Chapter 298

Chapter 298: Seeking a Chance to Escape

Though Lou Yun was extremely reluctant to interrupt Gui You Quan, the last sentence caused his heart to leap violently. Unable to contain himself, he asked, "The six others? Do you mean there are people here besides you and me?"

As he posed this question, Lou Yun desperately tried to steady his heartbeat, slowing it as much as possible, fearing Gui You Quan might detect something amiss from its frantic pounding.

Of course, this question was also critically important to Lou Yun. Moments ago, he’d believed he had impulsively jumped into this formation, but now, Gui You Quan’s words suggested something else was wrong!

Six people – wasn’t that exactly the number of the legendary Five Great Masters plus his sworn brother Leng Cangqiong!

Gui You Quan chuckled darkly, then abruptly turned, his pitch-black eyes fixed on Lou Yun’s face. "Since you know my name, surely you must know how I ended up here?"

Lou Yun hastily shook his head. "No, the legends say you vanished suddenly, and never appeared again!"

After uttering this, Lou Yun distinctly sensed a flicker of murderous intent flash within Gui You Quan’s eyes.

"Hmph, vanished! If those five hadn’t schemed against me, how could I have ‘vanished’!"

Gui You Quan’s hatred for the Five Great Masters was sky-high. No sooner had the words left his lips than he threw a sudden punch. A loud crash sounded as the two massive demon beast corpses behind Lou Yun instantly shattered into ash.

Lou Yun clicked his tongue in shock witnessing this scene. What power was this? A punch delivered through the air, its mere force enough to pulverize demon beast corpses into dust!

Now Lou Yun finally understood why even the combined strength of the Five Great Masters couldn’t kill Gui You Quan back then. The power possessed by someone of the Weapon Emperor Realm was truly immense, truly terrifying!

Despite his fury, Gui You Quan didn’t strike Lou Yun down. Instead, he recounted the events of thirty years ago, his story largely matching the one Wen Zhi Lao Ren had told Lou Yun.

Staying guarded, Lou Yun had to pretend this was all new information, careful not to reveal any cracks in his demeanor. Internally, he was urging Gui You Quan to hurry up and explain the mystery of the six people!

After recounting the past, Gui You Quan sneered. "As I said earlier, in these thirty years trapped here, though I haven’t found a way out, I did uncover a way to control the suction force this cave releases. I knew those five, having trapped me here alive, would never rest easy. Surely they’d station someone nearby to keep watch. So, I deliberately manipulated the suction force to create some disturbance."

"And sure enough, not many days later, I sensed them. All five were there. And they brought along one more! Hmph! Though their cultivation had also improved, how could they withstand the suction force amplified by my control? I sucked them all in!"

"Hahaha! You wanted to trap me to death? Not so easy! Though I don’t know where you are now, I’ll make sure you taste the agony of being trapped here, unable to live and unable to die!"

Gui You Quan’s maniacal laughter boomed, piercing and shrill. Lou Yun finally grasped the whole story: his earlier suspicion at the entrance of the Thousand Layer Cave had been correct! If it were only the innate suction force of the cave, the six of them, with their combined strength, could never have been pulled in. But enhanced by Gui You Quan’s personal power, even their desperate resistance couldn’t prevent their plunge into this place.

Fortunately, Gui You Quan hadn’t fully deciphered this formation. While he’d sucked the six of them inside, he couldn’t pinpoint their specific locations! Given their cultivation levels, as long as they hadn’t encountered Gui You Quan himself, their lives weren’t in danger. They must still be alive! This realization brought Lou Yun the first bit of reassuring news.

Now, Lou Yun had to figure out how to escape from Gui You Quan’s side, find his brother and the others, and then seek a way out of this place.

Just as Lou Yun was deep in thought, he felt his body go numb. Gui You Quan had struck his back with a sudden palm strike. The blow was silent, soft, and seemingly without force, yet Lou Yun instantly felt an intense chilling energy seep into his body.

Alarmed, Lou Yun looked up at Gui You Quan. "What do you mean by this?"

Gui You Quan replied with a cold laugh. "Naturally, to keep you from escaping. You’re a peculiar fellow. I actually can’t fathom your cultivation depth, only sensing an immensely powerful force within you. But I don’t care for details now. To be safe…" he explained, "…I’ve implanted a tendril of my Yin Ming energy into your body. Unless I extract it, within three days, you’ll freeze solid into a block of ice and perish! So, forget about fleeing. Lead me out of here obediently, and perhaps, in a fit of kindness, I might spare your wretched life!"

Lou Yun felt the invasive, sub-zero energy chilling half his body nearly to stiffness. However, his twin Heavenly Fires ignited automatically within him, refining and dispelling the Yin Ming energy completely within moments.

Inwardly, Lou Yun rejoiced. Gui You Quan’s Yin Ming energy posed no threat! But outwardly, he couldn’t betray this. Instead, he forced a pained expression. "Senior Gui, of course I’ll do my utmost. But please," he pleaded pitifully, "don’t forget to extract that energy later; the cold is unbearable!"

"No worries, the chill is fleeting; it’ll subside soon." Gui You Quan noted with slight surprise, "Your cultivation isn’t too shabby. A weaker cultivator would be frozen stiff already by that mere wisp of Yin Ming energy. Enough chatter! Tell me how to leave this place—immediately!"

True to his capricious nature, Gui You Quan’s mood shifted faster than turning a page.

Though Lou Yun didn’t fear the Yin Ming energy, it didn’t mean he could defeat Gui You Quan. Under another’s roof, one must bow low. Faced with the harsh command, Lou Yun nodded meekly. "I’ll think… I’ll think."

Saying this, Lou Yun crouched down onto the ground. Using a finger dipped in the loose dust coating the floor, he began tracing intricate patterns. As he drew, he murmured cryptic incantations: "Qian, Kun, Gen, Dui… Qian above, Kun below… here lies the entrance… mmh… so there must be the dead end…"

Intrigued, Gui You Quan bent down slightly, watching Lou Yun’s markings. The spoken words were largely indecipherable jargon to him, though they sounded plausible enough. Lou Yun was actually uttering purely fabricated nonsense—a frantic attempt to convince Gui You Quan he was genuinely solving their escape, while his real mind raced with one urgent question: how to shake off Gui You Quan.

After a long while, Lou Yun finally stood up and said, "Alright, I know which way to take now."

"Hm, you lead the way!"

The two of them then entered the empty stone chamber, one in front of the other, moving towards the two doors on the opposite wall.

As he walked, Lou Yun said, "Senior Ghost, actually, though this formation appears complex, you’ll grasp it once I explain. You should have noticed every place here has either eight doors or eight openings. Among these eight doors, only one is the safe passage – the entrance. The other seven are all dead ends. As long as you always follow the entrance, you can leave this place."

This speech was, naturally, still Lou Yun bluffing Gui You Quan. However, it was a mix of truth and lies. Among the eight doors, only one truly was the safe passage, called the "entrance" within formations. The other seven were indeed death traps. But finding the real entrance was incredibly difficult. Because here, everything automatically shifted every three hours. After each shift, the position of the entrance would change. Therefore, to consistently find the correct entrance was an immensely challenging feat.

Gui You Quan gave no reaction to Lou Yun’s words, acting as if he hadn’t heard them at all.

And so, Lou Yun led Gui You Quan through one genuine entrance and left the stone chamber. Once again, the surrounding environment reverted to the seemingly endless array of eight openings.

Lou Yun stopped and pretended to study the situation earnestly for a moment. Then he chose one opening and led Gui You Quan inside.

In essence, Lou Yun’s current traversal through these openings was the complete opposite of his earlier behaviour, when he was alone and moved without any pause. Now, whenever they reached a set of eight openings, he would stop. Also, throughout the walk, he kept talking to Gui You Quan. Strangely, Gui You Quan seemed to have suddenly turned mute, offering no response whatsoever from start to finish.

Finally, Chang Xiang couldn’t hold back any longer: "Kid, what exactly are you planning? Surely you don’t actually intend to lead him out of here?"

"Of course not," Lou Yun replied. "I’m waiting for the right time."

Hearing this, Chang Xiang was immediately enlightened: "You’re waiting for the three-hour formation shift? The movement of the stone walls?"

"That’s right," Lou Yun confirmed. "Gui You Quan’s cultivation level is far beyond mine in the Weapon Emperor Realm. If it came down to speed, I’m definitely slower. So my only chance is to wait until the stone walls start moving. I’ll dash into one of the openings in the instant the walls shift. That might give me a chance to shake him off."

Chang Xiang paused for a moment before saying, "Lou Yun, I have this feeling about this Gui You Quan…"

"What feeling?"

"Although I can’t read his cultivation depth, I sense… he doesn’t seem to belong to the Spirit Weapon Star. I think… he might be from that world."

"That world? That can’t be possible! Why would you think that? And moreover, what’s the process for someone to come from that world to the Spirit Weapon Star?"

"Because," Chang Xiang explained, "aside from the Nine Clans and you, no one on the Spirit Weapon Star can cultivate to the Weapon Emperor Realm! And he certainly isn’t one of the Nine Clan members. He lacks their unique aura signature or the special energy restrictions. None of the Nine Clans have the surname Gui either… So I suspect he comes from that world. As for the journey between that world and the Spirit Weapon Star… how to put it… it’s somewhat like flight, but vastly more advanced…"

Chang Xiang paused again, then abruptly changed the subject: "But logically, the Nine Clans in that world should have strictly forbidden travel to the Spirit Weapon Star. It shouldn’t be possible for anyone to come here now!"

"If I could just see him make a move," Chang Xiang lamented, "even one attack from him, and I might determine exactly where he originates!"

Lou Yun replied coldly: "Though, if he did make a move, I’d probably be finished. The only thing left for me would be to wait for death!"

As he spoke, Lou Yun fell silent. Because at that moment, he had already led Gui You Quan through seven correct entrances and stood before the eighth. Once they passed through this one, they would emerge into another stone chamber. Crucially, the time until the next three-hour formation shift was almost due. The changes were about to begin again.

Lou Yun deliberately began his false calculations once more, all the while anxiously awaiting the impending shift in his mind.

Finally, the distinct sound of machinery activating echoed through the passages. Lou Yun pretended to be startled, then turned to Gui You Quan: "Senior Ghost, the formation is shifting again. We mustn’t move now. We can only continue once the shift is complete."

Lou Yun couldn’t tell if it was his own anxiety about escape making him feel guilty, or some other reason. But after he spoke, Gui You Quan—who hadn’t reacted to a single word Lou Yun had spoken until now—actually wore a sinister smile on his face.

That smile sent an involuntary chill right down to Lou Yun’s core. Could Gui You Quan know I’m planning to run? he thought frantically.

The formation change had commenced. The stone walls began their gradual movement.

The first opening slid into the mountain wall. Then the second. Followed by the third.

…

Seventh opening. By this moment, Lou Yun’s spiritual energy had subtly gathered at his feet. The tension was so extreme that the palms of his tightly clenched fists were slick with cold sweat.

Finally, the eighth opening started moving towards the mountain wall. The moment the entrance was nearly completely swallowed, Lou Yun exploded forward from the balls of his feet. His entire body became like a bolt of lightning, shooting directly into the opening. Simultaneously, the entrance vanished entirely into the rock.

Lou Yun slumped against the wall inside the tunnel, feeling utterly drained, weak all over. He couldn’t stop himself from drawing in huge, gulping breaths.

He hadn’t even finished drawing the first deep breath when Gui You Quan’s voice—as if emanating from the depths of the Nine Hells itself—sounded right beside him:

"Am I to assume… you intended to escape from me?"