"Hmm?" Watching Sima Yin escape into the crack, I furrowed my brows. But I didn't give up, quickly helping An Dingge up from the ground and stopping the bleeding for him!
Due to excessive blood loss, An Dingge's face was already very pale, and I didn't know what methods Sima Yin had used on him. After stabbing his arm just now, he didn't react at all?
Just as I finished stopping the bleeding for him, a noise came from the passage I had just come out of. I turned around to see Xu Jingyang and the others finally arriving here.
They were all quite skilled. Seeing An Dingge's pale face, Xu Jingyang hastily asked, "How is he?"
"Don't know!" I replied unenthusiastically, paying no further attention to them and instead directly pressing on An Dingge's acupoint. Disappointingly, An Dingge still showed no response.
At this moment, Xu Jingyang suddenly said, "He's been affected by a stupefaction spell, just stimulating the acupoint won't be enough!"
With that, he took out a few copper coins from his pocket, placed them directly on the major acupoints on An Dingge's lower abdomen, and then drew symbols in the air, fiercely patting the coins!
Pfft! With that strike, An Dingge on the ground immediately reacted, spitting out some filthy stuff. Fortunately, I dodged quickly, otherwise it would have sprayed all over my face.
Seeing my puzzled look, Xu Jingyang smiled and said, "It's not a powerful spell, just causing someone to fall unconscious. Even if it's not resolved, they would wake up after two or three days."
Before he could finish his words, Ning Zhaoyang charged angrily, cursing, "How come you couldn't protect them? As soon as we left, something like this happened here! Don't you know..."
"Go to hell!" I had been holding back my anger. When I heard this baseless accusation, my pent-up rage erupted like a volcano, and I kicked Ning Zhaoyang in the chest.
Ning Zhaoyang was caught off guard and was kicked into the pit of bones!
"Scoundrel!" Clearly infuriated, Ning Zhaoyang scrambled up and punched me in the chest. I didn't back down, fiercely swinging the torch in my hand at his fist!
"Stop!" Seeing an unavoidable fight about to break out, Xu Jingyang couldn't bear watching any longer, and hurried over to us. It seemed like the fight wouldn't happen, so I subconsciously put away the torch.
However, as Xu Jingyang approached, Ning Zhaoyang's eyes flashed with a hint of cunning. Despite the situation, he not only didn't retract his fist, but also accelerated!
"Damn it! Do you think I'm afraid of you?" Seeing this, I couldn't help but curse, and my qi surged instantly, pouring into the torch as I fiercely struck Ning Zhaoyang's fist with it.
"Hmm?" A seasoned veteran, Ning Zhaoyang almost instantly noticed the changes in the torch, his expression changing as he quickly dodged aside. Seizing the opportunity, I kicked him in the old waist once again.
It was his own bad luck. With his strength, even when I kicked him, in a prepared situation, he would have only taken a step back to steady himself. But unfortunately, he stepped on a bone, stumbled, and fell back into the pit!
"Ah?" Seeing this scene, everyone was stunned and looked at me, then at Ning Zhaoyang in the pit, looking dishevelled and bewildered.
"This..." Everyone was dumbfounded. If the previous time Ning Zhaoyang fell into the pit because he was caught off guard, then what explanation could there be this time?
Would Ning Zhaoyang make the same mistake again?
Moreover, they had clearly noticed the hint of cunning in Ning Zhaoyang's eyes just now. Why, under these circumstances, was he still kicked into the pit by me?
"Nice one, kid!" Watching Ning Zhaoyang fall into the pit, Xu Jingyang surprisingly wasn't angry at all. Instead, he came forward, patted my shoulder, and couldn't help but chuckle, "I was worried you'd be at a disadvantage..."
"Scoundrel! I'll kill you!" Just then, Ning Zhaoyang crawled out of the pit, dusted off the bone powder on him, and charged at me once more.
"Enough!" Xu Jingyang was furious, stomping his foot, and a powerful aura spread instantly. Ning Zhaoyang, being the first to face it, couldn't help retreating a couple of steps.
"Captain! You..." Seeing Xu Jingyang's anger, Ning Zhaoyang seemed somewhat apprehensive, but he was also defiant and argued with Xu Jingyang.
"What about me?" Xu Jingyang glared at him fiercely, then said, "It was your bad idea to hide outside and test him! Otherwise, Sima Yin wouldn't have had the chance to strike!"
"Hmm?" My face instantly darkened to the extreme upon hearing this, and I subconsciously questioned, "What did you say? You were hiding outside?"
I knew it, why would it take so long to buy something? Turns out they never went far, but instead hid outside the Qiangu Cave.
Test me?
You're overestimating things, when did I say I wanted to join you?
"No, that... we..."
Seeing that my face was wrong, Xu Jingyang realized that he seemed to have let slip, and hurriedly explained, "Listen to me explaining!"
"Hmph! There's no need to explain anything, I'll say it again, I have no interest in joining you! You don't need to test me like this!"
With a cold hum, I stopped paying attention to them, and instead directly helped Anding to his feet, and then asked, "What exactly happened just now?"
As expected, Anding knew nothing about what had just happened, shook his head in confusion, and said, "I don't know, I just remember falling..."
At this point, Xu Jingyang once again walked up to me and said, "I apologize for what happened just now, but can you tell us what happened before we came here?"
I glanced at him, seeing that his attitude was indeed very sincere, and then told them exactly what had just happened.
"Adding the finishing touch?"
After hearing my account, Xu Jingyang immediately furrowed his brow, and carefully scrutinized the already closed stone carving on the wall.
The dragon was still the same dragon as before, but the blood that had just been put on its eye had disappeared, clearly absorbed.
"Could it be... that this door also requires the special bloodline of the Yi people to open?"
With a puzzled look, Xu Jingyang walked up to Anding and, like before, took a few drops of blood from his wound and, just like Sīmǎ Yìng, directly put the blood on the dragon's eye.
However, the stone carving showed no reaction at all, not even absorbing the blood, letting the blood drip down again.
"No, it's not possible!"
At this point, Anding suddenly spoke up, "My bloodline power at best can only be considered a catalyst. I think it's only to activate the phoenix feather. Without the phoenix feather, it's impossible to open this door..."
"That's not right!"
At this point, I suddenly spoke up, "Didn't you just say that to open this stone door requires the joint effort of two phoenix feathers? But I clearly saw that Sīmǎ Yìng also only had one phoenix feather!"
"That's the key issue!"
Without waiting for Anding to speak, Xu Jingyang suddenly took over and said, "I suspect that, in addition to the other phoenix feather, the bloodline power of the Yi people can also play a part as a substitute, which is why this stone door opened!"
As soon as he finished speaking, another member of the Religious Affairs Bureau beside him said, "In other words, if we can find the other phoenix feather, we can also open the stone door?"
"That's possible..."
Xu Jingyang smiled wryly and shook his head, saying, "It's just that, that thing has been lost for hundreds of years, who knows where it is..."
"That's true..."
Everyone's expression dimmed, shaking their heads one after another.
"Ah, well... let's go back first, healing the wounds is the priority..."