Chapter 1409: Seeing the Pyramid Again

Yun Ji could not deny it. Monkey really was capable of doing exactly that. She sighed again and again, at a loss for words.

Looking at Niu Youdao’s expression, she could see the anxiety and worry in his heart, but she still had to remind him, “Searching like this isn’t a solution. If we really run into Lü Wushuang, how are the two of us supposed to face her, much less rescue Monkey from her hands? Have you considered what happens if you expose yourself?”

“I’ll deal with it when the time comes.” Niu Youdao’s anxiety was impossible to hide. “I only hope Lü Wushuang discovers that the passage between the two worlds shifts position and decides to keep Monkey alive so she can enter and leave again in the future. What I’m afraid of is Monkey digging in his heels and trying to trap her inside for good. If he does that, he really will be courting death.”

There was no way for him to contact Monkey.

What he hated most was that he did not have the Mountains and Rivers Cauldron or the Heaven-Swallowing Ring in his hands. Without them, all he could do was search aimlessly like this. Otherwise, he could have entered the Fifth Domain and looked for himself.

Yun Ji watched him and sighed inwardly. She could not help wondering what merit or fortune Monkey had accumulated to end up with a brother like this.

Yet no matter how they searched, they found nothing. They even went to look at the ruins of Boundless Pavilion.

Boundless Pavilion had already become a lake in the middle of the desert. Because it was a source of water, the site had not simply been abandoned. Reconstruction was underway around the lake, and rows of buildings had already begun rising along its shores.

Whenever they encountered people during the search, they also asked whether anyone had seen unusual activity among the desert’s sand scorpions.

Still, they found nothing.

In the end, Niu Youdao brought Yun Ji to a certain place near the edge of the desert.

As their flying mount circled overhead, Niu Youdao pointed to the barren hills below. “If Monkey really entered this desert and can still leave alive, he won’t wander around inside it. He may return to Demon Ridge by this shortcut, or Lü Wushuang may take him away. We’ll split up now. I’ll wait here. You return to Nanzhou immediately and send word to our people in the Sacred Realm. Have them watch the Sacred Realm’s entrance and see whether Lü Wushuang returns.”

Yun Ji said, “I’m not comfortable leaving you here alone. Why don’t I stay and wait while you go back to Nanzhou and hold things together?”

“I’ll be fine. If Lü Wushuang appears while you’re here, you won’t be able to deal with her. I have ways to maneuver around her. Stop arguing and go back first.”

“All right. As soon as I make contact with our people there, I’ll come straight back. Be careful.”

Niu Youdao gave a quiet acknowledgment and leapt down, landing among the barren hills below.

Yun Ji remained overhead and watched him for a while before turning the flying mount and swiftly departing.

Deep beneath the desert, the Scorpion Emperor burrowed into a hazy green glow. Lü Wushuang looked around and frowned. “Could this be the passage to another world?”

Yuan Gang glanced at her but said nothing. At the very least, he had confirmed that she knew nothing about this place.

After the Scorpion Emperor emerged from the green-lit passage, it suddenly began climbing. Before long, it burst through the desert surface with a thunderous crash, carrying the two of them back into daylight.

Lü Wushuang looked around at the desert in astonishment. Just as Niu Youdao and the others had when they first arrived, she clearly mistook it for the Boundless Desert outside.

It was Yuan Gang’s subtle reaction that caught her attention. He had narrowed his eyes at the sky. Lü Wushuang followed his gaze and noticed something strange: beside the sun hung another spherical body.

Understanding dawned. She murmured, “We’ve already entered another world.”

She drew a couple of deep breaths, then circulated her spiritual power to sense her surroundings. Finding everything otherwise normal, excitement immediately appeared in her eyes.

But she quickly came back to herself. Her gaze dropped to the ground beneath the resting Scorpion Emperor, and she struck without warning. In rapid succession she sealed Yuan Gang’s acupoints, then sent several silk ribbons drifting out to bind him.

“What are you doing?” Yuan Gang demanded.

Lü Wushuang did not answer. With a flash she dropped from the Scorpion Emperor’s back and smashed through the ground with a boom, burrowing directly beneath the sand.

Yuan Gang could roughly guess what she was doing. He did not hurry to struggle free. With her cultivation, he knew he had no chance of escaping for the moment anyway. Instead, he immediately began making deep “hoh, hoh” sounds.

The Scorpion Emperor shifted its massive body uneasily and turned to face another direction.

Soon the sand exploded again. Lü Wushuang shot out and landed on the Scorpion Emperor’s back, staring at Yuan Gang.

The passage was gone.

The passage between the two worlds actually moved.

She wanted to say it aloud, but she did not dare reveal that fact in front of Yuan Gang.

Originally, she had thought that once she found the entrance, she could simply remember its location. Then entering and leaving in the future would be easy.

Only now did she realize she had miscalculated. The passage itself shifted. In other words, if she wanted to leave this place, she would still have to rely on the man in front of her.

That left her somewhat uneasy, so she had no intention of letting Yuan Gang know the truth. It would be easier to control him that way.

Of course, judging by the speed at which the passage had shifted while they crossed it, it did not move very quickly. If she plunged underground now and searched rapidly, she should still be able to find it.

But after finally managing to enter this world, how could she willingly give up exploring it so easily?

She released the restrictions on Yuan Gang and withdrew the silk ribbons binding him.

Yuan Gang abruptly stood and planted his saber before him. “Where are we going?”

The words had barely left his mouth when the Scorpion Emperor suddenly moved. It burst into a wild sprint, nearly throwing both riders off balance.

Lü Wushuang’s voice sank. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know.”

“Make it stop.”

Yuan Gang immediately began calling “hoh, hoh” over and over. The Scorpion Emperor showed no sign of slowing. When Yuan Gang stopped, he looked back at her. “I don’t know what’s wrong. It seems to have gone out of control.”

“Out of control?” That was exactly what Lü Wushuang feared most. If it truly went out of control, how were they supposed to get back? She pressed him again. “Try again!”

Yuan Gang obeyed, calling for quite some time without any effect. Finally he turned back. “It’s useless. It feels like it wants to take us somewhere.”

“Take us somewhere?” Lü Wushuang frowned suspiciously. She stopped urging him for the moment and slowly scanned their surroundings, her eyes flickering.

The one-armed man stood with his saber planted in one hand. Beside him, the woman wore the uniform of a common soldier, her long hair streaming in the wind.

One knew exactly what was happening but, as always, showed nothing on his face. The other watched with faint anticipation in her shifting gaze, wondering where the Scorpion Emperor meant to take them.

Neither spoke again. They simply let the Scorpion Emperor race across the desert.

What was coming came at last.

On the desert horizon, a towering stone structure gradually emerged.

Yuan Gang stared at it, the corners of his mouth drawing taut.

Lü Wushuang’s bright eyes fixed on it with open anticipation as it drew nearer and nearer. She murmured, “What is that?”

Yuan Gang lied. “I don’t know.”

The closer they came, the more immense the structure appeared. The Scorpion Emperor finally stopped at the foot of it.

Lü Wushuang tilted her head back to study the towering pyramid. “This definitely wasn’t formed naturally. Someone built it.”

Yuan Gang said nothing. His gaze moved along the base, silently counting the order of the stone blocks. After fixing on one particular spot in the sand, he quietly watched Lü Wushuang’s reaction from the corner of his eye.

Without warning, Lü Wushuang flashed upward and floated directly onto the top of the pyramid. Just as she prepared to inspect it, her gaze caught the oasis beyond the edge of the desert, and she looked into the distance.

Yuan Gang leapt down with his saber. He walked to a certain spot and stopped. After glancing at Lü Wushuang’s back atop the pyramid, he suddenly turned and released a series of low “hoh, hoh” calls.

The Scorpion Emperor immediately began burrowing underground with a great rustling crash.

Lü Wushuang spun around from the top of the pyramid. Seeing the Scorpion Emperor disappearing beneath the sand, she was startled. She flashed down and shouted, “What are you doing?”

“I didn’t do anything. It suddenly stopped obeying me.”

“Call it back out immediately!”

Yuan Gang at once roared “hoh, hoh” over and over. Beneath their feet, the Scorpion Emperor seemed to struggle, churning the sand.

As stone pillars flickered in and out of sight beneath the shifting sand, a cold gleam flashed through Yuan Gang’s eyes. He stopped calling and looked back at Lü Wushuang. “I can sense its mood. It spent too long burrowing underground and is exhausted. It wants to rest beneath the sand and recover.”

When it came to something like this, of course he could tell her whatever he pleased.

Lü Wushuang had been about to blast the Scorpion Emperor back out of the ground. She stared at him instead. “You’re certain you can summon it again?”

Yuan Gang nodded. His gaze suddenly settled on the ground. He extended the Three-Roars Saber and scraped aside some sand, exposing carved stone.

That naturally caught Lü Wushuang’s attention. Seeing writing among the carvings, she immediately reached out and made a grasping motion.

Whoosh!

A stone pillar a little over three feet long ripped free of the sand and flew into her hands. Lü Wushuang caught it with both hands and examined the exquisite patterns covering its surface, turning it over as she read aloud, “Treasure Tomb...”

Brilliance suddenly flared in her eyes.

She twisted around to stare at the enormous pyramid and murmured again, “Treasure Tomb!”

Yuan Gang asked flatly, “What does that mean?”

Lü Wushuang ignored him and examined the stone pillar again. When she noticed the obvious tenon projecting from its base, she finally turned and gave the entire pyramid a serious inspection, apparently trying to locate where the pillar had originally belonged.

Her gaze suddenly shifted to the summit. She flashed upward, carrying the pillar with her, and landed at the very top. Seeing that windblown sand covered the stone platform there, she swept her sleeve and cleared it away.

Yuan Gang climbed up quickly as well. By the time he arrived, Lü Wushuang was already comparing the patterns on the pillar’s tenon with a recessed socket in the stone platform and lowering it into place.

Thunk!

It slid in completely, fitting perfectly like a standing inscription tablet.

“So it really did belong here!” Lü Wushuang said with delight.

Yuan Gang’s voice remained cold. “What is it?”

“I’d like to know what’s buried inside this tower myself, something important enough to be called a ‘Treasure Tomb.’”

She reached out and probed with spiritual power.

She discovered nothing useful and began examining the pyramid from top to bottom.

From beside her, Yuan Gang remarked, “If something is buried inside, just open it and see.”

Lü Wushuang considered that and found no fault with it. She pressed a hand to the side of the stone platform and tried to move it with spiritual power.

The moment she exerted force, however, she discovered that it would barely budge. At the same time, a faint rumbling sounded through the sky.

She looked up and saw a thin mist gathering overhead.

Lü Wushuang frowned. “The energies of Heaven and Earth are fluctuating. This pyramid seems to be a formation.”

Yuan Gang said, “Then whatever is buried here must be important enough to require a formation for protection. With your cultivation, surely a pile of stones like this can’t stop you.”

Lü Wushuang gave him a sidelong look. “If I use my full strength, shattered stone will explode everywhere. You may not be able to withstand it from this close. Go down first.”

Yuan Gang turned and jumped down without another word.

He did more than simply go down. He hurried to put as much distance between himself and her as possible.

[End of Chapter 1409]