Chapter 528 The Secret of the Stone Statue

With a big push from Long Tianyu and Lin Mengya, the statue of the king of medicine fell onto the floor with a loud “Boom”.

Like Zuo Qiuyu, Long Tianyu and Lin Mengya was stunned.

Why was the statue of the king of medicine be so light?

Moreover, the statue of the king of medicine did not shatter.

The three of them stood rooted to the ground, stunned. All their gazes were fixed on the statue on the floor.

“Uh…”

Lin Mengya held back her words in hesitation. Initially, the primitive-looking statue of the king of medicine appeared to be heavily laden with its history.

However, given the situation, Lin Mengya took a more careful look at it and realized that the statue seemed to be hollow. It was probably made of hardwood overlaid with metal.

When she recovered from the shock, she could tell that the opening at the base of the statue could probably accommodate the size of a person.

“Come over quickly! We may have found the third way of exit!”

Lin Mengya exclaimed excitedly. At the same time, the thick smoke had almost reached their nostrils.

The great discovery reignited their hope.

While Long Tianyu stood by Lin Mengya, trying to protect her, he took the make-do burning torch from Yu An and threw it into the opening.

The fire lit up the passageway which could only accommodate one person at one time. Although the inner walls were not especially smooth, it would not be a problem having one person entering at any one time.

The torch continued burning even more brightly. This meant that the passageway was ventilated.

It would definitely lead them outside. Long Tianyu exchanged looks with Lin Mengya, then he took the lead and jumped down.

“Be careful!”

Lin Mengya watched anxiously as he leaped in and eventually landed nimbly.

He picked up the torch and explored further into the passageway with caution.

After some time, Long Tianyu turned back and nodded towards Lin Mengya.

“It’s very spacious here, and it’s not stuffy at all. All of you, come on down.”

Having the assurance from Long Tianyu, Lin Mengya finally felt at ease.

In the midst of the smoke, there was new hope.

“Get down here, I’ll catch you.”

Long Tianyu reached out his arms and caught the legs of Lin Mengya, who was sitting on him by now.

She landed safely on the ground.

However, Zuo Qiuyu seemed to suddenly remember something. Together with Yu An, they tried to adjust the position of the shrine.

“Will you guys get down here quickly? It’s too dangerous for you to stay there. The thick smoke will kill you!”

Lin Mengya called out to them urgently. However, to her surprise, Yu An and Zuo Qiuyu were using all their strength to set the statue upright again.

“Will the two of you please stand aside. Yu An, you get down first and I’ll set the statue upright.”

Finally, Zuo Qiuyu was had learned to be smart. He finally abandoned the idea of fighting those people outside.

Lin Mengya knew what he was thinking. That door may not stand the burning fire. If she guessed correctly, the Chief Elder and Master Yuan had likely been trapped and died in the same manner.

Those people were actually doing this evil but a familiar job with ease.

Eventually, Yu An and Zuo Qiuyu landed safely with soft thuds.

Following their escape, the choking smell of burning subsided.

Lin Mengya breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, luck was still on her side.

Although the passageway wound and turned, Long Tianyu held tightly to her hand all the way. She was no longer feeling anxious in the dark.

They did not know how long they had been walking when a ray of light came through the end of the passageway.

At this juncture, Lin Mengya stopped everyone and said that they should go out one by one slowly, lest the sunlight became too piercing for their eyes.

Unaware of where they were all the while, it was until they crawled out of the opening that Lin Mengya realized that they were already at ground level.

The morning light shone. The sun had risen outside.

As usual, Lin Mengya felt that the early morning hours was a wonderful time.

“This is great, we finally escaped!”

As unexpected as it was, they had survived the long, agonizing night.

As they looked around, they realized they seemed to have emerged from a rockery.

“Yu An, do you know where we are?”

The three of them turned to look at Yu An simultaneously, but he merely dazed for a moment, then nodded.

“This must be somewhere behind where our accommodation. Follow me. I believe no one would see us along this way.”

Although the ordeal they went through was scary, they did not succumb to danger. In fact, they were beginning to feel that their relationship with Yu An had grown because they had been through adversities together.

Under the shine of the morning light, the four of them sneaked back to their small courtyard as if they were thieves.

They waited for the last of them to go over the wall, the four of them exchanged looks before returning to their respective rooms quietly.

The disciples who were guarding by the entrance to the courtyard had been deployed in the night. Therefore, no one knew that the four of them had sneaked out for an adventure underground.

Feeling exhausted from their night’s adventure, Lin Mengya finally set eyes on her bed. Ignoring the dust on her body, she removed the outermost layer of her clothing and crawled into bed.

She had actually been on her foot the entire night, traversing underground. It was no wonder that her legs felt as heavy as lead.

Just when she was about to close her eyes, she spied Long Tianyu who was getting ready to rest on the mattress outside, which was really inconvenient for him.

Lin Mengya paused for a moment before she called out to him gently, saying, “Come over here to sleep with me. Anyway, everybody is tired, right?”

Once she finished speaking, she closed her eyes and missed the smile that appeared in Long Tianyu’s eyes.

He knew Lin Mengya could not bear to see him sleeping on the mattress outside.

He removed the outer layer of this clothing and climbed onto her bed, natural and poised. He even went further by pulling Lin Mengya into his arms.

He definitely did not make a loss tonight.

Because of the incident of someone stealing the ice last night, those disciples who had been deceived could only blame it on bad luck.

In fear that Lin Mengya would question them, no one had dared come over here to look for more trouble.

The four of them slept so soundly all the way to the time of sunset when they got up on their own reluctantly, wishing they could continue to sleep.

After carefully washing up, Lin Mengya let loose her hair, wiping it dry with a towel. At the same time, she fiddled with the jade token with the word “Shen” engraved on it.

Now that her heart had calmed and settled, Lin Mengya’s highly intelligent mind started to work at its normal capacity again.

If the Chief Elder and Master Yuan had died being trapped inside there, this secret, would shake the entire Pavilion of Herbs when it came to light.

However, the incident was past and circumstances were different. Whatever evidence there was would have been gone.

Without concrete evidence, their accusations might bring disaster upon them instead.

Although they had stumbled upon the evidence, there was nothing they could do. On the contrary, they could bring trouble on themselves if they were to make use of it.

As Lin Mengya fiddled with the jade token which was the size of her palm, a thought went through her mind. Given the Chief Elder’s status and reputation, he ought to have been an intelligent man apart from possessing excellent medical skills.

If Nan Rui and his gang were the real culprits, the Chief Elder might have managed to leave behind some kind of evidence.

All of a sudden, she had a brainwave.

Yes, it had to be the box with an abstruse secret!

Although opening the box would mean that they would have an edge in becoming the Chief Elder’s successor, how audacious of them to think of exchanging Zuo Qiuyu’s life for the key to the box with an abstruse secret!

Now it seemed that there was something they highly esteemed in the exclusive realm of being the Chief Elder.

For the most part of their lives, they ought to have been waiting desperately for the position of the Chief Elder.

What they cared about was none other than power and authority.

If Zuo Qiuyu eventually became the Chief Elder, they could well use their prestige to make Zuo Qiuyu the puppet.

However, what if there were some secret evidence that could destroy their reputation completely when exposed?

Then Zuo Qiuyu, who was an outsider, would become their target of destruction!

After she figured this out, the things that followed made much more sense.

It was no wonder that Qian Yuming would rather sacrifice his beloved disciple so that he could vilify Zuo Qiuyu.

They might have left them a leeway so that they could take away Zuo Qiuyu’s qualification to continue in the competition!