Niannian ran head down at full speed, quickly overtaking Weihe, who had been leading the way at first.
The scene behind the mountain was simply too terrifying to behold.
Niannian could only rely on the sounds to gauge how close the swarm of bugs was and how far they were from her.
Before she knew it, Niannian had no idea where she was running to, nor did she notice that the footsteps beside her had quietly disappeared.
She threw fire talismans behind her as if they were free.
The stockpile in her small satchel was almost depleted.
"Ouch!"
Suddenly, Niannian felt herself collide with something. Not only did she fall on her rear, but her forehead also throbbed with pain.
At the same time, the thing she bumped into let out a cry.
Niannian looked up and locked eyes with the person, only to find that it was Weihe, who she had unknowingly lost track of.
But this Weihe in front of her was very different from the one who had been leading the way. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she gritted her teeth as she demanded, "How dare you show up in front of me! Die!"
As she spoke, several long nails appeared in Weihe's hand, and without hesitation, she threw them at Niannian.
Niannian rolled and crawled to dodge the nails, looking utterly confused as she asked, "Why are you attacking me?"
"I'm attacking you because you deserve it! You lied to me and said that as long as we didn't disturb the snakes in the cave, everything would be fine. But then you made such a ruckus. I think you did it on purpose, you little brat. I didn't expect you to be so scheming. I even said that I was on your side, but you still tried to harm me!"
Weihe was absolutely furious. Her resentful look was like that of a young woman abandoned by her heartless lover.
Niannian scratched her head. "What snakes? Aren't we being chased by bugs? You told me that those bugs were only sensitive to sound and that as long as we didn't make a sound, they wouldn't chase us. It was you who stepped on something that got us chased. What are you talking about?"
At Niannian's words, Weihe visibly paused. Then she saw the bugs buzzing towards them from behind Niannian.
She quickly realized what was going on. Looking around, she grabbed Niannian off the ground and sprinted to the side.
The pulled-along Niannian: ???
She knew this big sister was crazy!
One moment she wanted to attack her, and the next moment she was dragging her along to run.
"Hurry up. Do you have any way to bring down those stones up there?"
After running for who knew how long, they suddenly found themselves in a spacious area. It seemed they had stumbled into a cave. Weihe pointed at the precarious stones hanging from the ceiling.
Seeing that the bugs were about to fly up, Niannian didn't have time to think. She quickly threw out a talisman, causing the stones above to fall.
With a deafening rumble, the stones tumbled down, completely blocking the entrance.
The two relentless pursuers behind them were finally completely cut off. Even through the stone wall, they could hear the loud noises from the other side. They had no idea when it would finally quiet down.
"Kid, you said you met me just now? Tell me exactly what happened."
Weihe gasped for breath and plopped down on the ground.
"Just now..."
Although Niannian was confused, she still recounted everything that had happened.
After listening, Weihe looked solemn. She stared at Niannian for a while and said, "The person you met wasn't me. My father did research on tomb - raiding related knowledge, but I was still young at that time. I didn't even see my father's true face clearly, and I wasn't interested in this kind of knowledge at all. How could I remember? Moreover, later I focused on practicing puppet art. I lost all interest in those things.
And I also met a fake you on the way. We met by chance, and the words the imposters said to us were roughly the same. They just disappeared for no reason halfway.
When you first showed up, I thought you had abandoned me and run away on your own, so I attacked you. I'm sorry."
Weihe's explanation was very clear, but the information revealed in her words was quite shocking.
What did it mean?
The people they had just met were all imposters?
What kind of magic could imitate a person so perfectly? Niannian had to admit that when facing the fake Weihe, she did feel something strange in her heart, but that was just her intuition.
Objectively speaking, the imposter was flawless.
It was completely undetectable.
Of course, it might also be because they didn't know each other well.
"Big sister, do you think they want to kill us?"
Niannian scratched her head and finally came to this conclusion.
If they didn't want their lives, there was no need to go to such great lengths.
"No, it's not. I know you're quite capable. It's normal for them to use some underhanded tactics against you. But to be honest, my skills are nothing in the eyes of more powerful people. I can't even beat that old coot. My escape skills were just honed under his pursuit. If they really wanted to kill me, they could have done it with a little effort."
Weihe had a clear understanding of her own strength.
When her sister's soul wasn't in the hands of that old coot, as a puppet master with a puppet ghost connected by blood, she could still bravely say that she could take on anyone.
But because of her, her sister had fallen into the hands of that old man.
A puppet master without a puppet ghost was like a pianist without hands. What threat could she pose to others?
"Then why? Is it just to make us turn against each other? But I don't even know you well, big sister."
Niannian was even more confused.
"Forget it. Don't think about it too much. That person told you this was a tomb before, but don't believe a word of it. This isn't a tomb at all. It should be an altar. In the place where I first was, there were all kinds of complex formations drawn around. It was filled with a violent aura and a slight spiritual energy fluctuation. That place must have had a large - scale formation activated once. The people here... those who died were probably sacrificed."
Formations, sacrifice formations, in a tomb...
Niannian inexplicably felt that this description sounded familiar.
Ah, she remembered!
Wasn't the formation diagram she studied with that uncle in the relevant department from a tomb?!
How many places in the world had large - scale sacrifice formations?
Moreover, this place was related to the Holy Cult.
If she guessed correctly, the formation diagram that uncle showed her before was from this very tomb.