With that howl and the hurried footsteps, the depths of the cave immediately erupted into chaos. Rolling ghost qi and demonic aura filled the cavern before them, while the sounds of Daoist talismans and Four Symbols Talisman Seals bombarding rang out incessantly.
Old Tang’s roar came from inside the cave: “Damn it, let’s go all out! A’qi, are you really sure it’s Wang Ya and the others outside?”
Huang Qi’s voice rang out again: “Martial Uncle, over here! Hurry! Ah—”
Zhang Qingshui clutched her canteen, desperately sucking water through the straw. The commotion in the cave made her increasingly suspect it was real. She glanced at Wang Ya’s expression, filled with shock and doubt, as if she too suspected Wang Cheng’an and the others were inside.
Wang Cheng’an’s shrill cry echoed: “Yaya, save me—” That voice was identical to the one Wang Ya had used back when she called for Ye Zi to save her.
A signal flare shot into the sky, but it came from deep within the cave.
Wang Ya tossed her backpack at her feet and dashed into the cave in one swift stride. She shouted loudly, “Dad, where are you?” She felt that Wang Cheng’an was truly inside, teetering on the brink of death. With a single leap, she covered three or four meters. But as soon as her foot landed, it felt like stepping into soft, wet mud—nothing like the solid ground she’d felt earlier when fetching water. The cave was filled with chaotic currents, as if something was desperately churning the air. She knew that was the spiritual qi fluctuations from ghosts or demons swiftly flying through the air. These twisting demonic aura and ghost qi immediately disoriented her.
Wang Ya, with her vast experience dealing with ghosts and monsters, recognized at once that she’d fallen victim to “Ghost Obscuring Eyes,” also known as “Ghost Bewitching Eyes,” no different from a “Ghost Hitting Wall.” She had prepared plenty of talisman paper but had no Eye-Opening Talisman. Now, with her body full of demonic power, it was hard for such illusions to affect her, yet she’d still been caught here. She immediately bit her finger and used her essence blood to draw an Eye-Opening Talisman, opening her Heavenly Eye.
As Wang Ya’s Heavenly Eye opened, her surroundings cleared up instantly. The hairs on her body all stood on end, and almost instinctively, she reached into her satchel for the Ghost Collecting Bell.
This was no cave—it was a Demon Lair Ghost Cave. The ground and rock walls were crisscrossed with dense Plant Roots, forming a vast net that blanketed the cavern. The floor was littered with countless bones, both human and animal. Ghost Shadows flitted densely in the air, too numerous to count. With one glance, Wang Ya spotted seven or eight fully formed Ghost Entities.
Wang Ya didn’t find the Ghost Collecting Bell; she remembered then that she’d woven it together with the Seven ancient bronze coins into a bracelet for Wang Cheng’an. She pulled out a stack of talismans sealed in a waterproof pouch, gripped them in her hand, and charged toward the depths of the cave.
Whether it was the densely intertwined Plant Roots or the myriad Ghost Shadows in the air, they all retreated like the tide before the demonic glow emanating from Wang Ya’s body. Only after she passed did they close in again to fill the gaps.
The cave wasn’t particularly large or small—it was irregularly shaped, roughly two or three hundred square meters, but with smaller caves nested within larger ones, making it seem extremely deep. Wang Ya skirted around the waterfall and spotted Old Tang, Wang Cheng’an, and Huang Qi. She leaped straight toward Old Tang, only to be met by a domineering, scorching wave of Yang Gang Qi. The blazing heat burned so fiercely that she halted abruptly. At the same time, she saw the source: her Seven Ancient Copper Coins laid out on the ground in a Big Dipper Seven Stars Formation, firmly protecting Wang Cheng’an, Huang Qi, and Old Tang within.
She had thought she and Zhang Qingshui were already in bad shape, but seeing Wang Cheng’an and Old Tang—clad in tattered rags, covered in wounds and scars, stained with blood—she realized just how intact she and Zhang Qingshui still were. Aside from the clothes torn from digging tunnels and not bathing for over twenty days, they were still mostly whole.
Old Tang, with disheveled hair, a full beard, and bloodshot eyes, gripped his Tang Dao warily, staring at Wang Ya who had stopped outside the Big Dipper Seven Stars Formation. He grabbed Wang Cheng’an, who was beaming with joy and about to rush out, and yelled, “Brother Wang, wait! Be careful—it might be a trick!”
Wang Ya saw gashes on Wang Cheng’an’s arms and shoulders, blood flowing steadily. Old Tang was even worse off, covered in blood and filth, with deep whip-like lacerations on his thighs and arms, flesh torn open and oozing blood. Huang Qi knelt on the ground, pale-faced, looking weaker than Zhang Qingshui after days of hunger and thirst.
Beyond the less-than-one-square-meter Big Dipper Seven Stars Formation where the three stood, the ground was covered in dense Plant Roots about as thick as fingers, barbed and writhing as they probed toward the trio. But whenever they touched the formation, they sizzled like they’d met fire and shrank back swiftly.
Beneath these constantly wriggling, probing roots lay many more severed by blades, in varying states of rot. These rotten roots oozed thick green juice that gave off a faint animal-like stench.
