Chapter 382
Xu Zirong nodded with a smile, then turned his eyes ambiguously around his brother. In fact, he wanted to see his brother dance the pole dance for him, but it had remained a dream so far.
One of the two bamboo monsters was paralyzed. It fell to the ground and groaned from time to time, and the other lay on the ground and patted the mouse with his big hand again and again, but was taken out from the old tree again and again.
Taking this opportunity, Xu Ziyan and the others quietly stepped into the small stone building. Before entering, Xu Ziyan accidentally glanced at the stele, only to feel a white shadow flash past. When he looked closely, it disappeared again.
“Brother?”
“It’s alright.” Xu Ziyan shook his head, looking at the vague words “Moxuan Pavilion” on the stele. He was quite sure that it wasn’t an illusion just now.
They followed the guidance by the map and quickly found the entrance to the secret path. It was a very ordinary-looking bookcase which was very close to the wall. From the outside, it was completely impossible to see that there was a secret hidden under it.
The way to open the secret path was also recorded on the map. Xu Ziyan scanned around and saw a vase placed in the corner.
He walked over and put the vase aside vigorously. The bookcase was lifted up along the wall, revealing the dark hole below.
Xu Ziyan didn’t have time to say anything extra – he threw a piece of gravel to determine the depth of the cave before jumping down immediately.
Tianle looked at the dark tunnel with disgust and pouted, “I hate this kind of pitch-black places the most, I hope there won’t be any strange things in it.” Afterwards, he sighed and jumped down too.
Xu Zirong rolled his eyes at him, shook his fingertips, and soon a drop of essence blood fell into his palm.
He jumped into the hole, and the bookcase slowly slid down and returned to its original position.
Soon, they heard the bamboo monster’s deafening roar outside the window, but no matter how it roared, it still couldn’t touch the stone building.
The cave was extremely dark, and after the bookcase was restored to its original state, there was not even a trace of light. Fortunately, cultivators always carried lighting tools, so Xu Ziyan rummaged in his pocket and found a firefly ball.
It was a small firefly ball but it was very bright. Xu Zirong used a small spell to hang a few firefly balls high around them, lighting up the surrounding environment.
The air in the secret path was very dry and it smelled of dust. Several people moved forward slowly along the passage. They looked calm on the surface, yet everyone remained as cautious as possible.
As a trap, the strength of the two bamboo buildings outside was simply shocking. If they weren’t smart enough, they would never have any chance to enter the secret path.
They still had room to escape outside, but if they encountered such a monster in this secret path, then all of them would be in trouble.
Xu Ziyan knew already that one had to be at least a nascent soul to get this treasure. It was not a rigid rule, but the most powerful monster in the path had already reached the level of deity, and even the most inferior one had completed the level of golden core. One would only become the monsters’ food without the level of nascent soul.
Back then, Bai Hua was taken advantage of by Tianle, but those high-level monsters and terrifying traps also played an important part.
At that time, Bai Hua was still the male protagonist of the novel and he almost died there, Xu Ziyan apparently had to be more careful since he never thought of himself as the male protagonist.
(Tiandao: Hehe, you still haven’t realized your real identity…this is really driving me nuts!)
The passage was a bit long, and it took about two hours to walk all the way to see an open hall.
The floor of the hall was covered with a layer of very smooth white stone bricks, and there were dozens of brooms in the corner…wait, no, those were brushes!
Xu Ziyan sweated silently. It was really not his fault to regard the brush as a broom, because whose brush would be as big as a broom?
“This is… an institution?” Tianle looked curiously at the door. The hall was very quiet, except for the stone bricks on the floor and the broom in the corner, there was basically nothing else.
Across the hall was a closed gray door, and there was no other exit except the door.
“Um…how do I open the door here?” Tianle asked, rubbing his chin.
Xu Ziyan spread his hands, as it was really not mentioned on this map, but he decided to get in for a look no matter what.
Ever since he got the blood monster, Xu Ziyan no longer had to worry about exploring the way.
This time, it was a miserable cat-shaped monster. As soon as it entered the room, the dozens of writing brushes in the corner were activated. They all jumped up from the ground and rushed towards the blood cat.
The blood cat’s movements were quite agile, and it jumped out of the encirclement of dozens of writing brushes shortly, but that’s all…
Once the blood cat stepped into the room, it was immediately surrounded by brushes, but those brushes did not move at all.
If the blood cat left the scope of the room, those brushes would return to the original corner and resumed their quiet appearance.
“It seems that this brush is not used for attacking.” Xu Ziyan came to this conclusion after some moments of observation.
“If it’s not for attacking, then do you think that you can write with them?” Tianle snorted.
Xu Zirong’s eyes suddenly lit up when he heard so, and his gaze turned around on the white ground. He grabbed his brother’s sleeve and pointed to the ground, “brother, do you think the ground looks like rice paper?”
Xu Ziyan glanced at the white stone bricks that he had neglected, and he suddenly had an idea. Could it be that they were required to write something on the ground with these brushes?
Speaking of which, aren’t people supposed to write with a brush? They seemed to have thought a little too much just now.
“Let me try it.” Xu Ziyan thought about it and decided to try it himself.
Although the blood cat was agile, it was only a blood beast after all, and its intelligence was limited. It would be too difficult for it to write with a brush and he’d better do it himself.
Xu Zirong was about to stop his brother, but he was instantly stopped by Xu Ziyan’s gaze. He took a step back silently, secretly muttering, “why would he have such a stubborn thought about protecting his little brother? I really don’t need my elder brother’s protection. I want to protect him instead…”
Unfortunately, no matter how much Xu Zirong acted coyly, he couldn’t change Xu Ziyan’s mind. It was the only thing that his brother insisted…
Xu Ziyan stepped into the hall slowly, and the moment his feet touched the white stone bricks, the writing brush at the corner of the wall flew towards him.
Xu Ziyan immediately reacted. He observed those brushes vigilantly, but unexpectedly, he looked dumbfounded not long after.
It turned out that he actually felt a kind of eagerness on those brushes.
“Choose me, choose me! I’m the best!”
“Hurry up and choose me. I have the best figure!”
“Look here! Look here! I fly the fastest!”
Xu Ziyan: …
With a speechless expression, Xu Ziyan looked at the dozens of brushes and really didn’t know which one to choose.
“Ahem, who can tell me what’s going on?” Xu Ziyan helplessly interrupted their argument, trying to convey this question with his own consciousness.
There was a moment of silence at the scene, followed by an even louder noise.
“My God! He can hear our voices!” It was a jade pen talking.
“Impossible, how can ordinary cultivators hear our voice?” It was a brush with almost no hair.
“Ahhh, great! Someone can actually talk to us!” It was a very thin brush.
“Wait, wait… This person can hear us, so he must be a monster too?” It was a super-sized brush with a barrel as thick as a water tank.
‘Monster’ Xu Ziyan: …
“Brother, how are you doing?” Xu Zirong was waiting at the door and noticed that those brushes were circling with excitement around his brother, so he couldn’t help feeling a little worried.
“I’m fine.” Xu Ziyan replied, then continued to look at the brushes, “so? Who can tell me about the situation here?”
“Um…can you really hear us?” asked an expensive-looking brush with a few pearls on the barrel.
Xu Ziyan nodded, thought for a while and answered, “if you don’t believe me, I can let other people come in and listen.”
The group of brushes chattered for a while and they all agreed to Xu Ziyan’s proposal.
Xu Ziyan took the initiative and asked Xu Zirong to join him.
After confirming that Xu Zirong could also hear their voices, the group of writing brushes were beyond excited. For a while, the whole hall was like a group of demons dancing wildly. The overly excited brushes were flying uncontrollably in the hall. They sprinkled a large area of ink on the ground and wrote a few words out of excitement…
It took a full quarter of an hour to calm them down, and Xu Ziyan finally had time to ask them how to open the door.
The extremely thick writing brush kindly explained to Xu Ziyan that it was originally supposed to be a literary battle, that is, the person who needed to pass the level had to choose a writing brush before competing with another randomly selected writing brush.
If they won, they could obviously pass. If they lost, then they would need to return to the original place.
Generally speaking, it was a relatively safe checkpoint as it wouldn’t put cultivators’ lives in danger.
It’s just that all the brushes were in a state of extreme excitement, and it’s a bit challenging to calm them down and be the guards.
Suddenly, the thick brush silently turned its face away. Xu Ziyan looked at the brushes flying wildly in the hall, and he thought that it’s nearly impossible to calm them down in a short while…
“Then, what can you do?” Xu Ziyan asked in a low voice to the thick brush.
It twisted its thick body and answered with embarrassment, “these little guys have been bored here for too long. So, if there is something a little exciting, they have to fly around like this for at least three days.”
Xu Ziyan: …
