While Li Miao, Yongjie, and Miao King were fighting fiercely, what was An Ziyang doing?
He was eating.
An Ziyang scattered a circle of wild grass powder around himself to prevent any stray Witchcraft from running to him, then leaned against a rock, listening intently to the constant loud noises from inside the pupa chamber, while tearing off a piece of cake and chewing it.
Yongjie had dragged him on a non-stop journey, and he only had a second-rate internal cultivation foundation, not as resilient as Yongjie. He couldn't intervene with Miao King, nor did he dare to leave, fearing he might encounter insurmountable danger if he went too far.
So, besides eating, he had nothing else to do.
However, to be able to eat in such circumstances, his heart was not ordinarily big.
After he finished an entire cake, the sounds from the pupa chamber still didn't stop, instead growing more intense, almost tearing his eardrums.
Left with no choice, he had to get up and walk in the opposite direction of the pupa chamber.
As he walked, he couldn't help but sigh.
“Alas… the past ten-odd years have been in vain…”
He was of mediocre talent, only his mind was relatively nimble, so his skills were primarily in mechanisms, poisoning, and hidden weapons. After more than ten years, with his methods, he had no problem dealing with two or three first-rate masters, and he was actually quite proud of himself.
But after witnessing the battle between Li Miao, Yongjie, and Miao King, even he felt a bit disheartened.
No matter how strong the bow, it couldn't compare to Li Miao's single Xuantian Finger. No matter how thick the armor, it couldn't block Li Miao's punch. No matter how potent the poison, Li Miao could flash away dozens of feet in an instant, making it impossible to hit him.
An Ziyang, relying on external objects, was powerless before the Celestials.
Only Witchcraft, with its millennia of heritage, could contend with the Celestials.
An Ziyang's mind wavered, and for a moment, he was distracted, failing to notice a protrusion on the ground.
Thump!
He tripped.
“Heh.”
An Ziyang chuckled self-deprecatingly in his heart, swayed, and took a few steps forward to steady himself. But then he let out a soft exclamation.
“Hmm?”
The place he just stepped on… seemed to be hollow?
He squatted down, took out a finger-length iron tube from his Pregnant, and tapped the ground there.
Clink. Clink.
That's right, it was hollow. And it wasn't a naturally formed cavity, but one that had been deliberately concealed, with a material different from the surrounding rock walls.
Others wouldn't hear it, but he, having received the true Biography of the Shen Thief Sect, heard it clearly.
An Ziyang frowned, rubbing his fingers at the tiger's mouth, pondering silently.
He naturally wouldn't rashly pry open the ground and go down to investigate. That was something only a greenhorn new to the martial world would do.
This place was the origin of Witchcraft, full of strange and bizarre Witchcraft and poisons. It was entirely possible that there was a nest of insects below, and his small body going down would be purely suicidal.
Even if there was something unusual, he would have to wait until Li Miao and Yongjie were done, and let the tall ones take the lead.
Thinking of this, An Ziyang used the iron tube to carve a mark on the ground, then turned and left, waiting until Li Miao's side decided the victor before making any further plans.
He waited for another half an hour, and finally, the sounds from within the pupa chamber gradually subsided.
An Ziyang did not act rashly, but waited for another stick of incense time, seeing that it had indeed quieted down, then cautiously crept over, poking his head out from the secret passage, and looking into the pupa chamber.
This hundred-zhang square room was already a scene of ruins.
The walls were cracked, the ground was shattered, and all the jars holding Yong Nu's bodies were broken on the floor, with skeletons scattered about. The mountain of corpses in the front left had turned into a black mass, like dried cured meat, with no trace of liquid.
In the very center of the pupa chamber was a large hole, dark and bottomless.
“My lord, have you achieved a resounding victory?”
An Ziyang called out, his feet ready to flee at any moment.
Li Miao's lazy voice came from within the large hole.
“It's long done, come over.”
An Ziyang then let out a long sigh of relief, quickly walked to the edge of the cave, and jumped down.
When he came down, he landed right beside Li Miao.
And in front of the two of them was Yongjie, kneeling on the ground with his back to them.
An Ziyang first showered Li Miao with a few flattering remarks like “Your Excellency's divine might is unrivaled, these mere insignificant scoundrels are but fools seeking death, daring to offend Your Excellency's tiger's might,” and after Li Miao waved him off, he turned to look at Yongjie.
“Master, this is?”
Since he had come down, Yongjie hadn't made the slightest movement, not even the rise and fall of his body from breathing.
It was as if — he was dead.
Li Miao waved his hand: “Not dead, just a bit troublesome.”
With that, he raised his hand and sent a stream of true qi, pointing it from a distance at Yongjie's Dazhui acupoint.
“Hiss ah ah ah ah —”
Yongjie let out a hiss like someone recovering from drowning, then his head dropped sharply, and he began to gasp for air.
Although An Ziyang didn't have much affection for Yongjie, it was he who had brought Yongjie out of Shaolin after all. If anything happened to him, not to mention how he would explain it to Ling'er, just the matter of the newly enthroned Shaolin abbot being taken away by him and dying would cause no small amount of trouble.
Therefore, An Ziyang was quite concerned about Yongjie's life and death.
He walked around to one side and asked.
“Master, you — !!!!”
His words were cut short as An Ziyang suddenly retreated, his hand involuntarily gripping the trigger of his sleeve arrow.
He had only glanced at Yongjie, but he was already so terrified that cold sweat streamed down him.
Yongjie's upper body was bare, revealing a broad, firm chest. And on that chest, there was a delicate, alluring female face with eyes half-open, half-closed! It was actually smiling at him at this moment!
“My Lord, this!?”
He suddenly turned to look at Li Miao, even his usual fawning address for Li Miao had changed.
Li Miao smiled and said mischievously.
“What's there to be so surprised about?”
“As the saying goes, husband and wife are one, right?”
“Husband and wife are one” means this!?
An Ziyang really couldn't stand Li Miao's attitude of joking about everything anymore.
Fortunately, Li Miao was just teasing An Ziyang casually, and without waiting for him to ask further, he began to speak.
“That's his wife, and also Miao King.”
“We shattered eleven of Miao King's false bodies and found her true body. We also found the Witchcraft that inherited Miao King. However, she ultimately left a contingency plan, preventing us from killing her along with the Witchcraft.”
“So we killed Ge Pu Qi, left the Witchcraft, and are raising it within Master Yongjie's body, to see if there's a way to break her contingency plan in the future.”
“This face was unexpected, but the Witchcraft has been parasitic on Ge Pu Qi for many years, so perhaps it's a bit homesick. After moving, a little redecoration is understandable.”
An Ziyang asked: “What contingency plan?”
“Master Yongjie's daughter, Ling'er.”
Li Miao said.
As An Ziyang's face abruptly turned ashen, Li Miao continued.
“Back then, after Ge Pu Qi was parasitized by Miao King's Witchcraft, she probably hadn't been completely transformed into ‘Miao King’. And she wasn't willing either.”
“So she escaped from Miaojiang and met Master Yongjie. Later, after giving birth to Ling'er, her vital energy was depleted, and she finally couldn't suppress the Witchcraft, being completely transformed into ‘Miao King’. So she abandoned her husband and daughter and fled alone.”
“It can be said that before giving birth to Ling'er, she was Ge Pu Qi.”
“After giving birth to Ling'er, she became Miao King.”
“And this Miao King, naturally, wouldn't have any soft spot for her own flesh and blood, so she left a contingency plan on Ling'er.”