By the time Zhong Lin arrived, Li Guanqi had already finished the fight on his end.
Zhong Lin reeked of gunpowder; the sphere the enemy had hurled earlier was actually packed full of it. The explosion had held him back for a brief moment, yet in just that sliver of lost time, the clash between the two had already ended.
Meanwhile, down on the third tier below, outside a mysterious altar.
Over a dozen black-robed figures were gathered. Their leader suddenly took out a jade disc, his expression shifting repeatedly before he said in a heavy voice, "The leader of Squad Four is dead!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, a black-robed man beside him with a blue armband tied around his sleeve said in a deep voice, "Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella is dead? The Great Xia Sword Sect disciples who entered this time are generally quite weak. Who could have killed Thousand-Mechanism Umbrella?"
A purple armband was tied to the leader's right arm. He said in a low voice, "Never mind them for now! How many Great Xia Sword Sect disciples have your other two squads killed?"
The one with the blue armband quietly answered, "Five."
The black-robed man with the yellow armband said solemnly, "Only three on our side. Great Xia Sword Sect sent in a few late Foundation Establishment fellows this time, and they're rather troublesome."
At last, the leader said in a grim tone, "Fifty people entered. My squad killed four, leaving thirty-eight. Don't worry about the rest for now. Before they find this place, let's head down to the bottom tier and locate the Thousand Mechanism Formation Plate!"
Meanwhile, on the uppermost tier, Li Guanqi had also discovered something unusual after stripping open the corpse's garments.
Tied around the dead man's right arm was a strip of white silk resembling an armband, yet it bore no pattern or insignia. Moreover, the man appeared to be a youth in his mid-twenties, not at all like a disciple of an orthodox sect. Several scars ran across his face, making him look far more like an unaffiliated rogue cultivator from the martial world.
Glancing at the nick on his dharma artifact longsword, Li Guanqi frowned slightly. He picked up the white umbrella lying on the ground and was surprised to find that the blades fired from it could actually be reinserted into the frame. It was just a pity about the thin rapier concealed within the handle.
Still, the white umbrella was snow-white all over and felt smooth as porcelain to the touch; the crafting materials alone were extraordinarily rare. Besides, the umbrella itself was already comparable to a dharma artifact. Li Guanqi stowed it away, figuring he could exchange it for some spirit stones at the Hundred Treasures Pavilion once he was out.
At this moment, Zhong Lin spoke up from the side: "Just who on earth are these people?!"
Li Guanqi pondered for a long while before murmuring, "I don't know. They look like rogue cultivators from the martial world, but their strength cannot be overlooked." The man he had just killed had only recently reached late Foundation Establishment, his cultivation realm still somewhat unstable. Even so, the white umbrella he wielded had caused Li Guanqi no small amount of trouble. "We still don't know what their objective is, but one thing is clear: they want to slaughter every disciple from our sect."
Li Guanqi kicked the corpse down the stairs. Plunging through the multi-tier atrium, the body was blasted by a jet of flame as it passed the next tier down. Engulfed in raging fire, it finally crashed onto the bottom floor with a dull thud.
This sight made Li Guanqi knit his brows, muttering inwardly, *Could it be that descending each tier triggers another mechanism trap?*
Just as he suspected, every single tier activated a different type of trap.
Li Guanqi led Zhong Lin as they began searching for clues across the thirteenth tier. The place was like a labyrinth; many structures lacked their corresponding mechanisms and could not be triggered or opened at all.
Yet just as Li Guanqi passed by a pavilion, the 'Di' bronze token inside his storage ring stirred!
Li Guanqi called out to Zhong Lin, who was still walking ahead, and stopped before the pavilion. An intuition suddenly struck him: the master of this pavilion and the master of the manor outside the city had to be the same person!
He pulled out the token and slowly inserted it into the recess beside the pavilion door.
*Rumble!!*
A gleam flashed in Li Guanqi's eyes. He hadn't expected it would actually open!
The two slipped inside and found signs that someone had once lived here, though it was from several thousand years ago. Finding nothing of great value, Li Guanqi suddenly thought of something and spoke up.
"Search the room to see if there are any hidden chambers or mechanisms."
Zhong Lin's eyes lit up, and he began rummaging through the room's bookcases and the ornaments on the desks. Li Guanqi observed their surroundings for a moment, then went up into the master bedroom of the pavilion. Looking over the rather simple furnishings inside, Li Guanqi walked straight over to the bed.
Lifting the bed boards, he indeed discovered a small recess!
*Clack, clack! Clack, clack!!*
The sound of shifting gears echoed, and a seam cracked open across the once-smooth wood beneath the bed boards. Immediately following, the faint glimmer of an array's radiance appeared before Li Guanqi.
Before he could even call out to Zhong Lin, a powerful suction dragged him straight into the teleportation array!
*Hum!!*
The soft drone caught Zhong Lin's attention, but when he rushed upstairs, all he found was a bare bed frame.
Zhong Lin's expression shifted, at a loss for what to do. Looking at the shut door, he let out a soft sigh and murmured, "Perhaps this is for the best. If I can't get out, then so be it. With my current injuries, staying with him would only make me a burden...
"I just wonder how the others are doing."
At this moment, not a single disciple from the Great Xia Sword Sect was down in this subterranean city. They had all gathered into several small groups, wandering above Dikun City. The earlier collapse had not swallowed the entirety of Dikun City; it was hard to say whether Li Guanqi and Zhong Lin were lucky or unfortunate.
*Hum!!*
The floating sensation beneath Li Guanqi's feet vanished. Feeling solid ground underfoot, his heart settled slightly.
Yet immediately after, Li Guanqi felt a chill shoot up from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head!!
Before him lay an enormous altar spanning a hundred zhang across, flanked on the left and right by two towering, silver-white puppets! Across the puppets' bodies were countless intricate black-and-gold engravings that shimmered with a faint luminescence. Between the two puppets, exactly a hundred zhang directly opposite Li Guanqi, stood a longsword thrust into the ground, completely dark green.
Behind the longsword was a pitch-black gate, beside which glowing characters read: "Thirteen!"
The sword spirit, who had remained silent all this time, chose this moment to speak softly:
"Be careful. Those are two puppet soldier pellets!"
Li Guanqi knitted his brows and transmitted his voice, "Puppet soldier pellets?"
The sword spirit murmured, "Indeed. Though they are only the lowest-grade silver armor soldier pellets, they were crafted by the Mohist lineage, after all. Each is comparable to late Foundation Establishment. If you can claim these two soldier pellets, it will be quite a harvest."
A sharp glint flashed in Li Guanqi's eyes, and he rubbed his hands together in excitement.
Yet the sword spirit chuckled softly. "However... the ultimate reward of this soldier pellet trial is that sword!"
"Why?"
"Because that is a soul armament!"
Chapter 92