Chapter 122: The Escape

"Which eye of yours saw me capable of saving your kin? Don't go pinning crimes on me just because you're ignorant, alright?

I was able to force the possession soul out of the dog's consciousness because I planted a mental technique in his mind when I subdued him. Do you know what a mental technique is? It's a secret art that ensures he won't betray me, and it also protects his own soul. With this technique, I could easily cast that ghost out.

Your kin's soul had long been devoured; only a sliver of his true spirit remained. He struggled one last time to help you all, yet you weren't willing to fulfill his final wish and give him a clean death. It took Shou'an to end his life and grant him release. When you get right down to it, aren't you the ones who killed him?

Why is it that when you can't bear the guilt of having killed your companion, you have to find a scapegoat and shift all the blame onto others, claiming they failed to rescue your friend? Does making up that narrative and fueling that hatred make you feel better inside? How pathetic. You're nothing but a coward."

Qinghu pointed at his nose and scolded him relentlessly.

"Actually, why bother waking him up? Just let him hate. He's just a coward. What can his hatred even do?" She Shiyi said with a cold sneer.

"It's you, it's all your fault! If you hadn't insisted on inviting us here, would Jin Mao have died?" The Fire-Tailed Pheasant youth, left speechless by Qinghu, was floundering when She Shiyi chimed in. It provided him with a new target for his rage, and he began to accuse She Shiyi instead.

"Hmph, who was it that said, 'You must take us along. We'll take responsibility for our own lives and deaths. We definitely won't cause you any trouble'?" She Shiyi repeated the words the youth had spoken earlier.

The youth turned pale, his lips trembling.

"Brother, stop saying those things. It's all my fault. If I hadn't been so reckless and impulsive, insisting on entering that cavern with them, Brother Jin Mao wouldn't have died, and we wouldn't be injured. I am the one who was wrong; please don't drag others into this, I beg you." The Fire-Tailed Pheasant girl walked painfully to Jin Mao's corpse, wrapped it in cloth, and placed it into her storage bag. "Brother, accusing others won't bring Brother Jin Mao back to life."

The girl's words caused the youth even more agony; his eyes welled up with burning tears.

"There are always risks of death and injury when you go on an adventure. If you can't accept that, wouldn't it be better to stay home and eat and drink? Why come out here and risk your life? Your mental fortitude is just too poor; you shouldn't have entered the Xuantian Tower at all. My black dogs have died four or five times over, have you seen them crying and wailing?" Qinghu remarked.

"Your words are easy and elegant to say, but it's not your best friend who died!" the Fire-Tailed Pheasant youth roared. He had lost his best friend, someone he had grown up with, and he just wanted to vent his anger and resentment.

"But wasn't it your own choice to come here for treasure?" Qinghu felt she was the type of person who enjoyed poking at people's sore spots.

"You..." The youth was indeed nearly fainted with rage.

"You always look for faults in others, why don't you look at yourself? If you weren't so greedy, you wouldn't have dragged your friends here. You could have just found any ordinary spirit cave to gain something. That wouldn't have been dangerous. This is a grand spirit cave that even She Shiyi needs help to explore. Did you really think there would be no danger? Or did you think that no matter what danger arose, She Shiyi would take the brunt of it, and you'd just be walking behind picking up scraps and getting benefits for nothing? If you really had such thoughts, it's no wonder you dragged your friends and your sister along. Three people getting a share is better than one."

Of course, what Qinghu didn't say was that She Shiyi didn't seem like the type to let others take advantage of him for free. If they entered with the intention of freeloading, there was no telling how he might use them later.

"Shut up, shut up, just shut up!" The youth was furious from embarrassment. Shen Qinghu had exposed the most hidden, selfish thoughts in his heart, making him flush bright red.

"Your face is flushed red, so that really was what you were thinking," Qinghu sighed. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to pick up some scraps; I came here with that intention too. But at least I have the strength, and I brought a large group of cannon fodder. You, on the other hand, have nothing, so you should have been careful and kept your head down. Who told you to charge forward? This is practically gambling with your lives."

If you aren't capable, yet you still crowd in to take advantage, who's to blame if you die?

"I beg you, stop speaking. It's our fault. We'll leave, we're exiting this place." The girl's face was also losing its composure. She immediately spoke of leaving.

"If I were you, I wouldn't leave. Where would you go once you leave our main group? This spirit cave is not a safe place. We've seen crises and traps everywhere we've walked, and people are dying everywhere. There are only two of you; do you think you'll survive if you go out? Besides, can you even exit the cave on your own? This place cannot be exited at will. If it could, we wouldn't be trapped here; we would have given up and left long ago. Or do you know a way out? If so, could you tell us?" At this moment, the human senior sister, who was holding the hand of the young girl who intended to send off Senior Brother Lu, spoke up.

Upon hearing this, the girl's expression grew even uglier. She realized that leaving She Shiyi and the others was even more dangerous.

Just then, intense sounds of combat echoed from the direction齐 Dongxuan and his group had retreated toward. There were screams and cries for help. It was obvious to anyone with eyes that something had gone wrong.

The sounds of fighting were drawing closer, and very quickly. It seemed that group was fleeing for their lives.

Qinghu looked up into the lightless, dark depths. She seemed to see something, and she immediately put away her cooking pot and other utensils. "Bad luck, damn it. What kind of things have they attracted?" She ordered, "Everyone, fly up for the time being. We need to move quickly, or we'll be dragged into this."

"What do you mean?" She Shiyi asked.

"Send your people to take a look from a distance, and you'll see. But whatever you do, don't get close!" Qinghu finished, pulled out a ten-pound jar of spirit liquid, and chugged it down. She then took out an Earth Marrow Bead and swallowed it whole.

*Emma*, she had been consuming Earth Marrow Beads too quickly lately. She had only started with six, and she had already used half—three of them. The key was that she had been using them for "unprofessional" things, delaying the tempering of her body. If it weren't for the earlier harvest of divine liquid, she wouldn't know when her body would have transformed.

Forget it, don't think about those annoying things. She'd get more Earth Marrow Beads once she got out.

Qinghu pressed her small hands against the ground. The circular platform that had been supporting everyone rapidly transformed. It changed from dirt into hard granite. With visible speed, the platform shrank and deformed, turning into a giant, oval-shaped egg. The shell was seamless, without a single gap. Everyone else flew up, hovering above the stone egg, witnessing its birth. The egg remained supported by the stone pillars below—but only temporarily.

"What is this?" She Shiyi asked first.

"A boat," Qinghu said.

"A stone boat, and so tightly sealed? If this is a boat, do you intend to sail underwater?" She Shiyi asked.

"That's right. If I weren't sailing underwater, why would I seal it so tightly? Not even a single hole left." Qinghu said, though she still opened a large hatch at the very top of the egg. "Hurry and get in, or don't blame me if I leave without warning." She beckoned to the Fire Lion, the little black dog, and She Shiyi. As for the others, they could choose to enter or not.

"What exactly is it that scared you so much?" She Shiyi laughed.

"Hurry up, you'll know when you see it," Qinghu said.

The snake-folk youth and girl had already been led by Shou'an into the giant stone egg as soon as Qinghu beckoned She Shiyi. This wasn't a boat at all; there was nothing inside but a large space, and the outside was just a stone shell. Could such a thing really serve as a boat? The snake-folk looked at each other in confusion. Shou'an, however, found a spot to sit and closed his eyes to rest.

The little black dog and the Fire Lion also led their subordinates inside. Everyone occupied their own corner, and no one bothered anyone else. Finally, it was Wei Dongting and the injured humans he was carrying. They were the slowest, and the injured couldn't jump down on their own; they had to be carried.

Only the Fire-Tailed Pheasant siblings remained, along with Qinghu and She Shiyi.

"Why haven't you gone down yet? Waiting outside to serve yourselves up as a meal?" Qinghu remarked.

The girl flushed with shame but still pulled her brother down. "Thank you."

"At least you're sensible, otherwise I was planning to leave you behind," Qinghu said.

"What on earth is it that scared you into creating such a giant stone egg?" She Shiyi teased.

"Forget it, even you couldn't handle it. Not even if all your giant snakes were mobilized." Upon hearing this, She Shiyi felt a chill in his heart.

At that moment, a snake-folk youth ran back frantically. "Run! Run! It's corpse beetles, and they're everywhere! They're all mature, each one as thick as a water vat! They eat people and souls! We must flee, if we don't, it'll be too late!"

Qinghu looked at She Shiyi. Without a word, She Shiyi grabbed the youth and jumped into the only remaining entrance of the stone egg. Qinghu followed him down.

The stone egg then darted off like a fish, flying down from the stone pillar, diving into the water, and advancing rapidly toward the distance.

Those who aren't proactive about running away have a problem with their thinking.

"Don't run, wait for us!"

The moment the stone egg hit the water, it was spotted by Qi Dongxuan and the others, who were being chased. To survive in the darkness, they had already channeled part of their mana into their eyes, and thus they all saw the massive stone egg. Qi Dongxuan shouted desperately.

However, the stone egg didn't stop for a second; it bolted.

"Bastards! They must be inside that egg! Animals! They didn't even bring us along!" Senior Brother Lu, who had found his beloved, was running beside Qi Dongxuan. Qi Dongxuan was carrying the sickly-looking Zhang Lihua on his back.

"Chase them! As long as we catch up to that stone egg, we can escape this nightmare. The terrain here is complex; even with the egg, they can't reach top speed. If we chase quickly, we should be able to catch up," Qi Dongxuan decided decisively.

"But the brothers are all injured," Senior Brother Lu frowned.

"There's no other way. If they fall behind, they'll just have to stay and block the bugs. At this point, save whoever you can."

As soon as Qi Dongxuan finished speaking, one of the disciples turned deathly pale. Staying behind to "block the bugs" wasn't a defense; it was just sending themselves to be eaten to delay the bugs' pursuit of the others. If they hadn't chosen to follow Qi Dongxuan, they would have been the ones safe inside that stone egg. Unfortunately, it was too late for regrets now.

Qi Dongxuan and the man named Lu ran for their lives with Zhang Lihua. Those who could keep up were the ones with lighter injuries. The few who were severely wounded and unable to maintain the pace subconsciously lagged behind. As the distance between them and Qi Dongxuan grew, the corpse beetles swarmed forward. A few of them gritted their teeth and fled into a small side tunnel. Although the side tunnel was likely a dead end and they would eventually die, it was still better than being meat shields for Qi Dongxuan.

The main swarm of bugs aimed directly at Qi Dongxuan and his group, while a small detachment of beetles was sent to chase the few stragglers. The small detachment soon lost the trail of the stragglers. Well, losing them was fine; they still had the main course to pursue.

The corpse beetles accelerated.

Qi Dongxuan, Lu, and their group were having a miserable time, running for their lives. One moment of carelessness and the disciple from before was swept into the swarm, screaming as he was eaten clean. The most hateful part was that although they had locked onto the direction the stone egg had fled, it was extremely fast and slippery; it wasn't something they could catch up to in a short time.

But the massive swarm of corpse beetles was closing in again. By now, they had been running for nearly two hours, and their physical strength and the pills used to recover mana and stamina were almost exhausted.

Qi Dongxuan gritted his teeth several times, and finally, he led his remaining disciples toward an upward-sloping crevice. *Fate will decide.* If he could escape, he would never let Shen Qinghu or Wei Dongting go.

As they fled, they drew away another large swarm of beetles, but the main force continued to chase the stone egg.

"Oh my god, those corpse beetles are catching up! Could it be that their target was us from the very beginning?" Wei Dongting sensed the massive swarm approaching. The sound of their claws moving rapidly was bone-chilling. The corpse beetles were running along the riverbed. They weren't afraid of the water; they swam and ran, moving incredibly fast.

"You only just realized? There are so many people here, so much fresh meat—how could they not come?" Qinghu rolled her eyes.

*Cough cough.* Wei Dongting felt conflicted. "So much fresh meat"—why did that sound so wrong coming from her?

Watching the bugs closing in for the kill, Qinghu accelerated the stone egg again, slipping past the encirclement just before the bugs could surround them.

*Hiss!* The bugs stared at the retreating stone egg, roared in anger, and began to chase relentlessly once more.

"Here they come again..." In less than an hour, Qinghu had already consumed five or six ten-pound jars of spirit liquid. The stone egg was moving at an explosive speed through the narrow underground space, yet the bugs weren't slow either. Relying on their familiarity with every hole and crevice, they took shortcuts to intercept them. Several times they nearly caught up, surrounding and blocking them in every way possible.

Two or three times, they could hear the bugs scratching and biting at the outer shell of the stone egg. If they had been on their own without the egg, they would have been caught and eaten long ago. In other words, from the moment they entered, they had fallen into this terrifying death trap.

"They caught up, so what? There's no path ahead, we have to force our way through. This place seems to be a circular underground space. If we circle back, I'm worried we'll run into their lair," Qinghu said.

"What do you mean by 'force our way through'?" She Shiyi asked, puzzled.

"You'll see in a moment." Then, the entire stone egg slammed into the stone wall directly in front of it. Yet, the giant egg didn't shatter or fall apart; it even wiggled its tail like a worm and began to drill into the stone wall. The entire egg became as soft as noodles, but its drilling power was immense, and it *whooshed* right in.

By the time most of its body had drilled into the wall, the bugs behind had caught up. When they lunged at it, only the very tip of the egg was left exposed. Even that tiny tip wiggled rapidly before disappearing completely into the stone wall.

Once it entered, the stone wall closed back up. The bugs trying to pursue it were suddenly sealed off within the wall. Some were crushed, while others shrieked for help to be dragged out. In short, the stone egg had gotten inside, and their pursuit had failed.

As soon as the stone egg entered the soil of the wall, it began to collide and bounce violently. It was like a three-wheeled motorcycle driving on a dirt road full of potholes and rocks.

The bouncing, the flying!!

It caused everyone inside the stone egg to roll around like gourds. From east to west, south to north, up and down, left and right.

*Ahhh!* Everyone let out shrill, ungraceful screams. It wasn't that they were being injured, but it was just so humiliating. In this broken stone space, there wasn't a single handle to hold onto. Men and women rolled into a pile, pressed together—the scene was simply irritable, depressing, and shameful!

She Shiyi perfectly stuck his feet to the stone floor, standing as steady as a rock. He then watched as Shou'an hugged a female snake-folk who had bumped into him, only to have his face kissed by a rolling male snake-folk.

*Wah-ka-ka-ka...* She Shiyi couldn't help but laugh until he doubled over.

Wei Dongting had it even worse. He had just managed to stabilize his body when two junior sisters rolled into him, slamming him against the side wall and making his nose bleed. When he finally struggled to get up, two more junior brothers rolled over and slammed him against the wall again. His nose was almost crooked. He thought, *No, I can't have this*, and struggled to turn over and stand up.

Who knew he would immediately be rammed into by a human girl. Wei Dongting tried to push her away, but his hand ended up in the wrong place.

*Smack!* A slap landed directly on his face. "Pervert!"

Wei Dongting wept silently: *I'm innocent too!*

"Little Sister Shen, can you please steer the boat more steadily?" Wei Dongting shouted.

"It's already as steady as it gets, okay? But we're pushing a giant stone egg through mixed rock and soil layers. You should be happy we're moving at all!" Qinghu replied while continuing to drive the egg forward.

Many people had their heads spinning. Hearing Qinghu's words, their faces turned even grayer. But no one dared to ask Shen Qinghu to slow down—what if the bugs caught up again?

"What exactly is in this spirit cave that could produce so many corpse beetles?" She Shiyi asked, confused.

"The place we first entered was a massive complex of underground palaces. There were all sorts of stone carvings and tomb guardian statues. At first, we thought we had entered a treasure vault, but instead of getting treasure, people started dying rapidly. Someone was always stepping into some bizarre trap. Later, it seemed like someone among us was possessed and lured us into an ambush. Everyone was terrified, and we eventually found a special crevice and threw ourselves into a dried-up water gate. We found a way to open it and managed to get here from there," Wei Dongting struggled to reach She Shiyi's side and stood against him. He briefly recounted their experiences.

"Possession too?" She Shiyi suspected. "Why are there so many possessions? What happened when Shou'an entered the cavern?"

"It was just a mysterious cavern filled with all sorts of spirit materials, spirit stones, and spirit weapons. Everyone was blinded by the treasure and charged in without a second thought. I felt something was wrong from the start and kept to the back. It turned out there were problems. The treasures were poisoned, and many giant zombies appeared. They had immense strength and were impervious to water and fire. Spells were almost useless against them, yet they could easily tear our bodies apart. Within moments, two of my kin were ripped to shreds. I shouted for everyone to retreat, but two more were entangled and didn't make it out. It wasn't just us; when we got out, we found the black dogs and fire lions had also retreated from the other side, followed by a large number of zombies. We converged, blocking and running, and eventually lost a few more lives."

The Fire Lion nodded, "My clansmen said the same. What about you, Doggy?"

"I'm a wolf! A black wolf, not a black dog!" the little black dog emphasized.

"Doggy, hurry up," Qinghu said immediately.

Doggy: "..." *Can I never be a wolf again?*