"Uncle Zhang is really something else, why did he have to send you? He could've sent anyone else! Now look what's happened, you're stuck here."
"Han Xibei! You, you just wait."
"I'm waiting! Dashan, no matter how long I wait, you're still going to be stuck here unable to move, aren't you? Forget it, the main thing is more important. You can just stay stuck here!"
Little Xibei scraped some mud off the wall and used his inner force to slap it directly onto Dashan's face, then pulled Lin Zaozao into the secret passage.
But before they could take a few steps, a bright light suddenly spilled in from behind them. Lin Zaozao turned around to see Gu Shan, who had fallen unconscious earlier after their "lovers' bath" together.
Oh great, now this.
One Dashan left, and now a Gu Shan arrives!
Ignoring Lin Zaozao's guilty look, Gu Shan pushed Dashan's body towards the cave entrance and stepped into the passage himself.
He walked up to Lin Zaozao, glared fiercely at her guilty expression, but still took her hand and headed into the secret passage.
"Dashan, you stay outside and guard. I'll take Zaozao in with me."
With that, Gu Shan grasped Lin Zaozao's hand and strode towards the depths of the secret passage.
Lin Zaozao looked at their intertwined hands in the dim light from the entrance, and pleaded with Little Xibei for help.
All he did in response was guiltily rub his nose.
Hmph! That Little Xibei was really useless. At a critical moment, he just let her down.
After stumbling a few steps in the darkness, Lin Zaozao tugged on Gu Shan's hand and said meekly, "Gu Shan, it's so dark in the secret passage. I, I'm afraid of the dark!"
Lin Zaozao's wheedling tone made Gu Shan pause. In the pitch-black tunnel, he turned to look at her pitiful expression, and despite his anger, couldn't help but sigh.
Well, the girl in front of him was the one he cherished in his heart. She might have teamed up with others to deceive him, but he couldn't bring himself to be angry with her.
Earlier, he was furious that she didn't cherish herself, trying to sneak into Purgatory Valley without telling him.
Heaven knows how frantic he felt when he woke up to find himself all alone.
Sighing quietly, Gu Shan took a luminous crystal bead from his waist and placed it in Lin Zaozao's hand.
He had stolen this crystal bead from a unscrupulous merchant's treasury especially to delight Lin Zaozao. But he never expected that it would be used in this place.
The bead was about the size of an adult's fist, crystal clear and very similar to the water-crystal books from her previous life.
Unlike a crystal ball, this bead could glow, shining incredibly brightly.
If this wasn't the ancient times, the glowing bead in her hand would basically be a small light bulb.
"What's wrong? Don't you like it?"
Hearing Gu Shan's stern voice, Lin Zaozao shook her head vigorously, indicating that she liked it very much.
How could she not like it? This crystal bead was a gift specially prepared for her by her beloved Gu Shan. Even if it didn't glow, she would still cherish it.
Seeing Lin Zaozao treasure the luminous bead, Gu Shan's face finally showed a slight smile.
But when he met Lin Zaozao's ingratiating smile, he quickly suppressed his own, becoming serious again.
"Zaozao, tell me, who gave you the idea to make me fall unconscious at that... time?"
"It was Little Xibei. Everything I did was because Little Xibei forced me to. I had nothing to do with it."
Lin Zaozao decisively passed the buck, making the veins on Little Xibei's forehead behind her jump.
This dead girl, just to curry favor with Gu Shan, she really didn't give a damn about him, did she!
But before he could retort, a flash of light made him instinctively retreat.
Glancing to the side, it was indeed a hidden weapon thrown by Gu Shan.
"Gu Shan, I'm the National Master, and you dare throw hidden weapons at me!"
"National Master, if Zaozao wasn't here, I could easily kill you in this enclosed passage.
After all, I, Gu Shan, am the king of darkness!"
Hearing Gu Shan's domineering words, Little Xibei shook his head helplessly. Although he didn't want to admit it, what Gu Shan said was true.
In the dark, no one would be Gu Shan's match.
"Gu Shan, don't you still want to rescue the puppets and living dead in Purgatory Valley and the Eighteen Floors? If so, then you better lead the way properly."
"But the one who can actually rescue them is Zaozao, not you!"
Gu Shan scoffed.
"But Gu Shan, for Zaozao to rescue them, she needs to come into contact with those puppets and living dead. Currently, the only one who can control those living dead and puppets is me.
After all, I have planted many spies inside Purgatory Valley. Only my spies can control all the venom cultivators and high-level leaders in Purgatory Valley.
This is something you've been trying for years to achieve, but haven't been able to do."
Little Xibei's words made Gu Shan pause. He turned to look at the smugly grinning Little Xibei.
After considering for a moment, he took out a grape-sized night pearl from his robe and tossed it into Little Xibei's hands.
"Here, use it for lighting, so you don't trip and die or anything."
With that, Gu Shan pulled Lin Zaozao's hand and strode further down the secret passage.
After Gu Shan and Lin Zaozao had walked away, Little Xibei looked at the tiny night pearl in his hand.
Although it did glow, it was practically useless.
Gu Shan gave him such a small night pearl for lighting - he was clearly mocking him!
Just as Little Xibei was about to throw the grape-sized night pearl away, he had second thoughts and didn't discard it after all.
Well, he was probably the second person after Zaozao to receive a gift from the Demon Sovereign Gu Shan!
Small as it was, having it was still better than having nothing.
After all, some people practically idolized the Demon Sovereign Gu Shan with their lives.
Gu Shan held Lin Zaozao's hand as they walked for a long time in the darkness. It was only when Lin Zaozao's legs were starting to go numb that she faintly made out a glimmer of light ahead in the secret passage.
Along the way, except for some minor encounters with little scorpions and poisonous insects, she hadn't run into any other dangers.
It wasn't until Lin Zaozao followed Gu Shan out of the secret passage that she finally let out a long sigh of relief. Thank heavens she didn't have claustrophobia.
Otherwise, just walking through this long, pitch-black tunnel would have terrified her to death. But before Lin Zaozao could catch her breath, she was interrupted by a loud burp.
Turning to look at the six infants burping continuously, Lin Zaozao released Gu Shan's hand and went up to Da Bao, patting his protruding belly.
She remembered that before entering the secret passage, their bellies had been flat!
So how was it that after this long walk through the tunnel, Da Bao's belly had become so round?
Looking back at the remaining five infants' round bellies, Lin Zaozao was utterly perplexed as they kept burping.
"My babies, what did you eat in the secret passage that made you keep burping like this?"
"Big Sis, we were afraid of getting hungry, so we brought some snacks. Since the walk was a bit boring, we just ate up all the snacks we had."
Hearing the explanation from Da Bao and Er Bao, before Lin Zaozao could respond, Zhao Cai and Jin Bao lying nearby simply rolled their eyes dramatically.
Looking at the white eyes of Zhao Cai and Jin Bao, Lin Zaozao used her eyes to signal them to tell her the reason. After all, no one else could understand what they were saying except her.
The result!
These two wolf cubs looked at her disdainfully and then lay on the ground to sleep.
Tsk! These two wolf cubs Zhao Cai and Jin Bao really did not put their master in their eyes.
Lin Zaozao rolled her eyes at Zhao Cai and Jin Bao, then turned her head to look at the environment she was in now.
Just one look, and she was almost disgusted enough to vomit.
As far as her eyes could see, there were rotting corpses everywhere, giving off a stench of death. On those corpses, colorful worms crawled in and out of the bodies.
Following those corpses, she saw a huge black pool of water emitting a suffocating stench.
Just as Lin Zaozao was frowning at the corpses in the pool, she saw the corpse that was just floating in the pool suddenly raised its head violently.
Faced with those blood-red eyes, Lin Zaozao was so scared that she stepped back abruptly. Before she could scream, she saw the owner of those red eyes grab a corpse at the side and take a bite.
As the blood splattered, Lin Zaozao let out a "wa" and vomited.
It wasn't until she had almost vomited out her gall bladder that she realized how scared she was.
No wonder Gu Shan had strongly opposed her coming to Purgatory Valley.
Purgatory Valley really lived up to its name.
It was truly a human hell on earth!
Anyone without strong mental fortitude would be scared out of their wits just by setting foot in this place.
"Zaozao, are you alright?"
Gu Shan stood in front of Lin Zaozao, tore off a piece of his cloth, and covered Lin Zaozao's eyes with it.
Holding the trembling Lin Zaozao in his arms, Gu Shan turned around and looked coldly at Little Xibei, who was also surrounded by a low pressure atmosphere.
"National Master, didn't you just tell Zaozao that this secret passage leads straight to the residential area of the Necromancers and high-level members? What's going on here then?"
Faced with Gu Shan's questioning, Little Xibei's brows also furrowed.
Before coming here, he had reconfirmed with his undercover agent planted here.
This passage was indeed supposed to lead to the residential area of the Necromancers and high-level members, and there was no way it should have led Zaozao to see these poison pools.
It had only been a short while, how did the exit of the secret passage end up in the poison pools?
With a furrowed brow, Little Xibei instinctively stood in front of Lin Zaozao when he sensed something was amiss.
Da Bao and the others also formed a circle with Zhao Cai and Jin Bao, shielding Lin Zaozao.
Actually, even when they were in the secret passage earlier, they had felt that something was off about it.
Since this secret passage was dug by their own people, how could there be so many snakes, bugs, and poisonous ants inside?
Along the way, they had eaten those scary snakes, bugs, and poisonous ants, while also looking back many times.
However, when they saw the nonchalant expression of the Demon Lord Gu Shan, they thought the Demon Lord knew the situation of this secret passage.
Now that Zaozao had been scared like that by the poison pools, and the Demon Lord and National Master both had chilling expressions, it seemed that even when walking through this secret passage, they really didn't know that something was off about it.
But the vigilance of the Demon Lord Gu Shan and the National Master was no less than theirs!
Why were they able to detect the problem that the Demon Lord and National Master failed to notice?
