*Clang clang---*

The crude gears grinding together made an unsettling sound as if the elevator would collapse the next second and send the two of them falling into the pit.

Surrounded by rock walls, it was pitch black inside the elevator.

Ye Anping could only estimate how far they had descended through the sense of weightlessness under his feet. Anyway, they couldn't use this thing for their escape. They could only open a hole in the mountain wall and rely on the chaotic spiritual veins and wind currents to run away with their flying swords.

However, after losing sight, his other senses automatically became more sensitive.

Although he didn't place his ear on Feng Yu Die's chest, he could still hear her heartbeat racing as if she was scared or something.

He frowned and asked, "You can speak now. What's wrong with you?"

"It's nothing, just..." Feng Yu Die's right hand, intertwined with Ye Anping's fingers, tightened involuntarily. "I'm a little scared. It's too dark here, and the cave is..."

Hearing this, Ye Anping suddenly remembered what Xiao Tian had said about Master Taixu the night before he sent Feng Yu Die to Yun Jiujiu. He sighed lightly and said, "It will be light soon."

"Mm..."

Feng Yu Die pursed her lips and closed her eyes, pricking her ears to listen to the sound of gears grinding inside the walls on both sides. She silently counted in her mind.

*Clang clang---*

*Clang---*

... ...

When the count reached four hundred and twenty-seven, the sound of gear meshing stopped. Feng Yu Die slowly opened her eyes and found that she and Ye Anping were inside a huge stone room with only a few torches in the four corners to provide lighting. There were five identical lifting platforms around, leading to an unknown destination.

"Shh--"

With this order, Ye Anping held her in his arms and stepped out the door frame of the stone room, arriving at a circular passage.

Large and small doors lined neatly on both sides of the passage. After the two walked forward for about a hundred feet by the wall on the right, a tall and thin man with a sword on his back appeared at the end of the passage.

The man seemed to be going to take the elevator and walked toward them.

Ye Anping took a quick glance but didn't dare to use his spiritual sense to probe. When he saw the hilt of the longsword behind the tall and thin man, he inferred that this was probably a cultivator in the *Core Formation* stage.

So he quickly stopped aside with Feng Yu Die, turned sideways, and waited for the man to pass in front of them. Then, he nodded respectfully. "Greetings, Senior."

"Hm?"

The man nodded and walked over, but just as Ye Anping was about to continue forward, that person suddenly turned around.

"Wait."

"Yes, Senior?"

"You are one of He Longyu's people, right?"

"Yes, I am Ye An, and this is my companion. Earlier, Senior He asked us to stop the pursuers, and she got injured..."

The man raised his eyebrows, somewhat surprised, and asked, "Oh? How did you escape?"

"Well, thanks to Senior Zhou's sacrifice, we were able to escape from that man's sword."

"Is that so..."

The man nodded, then squinted his eyes and looked at Feng Yu Die in Ye Anping's arms. He briefly probed with his spiritual sense but didn't see any problem, so he casually took out a bottle of low-grade pills and handed it over, saying, "Take her to rest first. We still need more people to refine the formation, but you can go there later. He Longyu is already there, so if you don't know what to do, ask him, and he will teach you."

"Alright."

Ye Anping lowered his head and agreed, feeling relieved in his heart. He then continued to walk toward the passage with Feng Yu Die in his arms.

... ...

Meanwhile, at the lowest level of *Snow Dragon Cave*.

Inside the stone chamber built with black bricks, the wood in the brazier crackled and popped as it burned, casting a flickering light that filled the entire room with an eerie atmosphere.

Yun Yiyi leaned against the corner of the stone wall, still wrapped in the quilt Yu Shuiting had covered her with.

*Drip---*

A drop of water fell from the ceiling, landing right on her eyelid.

Yun Yiyi squeezed her eyes slightly, then slowly opened them and looked around in a daze when suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head.

Then, she remembered that she seemed to have been knocked unconscious by the person who killed her husband.

As soon as she thought of Ye Anping being killed by those people, she felt her heart burning with anger, and she noisily ground her teeth.

But she quickly suppressed her anger and calmly observed her surroundings.

"This is..."

---"The underground."

"Eh?!"

Startled by the sudden voice in her ear, Yun Yiyi wanted to turn around and look, but her body was tied up, and she couldn't move. As soon as she twisted her body, she fell from her position against the wall and sprawled on the ground like a caterpillar.

"Heh~"

Seeing her like this, Yun Jiujiu smiled disdainfully, turned her head, and ignored her.

Yun Yiyi struggled for a while, and after rolling around, she finally saw that there was another person in the stone room, and this person also had golden curly hair.

She silently stared at Yun Jiujiu for a while, then asked, "Miss, are you an inner disciple?"

*Clank---*

The chains on Yun Jiujiu's body made a slight sound as she turned her head to look at Yun Yiyi with an incredulous expression. "Miss? What fuckin Miss! I am Yun Jiujiu!"

?

"What?"

"What the hell? You really don't recognize me, or are you pretending? In this situation, you still want to joke with me?"

Yun Yiyi rolled her eyes, looking her up and down. "I really didn't recognize you. Why are you wearing a skirt?"

"I... I... why can't I wear a skirt? Yun Yiyi!! I'm a girl too..."

"Are you?"

"Hiss--- Go to hell."

*Clank clank---*

Yun Jiujiu wanted to stand up and beat her, but the chains on her body were like a collar; she couldn't move at all. After pausing for a moment, she simply shouted, "Where is everyone?! Unlock these chains now, I want to beat her!!"

*Quite spirited, heh*... Yun Yiyi thought speechlessly, then she turned around and proceeded to a bench within the stone room, finally climbing up from the ground.

She looked around and tried to find something to remove the blanket from her body, but there was nothing in the room except for stones and a brazier.

In the end, Yun Yiyi had no choice but to say, "Help me remove the blanket. I can't move."

"Huh~ Can't you see what's wrapped around my hands and feet? I'd like to have your quilt. The person who tied you up was quite considerate, especially providing you with a quilt while I'm freezing to death here, damn it."

Yun Yiyi hopped over and came in front of Yun Jiujiu, but she lost her balance and bumped directly into Yun Jiujiu's chest.

*Bang---*

"Hiss---" Yun Yiyi took a deep breath in pain. "Your chest is harder than all the iron in the *Sword Pavilion*."

Yun Jiujiu glared at Yun Yiyi, then lowered her head and bit a corner of the quilt wrapped around her, shouting, "Roll!!"

"Roll what? Come on, help me get the quilt off."

"I told you to roll! Spin around, don't you understand?"

Yun Yiyi struggled for a while and said, "I can't roll."

"Use more force! You soft-footed shrimp... I'm biting it for you."

"Stop, stop... Hey, hey, hey, you're biting my flesh!!"

"Yuck--!"