Chapter 135: Walking Right Into the Trap?

However, Li Yanchu didn’t even draw his saber. Instead, he strode forward in bold, sweeping steps.

Divine light burst from his body, illuminating all Heaven and Earth. Under the sheer radiance of divine brilliance, those vengeful spirits and malicious ghosts began to dissolve into nothingness. In the midst of that hellish Yellow Springs, a god had descended.

The feng shui master’s eyes widened with disbelief.

“No! What... What is this!?”

However, his voice cut off and was abruptly silenced. At this time, Li Yanchu stepped forward again and grabbed the feng shui master by the throat. His hand surged with immense divine power, and his deep and unending blood and qi surged forth.

In just an instant, the feng shui master was completely subdued.

“I told you that you’re not worthy.”

As a murderous force surged through the air, the feng shui master’s face turned a ghastly purple with suppressed fear. His fingers twitched and spun his feng shui compass, and in the next moment, he vanished. It was the compass’s concealment technique, a trump card that had allowed him to stay invincible until now.

However...

“You’re not going anywhere!”

Li Yanchu’s palm slammed outward with boundless strength, accompanied by faint thunder and flame.

His power was terrifying; although the palm seemed to strike only empty air, a figure suddenly tumbled from the void and crashed to the ground. It was none other than the feng shui master, whose bronze compass shattered into pieces.

From the distant heavens, divine power continued to pour down upon Li Yanchu. And as his will became more resolute, the divine power he received only grew more intense.

Perhaps that mighty Spirit Officer Wang, the Supreme Enforcer of Heavenly Punishment, had taken a liking to Li Yanchu?

The divine power he received was overwhelming. In a short time, both his soul and physical body were being refined to a terrifying degree.

Things that once evaded his senses in battle now appeared to him with perfect clarity. With no hesitation, he struck out with another palm!

Boom!

The feng shui master was slammed straight into a deep pit, and his body was reduced to a heap of mangled flesh.

Li Yanchu now radiated a vast, radiant aura, with faint lightning swirling around him. He was like a divine being descended from the Celestial Court.

At that moment, Master Shenshan and Master Huiqing had just finished sealing the corpse-poison ghost-fire into the golden alms bowl. They had personally witnessed Li Yanchu’s rampage, which was a display of lethal power beyond belief.

Defeating that feng shui master, a man of unpredictable methods and strange sorcery, was already an immense challenge... But breaking through his spells and crushing him outright? That was another level entirely.

At this time, Bai Hongtu finally let out a long breath. When Li Yanchu had been fighting the trio, he had considered charging out to help. But the moment he saw Li Yanchu holding his own against three enemies without faltering, he... changed his mind. And very sensibly, he stayed put under Master Shenshan’s protective robes.

Just as everyone was starting to relax...

RUMBLE!

RUMBLE!!

RUMBLE!!!

The entire tomb chamber suddenly began to quake violently! Huge chunks of stone started crashing down, the ground shuddered, and dust billowed in thick clouds.

“It’s collapsing! We have to go now! Or we’ll all be buried alive in here!” Wang Yunting shouted in panic, his face pale with terror.

This wasn’t mere human strength, it was the true might of Heaven and Earth. Even though everyone present was a powerful cultivator, if they were buried alive in a tomb like this, survival would be close to impossible.

Li Yanchu turned his gaze to the platform, and the armor of talismans that had once stood guard by the giant bronze coffin was gone; it had vanished without a trace.

When he saw this, his expression sharpened. But now was not the time to investigate; the mountain tomb was collapsing rapidly, and the chamber was on the brink of total cave-in. Without hesitation, he joined the others in charging for the exit.

This tomb had been carved into the heart of the mountain, and if it collapsed completely, no one would be able to dig their way out, no matter how great their strength.

Everyone fled as fast as they could toward the outside.

***

In the pitch-black tomb passage, the darkness was so thick they couldn’t even see their hands in front of their faces.

“Cough! Cough! Cough!”

Bai Hongtu, choked by the swirling dust, broke into a sudden fit of coughing.

“Hongtu, you alright?” A familiar voice came from behind; it was Li Yanchu who spoke.

Bai Hongtu spat out a few mouthfuls of dirt and muttered, “I’m fine.”

He then pulled a well-made fire striker from his robe and gave it a gentle puff. Instantly, a small flame flared to life, illuminating the space around him. Looking up, he saw the sharply defined face of Li Yanchu.

“That fire striker of yours finally came in handy.”

Seeing that Bai Hongtu was safe, Li Yanchu let out a quiet sigh of relief. After all, things had been extremely dangerous just moments ago. They’d barely retreated into a side passage when the main burial chamber behind them suddenly collapsed, and massive stones crashed down in layers. The collapse had affected even the surrounding tomb corridors, and several had partially caved in.

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Fortunately, everyone present was a highly skilled cultivator. Otherwise, the mere lead-mercury toxins contained in the bronze tomb gate would’ve been enough to kill them all.

By now, the group had fled far from the main burial chamber, and they stumbled into a twisting, narrow corridor in the chaos. Given the urgency, their escape had been impressively quick.

Master Shenshan and the others were also nearby. Only Master Huizhen had been in poor shape to begin with as he was seriously wounded earlier, and had the added misfortune of being struck in the back by a falling boulder. If he weren’t a high-ranking monk of Qinglong Temple and had cultivated the Buddhist Golden Body, that hit would’ve finished him right then and there.

Wang Yunting, the tomb-raiding expert, had originally been part of the advance scouting team, which meant that he would usually be the first to be sacrificed. But after surviving so many dangers, he had somehow come through unharmed even when formidable figures like Master Kongming and Old Ghost Wu had perished in the tomb.

Now, as the group searched for an exit, Wang Yunting’s expertise became crucial. Even though many of the tomb passages had been damaged or blocked by the collapse, and the way back was completely sealed by massive stone debris, Wang Yunting relied on his seasoned tomb-raiding skills to navigate the winding corridors...

And eventually, he found them a way out.

“This should be the main passage leading outside. If we break through this wall, we can enter the burial chamber, and then leave,” Wang Yunting said in a low voice, pointing at a section of the wall.

Daoist Master Yuanyi glanced at him and gave a slight nod, then immediately slashed forward with his sword.

Boom!

A thunderous crash echoed as a large opening was blasted into the wall, though the structure itself remained perfectly stable. As the wall gave way, a faint light immediately streamed in from the other side. It really was another burial chamber.

The moment they stepped inside, flames flared to life one after another, illuminating the entire space. Stone-carved candle stands lined the chamber, each bearing a lit flame. But the moment they entered, everyone froze and held their breath, and their eyes immediately took on a wary look.

The tomb chamber was packed wall-to-wall with people. More precisely, terracotta soldiers, which wore stone-carved armor and gripped sharp bronze spears. At this time, a suffocating aura of battlefield killing intent surged straight at them.

And it wasn’t just infantry; there were also fierce, heroic-looking cavalry warriors, with bows on their backs and majestic stone warhorses beneath them.

“Don’t tell me... these are the ghost soldiers from earlier when the passage went dark...” Bai Hongtu muttered quietly with a look of surprise on his face.

These soldier statues stood completely still. But the way the firelight flickered across their faces gave them an eerie, lifelike quality, so much so that a cold chill crept up everyone's spine.

Bai Hongtu’s comment immediately drew everyone’s attention. If this really was the source of those ghost soldiers, then weren’t they all basically walking straight into the jaws of death?