Song Lianzhou yanked Qingmiao back behind him, channeling the spiritual energy he had just regulated within his body as he fixed a hard, unwavering stare in the direction of the footsteps.
Unaware of who was approaching or why they had come, he had to muster twelve hundred percent of his focus.
If the newcomer was gunning for them as trespassers, he still possessed the strength to put up a fight.
An orange glow suddenly appeared in the dark.
As the light drew closer, Song Lianzhou recognized it as an oil lamp.
The wall around the corner was the first to catch the intruder’s shadow cast by the lamplight. The glow cut diagonally from in front of the figure, illuminating that section of the cavern while casting the shadow out long and thin. With the newcomer’s movements, the candlelight flickered and leaped, causing the shadow along the wall to quiver in sync.
Finally, the figure stepped around the corner. Song Lianzhou abruptly stopped breathing.
A slightly stooped posture, a hand leaning upon a cane, the glow of the oil lamp illuminating half of his profile alongside his stark white beard.
It was the Village Chief.
The Village Chief seemed to have spotted them as well. Raising the oil lamp to eye level, he flooded the area with a sudden surge of brightness that illuminated half the cavern, as well as the hiding spot of Song Lianzhou and Qingmiao.
The Village Chief squinted his eyes to peer at them. “Who’s there?”
Song Lianzhou swallowed nervously, only to hear the Village Chief speak again, “If someone is there, can you answer this old man? My eyes are failing me, and I truly can’t see very clearly.”
“Haha,” Song Lianzhou laughed hollowly, feeling somewhat guilty. “Hey there, Village Chief.”
The Village Chief’s expression stiffened into rigidity. “The two guests?”
Before Song Lianzhou could answer, the Village Chief had already strode swiftly toward the two of them with a solemn expression. “Why would the two guests come to this place? This is a forbidden ground within the village; normally, even the villagers wouldn’t dare to come near.”
So this place really was the forbidden area. It seemed that after leaving the sacred ground, they had immediately and inadvertently stumbled straight into here.
Maintaining an entirely straight face, Song Lianzhou spun a lie: “My younger brother suffers from a bout of sleepwalking at night, and unluckily it flared up again tonight. Worried about him, I followed him all the way out. Who knew it was too dark outside for us to find our way, and we ended up wandering muddled all the way over here.”
Qingmiao: “Huh?”
Qingmiao: “Ah yes, I indeed sleepwalk; it’s an old habit of mine.”
“The two guests had better not run around randomly at night next time,” the Village Chief said, stopping right in front of the two, the bright lamplight shining onto Song Lianzhou’s face. “The paths inside this forbidden ground are intricate and winding, riddled with array formations and countless mechanisms and hidden weapons. If someone were to rashly stumble in, it would be exceptionally easy to get trapped and die here!”
“Judging by the mess on the ground… you two didn’t trigger the Ten Thousand Arrows Gate Formation, did you?”
Uncertain whether the shower of arrows he had just encountered was this “Ten Thousand Arrows Gate Formation” or not, Song Lianzhou honestly shook his head. “I’m not sure, but we certainly were attacked by a wave of hidden weapons just now. Luckily we had good fortune and happened to hide right inside here without getting hurt.”
The Village Chief’s brow furrowed even deeper. “The mechanisms in this forbidden ground are relics left behind by our ancestors. It is said their power is immense and unfathomably profound—even this old man does not know how to disarm them. There have been those who accidentally got pierced by the mechanisms and ultimately couldn’t be saved. The two guests can truly be considered to have escaped death by sheer luck.”
Sensing the note of reprimand in the Village Chief’s tone, Song Lianzhou and Qingmiao scrambled out of their hiding spot like scolded children, lowering their gazes collectively toward the ground. “We understand, Village Chief.”
“Well, it matters not, as long as the two guests are safe.”
Sighing, the Village Chief turned around, his oil lamp tracing an arc through mid-air. “Come, this old man will escort you back.”
“The two guests must please follow me closely, and on the way, make absolutely certain not to touch anything else.”
Acknowledging the instruction, Song Lianzhou obediently trailed behind the Village Chief.
The Village Chief was thoroughly familiar with the routes inside the forbidden area. Leading the two through a few twists and turns, they immediately spotted the shallow puddle path lined with glowing blue lotuses that they had used to enter earlier.
With everything dead silent around them, the swaying lamplight caused the shadows of the three individuals to dance and flicker across the stone walls.
Arriving before the waterfall, the Village Chief merely lifted his hand and gave a gentle wave, causing the waterfall to halt its flow. Subduing his inner shock, Song Lianzhou followed closely behind as if he had noticed nothing at all.
Guiding the two back into the village, the Village Chief handed the kerosene lamp over. “There are no lights in the village at night, so it is indeed pitch black. Please take this lamp with you back to your rooms, honored guests. I will not escort you further.”
Since this spot wasn’t far from where they were staying, the two thanked the Village Chief and departed, carrying the lamp with them.
The orange-yellow lamplight swayed within Song Lianzhou’s grip, resembling a firefly dancing through the woods.
Ensuring that the Village Chief had completely departed, Qingmiao edged closer to Song Lianzhou and whispered, “I always felt the Village Chief was deeply suspicious before, but I never expected that even after discovering we broke into the forbidden area, he wouldn’t get angry and would actually rescue us.”
Gazing down the path ahead, Song Lianzhou said nonchalantly, “So that completely dispelled your suspicions of him?”
“Is there a problem?”
“The problem is massive. Since everyone in the village steers clear of the forbidden area out of terror, why on earth was he wandering around there in the middle of the night?” Song Lianzhou smiled. “Besides, you might as well ponder this: supposing you were the Village Chief, and two outsiders broke into a forbidden area whose entrance only you could open, and then claimed to you that they wandered in by accident…”
“Would you believe them that easily?”