Chapter 281: Pay the price for fooling around
When Han Yunxi saw Lil Thing acting so serious, she quickly knelt down and had it sniff the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion again. Lil Thing was very cooperative, smelling at the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion before testing the air with its nose. Thus, both master and servant spent a while just sniffly earnestly at their surroundings. Suddenly, Lil Thing stopped as if it discovered something, standing on its hind legs to stare at Han Yunxi with wide eyes.
Han Yunxi was delighted. “What did you smell?”
“Chee chee!” Lil Thing chittered happily, before scurrying up her body to rest on her shoulder. “Cheecheechee…”
Han Yunxi quickly picked it up and put it in the palm of her hand, her face filled with joy. “Did you find it? There’s the scent of Perplexing Butterfly Illusion in this secret passage, is that right?”
When Lil Thing saw its owner looking so happy, it grew happier as well. It started hopping up and down in Han Yunxi’s palm.
“There really is?” Han Yunxi truly wished for such an answer! Lil Thing suddenly jumped out of her hand and started running deeper into the tunnel.
“So it’s this way?” Rejoicing, Han Yunxi quickly gave chase. When Lil Thing saw her following, it even stopped to look at her, as if waiting for her to catch up. Seeing this, Han Yunxi was 80 percent certain of her guesses. She quickened her pace to follow. But as they ran, Han Yunxi suddenly heard a succession of rustling sounds coming from before her. It sounded like a large swarm of something moving restlessly towards them.
What was going on?
Han Yunxi stopped, on guard. At the same time, Lil Thing halted in front of her as well. In the blink of an eye, they saw a giant swarm of black, palm-sized butterflies heading their way like a flood, covering the entire area from ground to ceiling. Han Yunxi felt goosebumps breaking out on her skin at the sight. She was scared witless! Though she wasn’t afraid of butterflies, a dense, dark mob of them was too disgusting and scary. She even felt her legs grow weak.
The detox system hadn’t alerted her to anything, which meant these butterflies shouldn’t be poisonous. Of course, there was the possibility that she couldn’t detect their poison at all. In the forbidden area of the Poison Sect, there were too many things that went beyond her expectations, so Han Yunxi was in a mess. In any case, a dense swarm like this would scare her to death even if they didn’t bite her to death. Without another thought, Han Yunxi turned and fled at the first sight of the butterflies. Lil Thing started running at the same time, but in the opposite direction. It was heading straight for the butterfly swarm! The insect mobs here were all afraid of him, regardless of whether they held poison or not. None of them would get near him, so it used its master’s human scent to lure out these butterflies. Naturally, it wouldn’t miss this hard-won chance. Unfortunately, its master had ran away too fast. Lil Thing had barely ran over when the butterflies instantly scattered as if fleeing for their lives. They fluttered away to the four winds before completely disappearing.
Boohoohoo…
Lil Thing stared at the empty tunnel before plopping on its butt on the ground. How it wanted to cry! It’d been eating nothing but vegetables for the past few days, but it hadn’t even gotten a single taste of meat!
Han Yunxi ran and ran before she quickly noticed that Lil Thing hadn’t followed her. She stilled her steps and realized that there was no need for her to escape at all. If Lil Thing couldn’t even take care of a butterfly swarm, how could it have passed its days in the Poison Sect? She quickly backtracked, only to discover the giant swarm of butterflies had completely disappeared as if it’d never existed. Not a single sign of them remained. Lil Thing was sitting right in the middle of the passageway, its head drooping in disappointment. Han Yunxi stared at the unnatural sight. There was no way that this little animal didn’t sense those butterflies coming nearer. In other words, just then it had been sniffing for…
All right, Han Yunxi understood everything in an instant!
She strode forward and plucked Lil Thing off the ground, before letting it sniff the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion. Lil Thing was completely listless after losing his meat, and allowed Han Yunxi to do as she liked. Its little nose rested against the opening of the Perplexing Butterfly Illusion bottle without doing a thing. Han Yunxi stared at it before bursting out into laughter. She looked at the sand in the time-keeping hourglass she’d brought along and decided not to trouble Lil Thing any further. Stuffing Lil Thing back into her medical pouch, she took out some toxic bone poison from her detox system to feed it. Time was almost up, so she should go back.
An hour’s length of time was neither long nor short. If not for Lil Thing, Han Yunxi would’ve been swarmed by the butterflies long ago. Even if they didn’t attack her, they would’ve prevented her from escaping for a good two to four hours. Around this time, Chu Qingge had just emerged from her tunnel as well. It was unknown what she had ran into, but her white dress was covered in bloodstains. Her right hand clutched her left arm, which seemed to be heavily injured.
“Qingge, what happened to you?!” Chu Tianyin exclaimed as he rushed over to support her.
But Chu Qingge simply replied, “Nothing to worry about, it’s a minor injury!” So speaking, she sucked in a deep breath and took step by step out of the tunnel. Her luck had been awful, because a white tiger had ambushed her inside the passage. Fortunately, she’d reacted in time before she lost an arm. In fact, her injury was quite serious, but she still pretended that she was fine. The first thing she did upon her exit was to look at the door next to her with a cold question. “Han Yunxi still hasn’t come out yet?”
If she’d been hurt to this extent, then what about Han Yunxi?
After waiting a while, Chu Qingge couldn’t take it anymore. She bore the brunt of her pain and grinned as she said, “Han Yunxi couldn’t be trapped inside, could she?”
“Heheh, it’s about time. As this crown prince see it, this bodes ill rather than well,” Duanmu Baiye smiled coldly. Long Feiye and Aunt Ru ignored them both, though a flash of worry flickered past the former’s eyes. And yet, it was at this very moment that a figure emerged in the far end of the tunnel. As it drew closer, its outline grew clearer. This was none other than Han Yunxi. Long Feiye nearly rushed inside, but in the end, he didn’t. He simply stood in place to watch her.
Chu Qingge and Duanmu Baiye both found it almost inconceivable. They quickly walked over, only to be blocked by Long Feiye when his tall figure moved to fill the door. Duanmu Baiye was about to speak up when Chu Qingge held him back. Filled with confidence, she murmured, “There’s no rush. Wait and see.”
Han Yunxi could see Long Feiye from a long way off. For some reason, his lofty figure blocking the door looked indescribably lonely. By the time she reached him, he still refused to move aside. His oppressive figure somehow gave her a sense of security. As he lowered his head to gaze at her, those dark pupils were as deep as the sea. Han Yunxi was going to tell him to move, but those eyes inexplicably rendered her speechless. She lowered her head instead, and the two of them stood there in silence.
Long Feiye examined her quietly, eyes sweeping over every inch of her body to make sure she was uninjured. Finally, Chu Qingge lost her patience and asked coldly, “Duke of Qin, what’s the meaning of this?”
At her question, Duanmu Baiye broke into an icy laugh. “What, Long Feiye, you’re afraid to admit defeat?”
Long Feiye firmly stood his ground, allowing them to speak as they wished. He took his time to slowly inspect Han Yunxi as if to make sure he’d checked over every inch of her. Chu Qingge really couldn’t stand being cast aside and grew angry. “Long Feiye, are you shielding faults in public? It was Han Yunxi who said she’d duel one on one!”
Only then did Long Feiye turn to face her, catching Chu Qingge off-guard. She was stunned as soon as she met his cold stare. This was the first time! The first time Long Feiye was looking at her straight in the eye! No matter how haughty she was, her heart still beat fast. But all Long Feiye did was give her a cold snort before withdrawing his gaze and stepping aside from the door. Finally, Han Yunxi was revealed before the ground. Her clothes were neat and tidy, her hair smoothly in place. Those sparkling pupils and that faint smile showed that she was completely uninjured!
How could this be?
Chu Qingge could only gape. She didn’t believe it! Duanmu Baiye and Chu Tianyin were equally amazed, but their shock stemmed from a different reason. The two of them exchanged gazes as if they’d realized something. Han Yunxi easily stepped across the threshold of the stone door and smiled as she saw Chu Qingge’s bloodstained self. “It looks like Miss Chu’s been injured rather severely!”
“I’m not!” Chu Qingge still remained stubborn.
“Then have you lost?” Han Yunxi was still smiling as she asked. Now Chu Qingge had no reasons to keep being stubborn. No matter how light her injuries were, the fact remained that she was still a loser against Han Yunxi, who had no injuries at all!
How was this possible?!
Elder brother had said that all these five doors were filled with traps. It was impossible for anyone to escape them unscathed! Chu Qingge didn’t understand it, but here was Han Yunxi standing right in front of her eyes. She had no choice but to believe her, no choice but to stop acting otherwise. Chu Qingge couldn’t resist stealing a peek at Long Feiye, only to see him wholly fixated on Han Yunxi. His concentration was absolute in its persistent coldness. When Chu Qingge recalled Long Feiye’s soft snort back then, she couldn’t help but feel her heart break into pieces.
“Since you’ve lost, take off all your clothes first, then…” Han Yunxi was smiling in the beginning, but her face grew serious once she glanced at Duanmu Baiye. Coldly she said, “Then, you guys can get lost!”
But Duanmu Baiye simply flickered out of sight before pushing aside Han Yunxi to rush into the second passageway. If Han Yunxi could emerge uninjured, then that meant the second tunnel didn’t have any traps at all. In that case, Han Yunxi had been lucky enough to choose the right door! Chu Tianyin said that only one of these tunnels led to the treasury. Either it didn’t have any traps at all, or just contained commonplace pitfalls. It looked like the second door was the one they were looking for!
When Chu Tianyin saw Duanmu Baiye dart inside, a complicated look flickered past his eyes. But he didn’t hesitate, and dragged Chu Qingge with him before the two siblings disappeared into the tunnel as well. If the second tunnel was the way to go, then they’d rather violate their promise and throw away their trust instead of losing this chance! It was too important to them to find what they were looking for. This concerned the survival of their clan, while the existence of the treasury was just something to trick Duanmu Baiye.
Because Long Feiye was holding onto Han Yunxi after she’d been knocked aside, he didn’t have time to stop the trio. Once he was sure Han Yunxi was fine, he was about to give chase when she quickly held him back. “You can’t go in, it’s extremely dangerous!”
There was a dense swarm of black butterflies inside. If not for Lil Thing standing guard, anyone inside would be hard-pressed to get out. Even if they didn’t die, they’d lose half their lives in the process of escaping. What were Duanmu Baiye and the rest in such a rush for? Were they looking to die?