooden boat did look quite thrilling.

Although he knew this thrill should be vastly different from the kind of thrill he had imagined.

At this moment, after everyone on the platform had boarded the wooden boats, the woman in palace robes, who had stood motionless at the platform's edge, turned her head and called out toward the cliff below in the darkness:

"Set sail!"

Her voice echoed endlessly in the darkness, and those iron chains began to wriggle rapidly again, driving the five wooden boats slowly toward the deep chasm in the darkness.

Soft stools wrapped in cotton fur were set upon the wooden boats; there were four such stools, indicating that each wooden boat could carry at most four people.

Li Yuanling sat on one of the soft stools; before setting sail, she picked up the fire starter on the table before her and lit the candle placed upon it.

Li Musheng sat opposite her and glanced into the surrounding darkness.

The other four wooden boats not far away had also lit their candles at this time, appearing like scattered fireflies emitting dim yellow light in the pitch-black underground space.

At this moment, Li Yuanling's gaze fell upon the table before her; seeing a line of obvious characters carved upon it, she parted her red lips and slowly recited the content:

"First stage: after entering the rotating wheel, maintain the candle on the boat without extinguishing."

"If the candle remains unextinguished for ten breaths, one mark is recorded; for twenty breaths, two marks; for half an incense stick, five marks; for one full incense stick, ten marks."

"If the candle remains unextinguished after one incense stick, one mark is added for every breath thereafter; after thirty breaths, the wooden boat will briefly stop to enter the second stage."

After reading all the content carved on the table, Li Yuanling rolled her eyes, then generated threads of true qi in her palm to protect the candle on the table.

At the same time, she raised her eyes to look at Li Musheng sitting opposite and blinked, saying:

"I heard that the person who accumulates the most marks in this underground 'Floating Boat City' can obtain a mysterious item, and if one can break the record, one can even obtain unimaginable good things."

Hearing this, Li Musheng glanced at the other person, crossed his arms, and said:

"As a princess of Great Li, do you lack any good things?"

Li Yuanling tilted her head, sized up Li Musheng for a while, a meaningful expression flashed in her eyes, and she pouted, saying:

"I certainly don't lack them, but who would ever complain about having too many good things?"

Li Musheng raised his eyebrows slightly, glanced around, and shook his head:

"The place you found does have some unique aspects, but overall, it's just that."

Saying this, he stroked his chin and said:

"However, since we are already here and there is nothing else to do, I don't mind playing along with you, so you won't go around saying your sworn brother is inhumane."

Hearing this, Li Yuanling blinked her eyes, mumbled a few times with her lips, and it was unknown what she said.

Just then, the wooden boat sliding in the darkness had already arrived before a huge horizontal iron-frame wheel.

Li Yuanling looked up; wooden boats with lit candles were coming from all directions in the darkness.

The iron chains linked to the boats slid into the grooves of the iron-frame wheel; with the sound of mechanisms turning, they were all fixed in place.

She glanced and counted; including their own wooden boat, a total of thirty wooden boats were fixed on the iron-frame wheel.

And soon, with the sound of a melodious bell ringing, the iron-frame wheel suddenly began to rotate rapidly, and the speed increased faster and faster; within a few breaths, only blurred afterimages remained.

At the beginning, Li Yuanling was still afraid Li Musheng would be thrown off, but when she found the other person sitting opposite with an air of calm confidence, his face expressionless, she let out a soft "eh."

She seemed not to expect that the other person appeared to have no true qi at all, yet possessed such means, and was even calmer than her.

"Stop looking; take care of yourself first."

Li Musheng glanced at the other person; the wheel's speed increased faster and faster, and cries of shock were already coming from the wooden boats around.

However, Li Yuanling's martial arts cultivation was good; these difficulties did not stop her. While protecting the candle, she could also sit steady without moving.

Moreover, she even cast a proud glance at Li Musheng with some leisure, as if to say this was no big deal.

Soon, ten breaths passed, twenty breaths passed... time was about to reach one incense stick.

Candles on wooden boats around extinguished from time to time; in the end, only seven wooden boats with lit candles remained on the entire iron-frame wheel.

Among them, not far from the wooden boat where Li Musheng and the other were, there was a nearby wooden boat whose candle also remained unextinguished.

Two people sat on this boat; besides the martial arts giant who had shouted earlier, there was also a middle-aged man of slender build.

The middle-aged man wore a long sword at his waist; he glanced at the wooden boat where Li Musheng and the other were and narrowed his eyes slightly.

He seemed somewhat surprised that this young man and woman could withstand the wheel for one incense stick.

Soon, one incense stick's time passed, and the iron-frame wheel continued to rotate.

Immediately, palm winds suddenly rose from above the wheel, falling precisely toward the seven wooden boats with lit candles.

Li Musheng looked up toward the center of the wheel; an old man in black robes sat there, his entire body surging with martial arts true qi. Each palm strike sent out a palm wind, and as time passed, the force of the palm winds gradually increased.

At the beginning, when those palm winds blew toward the candle protected by Li Yuanling's hands, she could still protect it with her own martial arts true qi, but after twenty breaths, she was obviously already struggling.

When time reached twenty-five breaths, the palm winds struck by that old man were already extremely sharp.

Li Yuanling saw the true qi surrounding the candle she protected all blown away; the burning flame began to sway violently, almost extinguishing into a cluster of scarlet embers.

She couldn't help but cry out in anxiety, thinking the situation was lost; this was already the limit she could endure.

And just at this moment, the candle that was about to extinguish suddenly restored its previous flame in an instant; even as the remaining palm winds continued to blow, the candle remained motionless, burning as usual.

That seated old man in black robes looked toward the wooden boat where Li Musheng and the other were, frowned slightly; the candle that was already certain to extinguish had actually held on, which surprised him somewhat.

However, he did not think much of it; immediately, he struck out several more palms in an instant.

At this time, only three wooden boats on the entire wheel still had burning candles, including the one the sword-wearing middle-aged man was on.

"The next round should be impossible to endure."

The matter of protecting the candle was being handled by the martial arts giant opposite, so the sword-wearing middle-aged man had the leisure to observe the situation of the other two wooden boats.

He had seen everything when the candle in Li Yuanling's hand almost extinguished; therefore, he almost concluded that she absolutely could not withstand the next, even stronger palm wind.

Dear big shots, too many trivial matters... the missed update can only be made up later when I have time; sorry, sorry.

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(End of this chapter)