After a long silence, a soft "boom" echoed from outside the door.
Then came a series of footsteps, sometimes heavy, sometimes light, slowly approaching.
Beneath the thick layer of ice on the stone door, a figure slowly walking could be vaguely seen.
Gongyang Han subconsciously swallowed, retreating half a step with his subordinates, away from the stone door.
His hand instinctively reached for his weapon, aiming it at the stone door.
The figure gradually became clearer, revealing the White Lotus member who had used the wall-penetrating technique.
He was still bare-chested, covered in blood-colored runes.
But from the back of his spine, an odd object like a tentacle extended, leading into the shadows behind the stone door.
Beneath the ice, the White Lotus member's face was blank and peaceful, as if he were lost in some dream, staggering forward blankly.
He was still within the effective period of the wall-penetrating technique.
The surface of his skin in contact with the ice appeared to be half-melted.
A constant stream of small droplets rose, merging into the ice – droplets of blood, moisture, skin fragments, and other bodily components.
With each step he took, the fusion of his body and the ice became more pronounced,
as if someone were forcibly "etching" him into the ice.
Hurry!
Gongyang Han roared inwardly.
The White Lotus member was dull and numb, dragging the nameless tentacle behind his spine, slowly stepping forward.
He looked as if his face and arms could break free from the ice, returning to the underground palace.
Then, he froze, stopped inches beneath the surface of the ice, completely motionless.
His wide, empty pupils reflected the anxious expressions of the White Lotus members.
Gongyang Han cursed, just about to order his subordinates to break open the ice and rescue him,
when he saw the White Lotus member's body begin to tremble.
To be precise, it was the tentacle behind his spine that was injecting something into his back...
Waist, abdomen, arms, head...
Every part of the ice-encased White Lotus member's body swelled slowly, visibly, like a balloon.
A faint cracking sound came from under the ice,
and to Gongyang Han's horrified expression, the White Lotus member exploded.
Literally exploded.
Due to the ice barrier, the White Lotus member didn't splatter onto his companions,
but instead, scattered across the ice cracks,
filling the humanoid pit he left behind.
"..."
Gongyang Han took a half step back.
The chill rising in his heart was even more intense than when he first attended a White Lotus member's joyous celebration.
He turned around, skillfully concealing his anger, and respectfully asked Chai Da小姐 on the pyramid, "Senior, this is..."
"Oh... didn't I tell you?"
Chai Da小姐 said indifferently, "There are many magical creatures bred by my disciple She Wan Da hidden inside the passage. If they detect someone trying to escape, they will attack.
Although I don't know how many kinds of magical creatures She Wan Da put in the passage, it should be enough to deal with grave robbers."
Chai Da小姐 seemed to remember something, and said melancholically, "Ah, I really miss the days when I traveled around with my three disciples, upholding justice,
I wonder how Gang Shou, Zi Lai Shui, and She Wan Da are doing now,
are they still addicted to the three major vices of gambling, womanizing, and poison..."
Fortunately, everyone present was an elite among cultivators, with extremely deep minds and emotions that didn't show on their faces,
otherwise someone would have jumped out and loudly complained, "Why would chivalrous people who travel around and uphold justice be addicted to gambling and womanizing! I'm sure it's because you, the master, didn't set a good example!"
Gongyang Han, whose spirit of complaint had not yet awakened, slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, and did not argue with Chai Da小姐, turning his head to look at the door.
At this time, the humanoid pit filled with blood under the ice changed again.
A layer of white, fluffy fluff quickly grew on the surface of the soon-to-freeze pool of blood, filling the humanoid space.
The fluff merged with the blood and bone fragments, boiling and churning,
converging into an indescribable pool of reddish-white viscous liquid,
and was finally completely drawn away by the tentacle buried under the ice.
"Glug glug—"
A faint sound of water came from behind the stone door, as if something was slowly sucking it in.
Gongyang Han and the others' expressions changed slightly.
They immediately imagined in their minds that there was a giant insect hidden behind the door, extending a long, pipe-like mouth, waiting to suck in those who pushed the door open.
The Tiqi on the opposite side also shivered, feeling uncomfortable all over.
Chai Da小姐 completely ignored these people's expressions, and was still rambling about how unfilial her three disciples were,
how Gang Shou was addicted to gambling in order to get the molten steel to practice Iron Sand Palm,
how Zi Lai Shui worked hard to practice transformation techniques in order to drink the bathwater from the women's bathhouse, trying to turn himself into a bathtub,
and how She Wan Da was the most worrying one, going to the mountains every day to release poisonous snakes like devout men and women, even if he was bitten by a five-step snake, he would walk upside down to insist on releasing them.
Although what this demon said was full of flaws, the two groups present had no intention of complaining.
They looked at each other, tacitly putting aside their dispute for the time being,
and after the Wude Guards retreated to the other end of the mercury river,
they each searched for the stone doors on their side to see if they could find a way out.
A quarter of an hour, two quarters of an hour,
"Creak—"
The familiar sound of a door turning echoed at the front end of the underground palace.
The two groups of Wude Guards and White Lotus members all looked towards that side.
There was more than one person opening the door.
To be precise, there were many familiar faces among these people.
Including the Wu Zhu elder and other guest retainers of the Shu King's Mansion,
strange people and unusual scholars who appeared at the Wangfu banquet,
Li Yushan leading Wude Guard soldiers,
the eminent monks of Yongling Temple and the Annamese delegation,
everyone met in the underground palace.