Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 2(38)

“Lord Wind Master, please lend me some spiritual power! And intensify the palm torch!”

Shi Qingxuan followed his directions and clapped Xie Lian’s hand with his own left hand while the flames in his right palm burst dozens of centimeters higher. Xie Lian also swiftly started a bright palm torch. Sure enough, the two giant worms felt the heat and shrunk back, pulling a few meters away. Using the flames, the pair continued slowly on their path, forcing the giant earthworms to keep their distance and praying for an exit.

But the tunnel was narrow, and with such large flames burning, soon enough it wasn’t only the worms feeling the heat. Xie Lian and Shi Qingxuan themselves were sweating profusely as if they were baking in an oven, miserable and wretched. And the more horrifying thing was that Shi Qingxuan couldn’t keep burning through his power to keep the flames alive, and the fires grew smaller and smaller. They also noticed that although the giant earthworms were still evading them, they weren’t as fearful.

After a few more steps, Xie Lian could feel his breathing grow difficult. He said, “Lord Wind Master, the palm torch won’t last. The mud here may be moist and loose, but we’re still deep underground. Soon we’ll run out of air, the fire will die, and we’re going to faint.”

Shi Qingxuan gritted his teeth. “Then we can only use the Teleportation Array.”

Although neither of the two had a free hand to draw an array and the current environment wasn’t exactly ideal, there was no other way.

“Let me find somewhere flat,” Xie Lian said.

Just then, he felt a small plate beneath his steps—not moist and spongy, but more like a stone tile. A thought struck Xie Lian, and he immediately crouched down to check. Just as he suspected—it was another stone door!

It also had an image of a little person rolling dice on it. Shi Qingxuan stepped onto the tile with him, overjoyed.

“Quick, quick, quick! Roll the dice and open it!”

Xie Lian was just about to roll the dice when he suddenly thought, But what if I roll a worse outcome and open an even more horrifying place?

Xie Lian passed the dice to Shi Qingxuan. “You do it!”

Without a word, Shi Qingxuan grabbed the dice and tossed. Rattle, rattle. This time it was a three and a four. Xie Lian picked up the dice readily, and the two stood together on top of the door tile. The palm torch in Shi Qingxuan’s hand shrank by another inch; the two giant worms were squirming and ready to approach. Xie Lian stared intently at the drawing on the tile as it slowly dissolved then gradually transformed into another picture. It was a forest, with a number of oddly dressed little people dancing in circles around another figure in the center.

Just then, one of the worms finally stopped holding back—it charged toward them with its mouth open a slit, dragging its heavy body.

Thankfully, when the worm was only a mere meter away from them, the stone door opened!

This time, the two fell into another narrow hole, except the ground was hard and dry, and this new space was extremely cramped. This fall was painful, and the two tumbled and knocked into each other. Xie Lian was used to enduring pain, so he didn’t make a sound, but Shi Qingxuan cried out. That left Xie Lian’s ears in pain, instead, from the screaming.

Worried something might have happened to him, he called out, “Lord Wind Master, are you okay?”

Shi Qingxuan’s head was at the bottom, and his legs were in the air. “I don’t know if I’m okay. I’ve never fallen like this before. Your Highness, working with you is really too thrilling.”

Xie Lian couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at that as he finally realized that the two of them had fallen into a hole in a tree. He crawled out of the hole with great difficulty and extended a helping hand to Shi Qingxuan.

“Thanks for all your hard work.”

“You’re welcome,” Shi Qingxuan replied.

He pulled on Xie Lian’s hand and climbed out of the hole, dirty and disheveled, his silk dress in tatters. When he got out, he put a hand over his brow to block out the stinging brightness of the sun.

“Where’s this?”

“As you can see, it’s a forest in the deep mountains,” Xie Lian replied. He looked around and said, “I think the stone doors are a spiritual device with the same function as the Teleportation Array. Different rolls on the dice will take us to different places. I wonder if we rolled any of the right numbers.”

Shi Qingxuan crossed his now-bare arms and contemplated seriously. “Using the Teleportation Array just once requires an immense amount of spiritual power. That Crimson Rain Sought Flower created something like these stone doors just to prevent people from snooping around… It speaks volumes about his immense spiritual powers and how deeply calculating he is.”

Although he appeared solemn, his unkempt appearance with bare arms and bare feet made it really difficult for him to come across as serious. Instead, he looked, well, hilarious. Xie Lian held back his laughter with immense difficulty as he thought of the way Hua Cheng always lightly curled his lips and shook his head.

Rather than calculating, it’s more that he’s…mischievous, Xie Lian thought.

The two had only just emerged from the hole in the tree, and not a few steps after did a bunch of naked people suddenly jump out from the nearby bushes and surround them. They started jumping, howling as they did so.

“OOOOOOOOOOH!!”