When the footsteps outside the cave approached to within five paces, they suddenly stopped abruptly, like a zither string severed by a sharp blade. As the tip of Chǔ Hóngzhuāng's snake sword parted the grass curtain at the cave entrance, the morning mist rushed in, carrying the bitter freshness of pine needles. Her pupils contracted slightly—all the torches were extinguished, leaving only a few charred bamboo handles scattered on the gravel floor. Even the footprints had been swept completely clean by the mountain wind.
Third Elder's shout of "Catch them alive!" was still buzzing in her ears, but at this moment, besides the chirping of birds, there was not the slightest sound of human presence in the mountain hollow. Inside Ye Fan's Inner World, the zither strings of the Jiuxiao Huanpei suddenly rippled. He felt for the heart-protecting mirror at his waist; its jade surface was frosted with a thin layer of frost—this was an early warning left over from being backstabbed in his past life, growing cold whenever a crisis failed to dissipate and instead went into hiding. "They haven't left." His fingertips pressed against Chǔ Hóngzhuāng's hand, the poison sac on the snake sword growing slightly warm. "They might be setting up a Gu Insect array, waiting for us to chase after them."
Chǔ Hóngzhuāng's silver bells jingled softly, and the Golden Silkworm in her hair suddenly burrowed into her sleeve. She bit her lip, and with a soft *swish*, she returned the snake sword to its scabb…
Chapter 66