Chapter 153: The Corridors

Just as Daoist San-tong was steeling himself to charge blindly into the cave, the surrounding commotion intensified. The rushing sound of wind mixed with swarms of face-masked bats converged upon the area.

Rushing at the absolute forefront was the Grand Magus, whose mastery of teleportation was truly extraordinary. Casually cutting down a few face-masked bats, the Grand Magus's eyes widened the moment he spotted Daoist San-tong. "What is going on here?"

Before San-tong could even recover his wits, he saw Yoshino, Alice, Golden-Eye, Bald Crocodile, and a whole host of others all arriving. Each of them wore a look of confusion, yet they were all scrambling to push ahead.

These individuals each harbored their own motives, and not a single one of them was willing to let the Spirit-Suppressing Stone fall into someone else's hands today.

"What are you waiting for? Hurry and kill your way in! The Spirit-Suppressing Stone is inside, and Xiang Nan is inside as well," Daoist San-tong roared.

He was actually far from certain whether the Spirit-Suppressing Stone was truly inside, but he was absolutely certain that Xiang Nan was in there. Their objective was not necessarily the stone itself; if Xiang Nan died, all of their efforts would come to nothing.

Though Golden-Eye secretly wished for Xiang Nan to be dead, upon hearing that the Spirit-Suppressing Stone was inside, his competitive and domineering nature naturally forbade him from letting Xiang Nan reap such an easy benefit.

In an instant, everyone swarmed pell-mell into the narrow cave entrance.

Swarming right along with them were hundreds, if not thousands, of face-masked bats.

In their haste to outdo one another, no one had the heart to linger and fight the perimeter bats. Each unleashed lethal techniques to clear the entrance before pressing deeper inward.

Passing through the narrow mouth, they found an entirely different world hidden within.

Yet at this moment, no one had the leisure to marvel at the towering stalactite cavern. They had to simultaneously slaughter the endless stream of face-masked bats and search for their target.

Where was there any trace of Xiang Nan inside the cavern?

Only the corpses of face-masked bats littered the ground entirely.

Aside from that, everyone's gaze turned toward the several tunnels at the front of the cavern. The floor of every single tunnel was carpeted with bat corpses, alongside wounded survivors whose fleshy wings flapped pathetically in shallow puddles of water.

Having been among the first to charge in, Daoist San-tong naturally deduced where Xiang Nan had gone upon failing to find him and seeing the tunnels before him.

"What are you standing around dazed for? Go find him!" If they couldn't find anyone, none of them would ever obtain the divine artifact.

"With so many tunnels, heaven only knows which one he took!"

"Then split up and search!"

Without any hesitation, and watching the face-masked bats from outside still pouring into the cavern, the group slashed casually a few times and scattered into the tunnels ahead.

***

Golden-Eye and Bald Crocodile chose the centermost tunnel together.

Daoist San-tong and the Grand Magus, who were already acquainted, leaped into the leftmost tunnel side by side.

Yoshino and Alice, each leading their respective subordinates, took completely separate tunnels.

These tunnels were far from spacious. Walking two abreast made them somewhat cramped, and at their narrowest points, one even had to duck and crouch to pass through.

Upon entering the tunnels, the ambient light vanished, plunging everything into pitch-black darkness that easily induced panic.

However, these individuals were all ancestral-awakened powerhouses possessing various extraordinary abilities, allowing them to navigate the gloom without hindrance.

Whenever a face-masked bat swept past, it would be dispatched in a single blow by whoever was leading the front.

Naturally, repulsive insects and spiders would occasionally crawl out from beneath their feet, but everyone paid them no heed. No one bothered to look twice at such insignificant pests.

The tunnels within the Three Caves varied in depth and were intricately labyrinthine; once a person entered, they would completely lose their sense of direction.

Inside one of the tunnels, Golden-Eye, who was walking in front, suddenly halted.

In the pitch black, Golden-Eye's vision remained unimpeded, and his golden pupils now emitted a piercing, brilliant glare. "Bald Crocodile, I don't care whether you agreed to join my team because you were after what's in Xiang Nan's hands or for some other reason. Since you took my money, you damn well ought to work for me!"

Golden-Eye had suppressed his urge to showdown with Bald Crocodile the entire way here, primarily out of wariness regarding the latter's cultivation level.

However, now that the two of them were isolated in this dark tunnel, both the lighting and the terrain worked to Golden-Eye's advantage.

His serpent ability made him an expert at tunneling, and his pair of golden pupils possessed offensive capabilities that others lacked.

Bald Crocodile's mouth curved into a sneer. Knowing Golden-Eye's temperament, he was certain the man would eventually blow up at him. Golden-Eye had been holding it in all along the journey, and it seemed he finally couldn't help himself anymore, foolishly thinking that this tunnel environment would allow him to suppress him.

That notion was utterly laughable.

"Our shared goal right now is to find the Spirit-Suppressing Orb. What difference does it make whose errand we run?" Bald Crocodile temporarily wished to avoid provoking a conflict, essentially leaving Golden-Eye a way out.

Who would have thought that Golden-Eye refused to see it that way and insisted on getting to the bottom of the matter? "When we find the Spirit-Suppressing Stone, who are you planning to hand it over to? Me, or that little punk Xiang Nan?"

Bald Crocodile let out a soft snort, genuinely losing the desire to converse any further with this simple-minded brute who was all brawn and no brain.

The man lacked any self-awareness of his own weight. Even if Bald Crocodile were willing to hand the Spirit-Suppressing Stone over to him, what about the others?

There were so many transcendent-tier experts present!

Not to mention Alice of the Blood Alliance—that toxic woman. Even if she wasn't transcendent-tier, her methods were entirely on par with one.

Where on earth did Golden-Eye get the confidence that he could acquire the Spirit-Suppressing Stone?

And why was he in such an insufferable rush?

He was beyond foolish!

Did he not realize that everyone tolerated Xiang Nan merely to trick the divine artifact out of his hands? Once the artifact was secured, who would give a damn whether he lived or died?

Golden-Eye merely needed to wait quietly for the artifact to change hands from Xiang Nan, and once that happened, who would stop him from dealing with Xiang Nan however he pleased?

To not even understand the strategy of sitting back and reaping the Fisherman's profit—how utterly stupid! What use was brute strength and malice alone?

"If we keep wasting time here, the opportunity will truly slip away," Bald Crocodile said, preparing to press forward.

Suddenly, a chill struck his neck as the edge of a dagger pressed against his skin.

Golden-Eye remained relentless. "If you won't be my helper, then you can only be my enemy. I will never allow an enemy to act arrogantly in front of me."

This finally ignited Bald Crocodile's disgust.

The usually composed Bald Crocodile felt his jaw twitch.

With a movement too swift to follow, he somehow slipped out from under Golden-Eye's hostage hold, sliding backward several meters in a single motion.

"For the sake of the money, I can forgive you one last time. But from here on, we have nothing more to do with each other. If you dare cross my bottom line again, I won't mind becoming your actual enemy!" Bald Crocodile had exhausted all his forbearance.

After that little scuffle, Golden-Eye was still left in a daze.

What the hell! How on earth had he escaped? It had been too flawless!

It seemed transcendent-tier cultivation could still not be underestimated. Golden-Eye's eyes bulged with rage, yet there was nothing he could do against Bald Crocodile.

Having been through this farce, Bald Crocodile had no desire to travel alongside Golden-Eye any longer. There were plenty of branch paths in this tunnel anyway; by taking a random turn down a fork, they could spare themselves the mutual nausea of each other's company.

After walking for roughly half an hour, Daoist San-tong felt a surge of deep anxiety. He had clearly watched Xiang Nan charge in here, so how had the man vanished?

A moment later, a glimmer of light finally appeared before his eyes.