Cloud of the Qing Dynasty

Everyone walked forward for a while, the cave began to narrow, and the terrain gradually rose.

Finally, they saw an upwardly extending step built on the edge of the cave. This step was also cut directly into the rock wall, but it was much steeper than the step they descended on the other side. At the end of the step, a vertical shaft was faintly visible. , I don't know where it leads to, it seems that this should be the exit of the secret passage.

Qin Wuqi thought that although the Red Lotus Sect had withdrawn in a hurry this time, the previous traps were not temporarily designed, but were already prepared there, so there must be other ambushes ahead.

Of course, they have already come here, and it is impossible for them to turn around and retreat. Even if they know there is an ambush, they must go forward so as not to lower their morale.

Jiang Shi and Fu Jinglei went up the steps first, while the others stayed in the cave and waited.

Jiang Shi beat with the iron rod all the way, but found nothing abnormal. When he reached the shaft, Fu Jinglei asked him to extinguish the torch and backed away a little. He held a shield in one hand and a knife in the other, and looked up cautiously. glanced.

Just when he poked his head out, something suddenly fell on his head. Fu Jinglei quickly stepped back, only to find that what fell was just ordinary water.

But a little too much.

The turbid water flowed down the shaft, Fu Jinglei was taken aback, pulled Jiang Shi, and retreated quickly. Almost in an instant, the water flow became very turbulent, rushing down rumblingly.

The people waiting in the cave screamed in horror when they first saw the water: "There is a flood, run!"

"Don't run back!" Zhang Chi shouted immediately, "You will be washed away! Go to a higher place!"

Before the words fell, Mu Liuyun grabbed Zhang Chi's arm and jumped onto a stone platform that was much higher than the ground. The water flowed over the place where they stood just now, without even touching Mu Liuyun's shoes. A little wet.

The stone platform is connected to the cave wall, sloping outwards and very smooth, so as not to slip down by tightly hugging a nearby stalactite hanging from the ceiling of the cave, there are also many people with quick reactions, jumping on it like them. The stalagmites or stone platforms avoided the raging flood, but some people still ignored the advice and ran towards the way they came from.

Fortunately, Qin Wuqi, Master Huiming, Tianhe Taoist and other people with high levels of martial arts and calm mind stopped these restless people one by one and drove them to the nearby stalagmites and stone pillars, regardless of the knee-high rushing water.

Fu Jinglei and Jiang Shi were completely rushed out of the channel by the turbulent water. Fu Jinglei grabbed Jiang Shi and threw it on the stone beside him, but he was washed away by the increasingly turbulent water. It was Qin Wuqi who caught him. He jumped out of the water and landed on a big rock.

Right now, the people here are safe for the time being, but many people are already drenched, and the torches are almost all extinguished. In the darkness, only the sound of rumbling water can be heard. The echo of the cave makes the momentum of this water flow so majestic that it is hopeless. degree.

In the only faint firelight left, people can only see the entrance of the channel spraying water violently, and the flood water poured into the cave continuously, and then rushed towards the lower ground.

There are still many iron guards in the downstream cave, I am afraid that it is difficult to escape, and when the water fills the cave below and then floods up, none of them can survive, martial arts are fundamental in such a situation It's useless, no matter how powerful a person is, it's impossible to swim up that vertical shaft against such a topless torrent of water.

"What should we do? We can't escape!" Some pessimistic people began to wail, "They dug through the bottom of the lake, and the water in Dongting Lake poured down, and we will all be drowned!"

"Nonsense!" Zhang Chi retorted forcefully, "This cave has not been submerged for thousands of years. The rock formation above the head must be very thick. How can the Red Lotus Sect dig through it if they want to? Besides, Wei Fantian is not How can you have such a great ability, why don't you dive to the bottom of the lake and dig one?"

"Everyone, don't get confused." Qin Wuqi said, even though he was drenched, he did not lose his demeanor, "I have been estimating the distance along the way. Although I can't say how accurate it is, at least I can be sure that the exit of this cave is far away from the lake shore. It can’t be Dongting Lake’s backflow.”

"Then what's going on here?" A Snow Mountain Sect disciple who couldn't swim asked miserably while holding a stone pillar.

Zhang Chi said: "Don't worry, since there is an underground river in this cave, there must be a water outlet, and it won't be filled, and you see, the water flow has slowed down."

Sure enough, during the time they said these few words, the water gushing out from that channel has obviously decreased, and the water level in the cave has also dropped immediately. Although the current is still very turbulent, but The momentum of weak follow-up is already very obvious.

"Amitabha, what a blessing." Master Huiming breathed a sigh of relief.

"When this secret road was built, we should have considered the danger of the backflow of the lake, so we are not lucky." Zhang Chi said pertinently, "We can only say that Wei Fantian was too well prepared."

Miaoyinshi, who was also drenched all over, said in a very bad tone: "Since the water can't fill the cave, and it can't drown us, why do you say that he is well-prepared?"

"I believe he wants to drown us, but there are no such external conditions. In order to prevent the water from flowing backwards, the outlet should be far away from the river bank and the lake. If they dig a canal to bring water here in a big way, the amount of work will be too big. , and definitely can’t escape the eyes and ears of Jinghong Villa.” Zhang Chi said, “Although he can’t drown us, he can scare us to death. There were so many traps and traps before. Morale is already low, everyone is in danger, and seeing this sudden flood, a large group of frightened people all run back like flies without their heads. At that time, some people may get lost and some will lose their way. When the water rushes into the underground waterway, some people will fight to squeeze into the narrow passage first, when the time comes, the water that can't drown people will not only kill people, but may also create divisions in the Wulin League."

"It's really vicious." Qin Wuqi said, "Now that the water flow is low, I'll take the lead and charge up. We must not let Wei Fantian, this insidious villain, go."

The members of the Nine Great Sects were fighting against each other like never before, and each of them was so angry that they wanted to go together. In the end, Fu Jinglei held the iron shield and took the lead. The shafts of the two rows of footholds climbed up.

Surprisingly, this time, they did not encounter any obstacles in their progress, climbed out of the shaft very smoothly, and saw the sun again in a rather unexpected way.

After the others climbed out of the shaft one after another, Mu Liuyun still looked at the mud everywhere after the flood receded with disgust, and Zhang Chi suggested sincerely, "How about I carry you?"

Mu Liuyun gave him a sideways glance, and then resolutely jumped into the mud that almost covered his feet, and walked towards the shaft with his feet covered in mud.

Zhang Chi wanted to say that he didn't mean to laugh at his cleanliness, but Mu Liuyun's figure had disappeared at the end of the passage.

It took a long time to coax him a little better, but unexpectedly this made him angry again.

Zhang Chi rubbed his nose helplessly, and carefully climbed down from the smooth stone platform.

***

Qin Wuqi thought that there would be a vicious fight waiting for them, so he took the lead and rushed up, but Wei Fantian didn't let him do what he wanted.

After pouring all the water that could be poured, Wei Fantian lay at the mouth of the well and listened intently for a while, and found that the large group of masters below had not suffered any damage, so he decisively gave up even the favorable terrain that was very suitable for an ambush, and led his subordinates He ran away in an instant, and carved two sentences on the tree trunk next to him: "Have a good time today, and we will meet later."

When Qin Wuqi and others climbed up, they could not even see the figure. The extremely angry Miaoyin teacher smashed the tree trunk with one palm, and said angrily: "This thief! You are so shameless!"

The pent-up anger of the others had no way to vent at all, so they could only suffocate it back into their stomachs, almost causing internal injuries.

After Zhang Chi climbed out, he looked around first. The sky was a little bright now, but the surrounding scenery was not difficult to distinguish. It seemed that the exit was originally a well, but the stones along the well had been destroyed. I built a canal and led all the water from a nearby pond into the well. Now there are only shallow pits left in the pond, and some small fish fry are struggling and jumping in it.

"So that's how it is." Zhang Chi suddenly realized, "It's a good idea to use fish ponds to store water and release water to block pursuers or scare people at critical times. Wei Fantian must have prepared a trap a long time ago to wait for someone Come on."

Compared to the angry people around him, Qin Wuqi's expression was calm, but his tone was unavoidably low: "This place used to be the farm of Jinghong Villa, probably because they didn't know that the exit of the secret road was here. The property was sold when it was in the hands of the uncle, and it has been sold several times since then. Recently, it was bought by someone to dig a fishpond to raise fish. Now it seems that the person who bought this property should be a secret agent of the Red Lotus Sect. Maybe where did they get this news that even I don't know, maybe even God is helping them. They just dug up the dry well that had been blocked by mud for the sake of pretending to raise fish, but they accidentally discovered the well below. Karst caves and secret passages. They may have been secretly operating around Jinghong Villa several months ago, but I didn't know anything about it."

Zhang Chi said comfortingly, "It shouldn't be that long. It will take time to explore the cave and clear the secret passage that hasn't been used for decades."

Qin Wuqi smiled calmly, with wet hair sticking to his face, which made him look less calm and calm than before, and his tone was a little tired: "Today's martial arts conference will still be held as usual, everyone, why don't you go back first?" Let the villa rest for a while, and let Qin take care of the follow-up matters."

The members of the Nine Great Sects didn't even bother to be courteous to him, and with water stains, mud and frustration all over their bodies, they went back to Jinghong Villa to wash and change their clothes without mentioning it.

In this scene, it seemed that Wei Fantian used his ingenuity to treat a group of decent martial arts people like monkeys, but in fact, due to Zhang Chi's quick wit and Qin Wuqi's stability, the Wulin League was completely embarrassed. Beyond a point, there was almost no injury. Even the iron guards who stayed in the cave were only washed down by the water and suffered some minor injuries. None of them were drowned.

On the other hand, the Wulin League, which seemed to be completely at a disadvantage, shattered Wei Fantian's plot to set fire to the Jinghong Villa, found out the secret way for them to enter and exit the Jinghong Villa, and completely sealed off this passage.

If the Red Lotus Sect wanted to break into the Jinghong Villa from the front of the well-defended pontoon bridge to sabotage the martial arts conference, they would have almost no chance of winning. Finally, Jinghong Villa no longer has to worry about it all the time.

From that day until the end of the martial arts conference, the Red Lotus Sect failed to make any decent movements.

It was only later that people found out that the reason why the Red Lotus Sect temporarily died down was simply because Wei Fantian saw that the defense here was tight and there was no gap to exploit, so he shifted his energy to other places.