The black smoke still billowed out in all directions, but it was gradually thinning.
No more black smoke gushed out from the stone thief's tunnel. With the source cut off, the black smoke finally dissipated completely about ten meters away from the rock wall.
In just a few minutes, the area around me turned into a dead and silent place.
Not only had the trees withered and the insects and beasts died, but even the soil had taken on a pitch - black, lifeless color.
"Hey! Say something!!"
I shouted loudly into the thief's tunnel. "If not, I'll climb back in!"
The stone tomb was so dark. If Si Jiangchen was the only one in there, given his temper, he might even drag out the tomb owner and beat them up...
The thief's tunnel was deathly silent. Although the black smoke had stopped billowing out, there was still a cold and stinking smell.
Gritting my teeth and suppressing my fear, I reached my hands and head back into the tunnel.
"Hey, girl, are you trying to get yourself killed?"
Just as my shoulders were about to enter the tunnel and I got my head full of stone chips, I heard someone whispering behind me. Then my feet were grabbed and I was yanked out forcefully.
I was pulled roughly onto the ground. I quickly turned around and saw two men looking at me nervously.
"You should leave this place immediately!"
I was startled and couldn't help shouting at them. "Are you crazy?!"
Why were these two here? Those black fumes could kill a person instantly!
"This mountain doesn't belong to you. Why are you being so fierce, little girl?!"
Both of them were dressed in Taoist robes. The older one was wearing an ordinary indigo - cloth Taoist robe with a bun on his head. He gave a cold snort. "Like father, like son. The old saying really makes sense!"
As he said this, he glanced at the thief's tunnel. "Who's trapped in there in your family?"
"None of your business!"
I was on full alert towards these two men who had appeared out of nowhere.
By now, the black smoke had completely seeped into the ground and disappeared. No wonder they could walk in unscathed.
The young Taoist priest looked to be in his early twenties. He had a very gentle smile and said, "Little girl, it's dangerous for you to climb in there in such a hurry all by yourself. We're just trying to give you a friendly reminder."
"..."
I was silent for a moment and then said, "Who said I'm alone? There are more than a dozen people from my family around here."
These two didn't look like good people at all.
What decent people would come running into the deep mountains and dense forests in the middle of the night?
There were no longer any of the troops brought by Si Jiangchen around me, and he was trapped inside the mountain. I was afraid these two guys would block the stone tunnel. If that happened, Si Jiangchen would never be able to get out.
"Then why don't you hurry up and call them to rescue the people inside?"
The young Taoist priest stood at the entrance of the tunnel and waved his hand twice. Immediately, he frowned. "This is the miasma from the ancient tomb. Good heavens! If it's any later, the people inside might not survive!"
To be honest, if I were alone in this wilderness, I would have climbed in to look for Si Jiangchen without hesitation. But now that these two mysterious guys had appeared, I was afraid they would seal the tunnel while I was climbing in. Then we would really be like grasshoppers trapped in a gourd!
"It's my family's business. You don't need to interfere. Just get out of here if you have nothing to do! Don't delay our chance to make a fortune."
Now I just wanted them to think that I was a tomb - robber, not the fiancée of Commander Si.
In this chaotic world, only the lives of ordinary people were worthless. The lives of the gentry and officials were extremely precious.
During my short stay in Luocheng, I had heard about two or three kidnapping cases.
All of them were rich ladies and young misses who had gone out without bodyguards and shown off their wealth. They were kidnapped by bandits who demanded sky - high ransoms.
If the ransom was paid late, the next day, the families would receive small body parts of these wealthy people. Sometimes it was a finger, sometimes half an ear... Anyway, as long as the people were in the bandits' hands, if the money wasn't paid, they would send back the body parts as a kind of entertainment.
"Hehe! It seems there's no one else around here!"
The young Taoist priest laughed. "Otherwise, you wouldn't be trying this 'empty - city ruse' on us. How about we help you rescue the people inside? As Taoists, we should be compassionate. When it comes to matters of life and death, we should always lend a hand..."
"No need!"
I was getting anxious, but I still looked stern and angry on the surface. "Who asked you to meddle in other people's business?!"
I wondered where Si Jiangchen's adjutant had retreated to.
Would they come back?
"I can't just watch you get yourself killed! If the miasma doesn't clear up, if you climb in, you might get knocked out by it. What if you can't get out?"
The young Taoist priest stretched out his hand, and the older one immediately took out a thick and short incense stick from the yellow - cloth satchel he was carrying. He respectfully handed it to the young priest and then took out a fire starter to light the incense.
"What are you doing?" I watched the young Taoist priest approaching step by step, looking at him warily.
"This is a kind of spice to dispel the miasma. We need to smoke it so that we can rescue the people inside."
The young Taoist priest still had a harmless smile on his face. He placed the incense stick at the entrance of the thief's tunnel and gently fanned it towards the inside. A faint, woody fragrance immediately drifted into the tunnel along with the white curling smoke, and the stinking smell did fade a lot.
"Shush..."
Just a few breaths later, I suddenly heard the sound of fabric rubbing against the rock wall inside the thief's tunnel. Someone was actually crawling out.
"Hey!!"
I stared intently at the pitch - black entrance. The "shush" sound was getting louder. I didn't dare to call Si Jiangchen's name for fear that these people would notice something.
Gradually, a pair of hands emerged first, full of calluses and tiny cracks. Then a head covered in stone chips and powder popped out.
"Lu Dayong?!"
I couldn't help shouting.
I never expected that the person crawling out of the tunnel would be the craftsman Lu Dayong!
He was just an ordinary person. How could he withstand those terrifying black fumes?
Hearing my voice, Lu Dayong, who had just poked his head out, immediately turned towards me. I was so scared that I took two quick steps back.
Lu Dayong's eyes no longer had black pupils. A hazy white film covered his eyeballs.
"Hiss!"
He crawled out of the tunnel in an extremely strange posture, reaching out his hands obliquely towards my neck. The young Taoist priest also quickly dodged to the side, but he seemed to deliberately block all my escape routes.
Lu Dayong grabbed my neck with one hand and opened his mouth wide, biting towards my face. I immediately raised my arm to block.
This was a trick taught to me by the little street - kids I used to wander with. When dealing with hungry wild dogs, you had to sacrifice the "rook" to protect the "general". An injured arm could heal, but if your head or neck was injured, you would die instantly!