When the rotting, humid air mixed with the scent of rust poured into his nasal cavity, Ye Fan's boot was already grinding against the third guard's corpse. Mo Liusu's short blade was still dripping with blood, casting shimmering patches of deep blue light across the stone walls. Ye Fan tugged at his dark cloak to conceal the Nether Palace insignia on the hilt of his weapon, lowering his voice even quieter than the dripping water in the tunnel: "There is a triple mechanism ahead. I've counted; they change the guard shift every quarter of an hour."
Ye Fan touched the scalding-hot Jiuxiao Huanpei at his waist. Within his Inner World, the Lesser World—which had expanded to a size of ten zhang alongside his cultivation—was churning with spiritual energy like a beast poised to strike. Memories of the betrayal that led to his downfall in his past life suddenly flashed through his mind, but he instantly suppressed them. What he needed right now was not vigilance, but precision.
"Remember the Gu powder Chǔ Hóngzhuāng gave us." He flicked half a cinnabar-sized pill from his sleeve, dipped his fingertip in it, and smeared it between his brows. "The illusion Gu will make the guards mistake us for one of their own."
Chapter 351