Song Qingyan fumbled for the grooves inside the coffin and pressed down. A square passage opened up at the bottom.
After the two of them painstakingly squeezed inside, the coffin above clanged shut automatically, plunging them into pure blackness.
Unable to see anything, Ning Jinyu could only hold her sword and let Song Qingyan lead her. In the darkness, his eyes seemed to glow, burning brightly.
“This is a staircase. Let me carry you.”
“Alright, then.”
Ning Jinyu clambered onto his back in the dark. The space inside was not as narrow as the entrance, and she wrapped her arms around Song Qingyan’s shoulders, her breathing shallow.
Fortunately, it was dark in the passage, so she couldn’t see Song Qingyan’s expression—his restless eyes and racing heart.
After an unknown number of minutes, Song Qingyan spotted a round, lit opening. Although it was rather crude, it appeared to be the only exit. He set Ning Jinyu down.
He handed his sword to her. “I’ll climb up first and take a look.”
Ning Jinyu stepped aside. Now that she could see clearly, she nodded obediently.
Song Qingyan pushed against the luminous circular cover and, grabbing the edge, flipped himself out.
Above was the blinding sun, surrounded by overgrown weeds.
“Ahhhhh! A ghost!” Luo Chuan, who was covered in injuries from a recent fight, leaped up and hugged Zuo Yixuan’s thigh.
Zuo Yixuan was rather helpless. He looked at the cool and aloof young woman beside him and said softly, “If the sect allows it, can I beat him to death?”
Su Qingyue’s eyes curved into a smile. She looked at Song Qingyan, who had suddenly emerged from a grassy pit in the ground, and cupped her hands. “My apologies, young master. My junior brother’s mind hasn’t been quite right since he was a child.”
Song Qingyan gave her a fleeting glance and let out a lazy, soft “mm,” paying the group no further mind as he reached back down into the hole.
Hearing what Su Qingyue said, Luo Chuan realized the person who had jumped out must be human. His confidence restored, he stood up and looked toward the spot where the person had appeared.
He saw a fluffy head covered in grass clippings, followed by a figure in a red Taoist Robe, who was pulled out while clutching two swords. She looked at them with a slightly surprised and dazed expression.
It wasn’t just her who was surprised; the three of them were astonished as well. Luo Chuan subconsciously looked at Su Qingyue and murmured, “Eldest Senior Sister, does the Sect Master have another daughter?”
Why did they look so alike?
Ning Jinyu curiously gazed at the peerlessly cool and aloof young woman in the white robe. The two men standing beside her were also extraordinary; they were all people she had never seen at the Sword Sect.
Speechless, Su Qingyue tapped Luo Chuan on the head. She calmly nodded at Ning Jinyu, recognizing the attire of the major sects. “Miss, you must be from the Joyful Union Sect, correct? Why did you emerge from the ground here?”
Ning Jinyu blinked and couldn’t help but say softly, “Oh, yes. Before we entered the tomb, a ghost-masked person told us this was a shortcut.”
Su Qingyue hadn’t expected her to be so frank. She cupped her hands and said, “So that’s how it is. I am Su Qingyue of the Sword Sect. This is my Senior Brother, Zuo Yixuan, and my Junior Brother, Luo Chuan.”
Ning Jinyu was flattered and said in a soft voice, “I am Ning Jinyu of the Joyful Union Sect, and this is Song Qingyan.”
Su Qingyue nodded at the two of them and asked, “Are you two also here for the Divine Artifact?”
“Yes.”
“Then may the most capable one win.”
“Alright.”
After their exchange, the three of them continued forward to investigate. A stone stele stood there, covered in an inscription. There seemed to be an untouchable barrier around them, trapping everyone in a confined space.
They weren’t the only three here; a dozen or so other cultivators were observing from a distance.
However, they all looked travel-worn and haggard, with pale faces and wounds of various sizes. In comparison, Su Qingyue’s group was in much better shape.
Ning Jinyu grabbed Song Qingyan and also headed toward the stele.
She muttered under her breath, “Good thing we took a shortcut, or else these people would have snatched the Divine Artifact long ago.”
“By the way, what script is this on the stele? I can’t understand it at all! What about you?”
She turned her head, only to see Song Qingyan staring at the words on it, lost in a daze.
A bold guess surfaced in her mind.
“You can read it, can’t you?”
She spoke in a low voice. Song Qingyan came back to his senses and nodded lightly.
Ning Jinyu’s face lit up with joy. Seeing that the others were still trying to decipher it with pained expressions, she grabbed Song Qingyan’s hand, pulled him out of the crowd, and found an empty spot to sit down.
On Su Qingyue’s side, she and Zuo Yixuan were deep in thought and didn’t even notice that Luo Chuan, who had been following them, had wandered off.
“Qingyan, what does it say?”
As Song Qingyan recalled the contents of the stele, his expression darkened slightly just as he was about to speak. He stared intently at the spot behind Ning Jinyu.
Ning Jinyu followed his gaze. Luo Chuan was furtively standing in the tall grass behind her, watching them.
Their eyes met, creating a rather awkward moment.
Luo Chuan, feeling no awkwardness, walked out of the grass with feigned composure to greet them. “Daoist Friend Ning, Daoist Friend Song, have you discovered something? Could you possibly…”
“No!” Ning Jinyu glared at him, her face expressionless.
“Your Saintess Su said it herself, ‘may the most capable one win.’ How could you come over to eavesdrop?”
Luo Chuan’s face flushed, and his composure broke. “Why are you so stingy, you little brat! So pretentious, nothing like my Eldest Senior Sister at all!”
Song Qingyan walked to Ning Jinyu’s side and looked at him with a hint of mockery. “What, is it your esteemed sect’s principle to eavesdrop everywhere?”
Luo Chuan was actually a bit intimidated by him. Although this man was dressed like a social butterfly, he exuded an inexplicable sense of pressure. He pouted and said, “It’s not like we’re interested. If you don’t want to tell us, then fine.”
Seeing him about to leave, Song Qingyan said coldly, “Stop.”
“Now what!” Luo Chuan turned back. He saw the man’s cold and stern expression, his ink-black eyes dark and terrifying, like some dangerous beast that had spotted its prey.
“Apologize.”
Ning Jinyu was a little surprised. Seeing Song Qingyan’s inscrutable expression, she found him hard to read. When did this kid become so assertive?
Her impression of him was mostly of him being silent, dull-witted, and stubbornly unyielding. He was showing some backbone now.
“I’m sorry ≥﹏≤, Daoist Friend Ning. I shouldn’t have called you stingy just now.” Under duress, Luo Chuan lowered his head, spoke to Ning Jinyu, and then turned and ran away.
As he ran, he glanced back and saw Ning Jinyu, her smile as radiant as a flower, playfully tugging and pulling at Song Qingyan.
This shameless couple!!
Was he just a part of their play?
“My, my, our Song Qingyan has grown up. To think you’d defend me like that, hehe.”
Ning Jinyu patted his shoulder, looking quite proud.
Song Qingyan lowered his eyes to look at her, leaned in close to her ear, and whispered, “The stele says this is a Dream Realm Array. To break it, we must first enter the dream. It seems the Divine Artifact is also in the dream.”
Seeing him so close, Ning Jinyu’s face turned red in a fluster. She patted her ear and said softly, “Oh, okay. In that case, let’s find a place to lean against and take a nap.”
“Alright.” Song Qingyan’s smile was genuine. The many gazes that had been sizing up Ning Jinyu, some subtle and some not, shifted away. Things were finally less of an eyesore.
The two of them were acting so intimately. With his handsome looks and her beautiful face, they might very well be Daoist partners.
Su Qingyue tried several methods, but not only could she not get out of the great array, she couldn’t even understand the words on the stele. She was quite frustrated.
To make matters worse, that brat Luo Chuan kept running here and there, and was now leisurely plucking grass from the ground, muttering to himself as he played.
Zuo Yixuan, who had grown up with Su Qingyue and knew her thoughts best, landed a punch on Luo Chuan’s head, saying sternly, “You brat, you insisted on coming, and now you’re just playing around instead of helping.”
Luo Chuan’s gaze fell on the two figures in fiery red robes lying under a large tree in the distance. He said resentfully, “I was just trying to get information. That woman who looks a lot like Eldest Senior Sister—the guy named Song next to her understood the stele but wouldn’t tell us. And now they’re just leisurely taking a nap. It makes me so mad.”
“…”
Zuo Yixuan hit him again. “You knew that, and you’re only telling us now?”