After retrieving the ancient bronze sword, Ning Beichen began to regulate his breathing to recover his power. His actions went completely unnoticed.
A night passed.
Those whom Ning Beichen had sent away the previous night were now cold corpses, with no chance of waking up.
Su Su's fever had subsided after a night's rest, but she was still very weak, making walking impossible.
Ning Beichen did not want to linger, so he directly had Zhao Yingdie carry her.
"This way, yes, this way. If I'm not mistaken, there's a stone statue not far ahead."
Su Su, weakly pointing the way from Zhao Yingdie's back, had to stop from time to time for her to study the path.
Fortunately, the journey had no major issues. Before long, Ning Beichen and his companions discovered a massive stone statue, half-covered by snow. If not for careful observation, one wouldn't have recognized it as a statue.
"This is it, put me down."
Su Su said.
Zhao Yingdie set her down, and Su Su excitedly walked towards the stone statue. Her previous weakness vanished as she saw it, and her spirits lifted.
"The stone statue is the entrance. There must be a mechanism nearby."
Su Su declared.
Without Ning Beichen's command, Yan Xiong and the others began clearing the snow from the statue and meticulously searching for a mechanism.
Shortly after, Wang Hu discovered an indentation on the top of the statue's head. He reached in, felt a rotatable mechanism, and gave it a forceful twist. The statue immediately began to vibrate.
A rumbling sound emanated from within the statue, loosening the surrounding ice and snow. Not only did Ning Beichen's location shake, but even Hong Huli and his group felt the tremors from afar.
"It's not good, an avalanche!"
Hong Huli's men cried out in alarm and scrambled to find places to take cover.
"It's not an avalanche, the vibration is coming from that direction..."
After a while, the tremors ceased, and no avalanche occurred. Hong Huli's men pointed towards Ning Beichen's location.
"If it's not an avalanche, then it must be them. Let's hurry over."
Master Beiqi, wearing a hood, said immediately.
Meanwhile, a gaping entrance appeared in the statue's abdomen, exciting Su Su. However, Ning Beichen frowned slightly.
If this was the entrance, it likely led to ordinary treasure. Ning Beichen wasn't interested in treasure; he was after a blessed land, particularly the bronze fragments.
Liu Yilin still lacked a suitable cultivation method, and Ning Beichen didn't want her to waste her talent on mediocre techniques.
Despite his disappointment, this was merely an entrance, and he wasn't entirely disheartened. Since they had come this far, they would enter and see what lay within.
As soon as everyone stepped inside the statue's belly, it began to shake again, and the entrance they had used sealed itself shut.
Ning Beichen paid it no mind. He reasoned that if they could enter, they could surely exit, and he wasn't worried.
They continued inward, following a winding, narrow passage. Su Su and her companions produced powerful flashlights for illumination. However, for safety, Ning Beichen had Yan Xiong scout ahead.
They proceeded along the winding passage for about ten minutes before encountering a vast, deep pit.
In the center of the pit, there had once been a bridge, but it was now broken, with a gap of at least several hundred meters.
Seeing this, Tian Hao, one of Su Su's companions, pulled out a long-barreled gun and fired a shot towards the other side.
With a bang.
A grappling hook attached to a rope shot towards the opposite bank, but its momentum was insufficient. The hook fell short, unable to reach its target.
"It's too far..."
Tian Hao shook his head at Su Su, a look of helplessness on his face. The rope was long enough, but the gun's power couldn't propel it that distance.
"Give me that thing."
Ning Beichen said to him.
Tian Hao, puzzled, handed the gun to Ning Beichen, not believing that Ning Beichen could succeed where he had failed.
However, Ning Beichen didn't take the gun. He simply grasped the grappling hook and threw it towards the other side.
Tian Hao watched this, his eyes almost popping out of his head.
He thought to himself, is this guy crazy?
He couldn't shoot it across with a firearm, and he expected to throw the hook?
How was that possible?
But he was quickly proven wrong. A long trajectory flew towards the other side, and they heard the sound of the hook catching onto a rock.
Ning Beichen pulled on it, nodded with satisfaction, and then tied the other end of the rope to a large rock, creating a makeshift zipline.
Tian Hao's eyelid twitched. He took out a lasso, preparing to secure it for Su Su to slide across.
But before he could act, Yan Xiong was already darting across the rope like a blur. In the blink of an eye, he had reached the other side.
Next were Zhou Yu and the others. They too didn't need any pulleys, effortlessly gliding across the rope as if skimming water, heedless of the danger below.
Soon, it was Zhao Yingdie's turn.
Holding Su Su with one arm, Zhao Yingdie also moved with incredible speed across the rope. Carrying a passenger had no apparent effect on her. In the blink of an eye, she had safely brought Su Su to the other side.
Ning Beichen glanced at the two of them, then reached out and grabbed their collars. Tian Hao and the other felt as though they were being shot from a cannon, whooshing across to the other side.
Even after Ning Beichen released their collars, they remained stunned, rooted to the spot.
After a long moment, their senses returned, and they struggled to articulate their feelings.
Fear?
Awe?
Or perhaps adoration and reverence?
They couldn't quite grasp it themselves.
One thing was certain, however: Ning Beichen and his companions were no ordinary people.
The group continued forward, soon arriving at another passage.
Just as Tian Hao prepared to step forward, Yan Xiong grabbed him back.
Tian Hao looked at Yan Xiong with confusion. Despite his annoyance, he dared not protest.
Yan Xiong gave him a cold glare, then reached out and pulled a stone from the wall.
Tian Hao watched in horror as Yan Xiong tossed the stone into the passage.
The stone tumbled across the ground, accompanied by a series of whistling sounds.
From the passage, countless arrows shot out. If Yan Xiong hadn't stopped him, Tian Hao would have been riddled with them by now.