“Try not to make a sound,” Qilin warned. “Serpent Cypress hunts by sound.”
The word ‘hunts’ sent a chill through Wang Cang Hai’s heart.
Still holding Qilin’s hand, he used his fingertips to write on the back of Qilin’s palm:
“Does it eat people?”
Qilin’s thumb pressed into Wang Cang Hai’s palm and wrote back:
“Yes.”
Then, as if to reassure him, Qilin squeezed his hand lightly.
A moment later, Qilin’s fingers moved again, writing in Wang Cang Hai’s palm:
“Serpent Cypress hangs its prey upside down to dry for two or three days before eating. We have time to escape.”
Wang Cang Hai thought, we won’t last that long.
If they were hung upside down, blood would rush to their heads, and they’d lose consciousness quickly.
Especially Qilin, who was already injured—they needed to escape immediately.
He wrote back: “What is it afraid of?”
Qilin’s answer was short:
“Mica lime. Fire.”
Just then—
From somewhere farther away, human voices suddenly rang out, followed by the glow of torches.
One by one, firelights entered the cavern, illuminating the darkness.
Looking down, Wang Cang Hai and Qilin saw a group of people making their way through an unknown passage.
They were walking on solid ground—
While Wang Cang Hai and Qilin were suspended in midair.
This meant:
They could see the newcomers.
But the newcomers had not noticed them.
Wang Cang Hai immediately recognized two men at the front of the group—
Zhang Hai Wang and Zhang Hai Xing.
So, these people had to be Zhang family members.
The Zhangs had no idea they were walking straight into danger.
They talked loudly as they advanced deeper into the cavern.
Zhang Hai Xing muttered, “Something about the Vice Clan Leader feels off. He claimed he found clues about the Clan Leader’s whereabouts hidden under Qing Ze Lake, but he never explained how he found them.
He just ordered us to dig up the lakebed, but never told us what we were actually looking for.”
Zhang Hai Wang sighed. “I agree. And instead of focusing on the excavation, the Vice Clan Leader insisted on capturing Wang Cang Hai.
Does he really think he’s stronger than all of us combined, plus the corpse beetles?
Wang Cang Hai is being protected by Wu Ma Nan Sheng and Nan Gong Yu—it’s impossible to get near him.
Even if the Vice Clan Leader succeeded in ambushing him, how does he expect to transport Wang Cang Hai back alone without our help?”
Zhang Hai Xing nodded. “I said from the beginning—trying to ambush Wang Cang Hai at Qing Ze Lake was a reckless decision.
If we’re not careful, we’ll expose our entire secret base.”
They were completely unaware.
They had already stepped straight into the Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress’s attack range.
From the darkness above, hundreds of black tendrils suddenly lashed out, shooting toward the Zhang family members like striking vipers.
“Watch out for the vines!”
Qilin shouted a warning.
But—
That one shout also revealed his own presence.
Instantly, the tendrils turned toward him.
A thick vine looped tightly around Qilin’s throat, constricting—
More tendrils slithered toward his mouth and nose, aiming to cut off his breathing.
Wang Cang Hai moved faster than lightning.
Summoning his internal energy, he released a sharp burst of sword qi—
A clean, precise slash in the dim torchlight.
The vines wrapped around Qilin’s body snapped apart.
Qilin let out a startled cry—
And fell.
Plummeting straight toward the ground.
At the same moment—
The Serpent Cypress, sensing a greater threat, immediately changed its target.
Tendrils swarmed toward Wang Cang Hai, layer upon layer, coiling around his limbs, his waist, his shoulders.
More and more of them piled on, wrapping around him like a cocoon, sealing him in a suffocating prison of vines.
He couldn’t move.
He couldn’t breathe.
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