Chapter 256: Underground Treasury

Tree branches and leaves shredded the starlight.

Liang Qu and the other two huddled together, staring at the figures swaying back and forth. With no movement for a long time, their tense nerves gradually relaxed.

The things in the courtyard showed no reaction to their arrival.

Perhaps they hadn't been discovered?

Xiang Fang Su held his breath, pointed behind him, then extended his index and middle fingers downward, alternating back and forth.

Everyone understood.

Ke Wenbin swept a glance at the ground, cleared away the withered branches and fallen leaves with the long sword in his hand, and led the way with his back to the courtyard.

Liang Qu and Xiang Fang Su did not turn around; they faced the courtyard, keeping their eyes fixed on the moving black shadows, and retreated toward the direction they had come, staying close to Ke Wenbin.

The three coordinated with each other and withdrew a distance of a hundred paces.

The distant courtyard gradually disappeared from sight, obscured by the woods.

Returning to a house they had passed earlier, Xiang Fang Su closed the door and heard Ke Wenbin's slightly terrified voice behind him.

"What the hell were those things?"

"Don't know."

Ke Wenbin had asked the wrong person; Liang Qu and Xiang Fang Su were just as clueless.

The black Qi on the entire island chain was flowing into the water; logically, any ordinary life form would die upon approaching it.

Coupled with the stiff movements of the figures...

"Could it be that something else has come back from the dead? Jiang Zongshi corpses?"

Ke Wenbin felt a toothache. He wasn't afraid of killing people; he could do it without blinking.

But these strange, bizarre things truly made him shiver quietly, breaking out in a cold sweat.

Xiang Fang Su shook his head: "Unlikely. According to the boss, they killed them twice over, even smashing their brains. If they really lived a third time, they'd just be a pile of minced meat."

Ruling out Grandmasters...

"Are they those two Hunting Tiger Great Martial Artists?"

"Possible!"

Xiang Fang Su punched his palm.

The spot where they landed on the island was exactly where they had led the landing party earlier. The corpses of those Wolf Smoke Martial Artists were lying on the ground, perfectly still, dead as could be.

The "good fortune" of resurrection clearly didn't fall to them; they could only serve as expendables.

Those caught between Grandmasters and ordinary Wolf Smoke Martial Artists could only be Hunting Tiger Great Martial Artists!

After Xu Yuelong returned, he indeed hadn't mentioned anything about Great Martial Artists resurrecting.

"Could it be that Great Martial Artists are different from Grandmasters, and resurrection requires time?" Ke Wenbin guessed boldly.

Xiang Fang Su nodded: "That should be it."

Liang Qu raised his hand to ask: "Great Martial Artists, can we fight them?"

They had already come this far.

They couldn't just return empty-handed.

Xiang Fang Su and Ke Wenbin pondered for a moment and gave an ambiguous answer.

"Perhaps?"

Against a normal Hunting Tiger Great Martial Artist, the two of them combined couldn't win, but this was an abnormal situation.

Xu Yuelong had said himself that resurrected Grandmasters had slow reactions, felt no pain, and their strength dropped by nearly thirty percent.

Even if Hunting Tiger Martial Artists resurrected, it was absolutely impossible for them to be at full strength.

Looking at the way that thing in the courtyard was moving back and forth, it was clearly not very bright. Whether it could even use techniques or martial arts was a question mark.

Most importantly, the Ghost Mother Sect was holed up in a corner; having two Great Martial Artists appear was already the limit. They couldn't possibly be that powerful, and those two Hunting Tiger ones were both at the Initial Stage!

With several negative buffs stacked on them, it was possible that Xiang Fang Su or Ke Wenbin could trade blows with them alone.

The only problem was that the combat environment was unfriendly.

With the black Qi hindering them, the two could only huddle near Liang Qu, their movement restricted, and they had to be distracted to protect Liang Qu.

Xiang Fang Su looked at Liang Qu: "Ashui, can your warding technique expand its range? At least to a hundred meters, or find a way to distribute a portion so we can carry it ourselves?"

The problem had come back to him.

Liang Qu frowned in thought.

His Dragon Tiger Golden Body wasn't fully mastered; expanding the range to a hundred meters was impossible. But distributing a portion...

"I've never done it, but I can try."

Liang Qu had seen the ink array drawn by Ran Zhongshi the day before yesterday and associated it with his own Lei Fu.

Perhaps he could change direction, following the way of visualizing Lei Qi to condense runes in the Lei character seal method, and instead use Dragon Instructor Instructor Hu Qi to condense a Dragon Tiger Talisman?

If he could succeed, it might help Xiang Fang Su and Ke Wenbin hold out for a while in the black Qi.

The two were overjoyed upon hearing this and immediately let Liang Qu try.

Doing a combined martial art for the first time, Liang Qu had no confidence.

But when the pale golden Dragon Instructor Instructor Hu Qi condensed into the shape of a rune, he knew his method was feasible.

Two quarters of an hour later.

A frame-like rune, with only the head and feet but no belly or core, appeared in the hands of Xiang Fang Su and Ke Wenbin.

They came to the edge where Liang Qu was resisting the black Qi and extended their hands. A warm sensation transmitted from the rune, and pale golden radiance escaped; the black mist outside actually retreated!

"It works!"

"Why does your talisman only have a frame?"

"Hmm... that is truly a good question." Liang Qu's expression remained unchanged, and he did not answer.

Xiang Fang Su didn't care if the rune was complete or not, as long as it worked. He was more concerned about how long this thing could last.

"About two quarters of an hour."

"Two quarters... more than enough." Xiang Fang Su clenched his fists: "Let's go, we'll go back and explore again!"

Fully prepared, the three restrained their aura and returned to the outside of the small courtyard, huddling against the wall and moving to the gate position.

Ke Wenbin, at the very front, poked his head out and looked toward the stone slab at the gate; it was exactly at this position that they had discovered the black shadow earlier.

As a result, he stared at the stone floor for a while; the gray-glowing stone slab was dappled with tree shadows, with all kinds of leaf shapes, but there was no black shadow from before!

Ke Wenbin turned his head and shook it slightly at Liang Qu and Xiang Fang Su.

Gone?

The three felt it was tricky.

After a moment of silence, Ke Wenbin pointed inside the courtyard, signaling whether they should go in and take a look.

Xiang Fang Su looked at Liang Qu, and seeing Liang Qu nod, the three entered the small courtyard silently from the entrance.

The view suddenly opened up.

The layout of the entire small courtyard was not much different from a common residence, except that the courtyard in the middle had no flowers, plants, rockeries, or tree pools, but was a simple martial arts practice field.

As for the human-shaped black shadow, it was nowhere to be seen.

But regardless, it was a good thing to avoid conflict.

The three entered the small courtyard and opened the doors one by one to check; most were just ordinary items.

They groped all the way to the west wing of the second courtyard, where neatly arranged cabinets appeared before them.

Liang Qu pulled open a cabinet drawer; inside lay a whole stalk of emerald green leaf grass, and because the cabinet was airtight, it hadn't been contaminated by the black smoke.

Precious plant!

"Silkworm Silk Grass?"

Xiang Fang Su swept a glance and shook his head.

"It's a good thing, but not good enough."

Liang Qu understood what he meant.

Two items per person; naturally, they had to pick things of real value. There was no need to take these "ordinary goods."

But after searching through the cabinets, there were plenty of precious plants, precious medicines, and precious metals, but as for real good stuff...

None.

Ke Wenbin was puzzled: "That shouldn't be. Could it be a private collection?"

He could write a letter home and have this much stuff sent over in a snap; nothing rare here.

Liang Qu closed his eyes, released his hearing, tapped his knuckles against the entire cabinet, and then, under the puzzled gazes of Xiang Fang Su and Ke Wenbin, headed straight for a corner of the cabinet.

He pulled the drawer open, reached in to grope, and sure enough, felt a hemp rope.

Liang Qu grabbed the hemp rope and pulled hard.

A stone slab at the opposite diagonal position suddenly protruded, one finger higher than the other slabs.

Xiang Fang Su squatted down, hooked the stone slab, and pulled hard. Directly beneath it, a pitch-black underground passage suddenly opened up.

He and Ke Wenbin exchanged a look, their eyes revealing surprise, and turned to look at Liang Qu.

"Ashui, how did you know where the mechanism was?"

Liang Qu pointed to his ears.

"I heard it."

Ke Wenbin skeptically picked up a drawer, tapped on it, then picked up another and tapped on it; the two sounds were exactly the same.

"Strange, how come I couldn't hear it?"

"Let's ask when we get back."

Now was not the time to discuss problems. The three packed up the cabinets and entered the passage together.

Xiang Fang Su braced the stone slab and looked around to confirm no one was there, then slowly covered it. ===== CHAPTER 257 =====